“You were right,” Sophie said as she slumped down on the sofa, exhaustion marring her complexion.

She didn’t even bother taking off her armour, Lone noted. She was just sitting there, panting heavily.

“That’s not a good thing,” he replied as he glanced at the seven confused women in the middle of his and Sophie’s living room.

“No, it is not, but they are safe for now. We suspect they would have just been offered up as ‘sacrifices’ once more had we allowed them to remain,” Sophie suggested.

Lone nodded. “Probably. Selfish fucks.”

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. “I get it to an extent. Most people are fuckin’ terrified of death, but to abandon your own to a fate even worse just to avoid it? That’s beyond inhumane.”

At this point, the women had come to their senses and very light hints of life radiated out of their eyes.

The one whom Lone had healed first, the one suffering from a black eye prostrated herself in front of Lone and Sophie.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed.

The other women quickly followed suit.

‘Huh. So healing them wasn’t worthy of thanks but sparing them from being tossed back to the wolves is?’ Lone commented internally.

He exhaled deeply and got up. “None of that shit. We don’t need thanks for doing the right thing.”

Sophie frowned but she did nod to his words slightly.

“What you could do though is perhaps let us know where to find the Goblin King. If we’re to kill him, that would be pretty handy info to have on hand,” Lone stated.

The women stopped thanking them and seemed hesitant. Eventually though, one of them did decide to give him the information he was seeking.

30 minutes of walking in an almost straight line had led Lone and Sophie right to the temple that was supposedly a dungeon.

The elves had explained that it used to be an ancient elven ritual site of some sort before all elves migrated to the world trees.

Its existence was why this island was their exiled lands. Negligence and a lack of care had slowly turned the place into a dungeon.

At this point, Lone had already revealed his incredible healing abilities to the women as well as Soph and Sophie’s Teleportation.

Making it known that they knew nothing of dungeons didn’t concern Lone in the slightest.

Apparently, they were concentrated zones of mana that amplified the strength of any monsters occupying them.

They were actually somewhat common on the continental scale and often coveted by kingdoms and empires as exceptional places for a good challenge to break through rank bottlenecks.

There was another reason though: artefacts. Each dungeon had an artefact within them and these tended to be items of great power.

Even ones from lower ranked dungeons could directly boost a person’s combat strength by a whole rank.

Sometimes even skills were given upon completely destroying a dungeon, though that rarely ever happened since the skill gain wasn’t a guarantee and it would be a waste of a good hunting ground.

Lone certainly didn’t need additional reasons to completely massacre the goblins but now he had them anyway.

Regardless, the two of them had slowly been circling the building while being extremely cautious so as to not arouse suspicion.

Once they had lapped the entirety of the temple, they made a hasty retreat to the treeline.

"So, how many are in there?" Lone asked.

Sophie's voice was full of concern, uncommonly enough. "We counted 642 normal goblins. Our Mana Sensing wasn't strong enough to reach the depths of the temple, so there is more than likely more of them."

"No special ones?" Lone needed to know how many Hobgoblins there were at the very least.

Also, knowing the king's magic power in comparison to their own and that of the mages would be useful information to have.

Sophie shook her head. "None. They are either all further in, or they are outside of the temple for now."

Lone nodded. "Okay. Guerrilla tactics it is."

"Guerrilla tactics?" This was a new phrase that Lone hadn't informed her or Soph of thus far, so he understood her confusion.

He smirked underneath his helmet. "We hit 'em hard and fast. Really fuckin’ hard and really fuckin’ fast. Deal as much damage as we can, then retreat. Rinse and repeat until they're all dead. They likely have no women now, so the never ending well of green devils will, eventually, dry up. We have time. They don't."

"Brutal." Sophie chuckled softly. "We like it."

"Well then, let's get started, shall we?" Lone questioned rhetorically as he cracked his neck and took their weapons out of his Dimensional Storage.

"Alone... All alone..."

“My forces are gone… Dead. Not a single one lives… Not even my precious warriors or the weak magic ones. All gone…”

Footsteps entered the mighty king’s ears, footsteps that were slowly approaching his grand throne room.

“Why? Have they come to kill me too?... Fine. I welcome it. My horde lay dead and here come the killers. Hah. What have I, all-powerful king of the island, of my island, to fear?”

A violent pulse from the object in his hand awoke him from his anger momentarily.

“I know. I must protect you and I will. Let me think a bit selfishly for now though…”

The orb calmed down slightly when the king poured his unending rage into it.

The intruders quickly entered his sight when they approached his throne, his grand, grand throne.

They were two in number but small in stature. One had tails and strange-looking armour while the other was... a female…

“Hope! Hahah! Of course the world does not abandon the unstoppable me! The female human from before! It must be! With you, I can create a new family! A new army! A new horde! I can recapture the elves with the warriors your womb will bear for me!”

"Ah, so this is the king? Fuck me. He's even worse than I had imagined. Revolting creature," the tailed person said as he glared at the king.

"What? Insult me, puny man? I will crush you, feast on your flesh and pillage the female! She will bear my new army! Her insides will remember my shape whether they want to or not! Kikikikiki!"

He wasn’t joking. No others could compare to him in size. It was one of the many reasons he was so much more than everyone else, than everything else.

The next second, the king found himself on the floor and all he could feel was a throbbing pain in his skull.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. More so even than when the orb was the one expressing its anger.

“How?! I didn't see the attack, so… how…”

"Wow. Yeah, his rank must be high. Two Mental Destructions didn't kill him," Lone mumbled as he cut the Goblin King's head off. "I was a bit surprised that a disgusting pig like him knew how to speak... Still, that was stupidly easy."

Sophie snorted from his left and silently thanked her helmet for hiding her furious blush.

It was obvious to her that Lone wanted more information from the creature once he knew it could talk, but the moment it mentioned her and the things it planned for her... he just instantly killed it without a shred of mercy.

Sophie coughed softly before commenting, "Your Mental Destruction is unfair. Although, we are also surprised at how easy that was."

She bent down and got a closer look at the Goblin King. "Ah. Deflated stomach. He was starving, it seems. We suppose that makes sense. We did leave the place alone for a few days after we'd confirmed all of the others were dead. Animals still roam the burnt landscape he created though. Perhaps he feared leaving his throne. A vain king."

Lone looked shocked. "I never even thought of that... I guess goblins are too intellectually lacking to stockpile rations then?"

"Perhaps," was Sophie's lacklustre reply.

"Well... Let's get out of here after we loot the place," Lone said as he began shovelling the golden, silver and bronze coins that littered the room into his Dimensional Storage.

Sophie just nodded and did her part. She gathered up everything on the edges of the room to the centre.

When she was dragging the Goblin King's body to the pile of goodies, she noticed a small black sphere roll free from his grasp.

She dropped his massive body and picked up the curious sphere. "Hey, Lone."

"Hmm?" Craning his neck to look at her, Lone shot her an inquisitive glance.

Trotting over to his side, she showed him the orb. "What's this? It's full of magic. Deep black magic. We couldn't tell from a distance, but now that we're holding it, we're fairly confident that something is sealed inside of it."

"Heh..." Lone took the ball from Sophie's outstretched hand and looked at it closely. "I wouldn't know. I'm bad with that stuff for now. It's a real shame I can't copy your unique skills. It could be the dungeon's artefact though."

"What should we do with it? We are getting a bad feeling from it. It feels... Not evil, but... Hmm... Wrong? Almost like it should not exist," Sophie noted.

Lone just shrugged. "It's sealed, right?"

Sophie nodded again.

"In that case, I'll just pop it in my Dimensional Storage... Artefacts are meant to be really useful, after all." He tried to do as he had said but he was still clearly holding the thing.

"... Or not. I can hold onto it for now. I'll research it when we reach a mainland of some sort. Who knows what it’s meant to be able to do? Sound good to you?" he asked.

Sophie turned her back on him and returned to gathering the loot. "Sure. If it ends up biting you in the rear though, do not blame us."

Lone sulked as he started storing all of the bits and bobs that had been collected by Sophie thus far. "It should be fine. I can't really throw it away, now can I? It's probably magic, after all."

‘Indeed,’ Sophie thought.

Magic was one of the poor man's many, many weaknesses.

The pair had soon returned home, and Sophie had returned control to Soph after giving her a very frightening warning.

Lone was lounging in the bedroom since it was already dusk and it'd been an exhausting day. A new type of notification had blocked his vision as he and Sophie were teleporting back home. Now that he was comfy, he took a second to inspect it.

Congratulations! The host has cleared the [F-rank] Dungeon: [Goblin King's Temple of The Ancient Elves].

That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a simple message to confirm that he had destroyed the place by killing every single last occupant.

He sighed and decided to take a look at all of his skill and status gains from when he and Sophie had begun their guerrilla warfare.

Of course, he'd checked them before going to fight the Goblin King, but he wanted to confirm a few things.

First, he called upon his status and asked the system to display all of the gains from when he and Sophie had rescued the elves.

That was a fun little trick he'd discovered recently, so now, he could recap certain growth periods easily.

A very handy function. Although, neither Soph nor Sophie saw the value in being able to do this.

Sadly, he was alone in his love for the system and the growth it represented.

Status

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 49 [+13] Species: Foxkin Rank: H Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 4,500/4,500 [+3,020] SP: 3,891/11,060 [+6,410] MP: 7,643/11,900 [+3,940] Basic Stats Strength: 310 [+157] Vigour: 1,106 [+641] Dexterity: 445 [+241] Agility: 333 [+207] Vitality: 450 [+302] Luck: 63 [+7] Bonus Stats Charm: 77 [+5] Charisma: 46 [+6] Magic Power: 1,190 [+394]

"The charm and the charisma adds are new, but I still haven't gained any new levels even after killing the king... 49 had to be the cap for the next rank then… So is it normal to gain stats despite not ranking up? I'm inclined to think the answer's a big fat 'no' since that isn’t how it works for normal people," Lone mumbled to himself as he slotted his hands under his head.

"Hmm... Will this give me good or bad attention when we reach civilisation?" Lone just shook his head lightly and moved on to his skills.

Unique Subskill: Bone Armour

A subskill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.

Allows the host to use the unique skill [Basic Regeneration] to push the host's bones outside of their own body and use them as a weightless shield.

The strength of the bones will increase with mastery. The strength of the bones will also increase the more that they're broken and damaged.

The host can create [New!] a full suit of armour (does not cover the host's tails).

Cost: None to invoke (30 minute cooldown). Drains MP to recreate rapidly or to heal at varying levels depending on the speed of the recreation or the severity of the damage being healed. [New!] The cost of the shield will vary depending on its thickness and size. Mastery: Expert Level 1 [Up by 3 levels]

No matter what he did, this skill would not even budge past expert-level-one after getting there.

Both Lone and Sophie reasoned that the attacks of the goblins and Sophie were simply too weak to justify levelling the skill up even though they did increase the strength of the bones themselves.

Unique Skill: Basic Regeneration

A skill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.

Grants the host the ability to passively heal injuries at a moderate rate. The healing rate can be increased in exchange for mana.

Cost: 40 MP (per second per 1% increase in healing rate) Mastery Intermediate Level 10 [Up by 6 levels]

"Hmm... Maybe I should have let the king hit me once or twice?" Lone asked himself before he laughed out loud. "What a stupid idea. I'm not a masochist. It'll rank up when it ranks up, I suppose."

Passive Skill: Swordspear Mastery

A sub-skill of the skills, [Sword Mastery] and [Spear Mastery] which is critical for swordspear-users and passively allows for better handling and control over swordspears.

All swordspears used by the host will cut and pierce their targets 15% [+10%] more easily.

[New!] Grants the talent [Pierce]. Say the word [Pierce] and the host shall perform a piercing strike with twice the host's maximum force on the desired area.

Cost: 1,000 SP to perform the talent [Pierce]. Mastery: Intermediate Level 2 [Up by 9 levels]

"A lovely little boon, that Pierce talent... It's a shame it stopped levelling after about 200 kills. I wonder if the system decided I wasn't learning anything from the gobs anymore? Damn it. Even more questions," Lone grumbled.

He then checked his Illusionary Dome skill, but, sadly, it hadn’t levelled any further. Perhaps because it had been in the same spot for over a month now. He didn’t know.

"I guess that's everything, Huh? Real shame that I never got hurt. Would have been nice to rank Physical Pain Resistance up to advanced... No, no. Control yourself. Don't fall down the path of depravity, Lone," he said to himself jokingly.

The last thing he wanted was to become a masochist.

At that moment, the door to the bedroom creaked open. "Soph?"

Peering up, Lone found himself swallowing as the sight of the girl before him entered his eyes.

She stood there awkwardly twiddled her fingers, but more importantly, she was only wearing a very risqué set of underwear that Lone had made for her as soon as they had formalised their relationship.

For the ‘just in case’ scenario, of course. It made her adult body look… better than he had intended, honestly.

She was inching closer and closer to the bed all while a roaring blush was strewn all over her face.