Lone and Sophie tread carefully through the thicket as they approached the goblins. As soon as they were roughly fifteen meters away from the creatures, one of the ugly green-skinned beasts turned its head in their direction and it began sniffing wildly.
'Shit! Even if we were careful, I forgot about our smell! We haven't washed since we got here!' Lone thought rapidly.
Not wanting to lose the advantage they currently held, Lone decisively threw his wooden spear at the goblin who was furiously sniffing the air as it looked in their direction.
With a pain-filled cry, the monster slumped over with the spear impaling its chest. Luckily, Lone's new Foxkin body afforded him the strength and clear vision he needed to hit his target, otherwise, he feared that he might have completely missed and not only lost his weapon but wasted it as well.
Lone, focusing his mind, used his Creation Magic to get himself a new spear, draining half of his MP, before he turned to Sophie. "Remember what I said earlier," he whispered as he looked at the other nine goblins who were frantically searching for the source of the spear. "Your teleportation is our strongest weapon."
"M-Mmm..." Sophie weakly nodded her head.
Lone gently placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "I want you to teleport right next to the two in the back, see them?"
"Y-Yeah..." Sophie replied hesitantly.
"Grab them and teleport into the air as high as you can before letting go of them and teleport right back to me, okay?" Lone requested with a quiet and encouraging tone.
Sophie still wasn't confident in herself, but she could feel Lone's pure desire for her to break out of her shell, and she didn't want to disappoint him. Sophie couldn't explain why she felt this way, but all she knew was that she wanted Lone to be proud of her and compliment her.
Steeling her resolve, Sophie used her Teleportation skill to move behind the furthest two goblins. She was able to successfully grab on to one of their arms, but the other goblin saw her and dodged before he lunged at her with his rusted dagger.
Scared and slightly panicked, Sophie decided to teleport into the air with the one goblin she had managed to grab. It screamed and wriggled wildly as the two of them began to fall through the air.
Regaining some of her calm after seeing the monster freak out, Sophie teleported straight up two more times. She and the goblin were now forty-five feet in the air and the goblin was already foaming at the mouth from the physical shock of being teleported when its body wasn't used to it.
Sophie let go of the goblin's arm and teleported herself back to the ground after using the skill three more times. She returned to the spot where she and Lone were hiding before only to find that Lone wasn't there any more.
Looking where the other eight goblins should have been, Sophie could see a wound covered man surrounded by five corpses and three goblins were circling him as they bared their fangs and snarled at him. These goblins were shaking with fear and were mere seconds away from fleeing.
Lone ripped a dagger our from his abdomen and tossed it towards one of the three remaining monsters. It shrieked as it dodged, but it was that moment that Lone was waiting for. As soon as the creature moved to the left to avoid the flying dagger, Lone thrust his spear forwards and pierced the unguarded goblin right through the eye, killing it instantly since the spearhead also managed to bury itself into its brain.
Ignoring the broken sword that another of the goblins had jabbed into his ribs, Lone pulled his spear out of the now dead monster and turned around to face the two remaining goblins.
Upon seeing his crazed face and undying body, these two goblins finally succumbed to their fears and they turned around in an attempt to flee.
Lone used that opportunity to throw his spear at one of them, which successfully went through the creature's leg and impaled it to the ground, while he charged at the other and tackled it to the floor. With both of these monsters now subdued, Lone shouted, "Soph, come over here. I want to test something!"
Carefully stepping out of the bushes Sophie approached Lone and looked at the goblin that was madly scratching and clawing at him in a panic. "Wh-What do you need, Lone?" Sophie asked with uncertainty clouding her voice.
Lone was struggling to hold the surprisingly nimble goblin as he replied, "I want you to check your status, make sure you know what your level is, and then kill these two. You should get at least one level if you can earn levels by yourself, if you can't, then that means that there's a chance that your level always mirrors mine."
Sophie didn't understand how that was important, but she nodded regardless. Walking over to Lone and the thrashing goblin, Sophie took out her combat knife after checking her level and she carefully ran it along the goblin's throat, depriving it of its life.
Lone dropped the creature's body and watched as Sophie made her way over to the heavily bleeding goblin, the last survivor of its group. Sophie put the monster out of its misery quickly.
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With a heavy expression on her face, Sophie checked her status and level again before she spoke to Lone. "It didn't change."
"That sucks," Lone replied. "Oh well. At least we know now."
"Mmm," Sophie replied as she walked back to Lone's side and began helping him remove all of the small things that had entered his body like morsels of dirt and tiny twigs so his body could continue its self-recovery.
With that out of the way, Lone finally took a moment to look at the system notifications which had flashed across his eyes during that tense battle.
Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1.
Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 2.
Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.
Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.
Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Mental Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.
'So Intermediate is the next stage after Beginner? I wonder what difference does it make? I kind of felt like I was healing a bit faster and I could ignore the pain from my injuries a lot more easily... I guess that's the difference in the levels, huh?' Lone commented internally.
The host has developed the passive skill: Spear Mastery.
Passive Skill: Spear Mastery
A skill that allows the host to wield spears with a basic level of competence. All spears used by the host will pierce their targets 5% more easily.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1
'Finally an offensive-based skill...It's not much, but hopefully, it helps me enough to make a difference...' Lone thought to himself before he asked the system to show him his status.
Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 17 [+10] Species: Foxkin Rank: I Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 560/560 [+90] SP: 281/2,350 [+150] MP: 129/4,080 [+50] Basic Stats Strength: 29 [+5] Vigour: 56 [+9] Dexterity: 64 [+10] Agility: 70 [+8] Vitality: 235 [+15] Luck: 53 Secret Stats Charm: 72 Charisma: 40 Magic Power: 408 [+5]
'So the non-physical stats didn't change at all except for magic power? It's still hard to tell if the increases are based solely on my actions or if I'm absorbing stats from the monsters...' Lone concluded with a bit of disappointment. He wanted to know as much about this world and how it worked as soon as possible to ensure both his and Sophie's continuous safety.
"Well, Soph, we should probably go back to the beach now. I'm a bit exhausted and I have a pounding headache after using almost all of my MP," Lone said with a short laugh.
Sophie nodded immediately. Clearly, she too was worried about Lone's condition. She was finding it difficult to remove the image of him with all of those wounds and weapons poking out of him. That sight reminded her far too much of her own past, and it only made her feel sorrow.
With that thought in mind, the two gathered the makeshift and broken weapons of the dead goblins before they returned to their small camp at the island's beach. As soon as they returned, almost immediately, Lone fell asleep from his physical and mental fatigue.
Left with no other choice, Sophie lifted his head from the sand and rested it on her lap as she carefully stroked his fluffy hair. Indeed, there was obviously no other choice than to do this. There was no way that Sophie would have been able to drag Lone to his teepee. Yes, most definitely no other choice.