Lone immediately twisted the wooden spear in his hand and thrust it at the closest goblin. The disgusting creature swiftly dodged, but Lone was still able to nick it in the shoulder, drawing some blood and forcing it to cry out in pain and rage.

Two of the other goblins, one holding a rusted knife and the other holding a sharp stick, both jumped onto Lone's body and began wildly stabbing him.

"Ahhhh!" Lone roared in agony as his flesh was torn open and his organs were punctured.

[Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.] [Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.]

Lone thanked his lucky stars that he had Basic Regeneration. It was a struggle to endure the pain but at least his wounds were only temporary and wouldn’t get in his way too much with them healing like this.

He quickly dropped his spear before he grabbed one of the goblins - the one on his torso - and he ripped it off, throwing it to the ground.

He left the one on his back for now. While it was still madly stabbing at him, trying to find his heart he presumed, its dagger had a far shorter reach than the stick the other one was wielding.

He did move his tails in the way though, letting them take the attacks instead. That would buy him time.

Lone leaned down swiftly and pried the stick out of the downed goblin's hand before jamming it into the creature's throat.

It grasped at its neck and thrashed about madly, clearly panicking and not understanding the pain it was experiencing. It died a few moments later with nothing more than a wet gurgle to signal its passing.

With that handled, Lone moved his tails out of the way and collapsed onto his back, trying to crush the goblin riding him with his weight. Unfortunately, the monster was smarter than it looked.

It couldn't pull the knife out of Lone's back fast enough, but it did manage to jump away and flee to the safety of the other four on-looking goblins.

The weapon in Lone's flesh only lodged itself in further as he hit the hard sand, making him scream at the gut-wrenching feeling.

[Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.]

Lone tried to ignore the terrible sensations and alarm bells that his brain was making his body experience. Normally, he listened to those when he got them back on Earth.

Sadly, he couldn’t just curl up in his room to avoid his father this time. These five monsters wouldn’t let him do that, no. Thankfully he had Basic Regeneration and enough adrenaline for what was surely to come.

He crawled back up to his feet. With quick movements, Lone flung his left arm behind him and grabbed onto the only part of the knife's hilt that wasn't inside of him before he grit his teeth and ripped it out.

He then bent down and picked up his dropped wooden spear and held it in one hand as he held the knife in the other.

Lone looked at the cautious goblins menacingly as the larger, presumed Hobgoblin by the teepees, simply watched with an incredulous expression upon its ugly mug.

[Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.]

Lone's skin and flesh wriggled disgustingly as it made an ear-piercing noise that seemed to attack the soul, that was simply how gruesome his regenerative power was to both witness and hear.

The goblins and the Hobgoblin all held their ears and screeched before they ran into the forest at full speed.

Lone watched this with amazement. He was sweating, out of breath, and honestly, very confused. "… Were they really that scared of my healing?"

Lone sat down, still vigilant of the treeline, as he calmed himself and let his body heal. He was covered in blood and his previous work clothes were in tatters.

‘I paid good money for this shirt and these trousers… Not that it matters now, I suppose,’ He sighed mentally. ‘I guess I can try to create something new later. I’ve got MP and Creation Magic, after all.’

A few minutes of silence passed with nothing popping out of the bushes to murder him which he felt was a good sign.

A good sign or an ill omen of a warband being rallied to murder the absolutely living shit out of him. He chuckled faintly.

'That would be something… Clothes though… I should make a few outfits for Soph too, shouldn't I? Poor thing’s only got a fleece, for Christ’s sake,' he thought of his own blood-soaked, hole-riddled outfit. ‘Not that I’m any better.’

He slowly stood up and stretched, happy to see all of his wounds had closed as if they were never there in the first place. “That’s twice now I would have died without this skill. I need to get in shape so I can dodge this shit. That boar and the goblins were hardly skilled warriors.”

He walked walk towards his teepees before invoking, "Summon: Sophie Vladimirovich.”

Hopefully, she was still peacefully sleeping. She’d expressed her dislike of The Summoning Room and without context, he reckoned she’d be less than pleased to have woken up in there.

The small girl who looked no older than ten appeared out of thin air. Her perfect and long golden-blonde hair was in a mess and her face was stained with tears. As soon as she saw Lone, she jumped into his chest and began sobbing wildly.

‘Ah, fuck. Well, at least she’s didn’t punch me or something. That’s good, right? I don’t fucking know. I was a teacher, not a therapist,’ Lone commented internally.

"I was so scared! I was sleeping, then suddenly… then suddenly I was in that dark room again! I thought... I thought something had happened to you! What… What if you had died?! What… What if I was trapped in there forever?! I-I was so scared!" Sophie cried into his collar as she hugged him tightly

She either didn’t mind the fresh blood that stained his torso or she just hadn’t noticed it yet. Even for someone lacking sight the smell of iron was a noticeable one.

"I'm sorry," Lone responded as he gently pat her on the back. “I had no choice.”

'I knew she had a phobia of dark spaces... I knew it was bad after I first summoned her, but she was only in The Summoning Room for, what? Maybe two minutes at best? Must be a deep-rooted fear.' Lone truly was apologetic, though he didn't regret it.

He couldn't risk letting Sophie get hurt, or even worse, killed by those goblins.

Sophie didn’t seem to plan on letting go of him for some time so he chose to slowly push her away from himself.

He then used the unstained sleeve of his shirt to wipe away her tears before smiling at her. "I know you were frightened and worried for me but you have to understand I unsummoned you to protect you, okay? Just look at me... I was stabbed over ten times and by a rusty dagger and a stick, of all things. Good thing I have the OP Basic Regeneration.”

"OP?" Sophie asked with a sniffle.

Lone's expression loosened at how much Sophie reminded him of a younger version of his sister right now.

’Perhaps I was too hard on her when that scumbag died,’ Lone thought while reflecting upon his sister Hazel. ‘Shame there’s jack-all I can do about our relationship now.’

"It means 'overpowered'. The ‘O’ from ‘over’ and the ‘P’ from ‘powered’ It's a gaming term," he explained.

Sophie sniffled a little bit more and held one of Lone's tails closely. She traced her fingers across his exposed muscles which were only completely healed.

"Does it hurt?" she asked weakly.

Lone nodded and grinned. "It hurts like a motherfucker. My insides are still a bit messed up, I think."

[Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 10.] [Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.]

He laughed a little bit when he saw Sophie frowning. "Even though you look cute, you should smile a bit more. I don't mind being stabbed, bitten, punched, or even impaled. Not if it means we can both be safe. Also, every time I passively heal myself, the skill gets stronger, so it's not a bad thing. Well, levels up, not directly stronger but I assume the levels are mounting towards an actual improvement."

Sophie's face flushed crimson at the unexpected compliment. She got up off of Lone while still holding one of his tails and she awkwardly stood next to him.

"M-Mmm... I’ll try," she weakly replied.

Lone unconsciously placed his hand on Sophie's head and rubbed it softly. "Ha-ah… Now what do we do?"

Sophie's face, now as red as a tomato, looked down at the ground as her feet carelessly fumbled about, allowing the sand to slide through the gaps between her toes.

She clearly didn’t want to voice any ideas towards their immediate goals, Lone noticed.

"I should really make us some better clothes. Something durable and warm. I noticed it last night and the night before, but it gets really cold in the evenings here, doesn't it?” he asked.

Sophie snapped out of whatever daze she was in and nodded. “Mmm. It is kind of chilly when we sleep, yeah.”

“Right? I wonder if that's just because this world is free from mass pollution or if it's a magic thing? Could be a normal climate thing, I guess, but that's a bit boring, isn't it?" Lone asked himself rhetorically since Sophie was otherwise occupied.

The first thing he wanted to do though before he did anything else though, was to check his status.

When he had killed that boar, it had resulted in level ups and stat gains. With fingers crossed, he hoped for the same this time too.

Status

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 7 [+2] Species: Foxkin Rank: I Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 345/470 [+60] SP: 1,453/2,200 [+100] MP: 4,030/4,030 [+30] Basic Stats Strength: 24 [+2] Vigour: 220 [+10] Dexterity: 54 [+1] Agility: 62 [+1] Vitality: 47 [+6] Luck: 53 [+2] Bonus Stats Charm: 72 [+1] Charisma: 40 [+1] Magic Power: 403 [+3]

'Oh, a far lower increase this time, but I did gain a little bit of Magic Power. It also seems safe to conclude that Magic Power is linked to MP now, though that was a bit obvious anyway...’ Lone stroked his chin thoughtfully.

‘I wonder why I gained so little overall though? How does it work for normal people? All I can assume right now is that the majority of people get stats from their actions between level ups, but that's just a theory at this point...' Lone thought as he glanced at Sophie.

“Just wondering but… Did you just level up?” Lone asked.

Sophie nodded. “Mmm. From five to seven. Why?”

“No reason really. What about stats? Did you gain them too? Also, have you gained any other stats apart from when levelling if you got any then?” Lone asked. ‘I wonder how the system is shown to her what with her eyes as they are.’

She smiled a little bit. “Mmm. I did and I did. I, uh, think I’m getting what I had when I was at this power before we, um, came here. But yesterday I got a point in Magic Power without any level ups. Why do I level up anyway?”

‘So stats aren’t intrinsically tied to level ups for normal people… Then again, Soph is anything but normal…’ Lone answered, “I think you only level up when I do. We are linked at the soul, after all. You can gain stats from your actions though, I can only get mine by killing.”

“Huh…” She looked towards the ocean and just stared at it with those lifeless eyes of hers. “It’s a weird world.”

"Sure is. Anyway, Soph, what kind of clothes would you like?" he asked with a charming and friendly smile on his face.

"Eh?" she asked with a quizzical look on her face. Lone was sure that if she weren’t blind, her eyes would be shining with curiosity right now.

"Well," Lone scratched his cheek as he looked at Sophie. "You can't just wear that jumper and nothing else forever, now can you?"

"But this is all I've been wearing for the past 600 years..." Sophie replied as she tilted her head to the side and frowned a little.

Lone looked at her strangely and flicked her forehead extremely lightly.

Still, she recoiled and grabbed her forehead before exclaiming, "Ow! What was that for?!"

"You're not immortal anymore and we’ve already established that the cold is a real threat to the both of us. Especially you since you’re so tiny. Just do as I say and tell me what you'd like to wear, okay?" Lone said with his usual teacher temperament making a comeback.

"..." Sophie pouted sweetly. "Anything, I don't really care... And I'm not tiny... I'm fun-sized..."

"Okay, something cute and girly, coming right up," Lone said, completely ignoring Sophie who apparently couldn't care less about what she wore.