Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Acid Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8. Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Corrosion Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

"This is probably good for the day. I have a feeling that if we continued, we'd run into a chief or maybe even a king, and I'd rather not do that when my mana's so low from blowing these things up and supplying my BR with enough mana to stop me from melting," Lone said as he used two final Fireballs on the baby slimes that were trying their best to eat through his flesh.

Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

Sophie nodded. "Very well. We have not gained any levels from this 'adventure' as we were hoping you would rank-up, but I'm sure you're happy with your skill progress."

Lone smiled back at her through the dimly lit sewer pipe that there were in. "You bet your ass I'm happy. It's a shame the slimes didn't hurt me enough to warrant a BR level-up though."

Sophie just shook her head upon seeing Lone's goofy smile, she then spun around on her heels and began walked towards the exit that they'd entered from.

"Hey, gimme a sec to collect their cores, would you?" Lone requested in complaint before he quickly harvested the slimes' cores then caught up to the armoured girl.

Lone squinted his eyes through the darkness and as soon as he had caught up with Sophie, he sighed and said, "Ah, fuck. I got shit water on my tails. I really needed that light of you-"

"We have company," Sophie said in a quiet voice.

Lone immediately shut up and wore a serious expression. "Slimes?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "Worse, Humans. There's twenty-four of them within one-hundred and fifty-meters. Right at the end of this tunnel, there's one looking right at us. I think he has a skill to see in the dark. What do we do? You don't wish us to expose our Teleportation to the public, now do you?"

Lone frowned in worry. "No, I don't... Are they hostile? Can you tell that?"

"Well, the looks on their faces don't particularly feel friendly, and they aren't dressed like adventurers... more like... well-to-do beggars," Sophie explained as she handed the lantern over to Lone and then requested, "Our swords, now. We suspect we shall require them."

Lone immediately pretended to reach into his 'Item Bag' and pulled out Sophie's swords from his Dimensional Storage.

Taking them, Sophie wore a concerned expression under her helmet. "We do not think that we can murder over twenty humans in such a tight tunnel. Having shortswords will help, but we do not doubt that we will be overwhelmed very quickly. We trust you are fully prepared to end another sapient life, Lone? Four Mental Destructions - all on the ranged attackers - will be incredibly helpful. Luckily, there are three men wielding bows and a single one holding a crossbow."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lone said in a tone that wasn't at all pleased. "Stand behind me. We'll see if this is a misunderstanding first or if I can talk us out of this. If it goes tits up, I'll kill four as you said then harden my tails and impale as many as I can. That should ease your burden, right? I'm low on MP, and my swordspear is far too long for this tunnel, so I doubt I'll be of much help after that."

"Oi, oi, oi, seriously?" A big burly man said mockingly as he held a hatchet over his shoulder and grinned while he approached Lone and Sophie. "Even though we were bein' so sneaky like, you still detected us and got all cautious like? Man, what they say about you Golden Foxkin must be at least partially true. You've got ears that can hear for miles around, and if ya focus, you can even hear an ant breathin', huh?"

'Another stupid legend... Really, who started these legends and 'caused them to be widely spread? I wanna punch 'em in the face. These 'legends' have caused me nothing but trouble thus far,' Lone complained internally before he forced a smile onto his face. "Forgive us for being so jumpy, but it's hardly normal to run into a group of over twenty men in these slime-infested sewers, now is it?"

"Ahaha, rightcha are, Pal," the burly man replied as he flashed a toothy and dangerous grin.

Lone's smile cracked slightly. "I don't suppose that you guys simply need to go through this tunnel, do you? We don't mind squeezing up against the wall and letting you guys through if so."

The man slowly shook his head. "While I'd love the chance to surround yous, that could backfire and you could kill a handful of us while we play nice, so no."

He then took out two slave collars from a pouch on his waist. "Now, here's what's gunna go down. You two 're gunna slap these bad boys around yer necks, then you're gunna come with me and my boys back to the boss, 'kay?"

'Fuck. Are these guys in league with those beggars that threatened me the other week? The ones after I'd just met Grimsley? Shit. They must have figured out that I was bluffing back then or something... Well, like Sophie said, we can't risk exposing Teleportation here... Is the only option to murder them all? I don't want to shove a slave collar on myself... I'll have to use up one of my three remaining unique skills slots just to override the contract magic... Fuck... what do-'

Interrupting Lone's thoughts, the man grinned and said, "I'll take yer silence as a 'yessir'. It's always good when demis know their place."

Lone felt his anger rising at that remark.

Stepping slightly closer, the muscular man stroked his chin with his free hand and he eyed the armoured Sophie from top-to-bottom. "I bet she's a real beaut' under all of that steel... Well, me and the boys were just needin' a way to relieve our stress, so this is perfect since the boss only wants the fox."

Lone was no idiot. He knew exactly what the man meant, and it enraged him. Any scraps of hesitation that were still remaining in his mind died right then and there. "Mental Destruction. Mental Destruction. Mental Destruction. Mental Destruction."

Like dominos, four of the men in the back who were holding the bows and the crossbow all toppled over as blood eeked out of every one of their facial orifices.

Before any of the other criminals could react, he leapt forward and cast another skill. "Tail Spears!"

Two of his tails went right through the burly man's torso and head like they were made of paper. The other seven tails skewered three more men, only leaving a little under twenty alive.

Sophie wasted no time and used her Teleportation to get behind their attackers. She immediately began shredding the men to pieces.

Many of them tried to fight back, but either she was too agile, she teleported away, or she moved her body perfectly so the attacks would harmlessly bounce off of her armour.

Naturally, Lone was far less skilled at dodging every attack coming his way, but with his few dregs of MP, he was boosting his Basic Regeneration to heal himself as quickly as he was being hurt.

If that wasn't bad enough, he had also picked up the now-dead burly man's hatchet as well as another man's shortsword, and he was using them along with his tails to kill anyone that he could get close enough to.

It was a bloodbath. Not a single person was spared.

Lone was breathing raggedly and his eyes were bloodshot. A powerful throbbing was coming from the pocket in which he kept the mysterious black orb, but his entire body was pumped full of adrenaline, so he could hardly notice what was going on with the orb right now.

It took him over two minutes to calm down, and once he had, the throbbing from his pocket had also stopped, leaving Lone none-the-wiser.

"I feel sick," Lone said.

Sophie shrugged. "You get used to it. We should collect the bodies and find a well-lit space to inspect them. They may have some clues on them in regards to who this 'boss' of theirs was."

Lone frowned. "I never want to get used to this, but you're right. Keep watch and feel free to use up these guys' weapons on any slimes that show up while I store the corpses."

Sophie nodded before picking up two iron shortswords and then returning her two steel ones to Lone.

Congratulations! the host's racial skill [Tail Spears] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2. Congratulations! the host's racial skill [Tail Spears] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3. Congratulations! the host's racial skill [Tail Spears] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4. The host has developed the passive skill: Axe Mastery. The host has developed the passive skill: Hatchet Mastery. The host has developed the passive skill: Shortsword Mastery. The host has developed the passive skill: Dual-wielding Mastery.

"A bunch of useless skills since I'm best-suited for swordspears..." Lone mumbled as he continued to look through his notifications.

Congratulations! the host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 10.

Lone was a bit regretful that he hadn't been hit just a little bit more so he could rank this skill up, but on the flip side, he was happier that he and Sophie had killed those men as quickly as they possibly could.

He sighed faintly then looked at his newly updated status.

Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 99 Species: Foxkin Rank: F Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 17,950/17,950 [+6,040] SP: 5,311/24,970 [+5,070] MP: 4,322/38,460 Basic Stats Strength: 1,603 [+475] Vigour: 1,795 [+604] Dexterity: 1,592 [+360] Agility: 1,842 [+402] Vitality: 2,497 [+507] Luck: 106 [+8] Secret Stats Charm: 77 Charisma: 49 [+3] Magic Power: 3,846

Lone frowned as he lay there on his, Soph's and Sophie's bed in their room at the Amberbark Inn. "So murdering people really is the best way to gain stats, huh?"

Sophie who was in the middle of taking her blood-soaked armour off nodded. "We told you so, did we not?"

Lone frowned. "Yeah... you did... Well, I doubt I'll ever gain enlightenment from a large group of weak people, and I didn't get a single point of Charm nor Magic Power, but every other stat got a boost, most of which were massive."

Sophie smirked. "Have a taste for blood, now do we?"

Lone glared at her. "No. I'd much rather kill a mindless monster any day over people... even shitty people. I wish I could have talked us out of that..."

Sophie shrugged. "Unless Persuasion can reach a point that it allows you to literally bend people's minds, you will never be certain that things shan't descend into a senseless bloodbath."

Lone nodded at that and put his hands behind his head. "I really wish I could learn that skill the foxkin kids used to disguise themselves as humans... It's such a fuckin' shame that that was a racial skill..."

"Ah? Is that what that was? We just assumed you did not want to ask children for a skill and reveal that you could learn anything after experiencing it only once," Sophie said nonchalantly as she stripped off her underwear and wandered over to a dressing cabinet to grab a new pair.

Lone had no interest in her fifteen-year-old body, so he stared at the ceiling as he replied, "Well, yeah, that's also true. But thinking about how useful the skill looked since we only found out thanks to Soph seeing their actual shapes via your Mana Sensing, I thought I'd research it a bit and ask the matriarch of the Crimson Foxkin Clan to teach it to me. That's when I found out it was a racial skill and can only be learned by the Crimson Foxkin Clan, so I'm pretty confident I can't obtain it."

"A fair assumption. Regardless, try to ask her to use it on you when she visits," Sophie suggested as she walked to the foot on the bed and slapped Lone's foot gently. "Anyway, shall we have a bath now? We wish to rid ourselves of the foul smell covering our body."

"Sure," Lone answered as he sat up and collected his thoughts. It had been a long day, so some rest didn't sound all that bad before they had to return to the guild and hand in the slime cores.