Lone had spent the rest of the afternoon after the boar's attack on fixing their sleeping huts. After he had finished doing that, he sat down on the beach and watched Sophie skillfully cut up the boar's hide as she avoided damaging the beast's meat.
'There's no way that we can eat all of that before it rots... Should I use one of my remaining powers to store it somehow? If I do, then I should make a skill that will be useful in the long-run as well... hmm...' Lone thought to himself.
A few moments passed before he realised something. 'Wait, I haven't even asked Sophie what abilities she has. I'm so stupid. Maybe she can preserve the boar somehow.'
"Hey, Sophie," Lone called out to the focused girl.
She turned her head and looked at him with a curious expression on her small face. 'She's really cute... Pretty, even... What are you thinking, stupid?! You're a teacher for Christ's sake... though she is way older than me...'
Coughing to distract himself from his dangerous train of thoughts, Lone asked, "Do you mind telling me what powers you have? It might come in handy knowing what we're both capable of."
Sophie finished cutting up the piece of hide that she was holding and she then put down the knife that Lone had made for her before she walked over to him and sat down.
"I can only use two of my powers..." Sophie said in a very low and upset voice.
She was afraid that she might disappoint Lone since, in her opinion, she couldn't be very useful regardless of what he wanted. Noticing her mood, Lone laid one of his many tails on her lap and let Sophie squeeze it.
"That's okay. Just tell what you can and can't do, please," Lone replied in a very calm and soothing voice. Clearly, he wasn't going to be mad at Sophie if she couldn't use her powers properly or if she didn't own the ones that he wanted.
He looked at her and had an idea. "Why don't I go first? I have six powers. The Summoning Room, which I can put you in or out of at will. I'm not sure how useful this one is, to be honest, but it can keep you safe in a worst-case scenario."
Sophie's eyes trembled a little bit. "I don't like that place... It's dark and... lonely."
"I'll make sure to never put you in there for too long, okay? Only if I really need to. I don't want to see you getting hurt or dying on me, okay? We don't know what or who is living on this island besides us," Lone clearly voiced his opinion.
"Mmm... I know. I trust you," Sophie smiled sweetly in response.
"Okay," Lone said before he continued explaining his skills, "I have this really useful ability called Creation Magic that you've already seen. It made my spear and your knife."
Sophie nodded and didn't say anything, so Lone listed his next skill. "The other two you've seen or aren't relevant. Basic Regeneration seems to use up my MP to heal my body automatically, and Growth Acceleration apparently lets me learn anything that isn't a unique skill like our powers are."
Lone sighed and then added, "The final two are my species, and the skill I used to kill the boar. I'm not sure why those stupid gods made me a Foxkin. I used to be a human before coming here..."
Sophie quietly mumbled to herself, "I love your fluffiness... so it's not a bad thing..."
Lone didn't hear her and detailed his last ability. "Mental Destruction was used to kill that creature. It lets me destroy the mind and soul of anything a few ranks higher than me so long as it isn't immune to magic and I can only use it a limited amount of times per day based on my rank. For now, that means once a day."
"That seems really powerful..." Sophie said with a bit of an awed expression on her face. None of her powers were nearly as dependable as that when it came to dealing with her enemies. If they were, then she'd have had no trouble killing God six-hundred years ago...
"Yeah. I made it after you stabbed the boar. I also have more chances to create another unique skill, but I'm not going to use them until I need to," Lone explained. "So, what about you? What powers do you have besides teleportation?"
"... The only other ability I can use is called 'Mana Sensing'. It lets me detect magic passively for no cost, but apparently even though I'm a Cosmos-ranked being its power is limited to my rank, which is the same as yours and at I-rank I can only sense magic within a 15-feet radius of myself," Sophie said as she cuddled Lone's tail tightly.
Lone ignored the pain in his fluffy limb as he asked a question. "What do you mean, 'Cosmos-ranked being?'"
Sophie shook her head. "I don't know. It's what the blue messages told me I was back when I got most of my powers six-hundred years ago."
"Huh... I wonder if it's something special?" Lone held his chin in thought.
"I dunno..." Sophie replied meekly.
"What about your other eight unique skills then? What are they and do you know how to get them back?" Lone questioned as he laid down and put his hands behind his head.
Sophie lightly nodded and then told Lone all about her other eight abilities. "My other powers are..."
She had a lot of interesting ones, but conversely, a couple of useless ones.
To list the ones Lone liked the sound of, they were; Void Walking, Immortality, Unique Magic: Barrier Magic, Phasing, Minor Time Control and Immunity To All Negative Effects.
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Sophie actually didn't know what any of these powers did, because, according to her, she never once used them after gaining them, and now that they were sealed, she couldn't see their details via the system. The uses of most of them were obvious from their names, but it was still mildly frustrating for the small girl.
She wanted to be helpful, but not only were most of her powers sealed, she even had two useless ones. Body Manipulation and Armour Creation.
Sophie knew exactly what Body Manipulation did as that was one of her first skills and one she used regularly upon gaining immortality. It allowed her to age her body by five or ten years and swap between each form freely, but nothing else.
Armour Creation was obviously a terrible skill since Lone had his Creation Magic which was essentially an upgraded version of it.
Lone rubbed Sophie's head since she seemed depressed. "Don't worry about it. Most of your skills sound insanely powerful. You said you know how to unlock them, right?"
"Mmm. The system stated that I'll get one new power every time I rank up, which means one new power every time you rank up," Sophie said with a slightly more cheerful tone in her voice.
"Ranking up, huh? I wonder how that works... It probably has something to do with our levels, doesn't it?" Lone asked rhetorically as he looked at his status.
Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 5 [+4] Species: Foxkin Rank: I Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 410/410 [+90] SP: 2,100/2,100 [+100] MP: 4,000/4,000 Basic Stats Strength: 22 [+6] Vigour: 41 [+9] Dexterity: 53 [+15] Agility: 61 [+21] Vitality: 210 [+10] Luck: 51 [+1] Secret Stats Charm: 71 [+1] Charisma: 39 [+1] Magic Power: 400
"Eh? I levelled up? I guess killing that boar didn't only give us some hide and meat..." Lone mumbled as he thoroughly inspected his status sheet.
"So, SP is linked to Vitality and HP is linked to Vigour? Good to know. I wonder why Magic Power was the only stat that didn't level up... There's so much we still don't know about this system..." Lone's lack of knowledge annoyed him.
Sophie, who was sat next to him, let go of his tail and smiled. "Thanks, Lone. I feel better now. I-I'm sorry none of my powers are very useful right now... but I'll finish up preparing the boar and we can eat something better than coconuts, okay?"
"Sure, and don't worry about your powers. It's fine. I'll look after you. Also, don't look down on yourself, Soph, your skills don't define you as a person," Lone claimed as he got up and grabbed his spear, presumably to train in preparation of whatever was waiting for them in the forest.
''Soph'? That's the first time anyone's ever given me a nickname... It feels... nice,' Sophie thought to herself as she resumed her work on the beast's corpse.
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The hours quickly passed and it was now sundown. Lone hadn't gained any skills, but he did feel like his handling of the spear was far more accurate and deadly than before, which was a good improvement as far as he was concerned.
He had decided to use one of his four remaining powers to create a storage space, much like his character from his online game used to have.
Unique Skill: Dimensional Storage
A skill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.
Grants the host the ability to store things.
Anything stored will be frozen in time and will not lose its temperature nor its quality.
Has no limit to how many things may be stored within it.
Cannot store sentient beings.
Cannot store anything intangible.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Master Level 10
With this, he and Sophie could safely continue to eat the boar for a week or two without having to worry about food poisoning. It also alleviated any future troubles regarding luggage and their possessions.
Sophie had just finished cooking some of the boar meat when she called out to Lone. He sat down next to her at a small campfire the girl had made all by herself.
"Lone... I can sense a few creatures with magic in them watching us from the forest. They're hiding behind the trees," Sophie suddenly told him in a hushed voice. "What do we do?"
"Are they humans?" Lone replied as he wrapped a tail around Sophie. She seemed to love his fluffy limbs and they helped keep her calm, so he had no issue covering her in one.
"I don't know... They're really small... smaller than me," Sophie replied as she used one hand to eat while the other caressed Lone's fur.
"Let's finish eating. If they don't do anything by the time we're finished, I'll confront them. If things go badly, I'm going to unsummon you, okay? I know you don't like that place, but we have no choice," Lone ordered in a worried tone. Clearly, he cared deeply about Sophie's safety.
Sophie squeezed his tail and nodded her head reluctantly. "Okay."