Chapter 32 - Divine Blood

After he had acc.u.mulated enough AP, Isaac didn't immediately return to the Twilight Manor. He had already decided on getting the ichor upgrade tomorrow, in very specific circ.u.mstances. So in the meantime, he would at least finish mapping out the entirety of the third floor and gather some more AP in the process.

By the time he left the dungeon, Isaac's Level 1 monster slaying quests had progressed to 9563 out of 10.000, while his total AP had reached 12.077, quite a bit more than he currently needed. Still, he was sure there would be a need to collect even more in the future, therefore it wasn't of a detriment for him to already work towards those future goals now.

Isaac made sure to exchange as many of his magic stones with the Guild as he could carry in the huge bag he had bought for that express purpose, after which he left Babel, blurred his existence and spent 11 of his now abundant AP to get back home a little earlier.

By now, it was quite easy for him to gather more AP, as his monster slaying quests rewarded him with boatloads of them, so there was no need to hold back from spending small amounts whenever they could be useful. He would make sure to not excessively spend them, though.

"What the hell?!"

When Isaac suddenly appeared in his room, fully decked in his dungeon delving attire and with a chattering rooster on his shoulder, the still somewhat sleepy Jakk almost dropped the dagger he was sharpening. It was a little after 5 a.m. right now, usually Isaac would have returned around the same time. Still, Jakk hadn't expected him to just appear out of nowhere.

But after he saw the apologetic look on Isaac's face, Jakk chose to ignore the more than odd occurrence. He had already seen him appear in a manner similar to this before, so it wasn't as had to accept as the first time. As there was no use grumbling about it, he returned his focus to his gear, to keep it impeccably maintained.

Before Isaac's arrival in this world, Jakk wouldn't have been awake this early. Over the past few days, however, his body had grown accustomed to his current sleep schedule. So even though Isaac had already announced that they would take a break from training today, Jakk didn't sleep in.

A quick shower and equipment maintenance session later, Isaac changed into more comfortable clothing and dropped off Averin at the house he had rented on the manor grounds. While he was there, he quickly checked whether or not Kalin and Mina were awake already, but as they had acc.u.mulated quite a lot of exhaustion, they both took this rare chance to sleep in.

When he returned to his room, Jakk had left for some light early morning exercise in one of the courtyards. The bunny boy just couldn't sit still and relax, even on a break day. As Isaac had already told him not to overdo it before, he could only trust in the hume bunny youth's judgement. If Jakk showed signs of overburdening himself, Isaac would make sure to intervene.

Yesterday, he had agreed to get some breakfast with Ais at around 7 a.m., so most likely, she was still asleep. As Isaac didn't want to potentially disturb her peaceful rest, he decided to just wait out the time by doing something productive.

After he had sat down on his bed cross-legged, a practice that had been quite popular in cultivation-related fiction in his old world, Isaac focussed on his mental layer again. Ever since he had fainted from mental exhaustion before, he hadn't circulated any more drops of mana because he had been a little busy with other matters.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, as this time, while it was still very exhausting to circulate the drops, Isaac wasn't in any danger of passing out again - it was significantly easier. After having broken in the pathways he used during the circulation previously, the whole process now went a lot more smoothly. Gone was the resistance and somewhat 'swollen' feeling he had felt before. Now, there was only a feeling of comfort, spreading throughout his whole body.

The state of Isaac's pathways could have previously been compared to fresh wounds. While they were intended for the circulation of mana, they had never been used before, so the sudden utilization injured them in various ways Isaac couldn't detect yet. The recovery period they had been through after the last circulation, however, enabled them to function properly now. Just like with well-oiled machines, there wouldn't be any problems, unless Isaac unreasonably strained them.

Over the course of two hours, Isaac slowly increased the number of drops he circulated simultaneously. By the time he heard Ais knocking on the door, he had gone all the way up to 179. Sure, that might not even be a tenth of his total mana, but this drastic speed of improvement was still something he was happy with.

With a contented smile on his face, a somewhat sore and strained Isaac accompanied Ais to the kitchens connected to the canteen, where they got themselves a lavish breakfast.

After this, it didn't take long to gather everyone who should be present for Isaac's upcoming plans. With his students now up and about, Kalin, Mina, Averin, Jakk, Lefiya and Ais were soon gathered within the living room of the house Isaac had rented, now simply called 'the base'. They had taken a seat on the various sofas and chairs gathered from all over the house and were watching Isaac, who had sat down in the armchair opposite of them.

Although only Kalin, Mina and Averin would show a marked improvement in their strength today, it simply felt weird to leave out the rest. In essence, they were only here to bear witness to what Isaac imagined to be quite an unusual sight. Lefiya had been one of the two people he first met in this world and had decided to ask him for strength, so to make her witness his own increase in capabilities would help her confidence. Additionally, as she knew a lot more about his background than most of the others here, she wouldn't be too spooked by what was going to happen. As for Jakk, Isaac invited him because the bunny boy had proven trustworthy by keeping his fellow students safe all this time. He also was privy to a few secrets, Averin's existence only being one of them, which he had never revealed to any outsider. What was one more secret? Still, Isaac wouldn't deny that another reason for having Jakk attend was that his talent for combat was outstanding. If he could incentivize him to become one of his subordinates, that would be extremely beneficial in the long run.

And Ais… yeah, her presence really wasn't much of a surprise. It would have been a lot weirder if she hadn't been here. Now that an expedition was imminent, she was forbidden from entering the dungeon by then. Even when Isaac didn't have any big plans, as the two had grown progressively closer, Ais enjoyed spending time with him whenever she could.

For the people that had known her for a long time, her rapid change over the past week was quite alarming. She had opened up to a previously unknown young man very quickly and become a lot more expressive in his presence. Loki's previous momentary worry about Isaac asking for Ais' hand in marriage hadn't been random. Because Ais had mentally experienced a few years observing Isaac's past, the closeness she felt for him was not something the people who knew her could possibly understand.

Once the group's chatter had subsided, Isaac closed his eyes, fully focussed on his body to observe the changes that were bound to happen and paid 10.000 AP.

[ 'Upgrading host's blood to ichor' has been purchased. ]

[ Commencing temporary spatiotemporal displacement. ]

[ Upgrading process initiated. ]

It only took a moment for the observing group to notice that something had drastically changed. The door leading to the hallway was now suddenly connected to a seemingly endless, black void. While it was an entirely new sight for Kalin, Mina, Averin and Jakk, both Ais and Lefiya had seen this before - when Isaac had appeared through a mystifying vortex.

A curious glint flashed past Ais' eyes, before she re-focussed on Isaac. She was well aware that this was just a footnote of the main event, nothing to get sidetracked by. The rest of the group, however, stared into the emptiness for a while longer. While it wasn't a novelty for Lefiya, it was still just as fascinating as before. Thankfully, the absence of any phenomena akin to the vortex she had seen before enabled the curious elf to once again concentrate on more important matters after a short moment of distraction.

Still, if Isaac hadn't told the group to stay calm and seated before, no matter what they see, most of the group would have probably jumped out of their seats at the sudden change in environment.

He had already expected something along these lines to happen, ever since he had noticed the laws of the world interfering when he had named Averin. His body's blood upgrading to ichor would most likely have the laws show a much more spirited reaction during the process, which could easily draw unwanted attention to himself. Additionally, the laws could try to bind him or burden him with restrictions, an even more annoying matter. Of course, the system had already included a method to deal with all of this in the somewhat steep price of 10.000 AP.

By temporarily removing a specified area from the world Isaac was residing in, the laws couldn't intervene. There was no need to fear any of the usually associated inconveniences either, as the displaced area and the people contained within would be perfectly cared for and unharmed. As long as they stayed within the area, at least.

[ The Skill 'Divine Blood' has been obtained. ]

[ Divine Blood: The user has the blood of a divine lifeform running through their veins.

(Active) Exudes Divine Aura.

(Passive) 25% buff to all stats. ]

[ Further upgrade has been unlocked. Cost of upgrading host's body to Divine Body: 15.000 AP ]

Rapidly, Isaac could feel his bones, his muscles, his ligaments and all other parts of his body getting nourished by an intangible energy radiating from the cozily warm blood flowing through his veins. Not just his body felt a marked improvement, however, even his mental layer got impacted. Even though he had felt like the pathways had fully recovered previously, even the last remnants of strain had completely disappeared just now. With the energy spreading to his lake of mana, the volume increased at a startling rate.

Observed from the outside, Isaac's body had turned into a quite peculiar state. His skin and flesh had turned slightly transparent, so the golden blood quickly spreading through his blood vessels could be seen as clear as day. With every passing second, his body seemed to turn progressively more sacred, while it began to glow in a subtle, golden light. Even his immediate vicinity got shrouded in an incorporeal, golden mist, which made part of the observing group instinctively tremble.

Although Ais, Averin and Mina, who had already become a part of the system, were spared from this, they were still just as awed as everyone else. Although the sight couldn't even hope to compare to a god's natural state, the gods living amongst mortals usually didn't put their divinity on display.

Once he had determined there were no more significant changes taking place in his body, Isaac opened his eyes again. Compared to before, however, they now seemed like torches in the darkness, drawing everyone's attention to them. One had to note that it wasn't actually dark in the surroundings and that Isaac's eyes didn't actually look any different, besides the almost imperceptible veins within having changed colour.

At the same time as he had opened his eyes, without anyone immediately noticing it, the living room had returned from the endless, black void.

"What did you just do?!"

The first one to break the silence was the slack-jawed Lefiya, who stared at Isaac with lots of curiosity, confusion and a hint of instinctive reverence in her eyes. To be honest, though, her reaction was almost the tamest out of the bunch, if one ignored Kalin and Ais, who seemed to be only be slightly amazed and had raised their eyebrows. For Ais, this was because she simply wasn't surprised, whereas Kalin most likely had no idea what he had just seen and was purely intrigued. The looks on Jakk's and Averin's faces were quite spirited, fairly similar to Lefiya, although it was pretty hard to make sure of that when looking at a rooster. As for Mina, her tail was wagging with a frightening speed, while her eyes were sparkling with excitement. There was no doubt her mind was currently singing praises to the magnificence of her lord.

While Isaac took this chance to explain to everyone that he had just successfully upgraded his body's blood to ichor, the blood of the gods, he took a glimpse at his Status while there was a moment of stunned silence.

[ Name: Isaac Blackshaw ]

[ Familia: Loki Familia ]

[ Affiliation: None ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Level: 2 ]

[ Age: Unable to measure ]

[ Charisma: 19 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-0 (+ 26) (2250 x 1.25) ]

[ Endurance: I-0 (+ 23) (2250 x 1.25) ]

[ Dexterity: I-0 (+ 27) (2250 x 1.25) ]

[ Agility: I-0 (+ 25) (2250 x 1.25) ]

[ Magic: I-0 (+ 27) (2250 x 1.25) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ Divine Blood ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Huntsman: I ]

Besides the multiplier next to his stats, the only change Isaac was able to discover was a five point increase in his Charisma. As he had previously had no idea how to improve it, this was a welcome surprise. Contrary to his expectations, however, his race hadn't changed. Because of the amount of Divine Aura he was exuding, he had thought he would be classified as a Demigod by now, which didn't appear to be the case. It seemed like he would only be able to approach such a state after the next upgrade he had unlocked. This was just an assumption, however. For all Isaac knew, it could easily be even further down the line.

After Isaac's explanation had come to a close, Jakk had recovered enough to ask a question. While his eyes had regained their calm, his voice was still a little bit shaky.

"So, are you a god now?"

Before the bunny boy could get unsettled by the thought of being a god's roommate, Isaac nipped his worries in the bud by shaking his head. To sate everyone's curiosity, he brought up that he could view his own Status, which enabled him to make sure his race hadn't changed. As his ability to view a Status would be exposed in a matter of minutes anyway, talking about it now didn't make any difference whatsoever.

While Isaac was explaining that he planned to give Averin, Kalin and Mina a falna, he turned off the Divine Aura his Divine Blood Skill had been emitting so far. In response, his still slightly transparent body turned back to normal again, while the group felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from their shoulders. At that point, however, Ais suddenly walked up to Isaac. Before he could even react, she had already sat down on the armchair's armrest and started poking his arm in a few places.

Even though a slight blush crept up on his face from the sudden contact, Isaac didn't miss the earnest look on Ais' face and the specific places she was pointing out. There were still a few visible veins which clearly exposed the now golden colour of his blood. Admittedly, one would only detect it if one paid extremely close attention.

"Won't people notice?"

There was a concerned look on Ais' face as she gripped Isaac's arm a little tightly. She had a good idea of what would happen if the wrong people figured out his body now contained the blood of the gods. Although she wasn't afraid of the trouble it would invite, she would still prefer it if there was no trouble to begin with.

"Because I have just stopped using my Divine Aura, the gold is a little more pronounced than it would be under normal circ.u.mstances. But, yes. If people studied me very closely for extended periods of time, they might notice it. If I'm ever in a situation where I'm about to be found out and I want to hide it, however, I'm sure I can figure out a way to do so. And before you ask, I can control when to use my Divine Aura. So don't worry about me waltzing into the dungeon with it active, okay? And even if I did, it's extremely weak, I doubt the dungeon would react much."

With a gentle smile, Isaac tried to placate Ais' worries. Even if he didn't buy some sort of concealment from the system shop, he could just try to shift the more exposed veins a little bit deeper into his body. He had never tried to do so before, but it certainly was possible. As for the part about the Divine Aura… as soon as he had mentioned it, Ais abruptly showed an uncharacteristically stern expression.

Even though he had tried, it wasn't enough. He had only spurred on the protective Ais even further.

"Please take this more seriously. Do you know why gods aren't allowed to enter the dungeon?"

What followed was the first ever time Isaac got lectured by Ais. She was normally very taciturn, so he was rather baffled by the sheer amount of words she was flooding him with.

As he had already known before, the dungeon reacted to Divine Aura by spawning extremely strong monsters to try to purge the intruder. He had, however, been slightly overestimating how much of an amount of Divine Aura it would take to trigger this. According to Loki, who had mentioned this to Ais before in passing, if a god even just slipped up a little and let a tiny fraction of their Divine Aura leak out on accident, there would be a very violent reaction.

In the past, some gods had accompanied their familias into the depths, keeping their auras in check all the while. At that time, it had already been well known that the dungeon would try its hardest to kill or chase out any intruding gods, so they were mentally prepared to hold back as much as possible. When one of the gods' favourite familia members was killed, however, they accidentally let a bit of their Divine Aura trickle out, which ended up condemning the entire expedition to death. When none of them ever returned and the godly community finally got news about what had happened from their fellow brethren who had been expelled to Heaven after their deaths, they collectively decided to prohibit any gods from entering the dungeon. Apparently, the monsters that had been generated back then were quite the headache to clean up in the aftermath, even for the then-strongest Zeus and Hera Familias.

Only after Isaac had promised her he would do his best to keep it under control and had reminded her of his ability to teleport, did Ais finally relent with a small smile. Still, even then, she didn't move back to her spot right next to Lefiya and kept sitting on the armrest, holding Isaac's arm all the while. As he had never seen Ais as concerned about him before, even though she was only thinking about a hypothetical scenario, Isaac felt very touched. Besides the warmth from his ichor, another incorporeal warmth spread through his chest.

After Ais' temporary interruption, Isaac finished answering the remaining questions of those gathered, before asking Kalin about whether he would like to get a falna from him.

The only response he got was a confident nod.

Kalin was more than a little excited about the future. The more of his capabilities his benefactor revealed, the smarter it seemed to follow him. He couldn't even comprehend how most of the things Isaac did could even be possible. But as he had already decided on this course of action yesterday, he didn't need to understand everything. He had a gut feeling that following along for the entire ride would only lead him to progressively greater heights, so why hesitate?

Once Kalin had taken off his shirt and lain down on the last free sofa in the room with his back facing upwards, Isaac pricked his right index finger with a needle he had bought before on his way to and from the dungeon.

The moment his blood made contact with Kalin's back, a plethora of information flooded into his brain. If he had had less self-control, he would have winced slightly, as the sheer amount was simply overwhelming. All of Kalin's experiences related to fighting monsters was clearly showcased in his mind. If Isaac wanted to, he could focus on any one specific instance and replay it in excruciating detail.

Still, he didn't want to get too distracted and waste time. After getting over the initial shock, he recalled the movement of Loki's ichor at the time she had given him her blessing. To confirm a few of his suspicions, he controlled his ichor to move in certain ways and observed the effects. This testing period only took about a minute, then Isaac had deciphered the whole process. As he already had an example of how a falna should work, it was all too easy to figure out the specifics.

After he had made sure that there wouldn't be any adverse effects, Isaac erased his testing strokes and started from scratch.

About five minutes later, there was only one step left: to create an emblem to mark the people he had given a blessing to. As he was never a person to get lost in excessive detail, Isaac had decided on a simple but fitting one many days prior, when the plan for his current actions had hatched in his mind.

A few strokes of his bleeding finger later, a huge Roman numeral, 'I', graced Kalin's back. This both stood for the initial of Isaac's first name and his desire for the people under his charge to be the strongest and most impressive they could be. If he had any say in their development, they were going to be the first under the heavens. Still, Isaac wasn't excessively minimalistic either, so he put a small but ornate crown right at the top of the 'I', inspired by the Hidden Path he had unlocked back when Mina became his first subordinate.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Isaac nodded his head, checked once again whether he had made any mistakes and then pulled his bleeding finger away.

"Alright, I'm finished."

Before he had a chance to write down Kalin's Status on a sheet of paper, multiple system notifications clogged up his field of view.

[ Due to sufficient understanding and the perpetual availability of ichor, you can now update your Status whenever you choose to do so. ]

[ Kalin Myre has joined your familia.

Hidden Path 'Family Man' has been unlocked.

Related achievements have been unlocked.

'Familia' feature has been unlocked.

1000 AP rewarded. ]

[ Quest 'Have one familia member.' completed. 100 AP rewarded. ]

[ Your familia is currently nameless. Please choose a name for your familia. ]

While Kalin was getting overwhelmed by his sudden and drastic increase in stats, Isaac blissfully ignored the youngster's plight, as a momentary confusion clouded his eyes.

'What's the point in having both a Subordinate and a Familia feature?'