About twenty minutes of slowly moving through the forest had passed until Sophie suddenly looked into the distance and whispered, “Over that way. I can feel at least one of them.”

Lone nodded and crouched down. “Let’s investigate then. If there’s too many, do you think you can teleport us out?”

Before leaving the beach Lone had confirmed with her that with her Teleportation skill, she could, in fact, teleport more than just herself.

This would be critical for both escaping and attacking if she used it right, Lone thought.

“Y-Yeah.” Although her soft voice trembled, there was resolve in her expression.

Lone nodded and tightened his grip on the wooden spear in his hands. Sophie, likewise, copied him with her dagger.

The two trod carefully through the thicket as they approached the goblin Sophie had sensed, being extra careful to produce as little sound as they could.

An easy task for Sophie but a difficult one for Lone considering the volume of his nine tails. Still, they managed as best as they could.

As soon as they were roughly five metres away from the creature, Sophie whispered, “There’s more of them. T-Ten in total… No big ones though.”

As soon as she said that one of the ugly, green-skinned beasts turned its head in their direction and began sniffing wildly.

'Shit. Even with the new clothes, they can still smell us. Must have noses like dogs to pick us out over their own stenches. Well, ten normal ones is within the realm of possibility given we have the element of surprise,' Lone thought rapidly.

Not wanting to lose the advantage they currently held of being undetected, he decisively threw his wooden spear at the goblin who was furiously sniffing the air as it looked their way.

With a pain-filled cry, the monster slumped over with the spear impaling its chest. ‘Yes! I half expected to miss with my chicken arms. It was worth it practising on the trees during my time on wat-’

The host has developed the passive skill: Throwing Mastery. Passive skill: Throwing Mastery

A skill that allows the host to throw items with more accuracy and speed.

All items thrown by the host will be thrown 5% more accurately and with 5% more speed.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

‘I got that now and not when I threw my spear at the palm trees? Why?’ Lone questioned though he had no time to ponder over the matter right now.

Lone, instead, focused his mind and used his Creation Magic to make a new spear, this one simpler and a bit smaller than the one he’d just thrown. He didn’t have much time since the goblins were starting to panic and search for their attacker.

Many such items exist on Altros.

The host has a great understanding of the item but does not know anything regarding its construction. 750 base MP cost. 375 additional MP has been consumed to compensate for the lack of knowledge.

1,125 total MP has been consumed to create the item: [Basic Wooden Spear].

‘Thought so. It was the fact that the spear from the game not existing on the planet that screwed me. Just like with the clothes, I save a flat 5,000 MP by thinking about already being a thing here on Altros,’ Lone internally commented as he held his new weapon tightly.

"Remember what I said earlier," he whispered to Sophie as he looked at the other nine goblins who were frantically searching for him in the bushes of the surrounding vegetation. "Your teleportation is our strongest weapon."

"M-Mmm..." Sophie weakly nodded her head.

Lone gently placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "I want you to teleport right next to the two in the back. See them?"

"Y-Yeah..." Sophie replied hesitantly.

"Grab them and teleport into the air as high as you can before letting go of them and teleport right back to me, okay?" Lone requested with a quiet and encouraging tone.

He could feel the lacking confidence just oozing off of her but she still nodded regardless and gathered her resolve.

Sophie used her Teleportation skill to move behind the furthest two goblins that he had pointed out to her.

She then successfully grabbed on to one of the creature’s arms, but the other goblin saw her and dodged before he lunged at her with his rusted dagger.

Lone watched in worried silence as Sophie decided to teleport into the air with the one goblin she had managed to grab.

It screamed and wriggled wildly as the two of them began to fall through the air.

Lone witnessed as Sophie appeared to calm a bit mid-air. She teleported straight up two more times without any hesitation.

She and the goblin were now roughly 45 metres in the air and the goblin was thrashing about madly like a cat who’d been tossed in a bath.

Sophie let go of the goblin's arm and teleported herself back to the ground after using the skill three more times.

She returned to the spot where she and Lone were hiding before though Lone had already moved away at that point.

Lone noticed her looking where the other eight goblins should have been, where he now was.

Wounds covered his body but he was now surrounded by five corpses and three terrified and extremely cautious goblins.

They were circling him as they bared their fangs and snarled at him. He could see the wobble in their knees and he grinned. ‘That’s right. Be scared, you little shits. None of you are going to survive, especially not when I’m enduring so much pain.’

He ripped a dagger that was wedged in his abdomen before he tossed it towards one of the three remaining monsters.

It shrieked as it dodged, but it was that moment that Lone was waiting for. As soon as the creature moved to the left to avoid the flying dagger, Lone thrust his spear forwards and pierced the unguarded goblin right through the eye, killing it instantly.

Ignoring the broken sword that another of the goblins had jabbed into his ribs during his attack, Lone pulled his spear out of the now-dead monster and turned around to face the two remaining goblins.

Upon seeing his crazed face and undying body, the two creatures finally succumbed to their fear and they turned around in an attempt to flee.

Lone used that opportunity to throw his spear at one of them, which successfully went through the creature's leg and impaled it to the ground.

He then madly charged at the other and tackled it to the floor. With both of these monsters now subdued, Lone shouted, "Soph, come over here. I want to test something!"

Carefully stepping out of the bushes, Sophie approached him and looked at the goblin that was frantically scratching and clawing at Lone in a panic.

"Wh-What do you need, Lone?" Sophie asked with uncertainty clouding her voice.

Lone was struggling to hold the surprisingly nimble goblin as he replied, "I want you to check your status, make sure you know what your level is, and then kill these two. You should get at least one level if you can earn levels by yourself, if you can't, then it confirms the theory that your level always mirrors mine. Meaning you should never kill anything, really, and just leave it to me."

Sophie gulped and nodded slowly. Walking over to Lone and the thrashing goblin, Sophie took out her combat knife and then carefully ran it along the goblin's throat, depriving it of its life.

Lone dropped the creature's body and watched as Sophie made her way over to the heavily bleeding goblin with a spear through its leg, the last survivor of the group.

She quickly put the monster out of its misery.

With a heavy expression on her face, Sophie spoke to Lone, "It didn't change, my -l-level that is."

"That sucks," Lone replied. "Oh well. At least we know now for certain. Sorry for making you do that. It must’ve seemed cruel from your perspective.”

"Mmm, but I understand why y-you needed to know," Sophie replied as she walked back to Lone's side.

She began helping him remove all of the small things that had entered his body like morsels of dirt and tiny twigs so he could continue to heal.

“Thanks,” he said as he began draining his MP rapidly to speed up the passive healing.

“I-It’s fine,” she replied as her cheeks flushed with a tinge of red.

With that out of the way, Lone finally took a moment to look at the system notifications which had flashed across his eyes during that tense battle.

Thankfully, it seemed that they could be dismissed and read at a later point in time, something Lone didn’t doubt would be incredibly helpful for battles in the future.

‘If only I’d noticed when I was getting fucked up by that boar, haha,’ he thought.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 2. Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6. Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

'So Intermediate is the next stage after Beginner? I wonder what difference does it make? I kind of felt like I could ignore the pain from my injuries a lot more easily... I guess it’s just a raw increase?' Lone commented internally.

Passive skill: Spear Mastery

A skill that allows the host to wield spears with a basic level of competence.

All spears used by the host will pierce their targets 5% more easily.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Finally, an offensive-based skill...It's not much and according to Growth Accelerator it isn’t my ideal weapon, but hopefully, it helps me enough to make a difference...' Lone thought to himself before he asked the system to show him his status.

Status

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 17 [+10] Species: Foxkin Rank: I Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 523/560 [+90] SP: 281/2,350 [+150] MP: 0/4,080 [+50] Basic Stats Strength: 29 [+5] Vigour: 235 [+15] Dexterity: 64 [+10] Agility: 70 [+8] Vitality: 56 [+9] Luck: 53 Bonus Stats Charm: 72 Charisma: 40 Magic Power: 408 [+5]

'So the non-physical stats didn't change at all except for magic power? Guess Golbins ain't very charming or charismatic. Less so than a boar. Funny that...' Lone concluded with a bit of disappointment.

He wanted to know as much about this world, how it worked and the same for his powers as soon as possible to ensure both his and Sophie's continuous survival.

At that point, a bit of a headache started to form in Lone’s mind. He winced and stopped pouring MP into his Basic Regeneration, only now realising he’d emptied out his tank as stated in his status.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Mental Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

‘’Yeah, I fuckin’ deserve that,’ he chuckled internally as he endured the new type of pain. ‘At least I’m almost fully healed now if nothing else.’

"Well, Soph, we should probably go back to the beach now. I'm a bit exhausted and I have a pounding headache after using all of my MP accidentally," Lone said with a short laugh.

Sophie nodded immediately. Clearly, she too was worried about Lone's condition.

With that thought in mind, the two gathered the makeshift and broken weapons of the dead goblins. Lone also stored the corpses themselves so they wouldn’t be discovered by their kin.

Once that was done, they returned to their small camp at the island's beach. As soon as they were back, almost immediately, Lone fell asleep from his physical and mental fatigue.

It had been a short day yet a very productive and informative one.