70 Aselina Sceaga

A look of confusion spread on Aselina's face and she tilted her head slightly, staring at Isaac with a questioning gaze.

"What do you mean?"

For a moment, Isaac's expression froze, before he reluctantly nodded to himself. No matter how easy to understand the question he had just asked appeared to be in his eyes, Aselina clearly hadn't understood what exactly he was referencing. He needed to behave in a far more direct and obvious manner when interacting with her from now on, that was for sure.

"Why did you decide to swear your loyalty to me?"

Yet again, the greyish-white haired raccoon girl blinked in puzzlement.

"Because you told me that it was an option?"

Isaac's reaction to these words was a smile that was more of a pained grimace. Ultimately, he chose to explain things even more clearly, because he was really interested in hearing the answer to his question. All this time, while he had grown closer to the members of the supporter team, they were just considered relatively chummy acquaintances for now. Of course they hadn't shared their stories and motivations with him yet. After all, why should they? Seeing a chance to learn a bit more about his current companions - and in this case, one of his subordinates - he wanted to dig deeper.

"That's not what I meant. What reason did you have for accepting my offer? And for wanting to follow me to grow stronger. Please don't tell me it's 'because I want to get stronger'. That's not what I want to know. Instead, I want to know 'why' you want to become stronger in the first place."

The cloudy look in Aselina's eyes faded and she nodded her head in understanding, a surprisingly bright smile on her face. It wasn't that she was stupid, neither was she particularly smart. She just found it hard to pick up on conversational cues and would oftentimes misinterpret what other people wanted to hear or what topic they currently talked about. Maybe, with further exposure to lots of conversations, this problem would subside a little, but even if it did, it was sure to take a long time.

"My explanation is not going to be short, so I hope you won't mind."

After Isaac nodded and gave her the go-ahead, the raccoon girl told a rough and abridged story of her past.

-----

Aselina was born in the Sceaga tribe, a community of Raccoon People that lived in the far north of the continent that Orario was also located on. Their settlement was about 100 kilometers away from the Dragon Valley, which - just like the dungeon in Orario - was one of the 'three great unexplored regions of the world'. Well, if one wanted to be more accurate, one would have to replace the word 'world' with 'continent', but that wasn't of importance at the moment.

The Sceaga tribe wasn't especially mighty or rich, they never even had any contact with deities. Still, they were far enough from the nearby dangerous region to not live in dire straits. Partially because only a small number of people ever wanted to brace that danger, they lived more or less peaceful lives. Even the wildlife around them was abundant, due to the low number of people hunting in this area.

For many generations, the tribe had been safe and secure and even the occasional monsters that left the Dragon Valley weren't too dangerous. After all, for their own protection, the tribe invested quite a lot of resources into training skilled warriors. As most monsters that lived outside of the dungeon got weaker and weaker with each generation, the few that came from Dragon Valley were the weakest of the bunch and could therefore still be slain by strategy and abundant manpower.

It was in such a simple and reclusive place that Aselina grew up. She had loving parents, feisty friends and annoying bullies - a very normal, ordinary life. Not everything about it was great, and she frequently wished for change whenever something that made her feel hurt happened. Nothing was special about this wish either, as everybody thought along these lines at some point. All in all, it was an uncomplicated, happy time.

But just like in all of these kinds of stories, the peace couldn't last forever. Twelve years ago, when Aselina was six years old, a major change occurred.

One of the warriors stationed close to one of the entrances of Dragon Valley - to take care of any monsters that wanted to leave the place - hastily returned, covered in deep and bloody wounds, completely out of breath from his harsh journey. Before fainting, he reported to the chief that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of monsters had begun to charge out of the valley. Thanks to the dozens of warriors that were stationed there, they had been able to hold them back for a moment. Then, they had realized the gravity of the situation. Desperately, the rest of the warriors had sent him back, as he was the fastest amongst them - someone had to report the news and warn the tribe. Due to the sacrifice of his companions, his fast feet and the fact that the monsters were spreading out in all kinds of directions after they had left the valley, he had made it back in one piece, and before the wave of beasts arrived.

Although the chief was shocked by the report, he wasn't incompetent. He could see how dire the tribe's straits were immediately and and didn't hold on to idiotic beliefs like 'protecting one's homeland' or 'going down with the ancestral land'. The survival of the tribe, that was the most important thing, by far. They could always return and rebuild, but each of them only had one life.

In less than an hour, the majority of the tribe had orderly fled from their settlement, only bringing along the most important things that they could carry easily. There were a few that stayed behind to grab a few more essentials or even valuables, but one didn't need to have a particularly vivid imagination to picture what happened to them - they all died.

In fact, even quite a few of the fleeing tribesmen fell to the monsters' claws and teeth as well. Most of them were warriors, hunters or other strong members that covered the escapees' backs… and paid for that with their lives. Their sacrifices left a deep impression on young Aselina, who for the first time in her life was being confronted with the deaths of her kin.

Finally, after a few days of fleeing, the tribe seemed to have escaped the bounds of what they would later dub 'the Monster Wave'. They were able to find some food and water and built temporary residences before deciding how to continue from this point onwards.

They had fled in the southeastern direction, as their ancestral maps reported for there to be many kingdoms in that region, with sprawling cities all over the place. Ultimately, the chief decided that they would build their new settlement relatively close to one of those nations, the Halksvaag Kingdom. It seemed to be the most peaceful one out of the bunch and the closest of its big cities, Vatki, was only a few days of travel away from here. Occasionally, a few tribesmen went there to trade some of their products and they had even made a few friends during those times. It all seemed like a good choice.

And in all honesty, it was. Initially. For a few months, the Sceaga tribe managed to live a peaceful and prosperous life there. They had made their home in one of the unexplored forests and rarely sent some of their people to trade in Vatki, keeping mostly to themselves. But one day, one of the tribesmen who was sent to the city got drunk with a few of his local buddies and mentioned how the tribe had been living nearby ever since a tragedy had hit them. He didn't mention much and was still wise enough to keep the details to himself, as he had been forbidden to talk about all of this to others. But unfortunately, the damage was already done. The wrong people had heard what he had had to say.

In countries that enjoyed long periods of peace of prosperity - a time without a war - like the Halksvaag Kingdom, corruption festered. That didn't mean that such things weren't present in countries that were in the opposite situation, but it was a lot less common in those. The longer no external enemy pressured the people, the easier it was for them to grow complacent and greedy - and that greed multiplied indefinitely.

Long ago, the entire country had already been deeply permeated with crime syndicates of all kinds and sizes. Even a lot of the guards and soldiers of the kingdom were a part of it, as they had no way to earn too good of a living when their skills weren't needed for the people's survival. In other words, when there was no war, they were heavily underpaid. Most of them didn't have bad intentions and only wanted to earn some quick valis, so they turned a blind eye to atrocities committed by some specific people. And others… they carried out those crimes themselves.

Powerless refugees were a prime target, so a group of corrupt guards assembled and stealthily followed the drunk tribesman back to the new and hidden settlement. There weren't too many of them, they only made up about five percent of the city's troops. Which still amounted to more than 100 people.

They weren't stupid enough to just storm out into the open and make a ruckus. Instead, they waited for people to leave the more populated areas before kidnapping them. In a single night, more than 50 tribesmen went missing!

Such an occurrence, of course, couldn't be hidden from the rest of the tribe. Very quickly, the previously drunk tribesman realized his mistake and everyone got informed about what was going on. The chief was furious when he found out, as he knew all too well that one should never show one's weakness to other people - especially not strangers. People would take the most vile advantage that they could, leaving one with one's back against the wall.

In a hurry, everyone was assembled, with the few tens of warriors left guarding the group. But before they could even make a run for it to hide and then investigate what had happened, possibly even rescuing their fellow tribesmen, the corrupt guards noticed the commotion and tightly surrounded the settlement. They gave the tribe an ultimatum. They could either give up, get captured and sold into slavery - or they could fight a losing battle and quite likely die. The ones that survived would still become slaves all the same.

The Sceaga tribe was anything but weak-minded and although quite a few of them hesitated, the ultimate decision was still to resist with all of their might and to make a break for it. As they were quite used to escaping from horrific odds by now, they quickly managed to charge through one of the sides of the encirclement.

Sadly, less than forty members of the tribe were left by that time. And while running westwards for their lives, more and more of them were picked off. When they finally succeeded in shaking off their pursuers, only a bit more than ten of them were remaining. And Aselina was the last of her direct family members in this group. Both her mother and father had thrown themselves in the paths of the approaching guards to buy more time for their baby girl to escape.

She sobbed uncontrollably, but it was of no use. The people she was with were all people she hadn't had much contact with previously - people she didn't know. She felt lonely. Nonetheless, she traveled with this group, further and further to the west. Why the west? It was just so they could get as far away from the Halksvaag Kingdom as possible.

Months later, the group had shrunk yet again. Some had simply left during the night someday, without saying anything, some others had stayed at the villages they passed with the goal of starting a new life there.

At that time, Aselina heard an elder at a village mention a certain city - Orario, the Labyrinth City. The place that gathered the strongest of the world, the place where one could grow until they reached unprecedented heights. A city where countless deities roamed the streets. The best place to become stronger, where heroes were born!

By now, the almost seven year old girl had a very deep understanding of one thing: Strength was important. In fact, it might even be close to the most important thing of all. If one wanted to protect one's home, one had to be strong. If one wanted to protect oneself, one had to be strong. If one wanted to protect one's loved ones, one had to be strong. If one didn't want to suffer in this world, one had to be strong. It was all very simple. If she and her fellow tribesmen had been stronger, would the challenges that they had been forced to face have ended in the same tragic way? No.

With that in mind, she did various odd jobs around the village and saved up some money. During this time, the rest of her tribesmen had already left her behind. Although they had been travelling together for so long, she wasn't particularly close to any of them, so now that she behaved just like other people before her - just like she wanted to stay and live here - nobody bothered to ask her any questions. The group continued on its path to no particular destination, while she embarked towards Orario on her own once she had saved up enough to pay for all the carriage rides she had to take to get there.

Thanks to some lucky coincidences, she made it to Orario in one piece, with no further villainous people setting their eyes on her. It was truly a bit hard to believe, seeing how far too many people wouldn't even blink before deciding to take advantage of a poor and lone little girl in a world like this. Or in any world, for that matter.

A couple of days later, the young Aselina stumbled across Loki, and from then on, the story wasn't a mystery anymore. She joined the familia, made friends and entered the dungeon a few years later, on her path to become a great adventurer. The years before that, she had been forced to get basic all-round training, so that she wouldn't immediately die if she encountered an unforeseen situation. With the motherly and perceptive Riveria around, Aselina's relatively weak constitution and her naive and ignorant nature weren't overlooked.

Currently, Aselina was close to Level 3 and had grown to this point in 'only' eight years, which was about the average speed in this world. Seeing how she hadn't really been getting many opportunities to slay monsters, as she had been a supporter all this time, it made a lot of sense. Not everyone could be as outstanding as Ais and grow out of that role incredibly quickly. Everyone who wasn't a living hack was left behind, forced to go through relatively slow growth. Considering the position that Aselina was relegated to, to still catch up with the average growth speed of this world was actually quite impressive.

-----

Upon hearing her whole story, Isaac nodded, as if he had understood something.

"So you want to grow stronger so that you can save your tribesmen or take revenge on the people and monsters that caused you to live such a tragic life?"

His words quickly made Aselina return to her state of confusion. Blankly staring at him, she blinked perplexedly.

"No."

Now a bit exasperated, Isaac asked her to clarify.

"Then why do you want to become stronger?"

With an innocent look on her adorable face, her black eyes stared straight into his.

"So I don't have to suffer through such things ever again."

'Understandable, so she wants to be able to protect herself in the future.'

In any case, Isaac felt the need to point something out. It was just in case, but he really felt like he needed to make sure.

"You are aware that in order to grow stronger, you will have to suffer through hardship, right?"

The raccoon girl nodded, her facial expression as cold and naively clueless as ever.

"Yes. But when I become the strongest, there won't be anything that will be able to make me suffer again. It will be fine to go through hardships until I get there."

A smirk played across Isaac's lips. If she had continued to follow her previous path, then it would have been extremely unlikely for her to become 'the strongest' or even anyone of remarkable renown in her lifetime. By choosing to follow him, she really had made the only choice that could get her what she wanted. No matter how she behaved, she really had a remarkably good head on her shoulders when it counted.

"I understand now. And alright, I will help you reach that goal. But do you really think you'll become 'the strongest' with me in the picture?"

Even though he winked playfully, Aselina completely missed that he was just joking around and her expression grew solemn. After some deep thought, her furrowed eyebrows relaxed and she took a breath. When she raised her head, she was sporting a happy smile.

"You won't hurt me, so it's fine if I become the second strongest."

Suddenly remembering something, she quickly glanced at Ais, then she added.

"The third strongest is fine too!"

A round of smiles and giggles later, Isaac's expression hardened yet again.

"Are you sure that you don't want to take revenge or see if you can save your tribesmen?"

Aselina released a small sigh before replying.

"It's not like I don't want to do that, but it's not a priority. The ancestral land and the Halksvaag Kingdom are so far away that it would take weeks or months to get there, even with my current speed, stamina and resources. Maybe when I'm stronger and when I'll have the time to go there someday…"

Noticing her plummeting mood, Isaac gently put a hand on her shoulder and flashed a confident smile.

"I can't tell you when I'll do it, but I'm interested in having a look at that Dragon Valley you mentioned. It will probably still take a while, but when we go there, we can take care of these matters on the way. What do you say?"

[ Aselina Sceaga's loyalty has increased by 20. ]

'What a sharp increase!'

Isaac's eyes widened in a bit of shock, as he had never seen such a huge change in loyalty before. With that, he was quite certain that this new subordinate of his was overjoyed by this proposition.

Aselina's raccoon ears twitched a little in cheerfulness. But instead of agreeing, she decisively shook her head. She was a bit worried about whether or not her behaviour would seem defiant, but she felt like she had to honestly state her thoughts.

"Thank you for the offer, but when we travel there, I would prefer to take care of my business myself. Feel free to accompany me, but please don't interfere."

With a smirk, Isaac shrugged.

"As you wish, I don't mind."

Even though he kept calm on the outside, his mind was quite excited.

'Amongst all the subordinates I have gathered so far, she is the only one who doesn't plan to rely on me too much. She is a lot more independent than I originally assumed - that could come in handy in the future. And even more importantly, I won't have to do anything and will get to watch a good show. Perfect!'

Now that both of them had come to a satisfying agreement, there was no need to discuss the topic further. A few more minutes of small talk later, both Bryce and Claire took their leave. They had noticed that there seemed to still be a few things that Isaac wanted to tell his new subordinate about. As those matters were currently classified, sticking around wouldn't be appropriate.

Seeing her friends leave, Aselina wanted to bid her farewell too, having completely missed all the obvious glances that Isaac had sent her way to nudge her thoughts in the right direction. Thankfully, he had already expected as much, so he carefully grabbed her arm before she could slip away.

"Please stay for a bit. There are a few things you should know now that you're one of my people."

The words he chose were quite close to as direct as they could possibly be, so even Aselina realized what was going on and nodded, swiftly sitting down at her previous spot again.

In the following half an hour, Isaac gave her a run-down of the abilities that his other subordinates knew he had. He did it so she wouldn't be surprised by them in the future. Also, she would be able to incorporate them into her own strategies and--- Who was he kidding? He would be very surprised if she ever actually did such a thing. Just to be safe, he also told her about the emergency protocol.

Needless to say, Aselina was completely baffled by what he claimed to be capable of, but after he demonstrated a handful of these 'miracles', she fully accepted his words as the truth. Very quickly, she even grew a little numb to all of these mind-blowing claims. After all, if a person was too abnormal, it would be normal for them to be abnormal. One wouldn't be surprised if they did something weird, rather, one would be shocked if their actions were aligned with common sense.

Lastly, there was only one thing left to mention.

"I can see your Status at any time, even if you aren't present. So if you want to know whether it would be worth it for you to get it updated by Loki, you can ask me to inform you about your current excelia gains. I can also update your Status, so if you would prefer me doing so over Loki, please let me know."

Now that he had mentioned it, he took this opportunity to take a first look at the raccoon girl's Status.

[ Name: Aselina Sceaga ]

[ Familia: Loki Familia ]

[ Affiliation: Isaac Blackshaw's Subordinate (Retainer) ]

[ Race: Raccoon People ]

[ Level: 2 ]

[ Age: 18 ]

[ Loyalty: 80/100 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: A-867 (+ 42) (3168) ]

[ Endurance: A-859 (+ 46) (3149) ]

[ Dexterity: C-624 (+ 28) (2280) ]

[ Agility: D-593 (+ 17) (2176) ]

[ Magic: I-0 (+ 0) (0) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ None ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Abnormal Resistance: I ]

[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Swordsman ]

Isaac subtly raised an eyebrow in surprise, as her stats were a bit higher than what he had expected. She was probably at the very forefront of elite Level 2 adventurers of this world. Truly, she had worked hard.

When she heard him mention Loki's 'update sessions', Aselina began to shiver. That perverted goddess' hands always seemed to nearly reach places she didn't want her to touch…

Her ears drooped at the memory, before recovering again. There was a resolute look on her face.

"I would prefer it if you could update my Status from now on."

To trust a man she had only known for a few weeks more than her own familia's goddess when it came to such a matter spoke volumes about how far over the line Loki liked to step.

In response to her decision, Isaac gave a short nod and smiled reassuringly.

"Alright, I'll get Loki's permission when we get back. And if she doesn't want to allow it… oh well, I'll do it anyway."

The ability to update the Status of people that weren't members of his familia was currently restricted to Loki Familia members, as he didn't know how to unlock the Falna of other gods yet. As he had never mentioned that he could do this, both Ais and Lefiya were taken aback - but they quickly made a decision. Hastily, the two interjected from the side, with the latter blushing slightly.

"Can you update my Status from now on too?"

"I'd like to request that as well."

Unbeknownst to him, with his previous offer, Isaac had kicked off a wave of change amongst the female members of the Loki Familia.