As Lone was practising his swordspear forms – all self-created, of course – Sophie approached him. "Lone."

"Hmm?" He finished the set of movements tied to his form and gave his undivided attention to the girl.

His forms were pretty sloppy after all. Going into or out of them took no effort at all. Still, he had to work hard on them.

There was no one around to teach how to use his ‘perfectly suited’ weapon, after all.

"Well..." Sophie tilted her head a bit as she scratched her cheek awkwardly and said, "I've been thinking and, uh… why don’t we try to find an armour type that suits you perfectly? M-Me too.”

She stood for a moment before adding, “Uh, I-I know our weapons are weird but they feel natural to use, right? I just thought it might be good to get the same for armour… The stuff you gave me is a bit uncomfy… I can’t move the way I really want to in it.”

Lone stroked his chin and thought about the matter for a bit. "I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it.”

Confusion filled Sophie's face. "T-Then why haven’t you done it already? I-I’m not complaining, I’m just wondering…"

Lone smiled and said, “It’s fine. I totally get where you’re coming from.”

He put his swordspear down and cracked his neck. “Issue is there are as many types of armour as there weapons. Not literally but there’s a vast range. Armour is most costly MP-wise too since compared to weapons, they’re far more complex.”

Lone sat down on a log that was acting as a bench for the keep’s courtyard. ‘I gotta carve out a proper place to sit on this thing at some point. Woodworking hasn’t seen any love in a while.’

“I mean, it’s definitely a good idea, Soph. If I dedicate myself to finding us fitting armour though it could take days. I’m not gonna make a full set outright but do each one in bits. Don’t want to bottom out my MP,” Lone said.

“What about the goblins then?” Sophie asked. “Will we have time for both?”

Lone leaned down and started taking his boots off. "Well, if I'm gonna be using my MP to create armour, there's no point in us going out today. By the time my tank’s refilled it’ll be dark out. We'll stay here for a few days I guess while we figure it out. That okay with you, Soph?"

She wore an upset expression on her face. “S-Sorry… I didn’t mean to ruin your plans…”

Lone rolled his eyes. “You didn’t and please stop saying sorry so often. You did nothing wrong. I can still get stronger by focusing on my other skills rather than the combat ones and my levels. Less so, yes, but it isn’t a waste of time nor are my plans ruined. We can kill goblins again once I’m done.”

“Sure?” she asked as she sat down next to him.

He smirked at her. “Yes, I’m sure.”

Once Lone was finished taking his boots off, Sophie wagged her feet by his side and requested, "Mine too, please."

Sighing lightly, Lone replied, "Really?"

Sophie blushed but nodded. “They’re hard to take off…”

“Ha-ah, fair enough. At least tell me if you have any preference armour-wise while I unboot you,” he said with a short chuckled.

He then got off the log and kneeled in front of Sophie to help her with her footwear.

“Thanks…” Sophie said softly.

She then chose to fulfil his request. "I could never fight off all of the knights that came after me, you know? Most of them were just idiotic farmers and peasants following the will of their 'God' or forced to fight by their local lords. Still, it was far too much for me.”

Lone nodded. “That lines up with what history states. No rolling armies of knights, just a lot of mobs persecuting the Jews.”

“There were knights, just not a lot of them when compared to endless nobodies willing to die for essentially nothing,” Sophie replied with a sadness in her voice. “I… I killed a knight a few times. I stole a short one’s armour. It wasn’t a perfect fit but it felt very… natural? Maybe that’s my perfect armour type.”

"Really? Was it full-plate?" Trying to picture the tiny girl in a suit of medieval armour made the former teacher mentally laugh. “That’s must have been quite the sight… Y’know, a, what, four-foot-six girl running around in all that metal?”

Sophie smiled wryly. "Maybe. I didn’t ever, uh, see myself. It was full-plate, by the way. It was stiff in some joints if I’m remembering right… the memory is, uh, kind of fuzzy. I think that was due to it not being made for me though."

"Could be. Did you wear those shirts too, by the way? The ones that are just linen under the armour but chainmail around the arms and armpits," Lone questioned as he finished helping Sophie with her boots.

"Yup, I did. They got really sweaty though..."Sophie answered honestly. "You know a lot about armour, Lone. Is that something a history teacher knows normally?"

Finishing up with removing her boots, Lone shook his head as he got up. "I was a history teacher, yeah, but the curriculum usually forced me to teach kids about the world wars. Medieval stuff was side-lined pretty damned hard.”

He got back on the log right next to her and sighed. “The middle ages fascinated me. The Roman Empire is pretty interesting as well. Modern history though is what the board of education demanded we taught the kids though. Important stuff, sure, boring as fuck though."

Sophie cocked her head to the side in befuddlement. “World wars?”

“To simplify, an Archduke got killed, half the world went to war as a chain reaction, a lot of people died. A couple of decades later, a hypocrite becomes the leader of the second world war. That one ended with millions upon millions of deaths, and I’m not even talking about soldiers. That, and two cities got wiped off the face of the planet,” Lone explained.

Sophie shivered. “That sounds horrible.”

Lone nodded. “It was. It impacted the world massively in a lot of ways. Anyway, armour, right?”

Sophie nodded, seemingly happy to change subjects. “What armour do you think will suit you best? You, uh, kinda get hit a lot… That’s not okay but y-you can at least heal so maybe something that compliments that?”

Lone wore a thoughtful expression as he replied, "Another interesting idea. You’re full of good ideas today, huh?"

Sophie smiled innocently. "I'm always full of good ideas."

Lone laughed and ruffled her hair playfully. "Right. Of course you are. Shame you rarely share them with me.”

“So-” A sharp glare from him kept her from apologising yet again.

“I wasn’t being serious.” He said as he stretched. “What kinds of armour do you think I should make for me? I'm thinking full-plate, half-plate, gambeson, leather, and just chainmail. If this body follows what my game character was good at, heavy armour will be the answer. So maybe reinforced steel full-plate. I never used armour on my character really, but when I did, it was heavy armour."

Lone eyed Sophie up and down a bit sceptically before he sighed deeply.

"I'm gonna have to get a good look at your other forms and maybe measure them too so I can cut MP costs when using Creation Magic. I'm pretty sure I can shave off tonnes of MP if I can learn your exact heights, three sizes, arm lengths, leg lengths, the whole nine yards,” Lone said a bit reluctantly.

He was, of course, telling the truth. It was just that he felt measuring her adult form would be pretty taxing on his mind given how he felt about her when she was using that form.

Sophie immediately jumped off of the log and began stripping. This time, Lone didn't just stare blankly.

Catching her hand before it could peel off any more of her clothing, Lone groaned in frustration. "Not now. I... I need to mentally prepare myself first. I also need to make some baggy clothes for your other forms too."

Sophie tilted her head. "Why?"

Lone used his free hand and placed it over his face. "I’m not going to tell you. Let’s just pin it down to staying decent before you get married, huh?”

“Married?” Sophie was even more confused. “Who am I marrying?”

He chuckled. “Let me get used to your adult form and maybe there will actually be an answer to that question given enough time.”

Over the course of the next few days, Lone experimented a lot with full sets of different types of armour, partial sets, as well as a combination of various armour types and pieces.

It was incredibly expensive to create the full-plate and the reinforced full-plate armour, in particular.

The gambesons and the leather armours he made were fairly simple in design, especially the gambesons since they were essentially just padded linen.

Still, both of them drained him completely just to make a single piece even having spent the time to learn his exact measurements.

Sadly, not a single thing he made was a perfect fit for him according to Growth Accelerator.

In brighter news, Illusionary Dome had ranked up and he had turned that log into a proper bench between waiting for his MP to come back and creating armour.

Congratulations! The illusion magic skill [Illusionary Dome] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1. Illusion Magic Skill: Illusionary Dome

A skill that allows the host to create an illusionary dome around a specified location, hiding it from being perceived by ordinary eyes.

The dome can be maintained for up to 6 days [+3 days] if it does not get disturbed by hostile attacks. The dome’s maximum diameter is 20-metres [+10 metres].

Cost: 3,500 MP [-500 MP] Mastery: Intermediate Level 1

He was overjoyed at how massively this skill had improved just by reaching intermediate rank.

Still, he felt bitter. All of the new space in his dome was just filled with pointless and useless armour.

“I could have made so much more useful shit with the MP wasted on this stuff…” he sighed long and hard.

He wouldn’t give up though. He’d find his perfect armour sooner or later. Sophie’s had been found almost instantly.

Full-plate was her true calling, unbelievable. She was one hell of a lucky person, he felt.

A few more weeks petered on by with no more success. Lone had tried literally every single type of body protection that his mind could recall existing.

Even a Kevlar bodysuit, which he had to make over the course of an entire week piece by piece.

Not a single one of his other skills had levelled up in that time, not even Cooking Mastery. It all felt like such a… waste.

Sophie gently wrapped her arms around his neck from behind him while he was sitting on a chair in their kitchen. She rested her head on his shoulder then turned to smile at him sweetly.

Even though the two of them were close enough to kiss with but the slightest of movements, Lone didn’t react.

Sophie had gotten more and more physically affectionate over the weeks and he honestly couldn’t care. He was going insane over this armour issue.

Perhaps if she was doing this in her adult form he’d honour it with a response, but right now, it was no different than his sister clinging onto him when they were much younger.

"Lone... Why don't you just use the full-plate? Even if it's not your best fit, I'm sure it'll help a lot against the goblins, won't it?" Sophie asked in a tone that was mixed with worry and hope.

Lone smiled wryly. "I mean, you're right, Soph, but this is really bugging me. Like, really bugging me. I want to know exactly what I'm the most suited for. In the game, my character actually never used armour most of the time, but even that doesn't feel right. It's so weird."

"Why do you even want armour? I know I, uh, I suggested it in the first place, but I don't get why you're so obsessed with it now..." she asked. "Didn't you, um, want to... get hurt to level up your skills?"

Scratching his head awkwardly, Lone replied, "Well... Yes and no."

Sophie cocked her head to the side in confusion, pressing her cheek against Lone's in the process.

Seeing this, Lone sighed. "I do want to level up Basic Regen and my resistances, yes, but I also want to be prepared to fight something where taking a direct hit from it will result in instant death, more or less. Armour'll help with that, won't it? It never hurts to be more prepared rather than less prepared."

Sophie slowly nodded with her head. She then suggested, "Maybe your skin is your best armour? Uh, I mean, you can create anything, right? Why not just create more skin? I love watching you do stuff, it’s fun. Seeing you so upset and frustrated, though… it, uh, it hurts to look at..."

Lone's cheeks flushed a little. "Yeah, pretty uncool, I imagine… We’re honestly so lucky nothing had stumbled into my dome yet. Still, that’s a wacky idea, huh? Creating skin.”

Despite making fun of the notion though, Lone’s eyes shone as a certain thought entered his mind. “Creating skin… creating skin… there’s something to this idea…"

"Huh? Really?" Sophie was as confused as he was excited.

Lone grinned. "I think you were really onto something.”

Sophie was started into letting go of his neck when he suddenly sprung up to his feet and held his palm out.

‘W-What? Did he really think of something with that silly idea?’ she thought in shock.

He stared at his hand intently, as if hypnotised by it. Nothing seemed to happen for some time, but Sophie could sense his mana points were rapidly depleting.

'What's he doing?' Her other personality thought that it was a good opportunity right now that she was distracted to warn herself.

Something at the back of her mind screamed at her to attack him, to kill him while he was distracted.

Sophie shook her head and drowned out that voice which she thought she had been blocking fairly well for a while now. Apparently, not well enough.

Lone and Sophie both watched in amazement as a tiny white needle slowly eked out of the centre of his palm. It looked incredibly fragile, she thought.

"What's that?" Sophie asked in a very soft voice. She didn't want to disrupt Lone's focus, but her curiosity was killing her.

Lone didn't answer. The needle continued to grow until it was half an inch tall and it then expanded outwards.

It only stopped once it had formed the shape of a gauntlet that wrapped around Lone's entire hand.

A gasp left his lips and the gauntlet shattered, leaving nothing in its wake. Lone flopped to the ground with a big smirk on his face.

He leaned up and pulled Sophie down into a bear hug, using all of his tails in the effort which she very much so enjoyed.

He gave her a big kiss on the forehead and laughed. "It actually worked... Bones... Fucking bones... I'm not sure I would have ever figured that out on my own... Damned bones... Who would have thought that'd be my best form of armour? Another sick joke from that fucking god, I'm sure."

Sophie stayed still like a deer caught in the headlights. Her mind had gone completely blank the moment that Lone had planted his lips on her temple.

"I even got a skill. Thank you, Soph, you're amazing. What would I ever do without you?" Lone asked as he rubbed the girl's hair and began laughing in glee.

'This is it...' Sophie closed her eyes and slowly coiled her hands around Lone's waist. 'This is what I've been looking for... The other me is wrong. I can make connections, friendships, and maybe more with other people… With him… I don’t need only her.'

With that commitment firmly planted in her mind, Sophie focused on enjoying the warmth of Lone’s embrace.