Making The Rounds

There had seemingly always been an unwritten rule in the dungeon when it came to floor bosses - they would be many times taller than a regular person, and, in most cases, continually increase in size. That, however, wasn't the case for this one. Back when the Zeus and Hera Familias had first run across Apsinthos, they had been stumped and had even tried to make contact with him. As for the reason? He looked almost entirely like a being of the sentient races.

Well, aside from the three pairs of white-feathered wings sprouting from his back. The upper and lower pairs were relatively small, maybe about a third of the size of the middle one, which was growing out of the ends of his shoulder blades. The other two pairs supported the main one, and enabled him to guide his path more expertly and minutely.

Apsinthos was a bit less than two meters tall, which already made him at least a size bigger than most of the relatively short inhabitants of this world. He had pristinely white, almost transparent skin, but his blood vessels didn't visually stick out in any way. A faint and subdued glow exuded from him, which bizarrely even managed to overshadow the extreme brightness all around. His blonde hair rested upon his right shoulder in a braided ponytail, in a neat and tidy manner which completely exposed his Half Elf-like ears. He wore a pure white robe that flowed around him as if billowing in the sea breeze. A plain white belt was strapped around his waist, to which was fastened a golden-white sheath that housed a delicately decorated longsword.

Honestly, due to his resting pose, even Isaac was momentarily inclined to believe that this was a simple visitor to the dungeon, or at least a sentient being - not a Monster Rex. Apsinthos sat silently on a raised portion of the floor, his legs crossed and his bare feet exposed to the elements. A staircase leading further down, towards the 80th floor, was situated a couple of kilometers behind him. He blocked the only path that led straight there.

Because his eyes were closed and the faint angelic smile on his face was ever-present, it wouldn't be weird to assume that he was just an angel who had somehow ended up here.

But Isaac wouldn't be as careless as the past hegemons of Orario had been. Even had he not already been aware of this being's identity, he would have still stayed on guard all the same. After all, whether Apsinthos was a sentient being or a monster didn't truly matter - what did was whether he was hostile. As always, he would at least consider the possibility of any- and everybody trying to harm him. It wouldn't be the case in most instances, but when it was, then he would at least be both mentally and physically prepared.

'Still, it's interesting. I had assumed that I wouldn't encounter any monsters that so closely resemble the human body. Looks like I was wrong.'

It had indeed been foolish to expect that the dungeon wouldn't nigh entirely base an opponent off of the human body. Sure, there had been those enemies that had gotten close - the rotting and decaying Zombies, or the various humanoid monsters like the Sirens and Mermaids - but never before had any of them borne this close of a resemblance to a healthy sentient being from the surface, one that was in pristine condition. Yes, Apsinthos had wings, but that was really the only physical difference. Maybe one day, Isaac might even encounter beings that 100 percent replicated those from the surface? It was at least a possibility.

Without attempting a dialogue, he casually walked closer to the angel floor boss, seemingly off guard - of course, he had already entered the realm of supreme focus, as usual. Once he passed the 200 meter mark from Apsinthos' seat, the man stood up, his holiness instantly perverting into a bloodlust that nearly blazed from his now-opened eyes. His expression didn't change whatsoever, adding to the eerie strangeness of the scene. With movements so quick that most Level 7 adventurers would have a hard time following them, he kicked off from the ground and unsheathed his immaculate weapon.

'More than halfway through Level 8. His stats are at D-550 / 241,850. The difficulty spike is quite extreme here, I better caution the familia.'

Still, there was no need for Isaac to panic, as his recent advance to Level 7 had made him surpass even this opponent - and if he had been weaker, he wouldn't have become nervous either. Admittedly, he wouldn't stand a chance without his passive Divine Being stat buff, but due to it, he outclassed his enemy immensely. Being a god… it simply broke the scales.

Sidestepping calmly, he evaded the angel's charge by a small margin, the air that had been displaced by one of the Monster Rex' wings brushing against his face. As if further enraged by this close call, the mana density around Apsinthos rapidly increased and his robes got suffused in holy white light, which ultimately formed what appeared to be a suit of overly glamorous armour. It didn't get in the angel's way, however, because it just passed through his body whenever his movements would have normally been restricted, as if it was insubstantial. But after testing it with a random wooden stick from his inventory, Isaac confirmed that this result of a light enchant type Magic did still collide with regular physical objects.

His eyes glittering with excitement, the intrigued scientist remained composed in the face of the overall stat boost of the floor boss and only eased the restraints that he had put on his own stats a little, so as to continue matching his specimen's strength. This quite ingenious application of magic was at least worthy of a closer examination and the unusual pairs of wings did require him to study them for some time until he could properly 'read' them.

Still, Apsinthos' one-sided aggression couldn't last forever. Once Isaac had gathered all knowledge that he could in this way, he unsheathed his own sword and got to work, repeatedly injuring the angel. He started small, with only cuts across the arms and waist, ones that weren't too deep. This was intended to probe the test subject's response to such minor pangs of pain. In this manner, the suffering began.

If the Monster Rex had been more than a mindless drone solely existing to kill, then he would have shed enough tears to flood a desert. By the time ten minutes had passed, three of his wings were missing, another one only had a pitiful stump remaining and he had been brutally gutted. Countless other gashes and bruises marred his beautiful body, turning it into a tattered wreck that dragged its own bowels along on the ground.

Right when Isaac thought about making use of his Mermaid Blood Dispenser to give Apsinthos a second wind, the floor boss suddenly stopped attacking and hurriedly chanted in gurgling noises, his voice still relatively pleasant despite the blood clogging up his throat. Although the sounds appeared grotesque in nature, it turned out that they really were the words that made up a language, because the system's automatic translation function got to work.

"Soldiers of eternity, lend me your splendour. Reinstate what was broken, for the judgement has not yet ended. No mercy for the wicked, until my last breath. Return me from the doorsteps of death. Sṓizō Tous Efseveís."

A ray of light even brighter than the surroundings suddenly descended from around ten meters above the lacerated angel's head and enveloped him completely, shielding him from regular eyesight. At a speed that was almost inconceivable, all of his wounds recovered and his missing body parts grew anew. His complexion became healthy again, and only the density of mana within his body dipped extremely slightly. He would easily be able to perform the same Magic hundreds of times. Other Monster Rexes had almost endless passive natural regeneration, while this one needed to cast a Magic to achieve a slightly subpar result - maybe this handicap was what was supposed to 'balance the scales' after such a ludicrous spike in floor boss stats.

'What a cooperative guy, he's even saving me the trouble of having to heal him myself!'

Obviously, Isaac wouldn't be discourteous to such a kind fellow and allowed Apsinthos to recover to his peak. Little did the dungeon's minion know that it had just voluntarily entered a hell of torment.

About two hours later, Isaac finally left the dungeon and returned to his private world, patiently waiting for his students to come back from their daily grind. While he was steadily utilizing most of his focus to add more drops to his mental layer's mana flow, he inspected the most important piece of loot that he had acquired after stuffing the abused corpse of Apsinthos into his inventory after the specimen's death - the Monster Rex' sword.

The dungeon sometimes generated weapons for its monsters, which could vary in make and quality. This one was definitely the best one that he had come across so far. Usually, after the collection of the magic stone, these weapons would also disappear alongside the monster carcasses, but his inventory enabled him to simply ignore this 'law' and snatch everything.

The sword was 120 centimeters long, with the grip accounting for one sixth of the length. It was suitable to be wielded with two hands, but would also work well as a one-handed weapon. It had a weight that would have made it impossible for regular people to properly use it, but it felt nearly weightless to him - it was close to twenty kilograms. As if a craftsman god had produced it, it was perfectly weighted, but it hadn't been personalized for Isaac. Its intended user had obviously had marginally longer arms and a slightly taller stature - Apsinthos. Isaac couldn't determine what kinds of exact materials this weapon had been made from, but he could still vaguely analyze them. The grip had been fashioned out of some kind of bone, while the double-edged blade had been crafted from a white metal that was suffused with mana - he had never encountered either of them before. The sheath had been made out of the same kind of bone as the grip. Regarding the angelic decorations all over the grip, pommel, guard and sheath, they looked to be shaped out of gold - but the actual metal was, yet again, unknown. Overall, its quality wasn't inferior to the sword that he had spent a fortune on recently, from what he could tell.

'Not bad. I should get it adjusted and keep it, in case I ever find myself in need of a proper longsword.'

Well, he also wanted to ask Goibniu and Hephaestus about the materials that his spoils of battle consisted of, to broaden his knowledge. Adding a weapon to his arsenal was merely of secondary importance.

Around 1 p.m., a bit before his students and subordinates would return for their training, he felt a familiar suffocating and uncomfortable feeling crop up - a bottleneck in his mana channels, which were filled to the brim. Ever since he had ranked up to Level 6, he had spent all of his surplus focus on adding drops to his mana flow, so although his speed of advancement only increased extremely minutely every so often, he had still made it this far in a bit more than half a day.

It took ridiculous amounts of effort and perseverance to add the 80,000th drop, but his expression only stiffened a little. With a sudden jolt, the pain passed, and instantly, his entire vessel revitalized and recovered from the precarious state that it had been in previously. A joyful sigh escaped his lips as he carefully surveyed his physical and mental layers for changes - but aside from his mana channels expanding yet again, enabling him to progress yet another step further on the path of Mana Cultivation, there was nothing else.

'Seems like any big changes will only occur once I surpass the Foundation Establishment, I'd wager.'

[ Mana Cultivation - Foundation Establishment (B): Enables one to interact with their surroundings by using mana. Reduction in mana expenditure: 17% ]

After making sure that there weren't any hidden problems that he had missed, he continued to devote himself to adding more drops, until he noticed a group of people approaching from the home node.

Before he had even opened his eyes, a certain Chienthrope girl had already rapidly ran up to him, wagging her tail excitedly, her eyes sparkling with fascination, happiness, gratitude and unswerving devotion.

"Milord!! Congratulations on having become stronger!"

When she noticed that he was looking at her, Mina controlled her emotions a little and obediently saluted him in an adorkable manner, her tail still stirring up a lot of dust. She had been in the middle of battle when an extreme stat increase had come her way, and although she had been slightly startled and had even made a mistake, Titania had covered for her and had kept her opponents at bay until she had managed to adjust herself to the continuous sudden power surges. The loyal dog girl had immediately realized that this was her lord's doing, and that her Reverential Resonance Skill was the reason for this unforeseen boon. And as expected of the most faithful retainer, the happiness that she had felt over her own improvement had been completely dwarfed by the euphoria over her lord's rank up.

With a smirk, Isaac got up and patted her head a little, then he turned to face the rest of the group. During this time, Lefiya had teleported here from the Twilight Manor as well and joined them, looking forward to today's training.

"Before we begin, I'll update the Status of Averin, Kalin, Mina and Quinn. During the past few days, you should have made considerable strides forward again."

The ones that he had mentioned showed excited looks, while Aselina felt a little disheartened. He shot her an apologetic look, and she nodded in understanding - there simply hadn't been any monsters that allowed her to earn a good amount of excelia on their path yet. But on the bright side, now that they were about to cross the Second Line and enter the Water CIty, her time to shine would finally arrive!

Casually, while continuing to pat Mina's head - she hadn't left his side yet - Isaac took a look at the four's progress and gave them their Status updates.

[ Name: Averin ]

[ Familia: Isaac Familia ]

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

[ Race: Jack Bird Variant ]

[ Level: 2 ]

[ Age: 42 -> 46 days ]

[ Loyalty: 99/100 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: E-482 -> B-701 (1,834) ]

[ Endurance: D-510 -> B-714 (1,812) ]

[ Dexterity: E-493 -> A-802 (2,177) ]

[ Agility: H-175 -> G-232 (2,714) ]

[ Magic: I-24 -> H-193 (389) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ Atalantan Accelerate ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Beak Fighter: H -> G ]

[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Abnormal Resistance, Chain Attack ]

Surprisingly, the arrogant rooster had actually been putting in a lot of effort to support his boasting and helped out his fellow subordinates a lot, in the process advancing his stats by a large margin. Even his Development Ability had increased in grade, and only in four days! While that was partially due to the supreme quality training that he had gotten to enjoy, it was still a feat that would leave countless adventurers speechless. It had only been in the early stages of his Development Ability, and it wasn't comparable to Ais' recent accomplishments, but the Sword Princess was a publicly acknowledged genius, while Averin was… just a Jack Bird. To obtain the opportunity to be mentioned in the same breath as Ais, he had to have worked ridiculously hard.

An appreciative smile flashed past Isaac's lips as he nodded approvingly. This rooster didn't disappoint him at all. Just… that last point of not-yet-obtained Loyalty irked him a little.

[ Name: Kalin Myre ]

[ Familia: Isaac Familia ]

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

[ Race: Human ]

[ Level: 2 ]

[ Age: 15 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-0 -> H-159 (2,499) ]

[ Endurance: I-0 -> I-97 (2,098) ]

[ Dexterity: I-0 -> G-203 (2,670) ]

[ Agility: I-0 -> H-136 (2,374) ]

[ Magic: I-0 -> G-281 (1,891) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ None ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Spearman: I ]

[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Abnormal Resistance, Chain Attack ]

Raising his left eyebrow a little, Isaac mentally noted down that Kalin had actually lost a whole six Level 2 stat points in all stats this time, in two days. That was 50 percent more than before, in a comparable time period. The young man would have been a bit further along into Level 2 if that hadn't been the case. Still, because Isaac had a good idea as to what was to come, he simply shook his head a little and didn't comment on it - Kalin's progress was still outstanding, he had even obtained the qualifications for the Chain Attack Development Ability. Speaking of, how come he hadn't unlocked that one for himself yet? He would have to look into it sometime.

[ Name: Mina Teagle ]

[ Familia: Isaac Familia ]

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

[ Race: Chienthrope ]

[ Level: 2 ]

[ Age: 16 ]

[ Loyalty: 100/100 ]

[ Devotion: 30 -> 80/100 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-0 -> H-153 (2,460) (+ 284,634 x 0.008) ]

[ Endurance: I-0 -> I-85 (2,048) (+ 284,634 x 0.008) ]

[ Dexterity: I-0 -> G-217 (2,684) (+ 284,634 x 0.008) ]

[ Agility: I-0 -> H-101 (2,188) (+ 284,634 x 0.008) ]

[ Magic: I-0 -> I-68 (1,753) (+ 284,634 x 0.008) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ Reverential Resonance ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Swordsman: I ]

[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Abnormal Resistance ]

Although Mina's regular stats were about the same level as Kalin's, the 2,277 point increase in all of them had her suddenly catch up with the most outstanding novice Level 3 adventurers in terms of pure stats. Even Jakk wasn't that much stronger than her now. Still, while this Skill might seem like a broken blessing in the beginning Levels, it would only give her an insignificant bonus at higher Levels. Only if Isaac advanced to further heights would she be able to keep such an impressive lead over the rest.

But for now, her growth alone was already more than satisfactory. With that in mind, he gave her head another gentle rub, eliciting more happy tail wags.

[ Name: Quinn Graham ]

[ Familia: Isaac Familia ]

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

[ Race: Cat People ]

[ Level: 2 ]

[ Age: 14 ]

[ Loyalty: 85/100 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-0 -> H-170 (2,317) ]

[ Endurance: I-0 -> H-163 (2,294) ]

[ Dexterity: I-0 -> H-176 (2,347) ]

[ Agility: I-0 -> H-168 (2,310) ]

[ Magic: I-0 -> G-219 (2,678) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ Berserker ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Swordsman: I ]

[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Abnormal Resistance ]

There was nothing but praise that he had for the cat boy's stat growth, but the absence of any recent increase in Loyalty stuck out.

'It seems like I should kick off that operation soon, possibly right after I'm 'free' again.'

If his plans worked out, then doing this would provide Quinn with a huge chance for mental development, and to confront his fears. Isaac would do his best to lend a helping hand to him then, so that Quinn could become a fantastic retainer in the future.

With what seemed no more than a flick of his wrist, Isaac pulled out sheets of paper from his inventory and wrote down all their new Status information, then he handed it to the four to give them a good idea of what changes had taken place. While they could feel the differences in their bodies themselves, to have it all presented in black and white made it a lot easier to grasp in detail.

Once he judged that he had given them sufficient time to adjust, he clapped his hands and became the focus of attention.

"Alright, it's time to start today's training session. Ready yourselves."

Because it hadn't been convenient for Titania, they had relocated from the regular training courtyard to a corner of Isaac's private world yesterday. This enabled him to teach his trusty sofa a lot more efficiently, because she didn't need to hold back any longer.

Four hours later, the spars came to an end - but before everyone could disperse, he gathered them all once more. In response to their confused expressions, he showed a slight smile and pulled out five books from his inventory. They didn't look all that special, but they were all considerably hefty and expertly bound - truly high in quality. The only confusing part about them was that none of them actually contained any words, but nobody present aside from him was aware of this.

"Starting from tomorrow, we will devote a portion of our training session to studying magic. Aselina, Averin, Jakk, Kalin, Mina. The five of you will each get one of these books, a 'grimoire'. These will bestow the potential to have a personalized Magic added to one's Status to the first person who reads them. As for Lefiya, Quinn and Titania, I will teach the three of you personally. You can tell Riveria to attend as well, she should have quite a lot of insights to share, which will also be of benefit to me. Elfy can come as well - and any other trustworthy mages of the Loki Familia."

Although Lefiya was a bit shocked at him handing out such valuable goods as if they were cabbages, she quickly nodded and didn't make a fuss. She already had three Magics listed in her Status, so a grimoire would have been completely useless to her anyway.

Noticing the bewildered looks of the five who had just been bestowed with their own extremely costly opportunities, Isaac released a helpless sigh.

"Don't look at me like that. You're all free to attend as well, but I'll be honest with you: I highly doubt that you'll be able to grasp what I'll be teaching. I won't stop you from trying, though. Maybe you will be able to surprise me."

His confrontational words successfully served to further motivate Kalin and Mina, but the others were pretty much unaffected - they hadn't expected to make much progress in Magic anyway.

A quick stop to the Xenos' hidden village later, to give Ray her very own grimoire, he successfully escaped without being seen by any clingy Xenos girls and returned to the Twilight Manor for a shower.

When he came back to his and Ais' room at around 6:30 p.m., his beloved had already changed into casual clothes and freshened up as well. She bounced up from their bed and approached him with an excited spring in her steps, then she gave him a strong hug and showed a bright smile.

"Welcome home~"

Slightly blushing, Isaac reciprocated her hug and the two got lost in a lovey-dovey kiss for a while. Thankfully, they were in private, else some people would have been frothing from the mouth due to excessive jealousy.

Only after a while did the two separate - well, not really, they were still holding hands. To calm his heartbeat a little, Isaac changed the topic to something that they had already discussed earlier.

"Want me to update your Status now?"

Nodding with a look of anticipation on her face, Ais sat down on their bed, took off her white shirt and exposed the delicate white bra as well as her breathtakingly shaped upper body underneath. She knew that it wasn't necessary for her to do this, but she was in the mood to tease him today, so she flashed Isaac a sheepish smile and laid down with her back facing upwards.

Sighing helplessly, with his cheeks a tone darker than before, he sat down next to her and traced her back with a drop of Ichor on his fingertip. He worked a little slower than usual, to get a bit of 'revenge' on her for tempting him like this. Minutes later, he was finally done.

[ Name: Ais Wallenstein ]

[ Familia: Loki Familia ]

[ Race: God ]

[ Divinity: Wind (I) ]

[ Arcanum: None ]

[ Level: 6 -> 7 ]

[ Age: 1007 ]

[ Divine Energy: 252,616 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-0 -> SSS-1500 -> I-0 (109,118 x 2) ]

[ Endurance: I-0 -> SSS-1500 -> I-0 (110,006 x 2) ]

[ Dexterity: I-0 -> SSS-1500 -> I-0 (123,695 x 2) ]

[ Agility: I-0 -> SSS-1500 -> I-0 (123,731 x 2) ]

[ Magic: I-0 -> SSS-1500 -> I-0 (126,308 x 2) ]

[ Magic ]

[ Ariel ]

[ Skills ]

[ Avenger ]

[ Daughter of the Wind ]

[ Divine Being ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ Hunter: F ]

[ Abnormal Resistance: G -> F ]

[ Supreme Swordsman: I ]

[ Mana Cultivation - Foundation Establishment: I ]

[ Spirit Healing: I ]

[ Mage: I ]

[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Chain Attack ]

She had already told him in advance that she wanted to obtain the Mage Development Ability this time, so the whole process was completed wordlessly. Ais had buried her face in a pillow some time ago, and when she finally looked up again, the two of them were both furiously blushing like idiots.

"Ahem. May I invite you to dinner?"

With a wave of his hand, Isaac pulled out a few varieties of fresh potato snacks as well as a couple of delicious non-alcoholic drinks and put them on the table. He also replaced the magic stone lamp with a few lit candles, in a painfully cliché romantic fashion.

"You may."

Snickering a little at this display, Ais grasped his outstretched hand and allowed him to pull her up, then they made their way over and sat down at the table to enjoy a candlelit dinner. Consisting of solely potato snacks...