It had been so many centuries since Sophie had even felt any hunger, let alone enjoyed the sensation of food.

“We really need to get to working on that boar when we can,” the strange yet kind man called Lone said to himself. “This is unbelievably bland. Just how much sugar is added back home for it to taste nothing like this?”

‘… I think it’s yummy,’ Sophie thought.

She kept her difference of opinion to herself. The last thing she wanted was to upset the man. He seemed nice but even if she wasn’t the one who dealt with her harsher past, she still knew not to be too trusting of others.

‘If she had her way, he’d be dead already,’ Sophie sighed internally. ‘Keeping her suppressed for so long is getting tough…’

After finishing up her coconut, Sophie skilfully crafted a simple torch out of the campfire for Lone to hold before she got behind him.

She then firmly grasped as many of his tails as her small arms could contain. They helped clear her mind and gather her focus. He also didn’t seem to be bothered by it which was helpful.

Lone suddenly winced with a defeated smile on his face. “Level six in Physical Pain Resistance… You’ve got an iron grip, haha.”

“S-Sorry.” She tried to lessen the strength of her hold on his tails a bit in response.

She didn’t want to hurt him but she was genuinely terrified. The beings lingering in the bushes were scary, sure, but the prospect of going back to that dark place he called ‘The Summoning Room’ gave her more than just the heebie-jeebies.

“It’s fine, I get it,” Lone whispered as he seemed to gather his full attention on the treeline in front of them.

Stopping just before the beginning of the forest, Lone softly asked her, "How many of them are there exactly?"

"There's four... They’re holding weapons. They kind of look like strange children... They're wearing nothing but rags," Sophie answered in a very unsure tone.

Her mana sensing allowed her to see the world despite being entirely blind. On Earth, this crippled her since magic was long dead on that planet.

Here, however? Here on Altros, everything had at least some inkling of magic in it, each with its own brilliant colour and aura.

It was crippling in its own way. She likened it to having no tongue for decades upon decades only to one day taste every single thing in existence at once.

Overwhelming and overpowering but amazing and awe-inspiring. Already she had no desire to return to her plundering dimension if it meant she could experience the world so vividly despite her blindness.

"Natives maybe?" Lone mumbled. He lightly slapped himself a couple of times, confusing Sophie.

“You got, this, Lone. Confidence is key,” he said to himself before shouting, "We know you're there! Come out already! We don't want to hurt you!"

'… It’s that easy? M-Maybe I should hit myself too when I feel I lack courage…' Sophie wondered.

"Ukih!"

"Kikik!"

"Ukiki Kihik!"

"Kakukiki!"

Sophie jumped slightly at the screeches that filled the air. It was only seconds later that both she and Lone could hear the sound of running. "They... They fled?"

"Looks like it..." Lone uttered in response. He seemed just as perplexed as she was. "Let's look around a bit. Maybe we can learn something about these... things?"

Sophie loosened her grasp on his tail and asked, "Things?"

"Well," Lone readied his reply as he squatted down around the trees at the entrance to the forest before he continued, "They certainly didn't sound like humans. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that there's more to this world than first meets the eye... figuratively speaking."

Sophie tried to not move far from Lone as she began helping him inspect the ground while making sure to utilise her prior – almost forgotten - experiences with tracking.

She then asked, "What do you mean? I know we're not on Earth anymore, but it can't be too different, can it?"

"I don't know. Magic and Foxkin are certainly new." Lone scratched his head in frustration a bit. “I thought it was pretty similar too, what with the singular sun and the coconuts but we have system messages here, humungous boars and children sized things that screech like… well, like monsters.”

“Huh… I… I don’t remember much about what Earth was like,” Sophie admitted.

“How long did you spend in that dimension of yours? If you’re comfortable saying,” Lone asked respectfully.

She smiled a little. He was such a friendly person. She felt a lot of that was due to her childish appearance, but she still appreciated it.

"I don’t really know exactly but… uh… about 600-years? Around that lo- Hey! I found some footprints I think!" Naturally, with her unconventional means of seeing, Sophie was able to spot these tracks far quicker than Lone who only had his eyeballs to rely on.

‘Mana Sensing one, Normal Eyesight zero. Heheh, I’m winning.’ Miss her eyesight as she did, it was still incredibly being able to see everything in every direction for 15-metres so clearly.

“Great job, Soph. Show me where?” Lone asked.

‘That nickname’s too cute for someone like me,’ Sophie thought in passing as she pointed a bit ahead and at the ground.

Lone crouched down and shined the light of the torch in the area she was indicating. "What the... Only four toes? And just like you said, they're tiny..."

"Should we chase them?" Sophie asked.

She was personally against the idea, but if Lone thought it would be for the best, she'd do it.

Lone shook his head. "No. We still don't know their intentions, plus, it's too dark for me to see and fight in a worst-case scenario." He then put his free hand on Sophie's head and grinned. "I can't see in the dark like you, now can I?"

‘Mana Sensing two, Normal Eyesight zero.’ Sophie blushed a little before asking, "So... what now?"

"Hmm, I suppose we should just go back to the beach, take turns to sleep, and then explore the island a bit more in the morning. Sitting around waiting to be attacked again won't do us any good, after all," Lone suggested after taking a moment to think.

"O-Okay..." Sophie replied.

She was hesitant to confront the little... things that were observing them, but she had to stop being so cowardly and help Lone deal with the strange and frightening situation.

At least, that's what she thought was for the best. He was a rough but caring person and she genuinely wanted to stay by his side.

Not only because her power was directly linked to his but also since he had the most important thing of all – the fluff.

Lone sat in front of the campfire as he stoked the flames with a stick. He was keeping an eye on the small teepee that Sophie was sleeping in and a frown was on his face.

As he had said earlier, the two would take turns sleeping to avoid being ambushed. He counted themselves lucky that they hadn't been attacked on their first night when they were the least prepared.

"I wonder what they are? Disfigured humans... or maybe actual monsters? I really hope this world doesn't have monsters in it... If it does, I'm going to have to get powerful enough to keep both Soph and myself safe, aren't I?" he questioned himself with a sigh.

Many thoughts were swimming around in the previously pathetic and almost lifeless teacher's head.

While he was anxious and scared of the future, something about it all made his heart... race. It was like he had stepped foot into the game that he used to spend every waking second of his free time on, Paradox Online.

It hardly helped that Lone now owned both the body and name of his character, Lone Immortus.

He couldn't help but wonder if his friends, Neon, Sino and Zarrin, had noticed that he was missing and thought it was weird.

He chuckled a bit at the thought. "I hope they don't worry too much, Neon in particular... he always treated me like a brother, didn't he? The idiot. Sino can go fuck himself though. I still haven’t forgiven the cunt for being such a dickhead."

It was at this moment in Lone's verbal ponderings that a quiet noise came from Sophie's teepee, and she crawled out of it before slowly walking towards Lone.

"Something wrong?" he asked her in a quiet and relaxed voice.

Sophie nodded her head and sat down next to him. "I couldn't sleep... Do... Do you mind if I cuddle one of your tails? I think it’ll help..." she claimed in a bashful tone.

Without replying, Lone swished one of his nine golden tails and gently placed it on Sophie's lap. She immediately grabbed it and hugged it closely. A smile crept onto her face as she rubbed the fur against her cheek.

Lone grinned through the pain. She still couldn’t control herself. "Do you really like my tails that much?"

Sophie's face flushed, but she didn't stop. "Yeah... They're so fluffy and soft... It’s like… like a furry animal, y’know?" she tried her best to explain.

"You're a strange child," Lone noted with a light laugh.

Sophie pouted. "I'm not a child."

"That's what you have an issue with?" Lone found Sophie's response to be fairly humorous.

"W-Well... I am strange, aren't I? It’s because I was different that God guy kept hunting me for so long..." Sophie squeezed Lone's tail a bit harder.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

Lone grimaced slightly when he read this system notification. Before he had noticed it, Sophie had placed her head on his lap and she'd closed her eyes. Lone sighed and carefully put a hand on her head.

"It's amazing to see how much you've warmed up to me since yesterday morning. Just how long was it since the last time you interacted with anyone? Outside of zealous peasants and lesser lords trying to appease the church by hunting you down… You poor girl..." he whispered to her.

She didn’t respond since she was busy snoring lightly while she slept peacefully on his legs.

Lone opened his eyes when he heard a lot of rustling and loud movements. 'Shit! Did I doze off in the middle of the night? Great job Lone, really fucking reliable!'

He looked around in a bit of a flurry only to see six small figures with green skin surrounding both him and the still sleeping Sophie.

They had pointed ears, pitch-black eyes, were wearing nothing but rags and each one of them was holding a rusted or partially broken weapon of some sort.

Looking around carefully, Lone could see a slightly larger one of these things standing by the teepees as it closely inspected them.

Lone did two things immediately. First, he unsummoned the still unconscious Sophie, and second, he grabbed the spear that was lying next to him before he sprung to his feet.

The green-skinned creatures were startled and began screaming at him.

"Fucking goblins... Shit... Does that mean this island is littered with them? There's no way there are only seven of these things..." Lone mumbled as sweat began to form on his palms. “The similarities to Earth are too great…”

He was going to have to kill these monsters. If Lone knew anything about goblins, it was that they were cowards who were easily intimidated, but in a group, they were almost fearless and would stop at nothing to kill their prey.

He couldn't be sure that they followed the same habits of the mythical creatures back on Earth, but he wasn't going to stop and ask them.

Well, maybe one question couldn’t hurt. “You guys don’t happen to be here to ask for a light or something, right? ‘Cause I’m not really a smoker so I’ll have to disappoint you.”

“Ukkkkiihh!”

“Gikgikgik!”

“Uksukik kik!”

Lone smiled wryly. “Was worth a try.”