Lone arose to no pain in his tails, which was a great sign for the day to come. He left their bedroom and then the fort.

With a yawn, he put a hand to the dome that obscured them from view and chanted, “Illusionary Dome.”

New life was pumped into it as Lone felt almost all of his MP get drained from him. He knitted his brow a bit but smiled when he saw a notification.

Congratulations! The illusion magic skill [Illusionary Dome] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 10.

“If only Mental Pain Resistance levelled up,” he muttered as he knocked the side of his skull with his knuckles. “Eh? What’ll it take to make you level? Probably overusing my MP, that’s what.”

He stretched a bit before he withdrew his new swordspear from his Dimension Storage and began swinging it about to the best of his ability.

Lone didn’t expect to gain a skill from this but it couldn’t hurt for him to get better acquainted with his new instrument of death.

Not long later, Soph stumbled out of the fort while rubbing her eyes and while still wearing her pyjamas. “Lone?”

He stopped and smiled at her. “Mornin’, sleepyhead. Breakfast? It’s gonna be a long day so I want us both at our best.”

She returned his smile with a sunny one of her own. “Mmm, sounds wonderful. The, uh, breakfast part.”

Lone chuckled then got to preparing them something to eat. Once they were finished, it was time to enter the forest again.

Both of their outfits were a little bit different now. Atop their combat gear now lay a gambeson and some simple metal plates that covered their vitals.

Thankfully, while effective, gambeson was a pretty simple piece of clothing so creating it hadn’t been too costly. It was the same story with the plates.

The only downsides were that Soph found it harder to move and the light armour wasn’t a perfect match for either of them according to Growth Accelerator.

Lone almost didn’t wear his since he had Basic Regeneration. His tails were impossible to armour anyway so he figured he was screwed on that front no matter what.

It made Soph feel more at ease though seeing him wear the gambeson and plates, so wear them he did.

The two quickly and silently left their little fort and ventured into the forest. Within minutes, they had found a group of goblins.

"Don't do anything. There's at least 20 of them that I can see. That's way more than we can handle. Slowly move back and try not to make any noises. We'll find a smaller group," Lone whispered very quietly.

Soph looked a bit shaken up by the report of how many there were but she didn’t break. She sternly nodded her head and followed Lone as they began very carefully backing up.

‘Good. The most I bet we can deal with is eight, maybe nine or ten again. We’re not used to our weapons even if they’re perfect for us. We want a group of two to four, ideally,’ Lone thought.

It was then that he heard a loud snapping sound. Darting his eyes towards the source, he saw Soph panicking.

She had accidentally stepped on a particularly thick twig, creating a damn-near thunderous crack that sent the goblins wild.

The green-skinned devils immediately began screaming and banging their chests before they rushed towards their location.

"Ah... Uh.. Um.. Ah... I-I didn't mean-" Soph's panic was cut off by Lone's brisk and unhesitant voice.

"Unsummon Sofia Vladimirovich." All 20 of the goblins were charging over to his and Soph's position at this point.

They’d be on them in seconds. Even if Soph hated that place, Lone made the tactical decision to return her to The Summoning Room. She’d be of no use as a stuttering mess.

He had no confidence in being able to deal with 20 goblins without a lot of them escaping. That being the case, at the very least, he couldn't let the foul beasts realise that Soph was with him.

Lone would be lying if he said that how upset and jittery Soph had gotten about making a mistake instead of accepting it had happened and moving on hadn’t pissed him off.

This was exactly the kind of shit Zarrin, one of his gaming buddies, used to pull. It took him and Neon the better part of a year to teach her how to actually play to the point that she was better than a drunken Sino.

He couldn’t exactly blame Soph but boy did he wish those hundreds of years running from and presumably fighting the templars had given her some grit.

'Now's not the time for idle thoughts, you idiot,' he said to himself.

Lone tightly gripped his swordspear then threw himself at the approaching mob of goblins. They were slobbering and yelling with glee all the while.

Lone managed to successfully skewer one of the fatter goblins with the spearhead end of his swordspear, however, not without a cost.

Two goblins had gone to either of his flanks and riddled him with holes. Their shabby and rusted weapons pierced his skin and his body jolted in pain.

He let out a low grunt as he forced himself to pivot. With that, he slashed his swordspear and cut down the two goblins on his left.

This only allowed several more of the other monsters to swarm around him.

Lone madly swung his weapon, but after he'd sliced open the bellies of three more of their kin, the other goblins realised how sharp and dangerous his weapon was, even if the man wielding it was nothing but an amateur no better than themselves.

Three of the monsters jumped onto Lone's arms on either side while two more ripped his swordspear from his hands.

They then jumped on him and madly clawed and attacked him with their nails and weapons.

Panic flashed through Lone's eyes. He was dying. He could clearly feel his health points draining away as the seconds ticked on by with his body restrained.

Even as his Basic Regeneration restored his broken flesh, it could do nothing about the weapons still stuck inside of him, nor could it keep up with the sheer number of wounds.

Left with no other choice, Lone rapidly tried to use his most powerful skill, Mental Destruction. At I-rank, he could only use it a total of one time, but that didn't stop him from trying to spam it.

“Mental Destruction! Mental Destruction! Mental Destruction!” he roared successively six more times.

Much to his and the goblins’ surprise, two of the green-skinned monsters toppled over as their eyes rolled back and blood trickled out of their facial orifices.

Lone recovered from his shock far sooner than the dim-witted goblins did, so he punched the one who was holding his swordspear in the face and ripped the weapon from its dirty hands.

He then grabbed a dagger that was lodged in his ribs with his other hand and used that to stab the eyes of two goblins in quick succession just before the beasts finally realised what was going on.

Lone quickly scurried back to get a bit of distance between himself and the monsters. They did the same.

The group of goblins glared menacingly at Lone while he returned their gaze with an even fiercer one.

He tore the weapons that were still in his flesh free and threw them at the goblins wildly. Lone then tried to scream at the beasts, but instinctively howled instead.

Their numbers were once 20, but now only half that remained. They were clearly hesitant to attack any further and were considering what to do next.

Continue to attack the non-goblin, or run away? They had their answer when they saw all of Lone's wounds close themselves. He was looking as good as new.

A second unintended howl from Lone prompted the beasts to run further into the forest.

Lone grinned very slightly before he wavered and almost toppled over. He steadied himself by stabbing his reclaimed swordspear into the earth. "I'm fucking howling now... Fuck me. Do foxes normally howl?"

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His stamina and mana points were at rock bottom. Healing himself completely via expending his barely recovered MP had been a gamble, but it was a gamble which he’d won, thankfully.

Lone collected the broken and rusted weapons of the slain goblins, as well as their bodies, before he spent the next hour carefully hobbling back to his home.

He was being extremely careful so as to not alert any more of the wretched creatures.

The very instant he passed through his Illusionary Dome, with the last of his mental strength, Lone said, "Summon Sofia Vladimirovich," and then passed out cold.

He knew how much Soph hated The Summoning Room. She had made a point of it several times over the last half a month.

As much as he was annoyed by how useless she had been there, he couldn’t really blame her and the last thing he wanted to do was to torture her.

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

Lone slowly opened his eyes. 'Well, this feels familiar.'

He looked down only to find Soph laying on top of him. He was in their bed and had been undressed and cleaned of blood apparently.

He was quite proud of how well Soph had actually taken care of him. Lone didn't expect her to go as far as to remove his tattered and dirty clothes and to wash him.

She was incredibly bright when she wanted to be. Waking up covered in mud, blood and whatever else had gotten on him wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience.

‘I’ll have to thank her for washing me first then shoving me in bed,’ he thought with a chuckle.

Lone didn't want to disturb his chest's occupant, so instead, he simply lay there and took the time to check the flashing notifications in the corner of his eyes.

He had barely been able to walk, let alone focus on such things when he was returning home, so now was as good a time as any to check them out.

The first message was one he had suspected was waiting for him given that he had been able to use Mental Destruction twice somehow.

Congratulations! The host has successfully gained enlightenment and ranked up. The host is now an H-ranker.

As Lone had assumed, he'd ranked up mid-fight. If he hadn't, then it would have been impossible for him to use Mental Destruction twice in one day instead of just once.

There was no such thing as miracles. He had no idea how the goblins had been enough to push his level to whatever boundary there was between the I and H rank, but regardless, he was thankful.

Although, Lone did have to wonder what it meant by 'enlightenment.' Was the system using that term in the traditional sense, or was there perhaps a deeper meaning?

He wasn't sure. More investigation would have to be done discreetly at a library or something similar upon finding a larger settlement of people than that of the elven camp.

What followed next was a large string of skill level-up notifications. Lone glanced over them briefly.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 4.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 5.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.

‘No surprises there. It fuckin’ hurts like a bitch to be ganked by a dozen gangly green goblins,’ Lone thought.

Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.

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

Lone clicked his tongue distastefully. ‘Son of a cunt-licker. One level off a rank up.’

The host has developed the passive skill: Spear Mastery.

Passive Skill: Spear Mastery

The parent skill of all spear-based masteries.

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

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

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

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Spear Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Lone wore a mildly confused expression on his face. ‘Spear mastery, not Swordspear mastery? That’s we- Ah, there’s another notif.’

The host has developed the passive skill: Swordspear Mastery.

Passive Skill: Swordspear Mastery

A child skill of the skills, [Sword Mastery] and [Spear Mastery] which is critical for swordspear-users and passively allows for better handling and control over swordspears.

All swordspears used by the host will cut and pierce their targets 5% more easily.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

‘Ah, cool. So it doesn’t help with the use of swordspears, just their power, really. I need to get Sword Mastery at some point then. I need to level that and Spear Mastery, probably,’ he thought.

The only thing left to do, really, was to check his status and see what stats he had earned from his battle and subsequent rank-up.

Status

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 26 [+9] Species: Foxkin Rank: H [Up from I] Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 860/860 [+300] SP: 3,100/3,100 [+750] MP: 5,830/5,830 [+1,750] Basic Stats Strength: 74 [+45] Vigour: 310 [+75] Dexterity: 160 [+96] Agility: 96 [+26] Vitality: 86 [+30] Luck: 55 [+2] Bonus Stats Charm: 72 Charisma: 40 Magic Power: 583 [+175]

Lone laughed internally. 'Damn these must have been some high levelled goblins or something. That is a lot of stats.’

He stroked his chin and thought, 'Granted, I did kill a lot of them on my own. I didn’t gain many levels either. Maybe level 25 was the cap for I-rank so I wasted exp before I ranked up?’

He was just theorising at this point. Only further study and ranking up in a more controlled environment could give him the answers he sought, really.

Apparently, Lone's musings and slight movements had woken up the person who was treating his tails and chest like a blanket and bed respectively.