Seeing as how Sofia had calmed considerably, ‘Lone’ carefully placed her down on the beach. He let her continue to squeeze one of his tails half to death as she lay there.

‘Tails… I have fuckin’ tails.’ He held his face in his hands as he chuckled. ‘This is totally nuts, whatever this all is.’

He flopped down, letting his back rest against the shore. If nothing else, at least his new fluffy limbs were easy to control and didn’t actually get in his way at all despite being massive.

"I’ve got nothing else better to do while I think so… I got other skills, right? Show the skills The Summoning Room, Creation Magic, Basic Regeneration and Growth Accelerator? My status too if that’s a thing. It wasn't in the game though so I'm not really expecting much,” 'Lone' said a bit uncaringly.

He wasn’t under the illusion that he was inside of the game he often played, Paradox Online, but there were parallels to be drawn given the screens referred to him by his character’s name alongside the fact he was now quite literally no longer human.

He was still trying to wrap his head around everything that had just happened to him and this weird doll-like girl. Or woman who looked like a girl? Her jumper was certainly much older than she looked.

Almost instantaneously, five tables popped up in front of his eyes, so he read them all very thoroughly.

The Summoning Room was identical and just as it was mere minutes ago. Looking it over again gave him no further insight, sadly.

He did find it oddly satisfying though seeing the floating words simply appear at his command. ‘I wonder if I can do that mentally instead of verbally? I’ll give that a try later.’

The Summoning Room’s information disappeared and was quickly replaced by that of Creation Magic’s.

Unique Skill: Creation Magic

A skill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.

Grants the host the ability to create anything existing on Altros or anything that can exist on Altros at will with MP.

Grants the host the ability to repair things by creating the missing parts and directly replacing the broken parts.

Cost: Relative to the desired item and the host's knowledge of the desired item. Mastery: N/A

‘Okay, that’s pretty fuckin’ amazing. Altros is the name of this place then? The island? Country maybe? Heck, could even be a new world. I don’t remember that name from the game so that’s a point away from me being transported into it. Am I still on Earth? For some reason that thought seems wrong…’ ‘Lone’ thought as he ran his fingers through the sand and continued reading.

Unique Skill: Basic Regeneration

A skill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.

Grants the host the ability to passively heal injuries at a slow rate. The healing rate can be increased in exchange for MP.

Cost: 50 MP (per second per 1% increase in healing rate) Mastery: Beginner Level 1

“Oh?” ‘Lone’ raised an eyebrow curiously. ‘One, that sounds super helpful but at the same time I have no plans to go get injured. Two, Beginner Level 1? So some skills can level while others can’t. Interesting. That’s completely different from Paradox Online, for sure. I wonder how it works… Improvements per level-up or only when it gets past the beginner stage? Maybe both?’

The only real way to find out would be to test it and right now he was busy lounging on a tropical island beach as he supervised an unconscious person. Perhaps another time.

The next and final skill was actually super interesting. More so than the ordinary, though certainly useful, Basic Regeneration was.

Unique Skill: Growth Accelerator

A skill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.

Grants the host the ability to learn any skill and level them to the highest possible level (does not apply to species, race, or bloodline specific skills). Allows the host to learn any non-unique skill directly used on them instantly.

Passively makes it easier to grasp all learnable things including those not related to the system.

Allows the host to tell if a person is using equipment perfectly suited for them (works on the host as well).

Grants the host the ability to consume some stats from killing, though the host cannot earn stat points through any other means.

Cost: N/A Mastery: N/A

‘That is a lot to unpack,’ ‘Lone’ thought.

For a start, different species were apparently a thing. He could only assume that meant sapient creatures and not animals though he could be wrong.

Races and bloodlines too. The mention of them in the skill implied they got special exclusive skills. ‘I wonder if I can get one too as a… whatever the heck I am. Golden Foxkin I think the message said…’

The other information on the skill was very intriguing too though most of it needed more information for him to tell if it was particularly, well, unique or not.

Just how special was being able to tell perfect matches gear-wise? Was it a big deal or not to be able to learn every skill?

Was it a boon or a curse to not be able to earn stats by any normal method, instead needing to kill things?

Speaking of stats, his status was the next thing displayed to him. ‘Lone’ was pretty happy he actually had one. It was a bit of a long shot in his mind but it could prove to be very informative.

Status

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 1 Species: Foxkin Rank: I Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 320/320 SP: 2,000/2,000 MP: 4,000/4,000 Basic Stats Strength: 16 Vigour: 200 Dexterity: 38 Agility: 40 Vitality: 32 Luck: 50 Bonus Stats Charm: 70 Charisma: 38 Magic Power: 400

"A lot to unpack here yet again… Looking at the raw numbers of those stats… I guess Vigour is tied to SP, Vitality to HP, and Magic Power to MP? Hmm…” He read through the details once more.

“So my species is foxkin and the race is Golden Foxkin. Like fox and Fennec Fox, I guess,” he thought aloud.

One detail on the sheet of information started to stick out to him like a sore thumb after a bit. “’Lone Immortus’… ‘Lone Immortus’… I guess that’s who I am now. Darren McCullen certainly didn’t have a big bunch of fuck-off fluffy tails or good eyesight, that’s for sure, hahah…”

He finally took off his glasses and sighed deeply. They didn’t even fit on his head properly anymore since his human ears were gone. He decided to shove them in the breast pocket of his shirt for now.

"... Mmm?" The young-looking girl laying down by his side mumbled wearily.

"Mornin’," Lone casually replied with a soft tone and a warm smile as he turned his head towards her.

Sofia looked right back at him with light-grey eyes and blinked a few times before decidedly closing those very eyes.

‘Is she trying to focus or somet-’

Right at that moment she disappeared as if by magic. One second she was by his side, the next, gone. All that was left of her was the new lack of acute pain in one of his tails and the small indent in the sand to show that she had just been there.

Lone’s jaw hung loose in shock and awe. "… The fuck? Uhhh… What just happened?"

"...W-Who are you?" The sound of Sofia's trembling voice came from the nearby trees.

Lone hadn’t paid much attention to the thick forest that made up the island’s core but he quickly changed that fact as he scanned the treeline to find the girl.

‘There she is. Hiding behind a tree. Badly hiding behind a tree if my dumb ass can see her. Why bother if your eyes are closed…’ He smiled wryly at the girl’s strange yet understandable actions while he slowly got back up on his feet.

He slowly approached her and answered, "I was Darren until this morning, but I guess I'm Lone now. Lone Immortus. And you?”

‘All I really know about you is your name and I doubt you’ll give me any more than that but introductions are important to fostering familiarity. It would suck if she had another attack, especially when I’m not sure what caused the first one,’ he thought.

"S-Sofia... Vladimirovich..." the girl mumbled before hiding behind the tree completely.

'She’s quite nervous, huh? Better that way. Caution with strangers is pretty wise. We kinda need each other though given the circumstances. I'm glad she's okay, at least,' Lone sighed in relief mentally.

"I'm going to look around for some food and maybe some shelter. Please don't run away or go into the forest, okay? Just give me a shout if you need me for anything," Lone said in a friendly tone.

He received no reply, but he knew that she had heard him so he made his way towards the treeline and started to inspect each one to see if any bore fruit.

While he was doing this, Sofia was maintaining a distance of no less than 15-metres from him. She wasn’t trying to sneak around or hide anymore, clearly being aware it was useless somehow despite her closed eyes.

Lone tried his best to ignore her actions, understandable as they were, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a struggle. He wanted to learn more about her, her old-looking jumper, in particular.

Her surname also fascinated him since it was meant for boys born of old Slavic royalty, not girls.

Still, it was better to let her do whatever she needed to do by observing him before he started asking about her fashion choices and her name.

His attention was forced away from the girl by several large, green-skinned balls that sat atop the tree Lone was standing under. "Coconuts?" he mumbled.

He was never very athletic before and the only exercise he ever got was when he cycled to work. However, he had noticed that his new Golden Foxkin body was, to not mince words, very fit.

'There's no harm in trying, right?' he convinced himself before he grabbed the tree and started to madly shake it.

A few minutes and a sweaty body later, Lone's head started to throb with pain after a large coconut had smacked him right in the forehead.

The melodious sound of a girl's laughter rang through the air. He glanced over towards Sofia who wasn’t even trying to disguise how funny she thought him getting hit was.

Instead, she was grasping at her stomach and hunching over while tears welled up in her closed eyes.

'Was it really that amusing? People have died from that before.' Lone frowned and grabbed the coconut that had attacked him before he returned to the beach and found a palm-sized rock.

He sat down on the sand and smacked the coconut with ease after peeling its green skin off. It split perfectly into two halves so Lone threw the rock away and placed one half of the fruit on the sand carefully to make sure what was left of its unspilt water didn't also trickle out.

Lone then, with an annoyed expression on his face and whilst grumbling to himself, drank the coconut water in his half before he began to carefully eat the coconut.

A loud rumble reached his sensitive fox ears. Turning his head, he saw Sofia staring at her own belly in utter confusion.

“You don’t know what hunger is?” he teased in good spirit.

She glanced up at him no less confused than when she was looking at her stomach. He picked up the other half of the split coconut and gestured with it towards her.

"Here," Lone said as he looked away from the perplexed girl who was just standing there holding her belly, "It's for you. It ain’t much but it’ll stop that rumbling I’d reckon. Just sit and eat if you’re hungry.”

She seemed reluctant but ultimately, it appeared her growling belly had gotten the best of her.

Sofia slowly walked towards Lone and sat next to him before picking up the coconut and investigating it briefly. After she had confirmed that it was fine by whatever metric she was testing it with, she gleefully drank its water and then started to nibble on it.

"Earlier," Lone said in a quiet and relaxing tone, "Was that teleportation?" he added.

Naturally, Lone was referring to how she had disappeared and suddenly reappeared behind a tree. No matter how much he thought about it, there was no way for it to be anything except teleportation, right?

Sofia lightly nodded her head and avoided replying directly. As she ate, she had unconsciously opened her eyes, giving Lone his first chance to get a proper look at those grey irises again.

"I thought so... Anyway, you have amazing body coordination and a great sense of spatial awareness for someone who's visually impaired," Lone praised as he looked at Sofia's pure grey and lifeless eyes.

"T-Thank you..." Sofia squeaked out in response.

Lone grinned and stood up, eliciting a curious look from her. "I'm gonna build us a shelter. Nothing fancy, but we can't really sleep out in the open tonight, now can we? Just stay within my line of sight, please. I don't think it’s wise to split up given our circumstances," he requested. “Who knows what’s out there.”

Sofia continued nibbling on her coconut and simply replied, "Okay..."

Smiling, Lone moved away a bit to build two small teepees. While he wasn't physically fit back home, he was deeply knowledgeable and had spent a lot of his time learning new things on the internet between his usual gaming sessions.

Mostly history related-things, but his interests weren’t mono-focused. Survival videos and forums were visited by him once or twice.

So, while it might take him a few hours, he was confident that he could build a place for them to sleep and avoid any rain or wind for the night at least.

Lone, mid-building, heard Sofia finish her coconut half and then mumble, "... Those tails look so fluffy and soft..."

‘Yeah, definitely don’t like this new advanced hearing,’ he sighed mentally.