Lone: The Wanderer

Book 2: Chapter 41: Feeling Lost and Sly

It made sense that Magic Power was the stat to gain the most since the Balor Demon Bats used sound magic, primarily. Still, he felt bitter.

Lone was, however, very pleased overall. While the numbers looked big, it was definitely hard to really show off their potential when he couldn\'t apply the stats themselves. Still, they helped.

Vitality and Vigour especially. Each point in those extended how long he could directly fight for, which the most important thing right now when facing the Balor Demon Bats.

"Good news, we presume?" Sophie asked as she stretched a bit and put her towel down, apparently finished with cleaning his body.

He grinned at her and said, "Yeah. You can see it too, right? 34 whole levels. I can use Ungrounded for a full minute now as well, which is pretty kickass. I also got a lot of MP which I\'m sure will be helpful eventually."

Sophie gave him a distrusting look. "Only if you stop using that orb to force your way past that silly seal of yours."

"Hah, only if the love of my life stops getting corrupted by Darkness," he replied with a chuckle. "How about you? Any gains of particular note from the levelling?"

"Give us a moment to check. In the meantime, take a bath, would you? We love you but you do reek of absolute sin," she said as she sat down on the tent\'s floor. "Also, change our sheets when you\'re done. We do not wish to be on the ground like this. The rocks underneath are bumpy."

Lone nodded. "Yes, Ma\'am. I was going to regardless, but thank you for the kind reminder."

She mimicked his nod. "You are welcome."

Lone smiled as he summoned a bathtub and some hot water from his Dimensional Storage. He may have overstocked on the latter before leaving Krieg Moor.

He still had easily a thousand litres of the stuff, stolen straight from their steamforged bathtub in the Rusty Sprocket.

He carefully got in the tub. It was a bit of a tight fit since while it was large, their tent was not a hotel room. As he began scrubbing himself down, Sophie spoke once more.

"We gained a little over 3,000 Magic Power. Not unexpected considering how attuned to magic we and Soph are. That will be helpful in the coming attacks, we are sure," Sophie said.

"Man, that\'s almost three times what I got. I\'ll never beat you in the field of MP capacity, that\'s pretty set in stone," Lone commented. "What I wouldn\'t give to just get 30,000 MP so instantly like that."

"Oh, shush, you whiner," Sophie replied with a roll of the eyes. "It took killing 11 of those B-ranked monsters to gain enough levels for this. Also, I need to work for my stats, natural talents or not. You simply must kill."

"Fair," Lone said as he pursed his lips and nodded appreciatively.

He closed his eyes as he let the hot water seep into his pores. "Anything physical of note? I know you\'ve been trying really hard to improve in that area."

"Yes." He could practically hear the grin on her little face from just her tone alone. "We gained 27 points in Strength, 19 in Dexterity, 32 in Vitality and... well, 73 in Vigour."

"Hahaha! I bet I know why Vigour is the highest one," Lone said in a teasing tone.

He opened one eye to look at Sophie and saw her blushing from the neck all the way up to her forehead. "Be quiet, you lustful demon."

"Hey, it takes two to tango," Lone reasoned.

"Three, in your case. Soph is just as bad as you are," Sophie muttered.

"Pot calling the kettle black," Lone chuckled. Before she could find anything to throw at him though, he added, "I\'m really proud of you. To some people, those stat gains may look like nothing but I know for a fact that a lot of folk here on Altros gain nothing bar a single stat or two per level. Granted, those are the worst of the worst. Still, it shows how much effort you\'ve been putting in considering your small frame. Even as an adult, you\'re pretty little."

"... It is unfair to be so sweet after being so rude," Sophie said with a sigh. "There is one other thing of note," she added a bit mysteriously.

Lone saw her stand up and approach the tub before she got undressed.

"Hmm?" Lone wiggled his eyebrow appreciatively, liking what he was seeing.

"We unlocked the Charm stat. We have 11 points in it," she claimed with a seductive smile on her lips - lips which she promptly licked.

"I\'m not a meal, misses," Lone said as he raised his still wiggling eyebrow.

He definitely noticed a tiny trace of additional, almost forced, attraction coming from the woman he loved. \'Wow. Do I give that off too? Just how dangerous would applied Charm be? That\'s a frightening thought.\'

"If you swap out that icky water for something fresher, you could be," Sophie argued as she leaned over and kissed him. "Is there room for one more in there?"

Lone sighed but he did swap out the water. "Of course there is. I built it with two in mind. I\'m telling you though, this is exactly why Vigour is your leading physical stat."

"So be it. That is a price we can bear to burden in exchange for enjoying the pleasure that is you," Sophie said before she climbed into the bathtub and sat directly on top of him. "Now, let us train the stat a bit more, shall we?"

Lone laughed, putting his hands on her hips. "Yeah, let\'s."

"They\'re feckin\' at it again," Hamish said with nothing but exasperation in his tone. "By the Stone, even when ah was at their age ah wasnae this active."

He just sighed before pouring a bit more of his SP into his Sound Ensnarement skill. There was no need for a watch tonight so he\'d be damned if he let two lovebirds ruin a perfectly good night of sleep.

The next morning he got up nice and early. He gave the fox a bit of a look before just shaking his head and accepting his breakfast.

\'Can\'t believe the fecker actually killed 11 ah those demons. Ah\'d barely be able tae handle one, maybe two if mah life was on the line,\' the dwarf thought.

Once he was done with his food, he grabbed his pick and got to work on extending the spiral tunnel. The fox joined him while the girls trained in their skills instead.

\'Just \'ow did he kill 11 of \'em in such a quick timeframe? Aye, he came back lookin\' like death itself but right now he looks just feckin\' peachy. That self \'ealin\' is doonright unfair.\' Hamish felt a bit lost, in truth.

His entire company, his brothers, his family... they had all died to the monsters that this strange supposed hero had slaughtered with no permanent loss on his side.

It made their sacrifices seem... meaningless. \'Just \'ow many mere freaks like this cunt are oot there? Maybe \'es nae full ah shite... The fox could \'ave ah skill \'at can kill almost anythin\' wae but ah thought. It\'d explain the bats. Then again, maybe they lied?\'

It seemed pretty plausible which made the idea of them fabricating a tale of slaying the bats unlikely. There were no doubts that the human could teleport. He\'d seen that with his own eyes, after all.

But what if they had gone in, got ambushed, almost died without accomplishing anything and then immediately fled? \'If they can really kill \'em though... Ah can use this... Ah need proof though...\'

"Fox," Hamish called while still swinging his pick.

"Yeah, Dwarf?" the ninetails replied without taking his eyes off of his own tool - a gorgeous white wooden pickaxe.

"Dae ya mind bringin\' back ah corpse or two o\' the Balor Demon Bats tonight? Ah could use their claws fae somethin\'," Hamish lied.

He saw the fox shrugging. "Sure, I can try. No guarantees but I\'ll certainly keep it in mind. My first priority is getting stronger though. I hope you understand that. It\'s not a very relaxed battlefield. Can\'t really go shopping for bodies when I\'m being swarmed by bats from hell."

"Aye, aye, ah get \'at," Hamish replied. "Just keepin\' it in mind is enuff."

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Mining Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

Lone smiled though worry clouded his mind. \'What are you up to, Darkness?\'

He didn\'t really care about Hamish\'s request or if he actually needed a body or not. He\'d try to do as the man had asked but it wasn\'t a major concern.

The aloof Primal, however, hadn\'t sucked away Lone\'s mind last night and he, for the life of him, couldn\'t figure out why.

\'Another trick, maybe? Could be trying to make me feel safe and secure... The fucker could also be pissing its pants after watching me kill 11 of those bats. Well, assuming it could watch me somehow,\' Lone thought, creeping himself out a bit in the process.

If nothing else, he had awoken completely undisturbed with Sophie laying in his arms. He wasn\'t even assailed by nightmares. A good sign, for certain.

Sighing and cracking his neck, he got back to work mining. At the same time, he did his best to mimic how Hamish tackled the wall with his own pick.

As Wilbur had taught him, there was a lot more to a skill than just the percentage boosts provided by the system.

\'I wonder how he\'s getting on. I... I kinda want to be there when he passes away,\' Lone thought.

Death was nothing new to him, sadly. He was willing to accept that the old smith was close to the end of his days.

Perhaps if his MP wasn\'t sealed he would try to help him out as he had done for the elves on Goblin Island.

Now though, that was impossible if he ever wanted his seal to lift. The man seemed to have accepted his own coming death too, which made it hard to argue for healing him.

Still, a small part of Lone wanted to be by Wilbur\'s side to support him when he did finally close his eyes for the last time.

\'He\'s gonna be epitomized, right? I wonder if that means he has a skill that\'s even more refined than master rank. Probably Steamforging... I\'m a lucky guy to have been taught by such an amazing man,\' Lone thought to himself with a smile on his face.

He made a promise internally to return as quickly as he could and spend time with the man. At least a few weeks before leaving the krieg as was originally planned.

The day came and went quickly. Eventually, it was time to set up camp again. Lone grinned as he checked his notification log.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Mining Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Mining Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

\'Won\'t be long before you rank up, you lovely little skill, you,\' Lone said as he got to work preparing dinner for the group.

Tonight, he had decided to make something from scratch instead of just relying on his precooked meals.

He had the Cooking Mastery skill, after all. It would be a waste to not give it some attention every now and then. Doubly so since he had some ingredients just laying about in his Dimensional Storage.

\'Speaking of recently unused skills, I haven\'t given Soph or Sophie a massage in months. The skill\'s still beginner rank, that Massage Mastery. I should work on that tonight provided the bats don\'t fuck me up too much,\' he thought.

Hamish approached him while he toiled over his cooking pot and said, "By ma estimates, we\'ll be done wae the tunnel in about two weeks. Maybe three if we come across any \'ard minerals or metals. Ah\'d wanna collect any o\' \'at piss if we do hit ah vein."

"Is that common here?" Lone asked.

"Och, aye," Hamish nodded fervently. "The Farwinds werenae mined oot just tae connect the kriegs, Fox. It was fae mooney anaw."

Lone wore a ponderous expression while he carefully added some spices to the pot\'s contents. "I guess that\'s why so many dwarven adventurer\'s side-gig as miners. Clearing collapsed roads isn\'t the only paying job for a miner, eh?"

"Exactly. What\'re ye cookin\', anyway?" Hamish asked. "Smells feckin\' great, in all honesty."

"Cheers. It\'s just a simple sheep stew with some herbs and spices. I\'m trying to make it taste like home," Lone explained.

"Home? Where\'s home tae ye?" Hamish asked, taking a seat next to him.

Lone smiled. "The romantic in me says by Soph and Sophie\'s side. In truth? Scotland. It\'s a place where all the people sound and talk just like you. Well, all the older people and those up north, in truth. I\'ve got a bit of a soft spot for the dwarves here because of that."

He chuckled before looking at Hamish. "Apart from you. You remind me more of the cunts who\'d get pissed at one in the morning then sing and scream while walking down the main road, waking every bastard and their dog up while they\'re at it."

The dwarf wore a complicated expression on his face. "Ah\'ve actually done \'at before."

Lone cackled at the admission. "If I\'m good at anything, it\'s reading people."

"... So on yer world, yer homeland\'s like the kriegs? Are people fae Scotland the dwarves ah yer world?" Hamish asked with interest in his voice.

Lone shook his head. "No, no... We don\'t have underground cities. Earth doesn\'t even have magic. Well, no visible magic anyway," he said, thinking about Soph and Sophie.

"As for dwarves... no. On Earth, dwarfism is a medical term for those born too short and slightly deformed. They typically have shorter lifespans but large hearts. I met a dwarf once. On Earth. Nicest guy I think I\'ve ever had the pleasure of speaking to," Lone said with a warm smile on his face. "He was American, by the way."

"Weird world..." Hamish leaned back on the rock he was using as a chair. "D\'ya miss it?"

"Yes and no," Lone answered.

"Well \'at\'s \'ardly tellin\'," Hamish grunted.

Lone laughed faintly. "I like it here. I\'ve experienced some fuckin\' shit, don\'t get me wrong. I\'ve been discriminated against, cut open, poisoned, drugged, hell, I\'ve been tortured, Hamish. Overall though? I\'m in a world of magic and mystery. A world of Djinns and Primals. I\'m a powerful man who\'s killed an SS-ranked monarch. I have a beautiful girlfriend who loves me as much as I love her. Net positive I think. I do miss my sister though."

"Ah. Family, huh?" Hamish creased his brows, clearly choosing to ignore the more serious things Lone had brought up. "Good talk. Ah\'m gonna gae let the lassies ken \'ow weak they are while ye finish up supper."

"Hah, go easy on them. Or, at least on Soph. I\'ll need her for later," Lone requested.

"Ah\'ll try ma best, Lone, ah\'ll try ma best," Hamish said before he jumped up onto his feet and wandered away.

Lone clicked his tongue. "Sly cunt. That\'s the first time he\'s called me by my name."