Sofia- no, she was Soph now. A name of her own… she liked it. Soph had never felt any hunger in her existence before, let alone enjoyed the sensation of food so this was all new and… nice.

“We really need to get to working on that boar when we can,” the strange yet kind man called Lone said to himself. “This is unbelievably bland. Just how much sugar and salt is added back home for it to taste nothing like this?”

‘… I think it’s yummy,’ Soph thought.

She kept her difference of opinion to herself. The last thing she wanted was to upset the man. He seemed nice but even if she wasn’t the one who dealt with her harsher past, she still knew not to be too trusting of others.

‘If she had her way, he’d be dead already,’ Soph sighed internally. ‘Keeping her suppressed for so long is getting tough…’

After finishing up her coconut, Soph skilfully crafted a simple torch out of the campfire for Lone to hold before she got behind him.

She then firmly grasped as many of his tails as her thin arms could contain. They helped clear her mind and gather her focus. He also didn’t seem to be bothered by it which was helpful.

Lone suddenly winced with a defeated smile on his face. “Level six in Physical Pain Resistance… You’ve got an iron grip, haha.”

“S-Sorry.” She tried to lessen the strength of her hold on his tails a bit in response.

She didn’t want to hurt him but she was genuinely terrified. The beings lingering in the bushes were scary, sure, but the prospect of going back to that dark place he called ‘The Summoning Room’ gave her more than just the heebie-jeebies.

“It’s fine, I get it,” Lone whispered as he seemed to gather his full attention on the treeline in front of them.

Stopping just before the beginning of the forest, Lone softly asked her, "How many of them are there exactly?"

"There's four... They’re holding weapons. They kind of look like strange children... They're wearing nothing but rags," Soph answered in a very unsure tone.

Her mana sensing allowed her to see the world despite being entirely blind. On Earth, this crippled her since magic was long dead on that planet.

Here, however? Here on Altros, everything had at least some inkling of magic in it, each with its own brilliant colour and aura.

It was crippling in its own way. She likened it to having no tongue for decades upon decades only to one day taste every single thing in existence all at once.

Overwhelming and overpowering but amazing and awe-inspiring. Already she had no desire to return to her plundered dimension if it meant she could experience the world so vividly despite her blindness.

Besides… she liked Lone’s company even if she was a little bit wary of him in the back of her mind. His presence was warm and comforting. She’s never felt this way before. She’d never had the chance to feel this way before…

"Natives maybe?" Lone mumbled. He lightly slapped himself a couple of times, confusing Soph.

“You got, this, Lone. Confidence is key,” he said to himself before shouting, "We know you're there! Come out already! We don't want to hurt you!"

'… It’s that easy? M-Maybe I should hit myself too when I feel lacking in courage…' Soph wondered.

"Ukih!"

"Kikik!"

"Ukiki Kihik!"

"Kakukiki!"

Soph jumped slightly at the screeches that filled the air. It was only seconds later that both she and Lone could hear the sound of running. "They... They fled?"

"Looks like it..." Lone uttered in response. He seemed just as perplexed as she was. "Let's look around a bit. Maybe we can learn something about these... things?"

Soph loosened her grasp on his tail and asked, "Things?"

"Well," Lone readied his reply as he squatted down around the trees at the entrance to the forest before he continued, "They certainly didn't sound like humans. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that there's more to this world than first meets the eye... figuratively speaking."

Soph tried to not move far from Lone as she began helping him inspect the ground while making sure to utilise her prior – almost forgotten - experiences with tracking.

She then asked, "What do you mean? I know we're not on Earth anymore, but it can't be too different, can it?"

"I don't know. Magic and Foxkin are certainly new." Lone scratched his head in frustration a bit. “I thought it was pretty similar too, what with the singular sun and the coconuts but we have system messages here, humongous boars and children sized things that screech like… well, like monsters.”

“Huh… I… I don’t remember much about what Earth was like,” Soph admitted.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“How long did you spend in that dimension of yours? If you’re comfortable saying,” Lone asked respectfully.

She smiled a little. He was such a friendly person. His face turned red a lot, but he seemed to genuinely care about her and didn’t want to upset her with his questions even if he was dying to ask way more than he already did.

"I don’t really know exactly but… uh… about 600-years? Around that lo- Hey! I found some footprints I think!" Naturally, with her unconventional means of seeing, Soph was able to spot these tracks far quicker than Lone who only had his eyeballs to rely on.

‘Mana Sensing one, Normal Eyesight zero. Heheh, I’m winning.’ She’d never had eyesight before but she knew it was incredible being able to see everything in every direction for 15-metres so clearly.

“Great job, Soph. Show me where?” Lone asked.

‘Why does it sound so nice hearing him call me that? It’s so… warm,’ Soph thought in passing as she pointed a bit ahead and at the ground.

Lone crouched down and shined the light of the torch in the area she was indicating. "What the... Only four toes? And just like you said, they're tiny..."

"Should we chase them?" Soph asked.

She was personally against the idea, but if Lone thought it would be for the best, she'd do it.

Lone shook his head. "No. We still don't know their intentions, plus, it's too dark for me to see and fight in a worst-case scenario." He then put his free hand on Soph's shoulder and grinned. "I can't see in the dark like you, now can I?"

‘Mana Sensing two, Normal Eyesight zero.’ Soph blushed though she knew not why. She then asked, "So... what now?"

"Hmm, I suppose we should just go back to the beach, take turns to sleep, and then explore the island a bit more in the morning. Sitting around waiting to be attacked again won't do us any good, after all," Lone suggested after taking a moment to think.

"O-Okay..." Soph replied.

She was hesitant to confront the little... things that were observing them, but she had to stop being so cowardly and help Lone deal with the strange and frightening situation.

At least, that's what she thought was for the best. He was a rough but caring person and she genuinely wanted to stay by his side.

Not only because her power was directly linked to his but also since he had the most important thing of all – the fluff.

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

Lone sat in front of the campfire as he stoked the flames with a stick. He was keeping an eye on the small teepee that Soph was sleeping in, and a frown was on his face.

As he had said earlier, the two would take turns sleeping to avoid being ambushed. He counted themselves lucky that they hadn't been attacked on their first night when they were the least prepared.

"I wonder what they are? Disfigured humans... or maybe actual monsters? I really hope this world doesn't have monsters in it... If it does, I'm going to have to get powerful enough to keep both Soph and myself safe, aren't I?" he questioned himself with a sigh.

Many thoughts were swimming around in his head. While he was anxious and scared of the future, something about it all made his heart... race. It was like he had stepped foot into the game that he used to spend every waking second of his free time on, Paradox Online.

It hardly helped that Lone now owned both the body and name of his character, Lone Immortus.

He couldn't help but wonder if his friends, Neon, Sino and Zarrin, had noticed that he was missing and thought it was weird. What about his sister or estranged mother?

He chuckled a bit at the thought. "I hope they don't worry too much, Neon in particular... he always treated me like a brother, didn't he? The idiot. Sino can go fuck himself though. I still haven’t forgiven the cunt for being such a dickhead. Hazel… Hazel’s probably worried."

It was at this moment in Lone's verbal ponderings that a quiet noise came from Soph's teepee, and she crawled out of it before slowly walking towards Lone.

"Something wrong?" he asked her in a quiet and relaxed voice.

Soph nodded her head and sat down next to him. "I couldn't sleep... Do... Do you mind if I cuddle one of your tails? I think it’ll help..." she claimed in a bashful tone.

Without replying, Lone swished one of his nine golden tails and gently placed it on Soph's lap. She immediately grabbed it and hugged it closely. A smile crept onto her face as she rubbed the fur against her cheek.

Lone signed in frustration through the pain. She still couldn’t control herself and she was much too beautiful to be so casually physical with a loser like him. "Do you really like my tails that much?"

Soph's face flushed, but she didn't stop. "Yeah... They're so fluffy and soft... It’s like… like a furry animal, y’know?" she tried her best to explain.

"You're a strange girl," Lone noted with a light laugh.

Soph pouted. "I'm not strange. You’re strange."

"Haha, yeah, I guess I am." Lone found Soph's response to be fairly humorous.

"Ah, uh, not in a bad way? I like you. You’re nice,” Soph squeezed Lone's tail a bit harder.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

Lone grimaced slightly when he read this system notification. Before he had noticed it, Soph had placed her head on his lap, and she'd closed her eyes. Lone sighed and carefully put a hand on her head. Her hair was soft and smooth.

"Don’t just say something like ‘I like you’ when you look like that and when I feel so… confused. I guess it’s my responsibility to know that she was being literal, not romantic or anything stupid like that," he whispered to himself.

She didn’t respond since she was busy snoring lightly while she slept peacefully on his legs.

He chuckled. “This sucks.”

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

Lone opened his eyes when he heard a lot of rustling and loud movements. 'Shit! Did I doze off in the middle of the night? Great job Lone, really fuckin’ reliable!'

He looked around in a bit of a flurry only to see six small figures with green skin surrounding both him and the still sleeping Soph.

They had pointed ears, pitch-black eyes, were wearing nothing but rags and each one of them was holding a rusted or partially broken weapon of some sort.

Looking around carefully, Lone could see a slightly larger one of these things standing by the teepees as it closely inspected them.

Lone did two things immediately. First, he unsummoned the still unconscious Soph, and second, he grabbed the spear that was lying next to him before he sprung to his feet.

The green-skinned creatures were startled and began screaming at him.

"Fucking goblins... Fantasy goblins at that. Perfect. Just perfect. Does that mean this place is littered with them? Fantasy goblins are usually notorious for fast breeding. It’s unlikely there are only seven of these things on the whole island..." Lone mumbled as sweat began to form on his palms.

He was going to have to kill these monsters. If Lone knew anything about fantasy goblins, it was that they were cowards who were easily intimidated, but in a group, they were almost fearless and would stop at nothing to kill their prey.

He couldn't be sure that they followed the same habits of the mythical creatures from fiction back on Earth, but he wasn't going to stop and ask them.

Well, maybe one question couldn’t hurt. “You guys don’t happen to be here to ask for a light or something, right? ‘Cause I’m not really a smoker so I’ll have to disappoint you.”

“Ukkkkiihh!”

“Gikgikgik!”

“Uksukik kik!”

Lone smiled wryly. “Was worth a try.”