Chapter 31 - Moving On

In a remote corner of the dungeon's second floor, Kalin was gripping his spear nervously. As his palms were a lot more sweaty than normal, he feared he would drop this old companion of his if he got distracted. He was uncharacteristically pale and the rhythm of his breathing had turned irregular, while his emerald green eyes reflected the cause of his current state - a dungeon lizard.

Ever since his father's death, he hadn't fought against one of the two meter long lizards on his own. While Isaac, Jakk and even Mina had slain them, he hadn't felt ready to face one himself. Today, even though he was undoubtedly still afraid, Kalin had decided he would finally face his trauma and get his revenge.

A heavy gulping sound escaped his throat when the reptilian eyes of the lizard contracted slightly. Identifying this as an opening, it quickly charged at him, its vicious maw wide open, ready to tear him apart the moment he made a mistake.

When there was only a distance of one and a half meters separating the two, a gap the monster could cross in but a short moment, Kalin hastily dodged aside, slicing open the lizard's hide with the tip of his spear in passing. But instead of paying attention to the pained and enraged roars of his opponent, Kalin's eyes opened comically wide, while only a single thought popped into his mind.

'... so slow!'

While training with his benefactor and fellow students, it oftentimes was very hard for Kalin to follow their attacks with his eyes. He had to let instinct and muscle memory do most of the heavy lifting if he wanted to gain any significant advantages in their spars. He hadn't noticed it much previously, as his stats, even without a falna, hadn't been much lower than a kobold's to begin with, thanks to many years of tough exercise. But now that he was facing a monster just like the one that had devoured his father, a monster that had become his nightmare… it was a lot less threatening than in his dreams.

Even though there had only been one clash, Kalin could already think of more than thirty ways to end the overgrown lizard's life with ease, without even getting a single scratch. Upon that realization, the moment the injured lizard turned to face him again, hatred burning in its eyes, a wry smile spread across his face.

With newfound resolve, the grip on his spear relaxed, while he slightly lowered his upper body and bent his knees. This time, before the lizard had the opportunity to charge, Kalin shot out of his slightly lowered stance. As he had expected, this prompted his target to lunge at him in response once he was about a meter away from it.

In a single motion, Kalin slightly slid to the right and stabbed out with his spear at an angle he had predetermined, slightly upwards. Not even a second later, his spear's tip pierced through the lizard's left eye and its brain, until it hit the tough bone making up the back of its skull. At this moment, the full force of the lizard's lunge came crashing down upon Kalin's spear, so he stepped backwards, while also redirecting the force by pulling back his spear's tip, pointing it downwards conforming with the lizard's descent.

A loud crashing noise resounded, before just a few centimeters before him, the now unresponsive body came to a halt, his spear still sticking out of its eye socket. Even though he had changed the grip on the shaft as best as he could, his left hand now situated very close to the tip, Kalin hadn't been able to execute this maneuver flawlessly. His palms pulsed in pain, while his wrists felt a bit strained, because he hadn't been able to redirect the initial impact.

Still, all of this mattered little compared to the fact that the monster that had haunted his dreams now lay at his feet, slain.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kalin noticed the strongest of his fellow party members, Jakk, visibly relaxing. For the entire duration of this fight, he had been ready to jump in and rescue Kalin, should he ever be in real danger. Thankfully, that hadn't been necessary.

"Well done."

Although they were only a few curt words, the approving nod the hume bunny youth gave him was enough to make Kalin break out into a happy grin. The last member of his current party, the beautiful chienthrope girl Mina, didn't take long to join in on the jubilant atmosphere either. Showing a bright smile on her face, she gave him a round of applause.

"Awesome! You finally did it!"

A short while later, when the moment of triumph had passed, Kalin collected the magic stone from the dungeon lizard's body and watched it disappear without a trace as it turned to ashes.

With a now relieved smile on his face, Kalin closed his eyes and gently grabbed the memento of his father, the pendant with an unremarkable stone ring. He couldn't be entirely sure of it, but for a brief moment, he thought he felt a heartbeat from the ring. Whether that was because of his palms, which were still pulsating in pain, or just a product of his imagination, he couldn't tell. Still, it didn't distract him for very long, as his thoughts transformed into a kaleidoscope made up of memories of his father.

'Rest in peace, father.'

In response to his silent prayer, one of the memories became more prominent. It wasn't anything extraordinary, just his father looking at him with a gentle and proud smile. Still, Kalin had to try really hard not to choke up from the comforting warmth spreading in his chest.

"We're already here? Ahaha, that's amazing!"

An unrestrained and cheerful exclamation suddenly snapped Kalin out of his thoughts before he had a chance to break down into tears. It came from one of the tunnels connecting to the cavern his party was currently located in.

Even though all of them had gotten into a combat ready stance in response to the unexpected arrival, they nigh immediately relaxed once they realized that they were already familiar with this voice. Seconds later, their suspicions were confirmed as a lively Tiona entered the cavern, skipping around ahead of Isaac and Tione, who came into view shortly thereafter.

-----

Prior to his exploration of the 20th floor, Isaac had taken a few minutes to discuss something with the Amazoness twins.

As he had a way to teleport pretty much wherever he wanted, as long as it was part of his system map, enabling him to reduce travel time for a moderate amount of AP, he wanted to make use of it. Still, he couldn't just suddenly disappear from here and leave the girls behind. They would just freak out and search for him, fearing for his safety. So if he wanted to make use of the teleportation feature, he had to either explain the situation to them beforehand and disappear on his own, or do the same and take them with him for a negligible amount of AP.

Before he had decided that he would tell the twins about this part of his capabilities, he had already evaluated whether or not it was worth the risk. The two of them seemed to be trustworthy and thought of him as a friend - although Tiona might like him a little more than that, if Isaac's apprehensions turned out to be true. Therefore, it was quite unlikely that they would tell other people about his secrets. But even if they accidentally slipped up or turned out not to be trustworthy after all, that wouldn't really be much of a problem. He could pass it off as a skill or magic and would only have to convince Loki to join him for the charade.

But even if he didn't do that, what would actually happen? People would show an interest in him, some gods might try to get their hands on him, et cetera. So... nothing out of the ordinary. Even if he got more stalkers and people made more trouble for him, that wasn't really something he feared. He could simply teleport away or blur his existence whenever he was in danger. And even if he encountered someone fast enough to transcend his reaction speed, someone who immediately went all out and managed to kill him, so what? Besides the pain he would feel, death wouldn't really have any impact. His soul wasn't part of this world's reincarnation cycle and this current body wasn't anything more than an avatar of his soul. Making a new one or even fully restoring the old one was surely something the system was capable of. And even if it wasn't, he could just do it himself. If he still had control over even just a single cell of his, given enough time, Isaac was confident he could recover to peak shape. He never had the chance to try it before, but now that the cycle of life and death wasn't something he had to worry about anymore, it most likely wouldn't prove to be too difficult.

Sure, all of this worst case scenario would be a hassle if it came to pass, but the thought of fruitlessly wasting time was even more annoying to him.

With all of his admittedly pointless worries out of the way, Isaac had both Amazonesses promise to keep what he was going to tell them a secret. Then, after a short explanation of the system's teleportation feature, he left the baffled sisters to their own thoughts and searched for more new monster species to research.

On the 20th floor, the bugbear and firebird got replaced by two new kinds of monsters: the sword stag and the troll.

The sword stag, as the name implied, was simply a larger stag whose antlers were akin to curved swords. Its highest stat was its Agility, which could reach up to E-400 / 2150, but as that was still below Isaac's current stats, it was all too easily dealt with.

As for the trolls, they were grey-skinned humanoid monsters that stood a little short of two meters tall. They were armed with various weapons made from the surrounding trees and couldn't be encountered in groups less than three, no matter how hard Isaac looked. Back in his old world's myths, trolls were known for their toughness and uncanny recovery ability. It came as no surprise, that this world's version's highest stat was their Endurance, at E-450 / 2250. Additionally, they recovered from most wounds in a matter of seconds, which dragged out Isaac's research a little bit, as he had to continually wound them to study their reactions to his movements while either in specific amounts of pain or with certain injuries. Thankfully, this species left him with a handful of excelia, as their stats were about even.

After almost one and a half hours of exploring this new floor, Isaac told Tiona and Tione that he wanted to teleport, so they both got close to him, as he couldn't bring anyone outside of a five meter range from him along for the ride. He had made sure to explain that detail during their previous discussion. While he was patiently ignoring Tiona, who didn't seem to understand the concept of personal space, Isaac checked his system map, searched for his subordinate, Mina, and created a marker near her current position.

For the small fee of 12 AP, the group of three had found themselves in a completely different part of the dungeon. There was no transition or observable phenomenon - the teleportation was instant. Only the change in their environment made the two Amazonesses realize what had happened.

-----

By the time the group left the dungeon, it was almost 12 p.m.. As Isaac had already asked his students whether or not they wanted to move into the residence he had prepared for them and explained why it would be a good idea to do so, Kalin swiftly led the way down the western main street and through a few connecting alleys, until they arrived at a small but homely inn called Gorval's Pub.

For as long as Kalin could remember, he and his father had rented a room here. Even the grumpy old innkeeper the establishment was named after treated him warmly, as he had seen him grow up into a fine young man over the years. Now, it was finally time to leave this shelter and step on a path of his own choosing.

Whether or not he should follow Isaac's advice hadn't been a hard decision. Kalin had already lost his only family member and while he did have a few friends around these parts of town, it wasn't like he would never be able to see them again. The most important reason for his decision, however, had been the wish he had fostered ever since he was a young boy.

Whenever he saw his father working hard so they could have a place to stay for yet another day, Kalin felt a burning desire to become stronger, so he could help shoulder some of this burden. Now that he was all alone, this desire didn't fade. While it had been replaced with a yearning for revenge for a time, the wish to become stronger so he could one day provide for his family stayed with him all the while. Sure, he might not have a family now, but what about the future? If he only worked on his strength then, he would have wasted all of the years prior to that. Additionally, if he got stronger, he could deal with some of the annoying problems his benefactor seemed to attract…

Because they had never owned a home of their own, Kalin's family didn't have much to their name, just some pieces of clothing, a few weapons, various trinkets, memorabilia and odds and ends, a few valis and some backpacks, bags, pouches and blankets. He could easily fit all of this into the backpacks. Thankfully, he didn't have to carry this c.u.mbersome load on his own, as Jakk and Isaac both unsolicitedly grabbed two backpacks each to help him out.

Showing an appreciative smile to these relatively new friends of his, Kalin got ready to say his goodbyes to old man Gorval. At the same time, a long overdue system notification appeared in Isaac's field of view.

[ Kalin Myre considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make eight friends.' completed. 800 AP rewarded. ]

This brought Isaac's AP up to 9677, extremely close to his current goal. Still, it made him feel a little baffled that his student only thought of him as a friend now that he actually helped him out on such a minor matter. Had his behaviour really been that off-putting before?

'I thought I was being pretty nice…'

Little did Isaac know that the actual reason for the late appearance of this notification had been Kalin's mindset. He had been too focussed on his trauma and his previously repressed thirst for vengeance to really think of the new people in his life as friends. While he had already been very friendly to them before, Kalin's interactions became a lot more genuine from today onwards.

When it came time for Mina to collect her own belongings, it didn't take long. Besides the clothing she had worn when she came to Orario, a few pouches and the valis she had earned over the past few days, she didn't have anything. But the young chienthrope didn't let that dishearten her much, even when she inadvertently compared her own possessions with her companion's. Her ears and tail did droop a little bit more, though, losing a smidgen of their usual energy.

Once the group arrived at the Twilight Manor, Tiona and Tione bade their farewell for the day, while an excited Lefiya took their place. Judging from the way she walked, she still seemed to be sore from yesterday. Impressively, however, she didn't mention this even once while she led the way to the relatively small abode Isaac had rented for his students.

It honestly wasn't very majestic compared to the other extravagant parts of the manor grounds, but it was enough to live in comfortably. The two-story building was made of stone bricks and various types of wood, while it provided enough rooms to house at least four people in. Although stronger adventurers were mostly resistant to the slightly lower temperatures during winter and it didn't snow all too often here in Orario, as evidenced by the fact that it hadn't snowed even once since Isaac came here, the building had a fireplace. Firewood wasn't very expensive, so the Loki Familia had stocked up on a lot of it. Access to it was also included in the rent he had to pay, so his two students wouldn't have to catch a cold in their sleep.

Seeing how many unoccupied rooms there were, Isaac decided to relocate Averin's living quarters to this new base of operations as well. This way, he would finally have regained full ownership of his bed. As for the aforementioned rent, he had already paid four weeks' worth, 1.400.000 valis, to the dutiful Rakta, who had been awake and at her post since 5 a.m.. Of course, he had also given her five percent of his earnings ever since he became Level 2, which amounted to a relatively negligible sum of 44.378 valis. But even with these expenses taken into account, Isaac currently had a little more than 5 million valis...

Under Lefiya's instructions, it didn't take too long for Kalin and Mina to settle in and get taught about the various restrictions and perks of their current home. Because of this, the daily training session started at around 13:40 p.m., quite a bit later than usual.

-----

In a secluded courtyard, a golden haired girl of almost ethereal beauty was working up a sweat. Her sword cut through the air at speeds faster than the n.a.k.e.d eye could recognize, yet there was an unhappy frown on her face.

Even though what she fought was just an imaginary opponent, Ais wasn't satisfied with how her training was going. Today, she had focussed on polishing her actual swordsmanship, something she often neglected due to relying mostly on her extreme speed. But ever since she had seen Isaac deal with his enemies with overwhelming skill instead of relying on pure stats, she had wanted to refine her own skills as well. Admittedly, she had improved a lot, so much that her Swordsman Development Ability had risen from H-rank all the way to F-rank. But still, it wasn't enough. Not even close to enough!

After a while, Ais finally noticed her acc.u.mulated exhaustion and decided to end today's training. With an unhappy sigh, she sheathed her sword and turned to look at an empty spot just a few meters away. The moment she did, Isaac suddenly appeared there after having unblurred his existence.

The first time he had picked her up after her training, Ais was quite startled when he popped up out of the blue. That had also been the time when Isaac had told her about his ability to blur his existence. According to his words, he hadn't wanted to distract her with his presence, so he had patiently waited for her to finish, which was something she was grateful for. Because he had appeared at that same spot a few times already, Ais now proactively looked there whenever she finished her training in the early evening.

What made Ais even more grateful and brought a small blush to her face was the velvety-soft towel Isaac handed to her. After he had finished training his students for the day, he had gotten it from one of the familia's bathrooms.

"Thank you."

With a grateful and somewhat sheepish smile on her face, Ais wiped away the sweat from her face. Even though it wasn't the first time he had seen her react in such a manner, Isaac couldn't help his cheeks heating up a little as well, while he patiently waited for Ais to finish.

For a few days now, the two had walked back to the main manor hand in hand after their respective training regimens had finished. They freshened up by taking a bath or showering in their respective bathrooms and then went to the canteen to eat dinner.

-----

Later that evening, Isaac had stolen outside of the manor again to resume his AP grinding and dungeon exploration. This time, he also took the previously almost permanently sleepy Averin with him. It hadn't been much of a problem to blur the rooster's existence as well, so the two easily cleared the formation protecting and monitoring the Twilight Manor.

By the time they arrived in the dungeon, Averin suddenly got a lot more energetic, which confirmed Isaac's suspicions. A minute or so later, when he got far enough away from other adventurers, he let the rooster reclaim his position on his shoulder. Admittedly, it was quite nice to have a talkative companion along for this repetitive task. As for why exactly the rooster's vitality seemed to be linked to the dungeon, that could be further investigated once Isaac got the ichor upgrade, which should open a lot of new doors for the future.

In less than an hour, Isaac finished mapping out the rest of the second floor and continued onwards to the third one. His first goal after starting to map a new floor was, as before, to check whether or not the manmade labyrinth connected to it as well, which it unsurprisingly did. There was no suspense, no surprise - the secret door was right where he had expected it to be.

Just a few minutes after he had made sure of this, a welcome system notification interrupted his routine.

[ You have killed 7000 Level 1 monsters.

Quest 'Kill 7000 Level 1 monsters.' completed. 700 AP rewarded. ]

A contented smirk played across Isaac's lips.