Tragedy Repeats Itself

It was about 2 p.m. and the group of students had just made it back to the 10th floor a short time ago.

With a swift and precise stab of his spear, Kalin stabbed through an Orc's eye and straight into its brain, impaling it. In a fluid motion, he stepped on the enormous monster's shoulder and pulled out his weapon, then he kicked the enemy away and performed a backflip, landing steadily on the ground. A moment later, with a loud noise, the towering body of the Orc hit the ground, lifeless.

This Orc had been the last of a group of three. The first two had been slain by Jakk in a matter of seconds, then the bunny boy left the last one to Kalin and Mina. While they would definitely not be able to face Orcs on their own yet, if they worked together, they stood a chance.

For the first twenty minutes or so, the two had tried to get used to the Orc's attacks. Its stats were higher than them and it was therefore quite a bit faster. Still, by confusing it with quick maneuvers, they managed to slow it down enough to stay unharmed. Also, after a while, they noticed that its attacks had a very long wind-up time. Although the actual blows were very fast, there was a short time where the Orc had already decided on where to attack - and its posture gave it all away. Thanks to this, the two got accustomed to predicting its simplistic attacks quite quickly.

When they finally got used to their opponent, Mina attracted all of its attention by slashing through its left heel, causing it to stagger backwards and kneel down. Enraged, the Orc then proceeded to try to bash the agile Chienthrope with its club, paying no heed to the spear-wielder next to it. This simple-mindedness was its fatal mistake.

Kalin wouldn't let such a large opening go, so he stepped on the Orc's right knee and jumped, stabbing towards its right eye with his spear at the same moment. All in all, it was a smooth victory.

Having observed the two's battle to its conclusion, Jakk nodded his head in approval, a relaxed smile on his lips. Like always, he had been prepared to interfere should the two ever actually be in danger. Thankfully, this hadn't been necessary, as his prediction had been correct. The two could indeed already face Orcs together. Happy at his accurate judgement, Jakk's smile turned more and more smug.

The pained shrieks of Imps could be heard nearby, because Averin was taking care of the surrounding monsters, enabling Kalin and Mina to focus fully on their battle.

As everything had gone well and it was time to move on, Jakk clapped his hands loudly, trying to get everyone's attention.

"Well done. To recover a bit, face some Imps next."

Seeing how the two were a bit strained from having to be at the top of their game all this time, they welcomed this change of pace and shot Jakk a grateful glance. With that, as Averin had just finished cleaning up all of the nearby Imps, the group set out again, trying to find new opponents.

"AAAAAAAARRGGGGHHHHH!"

"HELP!!!!!"

"RUN, YOU IDIOTS!"

Suddenly, a cacophony of screams sounded from the distance - some of them were cut off almost instantly. As these sounds were relatively close, the group of students grew tense. A hint of annoyance at having gotten so close to another team of adventurers could be seen at Jakk's face. If that group brought them trouble, they could be implicated, after all. He didn't want them to be dragged down by strangers.

In the dungeon, parties usually tried to avoid interacting with each other. Not only because they would attract more monsters if they were together or because they didn't want to drag others down. Most importantly, quite a few people were killing each other here every day, for a plethora of reasons. Even though the Guild forbade such actions, if there were no witnesses, nothing would happen to the murderers.

Before the Hume Bunny youth could recommend for the group to be careful and scout ahead first, to see what was happening, Kalin had already rushed off without a word. Cursing the guy's heroic tendencies under his breath, Jakk had no choice but to follow.

'It should be fine. Nothing on this floor should pose a problem to me.'

Thanks to thoughts like these, he immediately felt a bit more safe.

As soon as Kalin had heard the screams, he knew that he had to help. After all, their group was far too overpowered for this floor - nothing could endanger them. What kind of person would he be if he didn't help out people in need when doing so wouldn't even be a challenge? He could understand refraining from doing so if it put one in danger, but if not? There was no excuse.

Although he had dashed off first, Jakk and Mina caught up in a matter of seconds, while Averin stayed behind the group and protected them from the back.

Rapidly, the group made their way through four large caverns, obliterating all of the Imps and Bad Bats that wanted to bar their passage. They were pretty lucky to not encounter any Orcs on the way. As they didn't plan to kill all monsters and instead just wanted to go from place A to place B, they weren't slowed down at all.

About a minute after they had started running, almost all of the screams had already been eternally silenced. Only one or two despairing voices still resounded in the hallways. Kalin's expression turned more and more grave and unhappy. He didn't want to be late. He wanted to save these people!

Speeding up once more, he turned another corner and finally came face to face with the source of the cries.

In a cavern about twice the size of the ones they had just passed through, a group of eleven Orcs stood amidst about a dozen or so torn-apart bodies. All around them were heaps and heaps of Imp and Bad Bat corpses, even a handful of Orcs seemed to have fallen. Yet, in the end, the entire party had been wiped out.

Well, almost. An unarmed, red-haired girl was tightly gripping her broken arm, desperately dodging the Orcs' unceasing assault. It was a miracle that she had managed to just barely evade all of the clubs trying to flatten her into meat paste. Her hair was a mess and most of her armour was covered in dust, dirt and blood. Nearly all of it was the blood of her companions and the slain monsters, but her right arm was in horrible condition. Scary amounts of blood were unceasingly dripping from her fingertips, while some bones stuck out of her flesh. If she hadn't been holding on to it, the wound would have already gotten a lot worse.

A Monster Party had befallen this group. Whether they had been taken aback due to being careless or overconfident, or whether they had simply been unlucky - none of that mattered right now.

Without letting himself get distracted any further, Kalin steeled his resolve and, followed by the rest of the students, charged straight at the horde of Orcs. With his previous experience and the strength of their party, they shouldn't have any problems. There was no need to hesitate.

But before they could even get close enough to the Orcs to intervene, the girl noticed their approach. A smile spread across her lips. Seemingly having seen a glimmer of hope in the darkness, she dodged yet another attack, then turned around and fled right towards her potential saviours. Just a few steps later, however, she was hit straight in the back by an Orc's attack. Due to having taken her eyes off the battle, she didn't have any chance to prepare herself, so she was violently flug aside, crashing straight into the dungeon's wall, headfirst. Listlessly, her body slid down to the ground, her hair slowly turning into a darker and more vibrant colour of red. Soon, most of her face was also covered in blood.

Seeing how he had been just a few steps late, anger and disappointment filled Kalin's heart and he gripped his spear tightly. Sure, the girl's actions hadn't been the smartest, but he couldn't blame her. Most people wouldn't be able to remain calm and rational in her situation.

"I'll see if she's still alive!"

After shouting these words, he left the Orcs to his companions and slightly changed his course, running towards the girl who was slumped against the dungeon's wall. He was confident that with Jakk and Averin around, he wouldn't even be needed - Mina would also be safe. For now, making sure that this person was safe was his top priority.

From nearby, he could hear the angry roars and pained wails of the Orcs, as the massacre began. Hastily, he checked the girl's pulse… and heaved a sigh of relief. The girl was only unconscious - but she was losing a terrifying amount of blood every second.

If her treatment was delayed much longer, she would undoubtedly die. Although he was a little reluctant to use this on someone he didn't know, he didn't hesitate for long and took out a small glass vial from his backpack. Before Isaac had left on his expedition, he had given each of his students one of these, filled with the powder secreted from three Blue Papilio wings. Thankfully, this wondrous powder was extremely easy to use.

Carefully, Kalin spread some across the wound on the girl's right arm, then he lifted her hair and poured some on the injury on her head. Lastly, he held her head, pried open her mouth and chugged the rest of the powder down her throat. That was the best way he could think of to let the powder deal with her various internal injuries.

The battle in the background quickly quietened down and the surface-wounds that had caused the girl to lose so much blood in the first place were already healing at a stunning pace. Her internal injuries, however, would probably take a lot longer to heal. Also, the powder wasn't good at healing broken bones. It would be better than nothing, but it couldn't perfectly mend them. Thankfully, the powder could restore the blood that had been lost, so at least that wouldn't be a problem.

To support the powder's effect and allow her body's natural recovery to help out as well, Kalin took out a towel from his backpack and ripped it into a few stripes.

"Do you guys see anything similar to a straight stick? Maybe a branch?"

Kalin shouted these words towards his companions and Mina arrived quickly, carrying one of the Orcs' clubs. All of those were simply trees growing in the dungeon, ripped out by the monsters and used as a weapon. Usually, however, they would snap off the branches from these trees. Well, the branches would snap off by themselves after having been slammed into the ground and walls enough times. This club, however, still had a few branches on it.

Quickly, Mina found the straightest branch and broke it off, handing it to Kalin. With that, Kalin set the bones in the girl's arm as best as he could and made a sturdy sling for it.

Having just finished surveying the area for any more monsters or other irregularities, Jakk returned, took a look at the girl and sighed.

"Let's get her healed in Babel later. For now, it's time to clean the battlefield. Maybe we'll find some mementos we can give her."

With that said, the group cleaned up the monster corpses and pocketed their magic stones and drop items. Then, with slightly disgusted looks on their faces, they sifted through the corpses of the group the girl belonged to. Sadly, they couldn't find any identifying badges or symbols, so they couldn't tell which familia or organization they came from. The only things they found were a few tens of thousands of valis and the weapons the group had been using. About half of them had been shattered or deformed, while the entirety of the rest of their equipment was in horrible condition.

Mina cleared out her backpack and put its contents into Kalin's, then she gathered all of the usable weapons and valis they had found and placed them into hers. After the girl woke up, they could simply hand all of this to her. While they would have a use for it themselves, it just wouldn't feel right to profit from the dead while there was still a survivor around.

Without a word, Jakk grabbed Kalin's backpack and carried it as well, while Kalin carefully picked up the unconscious girl from the ground. He carried her as gently as he could, as he didn't want any of her wounds to worsen or re-open. As he was also a little bit worried about her neck after that headfirst impact, he supported her head with his shoulder. They couldn't just leave her to her own devices in such a state, it was time to hand her over to a professional.

As fast as they could, the students returned to the first floor, where Averin quickly hid in Jakk's backpack before he could be noticed by anyone else. He was used to this routine by now, so he didn't even utter a single complaint. Although he was a bit sad about having to leave the dungeon early, he knew that they had an emergency on hand.

Under Jakk's lead, the group made their way straight to the Guild's healing center.

"Thankfully, milord has left us with a lot of emergency funds…"

Delighted at her lord's foresight, Mina took out a pouch with 500,000 valis and handed it over to the Guild staff in charge. This was, fortunately, exactly the price that a medium healing spell cost. In all honesty, it was a rip-off. Although the contracted healers did get a little bit exhausted after using the spell, it certainly didn't warrant such an expense. But alas, unless one had a healer on their team, once one's injuries surpassed a certain stage, any and all potions and spells that could combat them were ridiculously expensive. People would always clench their teeth and pay a premium for their lives, no matter which world they were in. And there were also always people who profited from this.

Right before the group of students, the contracted healer chanted their spell and, in a matter of seconds, the red-haired girl's injuries and broken bones were fully restored, leaving no sequelae. She was restored to a flawless condition.

Jakk's heart stung at the high expenses, but he could only heave yet another resigned sigh. He really didn't like the fact that they were helping a random outsider, but the others wanted to do so. He couldn't even blame them, as both Kalin and Mina wouldn't be alive if they hadn't been saved either. Even he would have felt a slight sting in his conscience if he had just left this girl without any treatment - and let her die. Anyway, Isaac had so much money… he wouldn't blame them for spending a bit of it to help others, right?

Because the Guild's healing center also offered baths to clean their patients, Mina carried the still-unconscious girl into one of them, then she asked Kalin to go and buy some fresh clothes. While the girl's gear was still somewhat usable, it would have to be cleaned and repaired first before she could wear it again.They couldn't just leave her naked, could they?

While both Jakk and Kalin - oh, and Averin - certainly wouldn't have complained about that, they weren't degenerate enough to deliberately put someone else into an embarrassing situation like that. So these thoughts could only stay within the deep recesses of their minds, while outwardly, they would be the gentlemen they were known for. Well, only Kalin was known for that.

As Babel was the economic and literal center of the city, it was extremely easy to find cheap, generic clothing stores in its vicinity, so it took Kalin less than ten minutes to return. He had spent about 1,000 valis on the clothes - and yes, he hadn't forgotten the underwear. A slight blush crept on his cheeks when he remembered how the store-clerk had looked at him with a knowing, encouraging smile when he bought these…

"I'll leave the clothes right outside of the door, okay?"

When he returned, Kalin knocked on the bath's door, notified Mina and put the clothes in a spot she couldn't possibly miss. After this, he trotted back to the temporary room the Guild's healing center had provided for them free of charge. The room only contained a simple bed. In case of an unconscious patient, they could rest in there until they woke up again. With every healing spell starting from the medium one, this service was included. It honestly wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

As they had nothing better to do, Jakk and Kalin just waited, leaning against the wall and occasionally talking to each other. Averin also poked his head out of the backpack every once in a while, but after the waiting got too boring for him, he simply fell asleep while hiding.

Well, it only took Mina twenty minutes to clean the girl and put the new clothes on her, so the rooster really didn't have much patience - if any at all.

Very carefully, Mina carried the girl to her room and tucked her into the bed. Finally, the group had an opportunity to take a closer look at who they had just saved.

The girl was a human and about as tall as Mina. As for her age, she looked to be 15 to 16 years old, while her red hair was slightly curly at the ends and reached all the way below her shoulders. Her skin was surprisingly smooth and clean, white to an almost unhealthy but still charming degree. As for her figure, it was remarkably seductive, with impeccable curves at just the right places. Her face didn't have any blemishes and was definitely on a level that would make countless men stop in their tracks and stare at her. All in all, she was a beauty.

When Kalin noticed that he had been staring at the girl for a little bit too long, both Jakk and Mina were already giving him strange looks and smiles, causing him to blush slightly and look away. Straight at a wall. No matter how stupid it looked, this certainly succeeded in distracting him sufficiently enough.

He had to admit that, while he had often seen beautiful girls - especially because they weren't a rarity here in Orario - this particular one really made his heart race. He couldn't explain why. Was it because he felt a connection to her because he had also almost been buried in the dungeon? Most likely, that only played a small part. As for the rest, he had no idea. But did people really need a reason to like others? The answer to this question was a resounding no.

While he was still a bit distracted by the lovely girl he had just seen, a short bout of weakness overcame Kalin and he almost staggered a little. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but this time, it was a lot worse than before. What exactly was happening? While he didn't actually grow much weaker, there was still a minute difference. It always took him an hour or two to regain perfect control of his body. Still, because the gulf between his previous and current strength was so incredibly small, he was almost inclined to believe that he was just imagining things.

'Oh well, I'll just ask Isaac about it when he returns.'

Right when he had come to this conclusion, he heard the bed sheets rustle and turned his head. The red-haired girl had just moved!

Her eyelids were trembling and she balled her hands into fists. Then, slowly, her eyes opened, revealing what almost looked to be a pair of glittering, emerald-green gems.

Looking at her unfamiliar surroundings with confusion written all over her face, she soon noticed the three people next to her bed, who were looking at her with relieved, friendly smiles. But instead of what would have been the most reasonable reaction in such a situation, the girl didn't grow wary. Instead, her eyes were clouded by even more confusion.

Suddenly, she clenched her teeth a little and rubbed her temples, trying to suppress a violent headache.

"Who… am I?"

-----

"Ugh, being down here at this time is such a shame!"

Pouting unhappily, Claire sat on the ground, wiping away her sweat with a towel. Just now, the training session had come to an end and everyone - besides Isaac - was exhausted.

Hearing her complaint, Isaac raised an eyebrow. Was there something he was missing? He couldn't recall any significant events at this time, so what was this girl so bummed out about?

"Why?"

As there was no other way to find out, Isaac simply asked her this question, earning him astonished looks from the surrounding supporters. After taking a moment to catch her bearing, Claire finally responded.

"Tomorrow, the Monster Feria will start! Don't tell me you don't know about that!?"

With an embarrassed smile on his face, Isaac scratched his cheek. He truly had forgotten about this event. Back in the beginning of the DanMachi novels, the Ganesha Familia had held this yearly festival. As it wasn't heavily featured in the story and everything connected to it had been wholly uninteresting to Isaac, he had forgotten to keep track of the time and look out for it. Sure, the events connected to it had a huge impact on the overall story, but the festivities themselves were scarcely mentioned.

"Sorry… it slipped my mind. Thanks for the reminder."

In the Monster Feria, tamers from the Ganesha Familia would bring captured monsters to the surface and tame them in front of a large crowd in the Colosseum. It was a huge and popular event that had the whole city in a celebratory mood and usually lasted for a couple of days. As for what was so exciting about it? Most ordinary citizens would never encounter the dungeon's monsters in their lives and most weaker adventurers would never have a chance to see some of the tougher ones without dying. Having people tame them with their skills was a breathtaking experience.

Of course, the event was accompanied by various other forms of entertainment as well. As always, the Ganesha Familia and Guild were jointly responsible for the security of the whole ordeal. Well, it actually was the same as usual, as the Ganesha Familia, amongst others, was similar to a police force in Orario all year round.

In any case, Monster Feria would most likely be fun to experience if Isaac had the chance. Seeing how he would soon have a huge impact on this world, what would have happened during the Monster Feria a year into the future, during the DanMachi novels' usual timeline, would most likely be accelerated. Thanks to that, he would be able to take part in a normal Monster Feria. Probably.

Thinking about strolling past the street stalls with Ais, buying sweets and potato snacks and watching from the seats of the Colosseum made a small, genuine smile spread across Isaac's face.

'I'll definitely take a look at it next time.'

While he was thinking about the 'monster taming' of the Ganesha Familia, Isaac couldn't help but remember Averin, the unusual roost--- ahem, Jack Bird. There were bound to be far more monsters like him in the dungeon. Should he look for them? After all, nobody seemed to mention them or know about them, so they could be a largely unexploited source of minions… or rather, subordinates. For quite a while, he had been slacking on recruiting more of them, so he really hoped he would run into more of these kinds of monsters soon.