‘I do patch up my own clothes to save on money, or well, used to, but, hmm… What would be useful for a woman her size that’s also comfy and can fit her smaller forms?’ Lone wondered, considering the goblins first and foremost.
Whatever he created, it needed to be light and easy to move in but not eye-catching in the least. ‘Maybe a camo army suit but without the armour or padding? It’d be baggy on her other forms, but that can be easily controlled with a belt or two and some rolling up, right?’
Lone only had surface-level information on military and survival tactics of the common day and age. He frowned as he looked down at Soph who was just staring at him curiously with her lifeless eyes.
‘That’s… She’s gorgeous but even I think that’s a little bit creepy. Well, anything’s better than just the jumper that barely covers her, I suppose,’ he thought with a sigh.
Lone then closed his eyes and focused on his magic. He crossed his fingers and hoped he wouldn’t overuse his MP again. The pain from doing that the first time wasn’t something he was exactly seeking.
‘Cotton, wool, some synthetic blends of the two, regular stitching and a camo pattern. Fuck. How is clothing dyed? Uh… it’s dipped and bonded with solution or something, right? The dye attaches to the fabric at a really minute scale, giving the dye permanence… Ah, fuck. I hope that’s right. I’m just guessing here,’ Lone prayed as he also free-balled Soph’s three dimensions, height, arm length, leg length and shoe size. ‘Ah, also, it already exists on Altros. That’s important.’
Without requiring a chant just like the first time he had used the skill, unlike The Summoning Room and Mental Destruction, a system message appeared in his mind.
Many such items exist on Altros.
The host has a great understanding of the item and a basic understanding of its construction. 500 base MP cost. 250 MP has been consumed to compensate for the lack of knowledge.
750 total MP has been consumed to create the items: [Camo Survival Gear [Tailor-made for Sofia Vladimirovich]].
“Fuckin’ oosh!” Lone exclaimed joyfully at having not even come close to using up all of his MP this time.
A second later, a neat pile of folded up clothes appeared in his hands smelling of flower-scented washing powder.
He wrinkled his nose. ‘That’s not ideal. I’d have preferred a neutral scent for safety reasons. Oh well, gift horses and mouths and whatnot. No headache is a win.’
Lone carefully handed the camo outfit to Soph who was sniffing carefully at the clothes that had appeared out of nowhere.
He smiled a little and said, "Put these on, please, and take that jumper off. I'll look the other way, so let me know when you're done, okay?"
She blushed a little but nodded her head, though a bit reluctantly. "You swear a lot and I still don’t really get why this is needed but, uh, okay."
Lone turned his back and faced the forest as he began to think up what kind of clothing he would like to wear.
After all, his wardrobe still only consisted of his teaching outfit, a simple white shirt, and some formal trousers.
A simple white shirt that was stained with blood and ripped all over the place while his formal trousers were caked in dried sand and brown mud.
At least his shoes were in decent condition though he’d rather not even think about his underwear right now. Swamp-ass was likely the least of his concerns.
'Definitely something cool, but also practical. And, like, 15 pairs of boxers. Fuck, maybe even 30 if they’re cheap MP-wise,” He thought. ‘Gotta make more underwear for Soph too. Does she need a bra? She’s small but they are definitely, well, there… How would I ask something like that without it being weird?’
He’d never had a serious girlfriend before and any of the female friends he had, he certainly hadn’t talked to about underwear.
Lone supposed he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. For now, it could wait.
‘I have enough mana for six more outfits, so three for me and two more for Soph if mine use the same amount of MP. That should also leave me with enough mana in case I need it later. After all, we never know when we'll be ambushed by those goblins again... I’ll just make one set for me to start though. Boxers come first,' he thought decisively.
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"Lone..." a quiet voice called him from behind, so naturally, Lone peered in Soph's direction.
He turned and said, “Done? Goo- Wh-why are you naked?”
He quickly turned away from the woman who was without clothing. The woman without clothing that he was finding himself more and more attracted to as the days passed. “I can guess. No experience with modern clothes, right?”
A soft, “Mmm,” met him in response.
“Got it. Um. I’ll talk you through it all?” he said in an unsure manner. Like it or not, this would likely become a core memory for all of the wrong reasons.
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“I kept telling you, they go under the trousers…” Lone said emotionlessly as he stared into the ocean.
Soph blushed furiously. “How was I supposed to know it wasn’t a hat?! Undergarments were not so small back when I wasn’t in my pocket dimension.”
“The belts and zippers I 100% understand, but fuckin’ panties?” Lone asked more himself and the powers that be than Soph herself. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if you had just stopped asking me to put them on for you.”
“What’s wrong with that? It took so long because you refused to!” Soph cried in indignation.
“You should only let someone you intend to marry see you naked. There’s no way I was gonna dress you,” Lone refuted.
Soph went silent at that. “That… That makes sense. Sorry. I… I haven’t talked to anyone but myself for so long… Social norms are… hard? We come from different times and I can barely remember the norms of my own time.”
Lone flopped down so his back was lying on the sandy beach. He closed his eyes a breathed in deeply. “That’s fair. More than fair.”
“Did I look good naked?” Soph asked softly.
“What? What kind of question is that?” Lone asked back.
“I can’t see myself and… Well, you saw me. I was just curious…” the strange centuries old woman explained.
Lone sighed. “I’m not answering that.”
“Why? Am I… Do I look weird?” she asked, insecurity dripping from her voice.
“No. You definitely don’t look weird. Can we talk about anything else? You look nice now in that outfit. You look like the drill sergeant everyone wants to make fun of for being short but it turns out she’s the biggest hardass on base,” Lone deflected.
Soph nodded a little, “Huh… Um, what’s a drill sergeant?”
“Like a teacher for the army,” Lone answered. He then yawned and said, “Sleep?”
Soph nodded again. “Yeah. I’ll, uh, make sure not to fall asleep this time when I need to be looking out for those things.”
“That’d be great,” Lone replied.
Lone ignored the words Soph mumbled to herself after that. “If I don’t look weird naked… do I look pretty? And marriage…”
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Thankfully, neither one of them failed their guard shift duty and they weren’t attacked in the middle of the night nor in the wee hours of the morning.
Lone got out of his teepee and stretched, cracking damn-near every bone in his body. “Ahh, that feels godly…”
His nose was then assaulted by a rotten smell. “That corpse… I need to get rid of that…”
He walked over to the thing, gagging and holding his nose all the while. Maggots had popped out of its stomach and were eating it from the inside out.
Lone quickly used his Dimensional Storage on the monster. It disappeared along with a good chunk of the smell though the maggots, flies and other critters remained.
He backed away before any of them could touch him. He wasn’t afraid of bugs really but he’d just gotten to a decent point of cleanliness with his new clothes. If he could avoid maggots and the like, he would.
He also took the time to store Soph’s old jumper that was lying next to her teepee. It wouldn’t be getting any use now, after all.
Once that was done, Lone cleaned up the camp and spent the time waiting for Soph to wake up on making a dagger for her.
She had gone to sleep almost as soon as he had woken up so he had a few hours to tinker.
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About three hours later, Lone saw Soph stumble out of her tent looking like death itself.
“You really don’t do well with power naps, huh?” he asked jokingly.
She didn’t respond and just stumbled her way towards him, collapsing onto his lap and grabbing a tail when she was close enough.
“Haha, a grown-ass woman but you act like a kid when it’s convenient to you, huh?” Lone commented.
“I got you a present, by the way,” Lone said.
Soph’s ears perked up a bit though she stayed mostly motionless. “… What present?”
“A knife. A proper knife. Granted, it’s made of wood but it’s pretty damn fuckin’ sharp,” Lone explained as he grabbed the weapon that was lying next to him.
He then passed it to the sleepy Soph. “Be careful with it, sleepyhead.”
“I’m Soph to you, not sleepyhead…” she said as she inspected the blade. “Nice… dagger.”
“Knife, not dagger, but thank you. It took a lot of thinking to make without draining all of my MP,” Lone said proudly. ‘Feels like it’s not her ideal weapon, huh? This ability of Growth Accelerator’s is weird…’
“Anyway, after a snack to perk you up, I want to do something as a team if you’re willing. Something a bit dangerous,” Lone said seriously.
It was something he’d been considering ever since yesterday’s attempted ambush. It needed to be done, so he figured sooner would be better than later.
He would do what he planned alone if he needed to but if Soph agreed, it would be a far less difficult endeavour.
She was quite important, after all since her Teleportation power was incredibly powerful if used properly.
“What?” Soph asked, still incredibly groggy from only having three hours of sleep.
“We need to hunt down some of the goblins,” Lone said seriously. “The quickest way for me to get stronger is by using my skills and by killing stuff. The same goes for you since your levels are tied to mine.”
Soph scrunched up her brow hesitantly. She slowly got off of his lap but still held onto a tail as she asked, “D-Do we really need to? Can’t we just… I dunno… hide?”
Lone smiled with care. “I’m not forcing you to do anything. If you don’t want to join me, I’m going to have to put you back in The Summoning Room for safety.”
Seeing the fear creep into her eyes upon hearing those words, he winced a little. “I’m, uh, not trying to threaten you or anything. I can make you some candles and matches to lessen the darkness and maybe some paper and a pen to pass the time by writing or drawing? Can you write?”
“I can’t…” Soph closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. “Y-You’re going to hunt them no matter what?”
Lone nodded. “I have no choice. We have no choice.”
“T-Then I’ll come with you. Anything is better than that place,” Soph answered.
Lone couldn’t help but admire her courage though her phobia of the dark bothered him a lot, especially since she was blind. ‘I need to get her comfortable with The Summoning Room eventually. It’s the most secure way to protect her. Tossing her in and hoping for the best though seems incredibly unwise… An issue for another time, I guess.’
“Thanks, Soph. I really appreciate it,” he said. “So, how about some boar jerky and coconut water before we go exploring? How does that sound?”
“Mmm,” the girl replied.