While very shoddy and clearly crafted by someone with little-to-no experience, Lone was proud of his two teepees.

Sure, a strong gust of wind would knock them down like a house of cards and if the sky decided to start raining buckets anyone inside of them would get soaked. Regardless, he smiled in accomplishment. A small breeze or light drizzle wouldn’t be bothering them this evening, which felt good.

Not good enough to earn a skill apparently though, assuming actions led to skills.

“I don’t know about you but I’m pretty tired after all of that physical labour. Sun’s going down too. Sleep?” Lone asked as he looked down at his short companion.

Sofia turned to look back at him which was more than a little bit creepy since she was blind as far as he knew. “Okay.”

“Right then…” Lone muttered before choosing a teepee to settle into for the night.

The bliss of consensual unconsciousness was happily welcomed by Lone. The next morning, he awoke to a peculiar feeling on his chest.

It was like he had suddenly become a heavy smoker of seventy years or had woken up as a sumo wrestler. Surely the coconut from yesterday hadn't made him gain 40 or 45 kilograms, now had it?

Opening his eyes and looking down, Lone quickly found the culprit to his odd condition. Sofia. At least, she looked like Sofia but… older?

‘Wow she’s pretty. Who is this woman? She looks like Sofia but, like, a decade older,’ Lone thought.

It was hard to judge given that she was lying on top of him with a few of his tails in her arms, but while she was only a few inches taller than the girl from yesterday at roughly five feet tall, all her other features were much more mature and womanlier.

Her face, in particular. It had a cold, cruel beauty to it that left Lone staring at it. He shook his head. He could feel her body pressing against his far too clearly. It was getting hard to focus so he cleared his throat and said rather loudly, “Excuse me?”

She, whoever she was, slowly peeled her eyes open and yawned. A few seconds passed as her dead eyes stared at Lone’s blushing expression. She then shrieked and disappeared as if by magic.

Lone leaned up and exhaled deeply. “What. The. Fuck.”

He rushed out of his teepee only to see Sofia, now shorter and with smaller proportions, awkwardly exiting her teepee still wearing her baggy ancient looking jumper. She was rubbing her right arm with her left hand, and she was blushing. “Um, good morning?”

“No. Not ‘good morning’. What was that? You can, what, adjust your body’s size? How old are you really? Why did I wake up with you on top of me?” Lone asked- no, demanded.

Sofia smiled wryly. “Um… Yes? I don’t know how old I am… Sorry, it just… happened? I was thinking of your tails when I went to bed and then… I woke up on top of you… in my oldest form… Um, sorry?”

Lone took a deep breath. He wasn’t really angry just… flustered. “Is it a skill, the body changing thing? Say ‘check status’ for me and tell me how old it says you are. We’ll discuss my tails later.”

Sofia nodded softly. “Em, it is a skill. It’s called Body Manipulation. I can shift between a child, teen, and adult body. I always sleep as the adult one… It’s the warmest. C-Check status? Ah. It says I’m 971.”

Lone furrowed his brow. ‘So not a kid, but she seems, I dunno… Oddly ignorant? Also, what does she mean 971? That’s impossible… Unless…’

“What species are you?” He questioned.

She seemed confused by the question. “Human.”

That… okay, Lone was getting increasingly baffled. He didn’t know what to trust. “Can you change your body for me? To confirm not all of this is crazy.”

“Oh, um, sure,” Sofia agreed.

The next moment, she grew an inch and a half and assumed the appearance of a very short teenaged girl of about 15 years of age. Just a few seconds later and her baggy jumper was hugging her skin as she grew to be five feet tall and about 20 years old in appearance.

“Yeah, you’re beautiful,” Lone commented unintentionally. He quickly realised what he had said when Sofia’s face flushed. “Sorry. That was inappropriate. Uh, thanks. Let’s… Let’s move on. I have stuff to do. Survival stuff.”

Sofia nodded and re-entered her teepee, but she didn’t change her body back into either of its younger forms.

Lone closed his eyes and took a very deep breath. “Let’s test skills. That should, hopefully, clear my mind… Fuck…”

Lone walked down the beach a little bit, keeping the teepees in his sight, and decided to test his Creation Magic skill first.

From its description, he could create anything that existed in this world with his mana points so long as he could imagine it.

"I guess a knife? Hmm, then again, how will I hunt anything with a knife in my state? Maybe a bow or a spear? Can’t live off coconuts forever," Lone wondered aloud.

He recalled how bad he was at shooting with a bow and arrow as a child when he got the chance to practice archery during a school trip, so he decided to try a spear first.

Besides, it was the classic weapon of the soldier. It was relatively easy to use and had reach. What more could he ask for? Thoughts of Sofia’s face filled his mind, so he quickly shook his head. ‘You literally met her yesterday. Focus on the spear.’

"What are spears even made of? A wooden shaft and a metal tip I suppose. I know more about spear types and where or when they came from and who used them, not how they were made..." Lone complained.

He closed his eyes and pictured a very simple spear. He had decided to use the common beginner's spear from the online game that he had played for the better part of the last five years.

Why not, after, all? He had a lot of experience with it even if it was just pixels at the end of the day.

Item does not exist on Altros, however, there is an innumerable amount like it. 5,000 MP has been consumed to compensate for the difference.

The host has a great understanding of the item but does not know anything regarding its construction. 1,000 base MP cost. 500 additional MP has been consumed to compensate for the lack of knowledge.

6,500 total MP has been consumed to create the item: [Beginner's Spear].

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A wooden spear with a long and sharp head fell to the sand in front of Lone. Similarly, he, himself also collapsed. He clutched his head and screamed when a sudden pain assaulted his very mind.

Warning! The host has consumed more MP than they possess. Bracket of extra consumption: 0-5,000 MP. MP has been sealed for 1 hour.

The host has developed the passive skill: Mental Pain Resistance.

Passive Skill: Mental Pain Resistance

A skill that helps protect the host's mind.

Reduces the effects suffered from overusing MP by 5%. All mental pains will be weakened by 5%.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

Lone could barely read the messages that flickered in front of his eyes before he passed out from the suffering he was trying to endure.

Quite clearly, at only beginner level one, this wasn't a very useful skill.

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

"Mmm?" Lone raised his body and held his still throbbing head.

He looked around and saw half of a coconut next to him with its water still inside. Lone looked around and saw Sofia nibbling away at her own half, still in her recently revealed adult form.

Lone carefully picked up the coconut and sat next to the short woman. "You got this for me?"

"Yeah..." she replied shyly.

Clearly, he wasn’t the only one still thinking about this morning judging by her attitude.

"Thank you," Lone said and then began drinking the somewhat sweet liquid inside of the fruit. He looked at the ocean and asked her a question that some people might have thought was insensitive, given the circumstances. "Do you miss anyone? 971 years is a long time… Did you have anyone close that you got ripped from when you were sent here?"

Sofia looked bothered by the question for a moment but she quickly collected shook her head and answered, "No... I’ve been alone for… a very long time."

She turned to smile at him. “I’d miss you if you left. I got scared when I heard you screaming.”

"T-Thanks. Uh, I appreciate the concern. I was just being stupid with my new skills," Lone took a bite out of his coconut. "What’s it like, being almost a thousand years old?"

Sofia smiled bitterly as if she was remembering a lot of painful memories. "I'm immortal... Or at least, I should be. I think that ability of mine got sealed when we came here... It was… lonely. I had no one but myself to talk to for such a long time…"

‘What? If she’s so old, she must have countless experiences from throughout the ages. Why wouldn’t she have talked to anyone but herself for a long time?' Lone thought but didn’t say.

He desperately wanted to know more about her life. Assuming she was from Earth like he was, how could her existence be explained given what he knew about history? The idea of some ethereal wandering immortal gave him goosebumps of excitement.

He suddenly recalled something that Sofia had said when they had first met in that weird black space. "What did you mean by 'my dimension'? You said that before we came here, didn't you?"

"Mmm... I don't want to talk about it, but I'll tell you if you let me squeeze one of your tails,” The beautiful woman offered. “They look very soft…”

‘She wants what? Well… She has hugged them twice now, both times seemingly unconsciously. If it’ll sate my curiosity, sure, she can squeeze them again. No pain no gain,’ Lone mused before moving one of his tails onto her lap.

That was a mistake. Her legs were smooth to the touch. ‘Oh god. They can feel things. Of course they can. Fuck. This is awkward…’

Sofia didn’t seem to care and quickly grabbed the furry appendix and cuddled it with both of her arms.

A few moments passed of her enjoying the softness of his tail before she said, "I was just a normal girl- well, normal-ish... but, uh, some things happened. I found out I couldn't really die. It… it wasn’t nice learning that.”

Lone tried to keep an open mind. He was a magical man with fox ears and tails now so what was one or two immortals walking the world he’d known to be perfectly mundane all his life? “That must have sucked. Can’t imagine it’s a nice story.”

She nodded. “It’s not. About… uh… 20? Maybe 30 years after I found out I couldn't die... a, uh, a man who called himself 'God' forced a lot of men to hunt me for about 200 years... First, it was the commonfolk and then it was... More organised? It was a group of men. What were they called again... Knights Tem... Tem... Tem something. Sorry, I don’t usually manage these memories…" Sofia explained with a very sad tone to her voice.

Lone raised an equally suspicious and fascinated eyebrow. 'The Knights Templar? As in, the ancient order of highly trained holy warriors from almost a millennium ago? Am I meant to believe the holy crusades weren't just a grab for land and power but actually all just to find this one girl? That’s a stretch, but if hunting her was one part of the crusades… That isn’t entirely implausible… More importantly, she escaped the crusades for two full centuries and the templars for one?’

As a history teacher and avid lover of the more classical eras of such, this was all very alarming news to him if true, which it almost certainly wasn't. But... what if it was? What if this gorgeous woman wasn't just an insane person?

‘I mean, that's definitely nuts... There's no way it could be true, right? But… if it is… Why would she lie about her age and about this? Would the Vatican have records on her? That would be soooo fuckin' interesting. Not that I want it to be true 'cause it sounds traumatic for her, but what a discovery this would be if history had been rewritten and altered so heavily to hide this all,' he thought a bit excitedly.

Were it any other person in any other situation, Lone would have completely ignored these ridiculous claims.

However, this girl had quite clearly teleported in front of him, and from what he could tell, that was a subconscious action, and it wasn't a skill that she had just learnt in a couple of days.

Her body could change its physical age, a power she seemed intimately familiar with, and again, she had no reason to lie about her actual age or these historical details. More and more reasons to believe her were springing up.

Sofia smiled sweetly and wiped away the tears that were building up in her eyes. "They eventually caught me and locked me up for a long, long time. After that, I got revenge on the guy calling himself 'God' and kind of killed him before living in his home, a pocket dimension that sat above Earth. I was there until, uh, this all happened," she said, gesturing to the two of them and the island.

"You killed God?" Lone was more than a little sceptical.

"Mmm... I don't really want to talk about this anymore... It’s, uh, I don’t like bringing it up…" she said weakly.

"Thank you for opening up," Lone said softly. 'Let's take her words with a grain of salt. Maybe a few grains. I'll believe her. No reason not to, but if she really did kill a powerful deity... Why is she so timid and ignorant? Best not to ask. I don't want to set her off accidentally. We were sent here together for a reason I'd wager. No point in adding friction where it's not needed. Not yet at least.'

Just as Sofia was about to reply, a loud and ghastly shriek echoed out from the forest behind them. Lone whirled his head around and after narrowing his eyes, he could see a large, brown-furred boar charging right at them.

Sofia screamed and froze in fear while Lone started to sweat. 'That thing's fuckin' huge! It must weigh at least 400 kilos! Fuck! Why is it coming towards us?! One hit from those tusks and we're dead meat!'

Lone quickly stood up and grabbed Sofia. He didn’t have time to care about his attraction to her nor her feelings at being grabbed. Thankfully she was short, and she didn’t resist him, so he was able to grab her with ease and run to the side, barely avoided the boar as it tore through the spot they were just in.

Like a car that had put the handbrake on, the wild animal ground to a halt and changed its direction.

"Shit! It's out for blood!" Lone exclaimed in annoyance and with a tinge of fear.

Quite honestly, he didn’t want to die to a massive boar. He’d much rather a peaceful death in his sleep when he was old, incredibly old.

He frantically looked around for something that could help in this situation and his eyes fell onto the spear he had created before passing out.

Lone immediately sprinted towards the weapon that was laid out next to the two teepees while still carrying the screaming and panicking Sofia.

As soon as he grabbed the spear with his free hand, a gust of hot wind brushed past him and he could feel a searing pain from his side.

The enraged boar had ripped a large chunk of his flesh out of his chest as it trampled over and destroyed the two makeshift sleeping spaces. "Ahhhhhhhh!" Lone cried out in agony.

Somehow, he didn’t die on the spot but he screamed yet again at the sight of his ruined sleeping spaces. 'I worked hard on those, you fat fucking pig!'

The boar swivelled around and stomped its hoof into the ground before it puffed out a bunch of air from its nostrils.

With beady eyes trained on Lone and gleaming tusks large enough to skewer a grown man, the boar charged at him again.