Lone: The Wanderer [Rewrite]

"Oh, it definitely grew. By maybe a millimetre?" Lone said to Soph who was sitting on his lap trying her hardest to elongate her pinkie finger. "Question is, can you ungrow it?"

Soph creased her brow in concentration. "I-I think so? Ungrow for me, pinkie finger!"

Lone watched in anticipation, his arms wrapped around the waist of the love of his life as his Enhanced Vision barely just caught the moment her finger returned to its normal length.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 3.

'Oh, that was unexpected. Probably because this is a new thing I'm doing as opposed to reading in the dark or looking through enchantments and illusions. Then again, it did level in my fight against Prince Keining so who fuckin' knows. Maybe I can squeeze out another level by watching myself regen very, very closely,' Lone remarked internally.

"I... I did it!" Soph exclaimed.

She jumped up off of Lone, spun on her heels, then jumped back on top of him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I didn't get a subskill yet but there's progress!"

Lone smiled when Soph pressed her forehead against his, tears of joy streaming out of her eyes. "It only took a little over a year, huh? Granted, not a concentrated effort, but from what I've read, it normally takes decades of efforts to see signs of a subskill or new skill effect forming, and that's for a normal skill and for a normal genius. You're a super genius, huh? I bet you'll be able to morph your body to your whims in a month."

Soph grinned. "Two weeks and not a day less!"

"Let's see then. What happens first: you earn a subskill or a new effect for Body Manipulation, or I get, let's say... Hmm.... what's a 'pushing it' number?... Yeah, let's say 20 beginner skills to intermediate rank. i might be able to handle one and half skills per day," Lone suggested.

Soph leaned in and kissed him. "Okay! Sophie's asking what the stakes are."

"Hmm... If I win, you tell me your magical affinities and let me help you train at least one of them for a month. What do you want if you win?" Lone asked.

"That's tough... Anything I want you'd just give me anyway," Soph remarked. "Don't interfere when I deal with Hamish Two?"

"Hamish Two? Haha, that's a hell of a nickname. Why would I? I've already given her a second chance and what I do in regards to people who try to kill me is divorced from what you do to them. Always discuss plans with me, yeah, but I wouldn't interfere, so choose something else as your prize," Lone replied.

Soph smiled at that and kissed him. "I love you. Hmm... Arg, I want to ask you to stop getting me to almost kill you, but that makes you harder to kill for others so even if I don't like it, I don't actually want you to stop. Do whatever I or Sophie say for an entire month if I win! Even if we tell you to rest and pause levelling skills for a day or two. Deal?"

"That's harsh. I gotta win now, don't I?" Lone grinned. "It's a deal. I love you too, by the way."

He got up, removing Soph from his lap. Lone them immediately picked her up over his shoulder and began sauntering towards the main building of the pavilion.

Obviously flustered, Soph squirmed about and shouted, "W-What are you doing?"

"I only have 14 days to get 20 skills to intermediate rank. Before I start working myself to the bone, I want to see if I can get Sex Mastery to advanced rank. It's only two levels away, and we have all evening," Lone replied.

Suddenly, the two disappeared from the wooden bridge connecting the lake gazebo to the backyard of the Spirit Pavilion, and they had reappeared in their new bedroom. On the bed, specifically.

"You should have just said so!" Soph said, squirming free from Lone's grasp before she straddled him. "In that case, I'm gonna level it to beginner level three!"

"Right, you had the skill too..." Lone replied.

It wasn't long before clothes were being discarded and moans could be heard all throughout the pavilion.

Come morning, Soph had, indeed, levelled her Sex Mastery to beginner level three. Lone, on the other hand, while not ranking it up, had also levelled the skill, bringing it to intermediate level ten.

Lone had just finished cooking breakfast, sadly not seeing any improvement to Cooking Mastery from the endeavour, when Soph entered the dining room with a weary Breena following alongside her.

"Hey there, champ. Went and overused your mana organs, huh? Must have sucked but know that I'm proud of you. Bet ya saw some improvements, huh?" he asked as he slid two plates full of syrup-covered waffles to their places at the dinner table.

Lone sat down and began tucking into his own golden stack of fluffy goodness.

Breena nodded shyly. "Um, y-yeah. I got an extra level in Fireball Mastery, and my, uh, affinity also went up by two percent. I got Mental Pain Resistance too."

"Fuckin' A. I bet you got enlightenment as well. We'll get you to the level cap later today and find out. I need to level a bunch of skills anyway, and the plan is to teleport to Golden Pass City for that, so we'll take an overnight quest that can get you your levels, assuming you wanna come with. If you want to rest instead, we can do it another time. We won't be going until the afternoon since I wanna go meet Shana and Grimsley," Lone said.

With a panicked look on her face as if the opportunity would disappear were she not to reply immediately, Breena blurted out, "I-I'll come! I... You were right. I need to stop hesitating. A-As soon as I let myself go too far, I gained so much and y-you both saved me. I was stupid to be so worried."

Lone smiled. "You weren't being stupid. It's normal to be cautious when someone tells you to do conventionally irreparable damage to non-tangible organs. Now, your affinity improving is interesting. I guess that's done via practice and stress too, like normal skills. Can't experiment on that myself since Growth Accelerator forces all my affinities to be at 100% on acquisition. Two percent more puts you at eight percent. Hmm... The kids won't like that. They're too soft. Gonna have to think of a way to convince them..."

"Ignore him," Soph said to Breena. "He's in his own little world again."

"Why are you standing so far from us?" Soph asked Lone with a confused tilt of her head.

"Blood Explosion," Lone replied as his body expanded, blood firing out of his nose, ears, mouth, and eyeballs.

"W-Wha-"

"I'm fine!" Lone called as his body returned to normal, Basic Regeneration healing the self-inflicted damage. "I need to get 20 beginner skills to intermediate rank in 14 days. Thus, we're back to the good ol' swimming in the ocean and electrocuting myself days. Instead, I'm blowing up my blood to level Blood Explosion, Blood and Explosion Magic Resistances. It has a range of one metre, so yeah, don't get close to me or your blood'll go boom too."

Soph frowned. "Warn me first. I hate seeing you injure yourself."

"U-Um, Master Lone... Are you, um, going to do that the whole way to Grimsley and Shana's place?" Breena hesitantly asked.

Lone nodded. "Sure am. I have enough mana for another 43 explosions. Maybe more if it ranks up."

"Well I'll focus on growing my fingers if you're gonna multitask!" Soph declared.

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"I... I'll just be sneaky," Breena whispered. "Like usual..."

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 10.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1.

Active Blood Magic Skill: Blood Explosion

A highly advanced application of the blood magic school where the caster uses a hint of explosion magic in combination with blood magic to ignite all blood within a 3-metre [up from 1-metre] radius of them.

Cost:8,000 MP [-2,000 MP] Mastery:Intermediate Level 1

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 2.

Congratulations! The host's active blood magic skill [Blood Explosion] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 3.

'Yup. Highly advanced application or not, being used on oneself 40 plus times will power level any offensive skill. Dangerous fuckin' skill. How did Rosanne Daybringer ever level it? Does it normally need a bunch of supplementary skills to avoid killing yourself? Maybe that skill that turned her into blood? Would that stop her from dying, thus letting her level the skill? I hope it never gets a passive 'no longer applies to the host' effect. That would suck for me specifically,' Lone thought as he approached Grimsley's new home and continued looking at the rest of his notifications.

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

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Blood Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 3.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Blood Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 4.

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

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

'Only two levels for Explosion Magic Resistance? Really? I guess it makes sense since the skill is a blood magic skill first and foremost, but still...' Lone's disappointment was washed away as soon as an unexpected notification entered his vision.

Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Master Level 5.

"Ohhh fuck yes! Didn't expect that but I guess keeping a clone in my bloodstream was worth it. Was it close to a level-up already or did the repeated explosions just count as a new avenue to grow stronger, hence the level?" Lone muttered.

"'Oo the feck is yellin' nonsense ootside ah mah hoose?!" a grumpy voice bellowed at the top of its lungs.

Rushing out of the oriental bungalow sitting atop a hill, hammer in hand, the other clenched and ready to punch, Grimsley scanned his property only to meet eyes with Lone, Soph, and Breena.

"Laddie? The fook'dya think ye'r doin' visitin' noo an' no when ya arrived like ya did wae the bastardin' goat, eh?" He dropped his hammer, unclenched his fist, applied his Strength, and in one jump, tackled Lone.

Seeing the 'attack' coming, Lone invoked, "Tail Spear."

He stabbed all nine of his tails into the earth to anchor himself. Lone felt his ribs ache for a moment as two burly arms wrapped around his waist.

"Fookin' missed ya, ya cheeky bastard. Thought ah 'ad it rough. Teleported hoodreds o' metres intae the air an' 'ad tae swim tae ah deserted island while carryin' three cunts, wae broken ribs nae less. Then ah 'ad tae keep myself sane livin' on that feckin' island wae my lovely niece, ah goat, an' ah worm pretendin' it were an 'uman, as neighbours. Was gonna 'old it over yer head like ah feckin' war trophy ah was, but then ah go an' 'ear this cunt - 'at bein' ye - 'as only gone an' fuckin' learned steamforgin' fae ma own master an' didnae get executed fer it! Ah'll feckin' tell ya what, ah was damn-near rollin' on the floor pishin' maself when ah 'eard ya injured ah Taker's guard. Emotionless bastards. Musta been ah helluva ah sight. Fookin' funniest thing ah've heard in ah decade," Grimsley rambled.

Lone grinned. "I didn't miss that accent one bit. I'll be nice though and say that I did miss you."

Grimsley let go of him and punched him in his flank, only for Lone to not react even slightly. "Still ah cheeky cunt but ah see ya've worked on dealin' wae applied stats. At least from ah C-ranker like me."

"As much as it happens to me, I don't exactly enjoy getting thrown around in fights. I'm slowly learning," Lone replied.

"U-Um... Mister Ironsbane, is, um... is your niece in there?" Breena timidly asked, pointing at the home atop the hill.

Lone was beyond proud she had initiated dialogue with a man other than himself. That showed tremendous personal growth.

"Oh, aye. She's workin' the forge right noo. 'At or practicin' the goat's magic. Ah swear, lass 'as ah talent fae smithin' but ah catch 'er skiving off 'alf the time 'at ah leave 'er tae work on 'er own. Ah tell 'er 'forge some forks, aye?' nae make 'em fookin' fly around the workshop!" Grimsley grumbled but Lone could hear the immense joy in the man's tone.

"C-Can I see her, please?" Breena requested.

"Feckin' course yous can. Come in, all ah yas. Ah've got some special brews 'at'll put hairs atop ah monk's 'ead. Specially imported fae ah friendly tribe ah roamin' cyclopes. Bet ya ah gold coin ah can drink ya under the table, laddie," Grimsley said, a maniacal grin on his lips.

"I could use some levels in intoxication resistance. You're on," Lone replied, a grin twice as wide as his friend's.

Soph just sighed. "Head covered in blood, haven't talked to each other face to face in almost a year, barely talked via communication orb since Gilbert did most of the talking, yet they're just right back into it. Is that really just how guys are, Sophie? What do you mean only the simple ones? O-Of course I won't drink! I remember what happened last time. Well, okay, I don't, but you do and hearing it described was more than enough!"