"I actually got a new skill on top of some level ups..." Lone muttered in disbelief as he looked at the system notification hovering in the corner of his vision. "I've had Massage Mastery for ages, so what's the with the new skill difference?"

Congratulations! The host’s passive skill [Massage Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 4. Congratulations! The host’s passive skill [Massage Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 5. Congratulations! The host’s passive skill [Massage Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 6. The host has developed the passive skill: Basic Massage Technique. Passive Skill: Basic Massage Technique Increases the host's ability to relieve muscle tension via a hand massage by 5%. Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

Lone chuckled softly as he continued to rub Sophie's feet. ‘So this skill is about tension while Massage Mastery is about pleasure? Good to know, I suppose.’

He continued to service Sophie's feet as he pulled up Crude Fireball's skill information. He wanted to go over its upgrades from having ranked up once more.

Active Fire Magic Skill: Crude Fireball

An incredibly rudimentary application of the common [Fireball] Fire Magic skill.

Due to its crudeness, 50 [-50] 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 moderately [down from substantially] increased due to its inherent flaws.

Cost: 2,500 MP [-2,500 MP] Mastery: Advanced Level 1

These changes were from both the rank up to intermediate and then advanced, hence why the numbers were double what they should be. The system was surprisingly flexible when it came to seeing stuff like this.

'Bog-standard, as I assumed. I hope it'll get a nice buff like Crude Lightning Bolt did at expert rank. Thicker and faster bolts, right? What would the equivalent for a fireball be? Hotter and faster? Maybe smaller but still just as powerful?' Lone's mind was racing as he worked his way up from Sophie's foot and started massaging her calves.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Basic Massage Technique] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Basic Massage Technique] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Basic Massage Technique] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4. Congratulations! The host’s passive skill [Massage Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 7.

As he soothed Sophie's body and helped her loosen her joints, his skill continued to level-up.

“Why Soph forbids you from doing this to her is a mystery to me…” Sophie purred. “It feels so good…”

“Keep talking like that and I’ll start practising a different skill instead,” Lone teased.

Sophie answered, “We honestly would not mind given how… loose we feel right now.”

Lone resisted the temptation. He still had more stuff to check, after all. And besides, she likely wasn’t being wholly serious.

He’d been working hard on including her in his and Soph’s relationship, he wouldn’t screw that up by rushing things when he had only recently started to break down her reservations.

By the time that he had reached her thighs with his massage, Lone finally looked at his newly-updated status.

Status

Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 74 Species: Foxkin Rank: G Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 9,100/9,100 [+400] SP: 7,424/15,950 [+680] MP: 1,230/16,010 [+3,900] Basic Stats Strength: 867 [+18] Vigour: 1,595 [+68] Dexterity: 595 [+102] Agility: 590 [+173] Vitality: 910 [+40] Luck: 72 [+4] Bonus Stats Charm: 77 Charisma: 46 Magic Power: 1,601 [+390]

Consciously trying to not annoy Sophie, Lone spoke with his inside voice. 'Fuck yes! Almost 400 Magic Power from only four overgrown spiders? Don't mind if I fuckin' do. Wow. They're pretty dextrous and agile too... The other stats are a wet disappointment, but we came here for more MP, so I hardly have the right to bitch.'

"Mmmm..." a sensual moan leaked out of Sophie's lips.

Breaking free from his thoughts, Lone looked up at her only to see a flushed face stared back at him with glazed over lifeless eyes. Sophie's mouth was parted as she panted lightly, and her body was trembling.

Putting on a cute frown, she slowly peeled her clothes off. "If that's what a massage feels like, then you should give us one more often," she said as she wrapped her arms around Lone's neck.

Pulling herself closer to him, she kissed him passionately. A trail of saliva separated them a few moments later before the girl said, "You’re right. We are just one person, are we not? Then treat us as you treat Soph. Take off your clothes."

Lone, while very clearly stimulated by her actions, decided to raise an eyebrow. "Here? In the living room? I know my fort’s pretty amazing, but what a waste of a perfectly good bed…"

He was just as keen as she was, in truth. She was far wilder than the tame Soph tended to be, and he’d be lying if he claimed to not have fantasized about this very moment many times before this.

It only made it better that he had discussed this with Soph a few times before and she agreed with him that the two women were essentially one and the same. Two girlfriends for the price of one. Who wouldn’t be chuffed at the thought of such a thing?

Sophie slapped him very softly. "Here, or nowhere."

Lone laughed and then held her by her thighs and spun her around to be sitting on his lap while he occupied the sofa. "I didn’t know you to be the kinky sort."

Grinning coyly, Sophie replied, "You are to blame for constantly teasing us. Were it not for your and Soph’s constant nagging, as well as for my attraction to you… well, this would never be happening."

"Glad to know you think I’m hot, haha. The feeling’s mutual" Lone replied as he began unbuttoning his shirt. "Well, gonna help me out here, or are you just gonna watch me strip as you sit on me?"

Sophie leaned in and licked his exposed neck. "We shall watch."

The next morning, Lone awoke to a mildly painful sensation. He opened his eyes to see that Soph was snoozing on his chest as she strangulated two of his tails.

"Why is it so easy to tell which personality is in control without even looking at your face or hearing you talk?" Lone asked himself more than the sleeping girl.

He very carefully slipped out of her grasp and placed a blanket over her. Looking outside through the fort's windows, Lone could see that it was still a little bit dark.

"Hmm. About four-AM? Maybe five," he muttered as he scratched his fluffy ears and started making breakfast after tossing some boxers and a tank top on.

About ten minutes later, still nude and now clutching a blanket, a very dreary Soph stumbled into the kitchen. "Food?"

"Hah, yes. Food. You're always so adorable in the morning, aren't you?" Lone commented as he served a freshly cooked omelette and two slices of buttered toast to her.

Picking up the fork and knife off her plate, she dug into her food very ungraciously. "You know I'm not a morning person..."

Lone nodded as he served his own breakfast, a simple bowl of cereal and hot milk. He sat next to Soph and grinned before saying, "Not a morning person, afternoon person, or, would you believe it, an evening person."

Soph frowned even despite the big bushy tail that had coiled itself around her waist and was now resting on her lap. "Sleeping is fun. And... And I feel safe sleeping around you..."

He felt his heart melt a little bit upon hearing that. ‘They’re so different. Sophie is such a carnivore while Soph couldn’t be any more of a herbivore even if she tried.’

"That's awfully sweet of you. I feel the same. You know, despite how much I bitch about how often you sleep, you do wake up when you have to, so that's a good thing," Lone complimented.

"I... I don't wanna be a burden to you," Soph claimed as she bit into her toast.

Lone nodded. "And you're not. You never have been nor never will you. Any burden you put on me is immediately countered by how helpful you are for my mental stability. That's a weird compliment..." Lone stroked his chin in thought for a second. "Anyway, you're great, so no need to push yourself outside of your comfort zone if you don't wanna. I don't mind you sleeping for longer if you want. In fact, I can go hunt the spiders myself if you want? I can just unsummon you then resummon you if I'm gonna die or something."

He shovelled some of his cereal into his mouth and savoured the sweetness for a second before he added, "We already know I can do that from range thanks to our testing, so if the spiders bother you like they do Sophie, and if you wanna laze about for a bit, feel free."

Soph smiled faintly but shook her head. "I... I wanna be helpful. I-I'm not scared of spiders like Sophie is, but she's still brave. She, um, she wants to help you today if that's fine?"

Lone nodded. "That's perfectly fine. Well, feel free to rest until about noon. I'm gonna start training my shitty Crude Boulder, Crude Waterball, and Crude Wind Blade today. I'll use each skill once then rest until my MP's all back, which should be around lunchtime."

Soph happily replied, "Mmm."

"We assume you are ready?" Sophie asked as she approached Lone in the fort's garden.

She was fully dressed from head-to-toe in her armour, meaning that she'd gotten into it all on her own for a change.

Lone gave her a curious look as he finished off his water and put the glass he was holding back into his Dimensional Storage. "Sure. I'm good to go. No quip about last night? You were pretty passionate."

"Don't remind us. We might get in the mood again. Let's just go and hunt the spiders, yes? We can talk of sex upon our return, though it is Soph's turn tonight, not ours," Sophie replied sharply.

Lone chuckled at that. "You two have a rotation system in place literally one day after deciding to join our relationship? Why am I less surprised than I should be? Whatever, haha, let's get a move on. The day ain't gettin' any younger."

The pair quickly made their way into the forest, and, naturally, with Sophie's unbelievably reliable Mana Sensing, killing an even 14 spiders as the night was descending upon them wasn’t much of a challenge.

Having almost 4,000 mana more than yesterday, as well as the fact that Lone's Crude Fireball only cost half the price now certainly allowed him to murder far more of the creatures as opposed to yesterday, which the foxkin was very thankful for.

Lone checked his notifications and his skill Crude Fireball, which had Ranked up once again, as he was retrieving the corpse of the Manasilk Spider in front of him.

Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 1. Active Fire Magic Skill: Crude Fireball

An incredibly rudimentary application of the common [Fireball] Fire Magic skill.

Due to its crudeness, 25 [-25] 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.

[New!] The fireball's base temperature and its size have increased by 0.25 times.

The MP cost to invoke this skill is slightly [down from moderately] increased due to its inherent flaws.

Cost: 1,250 MP [-1,250 MP] Mastery: Expert Level 1 Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 2.

'So I was right about it being hotter, but bigger? I guess that makes sense looking back on it now. That first goblin who hit me with it, wasn't his fireball big enough to cover my entire body?' Lone wondered as he straightened his back and cracked his neck.

"Lone, there's trouble," Sophie suddenly said as she grabbed his arm, ripping him out of his thoughts.

"What? Loads of spiders again?" Lone asked in a hushed voice.

"No, worse, people," Sophie said as she looked in the distance.

Following her gaze through the trees, Lone could barely see three figures, two shorter than the one in the lead.

From the looks of it, two pair in the back were children wearing rags while the leading figure was a young man wearing somewhat gaudy armour and his features looked almost... Asian.

"Is that a foxkin and an... elf? Her skin is a bit darker and crisper than the ones on the island, but those ears, while shorter, they are definitely pointy..." Lone frowned as he focused on the other child. "A red tail and crimson hair..."

Sophie glanced up at Lone's face with her head still covered by her helmet. "A friend of the twins, perhaps?"

"Maybe... The rags and metal collar, on top of those hopeless expressions, well, they aren't exactly the best of signs," Lone said.

Sophie frowned under her headgear very much like how Lone was. "Slaves?"

"So it would seem, and I've an inkling to who the man is..." he replied as he fixed his posture and made sure to stand slightly in front of Sophie.

Within a few seconds, the Asian-looking man, the foxkin girl, and the elf, were within a few metres of Lone and Sophie.

A scowl covering his expression, the man asked, "Why are you in this forest and who are you?" directly to Sophie, completely ignoring Lone for the moment.

Sophie kept both of her hands on the hilts of her shortswords as she answered, "We could ask the same of you."

The man's face noticeably brightened when he heard Sophie's crystal clear voice and almost melodic tone.

"That's fair, I suppose," he replied as he nodded his head. "I'm Tamiko Daisuke, or just Daisuke. This is Harem Member One," he said as he bobbed his head to motion at the elf, "and this is Harem Member Two," he claimed as he gestured to the foxkin.

A second of cold silence filled the air as the man narrowed his eyes. "Now, answer me. Who are you and why are you here?"