Rising Undercurrents

Ais showed a warm and loving smile. Amongst all of the people gathered here, she was the only one who could understand just how much that library meant to him, thanks to experiencing his past.

From the beginning of his life, Isaac had always absorbed and analyzed knowledge like a sponge, most of the time in written form. At some point, he had then gotten intrigued by the countless stories that the humans of his old world had created. For all these years, his closest companions had been books, both physical and digital ones. They were the one thing that could be called a 'constant' in his life.

Which person that loved books didn't sometimes think about how great it would be to run a bookstore or a library? Even Isaac hadn't been entirely immune to these occasional musings. He had wanted to make his own sanctuary, a library containing all the knowledge and stories that existed. Of course, when compared to his original, primary goal of transcending existence itself, such a fleeting thought had never been of particular importance, but upon reviewing his life, it was clear that this wish, this 'dream', had always been there, albeit to a very minor degree.

Now, he had already transcended, and had embarked on a journey through the countless worlds in existence. He had even met Ais, one of the girls of his dreams, and had truly fallen in love with her! Wasn't it high time to set the foundation for that library of his? With that in mind, and to satiate his craving for reading, he had told his people to gather books. He had all the time in the world, quite literally, so there had been no need to rush them. With the creation of his private world, slowly but surely, it could all begin.

"Where will we get the construction personnel and resources from? Do you need us to bring them here?"

Kalin's voice eventually broke the silence. He had a thoughtful look on his face and was subconsciously scratching his chin. While he couldn't comprehend this whole world creation business, now that architecture was involved, he had at least a basic understanding of the topic.

Contrary to the young man's expectations, Isaac shook his head.

"That's not necessary. I alone am all the personnel needed. I won't stop you from gathering materials that you think could be useful, though. I already bought lots of the readily available ones, but if you find anything extraordinary or special, just bring it with you. I'm not just talking about mere building materials here, by the way. If something looks intriguing and you can get your hands on it without any major problems, just bring it here, to me. Still, you don't need to go out of your way for these things, just keep an eye out."

As he nodded, Kalin showed a wry smile. He honestly wasn't surprised anymore whenever Isac revealed or claimed that he was capable of something. He rarely, if not never, found himself doubting him anymore. There was simply no reason to.

It took a while, but eventually, all immediate questions were cleared up. While Lefiya and Riveria undoubtedly still had many more that they wanted to ask, they would simply have to do so later, because not everyone was interested in hearing about the more integral parts and details regarding this world, aside from the two Elves.

The first building that would be built here would be the base for the subordinates - mostly because Titania needed a place to stay. Also, it was best to start with the easiest parts first. Even just the planning of the basic layout of the first iteration of the library, for example, would take a considerable amount of time, after all.

Because he still needed another teleportation node that could be moved around to wherever he wished, to be used as a pathway to anywhere that someone needed to teleport to - for example, to continue the exploration of the dungeon at a specific point - he bought another node for 1,000 AP.

Initially, his plans had only encompassed the more permanent nodes, but now that he had already dealt with those, he still needed to consider everyone's daily routine. Titania's big frame - and the fact that she was half monster - was a huge deal, so he couldn't just let her teleport to the building that he had rented in Rivira. The entire town would erupt in turmoil and panic! Only after he made it publicly known that she was under his command could he openly let her use that node. So although it required him to manually adjust the position of the new node that he had bought, he spent a fraction of a second to set it right at the spot of the 19th floor that the subordinates had ended their daily dungeon delve yesterday. Speaking of, he should probably update their Status again soon…

After bidding Aselina, Averin, Jakk, Kalin, Mina and Quinn farewell, Riveria stepped forward to sate her curiosity about this world a little more. Sadly, Isaac had to excuse himself already, as his schedule for the day was already full to the point of bursting. He gave his permission for the two Elves to stay here and come back whenever they wanted, however, so that they could research on their own as much as they pleased.

Once he had exchanged a meaningful glance with Hel and handed her a bag of valis plus a note, Isaac gave Ais a kiss and left his private world with Ray in tow. Moments later, the stalker goddess also disappeared from this world and soon invisibly hurried out of the Twilight Manor.

----

One thing that Isaac's subordinates and students weren't lacking was a secure training environment. With the extremely strong Titania looking after them all, even should an irregularity or emergency occur, she would still be able to destroy any monster that could appear on the 19th floor. But her help wasn't even necessary, as Aselina, Averin and Jakk were dispatching the entire surplus of monsters that they ran into.

Kalin, Mina and Quinn could completely focus on their respective opponents and didn't need to worry about something sneaking up on them. Or at least that was the arrangement that anyone would expect if they were told about the Levels of all the members of this group. While this overall assumption wasn't entirely wrong, it also wasn't correct either.

Such an environment would make it easy for the students to grow accustomed to relying on someone having their backs at all times, which could prove fatally dangerous in any scenario where that simply wasn't the case, so Isaac had instructed them to avoid toning down the difficult too much. The three of them that could still improve their stats by hunting the monsters on this floor would get a few chances to safely fight against a new species one on one first, to acclimate to them, but afterwards, their protectors were instructed to let a few additional monsters through to harass them during and after their fights - only randomly, of course, so as to avoid them getting used to it. Of course, if the approaching monsters were far too strong for the ones that were busily accumulating excelia to meaningfully react to, then they wouldn't let them get anywhere near them, but if a second Mad Beetle came their way while they were dueling another… then they would just have to deal with two. No warnings would be sent their way either, unless it was absolutely necessary, so as to keep them on their toes at all times.

Ever since their last Status update, both Kalin and Mina had nearly effortlessly dispatched the Minotaurs and Ligerfangs that had given them considerable headaches before. Even Quinn didn't have any troubles fighting them on his own, although he couldn't deal with them as easily as the other two. Because of this, they had all already progressed past Rivira yesterday. They could have gotten a significant boost to their stats again, but they decided to reach their limits first before getting another update.

So far, the only monsters here that they could defeat were the Mad Beetles and the Lizardmen, because they had the lowest stats. Although the gap was still quite considerable, it wasn't impossible to bridge it.

With her ears standing on attention and her eyes squinting at the two Mad Beetles that she was facing, Mina waited for the left one to start charging at her, before shooting towards the side and around the right bipedal beetle as fast as she could, causing the two massive black carapace-clad monstrosities to collide with each other and collapse to the ground. The disturbing sounds of huge insect legs hitting stone and wood echoed through the hallways as the monsters tried to rise again.

But it was already too late. Without giving them any time to recover, Mina aimed at the joints of their legs and quickly cut them off. Ignoring the clacking of their scary mandibles, she got rid of the rest of their limbs too, leaving them no way to pose much of a threat to her.

With two quick stabs of her sword, she ended them and breathed a short sigh of relief, before getting serious again and hurrying off towards a group of three Lizardmen nearby. They had been kept at bay by Averin, because she had previously told him that it was time for her to up the ante a little.

Looking at Kalin, who was facing four of these scaly monsters in another direction, she grew both excited and competitive.

'I don't want to lag behind!'

She wasn't aware that her quick improvement had made the young man feel pressure as well. He had always been the slightly stronger one of the two, so how could he just give up his spot without trying his damn hardest?

Thankfully, his spear was the ideal weapon to face a large group of opponents. Most people thought that once one closed the distance to a spear wielder, one would have the advantage and that they could easily be overrun by numbers in that state - that couldn't be further from the truth. Any kind of polearm could also be used as a staff! That was one of the most basic lessons that Isaac had imparted to him, and by making use of it, Kalin effortlessly deflected three of the Lizardmen's attacks in quick succession.

This fighting style still had a few weaknesses, chief of which was the reliance on a good spear shaft - but thankfully, his current weapon was still of sufficient quality to deal with the wooden weapons and sheer strength of the Lizardmen. Otherwise, it might break… Of course, by getting more proficient at deflecting, only a fraction of the actual impact would be transferred to the shaft, but ideally, one would also want it to be made out of the best material available, just in case. To avoid making a potentially fatal mistake.

After defending for a while, Kalin finally saw an opening. He deflected all four of his opponents' weapons at close to the same time and used the last one's impact to spin about 180 degrees, to increase the strength and speed of his spear, and to stab straight through the right eye of one of the staggering Lizardmen, killing it nigh instantly. Using the short window of time where the other three still had to stabilize themselves, he yanked his weapon back and returned to a defensive stance.

One by one, the monsters fell, never to rise again. When only one was left, he didn't even need to wait for an opening - it was effortlessly slain. With a deep breath, he shook off the blood from the tip of his spear and shouted at the distant Aselina.

"A bigger group next, please! Five Lizardmen would be ideal."

With a small nod, the raccoon girl rushed into the distance to lure them over. At the same time, Kalin heard a buzzing sound and hurriedly trained his eyes on a small Gun Libellula in the distance, his face even more serious than when he had fought his last battle. Half a second later, he hastily dodged towards the right and just barely managed to avoid the needle-like projectile that had been shot his way. By waiting until the exact moment before the monster had fired, he managed to get out of the way a fraction of a second in advance. Else, he wouldn't have been able to escape and been painfully wounded, because the speed that the needles were shot at was simply far faster than what he could react to.

Immediately after, the annoying insect got split in half by a leaf-tipped tentacle. Glancing at its source, Kalin could see Titania giving him an approving nod, before the tentacle continued towards the bodies of the monsters that he had just eliminated. It ripped out their magic stones and delivered them to the dutiful plant. She boredly nibbled away on them, looking at her surroundings with a helpless expression. Everything here… even taking care of the others and challenging them according to her master's specifications… it was too easy.

An awkward smile stole itself on Kalin's lips as he realized how comical their encounters had to seem to this powerful companion of theirs. While he was waiting to face his next enemies, he turned to spectate Quinn's fight a few tens of meters away.

When he had first heard about the cat boy's Skill, he had expected him to crush his opponents with simple brute force, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. Mainly due to Isaac's advice and training, Quinn was all too aware that mindlessly rushing in and facing opponents head-on were some of the stupidest things one could do in combat. If it was unavoidable, then it couldn't be helped, but ideally, one should rely more on positioning and tactics to deal with one's enemies. Of course, the importance of mostly evading and deflecting attacks had also been taught to him.

Out of all of the subordinates, Quinn was the one who had adopted Isaac's initial fighting style the closest. Like him, he only relied on a one-handed sword. If he had gotten a chance to procure himself a vambrace, then Kalin had no doubt that he would have taken it.

While Mina also used the same kind of weapon, and also had internalized their teacher's lessons, most of her actions weren't actually planned, and simply done out of instinct. She oftentimes used shrewd maneuvers, but not really consciously - they were spur-of-the-moment decisions. Quinn, on the other hand, tried to predict many moves in advance and lure his enemies into as many traps as he could. Instinct played barely any role in his battles.

One the surface, the two's fighting styles seemed similar, but when looking closer, they were actually almost polar opposites originating from one specific set of Isaac's teachings. That didn't change that the outcomes and courses of their encounters were nearly identical, though.

During his battles, Quinn sported a frosty expression and oozed killing intent. He was constantly doing his very best to suppress the all-encompassing rage and hatred that threatened to devour him. Instead… he turned scarily calm. The angrier he got, the more composed he became. This kind of trait wasn't actually all that rare, but it also wasn't a common sight.

Hearing a bunch of angry Lizardmen shouts coming closer, Kalin turned in their direction and gripped his spear a little tighter, then he walked a few steps forward and got into position. If all went well, then today would be the day that he accumulated enough stats to rank up. His heartbeat quickened at this thought. Then momentarily, he felt that familiar feeling of his stats weakening ever so slightly yet again.

'--- trus---'

"Huh?"

All of a sudden, his eyes widened, then he rapidly refocused on the five Lizardmen that were charging towards him, chasing after Aselina who was relaxedly jogging in front of them, just out of reach.

Even though Kalin felt like he had just heard something for a fleeting moment, he didn't have the time to waste on such matters right now. What kind of idiot would allow himself to get distracted during a life-and-death battle?

-----

In the massive plaza around Babel, hundreds of adventurers were going to and fro, some standing around and chatting with their friends.

"So, did you finally manage to kill a Bugbear yesterday? Or did you chicken out again?"

"Ugh, don't remind me…"

A Dwarf was teasing a disheartened Chienthrope youth, smirking smugly upon seeing the latter's scrunched up face.

"He told me he will marry me if I rank up to Level 3! Can you believe that? That's basically a proposal!"

"Why is he so obsessed with your Level? You'd better look for someone else…"

"Yeah, that sounds fishy as hell."

A group of girls was desperately trying to convince their friend to rethink her questionable life choices.

"Isn't that so unfair? That Blackshaw guy killed a goddess of Evilus, and what did he get for it? A punishment! Those bastards…"

"Yeah, I know, right? They just sit on their asses all day long and preach about working together, but once someone snuffs out true evil for once, they condemn them for it."

There were also a few tens of unhappy individuals complaining about Isaac's fate in a loud voice. One of them was a hooded figure that clearly didn't want to broadcast their identity, but their small stature still revealed them to be a Pallum.

"I wish we could do something about this injustice. But what can we do?"

An old man sighed and shook his head, a pained expression flickering in his eyes. He had undoubtedly been here during those dark days, when Evilus ran rampant. The others who were gathered here were either a part of his generation, or hot-blooded youngsters who felt the need to uphold justice.

"What if we protest? If our voices are loud enough, the gods will be forced to listen. Don't forget, they rely on us just as much as we rely on them."

The hooded Pallum's tone was a little more hushed than before, clearly not wanting to attract the attention of those that weren't a part of this circle of riled up folk.

"You know… that could work. You make a fair point!"

Slowly, the old man's face lit up with realization and he glanced at his old friends, who nodded at him in return.

"We just need to make a ruckus, eh? That's what I'm good at!"

A hearty Boaz hit his chest and laughed mischievously.

"It won't help us if we're disorganized. Why don't we choose this plaza as the site of our protest, and try to gather other like-minded people for a week? I'm sure we'll have enough of an impact by then! One week, same time, same place. What do you say?"

Yet again, the hooded Pallum was the one to steer the course of the conversation, and to build up the momentum. But none of the others realized it. Well, maybe some did, but because they were all of one mind, they were simply happy that someone had taken charge. Not everyone wanted to be a leader or to have responsibility.

Scenes like this could be observed all over the city, wherever adventurers gathered. The people who kicked off these discussions were often hiding their faces, or simply unremarkable in appearance. Considering that a significant portion of the population preferred to keep a low profile, no adventurers would bat an eye at the occasional hooded figure.

Ever since Isaac's sentence had been announced to the city, a significant portion of the populace had already voiced their displeasure, mostly in private. Sometimes, the Guild had to get involved to quell some conflicts stemming from this issue, as drunk adventurers occasionally started to brawl because of it. Still, it hadn't been anything major, or organized. It fizzled out relatively quickly and quietly, with most people keeping this unhappiness locked away in a corner of their minds and going about their days normally.

All that was needed was a spark to light the fuse. And now there was a carefully controlled, lit match in the picture.

-----

A small island was located in the sky above an endless desolate wasteland. As far as the eye could see, it was the only thing that broke up the monotony of that same exact landscape. Still, the island wasn't anything special either - it was home to a tiny lake and a few trees, but the only thing about it that would stick out to a mortal was that it was hovering in mid-air. Here in Heaven, such a sight was common, even in the deserted areas in between the various deities' and pantheons' territories.

CRASH!

Suddenly, the absolute silence was broken by a deafening impact. Something had landed not that far away, creating a massive crater that was multiple kilometers deep. It took a long while for the dust and debris to settle.

"Cough, cough! Oh fuck, that was close. They almost got me this time…"

A slightly deep, male voice could be heard from the center of the crater. It was too bad that there wasn't anyone around to actually listen to it, as it sounded quite pleasant to the ear. The speaker cleared his throat a few times and spat on the ground, then he slowly stumbled out of the impact area. A deep breath and a single step later, he already was on the island and sitting down with a pained wince.

"This better not leave a scar…"

Muttering to himself, occasionally coughing and spitting like before, the man got a few bandages, towels and an antiseptic from seemingly out of nowhere. Clenching his teeth, he slowly started the arduous task of cleaning his wounds, constantly shivering in agony. Still, at the same time, he felt somewhat relieved.

His body was a horrifying mess. More than one third of his flesh was gone, leaving his bones to glisten ghastly in the sun. As for the flesh that remained, there wasn't even any skin covering it, and multiple deep wounds from cuts and burns ran nearly bone-deep and had malformed his body severely. Even a few of his internal organs could be made out, all of which were damaged. Usually, a god would recover from wounds like this in mere moments. If they weren't killed immediately, it would take them less than a minute to return to their peak state - as long as they still had Divine Energy left, that is. This relatively tall man clearly had plenty of it remaining. In fact, the sheer power that he constantly exuded would probably cause some of the weaker deities to flee in terror. Yet, he wasn't using his Divine Energy to heal. Or rather, he couldn't. While his wounds did mend ever so slowly, it was like a snail's pace compared to normal.

Minutes later, the man cupped his fully intact right hand and got some water from the lake, gulping it down as if relishing in divine wine. And that wasn't even all too inaccurate of a comparison - here in Heaven, many things were filled to the brim with Divine Energy, just like this water. If a mortal were to drink it, living for tens of thousands of years wouldn't be a problem. It would also taste… well… divine.

After releasing a satisfied burp and coughing up a bit more of his lifeblood - a little less than before - the god sighed and stared at his empty right hand, all the while grinning to himself. Because there was barely any skin or flesh remaining on his skull and one of his eyeballs was missing, this sight would have appeared ghastly to any observer.

"I finally did it! Just wait… a little longer. Only a few million years more! I'm almost there. Saria, Thoren, Miru, …"

The god spoke the names of many tens of people as if in a trance, a gentle light in his one remaining eye. Finally, his words came to a close.

"It'll all be over soon. I didn't forget."

With a last glance into the distance, he fully laid down on the ground and closed his eye, his flesh gradually regrowing. The rate of his recovery increased a little now that he had allowed himself to rest, but it would take him at least a few weeks to fully heal.