A magic circle appeared around Michael's wrist as mana flowed through his body. Slowly, the appearance of a simple key made out of pure mana manifested inside his hand.
Michael grasped this key and gently pushed it in the air, feeling a resistance that no heavy air could make.
As he turned the key, a satisfying click resounded in the forest before his surroundings changed completely.
The bright sun that was peeking around the leaves of the trees was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the entirety of the skies had been enshrouded in eternal darkness.
So this is the pocket dimension of the Fairies, Michael remarked.
He looked behind him and saw nothing but a dark fog beyond the forest, where the Rebornians were supposed to be.
Flying back, he was able to see the Rebornians still hard at work on the Golden Road project, with the construction workers starting to pour liquid cement on the paths.
He flew towards the onsite Engineer who looked beyond the forest in search of him.
'Where did boss go?' the Yellow HobMankey asked himself out loud.
The demi-human could not see Michael even when he was floating right in front of him.
This is probably how they hid themselves all this time, Michael realized.
This pocket dimension was different from normal ones because Michael could interact with the real world through this pocket dimension. There was no wonder how the Fairies sustained themselves all this time while keeping away from everyone's eyes.
This made him wonder if this pocket dimension was a natural occurrence or a creation of the so-called Pixie Queen.
He flew back towards the forest and decided to venture deeper into the territory of the Fairies.
He made sure to keep his presence low so as not to spook any of the Fairies and provoke unwanted attention.
As he journeyed through the forest, he saw that despite the absence of the sun as a source of light, the forest was still illuminated with bright overlapping colors.
Trees glowed with neon luminescence, vines pulsated with life as the wind rustled its knots, and the grasses were replaced by these glimmering tentacles growing out of the ground.
These vegetations were an exact mirror image of the real world, but altered to become a mutated version of itself.
Even the wildlife contained inside this world were not exempted from this fact. Birds flew with three eyes, owls crawled on the floor, and unexpectedly, slimes jumped through the small puddles of green water in the crevices on the ground.
Although these were very interesting sceneries, Michael reminded himself of his goal: to meet the Fairies.
So, he ignored the croaking of the flying frogs next to him and slowly flew through the forest in search for the Fairies.
Eventually, he saw in the distance a bevy of large mushrooms spread around the kingdom of this otherworldly forest.
These abnormally large mushrooms reminded Michael of the birdhouses popular back in his previous world. It was the same size, and there was even a small door-like hole on its wide stalk just enough for a bird to walk through.
Finally, peeking through the tentacle-vines of a large tree, he saw for the first time the real appearance of the Fairies.
They looked exactly the same as in his imagination. They were as small as a finger, with glittery butterfly wings on their backs.
Fairies were populated with both men and women, and they were all objectively good looking in terms of human beauty standards.
They lived in a tight gathering of mushrooms around a group of trees. Some were down on the ground, while others were high up on the branches.
It was a civilization of Fairies!
Just then, Michael saw a small gathering of Fairies near the Spotted Mushroom Plaza.
"I told you he looked at me!"
One Fairy wearing a violet dress made out of vines and leaves shouted as she tried to convince the rest of the Fairies surrounding her.
"Vivi, that's impossible," said one of the elderly Fairies sitting in a sprout-like chair on the opposite side of Vivi. "No human can see through the other dimension of the forest."
The other Fairies agreed on this sentiment. However, Vivi was certain of what she saw.
"There was no mistake," she clarified. "He was trying to talk to me even when I was shrouded in this dimension."
The elderly Fairy squinted as she looked at Vivi. "This is not another one of your pranks, right? This would be unbecoming of your—"
"I'm not lying!" Vivi asserted. However, her reputation within the Fairy community seemed to be a little bit shaky as not a lot of them were convinced of her words. She was quite a troublemaker in these parts, and it wouldn't be out of her realm of tricks to do this.
"You need to be more educated Vivi. You cannot be playing tricks on us now that you're this old. And besides, your direct actions could directly affect our Fairy race. You must be careful with what you say," the elderly Fairy warned.
The other Fairies seemed to have heard enough and started to fly off the mushroom plaza.
But just then, Vivi whipped her head to the side and saw Michael peeking through the mushroom vines. They made eye contact, with both exhibiting a sense of surprise.
Michael was shocked that she was able to sense his presence even when he was actively trying to hide it, and Vivi was surprised that he was able to traverse the pocket dimension of the forest.
Seeing that his cover was blown, Michael walked through the low-hanging branches of a tree and entered the village of the Fairies.
"Hello, nice to meet you guys," he said with a disarming smile.
All Fairies turned to look up at the giant creature that suddenly trespassed in their territory.
Shock reverberated through them in the form of fluttering butterfly wings.
"KYAAA!"
"A HUMAN!!!"
The Fairies fled away from Michael out of fear. The only one who faced him was Vivi, whose sense of pride overwhelmed her sense of fear.
"See? I told you guys!" she shouted with a smile.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Michael's feet started to shake. He looked around and saw something emerging from the ground.
The head of a giant spotted red mushroom ascended, disturbing the glittery soil around it.
It continued to emerge upwards, growing, until it reached a height just a little bit smaller than the trees. Two spots of red light opened in its stalk underneath its cap, showing sentience.
Two other mushrooms emerged right next to it, before it jumped up towards the stalk and attached themselves to its sides, creating arms for the giant mushroom creature.
"BRAOOO!" it screamed, sending reverberations throughout the forest.
[King Mushroom Golem]
— ★★★★★★★
— This golem is borne from the altered ecosystem of a pocket dimension, allowing it to draw infinite amounts of mana from its surroundings. As long as this creature is in its natural habitat, then it can propagate and clone its body endless times.
The King Mushroom turned towards Michael, raising its mushroom arm towards him and slamming it down hard.
The crash caused dust and soil to fly into the air, obscuring the vision for the Fairies.
They slowly walked out of their houses, thinking that the intruder was taken care of.