Chapter 50 - All Bark And No Bite

Thanks to recently updating his Status, Isaac's speed had increased significantly. In fact, it had almost doubled compared to back when he had just gained his Divine Blood. As a result, his monster slaying and dungeon exploration speed had improved by leaps and bounds as well. So even though he only spent about four hours on the fourth floor tonight, his Level 1 monster slaying achievement had progressed to 17.290/18.000, while his AP had increased to 13.951 by the time he returned. Nothing unusual had happened tonight - after all, why would it? If something abnormal happened all the time, it would stop being abnormal and turn into the new normal instead.

-----

Because they had been informed that they would set off at 6 a.m. sharp today, Isaac left his tent fully clad in his adventuring attire at about 4:45 a.m.. This time, he hadn't made any effort to keep the noise down while changing, instead, he had even consciously made a ruckus until he had made sure that his tent mates had woken up. He didn't want them to bog down the party by sleeping for too long, after all.

While taking a look around, he, somewhat surprisedly, noticed that only the occupants of one tent were already waiting outside - Line, Tanzi and Aselina. Seemingly, everyone else had a tough time waking up this early in the morning. If Isaac had to venture an educated guess, it would be that Line had been the one who had dragged the others out of bed.

As if to provide further proof for his hypothesis, after exchanging "Good morning"s, Line resolutely rose from her seat and straightened out her attire.

"I better wake everyone up, we don't want to be late!"

With these words, she hurried off towards the three tents whose inhabitants hadn't assembled yet. But as he didn't care about all of this, Isaac simply sat down next to the other two girls while waiting. He would have felt a little bit awkward if he was the only one standing.

As both Tanzi and Aselina were usually quiet and didn't initiate conversations of their own, besides the initial greetings, they didn't exchange any other words. Line had been the one who had kept the previous chat going but now that she was gone, silence had descended.

During this time, Tanzi, as always, had a calm smile plastered on her face and was observing Isaac, occasionally blinking. Honestly, it was somewhat unnerving. Isaac had never seen Tanzi show anything but a smile. He much rather preferred the company of the somewhat frosty raccoon girl, Aselina. After all, she only had a blank look on her face while giving off an unapproachable air, she didn't stare at him.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere was quite nice, as Isaac didn't like to talk too much either. But as always, good things didn't last long. The relaxing silence was interrupted by Kell, Bryce and Orba who were chased out of their tent by a stern Line, hurriedly putting on the last pieces of their equipment.

"Geez, cut us some slack!"

Bryce's complaints were completely ignored by Line, who was already on her way to Randi and Claire's tent. Auroch and Cedar had left their tent shortly after Bryce's complaint, so almost everyone was gathered now.

The cold attitude he had been treated with didn't bother Bryce as all, as the mischievous cat boy let his gaze wander around before finally settling on Aselina. With a bright grin, he walked up to her and patted her head.

"Good morning, Icey!"

In response, the girl showed a small smile and nodded, clearly not really sure of how to handle the situation. Still, this didn't bother the cat boy, as he simply sat down between her and Tanzi, showing no sense of shame. But because this kind of behaviour wasn't anything unusual for him, nobody paid him much attention. Even the two girls in question didn't react much to his boisterous actions. After all, they had grown used to it a long time ago.

This all continued until Randi and Claire left their tent, which was located behind where Tanzi, Bryce, Aselina and Isaac were seated.

Before the hearty boaz even had a chance to greet everyone, she noticed something. It was Bryce's hand, which was slowly but surely creeping closer to Aselina's tail. Most likely, he wanted to play a prank on or get some kind of reaction out of her - it wasn't anything unusual. Still, Randi's gaze turned noticeably angry.

Seemingly perceiving something, Bryce suddenly pulled back his hand, almost instinctively, but the damage was already done. Before he could fully realize what was happening, two strong hands had grabbed his shoulders from behind, before raising him up and placing him down next to Isaac, far away from Aselina. And yet, the hands didn't leave his shoulders.

The moment he had seen Randi close in on the cat boy, Orba, who had been observing the whole thing, momentarily showed a gloating smile, before shaking his head exasperatedly and muttering to himself.

"When will he finally learn…?"

While the pressure on his shoulders was increasing by the second, Randi's lively and seemingly harmless voice entered Bryce��s ears.

"Seems like you've been playing around while I wasn't looking, eh?"

Aselina was somewhat socially inept - she honestly didn't know how to behave or what even was considered to be appropriate in a social setting. Because of this, Bryce often took advantage of that to tease her a little. Still, he never really went too far. But even this already left a bad taste in Randi's mouth as if it reminded her of something unpleasant. With that in mind, she tightened her grip even further, causing the cat boy to shed a few tears from his eyes and panickedly nodding his head.

"I got it, I got it!"

Only after he had yielded did Randi let go of him with a threatening smile, before finally relaxing and sitting down in Bryce's former spot and giving the confused raccoon girl a gentle hug.

"Just tell this big sister if someone's bullying you, okay?"

Although the look of confusion on her face only deepened, Aselina nodded. She had long ago realized that even if she didn't know what was going on, if she simply nodded, everything would be solved.

While Bryce was rubbing his shoulders with a somewhat exasperated and pained expression, a loud clap attracted everyone's attention. To nobody's surprise, the source of it was Line.

"No more playing around. Eat breakfast and then get ready to pack up everything and depart!"

Admittedly, Line's stern expression looked a lot more cute than threatening, but nobody went against her order. After all, they weren't stupid enough to ignore their tasks while on an expedition. There was a time and a place for everything.

-----

As the vast majority of the entrances to the 19th floor were located in the trunk and between the roots of the enormous tree next to Rivira, the expedition party had to pass through there as well. Obviously, nobody was stupid enough to bar their path and they got to the staircases without a problem. Some of Rivira's residents even mirrored the citizens of Orario and cheered for them, wishing them good luck and a safe return. It was a lot more subdued than on the surface, though, because there were a lot less people here. In any case, they had nothing to lose from hoping for their success.

What followed was almost a carbon copy repeat of what happened yesterday. Incredibly large numbers of monsters assaulted them unceasingly while the main force members cut them down as fast as they could, opening up a path for the supporters and the supplies they carried. Still, because the Loki Familia's strength was at the very top of all familias, the mere Level 2 monsters that stood in their way were practically no different from the mostly Level 1 monsters they had faced yesterday. They simply weren't a threat. Nonetheless, everybody kept alert, just in case something went horribly wrong.

During all of this, Isaac noticed a couple of monster species that he hadn't encountered and researched before and took note of the respective floors they found them on. Seeing how he only saw a handful of them even under these circ.u.mstances, they seemed to be incredibly rare and he would have to spend quite a bit of time to actually come across them on his own if he wanted to research them in the future. However, that wasn't sufficient to deter Isaac from doing so.

By the time the expedition party had reached the stairs to the 25th floor, the entrance to the Water City, seven hours had already passed. As it had taken them an hour to advance to each new floor, one might think they had kept a steady pace throughout, but this wasn't the case. They had slowly been increasing their speed, because the distance between staircases got bigger the further down they went. If larger parts of all known floors had been mapped by adventurers so far, it might be possible to discover a more ideal path, but this simply wasn't the case.

Because Isaac was somewhat bored, even though he had been circulating drops of mana and focusing on his surroundings all this while, keeping a lookout for potential dangers, he suddenly thought of something. He had never gone past the Water City and had no clue about what lay beyond. With that in mind, he turned to Claire, who was walking in between him and Cedar. The three of them were following the cart that Randi and Auroch were pulling.

"By the way, what's the next safety point?"

He had been wondering about when they were going to rest again. After all, the only other safety point he knew about was on the 50th floor but with their current pace, reaching all the way there in a day seemed utterly unrealistic. There were probably still a few floors that they would rest on until then.

A surprised look flashed across Claire's face, before a wide grin settled in.

"I wonder… should I tell you~?"

Her surprise had to be expected, after all, to all his fellow supporters, Isaac had seemed exceedingly knowledgeable all this time. Only the people who had accompanied him on his daily dungeon delves knew that he didn't know much and discovered everything step by step on his own. Because of this, when he saw her teasing expression, Isaac only showed a wry smile and didn't blame her for it, before giving a short nod.

"Please do. That'd be great."

As if she had just heard something delightful, a giggle escaped Claire's mouth.

"I will tell you, but only if I get something in return. There is no free meal in this world, after all."

Isaac rolled his eyes at her stinginess but didn't mind it too much. After all, she was only teasing him a little. If he couldn't even deal with something like that, how could he have survived his early childhood? Also, it wasn't like he was averse to doing her a small favour in return, so he decided to hear her out. If he didn't like the deal, he could always refuse and wait until they reached the next safety point naturally. His curiosity would simply be sated a little bit later, that was all.

"So, what do you want?"

Somewhat surprised by his non-refusal, Claire was stunned for a moment before returning to her senses. A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes for a second, before she carefully hid it and glanced at him while trying to appear a little seductive.

"How about a massage?"

For a moment, there was only silence, while Isaac tried to determine whether she was kidding or not with a somewhat blank look on his face. Then Cedar, who had been walking alongside them quietly, couldn't take it anymore.

Claire's behaviour had only worsened over time and mostly thanks to a certain cat boy's influence, she was slowly turning into a female version of Bryce. She always tried to play pranks on or tease the guys around her while gaining some benefits. While thinking of what her intentions might be, a vein almost popped on Cedar's forehead. Did she believe she was the heroine of a harem story?!

With every intention to ruin her current fun, even though he would be doing 'that guy' a favour in the process, Cedar opened his mouth.

"It's the 29th floor."

Hearing the otherwise somewhat hostile Elf's words, Isaac was a little surprised but nonetheless, he shot Cedar an appreciative look before nodding gratefully. In response, Cedar simply looked away with a snort, not bothering with the conversation any longer. Still, Isaac was glad to see that the Elf's attitude had only continuously improved.

While looking at the now unhappily pouting Claire, a mischievous smile appeared on Isaac's face and he pointed her previous words right back at her.

"A massage, huh? There is no free meal in this world, so I wonder how I should let you pay me back?"

Isaac had intended to make the girl think that he would actually give her a massage in exchange for valis or information. Then, when she fell for his trap he would refuse her by saying that he didn't need whatever she offered, embarrassing her a little. Still, what happened was entirely unexpected.

In response to his words, Claire's face rapidly turned a bright red colour, while she quickly looked at the ground. She was behaving extremely shyly and hugging herself while slightly shivering. As if she was a little afraid, she slightly bit her lip. When she thought he wasn't looking, she stole a glance at him before muttering under her breath.

"Pervert…"

A perplexed and somewhat exasperated sigh escaped Isaac's lips. Yes, he had been aware of the incredibly minor, somewhat perverted implications his words could have. But he had chosen them carefully after analyzing all of her behaviour until now. He had thought that responding in the words he chose, which were quite similar to the way she always teased him, would have the best effect. As he usually didn't behave in the way his words implied, it should be easy for her to realize he was just teasing her a little. Then, she would think about it a little and 'realize' that he only meant non-sensual goods like valis and information. It might not have been even close to a perfect plan, but it certainly shouldn't have turned out like this. Who would have thought that she was all bark, no bite?!

Now that there had been a misunderstanding and her reaction had been so incredibly… innocent, there really was a need to clear things up.

"Claire, snap out of it. That's not what I meant!"

After hearing his words and observing the look on his face for a while, it seemed like the shy Claire was finally convinced and after calming down, she playfully hit Isaac's shoulder.

"Geez! Playing me like that…"

-----

It didn't take long for the expedition party to reach the 27th floor, a place Isaac had never set foot in before. What made it so different from the 25th and 26th floors was that instead of many small caves and hallways, it was just a single, incredibly huge cavern, whose size couldn't even be estimated. Most of the ground was taken up by a seemingly endless lake, while the land next to it did contain a few small mountains and cliffs. They were riddled with many water sources like ponds, lakes and rivers.

On this floor, a lot of new monster species had joined the ones he had encountered on the 25th and 26th floors, but Isaac didn't have any opportunity to research them right now. After all, it was about time for one of the highlights of the expedition party's descent, the slaying of Amphisbaena. During this endeavour, the rest of the main forces besides the few that would be deployed to kill the Monster Rex would keep the attacking monsters at bay.

Because Amphisbaena was a Level 5 floor boss, none of the main force members that weren't Executives got the opportunity of fighting it - after all, they were still too weak. That was why Finn had already decided on the ones who would face Amphisbaena yesterday: Ais, Tiona, Tione and Bete. If one of the Level 6 adventurers - him, Gareth or Riveria - joined, they wouldn't gain anything from it, after all.

As soon as the four arrived at the shores of the incredibly large lake, the Monster Rex seemed to have noticed them and surfaced just a short distance away. As it didn't move for a moment after that, possibly to observe its prey before the battle began, Isaac finally had a chance to take a closer look at it.

Amphisbaena was at least 50 meters long and 20 meters wide, although a part of it was still underwater, so he couldn't be entirely sure - it was just his best guess. Its overall shape was similar to a Western dragon without any wings. The only stark difference was that it had two heads instead of one. The left head's eyes were blue, while the right one's were red. Its scales were almost perfectly white. It felt somewhat holy and beautiful, even though its eyes were filled to the brim with bloodl.u.s.t.

Sadly, Isaac didn't have much more time to appreciate the view. Although Bete would normally be the most feral out of the ones chosen to fight, this time, his presence seemed incredibly weak next to Tiona. She exuded a completely different air than usual and even Ais seemed to be a little incensed, as she frowned deeply while looking at the twin-headed dragon. This baffled Bete a little, as he had no clue why his generally quite harmless-seeming companions had suddenly turned so vicious. This was far from the first time they fought this monster, after all.

"It's time for revenge!!"

With rarely seen hatred burning in her eyes, Tiona squeezed out these words from between her lips, causing Isaac to show a somewhat guilty smile. Tiona didn't give him any further time to think about his past decisions, however, as she barrelled towards Amphisbaena at full speed in the next moment, quickly followed by the other three.

Sadly, however, the four Level 5 adventurers and the Level 5 Amphisbaena were far faster than what Isaac could follow with his eyes, which made the entire battle feel a little anticlimactic. Only every now and then did he catch glimpses of it. Again and again, blood fountains erupted, followed by breath attacks. A crimson mist surrounded the white dragon as well, which, after he had asked about it, was explained to be one of the dragon's two breath attacks - a defensive technique that could diffuse magic. It was the main reason Lefiya and other mages, who could usually deal damage to far stronger opponents than themselves, weren't included in the battle.

The ground started to shake more and more and it almost made some of the supporters lose their footing. Occasionally, Tiona and Tione got flung away but when they got up again, Isaac could clearly observe that they had gotten stronger. The reason was most likely a Skill but as he wasn't familiar with their Status', he couldn't be sure. Well, in any case, if the ever-growing mist of blood in the water wasn't there, Isaac wouldn't have been entirely sure of who had the upper hand.

Ultimately, the battle continued for almost ten minutes, before it was concluded underwater. Sometime before, Amphisbaena had already lost one of its heads to one of Ais' attacks. The fatal blow was dealt by Tiona, however, who ripped off the retreating Monster Rex' remaining head with pure strength that had continuously increased during the battle. After she had done so, it felt like a huge burden was lifted from her chest and she quickly swam back ashore, leaving the task of looting the corpse to Tione.

Speaking of, the salvaged magic stone was far bigger than any Isaac had seen before - it was multiple meters in diameter and was unhesitatingly stored on one of the supporter teams' carts. It was sure to fetch quite the incredible price up on the surface. Additionally, Tiona also came back with what looked to be a huge organ, almost as big as herself. But as Isaac wasn't an expert on Amphisbaena or dragon physiology, he had no clue what it was. Still, a drop item from a Monster Rex was sure to be worth a lot of money, so it was placed right next to the magic stone.

Before Isaac could worry about whether the organ would slowly decay now that it was separated from its host and whether it needed to be stored in a different manner, a slightly wet and bruised Tiona charged his way and gave him a - compared to last time - more gentle hug, all the while laughing wildly.

"Hehe, did you see that? I avenged you!"

Judging from everyone's confused expressions, that proved that they were still somehow able to divide enough attention to focus on such a pointless conversation while dealing with the many Monster Parties, Isaac felt like he needed to clear things up. Still, weren't they quite a lot less strained than he had thought?

"Yeah, you did great. But the way you said it makes it sound like I died."

Although she was happy that Isaac was appreciatively patting her back in an attempt to reward her for her efforts, Tiona still pouted a little when she heard the latter part of his words.

"You almost did…"

For what felt like the n-th time today, a wry smile stole itself on Isaac's face, while he tried to softly end the hug that had been going on for a little longer than he was comfortable with.

"It would take a lot more than that to kill me, don't worry."

With that said, he shot a pleading gaze at Ais, who was approaching them steadily. Thankfully, the golden-haired beauty immediately understood and freed him of Tiona's clutches, but not before asking Isaac for a hug of her own. Even though Isaac wouldn't have minded that hug continuing until the end of time, Finn's cough returned him to reality and made him scratch the back of his head in embarrassment. Hadn't he decided to not bog down the party? Then what was he doing right now?

Thankfully, nobody seemed to mind the slight hold-up too much, although a few people were certainly cursing the PDA under their breaths. Honestly, they couldn't be faulted. It was just like a millionaire ignorantly flaunting his wealth in front of starving children - somewhat atrocious.

With everything back on track, Finn grasped his spear and led the way towards the 28th floor.

"The toughest of today's battles has already been fought and we're almost at the safety point. But don't let your guard down just yet!"

Even though most people would have grown tired of the repeated warnings by now, none of the expedition party members were foolish enough to ignore them. Their lives were at stake, after all. Although some small amounts of relaxedness couldn't be helped, they would always stay vigilant.