Chapter 36 - Stray Cats

Although she had already succeeded in reorienting herself, Ais still hadn't fully returned from her experience. With a somewhat forlorn look on her face, she sat on her bed, hugged her knees and leaned against the wall, while thinking about what had left the deepest impression on her.

It wasn't the start of Isaac's journey, nothing of the sort. Rather, it was the fact that, while Isaac had kept up seemingly friendly relations with a few fellow students during his elementary school years, she was fully aware that all of this had just been an act. He hadn't truly cared about those people or opened up to them. Even if any of them would have died, his persona's smile wouldn't have cracked in the slightest. He might have paid some lip-service and feigned care, but that would have been the extent of his reaction.

All of this didn't seem too big of a deal on its own. But, thinking back to her experiences with Isaac in the real world, Ais was sure that he thought of all the 'friends' he had seemingly made here the same way. Even if it wasn't exactly the same, it was remarkably similar. He didn't open up to them at all. All they ever saw was what he wanted them to see.

But rather than scolding Isaac for the mask he was wearing, Ais only felt a pang of pain in her chest. She knew. She knew that he was lonely. That he most likely wanted friends, people to rely on. But he simply couldn't trust others. And even the few people he seemed to confide in were only the ones he could exert a certain amount of control over. He kept everyone at arm's length.

Just like Ais had done in the past.

While it hadn't been this extreme, she had been fully focussed on her quest for revenge and didn't want to be distracted by other, less important matters. At the same time, the last promise someone had made to her had been broken… and she had been left all alone, in the darkness. It had been hard for her to open up to others again. Still, over the course of a few years, her warm and affectionate environment had thawed the icy shell encasing her heart and made her form genuine friendsh.i.p.s. Ais was well aware that she was just beginning to understand these kinds of relationsh.i.p.s herself, but she knew that they had made a positive impact on her life. They would surely have a similar effect on Isaac's.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips, then she closed her eyes and rested her head against the comfortably cold wall.

Helping Isaac form such bonds wouldn't be easy. It would be a long and arduous process that couldn't be hurried along just because she wanted him to experience this kind of joy and warmth earlier. Ais wasn't even sure whether or not Isaac truly understood friendship itself. After all, from what she had seen so far, he never even attempted to make a friend. While he might have a general understanding of the concept, he clearly had no first-hand experience.

Yet another sigh escaped her lips, then a resolute smile played across her lips.

Thinking about all of this wouldn't be of much help. No matter what, an answer wouldn't just magically appear in front of her. She simply didn't have enough information so far.

Because of this, Ais decided to continue on her path - to stay by Isaac's side and observe. Who knows, maybe an opportunity for Isaac to make a friend would present itself one day. At the same time, while Ais was aware that Isaac, judging by his actions, already had a place for her in his heart, she also made a resolution to become his friend as well. She knew that even she wasn't yet allowed through all the walls and failsafes he had built around himself. Even if he ended up never making another friend, she wanted to be there for him.

After all, she didn't want him to be lonely.

-----

By the time Isaac, Tiona and Tione had arrived at a staircase leading down to the 24th floor of the dungeon, it was already 11 a.m.. It had taken almost two hours just to traverse the 23rd floor alone - the increasing size of the dungeon slowly made itself known.

On the entire way, they had only encountered one new monster species - the Deadly Hornets. They were about twenty times the size of a regular hornet and their highest stat could reach up to D-500 / 2350. Contrary to what Isaac had expected when he first came across them on the 22nd floor, they weren't particularly fast. Their attacks were extremely powerful and their stingers were easily able to pierce through most armours Level 2 adventurers would be wearing, though. What truly made them dangerous, however, was the fact that they moved around in large swarms of up to fifty individuals. Thankfully, Isaac only ran across groups consisting of about twenty or so, otherwise, he would have really had to step up his game significantly.

Isaac's biggest advantage when dealing with the Deadly Hornets - and all other flying monsters, for that matter - was his recently procured bow. This morning, he had purchased an ungodly amount of arrows from a multitude of shops, which he all secretly stored within his inventory. Now that he had the ammunition and didn't need to worry about it running out any time soon, he could relaxedly shoot down any flying monsters that kept out of his range. Of course, he made sure to salvage all the arrows he fired, to reuse them later. While his Level 2 stats enabled him to jump quite high, it wasn't nearly enough to be able to reach the flying monsters he was confronted with nowadays. This had often caused him to get a bit frustrated after the dungeon's caverns had gotten more and more spacious. Now, however, he only had to pull out his bow when he was done dispatching the closest enemies and could snipe all those nasty eyesores.

"We've still got some time. Want to continue?"

As he had been standing at the staircase for quite some time, silently contemplating, Tiona couldn't hold herself back and chimed in from the side. After gazing at the merrily grinning Amazoness for a moment, Isaac finally made a decision.

Thanks to the twins, Isaac was well aware of the fact that many new monster species joined the fray on the 24th floor. No matter what, he wouldn't have enough time to research all of them if he planned to return in time for today's training session. Most likely, he would have to return right in the middle of his research, which was what had been bugging him a bit before Tiona had snapped him out of his distracting thoughts. Seeing how this was a trend that would likely continue in the future, he just had to accept it. While he would like to simply stay until he was finished, he had made prior arrangements that he didn't want to renege on.

With a small smile, Isaac gave a confident nod and led the way down towards the 24th floor.

-----

At the same time, Isaac's students had made their way down to the 6th floor of the dungeon. After Kalin and Mina had gotten their Falna, their strength had soared and they easily blitzed through where they had previously been struggling. Then, at the current floor, they finally came across some new obstacles to overcome, the Frog Shooters and the War Shadows.

While they had about the same stats as the Frog Shooters, they both only got a few light scratches before getting used to their fast tongue attacks. Besides those, the enormous frogs didn't offer up much of a resistance and were easily slaughtered once the two had more or less figured out their movement patterns and range. Admittedly, that took an hour or two, but it wasn't anything too difficult, especially because they were on equal footing.

On the other hand, the War Shadows were a lot easier to deal with, even though they had higher stats. As their shapes were vaguely humanoid, their attacks weren't any different than the ones they faced during their daily spars. The only thing to look out for, the fact that they simply regenerated and could only be defeated after having taken a certain amount of damage, was something they had already been warned about by Jakk. Because of this, they couldn't be taken by surprise and the ghastly looking opponents turned into mere punching bags. Still, the group of three didn't encounter too many of them on this floor, as they were a relatively rare spawn.

Under Jakk's watchful gaze, both Kalin and Mina slaughtered their poor monster opponents with nigh reckless abandon. If they hadn't been cautioned about not letting their newfound strengths get to their heads, they would have probably overextended even further. Still, by now it was time for them to tone it down a notch, so they could be well rested for this afternoon's training session.

With that in mind, Jakk had the two take a rest in one of the numerous pathways connected to the cavern their most recent slaughter had just taken place in. As he barely had to fight so far himself, he was well rested. Therefore, standing guard and dispatching the occasionally approaching monsters wasn't taxing whatsoever.

While Mina happily munched away on a sandwich she had gotten from the Loki Familia kitchens this morning and Kalin was taking a huge sip from his waterskin, all three of them suddenly looked at the wall right next to them, about three meters away. As it had been relatively quiet, because there was no fighting going on right now, they had all heard the sound of rocks scratching against each other.

What greeted them was an open door made of the very wall of the dungeon - a hidden doorway.

The voices they could hear from within the unknown passage were what broke the group out of their stupor and made them get into battle-ready positions with their weapons drawn. It took a few seconds, but they soon could make out a sentence.

"Why are we stuck with doing the dirty work again?!"

Right after the deep, male voice had reached their ears, a group of four men appeared out of the secret doorway. Two of them were humans, one of them was a Chienthrope and the last one was a Cat Person. They all wore standard adventurer outfits and would have most likely just gotten some mistrustful, wary looks under normal circ.u.mstances, due to the dodgy air they gave off.

Unluckily for them, these weren't normal circ.u.mstances. Each of the four men had two bodies slung over their shoulders, all of which looked to be in terrible condition. Just from a quick glance, many bruises and open wounds could be made out, while they gave off a heavy stench of blood and mold.

The students' expressions immediately turned sour. Although they couldn't be one hundred percent sure what was going on, they had already convinced themselves that they weren't dealing with good people here.

"Someone's her---"

Before the human who had walked at the far right of the group of thugs had even finished his sentence, his head had already been cleanly separated from his body.

The instant she had seen the unknown arrivals, Mina knew. She knew they were just like the people who had destroyed her life. Those l.u.s.tful smiles, those arrogant, selfish glances and those bodies they were carrying around like pieces of garbage - she didn't need to know or see anything else. Whatever their reasoning may have been, she had already decided to kill them. Any sc.u.m shall be exterminated!

Mina didn't immediately continue her assault, as the remaining three enemies had taken this chance to drop their burdens and draw their weapons. Nonetheless, she was glaring at them with unbridled fury burning in her eyes.

Although he wasn't nearly as incensed as his companion, Kalin's blood was boiling as well. It might just have been a childish dream, but he believed in the concept of justice. These people who had, quite obviously committed acts of evil… they had to be judged.

This temporary stalemate didn't continue for long, however, as Jakk quickly arrived in front of the other human opponent. While the thugs had drawn their weapons, Jakk had noticed that this one's reaction speed had been remarkably faster than the rest's, so he was most likely already at Level 2 and therefore not an opponent the other two could face. Thankfully, the man didn't prove to be much of an opponent to Jakk, who had rapidly improved his strength over the past week or so as well - it had only taken three strikes to kill him. With the immediate threat out of the way, Jakk swept his gaze over the rest of the battlefield to observe how his two fellow students were faring.

Since the very moment Jakk had engaged the Level 2 leader, Mina had been exchanging blows with the Cat Person. He was quite fast and had been able to dodge many of her attacks, while being unable to land any hits on her either. Right when the thug started to get frustrated with the skills of his opponent, he suddenly blankly stared at the position of his leader for a moment - this was right when Jakk had landed the death blow. This momentary lapse in concentration was his death warrant. Within a second, Mina had separated his head from his body.

Whenever she could, Mina tried to follow in her lord's footsteps and get rid of enemies in the same way he did. This, most likely, was due to her extremely high loyalty.

Kalin had been clashing with the sword and shield wielding Chienthrope. His opponent's attack speed was impressively fast, but he was a lot slower movement-wise and a novice when it came to maneuvering, so Kalin outmaneuvered him a short time after the start of the battle. He held back and only focussed on keeping him in check for now, though, until he noticed that both of his companions had already finished their battles. At that very moment, with extreme ease, he ended the fight with a lightning-fast stab straight through the heart.

While the three of them caught their breath and inwardly celebrated their success, Jakk nodded in approval. Such common riff-raff simply didn't pose much of a challenge to them. Very quickly, though, his smug smile froze and turned into a wry one.

"We probably should have kept one of them alive to interrogate…"

When Kalin and Mina heard those words, they hung their heads in shame. All three of them hadn't really thought much about what the rational course of action should have been. Kalin had been consumed by his thirst for justice, while Mina had been trying to rid herself of a past trauma. Even the most experienced of the three, Jakk, had been distracted by a dreadful flashback. They had failed, plain and simple.

After a few moments of reflection, the three carefully inspected the bodies the thugs had been carrying. Very soon, though, Kalin released a depressed sigh.

"They're dead."

He had held out hope before, but after checking three of the bodies, he had given up. Instead of dwelling on something he couldn't change, he turned his attention towards the well-equipped bodies of their opponents and dutifully freed them of their worldly possessions which they had so generously donated. Before he could get too absorbed in his new task, however, Mina's sudden yelp made him rush to her side in a heartbeat.

"This one's alive!"

The one she was talking about was an emaciated young man, who looked more like a boy thanks to the very small amount of nutrition he had gotten over a prolonged period of time. His ears and tail gave away that he was a Cat Person, but more than half of his grey hair had been ripped out in patches all over his head, ears and tail. Paired with the rags he was wearing, he painted the very picture of misery.

Mina's yelp hadn't only gotten Jakk's and Kalin's attention, even the cat boy was startled awake and slightly opened his golden-yellow eyes. After glancing at the group of three for a moment and releasing a dry cough, his hazy, clouded gaze suddenly focussed on a frail body right next to his.

Just like him, it was a Cat Person. This one, however, was a female and looked barely over ten years old. She might have actually been older, but it was hard to tell due to, again, the severe degree of emaciation. Just like the male Cat Person, her middle-length grey hair had been ripped out in patches all over her body, but additionally, she was also covered in a multitude of bruises of all shapes and colours. What made the group of students clench their fists in anger, however, was the fact that it was plain to see that she had been the victim of severe s.e.x.u.a.l abuse, which the thugs charged with disposing the bodies didn't make any attempts of covering up in the least. Any last shred of regret the students might have felt over having just ended a number of lives moments prior was dashed then and there.

All of this didn't matter to the cat boy, however. With the last of his strength, he dragged himself over to the young girl and cradled her in his arms, then rested his head upon her chest and quietly listened for a heartbeat. When he couldn't make one out even after close to half a minute had passed, his body suddenly started shaking and a small amount of tears escaped his closed eyes. With his lower lip trembling, he quietly whispered the young girl's name.

"Millina…!"

After this, the exhaustion finally got to him and he collapsed, shedding a few more tears on the dead girl's body.

As they had felt like it would be inappropriate to interrupt the young Cat Person, the group of students had been observing the situation silently. Now that the boy had lost consciousness again, however, they concernedly gathered around him, while Kalin checked the boy's and girl's pulse.

They had already checked for her pulse before and, as expected, no miracle happened this time. The boy, however, was definitely still alive, although he quite obviously was in a horrid condition.

Kalin fed the cat boy one of the group's Potions, which they had stocked up on back at the Twilight Manor. Potions, in most cases, were watered-down vials filled with Blue Papilio Wing powder, that were able to somewhat accelerate the restoration of minor wounds. While it wouldn't be of much help, seeing how many wounds the Cat Person's body was riddled with, it was certainly better than doing nothing.

As she had particularly taken note of the dry cough from before, Mina got one of the waterskins from their supplies and carefully fed some water to the unconscious boy. A dry, parched throat was anything but comfortable and healthy, after all.

Seeing how competently his companions were handling the situation, Jakk nodded appreciatively. He hadn't even needed to say anything and they had already done their best, which was quite remarkable. Quite often, people would be overwhelmed in situations like these and wouldn't know what to do, they would simply freeze up and space out, either waiting for everything to resolve itself or an outside impetus.

While Mina and Kalin were treating the cat boy to the best of their abilities, Jakk carefully laid down all the bodies besides the young cat girl's in the most respectful positions he could manage and gave them a short but heartfelt prayer within his mind, begging the gods to let these people live happier lives next time. The thugs' bodies, however, were just thrown to the side unceremoniously and ignored. They had already been stripped of all their valuables, so there was no further use for them.

After thinking about which course of action they should take now, Jakk decided that they would simply wait here for Isaac's arrival in about an hour. Although he didn't know how he did it, he knew that his roommate somehow had the ability to find them within the dungeon and would most likely meet up with them here, as they had discussed today's plans before. Another reason to wait for Isaac's arrival was that he was accompanied by two of the familia's Executives, who would be a lot more suited to deciding what to do about the peculiar doorway they had discovered.

With that in mind, the three simply defended their current position from all approaching monsters, warily glancing at the still opened secret pathway every now and then. They didn't forget to move the young cat girl's body every few minutes either, as they knew the dungeon would absorb dead bodies after a certain amount of time had passed. Thankfully, Isaac had told them the specifics in passing before, otherwise, the young girl would have disappeared shortly before Isaac arrived.

Regarding the other bodies, none of the students made any attempts at trying to get them out of the dungeon or resisting its absorption process. If Isaac had been present he would have mentally taken note of their unusual behaviour, as it mirrored what he had born witness to before. Why were they not trying to give the bodies proper burials and just left them in the dungeon? No-one knew. As for why they kept the young girl's body around, that was because the cat boy would most likely want to say his goodbyes, paired with the fact that it would be a lot easier to explain the situation to Isaac with her body present. After all, its condition spoke for itself.

At around 12:30 p.m. three voices approached from the distance and soon, Isaac and the Amazoness twins strolled into Mina's field of view. Instantly, she ran up to them with her tail wagging excitedly and smiled brightly at her lord.

"Welcome back, milord!"

As Isaac soon noticed, she was proudly glancing at the unconscious boy and the cat girl's body, then back at him with an expectant look on her face. Her tail wags were speeding up recognizably, as if she was waiting for some kind of reward for the 'haul' she had presented to him.

'Why do I feel like she's more like a pet than a retainer?'

With a wry smile on his face, Isaac thought about the possible causes for this gradual development. Did her high loyalty somehow trigger her animalistic instincts? After all, dogs were known to be ridiculously loyal to their owners, so it was definitely something worth looking into.

Resigning himself to treating her well in either case, as loyalty should indeed be rewarded, Isaac released a sigh and patted Mina's head while passing her by, walking up to the rest of the group with the curious Tiona and Tione in tow.

"Good job, Mina."

An even brighter smile lit up the happy Chienthrope's face as she basked in the afterglow of the head pat.