Chapter 71 - Minor Troubles Along The Way

With a more than sufficient three hours of sleep under his belt, Isaac returned to the seventh floor to continue his farming, aiming for as many Blue Papilios as possible. While he himself wouldn't need too many of their drop items and could afford them easily as well, his students were far more prone to getting injured, so it could never hurt to have a surplus. Also, as he could get AP from his Level 1 monster slaying quest here, it wasn't like he was wasting any time. There were no monsters below Level 2 that he hadn't fully researched yet, so it didn't really matter which floor he chose to be the venue of his grinding endeavours. These beautiful butterflies were by far the most bang for his buck, so to speak.

By the time he returned to the temporary campsite on the 39th floor, his quest had proceeded to 48,163/49,000, while his AP stockpile had already acc.u.mulated to a mind-boggling 92,821. By now, Isaac even doubted that he would easily be able to spend it all as the next upgrade, the Divine Body, would only cost him less than a sixth of it. With no other option, suffering from success as he was, he decided to figure out what to do with his AP when he had time to look into it in the future. Who knows, he might just currently be underestimating the amount he would actually end up needing. It would never be a bad thing to have more AP.

-----

Usually, the expedition party would ignore Monster Rexes and only send a small party of Executives to fight them, while proceeding along their way. This time, however, on the 37th floor, their approach had to be different.

The staircase they chose for their ascent led directly into the Throne Room, the location of Udaeus. Even though the area wasn't small, it wasn't sufficiently large enough to fight a Level 5 Monster Rex here while keeping everyone unharmed.

Thankfully, there was a very easy solution to this problem. Everyone stayed back and waited on the staircase, which no monsters usually approached, while a team made up of Finn, Ais, Tiona and Tione faced the enormous, skeletal abomination.

Udaeus was an around thirty meters tall black humanoid skeleton. Well, it didn't actually have a lower body, as it seemingly grew out of the ground in the center of the room, so its true size couldn't be determined. The main reason as to why it would have been dangerous for the rest of the party to enter the Throne Room was because of this very fact: Udaeus could attack from anywhere within this room using bones, be it the ground, walls or ceiling. It was like the visible part of his body was just the tip of the iceberg, with the larger part of the monster buried within the dungeon, in complete control of this area. Additionally, this Monster Rex could also summon additional skeletal monsters to the boss fight, depending on how many enemies it had to face. Well, it wasn't actually known whether it was the dungeon that was responsible for this or Udaeus. Seeing how they seemed to spawn in relation to its reactions, everyone had just assumed that it was able to control this phenomenon somehow.

While all of the expedition party members were glued to the fight, afraid of missing even the most minor detail, Isaac didn't even bother with looking at Udaeus after he had taken a glance at its overall appearance. Currently, it was too fast for his eyes to follow its movements anyway, so there really was no point in him attempting to gleam something from the battle.

Nobody else shared his sentiment, so he couldn't even hold a casual conversation during the ten minutes that it took the small group to slay the beast. Its loot was, as always, an enormous magic stone, accompanied by a Drop Item - a small part of its ribcage. Apparently, this bone was suffused with a large amount of orichalc.u.m, a metal often encountered within the dungeon and also one of the specialty products of Orario. It was a material that blacksmiths would pay a premium for without even blinking and that could be made into armours and weapons of all kinds.

With these two items deposited, all of the carts that the supporter teams were responsible for now looked like they were close to bursting at the seams. Staying on the 50th floor for even a day longer would have forced them to waste even more loot than they would already have to ignore on their descent and ascent, so the decision to return to the surface was a logical one. And a welcome one, as Isaac would finally be able to escape this boredom.

The rest of the day's ascent proceeded as usual… is what you would expect. But no, this time, that wasn't actually the case.

It wasn't rare for the expedition party to come across variants amongst the tens and hundreds of thousands of monsters that they plowed through with unstoppable force. And usually, those extraordinary monsters didn't get a chance to make any trouble, as they would be quickly spotted and taken care of by the stronger main force members.

On the 31st floor, just two floors before the day's journey would have come to an end, another such variant appeared. This time, however, it wasn't discovered in time. The reason for this was its higher than usual speed and its special ability. It could blend in with its surroundings to a degree, making it extremely hard to notice amongst the literal wall of monsters.

The variant was a dark-lilac coloured, raptor-like dinosaur monster of about one and a half meters in size - the Venomsaur. Yes, the name was just as impressive as that of any other monster in the dungeon. Usually, Venomsaurs would be about a meter tall and light-lilac in colour, with their stealth-abilities not developed enough to truly obscure them from view. But if a variant spawned amongst them, they could cause a hell of a lot of trouble. After all, they were some of the strongest Level 3 monsters that could be encountered, extremely close to Level 4.

"Oh shit! Watch out, one broke through!!"

Taken aback by the variant, the people at the frontline made a mistake and allowed it to slip through, right into the vulnerable core of the party. And scarily enough, the Venomsaur seemed to be aiming right at the closest group of supporters! No matter how little reasoning monsters in the dungeon usually had, they would still be able to tell a weakling from a strong foe.

Undisguised panic appeared on Cedar's face as he saw the monster charge straight at the three of them. He knew that Venomsaurs were extremely hard to deal with. If one even got so much as a scratch from their teeth or claws, a bad poisoning would follow. Only with a sufficiently highly ranked Abnormal Resistance amongst one's Development Abilities would one be able to disregard it. But he was only at Level 3 and his Abnormal Resistance was of the lowest rank. He couldn't afford to get hit.

With no other choice, the Elf grit his teeth and prepared to do his best to somehow dodge the charge. In a moment or two, an Executive was bound to come over here to dispatch the variant, but until then, he had to survive on his own. He then thought of the two teammates with him, Claire and Isaac, and hoped that they had come to the same conclusion as well. If they all did their best to evade, they might stand a chance!

While he had these things in mind, Cedar slightly turned his head and glanced at Isaac, the teammate right next to him, to see which way he would be dodging. He didn't want to accidentally run into him.

The scene that greeted him was completely different from what he had been expecting and his eyes widened in shock. Instead of being afraid, Isaac seemed to be quite excited, a smile playing across his lips. At the same time, he had already raised his hands and drawn a bow, aiming an arrow steadily and proficiently. He seemed intent on fighting the beast.

'What is he thinking!? None of us stand a chance. And where did he suddenly get this bow from…?'

A fraction of a second later, before Cedar could voice any of these thoughts or even give the man a warning, Isaac had already let go of the arrow, which accurately made its way straight to the right eye of the monster, penetrating all the way into the brain beyond. With a single shot, a monster that was close to Level 4 had been slain without being able to offer up any resistance.

[ Achievement Progress:

Kill 1000 Level 3 monsters. (3/1000) ]

Ignoring the flabbergasted Cedar - and Claire, whose eyes were sparkling in fascination - Isaac turned away just enough to let both of them lose sight of his bow. Quickly, he placed it into his inventory.

Admittedly, he was quite sad that he hadn't had the chance to research this variant. But sadly, killing it instantly had been the only option, as he wouldn't have been able to perfectly contain it by himself. Even though he wouldn't have been in any danger and would have been able to play it to death, his comrades could have been hurt or even killed in the process. It wouldn't have been worth the risk, so he could only choose the 'cheap' way and use his archery skills to attack its suspected weak point directly. Had this guess been wrong, he would have had to fire a second arrow into its mouth, trying to injure it there to win some time. This would have been more tricky, but he still would have been able to pull it off.

In any case, Isaac preferred to not use a bow unless it was necessary, as his current archery had a fatal flaw: It used up resources - arrows, that is. While he could easily afford hundreds of thousands of those, wasting all of these materials still didn't feel great to him. There was always a relatively high chance that an arrow would be damaged once it was used, so most of them would end up being one-time-use ammunition. His sword could slay monsters without him having to worry about such a problem, so unless he would have to rely on his Anemoi Steps to become airbound and reach a monster that was far above him, he wouldn't rely on a bow. Well, he still regularly used it against the flying monsters that he had already completely researched if they happened to be too far for him to reach them in a single leap, so it saw frequent use. He just didn't use it all the time.

"Wait… where did that bow go!?"

Cedar's shocked voice interrupted Isaac's thoughts, but he simply replied with a shrug, not giving the Elf an answer. He didn't want to explain his abilities to him, especially not right now, so he would just leave it as a mystery.

"That was amazing! I can't believe you managed to kill it. And you made it look so easy."

While being showered by Claire's praises and ignoring the confusion in Cedar's eyes - he was obviously still puzzled about the disappearing bow - the expedition party safely made its way to the 29th floor, the next safety point. As always, the supporters set up the campsite, while the main force members spread out to eliminate any nearby monsters. By the time all of the tents were set up, it was already late in the afternoon.

As he had nothing else to do for now, Isaac planned to search for Ais to spend some time with her. But when he left the team of supporters he noticed that Aselina, who had already kept close to him whenever their work allowed it, was following a few steps behind him. It was as if she was a soldier following her general, or a duckling following her mother. In all honesty, it probably looked a lot more like the latter.

Even when Isaac had finished searching through the entire campsite, he still couldn't find Ais, so he concluded that she probably hadn't returned from her duties yet. It was unknown how long she would take, so he returned to his supporter team, intending to wait there in the meantime. Now that he didn't have anything else on his mind, and noticing the strange looks that the others sent his way, he finally turned to Aselina and sighed, intending to explain to her that she was doing something unnecessary.

"You know that you don't have to follow me everywhere, right?"

Not really sure what exactly he meant, the raccoon girl tilted her head.

"I know I don't have to. But now that I'm yours, I thought it would be appropriate."

Even before the first bead of nervous sweat could appear on Isaac's forehead, he could already hear a cup shattering. With a stiff smile on his face, he turned his head to face the source of the sound.

Randi had clenched her fist, completely pulverizing the poor liquid container previously cradled within, the drink spilling all over the floor and dripping from her hand. With a glare that seemed like she wanted to eat him whole, she intensely stared at him, ready to pull out her weapon at any moment. Slowly, she got up from her seat and walked closer until she stood right in front of him, sporting a smile that was anything but a smile.

"So our cutie is 'yours' now, eh? Explain yourself… or die~"

Isaac knew that it would be foolish of him to hope for anyone else to jump in and shed some light on the situation - after all, the rest of the supporters were glaring at him with equally as scary faces. Except for Bryce and Claire, who were doing their best to hold back their giggles, tears glistening in the corners of their eyes. As always, they were 100 percent unreliable. At least they were reliable in how unreliable they were.

Disregarding the killing intent in his squad leader's eyes, Isaac sighed and unhurriedly recounted what had happened yesterday. Very quickly, the atmosphere returned to normal, with Randi being noticeably relieved.

"So that's what she meant… I really should have known."

With these words, she shot a glance at Aselina, who was still blissfully unaware of just how much danger she had almost sent her new 'owner's' way. Trying to make up for how she had just treated him, Randi slung an arm across Isaac's shoulder and smiled apologetically, then she whispered into his ear.

"Now that it's already come to this, I can only hope that you'll treat her well. Please take care of her."

Feeling as if her daughter had just taken another step into a.d.u.l.thood, Randi showed a caring smile when looking at the innocent raccoon, reminiscing about old times. Well, the energetic Boaz was only four years older than Aselina, so maybe she should be seen as an older sister instead. Meanwhile, Isaac felt yet another bout of helplessness, as the way Randi just spoke would only lead to further misunderstandings should anyone who didn't know what was going on happen to have listened in. Which was quite unlikely, seeing how she had been speaking so softly.

"I will, don't worry."

Although Isaac felt tempted to say that it should actually be the other way around, as it wasn't him who had sworn his absolute loyalty here, he knew that it wouldn't be a smart thing to mention this in the current situation. Especially with Randi's arm around his shoulder, his neck in immediate peril. Anyway, unless something truly unforeseen and terrifyingly dangerous happened, his subordinates wouldn't be in more danger than they would be able to handle. So he wasn't lying. He didn't intend to randomly throw away Aselina's life as he pleased. He honestly couldn't even come up with any reason for him to sacrifice his people. The time he had invested in them would only acc.u.mulate in the future, making their loss more and more unbearable. Nobody liked it when a project they had spent a lot of time on was destroyed or forced to end in any way before it bore sufficient fruit.

Because the momentary storm had passed, everyone returned to their usual, jovial selves. While waiting for the return of his beloved, Isaac, with Aselina right next to him, chatted with Auroch, Claire and the rest.

Half an hour passed this way, then suddenly, Isaac heard someone call his name and turned his head. It was Cedar - and he had a far more contemplative and serious look on his face than usual.

"Can I talk to you for a moment… alone?"

Isaac was quite curious as to what he would have to say, so he nodded and followed the Elf for a minute or so, until they reached one of the more remote parts of the campsite, far away from the rest of the supporters. Thankfully, Aselina had listened to him when he asked her to stay behind, so she didn't follow him this time.

"Alright, here should be good enough."

Having looked around to check whether or not anybody was nearby, Cedar took a seat on the ground and Isaac followed suit, then he waited for the slightly nervous Elf to start talking.

"Ahem. Sorry for calling you all the way out here, but I didn't want everyone to hear this. First of all, thank you for slaying that variant today. If you hadn't stepped in, we would have been in grave danger, so I owe you one."

Even though he really didn't need Cedar to be indebted to him, Isaac simply nodded. He wouldn't be able to change his mind if the normally arrogant Elf felt grateful to him. Well, it would be possible, but the effort that he would need to put into it wasn't comparable to what he would gain. After all, he wouldn't gain a thing.

"Well… onwards to the next thing, then. I'm sure you already noticed this, but I'm very fond of Ais. I've seen her grow up over the past couple of years and she has only become more and more outstandingly beautiful all this while. I have to admit, I feel attracted to her. That is also the reason why I felt enmity towards you when you suddenly stepped into the picture."

Isaac couldn't help but smirk. So that was the topic that he really wanted to talk about, huh? From Cedar's current tone, he could already guess which way this was going to go.

Not waiting for Isaac to say anything, as he just wanted him to listen anyway, Cedar continued, a resigned but happy smile on his lips.

"I behaved foolishly and tried to prove that I was better than you a few times because I felt a need to compete with you. I might have even made you dislike me in the process. Sorry about that… I was an idiot. I've kept a close eye on you two all this time and I realized that Ais is really happy when she is with you. You are also a far more outstanding individual than I initially assumed. I honestly can't find anything to criticize about you two. So… although this may be a little preposterous of me to say… please do well by her! Let's ignore the attraction I feel towards her for now. I've seen her grow up and care about her as a person as well. Ais' happiness is more important than a stupid Elf's selfish desire, right?"

Self-deprecating humour was very unusual for Elves, who usually kept their true thoughts somewhat veiled or bottled up, preferring to keep up a certain image. Because of this, it was clear to see that Cedar really spoke from the heart.

Chuckling to himself while thinking about his past actions, the Elf stared directly at Isaac, awaiting his reply. Then, after a few seconds of silence, Isaac finally spoke.

"I accept your apology. From here on out, it's all water under the bridge. And I'm well aware that quite a few people in the familia saw me as an enemy when they noticed my relationship with Ais - you were far from the only one. Still, for putting Ais' happiness first and having the guts to tell me all of this, I respect you. I will do my very best, I promise."

Once he heard these words, it was like a heavy weight had been lifted from Cedar's shoulders and he flashed a genuine and relieved smile.

The two talked more relaxedly with each other for a while after this, slowly growing more friendly with each other. Now that the hatchet had been buried, the two could finally attempt to get along. In a familia, it was always optimal when everyone was on good terms with each other, otherwise, it could lead to a division or even accidents on expeditions. Lives would be endangered. All in all, it was always best if everything was harmonious. There were enough external enemies to worry about, so there really was no need to add internal problems to the mix.

-----

In the early evening, Ais finally returned from cleaning up the monsters in the surroundings and took a bath. Today, there had been a lot more stragglers on this floor than usual, but it was still easily manageable. It had just taken a little longer.

After a sumptuous dinner, Ais, Isaac, Lefiya and Aselina retreated to their tent… wait, why was Aselina here as well!?

As Isaac had grown so used to her following him around by now, he had thought that she only intended to follow him up until they reached the tent, leaving right after. But she had actually entered it - did she intend to stay here as well?

With a strained smile, Isaac did his best to explain that he was completely safe with Ais around. In fact, even if he were to be alone, he would still be more than capable of protecting himself. There was no danger to his life. So there really was no reason for her to stay here.

Well, apparently, Isaac had misinterpreted the reason as to why she had been following him, so all of these arguments fell on deaf ears.

"But what if you need me for anything? Maybe a miscellaneous task of some kind. I should stay close, just in case."

Even though Aselina's words were resolute, spoken with absolute confidence in her reasoning, Isaac still didn't want to accept having yet another girl living in his tent. Even though there would easily be enough space and he personally couldn't care less about it, he would need Riveria's permission to allow such an arrangement, and he didn't want to go out of his way. He didn't need even more judgemental looks sent his way today.

It took a while, but he successfully reassured Aselina by letting her know that he would find her should he need any assistance and telling her that she would be allowed to stay by his side under normal, everyday circ.u.mstances. Excluding when he went to the bathroom, wanted to sleep or entered the dungeon, of course. Finally, the raccoon girl accepted these arrangements and relented. Seeing her leave, Isaac heaved a heavy sigh. She was extremely devoted, which wasn't a bad thing. If only she were less oblivious…

-----

While Isaac was looking forward to returning to the surface, Ais was far more excited about something else. Finally, after a week of patience, she would be able to experience yet another part of Isaac's past in a few minutes. Her eyes were already sparkling in anticipation, so while being a little more affectionate than usual, she snuggled up extremely close to Isaac in their sleeping bag.

Very soon, the system notification she had been eagerly waiting for finally appeared.

[ Cooldown until 'Isaac's Past - Episode 5' can be experienced has finished.

You can now experience 'Isaac's Past - Episode 5'. ]

Before activating it, she glanced up at Isaac who was calmly looking back at her with a loving and caring look in his eyes. Then, a bit bashfully, she gave him a peck on the lips and rested her head on his chest, her mind getting whisked away to a different time and place soon after.