Six months had passed since Lone and Sophie had first met with the elves. In that time, Lone had only gone to visit the elves a total of two times. The first time was to help them repair their gear with his 'blacksmithing magic', and the second was to tell them that he wouldn't be returning in the near future.

The reason for this, was because the goblins had been furiously scouring the island day-in and day-out, seemingly looking for something. If what Lal'roh had said was true, then they were probably looking for Sophie.

Lone didn't have the confidence to take out the small armies that were patrolling the whole island without gaining the notice of the King, and that would spell nothing but death.

If Lone was going to try to wipe out the green menaces, he'd have to do it right.

In the meantime, he had turned his and Sophie's cabin into something of a fortress. Walls of stone surrounding a small keep big enough for the two of them. Pitfall traps and trenches encircled the ramparts while a moat was just past those. Even further than that could be seen several metal spikes that were firmly planted in the ground.

Six months had given Lone more than enough time to abuse his Creation Magic to the maximum of its potential. Of course, in that time, several of his skills had levelled up a lot as a result, namely, Logging, Woodworking, and his three illusion magic-based skills.

Passive Skill: Logging

A skill that allows the host to aptly handle wood and properly treat it before making it usable for crafting. Proficiency and speed will increase along with the mastery.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 8 [Up 7 levels!] Passive Skill: Woodworking

A skill that allows the host to craft items with treated wood.

Passively corrects some of the host's mistakes when crafting with wood to varying levels based on mastery.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 8 [Up 7 levels!] Passive Magic Skill: Illusion Detection

A skill that allows the host to detect spells creation via Illusion Magic.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 6 [Up 5 levels!] Passive Magic Skill: Illusion Magic Resistance

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

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

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 2 [Up 1 level!] Active Magic Skill: Illusionary Dome

A skill that allows the host to create an Illusionary dome around a specified location, hiding it from being perceived by ordinary eyes.

The dome shall be maintained for 3 days if it does not get disturbed by hostile magic.

Cost: 4,000 MP Mastery: Beginner Level 6 [Up 5 levels!]

Of course, on top of all of this, Lone had also gained two new skills during his tinkering with stone and metal.

Passive Skill: Stoneshaping

A skill that allows the host to aptly handle stone and properly treat it before making it usable for crafting. Proficiency and speed will increase along with the mastery.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 8 Passive Skill: Metalmoulding

A skill that allows the host to aptly handle metal and properly treat it before making it usable for crafting. Proficiency and speed will increase along with the mastery.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 5

Lone hadn't been able to get the relevant skills for crafting with these materials yet. He chalked this up the fact that he simply didn't know how to work with stone and metal. Either that, or he just hadn't done it enough yet to satisfy the system.

Another thing of interest was that his level rose as he did day-to-day tasks. Of course, it wasn't nearly as substantial as killing things was, but nonetheless, it was a welcome piece of information to figure out.

Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 25 [+8] Species: Foxkin Rank: I Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 560/560 SP: 2,500/2,500 [+150] MP: 4,800/4,800 Basic Stats Strength: 42 [+13] Vigour: 56 Dexterity: 120 [+56] Agility: 75 [+5] Vitality: 250 [+15] Luck: 53 Secret Stats Charm: 72 Charisma: 40 Magic Power: 480 [+72]

Lone had noticed that after two months, even if his stats were still slowly growing from killing wildlife, his level had frozen. It would seem he was at the bottleneck to the next rank. He hadn't asked the elves about this to avoid arousing suspicion since he was fairly sure it should be common knowledge, but Lone did have his own theories.

"So you're doing it today, Lone?" Sophie asked as she sat cross-legged on the floor on a rug while she held her feet and rocked back and forth playfully.

Both Lone and Sophie were in a quaint living room in the keep illuminated by glass-encased candles. Lone smiled before he took a seat on the sofa that he'd handcrafted. He placed a few of his tails within Sophie's reach before he spoke.

"Yes. I have time today, and we need to deal with these goblins soon. It won't be long before they stumble onto this little fortress of ours, and I really don't want to test to see if it really can withstand a full-on assault from them." Lone's voice contained a certain seriousness to it that forced Sophie to pay attention to his every word. Such was the power of his charm stat.

"Mmm, I understand that, but can't we just live here forever?" Sophie was used to a life of solitude. She had lived alone for six-hundred years in her dimension, so this new life in a keep with Lone was like paradise to her.

Over the past six months, Sophie had quietly listened to Lone as he told her his plans to leave this place and find more information so he could eventually meet the gods that had brought them here.

Sophie knew that Lone had left behind a life on Earth, but to her, there was nothing to be left behind. Right now, she was happy.

Lone sighed when he saw the expression on Sophie's face. "I know how you feel, Soph, I really do. I'm happy too, really. The time I've spent with you has been great. You're a fun person who's easy to get along with, but I can't just leave things as they are."

"Why not?" Sophie squeezed the tail in her arms tightly.

"I need answers. Why us? Why here? Why now? Will I be able to go back? Can I ever see my sister again?" Lone stood up and gently stroked Sophie's head. "Don't worry though, so long as you don't want me to, I won't leave you. Is that okay with you?"

Sophie brightly smiled. "Yup."

Lone let out a small laugh. "You're honest to a fault, huh? Well, let's go to the courtyard then. No point in further delaying this."

"Okay!" Sophie bounced to her feet and followed Lone out of the fort, all the while holding a couple of his tails.

Once they had arrived, Lone began to seriously practice with several weapons of various shapes and sizes. He was trying to find the perfect one for him. Sophie had already done this yesterday, and as it turned out, oddly enough, dual shortswords were her true calling.

This made little sense to Lone since historically, dual-wielding actually wasn't a serious school of sword fighting. It was impractical and clunky outside of simply sparring for entertainment. He could only assume that either his Growth Accelerator skill was faulty, or once again, the gods who had sent them here had done something further to mess with them.

Moving on to himself, Lone was fairly confident with the spear, but he wasn't going to ignorantly disregard all other weapons just in case he was actually more suited to another one. After all, he had only created his first spear since it was the most useful weapon at the time, not the one he was most proficient with.

Six hours later, Lone still didn't feel like any of the gathered weapons were right for him. He flopped down onto the ground and stared at the sky past the Illusionary Dome as he caught his breath and gathered his thoughts. "What am I doing wrong...?"

Sophie walked over to him and carefully dabbed the sweat from his brow with a towel. "Maybe the weapon you need isn't here?"

"But we have every basic weapon I could think of. Surely I'm not fit for a more complex weapon, am I? I was just a normal history teacher before we came here," Lone protested.

Sophie smiled. "Would a normal history teacher get sent to another world with an immortal little girl?"

Lone was lost for words. "You can be surprisingly sharp when you want to be, huh? Well, you're from a time when such weapons were more common. What would you suggest, Soph?"

"I don't know." Sophie blushed. "I only know about basic stuff like swords, spears and bows."

"Huh... Well, all I can really think of right now is maybe my character's weapon..." Lone said jokingly.

Sophie tilted her head. "Character's weapon?"

Lone chuckled softly. "It's a stupid weapon that should only work in games, to be honest, but there's no harm in trying at least. Another ten or so minutes like this, then I'll go at it again. I haven't made anything new today, so I can spare some mana for some more exotic weapons."

Sophie softly nodded her head. As always, she was impressed by Lone's wealth of knowledge.

As the sun was setting, Lone discovered that the weapon which felt natural to him was, in fact, a swordspear. A combination of a sword and a spear. Essentially, one end was a very wide and long spearhead, while the other was the entire blade of a shortsword. In the middle, these sharp weapons were joined by a cylindrical handle of sorts.

"No wonder the spear felt good, but not quite right. It was only half of the answer... Still, did that fucking god literally copy-paste my character? A swordspear is my most natural weapon? Ha-ah..." Lone sighed as he stroked his forehead.

"I'm still shocked that you can tell what weapon is best for a person, Lone. I couldn't tell the difference when I was using an axe instead of my swords," Sophie admired.

Lone just smiled wryly. "I think it has to do with my Growth Accelerator. I can gain any skill used on me, it seems, like the Illusionary Dome, and that also lets me see how good a person is at said skill."

"But we're not using skills?" Sophie tilted her head cutely.

"I don't fully understand it, but I guess the system is constantly checking people to see their potential for various skills, and my unique skill lets me see that check, or something? I dunno. Tell me if you have a better theory." Lone couldn't help but smirk as he saw Sophie trying her hardest to think about the matter.

"Hmmmm..." It was almost as if smoke was about to come out of Sophie's ears in frustration. "Nope. I can't think of anything! You're probably right anyway, you usually are. Let's go to bed! Thinking too hard made me tired."

"Okay, okay, just, be gentle with my tails, okay? I can still feel all the pain, even if I can resist it pretty well," Lone requested with a somewhat pleading look in his eyes. Sophie was unexpectedly rough some nights and incredible gently other nights. It was honestly annoying how inconsistent she could be.

"Sorry." Once again, the girl's cheeks flushed red.