S-Class Third Wheel

Inhospitable.

If one had to sum up the dungeon's 38th to 42nd floors in one word, that would be it. The name of this thematic zone was 'Infernal City' and from this point onwards, all the monsters encountered would be at least Level 4.

Quite similar to the Water City, which was interspersed with a lot of water, the Infernal City was home to an abundance of lava. But whereas water was the liquid of life and would bring about a naturally bright and comfortable environment, the exuberant amounts of lava had made these floors into something quite close to the 'hell' that specific religions had often warned of in Isaac's old world.

Charred stones, no vegetation, lava lakes as far as the eye could see. Truly, a horrifying place. Thankfully, there were vast patches of ground in between the various sources of lava, so the heat could still be endured and there actually was a path to follow. Additionally, the higher the stats and Level of an adventurer, the higher their resilience to environments like this with harsh temperatures.

What should have been in danger were the supplies, carts and backpacks, as they didn't seem to be fully made out of resilient materials. Thankfully, this wasn't the case. As soon as the temperature had risen to a specific degree, lots of magical formations enveloped the carts and various backpacks of the supporters, keeping perfectly normal temperatures within. Such formations were incredibly expensive but any expedition party that could make it to these floors would easily be able to spend a few hundred million valis - or even more - on such useful trinkets.

Isaac hadn't even noticed the formations and their completely hidden magic stone power sources before, not even on the backpack he was carrying, so before they automatically activated, he had been about to ask one of his senior supporters about how they were going to keep the supplies safe. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

The monster species appearing on these floors were mostly made up of fire and lava based ones. Thankfully, there weren't any elemental creatures or the like - after all, for most adventurers, it would be nigh impossible to deal with a monster simply made out of flames. How would they even hit or effectively damage it? This didn't mean that there weren't any dangers around here, though, as there was quite the devious species of lizardmen. Isaac singled them out as the most dangerous ones out of them all. They had the ability to swim and dive in lava and ambushed their enemies from there. Thanks to their relatively small and agile bodies, one couldn't easily notice them from the lava's movement either. There were some other, much larger monsters that could also traverse the lava lakes, but thanks to their enormous sizes, they would displace inordinate amounts of lava with every move, making it hard to not instantly spot them.

In any case, due to the increase in the monsters' Level, the weaker main force members wouldn't be able to deal with them head on in these large numbers anymore. So finally, there was a change in the party's battle strategy.

Previously, all of the main force mages hadn't participated in the battles, as it hadn't been necessary. Everyone else also needed the combat experience and excelia as well, so they had just been on standby all this time. But now, all of them joined the battle, wiping out hundreds and thousands of monsters with area of effect Magics time and time again. Even Riveria had casted a few spells, wiping out all monsters in sight and giving the rest of the main force up to a minute of time to recover every time. While it was clear that the battles were now being taken more seriously, most Level 5 and 6 main force members had yet to truly do their best, they were very far from their limits.

While the party was getting closer and closer to the stairs leading down to the 39th floor, Riveria was paying a lot of attention to Lefiya, her disciple. The young elf was calmly casting one spell after another. She had yet to fail or panic even once - and that was exactly what made her stand out.

On all previous expeditions, Lefiya had messed up most of her spells. In fact, the number of spells she actually managed to cast couldn't be more than a few dozen. The cause of this was quite simple: fear. Lefiya was incredibly afraid of monsters… or to be more exact, of getting hurt. As soon as an opponent surpassed her in strength, although magic would make the difference in stats almost irrelevant, she couldn't help but get weak knees or even close her eyes. Needless to say, doing something as difficult as casting a spell, which she was able to do flawlessly in a controlled environment, was a lot more difficult - if not impossible - while her mind was getting rattled by such feelings.

Too often, the other main force members had had to save Lefiya from difficult situations. Still, due to her incredible magical potential and the fact that they were comrades, they had never discouraged her. Well, except for Bete. Everyone else had often told her that she needed to learn to trust and rely on them more, as they would keep her safe. There was no need to be afraid, she could just cast away. They would be her shield, her safety net. Still, while she had made some small steps in the right direction, it had never been enough.

Now, Lefiya seemed almost like an entirely different person. She exuded a certain confidence and calmness, words that would have never been used to describe her before. While she would still most likely die instantly if the monsters that she currently slaughtered en masse managed to get too close to her, it didn't look like she was too worried about such things anymore.

The cause of this was Isaac's training. Due to her improving her close quarters combat abilities, she had started to subconsciously believe that she wouldn't be entirely helpless if she faced much stronger opponents. After all, compared to before, her acquired instincts would now enable her to move a few centimeters before she was slain. If she was especially lucky, she might even be able to redirect an incoming attack. Admittedly, the chances of the latter happening were quite small, but it wasn't impossible. Ultimately, her end would still be the same: death.

But while she would have previously been utterly powerless, without the ability to even attempt to resist, she would now at least be able to put up a vain fight. This subconscious knowledge helped her overcome her fear.

Of course, trust in her comrades could have also achieved a similar effect. But only if it reached the absolute limits, transforming into a belief. But while such fanaticism could indeed enable one to surpass their limits, it was far from stable and safe growth. It could even heavily backfire - it was just a gamble. Lefiya's subconscious belief in herself was far more valuable than what she could have gained from believing in her comrades. After all, if she one day lost her comrades, wouldn't she then be completely unable to put up a fight and defend herself? Reliance on others wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but only if one could also stand on one's own two feet, facing dangers all alone.

What was amusing was that Lefiya hadn't even noticed her monumental change yet, while everyone else had. Bete, who had already prepared himself to ridicule her - as always - to spur on her growth just kept quiet. Most others simply smiled, happy about her progress.

Riveria herself also gratefully and approvingly nodded her head, although she was a little bit vexed. For years now, everyone had tried to help Lefiya overcome her fears… unsuccessfully. But now that Isaac came along, it had only taken him a couple of days to resolve the problem at its roots.

A sigh escaped Riveria's lips, while she thought about all the changes that Isaac had brought to the various members of the familia so far.

Loki had reined in her deviant behaviour a little bit. Finn had acknowledged his wisdom. Bete had dug his own grave. Tione had found a new friend. Tiona had fallen in love. Lefiya had overcome her fears and Ais had begun to value something other than strength and revenge.

The mostly taciturn, expressionless High Elf couldn't help but smile slightly. Yes, even she herself had changed a little.

Thinking about the specifics, Riveria's smile turned a bit wry.

She had gotten a lot more busy. Because there was now an additional person she had to worry about. Another child to care for.

-----

Sometimes, children grew up too fast and it was hard to let them go.

Riveria showed a conflicted expression while she looked at Ais, who had come to talk to her shortly after they had arrived on the 39th floor, the safety point they would spend the rest of the day and night at.

In just a couple of minutes, the main force members had slain all of the monsters around and the party had arrived at a place relatively far away from the nearest lava lakes. Here, the temperatures were almost normal, so they started to set up camp. Thankfully, they had brought a lot of water as part of their supplies, so they wouldn't have to worry about missing a water source at this safety point. Still, as they wouldn't be able to take baths today, everyone would at most be able to wipe themselves down. It was far from a thorough cleansing, but it would have to suffice. For adventurers, it wouldn't be tough to not shower for a day. In fact, it was something extremely easy to deal with. After all, at the next safety point, they would be able to enjoy some quality bathing time again, so there was no reason to be distraught or think about it too much.

After the supporters had started to set up the camp, most of the main force members had dispersed into the surroundings, cleaning up any monsters they stumbled across.

In any case, to get back on track, what currently worried Riveria was what Ais had requested of her. While releasing a sigh, just to confirm whether or not she had misheard her, she questioned the young beauty.

"So you want to share a tent with Isaac tonight?"

Without much of a change in expression, Ais nodded. A light blush crept on her cheeks.

Now that she had confirmed that Ais was serious, Riveria decided to first hear her out before potentially needlessly chiding her. Such a request wouldn't just come out of the blue, after all.

"Why?"

"If Isaac is with me, I feel safer. And I really want to feel safe tonight."

It was such a pure and innocent answer. Also, Ais truly wasn't the kind of girl who would do obscene things in a place as dangerous as this. Due to this, Riveria couldn't really bring herself to deny her. After all, there were quite a few couples amongst the familia's main forces and supporters - and all of them got their own, separate tents. Nobody disagreed with that treatment either. Now that there was Ais, a girl wholly untouched by lewd desires, a girl who just wanted to be a little bit closer to the person she loved…

Another sigh escaped Riveria's lips. She had already been trying to steel herself, but she still felt like she had just grown a couple of years older.

Isaac had already promised her that he wouldn't mistreat Ais. And from everything she had observed over the past couple of weeks, he had been an exclusively positive influence on her little girl. After all, Ais had almost never shown a smile before, and now it was hard to see her without one whenever she was with him or thought about him. Previously, her heart had been burdened by an unquenchable thirst for revenge but now she had mellowed out a lot. And even more than that… Isaac felt trustworthy. He had confided some of his secrets in Riveria, quite easily as well. Once someone showed another person a lot of trust, it was hard to not trust them to a similar degree in return. As that was a subconscious reaction, it couldn't be helped.

Yes, the mother hen had been won over a long time ago.

"Fine, fine. But your bedtime will still be the same."

Hearing these words, an incredibly bright smile blossomed on Ais' face, one that almost made Riveria breathless. Although she had grown up surrounded by heavenly beauties, Ais was simply too extraordinary. Even a High Elf was easily outclassed.

"Thank you, Riveria!"

After a couple of seconds of distraction, Riveria snapped out of it and glanced at Isaac in the far off distance. Thanks to her high Level and stats, her eyesight was far beyond what should have realistically been possible. Currently, Isaac was helping his fellow supporters set up a few tents. While she was silently observing him, for a brief moment, Riveria's motherly instincts overruled her rationality and hostility flashed in her eyes.

'I know you won't do it… but if you ever harm my little Ais, I will kill you.'

Over at the campsite, Isaac suddenly felt a frightening amount of danger. It was as if a ferocious, immemorial beast had set its sight upon him, ready to tear him apart at the drop of a hat. Cold sweat started to pour down his back.

Slightly surprised, Isaac raised an eyebrow and took a look around, trying to determine the origin of the dangerous gaze. But before he could do so, the feeling had disappeared and a look of confusion appeared on his face.

'What the hell just happened?'

-----

About an hour later, Riveria had asked Isaac to accompany her for a bit and she led him to one of the tents of the main forces, in front of which Ais and Lefiya were already waiting for them. Apparently, both of them had been called over here as well.

"Alright, now that we're all here, I can explain. Starting from today, Isaac, you will stay in the same tent as Ais."

This declaration didn't surprise the man in question much, as Ais had already told him via the system that they would be able to stay together tonight, so he could keep watch over her. Still, why was Lefiya here?

Very quickly, that question resolved itself.

"What?! Then where am I going to stay?"

Although she had gotten a little bit distracted at first, blushing and fantasizing about quite a lot of indecent things, Lefiya quickly snapped out of it as she noticed a problem. Previously, she had been Ais' tent mate, so now that Ais and Isaac were going to stay together, what about her?

In response, Riveria only showed a relatively uncharacteristically smug smile.

"You'll stay here as well, to keep an eye on Isaac. Make sure nothing inappropriate happens."

These words actually caused Ais, Isaac and Lefiya to blush. The first two simply hadn't planned any actions of that kind, so Riveria bringing them up now was a tiny bit embarrassing. At the same time, Lefiya's delusions got even more out of hand. Now the lewd scenes in her head even included herself as a participant, not just a voyeur…

"Ehehe… no problem…"

Seeing Lefiya starting to drool a little, Riveria resignedly shook her head. This girl really was a lost cause. She even began to doubt whether it had been a good idea to burden her with such a responsibility. But when she thought about all the other options, she could only shake her head yet again. If she wanted someone to keep watch, just in case, then Lefiya was, by far, the best choice. While she was indeed a pervert and often lost in her erotic daydreams, she never let any of these ideas leave the realm of her imagination. In other words, she was a coward. If anything inappropriate actually happened in her presence, she would undoubtedly alarm the entire campsite in a matter of seconds with a high-pitched scream. There was simply no doubt about it.

On the other hand, everyone else wasn't fit to take on this role. The vast majority of the other girls weren't too close to either Ais, Isaac or both, so it would simply be too awkward to have them stay with them. As for allowing another guy besides Isaac to sleep in the same tent as the Sword Princess? That would be insanity. Besides Finn and Gareth, who treated her like a daughter figure, everyone else was an absolute no-go. But those two had enough troubles to deal with already. As for Tione, if Ais was fine with whatever could potentially happen, she would surely turn a blind eye to it, not wanting to interrupt her friend's fun. And Tiona… to be honest, the chances of something inappropriate happening with just Ais and Isaac in a tent were incredibly low. But if the thirsty Amazoness was added to the mix, she would undoubtedly try to seduce the young man. She was one hundred percent out of the question, she would only make things worse.

And as for Riveria herself, because she was somewhat of a motherly figure to Ais, both her girl and Isaac would surely not even be able to have a nice relaxing rest while she was around due to the awkwardness. Additionally, Riveria wasn't at all comfortable with staying in the same tent as a man.

So in the end, only the naive pervert, Lefiya, remained.

-----

"Auroch. Cedar."

A couple of hours later, right after they had all eaten a filling dinner, Isaac looked at his two tent mates. While holding the silent Ais' hand, he had a rarely seen serious expression on his face.

"What is it?"

With a tranquil smile on his face, Auroch turned his attention towards Isaac. Surprisingly, even Cedar, who he didn't get along with that well, also decided to face him and listen to his next words.

Quite clear on what was about to happen, a slightly apologetic smile flashed across Isaac's lips.

"It seems like I'll be staying in Ais' tent from now on. Riveria told me a short time ago and I felt like I should inform you two."

Hearing this, Cedar's expression turned significantly worse and without bothering to listen to anything else, he simply looked away, ignoring Isaac completely. For a brief moment, Isaac had even felt some hostility.

Auroch, on the other hand, got quite sad and had Isaac promise him that they would still spend a lot of time together in the future. Although it had only been for a few days, their casual conversations had been very enjoyable to the warm-hearted fellow and he didn't want their camaraderie to fade with time. Thinking about how Ais and the others would mostly be exploring beyond the 50th floor in the future, leaving the supporters and weaker main force members behind, Isaac quickly agreed. He would have a lot of time to spare, so why not?

Besides some whistling from Bryce and Claire and the generally approving smiles from the rest, there was another person who had a memorable and huge reaction to this revelation. That was, unsurprisingly, Tiona. Just like on all the previous days, she had been clinging to Isaac all this time. At this point, he had pretty much grown numb to it. Thankfully, Tiona had slowly realized which lines he really didn't want her to cross, so he didn't need to spend too much time trying to escape her clutches. If she just wanted to hug him, he wouldn't stop her.

This time, a quite sour look appeared on Tiona's face, accompanied by an unsatisfied frown.

"How unfair! I'll ask Riveria to allow me to stay with you as well!"

With these words, she hurried away, only to return with a somewhat lifeless, defeated expression a few minutes later.

-----

At around 9 p.m., Lefiya was fidgeting nervously in her tent. All three of them had changed into comfortable sleepwear at this point, causing her to blush quite heavily. Never before had she allowed a man to see her like this!

Well, in all honesty, she wasn't showing off much, as she was wearing a long and plain, white nightgown, not some seductive lingerie. Nonetheless, she felt quite restless. Over the past few days, she purposefully hadn't spent much time with Ais and Isaac in private, as she had wanted to allow them to spend some time 'alone' together. Well, to be honest, that wasn't really why she hadn't joined them. The truth was that she found it very difficult to join new social circles. Compared to the social butterfly Amazonesses, she was a lot more shy and reserved. The past few days, she felt somewhat left behind… and lonely.

But now that she was occasionally stealing glances at Ais, who currently had gotten Isaac to give her a lap pillow, and the aforementioned man, all of this was forgotten. Instead, she got incredibly self-conscious and her face and ears started to heat up more and more.

'I'm a pure Elf, untouched by the desires of the flesh!'

Even telling herself this had no use. Quickly, she got distracted thinking about how 'short' her nightgown was and how much of her bare legs she was currently showing. Also, if this white clothing got wet, wouldn't it turn see-through? Then, when Lefiya saw Isaac gently stroke Ais' head, she couldn't help but imagine herself getting touched as well…

Looking at the S-Class pervert in front of him, Isaac, as so often, could only release a sigh.

"Calm down, Lefiya."

Just like during their training sessions, he kept his voice's cadence steady and his tone stern, trying to snap her out of her rosy thoughts. And it worked.

When she heard these words, Lefiya's ears perked up and the redness on her face started to fade. Her eyes, which had turned a little bit watery and cloudy before, gradually regained their focus. She felt like a bucket of water had been poured on her… and she was grateful for it. Her lips widened into a smile.

Right. What was she worried about? These two were her best friend and her teacher. They were upstanding people. She could trust them. They would never let her see anything indecent or involve her in some kind of erotic actions…

Or would they?

A couple of minutes of small talk and relaxation later, Lefiya's breathing had once more accelerated, while arousing delusions filled her mind to the brim.

Dejectedly, Isaac shook his head.

'She is hopeless.'