Staring up at the ceiling of their bathroom as Lone lay in the bathtub, the man sighed. "That was really close... What the fuck was up with my tails though? I was sure I'd have to use Mental Destruction at the end there..."

He ran his hand through his newly-grown tail and smiled wryly. "Why didn't you guys let me know that you were sharp as fuck when I want you to be earlier, huh?"

With that question hanging in the air, Lone started checking his pending notifications one by one.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

Lone passed the time as the notifications for this single skill rolled past his eyes. A short while later, he was finally able to see the final notifcation for Poison Resistance.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Poison Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 2.

With that big one out of the way, he paused his notifications and looked at the skill's information. 'I wonder what kind of effect it gained? It must have gotten something beyond plain old resistance since it went up three whole ranks, right?'

Passive Skill: Poison Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist most types of poison.

All poison that the host is inflicted with shall be weakened by 60%.

The host has a 25% chance to ignore the effects of poison used on them.

The host has a 10% chance to gain permanent immunity to any poison used on them.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Expert Level 2

"Wow. Two effects? And both of them are great?" Lone was ecstatic. "It was always a small concern of mine, but now I don't have to worry about being, like, chloroformed in an ambush or something. I can just resist it then purge it with Basic Regen. Well... assuming the system views harmful drugs as poison too... Wait... if it does, does this mean I'm resistant to alcohol too?"

While that thought was at the forefront of his mind, the door to the bathroom creaked open and a red-eyed Soph pitter-pattered her way over to the tub. "Um... can I join you?"

Lone smiled. "Of course you can. I was getting sick of washing my own tails anyway."

"T-Thanks..." the girl shyly responded as she carefully eased herself into the bathtub and placed herself between Lone's legs and tails.

Lone wrapped a hand around her stomach and frowned internally. 'She was crying... I guess seeing me almost dead like that really affected her negatively... I wonder if Sophie was shaken up too? Oh well, it's not like I'll find out unless I ask. May as well just let her comfort herself with my fluff and keep checking my notifs. Asking now'll only make her feel sorry and awkward.'

And that was exactly what he did.

Bone armour, Basic Regeneration, Fear Resistance, Panic Resistance, Evasion Mastery, Swordspear Master, Polearm Mastery, Lightning Bolt, and Crude Fireball had all levelled up a great deal, so he checked out their individual skill information even if some of them hadn't quite ranked up. He had nothing else better to do as he waited for Soph to finish cleaning his tails, after all.

He still had two more notifications waiting for his attention, but he would check them in a moment, for now though, he just wanted to look at 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 a full suit of armour (does not cover the host's tails).

The host can create a shield at whatever size they wish outwards from any point of their body.

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. The cost of the shield will vary depending on its thickness and size. Mastery: Expert Level 4 [Up by 2 levels]

Considering that Bone Armour only levelled up once when Lone was being crushed to death by the presumed C-rank Blue Orc, he was quite happy to see that he'd gained two levels after his fight with the Manasilk Spider Queen.

Unique Skill: Basic Regeneration

A skill unique to the host, Lone Immortus.

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

Cost: 30 MP (per second per 1% increase in healing rate) Mastery: Advanced Level 9 [Up by 5 levels]

Again, no rank up, but it was only two levels away for reaching expert-level-one, so Lone was quite excited and equally terrified to level it up again; excited to see it become more powerful, and terrified to go through the needed harm to level it up.

Passive Skill: Fear Resistance

A skill that helps protect the host from their fear.

Reduces all fear the host experiences by 5%.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 7 [Up by 6 levels] Passive Skill: Panic Resistance

A skill that helps protect the host from panic attacks.

Reduces the chances that the host will experience a panic attack in a stressful situation by 5%.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 8 [Up by 7 levels]

Those two skills were certainly helpful, but as he grew stronger, he felt himself getting less frightened and panicked by dangerous situations, and regardless, he always had Mental Destruction to rely on when he really needed it.

When he considered that, he could only see these two resistances as somewhat useless. 'Maybe they're good against like, I dunno, magic that causes fear or panic? Or maybe they get nice effects after ranking up? Anyway, next.'

Passive Skill: Evasion Mastery

A skill that assists the host in their attempts to evade attacks.

Improves the host's subconscious instinct to evade dangerous situations by 15% [+10%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 2 [Up by 7 levels]

'Nice, but I expected that much. Man, it's so rare for a skill to get a new effect after only one rank up...' Lone thought as he moved onto the next set of skills.

Passive Skill: Polearm Mastery

A skill that allows the host to wield polearms with a basic level of competence.

All polearms used by the host will pierce and cut their targets 5% more easily.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 6 [Up by 5 levels] 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 30% [+15%] more easily.

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

Cost: 800 [-200] SP to perform the talent [Pierce]. Mastery: Advanced Level 1 [Up by 3 levels]

Lone squeezed Soph in joy, surprised the girl a bit and making her blush, but she kept diligently washing her fluffy kingdom, and a tiny adorable smile wormed its way onto her cute face.

'Nice!' Lone yelled internally. 'Thrice is insane... With that much power, would I be able to pierce that spider's flesh now maybe? I mean, it's not like I can check on a living queen, and I'd rather not poke a dead one with a swordspear... Still, I'm very happy with Swordspear Mastery's progress.'

Polearm Mastery still had a long way to go until it would be useful in Lone's opinion, but that was fine. After all, he was focusing more on magic now, wasn't he? Speaking of which, he pulled up Lightning Bolt and Crude Fireball's information.

Active Lightning Magic Skill: Lightning Bolt

A standard application of the lightning magic school where the caster focuses the element of lightning into a condensed bolt of pure lightning.

Cost: 2,000 MP Mastery: Intermediate Level 3 [Up by 2 levels] Active Fire Magic Skill: Crude Fireball

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

Due to its crudeness, 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.

The fireball's base temperature and its size have increased by 0.25 times.

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

Cost: 1,250 MP Mastery: Expert Level 10 [Up by 6 levels]

"I barely even used them," Lone mumbled as he rested his chin on Soph's head, making her yelp in surprise at the added weight, but she soon leaned her back into his chest and continued with her important work. His tails wouldn't clean themselves!

Lone continued to stare at his two magic skills with a grin on his face. "It won't be long now before Crude Fireball ranks up... Soph, Since the queen's dead, you don't mind us going back in the forest tomorrow, do you? I want to rank up my magic. Ask Sophie for me too, would you?"

Soph kept scrubbing and petting the fluffy limbs in front of her as she closed her lifeless eyes. A second later, she nodded. "If it's only tomorrow, Sophie doesn't mind. I-I... I'm happy doing whatever you want..."

Lone squeezed her a bit tighter and kissed the top of her head. "You're too cute sometimes, you know that, right?"

"S-Sor- Um, thanks," Soph corrected herself mid-apology. She knew Lone didn't like it when she said sorry for no good reason, so she was actively trying to stop doing that.

Lone nodded and finally looked at his two new notifications.

The host has developed the racial skill: Tail Spears. Congratulations! The host has successfully gained enlightenment and ranked up. The host is now an F-ranker.

Immediately, he checked the new skill's details as well as his newly-updated status.

Racial Skill: Tail Spears

A skill unique to the race of foxkin known as Golden Foxkin.

This skill allows the host to turn their tails into extremely sharp and hard weapons that can easily pierce most Rare-quality items or B-ranked beings.

The skill is only usable once a day, and it only lasts for 5-minutes.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Huh... So my tails did that because I'm a Golden Foxkin? But that hardly explains how I developed the skill. Was my willingness to use my tails as weapons all that was needed, or was there more to it? I should ask this Matriarch Lossa person when I meet her. Also, Rare-quality items? Items have qualities? But you can't see their info with the system, right? Maybe there's a skill for that,' Lone thought as he moved away from the topic and instead looked at his status.

Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 99 [+25] Species: Foxkin Rank: F [Up from G] Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 11,910/11,910 [+2,330] SP: 4,113/19,900 [+2,640] MP: 4,322/38,460 [14,020] Basic Stats Strength: 1,128 [+221] Vigour: 1,191 [+233] Dexterity: 1,232 [+407] Agility: 1,440 [+521] Vitality: 1,990 [+264] Luck: 98 [+19] Secret Stats Charm: 77 Charisma: 46 Magic Power: 3,846 [1,402]

'Insane... This is just from four normal Manasilk Spiders and their queen? What rank are these stats equivalent to? C-rank? B-rank? How strong am I now?' Lone had a million questions, however, only one of his concerns could be answered immediately.

"Soph, I ranked up again, so did you earn a new power this time, or is it a bust like when I became a G-ranker?" Lone asked with hope evident in his tone.

Soph bowed her head shyly and held a tail timidly to her naked body as she replied, "Yeah. I got another one..."

"Really?" Lone was both surprised and happy. "What one?"

"Um, Minor Time Control, but, em, it's not any good..." Soph said in a mouse-like voice.

Lone raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"Um... Well, I can only use it once a year, and if I use it, my mana will get sealed for a whole month, meaning I'll be blind... And, uh, I can only go back two-hours. No more, no less, just two-hours exactly... It's useless, right?" Soph wanted any of her skills besides Armour Creation, or, of course, Minor Time Control. For once, her luck wasn't on her side, it would seem.

Lone felt his heart ache upon hearing how depressed Soph's voice was. 'She's really upset by this, isn't she?'

He kissed her head again and said, "No, it isn't useless at all. What if I die? Can't you save me now? I'll immediately see that you're actually blind, ask what happened, and then you can tell me how I died, can't you? Think of it as a last resort. Sure, it's not trainable practically speaking, but it has so much potential... It's kinda nuts."

"Lone..." Soph's chest rose as her heart beat wildly within it. "I... I don't want you to die... And, um, I... I uh... I love you..." she whispered in embarrassment.

Lone was a bit startled but then laughed softly. "I love you too."