Once the immediate threats were dealt with, Isaac spent a few more seconds on cleaning up the few black Minotaurs that had managed to survive the blast, then he hurried to the side of his students, an unconcealed sign of worry on his face which was in stark contrast to the unwavering confidence he had shown before. By now, the dungeon had already stopped trembling and no new special variant monsters were spawning - after all, there had only been a couple of drops of Ichor, which were only enough to evoke a momentary reaction. As soon as they were absorbed by the dungeon, everything returned to normal.
There were many things that Isaac wanted to say, but the severe injuries of his favourite emergency ration turned emotional support hugging pillow was the top priority. Impatiently, he waved his hand to dismiss the pleasantries and approached Mina who still held the now-shivering rooster in her arms. After giving him a quick check-up and assessing his wounds, Isaac heaved a sigh of relief and patted the bird’s head, before taking it into his hand and raising it upwards, seemingly so he could have a closer look.
“You’re really in bad shape, little guy. Thankfully, I have picked up just the right thing. Hold that pose and open up wide, don’t spill too much of the Mermaid Blood!”
Not bothering with further explanations, he pulled a seductively beautiful, naked but rabid woman with a fish’s fin for a lower body out of thin air, holding her by the throat. All of the deranged, mindless struggles by the monster to somehow escape his grasp were useless, as it found it impossible to even leave a single scratch on him - may the stat difference be praised!
He removed his other hand from the rooster, who managed to continue looking upwards and opening his beak on his own, albeit with difficulty. Averin was still a bit confused and baffled about what was happening, but he didn’t even get a chance to speak - not that he would have been strong enough to do so anyway. With his now-free hand, Isaac grabbed one of the Mermaid’s arms, held it in place right above the rooster’s mouth and used a bit of his mana to create a blade of wind that cut open the helpless monster’s wrist. By now, he had dabbled enough in mana control to more or less easily be capable of such minor tricks.
A spray of blood went straight into Averin’s wide-open beak, down his throat and all the way to his stomach. After a few moments, during which Isaac repeatedly cut the Mermaid’s wrist because it was healing too quickly, he switched to showering the rooster in more of the monster’s blood, causing Averin’s surface wounds to heal in but a few seconds.
The entire party was far too shocked to react, as they hadn’t expected for their teacher to pull a Mermaid out of nowhere and then use her as a portable blood dispenser! It was… quite cruel, and even they, who were used to slaughtering monsters on the daily, felt their stomachs churn slightly at the sight, leaving a bad taste in their mouths. They would have surely thrown up had they borne witness to Isaac’s regular research. Still, they were aware of the effect of Mermaid Blood - it was common knowledge - and that their teacher was only doing this to help their companion, possibly even to save the bird’s life. So although they couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the Mermaid, they weren’t braindead fools who would complain about its treatment. In the end, it was still a feral monster that would kill them as soon as it got the chance. Fighting for the rights of such a being was nothing but idiocy.
Even the cloaked figure, after the initial shock at having a being appear out of thin air again, didn’t seem too bothered by the scene. Sure, it was cruel, but harsh times required harsh measures. She couldn’t argue with the efficiency of the medical care. If she herself had been heavily wounded, then she would rip apart a mindless Mermaid to heal herself without even blinking.
By the time that Averin’s internal injuries had stabilized and, thanks to the exceptional healing properties of the blood, were already on the road to full recovery, Isaac put the ‘blood bag’ back into his inventory, a relieved smile spreading on his face.
Then, he couldn’t help but notice that Mina, who had been holding the Jack Bird this entire time… was now also covered in blood. A slightly guilty smirk appeared for a moment, then he disregarded her dirty state and patted her head gently.
“Sorry about the, ahem, unconventional shower. I sort of tunnel-visioned in on Averin’s injury and didn’t care much about anything else. Stay still, let me clean you a little.”
When she saw her lord pull out a wet towel from his inventory, Mina blushed from embarrassment, which thankfully wasn’t noticed because of all the blood splattered over her face. Contrary to others, she couldn’t really blush all the way up to her ears - or rather, the red skin was completely hidden underneath her hair.
“Oh no, Milord, that’s not necessa---!”
Before she could even finish her sentence, Isaac had already started wiping down her face with the towel, doing as good of a job as he could for now.
“There, that’s a lot better.”
She would definitely still need a thorough shower after this, but at least she wouldn’t have to worry about blood getting into her eyes or mouth. Satisfied, Isaac nodded to himself and refocused on Averin, ignoring the others for the moment, as they were only in a slightly battered state.
Mina pouted a little, but quickly couldn’t help but grin while blushing, feeling honoured by her lord’s personal attention. Truly, in the past, she had never expected to be treated well, as she would follow him no matter what, but she would be a liar if she said that this didn’t feel a whole lot better. Kalin chuckled at his friend’s expression, while Aselina smirked a little at these shenanigans. At the same time, however, her ears twitched faintly when she thought about the treatment that Mina had received. Maybe it was a kind of instinct, but she felt that it would be nice to get a head pat as well…
In any case, after such a frightening encounter, this comfortable peace really warmed her heart. Admittedly, she had known that Isaac would come to their rescue, but even that knowledge hadn’t been enough to keep the fear of death and injury completely at bay. As she hadn’t been following him for too long, she didn’t have blind faith in him yet.
Now having the reassurance that he would, indeed, come to her side in an emergency, made Aselina’s Loyalty rose by five, while his caring treatment of Mina caused a two point increase in her Devotion. The one who Isaac’s actions had the biggest impact on, however, was Averin. His Loyalty rose by seven, all the way to 99/100. He could clearly sense the pain in his body lessening rapidly, and even though he usually was haughty, he didn’t grumble at all when Isaac patted his head a bit now that he had mostly recovered.
Seeing how everything seemed to be over and dealt with, the cloaked figure, who had stayed outside of the students’ range of perception this entire time, chose to come forward and approach them. Shocked at the newcomer’s arrival, they quickly entered a combat-ready state again, until Isaac hurriedly signalled for them to calm down.
“She isn’t an enemy, don’t worry. If I hadn’t come, she would have been the one to save you from this mess. So please, instead of being wary of her, give her a proper ‘Thank you’.”
His words both made the cloaked figure a little bashful, causing her to pause in her steps, and made the students bow slightly in respect and gratitude, happily thanking this unknown person who might have just been their saviour if the events had played out differently.
Pleased by their performance, Isaac nodded to himself and then to the figure as well.
“I thank you too. But before our inevitable little talk, there is still one matter that I need to deal with here. It won’t take long, and I promise that we won’t leave this place while you are gone, so could you please help out the two ladies still held up in a battle with some of these black robed assailants? While I won’t personally owe you should you decide to do that, I’m pretty sure that once you realize who they are, you would be quite devastated should your inaction have led to them coming to harm.”
A bit confused by the young man’s words, and still cautious of him because of his previous actions, the cloaked figure nodded silently, then she rushed off into the darkness so quickly that the students couldn’t even follow her with their eyes. Even for Isaac, it wasn’t easy to accomplish.
‘He might be scary and definitely not what I would call a ‘good person’, but considering how he treated the Jack Bird… he should be trustworthy enough.’
After the figure left, Isaac smiled at his students and silently signalled for them to stay put before they could bombard him with any questions. He hadn’t been kidding when he said that there was still a matter to handle - in fact, there were multiple, but some of them could wait. Yes, he could have easily teleported to Tabitha’s and Suicia’s side, eliminating their enemies in but a few moments, but with such a capable ‘helper’ around, he could focus on the matter that was currently physically the nearest.
Suddenly accelerating to his top speed without any prior warning, Isaac charged into one of the corners of the room and grabbed seemingly at empty air… but what was soon revealed to the others was a white robed person about half a head shorter than their teacher. The person’s throat had been seized, while their attire looked exactly like the previous group’s, but it was white instead of black. Isaac made sure to grab their throat tightly enough to make it impossible to escape, but not enough to make it hard for them to breathe or speak.
“H-How did you find me!?”
The slightly pained and utterly shocked voice of a young man sounded, while the white robed person’s eyes widened in bewilderment. He just couldn’t explain how this man had unveiled him straight through his rare stealth Skill!
A sheepish smirk played across Isaac’s lips, then he shrugged.
“All manner of illusions and stealth are useless in front of me, simple as that.”
He didn’t bother explaining the details to a potential enemy, so he cut straight to the chase after adopting a more serious expression.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“But enough of that. I noticed you snooping around the moment that I arrived. I only didn’t weed you out like the rest of these people because you don’t seem to belong to the exact same group. You also didn’t show any killing intent towards my students whatsoever. Instead, I saw your eyes sparkling in delight when I finished off the ones wearing black robes.”
Having been informed that every single one of his movements and actions had been monitored so clearly caused the young man’s skin to pale until it was almost indistinguishable from his clothes. Still, he didn’t speak, as he was too afraid of interrupting his captor and potentially infuriating him. He would wait until he was given a cue, only then would he risk his death by explaining himself.
Reading his face like a book, Isaac continued.
“I honestly am interested in what force you belong to and why you and the other group wear what I can only guess to be a uniform of some kind. But, I will probably have my hands full with the one who dared to target my kids for a while. In the process of that, I should also uncover your origins, unless there really is no connection between the two forces, which is highly unlikely. So, instead of putting you on the spot, there is only one thing that I want you to do. I promise to let you live and leave if you do it. Alright?”
A hasty nod of the young man later, Isaac stated his demand.
“Tell your master, your god, or whoever they may be, that because they haven’t attempted to harm my people so far, I can overlook this spying transgression. We can walk our own paths, and as long as they don’t interfere with me, I won’t care about what they do. No matter what crime they may commit, as long as it doesn’t affect those close to me, they can knock themselves out - just don’t let me witness it. But, here is my warning. Should your master not agree to this, should they want to oppose me, they and their force will be wiped out. You seem like a bright lad, so you should know that, although your master may have a few trump cards, I also have yet to show the aces up my sleeve. I trust you will convey the severity of the situation to your master. Now, go. Out of my sight.”
Not bothering to even glance at the young man any longer, Isaac let go of him and walked back to his students, making doubly sure whether any of them had any injuries that he had missed. Thankfully, there were only a couple of bruises, but nothing major. A bit of Blue Papilio Wing powder did the trick.
Meanwhile, after coughing a bit, the white robed young man hurriedly stormed off into the distance, using his stealth to disappear from the students’ view a few moments later. He was still shivering and pale as a ghost, but he also felt like he had just been given a new lease on life. Deep within his heart, he almost wanted to thank this monstrous person for letting him leave - he knew far too many people who wouldn’t have given him such a chance, even if it was just for the express purpose of delivering a message.
‘I’ll make sure that Lord Vidar will know not to mess with him! I have an extremely bad feeling about him. Even though our orders are to confront him, that would be foolish! Why would we just sign our own death warrants like that?’
-----
It barely took a minute for the cloaked figure to make her way towards the battle and dispose of Bomani and Bennu. As she had already learned of the hidden dangers they posed, she made sure to kick away their lifeless bodies with as much power as she could muster, letting them explode far away in the distance a bit later. The result wasn’t more than a slight gust of wind ruffling through Tabitha’s and Suicia’s hair.
The two women only had a few cuts and bruises, they had fared well against their opponents. Still, they hadn’t been able to escape them or to strike any killing blows. They were quite good at fighting people of the sentient races, but their enemies were anything but beginners at such kinds of combat themselves.
When a cloaked figure ended their battle with a speed faster than they could even react to, they didn’t rejoice but only raised their guard. They had been helped, but as they didn’t know who they were facing, they didn’t foolishly relax… even though they wouldn’t be capable of resisting this person anyway.
Smiling at them, especially now that she had taken a closer look at them and realized that they were a part of the Hermes Familia, one of her kin’s very few allies, the cloaked figure, rather than wasting time talking, pulled back her hood, revealing what was hidden underneath.
She had a beautiful, unblemished face with golden feathers instead of hair, which was styled in somewhat of a voluminous ponytail. Closer to the tips of the feathers, they first turned cyan, then at the very tips, they reached a medium-dark tone of blue. Instead of regular human ears, while hers were located in the same spot, they were about as long as Elf ears and covered completely by small golden and brown plumage. Her eyes were sky blue and sparkling with intelligence.
Pleasant surprise appeared on the Hermes Familia women’s faces, then Tabitha broke out into a wide smile.
“You should be Ray, right? Thanks for the help!”
The Siren nodded her head, but before she could even explain anything, the quick-witted Suicia realized what was most likely going on and her facial expression turned for the worse, clearly showing signs of worry.
“Are you here for that Jack Bird Xenos? We should hurry then, so we can still make it in time to save him!”
As the two hurried off, Ray quickly followed them after hiding her head under her hood again. She seemed unhurried, which caused the two others to be slightly confused.
‘They truly seem like nice people, so concerned about my kin…’
Tabitha’s and Suicia’s display of worry and eagerness to help pleased her greatly, so Ray happily explained that the Jack Bird had already been saved, by someone that the Chienthrope girl had called ‘Milord’.
The two women were well-informed, so they at least knew what Isaac’s various students preferred to call him. Still, hearing that he was actually here, on this floor… their eyes widened in shock.
“How did he get here? Didn’t he take a trip to the Lower and Deep Floors?”
But no matter how doubtful they were, they knew that Ray wasn’t the kind of person to lie to them. And very soon, they saw the reality of the situation for themselves.
In the middle of the dead end room that the students had ultimately been cornered into, the group plus Isaac was sitting in an incomplete circle, happily munching on various snacks, deservedly relaxing after a period of taut nerves.
Seeing them approach, the mysterious young man in question pulled out a few more of Orario’s affordable, portable and easily-preservable specialties - yes, they were different flavours of potato snacks - from his inventory, masking its use by utilizing a backpack that he had prepared beforehand.
“Come and join us, then we can talk. I’m sure you could all need a bite.”
Although Ray was a bit hesitant at the generous attitude that Isaac displayed, she followed the two women and sat down in the space which had been left open in the circle of people - it was quite apparent that they had been anticipating their arrival.
Tabitha was the first to grab a potato snack and unrestrainedly munch on it. After a few bites, she was also the one who spoke up first.
“I apologize if this is rude of me to ask, but how exactly are you here?”
She was secretly hoping that her currently battered look, coupled with the damage that her originally already extremely skimpy clothes had taken, would at least soften the man’s heart and let some of his secrets slip out. But contrary to her slight hopes, Isaac simply shook his head and smiled innocently.
“I don’t plan on telling you.”
Before she could even pout unhappily at having failed her roll for seduction, Isaac raised his hand to interrupt the budding conversation, then he looked straight at the cloaked Ray. The Siren’s heartbeat accelerated due to nervousness, but she still steeled herself for the questions that were inevitably about to come her way. He would surely be wondering about who she was, so seeing how close he already was to the Jack Bird Xenos, she would have to reveal her identity, explain to him what she and the rooster were and then convince him to let the latter have a better life amongst his kin.
While she was still a bit lost in thought, choosing exactly which words to use, Isaac finally spoke.
“Excuse me for being so direct, but you’re just like Averin, right? A sentient monster capable of speech.”
His gaze was filled with curiosity and warmth. It even felt genuine - his smile didn’t evoke the fear she had experienced before. But all of that wasn’t important, she was shocked! How had he seen through her this easily?
“H-How do you... k-know?”
Her voice was songful and graceful under normal circumstances, but right now, she was clearly stuttering from having been taken aback. A slight smirk played across Isaac’s lips.
“When I arrived, you mainly focused on our Jack Bird friend here, and in your eyes, I could see the desire to help him and the rest of my students. This already made me a bit suspicious. But what gave you away was that I could see your feathers after looking a bit closer at your face hidden under the hood. By the way, there is no need to hide.”
Flabbergasted that he had even had the opportunity to size her up like that without her noticing anything, Ray froze for a moment, before realizing what his words implied.
“You’re… not afraid of me? Even though I’m a monster?”
She was baffled at this and almost didn’t want to believe it. Sure, she knew that he treated Averin well, but that was a creature far weaker than him, and an adorable one nonetheless. Meanwhile, she obviously could kill him anytime she wanted to, and at least in her eyes, she was far more threatening of a monster. While the Jack Bird was her kin, to normal adventurers, the difference between them would be like night and day. Accepting a cuddly, fluffy rooster was so much easier than a dangerous Siren.
Tilting his head slightly, Isaac showed a genuine, harmless and perplexed smile.
“Why should I be?”
It was as if Ray’s brain short-circuited. She hadn’t expected this reply, even though, just like most of her kin, she had secretly hoped to hear one like it. The only words that she managed to stutter were “I… umm…”, but Isaac didn’t show her any mercy - he didn’t let her regain her bearings before starting to explain himself.
“First of all, if you had wanted to harm me, then you would have done so already. There is no need for you to aim for stabbing me in the back, as you’re more than capable of overwhelming me head-on. You also wouldn’t have intended to save my students if you were truly as malicious as you seemingly fear I may think.”
After a short pause to let the cloaked Ray comprehend his words, he continued.
“But most importantly, I couldn’t care less whether you’re a monster or not. To me, there are only three different kinds of beings: My enemies, my friends and the ones that I don’t care about. Race or species don’t matter, only how the specific being treats me or the ones under my wing. You had intended to treat my people well, to save them even, so you’re already on the fast track to becoming my friend. I’d best introduce myself then. I’m Isaac Blackshaw, and it’s nice to make your acquaintance.”
By the end of his long speech, Ray, although she had had reservations about this ruthless person, had been moved close to tears. It all felt like a dream to her. Isaac’s attitude towards her kin, even though it could possibly be a lie, was exactly what they had always searched and yearned for. It both contained acceptance and fairness, both of which most of the members of the sentient races that they had encountered - the adventurers - had nearly never graced her kin with.
Slightly tearful because of the irrepressible happiness, Ray used her cloak-covered wings to pull back her hood, smiling widely at this surprisingly charismatic young man in front of her.
“Nice to meet you, Isaac. I’m Ray, one of the three leaders of the Xenos.”