Sophie slowly opened her eyes and felt something comforting softly caressing her head. Looking up, she saw Lone smiling down at her.

"It seems that our positions have reversed from yesterday morning, huh?" he teased.

Sophie realised that she was laying with her head on Lone's lap. So she quickly got up and scrambled away out of embarrassment.

"Hahaha, you can be pretty endearing sometimes, huh?" Lone joked as he got up and brushed the sand off from his trousers.

Collecting herself a bit, Sophie noticed that she was wearing the clothes that Lone had made for her, and she had a puzzled expression on her face.

Seeing the girl's confusion, Lone said, "You started sleeping like a log as soon as you got in the bath. I left you there after I emptied it of water and I washed our clothes before I made a few towels for us while you were out."

Sophie's face turned red. "L-Like a log?"

"Yup." Lone nodded. "Exactly like a log."

"Uuuuu...." Sophie wanted to bury her head in the sand and just disappear.

Lone laughed. "Anyway, you were out for at least twelve hours, so I had plenty of time to set up some more stuff for us. I'm glad no goblins came to find us. I guess we're lucky, huh?"

"Y-Yeah," Sophie muttered as she looked around.

While she was sleeping, it would seem that Lone had started to build a small log cabin. As of now, there was only a foundation set, but nonetheless, Sophie was still impressed.

Her campfire which she had built herself now had a row of stones encircling it and it looked far more permanent than Sophie's hastily made one was.

The last thing that Sophie noticed was that there seemed to be a hole in the ground that was about as wide as a head and there was a cross-shaped stick poking out of the sand with a strange looking roll on top of it.

"Lone, what's that for?" Sophie asked as she pointed at the aforementioned hole and stick-roll combo.

"Hmm?" Taking his attention away from the tree that he had started to saw, Lone grinned at Sophie. "It's to avoid doing that in the forest and wiping with leaves. That hole runs to the ocean. It was a real bitch to make, but definitely worth it."

Stepping closer to it, Sophie could see that the interior of the hole was lined with wooden planks to stop the sand walls from caving in, and at the bottom, Sophie could see some water. "Oh, that."

"Yeah, that. It kinda sucks that we still have to do that since I'm not a human anymore and you used to be immortal, but what can you do, huh?" Lone lamented as he returned his focus to the tree.

Sophie wasn't particularly bothered by her body's necessary functions, but regardless, she nodded and walked towards Lone. "Did you build this all by hand?"

"Mmm, more or less. I used to be interested in engineering before I became a history teacher, so I know the basics, though still, this would be a complete mess if I hadn't learnt two skills while I was first putting the foundation of the cabin together. After all, engineering and architectural design are two very different things, even if they are slightly related to one another." Lone's explanation went in one of Sophie's ears before quickly flying out of the other.

"Engineering? Architectural design?" Sophie tilted her head to the side adorably as she held her chin.

Lone laughed. "I keep forgetting that you're from the middle ages."

"The middle ages?" Sophie was even more confused.

"It's what we call your time period. From the fifth century to the fifteenth. You really didn't do anything after you killed God, huh?" Lone asked as he put down his self-created tools and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"No... I just slept most of the time away... Sorry..." Sophie, once again, ended up apologizing almost as if on reflex.

Lone frowned. "It's not something you need to say sorry for."

"M-Mmm." Sophie still seemed to feel guilty for being such a burden on Lone.

She felt like he was wasting his precious energy on her by explaining things that were apparently common knowledge to himself. Of course, Lone didn't think the same as she did.

To change the subject, Lone smiled and asked, "Wanna know what my new skills are?"

"Yeah!" Naturally, Sophie would be interested in how Lone was progressing since he was the only person that she had spoken to in nearly eight whole centuries. Everything Lone said or did, mattered to the small girl.

Grinning, Lone explained his two new skills to the now excited girl.

Passive Skill: Logging

A skill that allows the host to harvest wood 5% more easily and 5% more skillfully.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 7 Passive Skill: Woodworking

A skill that allows the craft with wood 5% faster and 5% more skillfully.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 5

"Amazing..." Sophie said in pure admiration.

Lone grinned. "Right? I should be able to finish a half-decent house for us in a day or two if I really put in the work."

"That sounds really nice." Sophie's face was easy to read.

The little girl hadn't experienced the cold nor had she needed to bathe or look after herself when she was an immortal being living lackadaisically. Abruptly regaining her mortality reminded her of how important it was to have a proper place to care for yourself.

Suddenly, a thought crossed Sophie's mind. "But Lone, what about the goblins? Won't they just destroy the house once you've finished it? You know, with more of those boars or something..."

"I thought of that," Lone declared a bit smugly.

He pointed to the wooden foundations that were half in the sand and half in the dirt before he said, "Do you see that all of the trees I've knocked down were in a circle around there?"

"Yeah. Was that on purpose?" Sophie didn't know anything about construction, so of course, she couldn't see any special meaning to cutting down the trees in a particular way except for perhaps efficiency, assuming you cut the ones closest to each other and yourself.

"Yup." Lone calmly nodded his head. He knew that Sophie was fairly ignorant on a lot of subjects, but he could clearly tell that she wasn't stupid and that she had a desire to learn. This ignited the teacher inside of him.

"It's pretty simple, actually. My plan is to add a bunch of self-made spikes and force them into the earth and the sand, surrounding our house," Lone said.

Sophie tilted her head to the side and held her chin again.

Seeing that she didn't fully understand, Lone continued, "I'll use my Creation Magic for the spikes since I don't want to risk fucking it up if I do it by hand. I also plan to make a string alarm system, again, with magic."

Sophie still seemed confused. "How will we get inside the house?"

"Good question, but also a stupid one," Lone said as he laughed lightly and stroked Sophie's head. "You can teleport, can't you?"

"Ah." Sophie looked embarrassed.

"It'll be a good form of training for you to strengthen that ability. I imagine that you can teleport farther and more times the more you train it. Most skills seem to work off the principle of refinement, though you never know, it might be possible to create sub-skills from our unique powers," Lone suggested.

"I never attempted anything with my powers before I met you, so it'd be fun to try," Sophie admitted as she scratched her cheek playfully.

"Wouldn't it just?" Lone smiled.

Shortly afterwards Lone set up the string perimeter and was able to complete a third of the spike wall before he ran out of MP.

It was getting late, so he had decided to stop his work and cover the roof of the cabin that now had some walls with large leaves. It was makeshift, but it would be good enough for one night's sleep before Lone could further refine it.

"Lone, what are we gonna do about the goblins? I'm worried..." Sophie's eyes were a bit hazy as she bit into her dinner, some roasted boar meat.

"I was thinking about making a map of this island first," Lone replied.

"A map?" Sophie wondered if such a thing was needed.

"Yeah. I don't know anything about goblins, but I'm assuming that they have a nest or a home or something. My plan is to map out the island and find out exactly where that base is via the process of elimination," Lone explained.

Sophie's dull grey eyes sparkled. "You can write maps?! I remember that was a very hard thing to do properly back when I was still young."

Lone stared into the girl's lifeless eyes that seemed to somehow exude so much emotion. 'It's hard to remember that she's blind sometimes... I wonder what the world looks like to her with that Mana Sensing of hers?'

"Lone?" Sophie cocked her head to the side cutely.

Unconsciously, Lone ended up laughing. "Sorry. I was lost in thought. I've never actually drawn a map before, but I've read thousands of them, so I'm fairly sure I can get a skill from the system and work it out along the way."

"T-That's amazing... I haven't learnt any skills since we got here..." Sophie mumbled a bit dishearteningly.

Lone smiled warmly at Sophie's pure and undisguised feelings. She really was terrible at hiding her emotions, though Lone doubted that she was trying to do that anyway. "It's okay," Lone said as he gently rubbed Sophie's head. "I have the Growth Accelerator skill, so it's unfair to compare us. I'm sure you'll get skills that are just as useful on your own."

"Y-Yeah! I'll try my best!" Sophie's enthusiasm warmed Lone's heart.

In the depths of the forest on the island, a force stirred.

An ancient temple of some sort was illuminated by a single torch held by a goblin who was running as fast as his short legs would take him. he was rushing to the heart, where his king was surely waiting.

A few moments passed before the goblin was in a grand chamber filled with bodies, equipment, jewels and gold. This room also hosted several large beings, Hobgoblins. The small goblin counted at least six.

At the very centre of this room, on a throne of wood and bone, a massive goblin sat as he feasted on an entire boar. This goblin was so huge that it wouldn't be hard to mistake him as an Ogre.

A Goblin King. A rare breed that was a one in a million chance of being born. He was the ruler and god of this island. None stood above him, all bowed beneath him.

His blood-red eyes peered at the intruder. Without hesitation, the young goblin began making indecipherable noises.

"Ikik! Kik! Gakhikikiii!"

The Goblin King smiled, showing his fang-like teeth. "Human... female? Hutututututu..."

Insidious thoughts filled the monster's mind. Perhaps the heaven's had finally smiled upon him once more? A chance to create more Hobgoblins had finally appeared.