Chapter 37 - Preparation Is Key

Within the Captain's office, also dubbed 'the war room' by a few members of the familia, Finn was seated behind his desk, sending contemplative gazes towards everyone else gathered here. Besides their goddess Loki, who was observing the proceedings with an interested grin on her face and was the one who had called for this meeting, both Riveria and Gareth, the rest of the top brass of the familia, were also present.

As for the ones who had, up until this point, reported their findings, those were the Amazoness twins Tiona and Tione, as well as Isaac. But besides all of those, there were still two others who had joined the meeting: Ais and Lefiya.

To no-one's surprise, Tione was seated as close to Finn as possible, while Tiona and Ais flanked Isaac, who admittedly was feeling a little uncomfortable. If Ais' presence didn't provide him a sense of security, which made him tolerate the situation, he would have distanced himself from the clingy Amazoness a long time ago. But why was Ais here when she didn't have anything to add to the conversation in the first place? Simply because she felt like it. As an Executive of the familia, if she wanted to listen in on a meeting like this, no-one would attempt to stop her. Compared to the golden-haired beauty, who was just uninterestedly watching from the sidelines, the one seated on her right side, Lefiya, had an actual reason for being here. Because she was being groomed as Riveria's protégé and successor, taking part in meetings like this was just another aspect of her daily training.

This afternoon's training session had ended a little earlier than usual, seeing how there were still about two hours to go until dinner time. But as the Amazoness twins had reported today's unusual find to Loki right when they had returned, Isaac had to compromise and attend the meeting she called for. As a part of her familia, to do so was simply the least he could do.

"Alright, I understand the situation now."

With an appreciative nod and unintentionally suave smile on his face, Finn thanked the three people who had just recounted today's happenings. Of course, he made sure to ignore Tione's increasingly heated gaze.

"Is there anything else you would like to report?"

It was a routine question that Finn didn't expect an answer to, so he flashed Isaac a look of surprise when the latter nodded and continued in his explanation.

"Yes, I have already discovered entrances to this man-made labyrinth on the first, second and third floor previously. Needless to say, I know how to operate the secret doors as well."

Everyone besides Ais, who didn't seem to be bothered by this revelation, shot Isaac an incongruous look. The first one to break the silence, in attempt to find out the reason for his silence on the matter so far, was Riveria.

"Why didn't you submit a report about this sooner?"

An apologetic smile played across Isaac's lips, as he got ready to give a rather lengthy statement.

"I wanted to first investigate how many floors deep this anomaly reaches, as I didn't want to waste everyone's time by simply revealing the tip of the iceberg, some superficial knowledge. Sadly, as I could only use my free time to acc.u.mulate information so far, I haven't made too much progress. What I can confirm, however, is that the labyrinth seems to be connected to the rumour that Daedalus Street has its own entrance to the dungeon. After all, every single one of the entrances discovered so far is literally pointing in its direction."

A moment after Isaac had finished, a somewhat saddened sigh escaped Loki's lips, which caused her to be looked at with questioning gazes. So as to not disappoint the expectant looks on her children's faces the mischievous goddess revealed a tiny bit of what she was privy to.

"The godly community is aware that some of our more… unsavory brethren and their familias have made Daedalus street their home. Of course, many people who are simply down on their luck can be found there as well. Anyway, any dam will eventually have a leak. Because of that, we've been aware of these familias and some other criminal organizations using an artificial construct beneath the area to enter the dungeon while escaping the notice of the Guild."

This admission of knowledge didn't surprise Isaac. No secret could be kept forever, and with gods being practically immortal, they would know about a lot of things that just floated around the town as a rumour. Before he could let his thoughts wander for too long, however, Loki's words continued.

"Because of the huge amount of backlash if Ouranos forcefully imposed his rules on that rather sizable portion of the godly community, we have been forced to overlook this unregulated variable so far. Still, just like the Entertainment District and other huge parts of the city, where horrific crimes are commonplace, the familias who made this labyrinth their home wouldn't dare to create too much trouble. After all, if they stick out like a sore thumb, they could earn the displeasure of too many other gods, which would sign their death warrants. What I'm trying to say is this: It's a somewhat negligible threat to the godly community, therefore, we tolerate it."

Even though his goddess had tried to downplay the potential danger, Finn's expression had darkened considerably. As he had to take the situation of the whole familia into account, he couldn't just ignore this uncertainty.

"No matter what, we should investigate this further. To have unknown dark forces in the shadows who could strike us at any moment is too much of a risk. Even our supply lines during expeditions are in considerable danger of a sneak attack."

After hearing Finn's assessment of the situation, Gareth felt like now would be the best time to offer his services.

"Should I take a party down there and investigate?"

Although his position in the familia wasn't very influential, as he wasn't an Executive of any kind, Isaac still felt a need to intervene. After all, he couldn't allow things to develop in this direction for now.

"Excuse the interruption, but that would be a bad idea."

Seeing how both Finn and Gareth felt a little offended at this rookie butting in, Loki signalled to them to let Isaac speak, which made the two realize that she valued the new blood a lot more than they had expected. While they knew that she had huge expectations for Isaac's potential, they weren't aware that even his council was something she valued highly. This made Finn take another intrigued look at the calm man staring at him from his seat on the sofa. During all of this, Riveria stayed quiet and waited for Isaac's following words.

"As we don't really know what kind of dangers we'll encounter in the labyrinth, this could impact the plans for the expedition. The entire expedition could even need to be put on hold for a long time, depending on what we'll find and how much of our efforts we'll need to divert. As there are most likely already many promises and deals made with other familias regarding the resources we'll bring back from the expedition, suddenly changing our plans like this would give us a bad image and could have long-term, trust-related consequences."

A small smile played across Riveria's lips. She had been worried about the same thing as well and would have stopped Finn and Gareth on these grounds if Isaac hadn't done so. But from what she could see, the enigmatic man wasn't even close to done yet, which raised her impression of him yet again. With a mind like this, he would indeed be suitable to protect the rather straightforward Ais...

"Additionally, major changes to the expedition would attract a lot of attention, especially from those dark forces you eluded to. As they haven't sneak attacked us so far, for many years, according to my knowledge, it is unlikely that this will change in the near future. Rather, sudden changes in behaviour could trigger them into acting against us in the first place. Seeing how we can't judge how strong our opponents are, our losses could be more than we can afford to stomach. Still, these unknown threats also leave a bad taste in my mouth. Therefore, I recommend gathering more intelligence first. As far as we know, we don't have any reason to hurry, so I'll continue to spend my free time investigating this. After all, I can recognize those secret doors even in their closed, hidden state. Additionally, I would like to question the boy my students rescued earlier today. He might have a lot of helpful information as well. Once I can assess what we are facing, it's not too late to land a well-prepared strike."

As Isaac paused shortly at this point, Finn was just about to praise him for his thoughtfulness. But he didn't get the chance to, which left him a little baffled. Just how many layers of plans had this man laid out in the short period of time he had been here?!

"Once we successfully take down the forces using this illegal entrance, we'll have removed a thorn from Ouranos' side. This will gain us his favour, which will partially translate into a lot of monetary benefits we'll receive from the Guild. Also, Loki will be able to take advantage of this and leverage it against him in her negotiations with him in the future. Another thing to consider would be the labyrinth itself. We aren't required to publicize its location, after all, so if we manage to take control of it, we'll have our own entrance to the dungeon, which would give us a plethora of options for the future."

There was another thing that Isaac didn't mention - the fact that he suspected the main antagonists of the DanMachi novels to have a large presence in the labyrinth. After all, the labyrinth had been alluded to quite early in the story, so it was likely that it would play a huge role later on. From what Isaac knew of the story, the protagonists and their companions were always in an underdog position, so the main antagonists would only exceed them in strength, not the other way around. As Ais was considered to be one of the two protagonists of the story, the forces they had to face were way beyond the current Loki Familia. It would be foolish to have them preemptively come into contact with such a huge threat. While he could guarantee Ais' safety, and the safety of a few others, it was certain that a tragedy would ensue. He didn't want Ais to go through something like that. Instead, what if he just became strong enough to shatter the threat in the first place, before it could take shape? Whether that panned out or not wasn't clear yet, but he at least had to try.

While Finn was already feeling happy about the fact that he wasn't in a position to be schemed against by Isaac and wanted to finally get a chance to praise the young one for his insight, he soon became a bit exasperated as another person chimed in on the conversation - Lefiya, who currently had a worried and indignant look on her face.

"But if we don't act now, there will be many more victims of those criminals, which we could have saved!"

Hearing this, Finn, Riveria, Gareth, Loki, Isaac and Tione exchanged knowing glances. All of them knew what needed to be done, but none wanted to be the one to take the first step and burst the lovable elf's bubble.

"Allow me."

After a reluctant sigh, Isaac looked straight into Lefiya's eyes with a serious look on his face. This made the pure elf blush a little, but she didn't avoid his gaze and stared back at him defiantly.

"Lefiya. Every day, countless actions we condemn as horrible crimes get committed all over the world. They are happening right this second as well, but we simply don't know about them. As long as you aren't an omnipotent and omniscient being, there is nothing you can do to stop all of them. Mind you, even the gods aren't that powerful. Still, to try to save the people we know about is indeed a noble and nice idea."

Lefiya smiled brightly when Isaac arrived at this part, but she was destined to be disappointed as soon as he continued.

"But if you jump headfirst into unknown danger without a plan and lose your life in the process, you won't be able to save anyone. It would be a pointless death, you wouldn't achieve anything. It's a great ideal but simply doesn't work in practice."

'Unless you're a broken, cheat-like existence of a main character with ridiculous amounts of good luck.'

"So instead, in order to be able to save a greater amount of people, you have to be sufficiently prepared before taking action. That way, you'll survive longer and be able to save more people during your lifetime. You might not be able to save absolutely everyone, but you'll achieve the most you possibly can."

Admittedly, this wasn't a philosophy Isaac liked very much himself, as he didn't aspire to be any kind of hero or saviour. He was aware that such a worldview could only bring about happiness in the short term. But simply by the nature of sentient beings having free will, conflict would inevitably arise again, no matter what. All of these lofty aspirations were something that could never be eternally realized, unless free will was taken out of the equation. Still, Lefiya didn't need to know about all of this. Isaac would already be happy if she refrained from aspiring to be a suicidal hero and just did her best.

The room's atmosphere had turned a little glum, especially because everyone was aware that these words were indeed the truth. Although having the heart of a hero sounded like a great thing, without the support of fate itself, one could only end up dying in a hopeless pursuit. To stay rational and only save the people one could save might hurt one's heart, but at least it would lead to a better situation overall.

Besides Lefiya, who had turned meek and dejected after a short period of speechlessness, her long ears drooping sadly, the one who was the most affected by Isaac's words was Tiona. Ever since her childhood, she had been fascinated by heroic tales, so although she had been very aware of how unreasonable it was to aim for such a lifestyle, to have it all plainly laid out in front of her wasn't something she could swallow easily.

Finally, after Finn accepted Isaac's previous proposal and told him that he wanted regular updates about the situation, there wasn't really anything left to discuss, so Loki dismissed the meeting, but not before asking to talk to Isaac alone. Even Ais was forced to stay away as Loki led the way to her study.

When both of them were seated across from each other on the green sofas as usual, Loki opened her red eyes slightly further and allowed a small amount of her Divine Aura to emanate outwards, intending to pressure Isaac a little with that and her predator-like gaze. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

Even under the intangible pressure of the Divine Aura bearing down on him, Isaac didn't show any sign of panic and just smirked, before shaking his head. This admission, as well as the fact that her methods weren't working at all, as she had already somewhat expected, made Loki reel her Divine Aura back in and close her eyes again, visibly relaxing in the process.

"I knew you would notice."

As Loki's blood, a part of her, was still on Isaac's back in the form of her Falna, she had a way to detect the changes in his body, especially if they were of such a massive scale. The Divine Aura he had exuded back when he got his ichor upgrade wasn't something that could simply be overlooked. Although she had only been informed of it the moment the spatiotemporal dislocation had ended, Loki had been aware of Isaac's peculiar changes to a certain degree since then. Although nobody else would be able to discern anything unusual easily, unless he unleashed his Divine Aura in public, Isaac had never even planned to escape Loki's notice. Sure, he could have probably paid the system some AP to hide this fact from her, but it just felt like a waste of resources. As someone close to Ais and himself, Loki was bound to find something amiss sooner or later.

While a slight smile played across her lips, Loki opened her eyes again and looked deep into Isaac's, focusing hard on whether or not the answer he would give to her upcoming question would be the truth.

"Will you stay in the familia?"

Everything was proceeding according to Isaac's expectations, so he nodded in response, before clarifying further.

"I won't leave the familia or harm it, as it is Ais' home. Only if the familia betrayed Ais would I turn my back on it."

As she couldn't detect any kind of falsehood in his eyes or words, Loki smiled wryly in response. Why would she ever want to backstab Ais? Still, because of her slight distraction, before she could get to the next point on her agenda, Isaac had already addressed it for her.

"I know you're curious. Therefore, let me propose a deal. If you don't interfere with me negatively, I will tell you all about what you're interested in in due time. I won't harm you or the familia, you have my word. So if you can simply refrain from scheming against me, what you want will fall into your lap anyway, without you having to do anything."

To be honest, Loki was more than a little bit interested in the anomaly that was Isaac, as he certainly was different from every other sentient being she had met in the Lower World so far. After all, none of them could suddenly turn their blood into ichor. Still, as she literally had all the time in the world, and Isaac's ichor would enable him to live for an inordinate length of time, there was no need to hurry. Why work for something if you can get it for free? If she knew just how much Isaac was hiding from her, she probably wouldn't have been able to hold her curiosity back like this, but ignorance is bliss. In this case, Isaac's bliss. The final factor for Loki's decision was that she wanted to see just how high his potential could carry this child of hers.

"Deal."

Before Isaac could excuse himself, Loki's next words made him stop in his tracks, slightly baffled.

"Isn't that private force you're building more of a daycare for traumatized children?"

After a brief moment of hesitation, a cheeky smile stole itself on Isaac's face.

"I could ask you the same thing."

Now, it was Loki's turn to be baffled. But soon after, the somewhat serious atmosphere in the room broke down completely and she laughed heartily, giving Isaac a thumbs up.

"Touché!"

Once the situation had calmed down again and they had stopped grinning stupidly, Loki asked Isaac a last question before he was allowed to take his leave.

"I don't need to worry about your private force becoming a problem, right?"

With a confident nod and a smirk, Isaac replied.

"No need to worry. There will only be less problems, not more."

When Isaac finally left her study, Loki grabbed her glass of wine, sipped on it and chuckled to herself. She really wanted to see what this mortal was planning and which games he was playing here. It was a very interesting development to observe, that more and more gods would pay attention to in the future, that was for sure. Simultaneously, she began to speculate about Isaac's origins. According to her knowledge, none of the later generations of gods had the ability to create such an unusual being… Was Isaac perhaps a creation of the primordial gods?

While Loki was racking her brains over him, Isaac was also chuckling to himself as he walked towards his subordinates' base. Of course, he didn't completely trust Loki, but he was well aware that she preferred to laze around if given the opportunity. That didn't mean that she wasn't a hard worker, though, just that she wouldn't unnecessarily waste her time.

As for why she would trust his words, the reason for this was her inhuman proficiency in spotting lies, thanks to her being a trickster goddess. Subconsciously, she wouldn't even attempt to doubt someone's words if she had already recognized them as the truth. This deduction was the reason for Isaac's somewhat complacent behaviour. She would be in for quite a shock when Isaac finally departed from here, as the magnitude of what would be revealed to her wasn't something she could even imagine. Naturally, this would only happen if she honoured their deal.