When the troll first swung down its club, Ariel raised her arms to defend herself.

It wasn't intentional.

Ariel's mind was focused on the fairy, and she reflexively raised her arms as the club came down.

With a booming "Boom" sound, a strong wind blew around. The troll's club must have been quite powerful.

However, it did not harm Ariel at all. She felt it hit her arms, but that was it.

There was no damage at all. It didn't hurt or injure her.

Considering Ariel's defense stat, this result was understandable.

Defense: 9999999...

With infinite defense, it wouldn't make sense for the troll's club to injure her.

"Kuwok?" 

"Huh?"

The troll and fairy let out dumbfounded sounds.

It was bewildering to see Ariel, who should have been crushed, standing there unharmed.

The troll raised its club again, and the fairy shouted at Ariel to run away.

Ariel looked up at the troll's approaching club.

It was a formidable force, but it would not harm her. The troll could not injure Ariel no matter what.

Still, Ariel decided to move.

Her defense had been proven, so it was time to test her attack power.

Just before the troll's club hit, Ariel's figure left an afterimage and vanished.

A speed close to the speed of sound.

Thanks to her infinite agility, Ariel could move at any desired speed. 

The troll's club struck down where Ariel had been standing.

Boom!!

It seemed to have put more force into it, as the boom was even louder, and the ground caved in.

"Kuwokuwokuwok."

The troll laughed, shrugging its shoulders. It was convinced the young elf must have been crushed into a pancake this time.

If the troll had been a bit more intelligent, it would have wondered why nothing got caught by its club.

But trolls are monsters with very low intelligence.

Drooling at the thought of tasting the young elf was all the troll could do.

As the troll waved its hand to disperse the dust, the spot where it had swung its club became visible. 

There was nothing there, just an indentation in the ground.

"Kuwok?"

The troll was even more bewildered than before. Earlier, at least the young elf hadn't vanished completely. It was strange that she was unharmed, but she had still been standing there.

But this time, she had vanished completely. To the dim-witted troll, it seemed like magic.

The troll rolled its large eyes around, searching for the young elf.

And soon found her.

Somehow, the young elf had climbed up a tree. With the same expressionless face as before, she looked down at the troll.

The troll became enraged. It desperately wanted to devour the delicious young elf, but things weren't going its way.

Kwoooooh!

The troll let out its signature 'Wicked Roar' skill and charged at the young elf.

Even as the troll charged, the young elf did not flinch. She simply waited for the troll to approach, then pulled her arm back and thrust out her fist.

To the troll, the young elf's fist looked tiny. Getting hit by that puny fist would probably just tickle.

Moreover, a troll's hide is exceptionally tough, even among monsters. Ordinary weapons can't even scratch it.

The troll found the sight almost adorable, rather than intimidating.

Those were the troll's last thoughts.

With a 'pughk' sound, the troll's head vanished.

*

A red rain falls in the fresh forest.

Mixed in the rain are chunky pieces and what look like bones.

This was the result of the troll's head vanishing.

The red liquid pouring down was blood, and the chunky pieces were brain matter.

As the red rain fell on her, Ariel recalled what had just happened.

Earlier, after dodging the troll's descending club, Ariel had climbed up a nearby tree.

She then waited for the troll to approach and thrust out her fist.

She didn't bother controlling her strength. She just casually thrust her fist out.

But the force was beyond imagination. The moment Ariel's fist connected, the troll's head exploded like a watermelon.

Having lost its head, the troll collapsed limply and stopped moving.

Ariel was convinced. Her attack power was definitely infinite as well.

In any case, she had confirmed it, so she decided to set off on her adventure again.

"W-wait a moment!"

As Ariel was about to take a step, a voice came from behind her.

It was that fairy from before.

"Are you just going to leave, sister? We're of the same forest race, you could say we're like relatives. Please let me out!"

The fairy was desperate. If Ariel left now, who knows what fate awaited him.

He was likely to rot away nicely with the troll's corpse, trapped in the magic cage unable to escape.

"Please, sister!"

At first he had rudely called her a young elf, but now he saw she was an extremely powerful sister.

To blow off a troll's head with just one punch, he had never seen or heard of such a thing before.

Trolls were tougher to kill than ogres, due to their unique regenerative abilities.

Since they quickly regenerate from most wounds, the best way to defeat a troll is to kill it in one strike.

But that's no easy feat.

There are countless cases of people getting caught while aiming for the troll's head and becoming a meal, or getting struck by the troll's club and dying with their bodies contorted at grotesque angles. 

Yet Ariel dodged the troll's club at an invisible speed, then casually thrust out her fist to knock the troll down in one blow.

It was only natural that she went from being a young one to a respected sister.

The fairy pretended to bow inside the magic cage, but Ariel's reaction was indifferent.

Even if the fairy didn't go that far, she intended to let him out anyway. It wasn't a difficult task.

Ariel grabbed the door of the magic cage. At that moment, she felt some kind of resistance force.

"Sister, this door has magic cast on it. By any chance, are you a Mage, sister?"

Ariel nodded. At any rate, her job was Mage for now.

"That's great!"

The fairy clapped his hands.

"Then first you'll need to dismantle the magic. Only then can you open the cage door! I can't believe humans would even think of making something like this..."

Ariel simply pulled hard on the door of the magic cage. She was a Mage, but didn't know how to dismantle magic. She had to open it by force.

Tuk tuk! Tudu duk!

The magic cast on the cage shattered as the door was ripped off.

"Eh...?"

The fairy blinked his eyes in surprise. Ariel showed no signs of dismantling magic. She had just pulled it open by force.

Even the troll couldn't have done that.

"So it was possible...by force."

The fairy scratched his head as he flew out of the magic cage. He then vigorously flapped around Ariel in circles.

Usually fairies would show off their graceful movements while flying, but to Ariel he just looked like an annoying fly buzzing around.

"By the way, up close you really are beautiful, sister. You may be small now, but I think you'll grow into an amazing beauty later."

The fairy kept chattering to Ariel.

"My name is Lu! May I ask your name, sister?"

"Ariel..."

"Sister Ariel! Nice to meet you! You were really amazing when you killed that troll earlier! That troll jerk was so rude to me for days, keeping me hanging from his waist..."

Fairies are naturally talkative, but this fairy was an extremely chatty one.

Ariel mostly tuned out Lu's words as she started walking again.

At any rate, she had to set off on her adventure once more.

Then Lu grabbed Ariel's collar.

"Sister! You can't just leave like this? That troll's corpse is quite valuable, you know! Even if not as much as a fairy, it should still fetch a good price. It's such a waste to just let it rot like that!"

Ariel stopped walking and glanced at the troll's corpse. That thing is worth a lot?

"Well... but it would be too difficult for you to move that huge body alone, sister. At the very least, we should take some of its blood..."

As Lu muttered, Ariel walked over to the troll's corpse and stretched out her hand.

Lu, unable to understand Ariel's actions, tilted his head.

"Sister? What are you doing now..."

In the next moment, the troll's corpse vanished without a trace.

"Woah!"

Lu's eyes went wide as saucers.

"Wh-What happened?"

Ariel had simply put the troll's corpse into her inventory, but to Lu, it was an incomprehensible phenomenon.

Or could it be magic? Fairies can only sprinkle dust, so he didn't know much, but with magic, even extraordinary things should be possible.

—You shouldn't try to understand magic with your head.

That's what the human mage who captured Lu said not long ago. At the time, it sounded like nonsense, but now it seemed to make sense. Well, that mage got eaten by the troll less than an hour after saying that.

"Sister, where are you headed now?"

Lu flapped his wings as he asked.

"Do you have a goal?"

Ariel stared into the distant sky and answered.

"Adventure..."

At that single short word, Lu's body began to sparkle with light.

Adventure! What an exciting word!

Lu's goal was also adventure. The fairy village was peaceful but boring. Unable to overcome that boredom, Lu had run away from the village. 

To adventure out into the world!

But it was too dangerous for a fairy to wander alone. Lu was admiring flowers in the forest when he was quickly captured by a human mage.

It happened just one day after he boldly ran away from the fairy village.

"Sister! Take me with you!"

Lu pretended to bow in midair again.

"I can be quite useful, you know! You know fairies have special dust, right? If you get hurt, I can heal you. I can make you fly, or help you sleep comfortably! So please, let me join your adventure!"

Ariel looked at Lu with an expressionless face. Outwardly she showed no interest, but inwardly she was quite intrigued.

Of course, fairy healing dust or sleep dust would be useless for Ariel. With infinite defense, she can't get hurt, and she sleeps well anyway. 

But flight dust piqued her interest. She did want to fly in the sky once.

"Flight dust."

Ariel held out her hand to Lu, asking for the flight dust.

A happy smile spread across Lu's face.