After such an intense fight, Lone decided to leave it at that for the day. Besides, he had a lot of notifications to check up on.

As much as his body ached after being abused so badly by both the goblins and their mages, his mind was beyond eager to see how he had improved and to check what new skills he had gained.

The thought of gaining new magic was just so mystical in his eyes.

Sophie didn’t have the MP to teleport them back, sadly. Still, the effects of the lightning-water magic combo in his body had mostly subsided.

It was certainly a bit of a slog tracking through the woods while trying not to alert any roaming goblin packs but he managed with Sophie’s help.

‘Honestly, Soph and Sophie are such a godsend,’ he thought though he didn’t mean it literally given her history with the big man upstairs.

Since their forced arrival on this island, her Mana Sensing had increased in level from beginner-Level-1 all the way up to intermediate-level-2.

She had told him the rank up had resulted in its range of 15 metres going up by a frighteningly large factor of ten. She could now see 150 metres in any and all directions.

The sheer volume of improvement astounded Lone. It really put into perspective for him that her Mana Sensing was, in fact, also a unique skill.

If it continued to grow at a factor of ten, just how far would she be able to see eventually? It was a frightening thought.

This change had only occurred yesterday according to her. Once again, Lone was unsure if she was fast to rank up her skill, or slow.

He needed so much more data and from so many more people to confirm if she was normal or actually a genius by this planet's standards.

Anyway, since she could inform him of any approaching goblin groups well before they reached them, the biggest worry when returning home was how his entire body ached.

It was only when they had reached their hidden fort that his muscles finally stopped seizing up. Basic Regeneration had done its job, it would seem.

Lone collapsed onto the bench in the fort’s courtyard with Sophie taking a place next to him.

He knew what she wanted so he brought out a fresh set of clothes for her and began helping her get out of her heavy armour.

At the same time, he began looking through his notification log.

Congratulations! The host's subskill [Bone Armour] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 2.

"Huh. Bone Armour went up after just that one skirmish? Why?" Lone asked aloud.

Sophie glanced at him as she slipped her helmet off.

"Is that special?" she asked curiously.

Lone shook his head. "Not really, it's just, it took us roughly an hour per level before, so I'm kinda curious why it levelled up after only getting hit a few times by the shitty weapons of those goblins and that magic. Don’t get me wrong, the magic fucked me up but it went right through my bone armour and left it practically undamaged."

Sophie shrugged. "Maybe because they wanted to kill you while we were simply training? Intensity could induce heightened growth. Soph and we have certainly gained more of our levels during combat than outside of it."

"Maybe..." Again, he needed more data. For now, he moved on with his notifications.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Swordspear Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Again, only a single level, but that made sense. He had only personally fought five of the regular goblins as well as the Hobgoblin. Sophie had done most of the grunt work, honestly.

'Well, this at least confirms that the strength of the target means nothing. Otherwise, with my Growth Accelerator, I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten two or three levels for the Hobgoblin alone. Still, need to verify this at some point,' he thought.

Next in his log came a string of new skill notifications.

The host has developed the passive skill: Water Magic Resistance. Passive Skill: Water Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Water Magic.

Water Magic used on the host will be weakened by 5%.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

A simple enough skill. The water magic used on him actually hadn’t been all that bad. A bit cold, but harmless on its own. It was the clever usage with the lightning magic that been the real kicker.

The host has developed the active water magic skill: Crude Waterball. Active Water Magic Skill: Crude Waterball

An incredibly rudimentary application of the common [Waterball] Water Magic skill.

Due to its crudeness, 100 lines of Ancient Magic Speech must be chanted either verbally or mentally to invoke this skill. These lines will automatically be spoken or thought by the host when the host intends to use this skill.

The MP cost to invoke this skill is substantially increased due to its inherent flaws.

Cost: 5,000 MP Mastery: Beginner Level 1 Congratulations! The host has developed an affinity for Water Magic.

“Definitely gonna find a way to use this to fill up the bathtub,” Lone thought out loud.

Sophie gave him a funny look before she shook her head. She was out of her armour at this point and took her change of clothes off of him before leaving the courtyard.

Lone smiled awkwardly before deciding to just go back to his notification log.

The host has developed the passive skill: Lightning Magic Resistance. Passive Skill: Lightning Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Lightning Magic.

Lightning Magic used on the host will be weakened by 5%.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

‘This should prove to be super useful if we find more gobs who know fuckin’ lightning magic. What a surprise that was…’ he thought with a sigh.

The host has developed the active lightning magic skill: Crude Lightning Bolt. Active Lightning Magic Skill: Crude Lightning Bolt

An incredibly rudimentary application of the common [Lightning Bolt] Lightning Magic skill.

Due to its crudeness, 100 lines of Ancient Magic Speech must be chanted either verbally or mentally to invoke this skill. These lines will automatically be spoken or thought by the host when the host intends to use this skill.

The MP cost to invoke this skill is substantially increased due to its inherent flaws.

Cost: 5,000 MP Mastery: Beginner Level 1 Congratulations! The host has developed an affinity for Lightning Magic.

'Sweet!' Lone exclaimed in the privacy of his mind.

Something about magic just sent his heart fluttering despite the fact that the crude spells seemed pretty useless considering their long casting times and absurd MP costs.

Still, he’d always loved the idea of magic and myths.

He could think of some practical uses for the Crude Fireball and Crude Waterball spell such as his bathtub idea.

Crude Lightning Bolt though? He kinda wanted to go full Palpatine and fry some goblins to a crisp.

"Still, crude, huh? They honestly seem really… unrefined. Is it goblin-exclusive magic or something? Is it possible for me to develop the non-crude versions of the spells?" he wondered.

"Hmm... I should check my magic affinity sheet at some point too if I wanna experiment. I bet I can learn new spells for the magic types I'm more attuned to pretty fast," Lone concluded.

With his magical skills out of the way, he, once again, returned to scrolling through the log that remained in the corner of his eyes.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 9. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 10.

'Damn. One more level until another rank up. I wonder how it'll change at advanced-rank?' Lone thought.

He currently only had one skill at the rank beyond intermediate: advanced. It was his subskill, Bone Armour.

He was genuinely curious to see how a resistance would change at that point. Would it gain more effects? Would it simply gain larger percentages? How much would said percentages increase by?

This was all very interesting to the former teacher.

Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 3.

'Only one level when Physical Pain Resistance got two? I guess there was more pain than actual damage. Either that or self-healing damaged nerves is the same as self-healing skin in Basic Regeneration's eyes,' Lone commented internally as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

With his notifications out of the way, all that was left to inspect now was his status.

Status

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 36 [+8] Species: Foxkin Rank: H Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 1,230/1,480 [+470] SP: 3,891/4,650 [+1,040] MP: 6,543/7,960 [+1,440] Basic Stats Strength: 153 [+71] Vigour: 465 [+104] Dexterity: 209 [+26] Agility: 126 [+16] Vitality: 148 [+47] Luck: 56 Bonus Stats Charm: 72 Charisma: 40 Magic Power: 796 [+144]

'Lots of strength, vitality and magic power with a decent chunk of vigour... So much magic again basically confirms I steal a portion of the stats of whatever I kill. It has to be a portion too otherwise, with only 1,440 MP between both of those mages, then there’s no way they could have cast their crude magic,' Lone speculated.

‘Even if they have it is at a high tier and the cost is pretty low, it had to start at beginner-rank. So yeah, gotta be a portion,’ he reasoned.

He got up and stretched his back. "I need a bath.”

The following day, Lone and Sophie had decided to move further inland for this hunt this time in the search for more magic-wielding goblins.

After all, he needed tens of thousands of MP to freely cast the garbage crude magic he had obtained. He wouldn’t get that MP from normal goblins, not without killing hundreds of them.

They'd never gone this far into the island’s forest before, but with how well the last battle had gone Lone felt more confident about their chances.

Lone pushed his way past a particularly thick bush and found himself to be standing in an open field. In the distance, he could see what looked like broken-down huts or houses of some sort.

It was hard for him to tell at this distance.

"Do you think that's where the elves lived before the goblins attacked them?" Lone asked as Sophie got up next to him.

She looked at him like he was asking the stupidest question imaginable. "How would we know if you do not?"

"Right," he sighed. "If I ask you a question, and you don't know the answer, just pretend it was rhetorical."

Sophie giggled a little. "We wonder what she sees in you? You are handsome and very cute sometimes, but other than that..."

"I ask myself the same question at least four or five times a day. I can be pretty worthless at times," he responded.

Sophie seemed a bit off guard by Lone's bluntly honest answer, so she averted her gaze from his.

Lone moved past it and said, "Anyway, let's get closer. I want to know if there's any gobs there."

Sophie nodded stoically in response.

The pair slowly approached the buildings and managed to safely get behind one of the slightly taller ones.

At this distance, it was clear to Lone that they had once been beautifully crafted homes of wood that put the aesthetics of his ramshackle fort to shame.

Even in their current run down and mostly destroyed state, the buildings still looked absolutely beautiful.

"Sense anything?" Lone asked his armoured companion.

Sophie frowned. "Two Hobgoblins and about 50 goblins. Four have staves."

She then pointed in the direction of the largest building in the village. "They are in what we assume was the town hall. In or near it."

Lone narrowed his eyes. Right she was. Just outside of the building she’d pointed out could be seen some patrolling goblins.

Sophie’s frown deepened. "A lot of the ones inside are surrounding taller figures. Maybe elves? It is hard to tell. They are just on the border of our senses so it is a bit unclear."

Lone's face became one of concern. "Putting two and two together is pretty easy."

Sophie agreed. "It is. Soph is crying. We have sealed her away temporarily so she need not see more of how cruel the world can be. What is the plan here?"

"I'm thinking you go in first and teleport the elves away. I fuckin’ hope they aren't elves and are just gangly gobs, but it's best to assume the worst," Lone said. “Can you tell the gender, by the way?”

Sophie nodded. “All female as far as we can tell.”

Lone’s expression darkened. “Thanks for sealing Soph. Yeah, we need to focus on saving the elves. I don’t really trust Rewal’eh but no one deserves what’s going on in there.”

"Okay. We can do that. There are seven that we can detect. What about after that?" Sophie pressed.

"Once that's done, you try your best to kill the mages. Be quick. I'll use Mental Destruction on the hobs then we work together to wipe out the normal gobs," Lone said.

Sophie raised an eyebrow from underneath her faceplate. "You're not going to endure the magic?"

Lone shook his head. "Too many. Too risky. They might finish chanting before we're done with the normal gobs. 50 isn't a small number."

"54 to be specific. We were rounding down," Sophie admitted.

"54 then," Lone echoed. "Got any more amendments to make?"

"Yes, we do," Sophie replied. "We are not going to kill the mages. We will cripple them and keep an eye on them. We are sure you would like to obtain all of their magic in the case that they have anything you have not already stolen, would you not? We can keep them crippled and out of action until the ordinary goblins are eliminated."

Lone scowled. "Can you do that? I don't want you getting endangered for my sake."

Sophie immediately answered, "We can. Mana Sensing is far more useful than mere eyesight is. It won't be an issue."

"Okay." Lone stiffened his grip on his weapon. "I'll trust you. The second - the fuckin’ second - things go south, I'm unsummoning you and going on a rampage. Provided I can instakill the two hobs, I bet I can somehow win against the rest in a do or die situation."

"Mmm," Sophie replied uncharacteristically meekly.