Soph slowly opened her eyes and felt something soft and fluffy brush past her nose, making her almost sneeze. With her Mana Sensing, she saw the golden blob of mana that was Lone.

His face morphed into a smile. It looked… radiant. Perhaps that was just because of his unique colour. She’d never seen anything shining in a golden light before.

Most things were just blue or green. The ocean? Blue. The sky? Less blue but still blue. Grass? Green. Goblins? Also green, a dark disgusting green. Even her own mana was green, a light shimmering jewel-like green.

She returned Lone’s smile with one of her own, hoping it didn’t look too weird. She was groggy but she didn’t want to be impolite.

"It seems that our positions have been reversed from yesterday morning, huh?" he teased.

Soph realised that she was laying with her head on his lap and one of his hands was resting on her head.

Their positions were just like when she had been caught with his ears in her hands. She quickly fumbled up, scrambling away from him a bit in embarrassment.

"Hahaha, you can be pretty endearing sometimes, huh? Well, most of the time, really," Lone joked as he got up and brushed the sand off from his trousers.

Collecting herself a bit, Soph noticed that she was wearing the clothes that Lone had made for her, their distinct slight golden shimmer still lingering, a sign of them having been created by him.

Her knife and his spears along with the bathtub and his own clothes all shined golden too in her eyes which only saw the magic of the world.

“But I was wearing my swimsuit…” she muttered.

Lone chuckled a bit. "Yes, yes you were. Still are, even. It’s under your clothes.”

Looking more closely at herself, she found he was right. It was hard to see through layers of mana but not impossible when she focused.

Lone sighed faintly. “I know you were sleep deprived and it was a long day, but did you really have to fall asleep the second you got into the bathtub?"

Her face heated up as she asked, "W-Was I being a bother?"

"Nah, it’s fine. I did have to lug you off me, out of the tub, dry you off, and dress you so you didn’t catch a cold, all while I have a killer headache. Still, can’t fault you for being sleepy considering the circumstances,” he said then yawned.

“You h-haven’t slept yet?” she asked in concern. “And I made you do all of that…”

He smiled wryly. “Yeah but it’s fine. I’m used to all-nighters. Shame I have no caffeine to keep me going but I’ll live.”

‘So I was being a bother,’ she noted to herself before she scrunched up her face. ‘She’s trying to get out again… Now is not a good time…’

Perhaps picking up on her silence as a cue to change the topic, Lone said, "Anyway, you were out for at least 12 hours, so I had plenty of time to set up some more stuff for us through the night. I'm glad no goblins came to find us. I guess we're lucky, huh?"

"Y-Yeah," Soph muttered as she followed him out of the teepee and looked around, still trying her best to focus her mind.

While she was sleeping, it would seem that Lone had started to build a small log cabin. As of now, there was only a foundation set, but nonetheless, Soph was still impressed.

Her campfire which she had built herself now had a row of stones encircling it, and it looked far more permanent than her hastily made one was.

‘I wonder how much of this was done by Creation Magic and how much by just his knowledge alone?’ In truth, Soph felt ashamed.

Regardless of her special… mental condition, she was still far, far older than he was yet she felt so much less significant or critical to their continued survival. It was… disheartening.

The last thing she noticed that he’d changed was there seemed to be a hole in the ground that was about as wide as a head.

There was a cross-shaped stick poking out of the sand with a strange-looking roll of parchment on top of it right next to this hole.

"Lone, what's that for?" Soph asked as she pointed at the aforementioned hole and stick-roll combo.

"Hmm?" Taking his attention away from the tree that he had started to saw at with a strange metal device with a jagged edge she didn’t recognise, Lone grinned at her.

"It's to avoid shitting in the forest and wiping with leaves. One, that was disgusting, and two, it was a safety threat. Better to do it out in the open where you can see in every direction. The hole runs straight to the ocean. It was a real bitch to make. Needed so much more Creation Magic than I expected. Still, definitely worth the effort," he explained.

Stepping closer to it, Soph could see that the interior of the hole was lined with something made up of a dark brown mana.

‘Wood? Yeah. Wooden planks,’ she surmised.

They seemed to be there to stop the sand walls from caving in, and at the bottom, Soph could see some water.

“I forget I even need to do that… I, do, uh, kinda feel the urge though looking at this… Weird…” Soph confessed.

"Yeah, it kinda sucks that we still have to shit and piss honestly. I'm not even a human anymore and you used to be immortal, but what can you do, huh? I’m still a biological creature and you’re now down here with us mere mortals," Lone lamented jokingly as he returned his focus to the tree he was trying to cut down.

Soph wasn't particularly bothered by her body's necessary functions, odd as they were since she’d lacked the need to perform them ever since she was nine years old.

Regardless, she nodded and walked towards Lone. "Did you build this all by hand?"

"Mmm, more or less. I used to be interested in this kind of engineering before I became a history teacher, so I know the basics, though still, this would be a complete mess if I hadn't learnt two skills while I was first putting the foundation of the cabin together. After all, engineering and architectural design are two very different things, even if they are slightly related to one another." Lone's explanation went in one of Soph's ears before quickly flying out of the other.

"Engineering? Architectural design?" Soph tilted her head to the side in confusion as she held her chin.

Lone laughed. "I keep forgetting that you're from the middle ages."

"The middle ages?" Soph was even more confused. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. What does it mean?”

"It's what we call your time period. From the fifth century to the fifteenth. You really didn't do anything after you killed God, huh?" Lone asked as he put down his self-created tools and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"No... I just slept most of the time away... Sorry..." Soph, once again, ended up apologizing almost as if on reflex.

There was more to her story that she was sure he’d be interested in but she felt it was better for him to not know that side of her.

Lone frowned. "It's not something you need to say sorry for."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"M-Mmm." Soph still felt guilty for being such a burden on Lone.

She couldn't shake the feeling that he was wasting his precious energy on her by explaining things that were apparently common knowledge to himself.

Lone smiled at her and asked, "Wanna know what my new skills are?"

"Uh, y-yeah," she answered. ’So he doesn’t mind talking to me too? That’s… That’s good.’

----------------------------------------

Grinning, Lone quickly pulled up the information of his two new skills to include Soph in the joys of his progress.

Something about gaining new skills, regardless of how mundane they were, was quickly becoming very addictive to him.

‘This is exactly why I was addicted to Paradox Online, only here, it’s real,’ he thought as the skills appeared in his vision.

Passive Skill: Logging

A necessary skill for loggers of all ilk.

A skill that allows the host to harvest wood 5% more easily and 5% more skilfully.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 7

A simple skill really, but it made using his new bow saw that little bit smoother which was great.

Passive Skill: Woodworking

An introductory skill to more intricate crafting skills centred around wood.

A skill that allows the host to craft with wood 5% faster and 5% more skilfully.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 5

This had been incredibly helpful with only a 5% buff. It made it possible for him to try building the cabin without relying too much on his Creation Magic.

He only had so much MP to go around, after all. One slip up and he’d be experiencing another migraine.

Lone detailed the skill’s effects to Soph before saying, “I was doing everything manually until about three hours ago. Making the bath fucked me MP-wise for ten hours but I’ve been hard at work incorporating it into my building.”

He scratched his neck and stretched a bit. “Needed the magic to make this and the toilet, sadly,” he said, gesturing to his saw.

"Amazing..." Soph said in pure admiration. “Uh… Why’s it sad that you need your skill? I-It’s incredibly useful…”

“It is,” Lone answered as he frowned, “but it’s dangerous. If I’m not careful I overtax myself and get punished with an MP seal. It seems to vary in time based on how much I overuse it. It needs more testing that I honestly don’t want to ever do.”

“Ah…” Soph seemed stuck for words for a bit before she said, “This is all incredible though.”

Lone grinned. "Right? I should be able to finish a half-decent house for us in a day or two if I really put in the work."

"That sounds really nice." Soph's face was easy to read.

The inexperienced woman hadn't endured the cold, nor had she needed to bathe or look after herself when she was an immortal being living lackadaisically, Lone assumed.

Abruptly regaining her mortality must have reminded her of how important it was to have a proper place to take care of yourself and to relax.

"But, uh, Lone, what about the goblins? Won't they just destroy the house once you've finished it? You know, with more of those boars or something..." Soph suggested much to Lone’s pleasure.

‘She’s so clever when she wants to be. Ignorance does not mean stupidity. An easy mistake to make,’ Lone thought before saying, "I thought of that."

He pointed to the wooden foundations that were half in the sand and half in the dirt before he said, "Do you see that all of the trees I've knocked down were in a circle around there?"

"Yeah. Was that on purpose?" Soph asked curiously.

"Yup," Lone calmly answered with a proud nod of the head.

He knew that Soph was fairly ignorant on a lot of subjects, but he could clearly tell that she was actually rather clever and that she had a desire to learn.

"It's pretty simple, really. My plan is to add a bunch of self-made spikes and force them into the earth and the sand, surrounding our house," Lone said.

Soph tilted her head to the side and held her chin again.

Seeing that she didn't fully understand, Lone continued, "I'll use my Creation Magic for the spikes since I don't want to risk fuckin’ it up if I do it by hand. I also plan to make a string alarm system, again, with magic."

Soph still seemed confused. "How will we get inside the house?"

"Good question, but also a stupid one. Come on, you’re a quick one when you need to be. Give it a moment of thought. How will we get inside of the house?" Lone asked with a smirk.

“Hmm…” Soph scrunched up her brow and appeared to be thinking seriously about the question before she suddenly gasped a little. "Ah. I… I can teleport…"

‘She’s pretty even when she scrunches her forehead like that…’ Lone beamed from ear to ear with pride. “Yes, you can.”

He patted her shoulder in encouragement. "It'll be a good form of training for you to strengthen that ability. I imagine that you can teleport farther and more times the more you train it. Most skills seem to work off the principle of refinement, though you never know, it might be possible to create sub-skills from our unique powers. I have no clue how limited or free the system that binds our powers really is."

"I never attempted anything with my powers before I met you, so it'd be fun to try," Soph admitted as she scratched her cheek playfully.

"Wouldn't it just?" Lone smiled.

A few hours passed as not only Lone, but even Soph worked hard to build the cabin.

Lone would cut down the trees between sessions of creating string and bells with his magic.

Soph would teleport those trees to the cabin and use her knife to cut them as he instructed. She didn’t do a perfect job and, honestly, neither could he.

It was more than enough though and it was pretty fun to be working together.

Before long, Lone had finished setting up the string perimeter and was able to complete a third of the spike wall before he came dangerously close to running out of MP.

It was getting late too so he had decided to call it a day. He got Soph to help him cover the top of the cabin that now had some walls with large leaves.

A real roof could wait until tomorrow. With what little sunlight they had left, the two tore down their teepees and used the materials as insulation for the walls to stave off the cold of night a bit.

It was makeshift, a bit wonky on the left side and wouldn’t sell for more than a few quid to someone desperate but it was built by his and Soph’s hard work.

He’d be damned if he wasn’t proud.

"Lone, what are we gonna do about the goblins? I'm worried..." Soph's eyes were a bit hazy as she bit into her dinner which was just some roasted boar meat.

"I was thinking about making a map of this island first," Lone replied. “I do agree they are an issue though and we should try to hunt a few more groups like yesterday when we can.”

"A map?" Soph asked. “And, uh… I a-agree. We need strength…”

"Seconded. We don't really know anything about goblins, but I'm assuming that they have a nest or a home or something. My plan is to map out the island and find out exactly where that base is via the process of elimination," Lone explained.

Soph's dull grey eyes sparkled. "Wait… You can actually write maps? I remember that was a very hard thing to do properly back… back before I was captured. I thought you meant scouting it out and remembering the layout of the island…"

Lone stared into the girl's lifeless eyes that seemed to somehow exude so much emotion. 'How can a blind person be so expressive with just her eyes?... I wonder what the world looks like to her with that Mana Sensing of hers?'

"Lone?" Soph cocked her head to the side while looking at him.

Unconsciously, Lone ended up laughing. "Sorry. I was lost in thought. I've never actually drawn a map before but I must have read thousands of them, what with my job being what it was. Lot of maps in history. I'm fairly sure I can get a skill from the system and work it out along the way."

"T-That's amazing... I haven't learnt any skills since we got here..." Soph mumbled a bit dishearteningly. She smiled weakly at him. “You keep getting more and more though… I-I’m happy for you.”

"It's okay," Lone said as he punched her shoulder lightly. "I have the Growth Accelerator skill so it's unfair to compare us. I'm sure you'll get skills that are just as useful on your own."

"Y-Yeah… I'll, uh, I’ll try my best!" Soph's enthusiasm gave the former teacher hope.

----------------------------------------

In the depths of the forest on the island, a force stirred.

An ancient temple of some sort was illuminated by a single torch held by a goblin who was running as fast as his short legs would take him.

He was rushing to the heart, where his king was surely waiting.

A few moments passed before the goblin was in a grand chamber filled with bodies, equipment, jewels and gold.

This room also hosted several large beings, Hobgoblins. The small goblin counted at least six.

Scary things, those Hobgoblins. They could crush him with a single strike and he knew it.

Even more frightening though was what they feared, not what he feared.

At the very centre of this room, on a throne of wood and bone, a massive goblin sat as he feasted on an entire boar.

This goblin was so huge that it wouldn't be hard to mistake him as an Ogre. This was the target of the Hobgoblins’ terror and it was why they at least pretended to treat him and his kin fairly despite being so much stronger than them.

A Goblin King. A rare breed that had a one in a million chance of being born. He was the ruler and god of this island. None stood above him, all bowed beneath him.

The king’s blood-red eyes peered at the intruder, at him. Without hesitation, the young goblin began detailing his report.

"Ikik! Kik! Gakhikikiii!"

The Goblin King smiled, showing his fang-like teeth. "Human... female? Hutututututu..."

The little goblin knew what the wicked smile meant. Only human females could breed Hobgoblin offspring, not like the pointy-eared elves who only sired his kind or the ones who thought themselves better than all other goblins.

The Goblin Mages.