Approaching Inevitable Demise

After having finished taking a shower as well as cleaning his equipment and clothes, Isaac decided to check his Status to see how much he had grown today.

[ Name: Isaac Blackshaw ]

[ Familia: Loki Familia ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-10 (+ 214) ]

[ Endurance: I-10 (+ 211) ]

[ Dexterity: I-10 (+ 215) ]

[ Agility: I-10 (+ 223) ]

[ Magic: I-10 (+ 233) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ None ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ None ]

While these huge numbers certainly looked impressive at first glance, Isaac soon noticed how his stat gain had noticeably slowed down. Even though he had killed many times more monsters than before, the result was kind of underwhelming. While hunting goblins and kobolds would likely still lead to relatively large stat gains, he wouldn't be far ahead of the competition anymore if he continued like this for a while.

'It seems like I'll have to start going down to lower floors next time.'

One of the reasons he had to do this was to encounter new and stronger monsters, which would provide him with more excelia and therefore more stats. Another one was to figure out at which floor his actual limit lay while still being at the absolute minimum stats. When would Isaac actually start being in danger when fighting monsters?

Once he finished putting on the clothes he had worn back when he came to this world, Isaac made his way to the entrance hall, where he had promised to meet up with Ais and the group of girls accompanying her. As he was now more familiar with the layout of the Twilight Manor, it only took him a minute or two to see the five girls bunched together in a corner, happily talking to each other.

Apparently, Ais had also taken a shower in the meantime and changed into some casual clothes while he was gone. Her long golden hair was still a little bit wet. Together with the short-sleeved white shirt and simple black shorts she was wearing, this painted yet another beautiful picture Isaac hadn't seen before. He blanked out for a moment, then continued to make his way towards the group.

The first one to notice his approach was Tiona, as she had been looking in the direction of the hallway he came from. When she saw him, she waved enthusiastically, just in case he hadn't seen them.

Before he had taken his shower, Isaac had already announced to the group that he wanted to borrow Ais later, so he could talk to her in private. After all, ever since they had met, they hadn't had time to themselves. There were many things he wanted to talk to her about. And a few questions he could only provide answers for when they were alone, as they weren't suitable to be discussed in public. So, after a few minutes of small talk, he and Ais bid farewell to the four girls and walked out of the entrance hall. They had arranged to eat dinner together later. Since there were still a few hours left until then, there was plenty of time.

"Do you know a place where we'll be able to talk?"

Seeing how he wasn't perfectly familiar with the familia's home yet, he decided to ask Ais about where she thought would be the most suitable place for their chat.

The only thing he got as a reply was a short nod, then Ais led the way towards the female dorms.

When he noticed where they were heading, Isaac was a little bit surprised, but also excited. He hadn't expected Ais to invite him to her room, but, when thinking about it more, it also made sense. Her room, her base of operations, would absolutely be the safest and most private place for the two of them to talk. Nobody in their right mind would try to steal into the Sword Princess' dorm room.

Why was he excited? Contrary to the most popular expectations, it wasn't because of some dirty thoughts. No, his reason was that he would be able to learn a bit more about Ais. The manner in which one treated their own room reflected one's personality. Also, letting someone enter their room was a show of trust. Of course, Isaac would be happy about that.

It didn't take long to arrive at Ais' room. It was about as spacious as the one he and Jakk shared, so Ais had double the space for herself. That wasn't surprising though, seeing how she was one of the Loki Familia's Executives. Just like his room, the walls had simple but high quality white tapestries with a few fancy golden patterns close to the ceiling.

The contents of the room were as elementary as they could get, though. A simple bed, a desk and two chairs. With only these things, the room definitely felt a bit empty. That wasn't a surprise, however, seeing how Ais was practically always either in the dungeon or training her swordsmanship. She treated her own room as a place for temporary rest and didn't put too much effort into making it homely.

On the top of her desk, however, Ais had placed a few things she cared about. There were less than five books, neatly stacked up. All of them were filled with this world's fairy tales, like the 'Dungeon Oratoria' mentioned in the DanMachi novels. In fact, that very fairy tale was placed at the very top of the pile of books. Right next to that was a paper bag full of potato snacks. Seeing how these kinds of foods usually would be edible for a few days, Ais probably bought them earlier today and planned to eat them sometime soon.

After he and Ais sat down in the two chairs, they were facing each other in silence. Isaac couldn't help but be nervous. Before now, he had never talked to her in a private setting, with just the two of them.

To break the slightly awkward silence and get rid of his nervousness, Isaac decided that now was the time to fulfill the first promise the two had made. Ais was already in love with him, so telling her about his other goal when coming to this world would probably not lead to a negative outcome. It would still be embarrassing, nonetheless. After clearing his throat, he began to explain.

"I told you how I gained some knowledge about this world from books, right? What I didn't tell you back then was that these books also talked about you and quite a few other people. While reading about you, I had always felt like we would get along well if we ever met. So when I finally got the chance to visit this world, which I thought to be imaginary before, my other goal besides increasing my own strength was to meet you, even just once."

While talking, a genuinely happy smile couldn't help but appear on Isaac's face. He also blushed slightly, as telling the girl of his dreams how he had wanted to meet her for a long time was quite the awkward thing to admit.

Although Ais was a bit surprised by the revelation that she and the ones close to her were mentioned in a book Isaac read in the world he came from, the system had given her a much larger shock before. Compared to that, such a small thing didn't really disturb her at all. When she heard him talk about how he had wanted to meet her, though, her heartbeat quickened and, just like the young man she was looking at, she started to blush. To be honest, she was happy. Really happy. At the same time, she was embarrassed because she didn't think too highly of herself. Was she really worth traversing worlds over? Ais truly didn't think she was anyone special.

"I'm… glad we met."

These words packed full of gratitude left her lips without her realizing. To distract herself from her embarrassment and calm down, she quickly decided to ask Isaac a question.

"Why were you so nervous when we brought you to the Twilight Manor for the first time?"

Of course, Isaac noticed that Ais only changed the topic due to her embarrassment. He couldn't complain about that, though, as he felt the same way. So after thinking about her question for a while and releasing a short sigh, he replied.

"The books I've read mentioned a young werewolf named Bete. He was stated to be quite aggressive and also interested in you, Ais. In a romantic way. So I worried about me and him clashing before I joined the familia. If he had seen me accompanying you, he would certainly have taken issue and tried to keep me as far away from you as possible. That won't happen now, though, as I have already joined the familia."

Hearing Isaac casually reveal that Bete was interested in her romantically surprised Ais quite a bit more than the book-revelation. She had only ever thought about the werewolf as an arrogant annoyance. If he hadn't occasionally protected members of the familia and wasn't a good guy deep down, she might have even beaten him up before. Still, she couldn't deny that Bete would definitely clash with Isaac if the two met, seeing how she had grown really close to the latter. The main reason for that would be Bete's strong dislike for the weak. And that was just who Isaac was right now: a weakling.

Before she could mention any of that, though, Isaac continued.

"You don't have to worry about me and him. I'm aware that he'll think I'm a weak eyesore when we meet, so I can only grow stronger quickly to shut him up. If he happens to want to start a fight, I'll just have to hide behind you. I'm too weak right now, it'd be tantamount to suicide to physically go against him. Until I'm strong enough, I'll just have to endure the arrogance and mocking for a bit. That can also work as an additional motivation, though, so I welcome him to mess with me. In case you were thinking about it, you don't have to go out of your way to distance yourself from me just because of Bete. I'll deal with him, I promise. So don't worry about it."

Ais couldn't help but smile a little when she heard these last few words. For some reason, she believed him when he said he would be able to deal with these difficulties. She felt like there was no need to worry at all, so she decided to leave it to him, just like he wanted.

Now that he had provided her with an answer to her previous question, it was time for her to ask him a new one. It didn't take her long to think about one related to the system. To be exact, she wanted to know more about a few of the functions, as she didn't really understand them in detail.

The next few hours, the two were talking about the system, a topic they couldn't usually talk about with anybody. So now that they were alone, there was no need to bottle up all the questions that had accumulated over the past day or so. Interestingly enough, they discovered that they were able to talk to each other using the system at any time. This way, no matter how far they were apart or in which situation they were in, they were able to communicate. After deciding to only use that in emergencies or when something urgent came up, they moved on to the next topic of discussion.

Time flew by and before they knew it, it was already shortly before dinner time. Isaac's system clock, which he had now also introduced to Ais, showed the time to be 6:20 p.m. when the two finally made their way downstairs, towards the familia canteen. As Isaac hadn't been there before, Ais led the way while explaining how a Loki Familia dinner usually went.

All of the food they were going to eat would be prepared by the Loki Familia's cooks. Before it would be delivered to the tables by the familia's waiters and waitresses, Loki would have to give a signal. There were just as many non-combat personnel members of the familia as there were adventurers. Usually, everyone who wanted to partake in the dinner would arrive in the canteen before it began. If one wanted a specific drink, they could just ask one of the waiters once they served the food.

When they arrived at the canteen, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya and Elfy were already sitting around one of the smaller tables in the wide hall, it was just large enough for six people.

"Ais! Isaac! Over here!"

While pointing at the only two seats at the table that were still empty, Tiona loudly and excitedly made her location known, just in case the two hadn't noticed her before. As endearing as her voice was, her words made the two the center of attention in a heartbeat. Quite a few others were seated at the rest of the tables, close to a hundred. More than half of these, which he mostly didn't recognize, stopped their conversations and focussed on the young man walking right next to their Sword Princess.

Many interested gazes were shot Isaac's way, but of course, even in this familia, there were quite a few people who had a crush on someone as beautiful as Ais. Seeing a man walking right next to her and the two of them seemingly being quite close caused a few jealous and hostile stares to appear. Pretty much every familia member in the room was aware that he had to be a new arrival, though: After all, nobody knew him. If he had been a part of the familia for a long time, they would have met him before sometime.

Being pressured by all of these gazes, Isaac didn't feel nervous at all. In fact, he consciously ignored all of them besides the hostile ones, which he took note of, just in case. If the owners of these gazes were to encounter him later in private, they might even raise a hand against him in their annoyance. Therefore, it was better to be prepared for all eventualities.

After he and Ais had sat down, Tiona, who sat right across from him, leaned over and whispered a few words with a smug look on her face, just loud enough for him to hear them.

"So… what were you two doing for so long… all alone~?"

Isaac didn't even need to see the playful smile on her lips or the embarrassed but interested looks on the other girls' faces to know that Tiona had just implied… well, indecent acts. While the mention of such things made him blush slightly, having been asked such a question amused him quite a bit, so he replied just as quietly.

"Nothing of the sort you're thinking of."

His reply elicited a guilty laugh from the bubbly Amazoness.

Soon, the last few minutes before dinner would start flew by while the group conversed happily, ignoring the occasional gazes sent their way. During that time, the final batches of people arrived in the dining room.

Accompanying Riveria were the other two Top Executives of the familia.

Finn Deimne, the familia's Captain, was only about 120 cm tall as he was a pallum, the shortest race in this world. If Isaac hadn't known he was already more than 40 years old, he would have taken him for a young boy. He had medium length, messy blonde hair and calculative blue eyes that showed a wisdom beyond his perceived age. He wore a yellow vest with purple highlights over a purple long-sleeved shirt. His lower body was covered by purple trousers under yellow shorts with the same purple highlights as his vest. The rest of his outfit consisted of a simple, brown leather belt and shoes.

Even Gareth Landrock, a dwarf and the last of the three Top Executives, was still a lot taller than Finn, more than 30 centimeters, in fact. He was about the same age as Finn and had earthen brown eyes. His long, brown hair and similarly long brown beard almost covered up his entire face, so it was a bit harder to read his expression whenever he didn't react much. He wore a simple green and brown tunic, a brown belt and sturdy, steel-reinforced leather boots.

A moment after that group of three had taken a seat at the table in the very center of the canteen, the last two people arrived.

One of them was Loki, the mischievous trickster goddess this whole host of people was dependent on. The other was the one Isaac had just previously talked about with Ais: Bete Loga. Just like Ais, he was one of the Executives of the familia.

The werewolf's amber eyes were intently searching the room for someone from beneath his medium-length, scraggly gray hair. This could easily be inferred from the pure hostility seemingly emanating from his gaze. His sleek tail stood on end, as if he was ready for a fight at any moment. The left side of the 21 year old's face was mostly covered by a huge blue tattoo. He wore a short, open grey jacket that showcased his muscular upper body to whoever was inclined to look at it. Additionally, he wore black trousers, a golden yellow belt and black boots.

Seeing how Loki showed Isaac a gleeful smile while she was walking past, he could easily guess that she probably had a talk with Bete, informing him about someone growing closer to Ais. Of course, she wouldn't do that without a reason. It was highly likely that she did so to keep the aggressive nature of the werewolf in check. It was better to know about such a thing beforehand than to find out later, after all. Still, Isaac was everything but happy about it.

Shortly after Loki had looked at him, Bete also discovered the table Ais sat at - and Isaac. Instantly, the bloodlust in his gaze multiplied manyfold, causing poor Lefiya, who sat close by, to turn pale, look away and shiver in fear. Of course, the other familia members had noticed this commotion as well, as their lives depended on recognizing the kind of feeling Bete gave off right now. Before Riveria could stop everything from escalating, Finn held her back with an expectant look on his face. He wanted to see how the young man his Vice-Captain had praised would react to such a huge amount of killing intent. Most experienced adventurers would at least get tense when confronted with such a situation.

To keep Ais, who had wanted to speak out against Bete's current actions, from doing so, Isaac just sent her the words 'Leave it to me.' via the system. This calmed her down instantly, as she now remembered the promise he had made in her room just hours prior. Her protective instincts had almost made her ignore these words. To be honest, she was a bit ashamed because of that.

Contrary to what Bete had expected, the weak human didn't budge under his probing gaze. Isaac didn't even show the slightest sign of tension. He didn't seem to want to dodge his gaze either. Instead, as a response to the bloodlust, a relaxed smile slowly spread across his lips, infuriating Bete. While Isaac had meant his smile to be perceived as genuine and calm the werewolf down a bit, he had achieved the opposite. To Bete, his smile looked way too smug for his own good. So the killing intent and jealousy in his eyes increased yet another level.

Isaac, however, wasn't worried in the least. Bete was currently sober and every single one of his actions was in full view of the entire familia. He couldn't do anything but bark. And as was commonly known, most dogs that bark don't have much of a bite. Still, if he ran across him in private later, he would have to tread carefully.

At this point, where even the familia's Top Executives were impressed by Isaac's mental fortitude, Bete retraced his bloodlust and turned away, obviously unhappy. He had intended to teach the young sap a lesson. But little did he expect to actually gain a small ounce of respect for the guy. Had he been in the young man's situation, faced with such hostility… he would have at the very least turned nervous.

'Just you wait…!'

With thoughts like these, Bete sat down at the table in the center of the room, next to Gareth, completely ignoring the young man he had been staring at so intensely before.

Now that everything had calmed down again, and before the food would be served, Loki took her cutlery, stood up on her chair and used it to make some noise.

"Everyone, your attention please!"

Isaac didn't even need to see her mischievous grin, directed straight at him, to have his back accumulate some cold sweat. But no matter how hard he begged for it to not be the case, he knew his suspicions were correct. What he hadn't wanted to happen was about to take place.

A few seconds later, when everyone's gazes rested on her, Loki continued her announcement.

"Today, it's time to celebrate! As many of you probably already noticed, we have a new member in our familia. He just joined us yesterday, so I would like to introduce him to you all today!"

Although Isaac didn't have a problem with many people paying attention to him, there was one thing that made him very uncomfortable. Welcome parties. He had never been entirely sure why that was the case, though. Was it because he didn't want to be introduced to too large a number of people at once? Maybe. He couldn't say. Just as always, the foreboding feeling he had before was actually a sign for things to come. He felt no surprise at this, neither did he feel happy. And at the moment, he had no time to get even more distracted. Only one thought was on his mind.

'What did I do to deserve this?!'