Time for what exactly?

  To test if Giana and Yv are suitable for our party.

  Raishin was the only one surprised by this. I might have forgotten to tell him. Giana and Yv got ready.

  I will apologize up front. This won't be pleasant. I will accept you 2 hating me after this.

  “You're going to use [Illusionary Daggers] right? So it's based on your experiences, right? We will not hate you for going through terrible and rough situations.” Giana tried to assure me, but I still felt bad.

  Deca, you're up first. Prepare yourself for the worst, Yv you too.

  Giana transformed into a version of her more suitable for combat and Greg and Raishin stared, the latter who got smacked.

  “I’m ready!”

  Illusion layers shattered and the [Illusionary Daggers] appeared.

  To the rest of you… please don't ask any questions about this test…

  I threw the dagger at Giana and the scene changed, the moment it hit her.

  Giana and an illusion of me arrived at a swamp. Their boat got stuck in the mud and ‘Illusion Agnis’ tried to get it out of the mud.

  Hey, Giana. Any chance you know mudmagic?

  This caught her by surprise. She must not have expected to have me in her test nor have me refer to her as ‘Giana’.

  “Uhh, I don't. Where are we?”

  The Aquini Delta. We’re here to find out if we can gather fairy dust, remember?

  Giana followed Agnis, but not without confusion. I had never told anyone about this, for a good reason.

  Giana screamed as she noticed the skeletons stuck in the mud. “What is going on here?!”

  Agnis pulled a rock out of his dimensional pocket and demonstrated that they were walking on mud that would suck in anything with weight.

  Humans will get sucked into the mud like that rock, we're fine because we hardly weigh anything.

  Agnis offered his hand to help Giana jump over the watery parts as they navigated through the swampy jungle.

  I’ve heard that elves and beast kin keep everyone away from this area, regardless of race, this must be why…

  Agnis said as he fished a skull out if the mud.

  “Dec…Agnis, that is disrespectful! Let it rest!”

  Oh sorry, my bad.

  Agnis returned the skull to its muddy grave. Giana started to sing and pulled Agnis in.

  Whoa what?!

  “Marsh sirens… their songs are laced with charm magic. Let me deal with this.”

  Giana danced to evade the siren grabs, and her song drowned out theirs. She gracefully led Agnis to solid ground and started an energetic, intimidating song and jellyfish started to assault the sirens.

  The sirens retaliated with water-based attacks, but the duo had no issues dealing with water.

  Giana's tail had wrapped around Agnis’ waist to prevent him from getting drawn in by the siren's charm.

  “This won't end… Can you freeze them?”

  Sure.

  Agnis froze the sirens, allowing for an easy escape.

  Giana made sure to check for residual charm magic while the two continued their search through the jungle.

  It's ok Giana, I'm fine!

  “You say that because you're underestimating how weak you are to charm!”

  Come on, it's not that bad…

  Giana gave Agnis a charm laced wink, forcing him to shatter several illusion layers to get rid of it.

  Ok, I get your point…

  Minutes and hours went by without anything happening. Giana asked about the objective, but Agnis had been intentionally vague.

  Something interesting should happen right about now!

  Agnis yelled, making a complete fool out of himself. It gave Giana a chuckle, but nothing happened.

  Ugh, should we just go home?

  “But what about your objective?”

  There is no point in it if it's not here. Come on, let's go home.

  Agnis offered his hand to Giana, who hesitated. She had been fine until now, but she started showing signs of stress. “Are you sure? We just give up like this?”

  It might not be here or not exist at all, no point in looking for something that doesn't exist.

  “But shouldn't this be harder?”

  Not everything needs to be difficult, come!

  Agnis grabbed Giana’s hand and pulled her along through the jungle.

  Giana kept looking around anxiously and being intentionally slow. Nobody knew what went through her mind, but whatever it was, it was stressing her out.

  “Wait! This can't be it! We must have missed something!”

  Agnis turned around and looked at Giana. Or did he?

  Hey you! Over there! Don’t think that I can't see you! If you were trying to hide, you sure did a shitty job!

  Giana took a step back out of surprise and turned around. Agnis stormed towards an arm sized woman with butterfly wings, half concealed behind a tree.

  “Oh gosh! What do I do?! You found me!”

  Agnis coated his hand and grabbed the strange creature.

  Oof you're heavy, you need to lay off the snacks. You're a fairy, aren't you?

  He said as he violently shook the supposed fairy. “Am I now? Oh no, silly me, I’m getting dizzy! Haha!”

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  “Hey Agnis, let her go. Be nice…”

  Agnis didn't like this as his expression indicated, but he let the supposed fairy go.

  “So rough… you must be unpopular with the ladies.” The supposed fairy said while dusting herself off.

  Do you want me to kick your ass?

  “Help me!” The supposed fairy hid behind Giana, who put her hands on her hips. “Be nice, not all races like toxic behavior. You can be as toxic as you want with me later.”

  Agnis sighed.

  Fine… So? Why were you doing such a shitty job hiding from us?

  “My friends always say that I’m too fat to hide behind trees.”

  Giana, can I torch her? My deception detection is going wild…

  “What is your name, miss fairy?”

  “My name? My name is Fairy!”

  Giana made a [Water Wall] to protect the supposed fairy from a [Fireball]. “Leave this to me Agnis. Miss fairy, this man here is important to me and he's looking for something. Can you help us?”

  “Hmm only if he dances upside down!”

  Dance…upside down? Is that what you want on your tombstone?

  Agnis didn't seem too happy with how the situation developed.

  “Miss fairy… please…”

  “Fine! But only because you're pretty!” The supposed fairy stuck out her tongue at Agnis. “I will lead you out of the swamp!”

  We don't want to leave the swamp…

  “Eh? How about this, then! I will lead you into the swamp to then lead you out of the swamp!”

  Are you an NPC? We don't want to leave the swamp! You just want to lure us into the mud and kill us.

  The fairy took an overly dramatic shocked pose. “What?! We would never!”

  Giana, please… this thing hasn't been truthful for a second! And… ‘we’?

  The supposed fairy backed off. “Huh? What are you talking about?! There is no ‘we’ just me, myself and I!”

  Didn't you mention friends calling you fat a while ago?

  “Haha oh, that?! I’m a bit cuckoo you see!” The supposed fairy made a gesture indicating that she was crazy. “With my friends, I mean my alter egos! There is the mean me, then there is the mini me and finally! The Me me!” The fairy said in an overly happy tone and started giggling.

  Giana, I'm sorry… I can't…

  Agnis blurred, appeared next to the supposed fairy, and grabbed her with his hand coated in frost.

  “Uhm, you kinda deserved that miss fairy, you're a bit annoying…”

  “Owow! Be gentle! I'm delicate!”

  You should have complied when I was being nice. Are you a fairy?

  Agnis shook the supposed fairy and Giana seemed at a loss on what to do. She seemed conflicted on whose side to take. She slapped her cheeks and her eye color changed.

  “Miss fairy, please answer his questions.”

  “Ooh I'm seeing stars! Am I in heaven?”

  How about I put you one step closer to becoming stardust? Are you a fairy?

  “So dizzy… I don't know… you tell me!”

  The area heated up as Agnis was baking the supposed fairy.

  “Owow ok fine! I might be a fairy!”

  Might? How about you be truthful for once?

  “It burns! It burns more than my passion for sun-dried tomatoes!”

  The temperature dropped as the supposed fairy was slowly getting turned into a popsicle.

  Giana, this creature is obnoxious but besides that, obnoxiously tough…

  “Yeah… it's unnerving… I picked up deception when it told us ‘it burns’...”

  Frost doesn't seem to work on it either… what the fuck are you?

  “I am your father!”

  The temperature dropped even more.

  “De… Agnis calm down, please…it's cold…”

  Oh sorry.

  The temperature turned to normal and the supposed fairy, still in Agnis’ grip, looked at its captors. “Aww how cute…”

  This thing must be the most obnoxious creature ever, it beats dragons by a landslide…

  “Very well. I will help you out! It was me!”

  Agnis squeezed the supposed fairy.

  ‘Me’ what?!

  “I'm the fairy!”

  My headache… Giana, please take over…

  “What do you mean with ‘the fairy’ aren't you ‘a fairy’?”

  The supposed fairy laughed. “Hahaha! Wait, there is a difference?”

  My head… just tell us where we can find fairy dust, you can troll other people to your heart's content later.

  “I'm a fairy! Not a troll! But what is fairy dust? Is it our poop?”

  Agnis drew his sword and held it at the supposed fairy’s neck.

  So, you are a fairy. How about this? Bring me to your leader, as talking to you is a waste of time.

  The confirmed fairy turned her head a bit more than seemed comfortable. “Our leader?! Sure, follow my direction.”

  The fairy had started her sentence in a high pitch which dropped when saying ‘Sure, follow my direction.’

  It was clear that Giana picked up on this. ‘Voices’ are her thing and she grabbed Agnis’ sleeve. “I have a bad feeling about this… something is off. I don't trust this thing.”

  Well, her last line was the only truthful one, but I agree. We will just kick her ass if she pulls something funny.

  The two followed the directions of the fairy, with Agnis torching her whenever he sensed deception. They eventually got lead to a cave.

  “There are so many of them!” Giana had forgotten her discomfort and admired the multicolored wings of the fairies.

  And they're all noisy!

  Giggling and a strange soft buzz filled the cave.

  “What are those conical spires, miss fairy?” Giana asked.

  “Those are our hats!”

  They look like houses… you can't fool anyone with that…

  “Our leader is in the biggest hat!”

  “Hey De…Agnis. Don't you think those houses are too big for them?”

  Agnis and Giana collapsed to the floor at that moment. Both were pale, but Giana emptied her stomach. “Ugh… what is this?”

  “Oh my, our prettiness is making them nauseous from jealousy! Give them some water my friends!”

  You guys aren't funny…

  The fairies brought them cups of water which they drank after Giana tested it for strange substances. They recovered quickly but were wary.

  “Deca… let's get the fairy dust and get out of here… something feels very off here…”

  Agreed. Wait… those bins there… are those filled with fairy dust?!

  “Our leader has a lot of fairy dust!”

  Fine… bring me to your leader!

  follow if the story is interesting enough.

  Moorland Menace