Lone spent an entire two weeks working on the ship.

Unfortunately for him, creating a boat that could brave an ocean was not a simple thing to do when he was avoiding relying solely on his Creation Magic.

Still, he greatly enjoyed the process. He’d never done anything even close to this back on Earth and it was honestly very cathartic for him.

He didn’t have to worry about goblins, elves, nearly dying, getting drugged… nothing. He could just happily work away on the boat day-in-day-out while Sophie trained the recovering women.

It did come to an end though. Eventually, he was done patching up the ship to the best of his ability.

Congratulations! The host’s passive skill [Woodworking] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 4. Congratulations! The host’s passive skill [Woodworking] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 5. The host has developed the passive skill [Shipbuilding]. Passive skill: Shipbuilding

A skill typically earned only by professionally trained shipwrights.

Makes any ships built by the host 5% more durable.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

Lone greatly appreciated that his hunch was right. While it was an incredibly niche skill with minimal uses in most situations, that 5% boost could be the difference between surviving a storm and having the ship get entirely destroyed.

‘I knew it was a good idea to fix it by hand. Besides, I needed the downtime. If I wasn’t worried about Rewal’eh’s camp, I’d suggest we just sail around the island for a while so I can gain a Sailing Mastery or whatever. Oh well,’ Lone thought.

He sighed, cracked his neck then got to work using his Creation Magic to make up for his lacking skill.

Tomorrow, they set sail in hopes of finding a mainland and perhaps actual civilisation.

“Did you really not want to say goodbye?” Soph asked from his left.

The two of them were already aboard the repaired ship and Lone was focusing pretty intensely on the wheel in his hands.

They had only set sail a few moments ago and the island was still very close.

“Wouldn’t have done any good,” Lone said with a shake of his head. “Sophie could barely communicate with them. Those women need years, not weeks to come to a better place mentally.”

Soph frowned. “I still think you should have said goodbye, at least.”

“Maybe,” Lone conceded. “What’s done is done though.”

Soph nodded. She couldn’t argue with his logic. Instead, she picked up the compass he had sitting on the railing next to the helm.

"Hey, be careful with that," Lone said. "Don't drop it, ‘kay? It was a real bastard to make. I don't wanna have to Creation Magic up another one if I can afford not to, so don't let it fall into the water."

Soph turned to look at him as she asked, "How much MP did it take to make?"

“A bit over 15,000,” Lone admitted. “That’s more than I have, by the way.”

Soph wore a concerned look on her face. “Doesn’t that mean your MP is sealed?”

Lone nodded. “Yup. Not for much longer though since I do nearly have 12,000. Still, if I can avoid another headache, I’d appreciate it.”

Soph carefully put the small device back into the little groove on the railing that Lone had carved out for it. “I-I’ll just leave it there.”

“Thanks,” Lone said with a smile.

“What does it do anyway?” Soph asked with a tilt of her head.

“It points north so you can reliably figure out which cardinal direction you’re going in at all times,” Lone explained before he quickly recalled Soph’s knowledge base. “Right, north and south have been a thing for over a thousand years but them being cardinal only started in the fifteenth century.”

"Anyway, it’s basically for telling which direction you’re going in.” Lone scratched his chin in thought. "Wanna keep an eye on it for me? We want the arrow pointing that way."

He pointed to the left side of the ship.

Soph happily accepted the task put upon her. "I can do that. The arrow’s a different colour of mana from the rest of it. What’s the direction we’re going in called anyway?"

Lone smiled. “East. The opposite direction is west.”

“Huh. Maybe I’ll get a skill from helping you?” Soph asked with excitement in her tone.

“We can only hope,” Lone answered though he didn’t expect much.

His Growth Accelerator gave him an unfair advantage. His Shipbuilding skill had also given him a bit of insight into how long it took to gain skills normally.

If it was a skill normally only rewarded to people who been professional trained in the art, surely that meant it took months or even years of dedication to gain such a skill.

Still, he had a feeling Soph was particularly talented. It had only taken her a few weeks to earn both Short Sword Mastery and Dual-wielding Mastery.

Only time would tell, really.

A sudden whizzing noise pierced Lone’s ears before it stopped and was replaced by the sound of metal penetrating wood.

He looked at the mast only to find an arrow in it with a piece of paper attached to its shaft.

"A letter? From the elves?" he mumbled with narrowed eyes.

Lone left the helm and approached the arrow. Pulled it out cautiously, he clicked his tongue. “Gonna have to fix that when my MP’s not fucked.”

He returned to the helm and looked over the back of the ship. He couldn’t see any elves on the shore but that meant nothing.

Lone was almost certain Lal’roh was the one to fire this arrow.

‘That could have gotten Soph in the head,’ he thought before he untied the paper attached to the arrow.

He stretched it out and read the message on it. It was likely in some elven script though to his eyes, it read as flawless English.

'To our islands former guests, Ninetails Lone and the human Sophie.

We have no way to repay you for your mercy of sparing us when we threatened your lives. We also did not deserve the kindness you afforded us by killing the Goblin King.

We know not how you did this. We know not how you survived an arrow to the head. We know not how you copied my own illusion magic. We know not why you show such generosity to our betrayed kin.

Still, we are thankful. We shall not disturb those who we have let down and abandoned. They do not wish for our presence so please, leave well with the thought that we shall not disturb the peace you have granted our kin.

We, the exiles of the western world tree, once again, thank you for saving our people and for slaying the monsters that plagued our every waking thought for countless years.

We have no idea how you were successful in either of these things, but we can only find ourselves believing the countless legends of the Golden Foxkin.

… We wonder, Ninetails Lone, was there truth in your tale of being washed up slaves? No matter. We have little place to question such things consider what you have done for us.

We swear to aid you in any way that we can in the future. It is the least we can offer to the two individuals who have saved us.

As exiles, we know this promise to be almost empty and what reason would you ever have to rely on it? Still, offer it we must for we have nothing else of value.

I, on behalf of my entire clan, swear on the Primals that we will never forget what you have done for us until our very last breath.

Yours sincerely,

Chieftain Rewal'eh'

Lone wore an ugly expression on his face. “So they knew about the Illusionary Dome? When did they find out?”

He shook his head. It didn’t matter now. Rewal’eh was right. He couldn’t trust such a promise.

Still, it did comfort him a bit to know that they at least seemed to have no desire to bother the victims of their betrayal.

With that thought in the back of his mind, Lone took up the ship’s wheel once more and tossed the letter into his Dimensional Storage.

Four days passed peacefully out on the open ocean. Thankfully, the seas were kind to the two drifting souls. Lone attributed some of that to Soph’s absurdly high luck, in truth.

The two of them spent most of their time playing board games since there was no reason at all to fish, and the wind carried them most of the time.

So far, this voyage had only further illustrated how incredibly lucky Soph was. Out of the different 40 board games that they'd played, Lone had only won a total of two, and these two were entirely logic focused games.

Also, the fact that the wind only ever blew east or was still couldn't have been a coincidence.

Of course, Lone had also gained a new skill during that time.

The host has developed the passive skill [Sailing Mastery] Passive skill: Sailing Mastery Makes it 5% easier to sail all ships. Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

Simple, yet helpful. Right now though, instead of being at the helm, Lone was laying down on the deck in a sunbathing chair while he wore nothing but a pair of swimming trunks and some sunglasses.

The glasses were not cheap mana-wise, but Lone thought of them as worth every single point of mana.

Soph was happily humming a pirate song Lone had taught her as she stood at the wheel, ready to adjust it if needed.

As it turned out, Soph was very good at sailing. She had even earned the skill he had, Sailing mastery.

Of course, unlike him who got it in a couple of hours, it had taken her a while longer. Still, after only four days she had been granted the skill.

In light of that, Lone absolutely refused to even attempt to control the ship so as to not steal the girl's thunder after he found out.

Suddenly, Soph shouted his name. "Lone!"

"What's up?" he yelled back lazily.

"I can sense a small boat just behind us. You can probably see it. There's only one person on it... A woman?" Soph claimed hesitantly.

Lone shot up onto his feet and quickly put his Hawaiian shirt on without bothering to button it up.

He walked up to the stern's rear-facing railing, and sure enough, there was a woman roughly 150 metres away from them casually rowing in their direction.

Her boat looked almost like a wooden plank. Were it not for the small lip on all four sides of this plank and the sheer exquisiteness of it and her oar, Lone might have thought that she was a shipwreck victim.

"Just like we planned, Soph. You play the mute master while I play the stand-in slave. Got it?" From what he had inferred from his limited interactions with the elves, this was the safest approach when it came to humans.

Of course, from this angle, Lone and Soph could only see the woman's back which was covered by her long purple hair so it wasn't certain if she was a human or not, but it was better to play it safe rather than to end up sorry later on.

Soph nodded and wore a stern expression on her face.

Two minutes passed before the woman was finally alongside their ship. Looking at her face, Lone realised that her skin was pure green and she had a somewhat... round face. "A frog person?"

"Hahaha, nice to meet you too," she said as she placed her oar on her lap and smiled sweetly at both Lone and Soph in turn. "No, I'm not a 'frog person'. My kind are long gone from this place, but we were once known as 'The Guiders'. You can call me Snapper though."

“This is my master, Miss Vladimirovich," he said as he gestured to his short companion politely. “I am called Lone. It’s nice to meet you, Snapper."

"Isn't it just?" Her smiled deepened as she subconsciously snapped at the air with her fingers. "Oops. I should get going soon. Anyway, I came to tell you that you're heading straight for the Fallen Sea. A big ol' beasty lives there. Nasty fella. So if you're looking for Teresta - the main continent of Altros - sail north from here for two days. You should find a quaint little human kingdom called Milindo. A nice place for a short visit."

"I… see?" Lone replied with confusion in his tone.

"I'm glad you do. It'd be a waste of those charming golden eyes of yours if you couldn't. Ah, no offence intended to the lovely little girl with the green eyes. They're very beautiful." With that said, the woman picked up her oar again and rowed away while humming a little tune.

Lone and Soph just stood there like lemons. "Hey, Soph."

"Yeah?" she replied.

"Your eyes are grey, right? Not green?" he asked.

"Yeah... They were green before I went blind though," Soph answered.

Lone frowned. "How the hell did she know they were green? A good guess? A power? Magic? I bet it was magic, wasn't it?”

In the end, the two decided to change course and headed north. They had nothing to lose, after all, even if Lone did feel a bit uncomfortable trusting a stranger. Particularly one so... odd.

A few hours later, Lone scratched his head in frustration. "Ahh, dammit.. I was gonna wait until I had more mana to fuck around with this stuff but screw it. I'm getting all antsy about magic after that 'Snapper' woman’s appearance."

"System, show me my magic affinity sheet, please," he asked out loud instead of internally. Instantly, his vision was blocked by a large blue screen.

Lone Immortus' Magic Affinity Sheet Magic Type Affinity Percentage Illusion Magic 100% Fire Magic 100% Water Magic 100% Lightning Magic 100% Air Magic 100% Earth Magic 100%

"Now that definitely isn't normal. If 100% was the norm, then why the fuck would there even be an affinity sheet? No…. that does make some sense. It’s to see if you can do that magic or not, right? Still, the percentage wouldn't make any sense," he muttered to himself.

Lone held his chin as he flopped down on to the deck and crossed his legs. "Now, which do I specialise in? I don't have the mana to play with all of them... Hmm..."