Everyday Tragedy

At some point during the welcome party, Isaac had just blurred out everything that happened and functioned solely via autopilot. There were just too many people there and the vast majority of them came up to him to introduce themselves in a jovial manner.

But even though he had mostly tuned out everything that was happening, he still decided to remember all the people he met. Everything they told him and all of his interactions with them were effortlessly stored in his memory as well. It was quite unlikely that the people he had talked to were aware of the fact that he wasn't fully mentally present at the time. He did so just to be able to endure the whole ordeal a bit more. Anyway, if he met any of those people again, he would be able to recall them.

After a short bathroom visit, Isaac exhaustedly lay down on his bed. It didn't take more than a few moments for him to drift off into a deep sleep.

[ Tiona Hiryute considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make three friends.' completed. 300 AP rewarded. ]

[ Tione Hiryute considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make four friends.' completed. 400 AP rewarded. ]

[ Elfy Colette considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make five friends.' completed. 500 AP rewarded. ]

[ Riveria Ljos Alf considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make six friends.' completed. 600 AP rewarded. ]

The first thing he noticed after waking up was that he hadn't actually looked at these four system notifications before going to bed yesterday.

To be honest, he was slightly surprised because of their contents. He had just easily earned 1800 AP, without doing much. Also, he was feeling slightly baffled by the fact that four additional people thought of him as a friend now. He had met all of them a short time ago, but after just spending close to half a day with each of them respectively, it seemed like they had subconsciously developed quite the positive opinion of him. Maybe that is just the way people work. The more time they spend with someone, the more highly they will think of them. Well, unless they just don't get along.

Once he had spent some more time to think about it, Isaac noticed that the vast majority of people he had known for some time already thought of him as a friend by now. There was only a handful of others who didn't follow the trend yet, including Loki and Jakk. While he highly doubted he would ever be friends with the trickster goddess, it probably wouldn't take too long until Jakk would think of him as a friend as well.

So long as he continued his current behaviour and behaved quite socially, it would be easy to amass a lot of AP very quickly. But to be honest, Isaac would rather go into the dungeon and spend a few days slaying monsters instead. Excessive social interactions just weren't something he was a fan of. Grinding monsters was a lot less mentally exhausting.

With his goal being to start a daily routine, Isaac took a quick shower and brushed his teeth, before hurrying off towards the kitchen which currently was quite crowded as it was almost time for breakfast. After asking for a few flasks of water and some slices of bread, he went back to his room and put on his equipment, getting ready to head back into the dungeon. As nobody had told him he had to follow a specific schedule or showed any displeasure at his actions, he sure as hell wouldn't stop going to the dungeon every morning.

It was shortly after 6:30 a.m. by the time Isaac was ready to head out. Before he did, though, someone stopped him.

"Hey, Isaac. Can you teach me how you fight that well and let me go into the dungeon with you?"

Compared to yesterday, Jakk had woken up a lot earlier today. He was already fully geared and shouldering a backpack, filled with everything he would need for another day of dungeon exploration and monster slaying. Sometime yesterday, the hume bunny youth had resolved himself to ask his roommate these questions. While he was stronger on paper, Jakk was fully aware that he couldn't even remotely grasp the realm of skill Isaac had already reached. As the young man hadn't treated him badly even when he hadn't been the most welcoming, he thought there would be a chance for Isaac to be generous and help him.

Jakk's words made Isaac fall into deep thought for a few moments. The bunny boy certainly had the right kind of studious and serious attitude when it came to the dungeon. There was no doubt in Isaac's mind that he would be able to teach this young one quite a lot. While Jakk's personality definitely had a few parts that needed to be worked on, Isaac wasn't particularly bothered by these. Besides, if he educated the hume bunny, he would surely turn into a splendid, less-cringy individual. More importantly, though, having himself a lackey he could order to do some of the more menial tasks that would just needlessly take up his time would most undoubtedly come in handy in the future. Sure, it would take some time to turn this strong-willed roommate into his follower but being in a mentor position would make it a lot easier.

"Alright, I'll teach you. However much you grasp is up to you, though. I'll allow you to come with me to the dungeon from now on."

Another part of the reason why Isaac decided to take Jakk with him was that he could serve as a layer of security when roaming the dungeon. On the upper floors, it was quite hard to find something that could put a Level 2 adventurer at risk. Purely stat-wise, the bunny boy was leagues ahead of him and could protect him if something that was statistically unlikely to happen took place.

On the way to the dungeon, Isaac spent 500 valis on a medium-sized sturdy leather backpack, which he filled with a blanket he got from the Twilight Manor, flasks of water and containers filled with food. The containers and flasks were wrapped in the blanket so they wouldn't hit each other and avoid making sounds. He had decided to buy this backpack so he could use his Inventory even with Jakk present. After all, he could just reach inside and pull out something without the bunny boy having any clue whether or not it had originally been in there.His reason for filling it with quite a bit of stuff was to make it seem like it was packed close to full, therefore making him pulling out various things less suspicious. Even after being filled up by the things previously mentioned, the backpack was just the right size to not hinder Isaac's movements and didn't weigh him down at all. After all, most of the volume came from the blanket which barely weighed anything.

While on the way to the dungeon's second floor, which Isaac hadn't explored on his own yet, he used the monsters they encountered on the way as teaching materials for Jakk. At the same time as he was slaying them, he explained his actions and thought processes. He also used the time in between monster encounters to teach his roommate about some basics of combat that could be helpful.

He conveyed how it was a smarter decision to deflect an incoming attack than to take it head on and how to bait your opponent into reacting just the way you wanted them to. While for Isaac, these were just simple basics, for Jakk, who hadn't formally been taught anything like it before, this opened up a whole new world of combat tactics. Of course, it was impossible for him to instantly understand everything Isaac taught him. No person would be capable of such a feat, after all. But this new knowledge opened up a lot of metaphorical doors for him that he could now venture into.

No matter how logical something sounds and no matter how much one thinks they understand something, to put it into practice requires time, experience and effort. Jakk was aware of this. Nonetheless, he was still very impressed by the insights this young man shared with him. It felt more like he was listening to an old sage's preaching and not the mostly emotionless explanations of someone barely older than himself.

Although slaying monsters while in teaching mode took a few seconds longer than usual, it didn't take much time for the duo to reach the second floor.

Quite some time later, Isaac had dispatched a few groups of kobolds and goblins. They didn't grow any stronger on this floor and the only difference he had noticed was that they always roamed around in groups of two at the minimum. Gone were the single stragglers he would mostly encounter on the first floor. At this time, the duo encountered the first dungeon lizard.

It looked almost like a Komodo dragon, a lizard which had been pretty famous back in Isaac's old world. The only huge difference between the two was that the dungeon lizard's scales were of a purple colour. Its huge size of over two meters in length was still pretty small when compared with the largest Komodo dragons Isaac had heard about. It's stats could reach up to H-150. According to Jakk, it was quite rare to encounter a dungeon lizard such as this one on the second floor and they would only become more common on the third.

Quite excited about having a new species of monster to target now, Isaac got right back into his previously seen researching behaviour.

Just like the kobolds and goblins before it, the dungeon lizard's default behaviour upon noticing his approach was to charge at him. The only slightly more dangerous part about the whole endeavour were the lizard's size and its tail. Due to its larger size, Isaac had to dodge a further distance. The tail attacks occasionally targeting him didn't make his job any easier. While it was still manageable, its significantly higher speed than a kobold's made the dungeon lizard most likely the strongest monster Isaac was currently able to kill without getting wounded himself. If he fought anything stronger without getting his Status updated, he would have to pay quite a price if he wanted to kill his opponent.

Still, besides these observations, a single dungeon lizard wasn't enough to be much of a bother. After more than ten minutes of mostly dodging and feigning attacks, Isaac commenced his heartless torture. Only the lizard's reactions to actual attacks and injuries hadn't been observed yet. Luckily, the dungeon lizard was a lot more resilient compared to the monsters Isaac had faced before, so by the time its mostly dismembered body finally powerlessly hit the ground, Isaac had almost finished his research regarding the species.

As he had already warned his roommate about this kind of thing happening when meeting new monsters a while ago, Jakk didn't ask him about what he was doing after witnessing his research. Nevertheless, the bunny boy still paled a bit. But after telling himself that this wasn't even close to the most gory scenes he would witness in the future and that he couldn't let himself get spooked by something like this, Jakk clenched his fists and calmed down decisively.

Once his teacher had collected the magic stone from this mound of flesh and limbs, the two sat down to take a rest. Of course, they were still vigilantly observing their surroundings while eating a few slices of bread and drinking some water. After a minute or two, a system notification interrupted Isaac's rest.

[ Secondary host Ais Wallenstein has slain 1000 Level 1 monsters.

She completed the quest 'Kill 1000 Level 1 monsters.' and was rewarded with 100 AP. ]

This didn't mean Isaac's own achievement relating to slaying monsters had been completed. Instead, secondary hosts had their own list of achievements. Still, this development gave Isaac even more drive to continue his dungeon grind. From what he had observed on the map, Ais had only been in the dungeon for close to an hour and had already killed such a huge number of monsters. Meanwhile, he had only slain 126 Level 1 monsters in total so far. To close this gap even just a tiny bit faster, Isaac ended their rest and continued deeper into the second floor with the fire of motivation in his eyes burning a lot brighter than before.

Many hours later, in the afternoon, both Isaac's and Jakk's supplies had run low. They were still going to fight here for a little bit longer before turning back for the day, though. If they hadn't rested quite often, Isaac would have been way too physically exhausted to continue onwards, just like yesterday. Compared to the state he had been in at the time, he currently wasn't nearly as drained of energy. This was mostly because he had focussed a bit of time on restoring his strained muscles during their periods of rest.

When the duo heard the sounds of fighting in the distance, they got ready to distance themselves so they wouldn't run into other adventurers. After all, anything could happen in the dungeon. If they ran across other adventurers, it was quite likely they could be perceived as a threat. But compared to the previous times, where Isaac had decided to leave the fighting adventurers alone, this time, he decided against it.

There was a simple reason for this. The number of monsters he heard howling in the distance far surpassed the groups he and Jakk had encountered on this floor. He could make out more than 20 of them from sounds alone. Comparing that to the already irregular group of nine the duo had run into before, it was clear that something was wrong. Any adventurer team faced with such a massive group on this floor would likely run into huge problems. Still, as Isaac was practically still untouchable here, he decided to check out this irregularity.

While the duo was hurrying towards the origin of the fighting noises, they heard a heart-wrenching, pained scream echo through the badly lit hallways.

"FAAATHEEERR!!!!"

It was at this time that they had finally come close enough to observe what was going on.

It seemed like they had come across some adventurers encountering a monster party. Such a phenomenon occurred occasionally and consisted of the dungeon suddenly spawning a huge number of monsters at once, more than should ever appear on the respective floor in a single group. It was quite rare to see, but it still happened. Encountering a monster party could only be chalked up to one's bad luck and the whims of the dungeon itself. The monster party the duo was looking at right now still consisted of five dungeon lizards, 12 kobolds and seven goblins, even after having some of their numbers killed by the adventurers they were besieging.

While there had originally been two adventurers, the middle-aged man in front had already fallen prey to the host of monsters surrounding him. Now, there was only one person left standing, the same one who had just loosened that scream full of despair. It was a young male human, who, in this world, would barely be of age. He looked to be about 15 years old and was clad in a brown, long-sleeved gambeson and brown trousers. Over these, he wore decently-made metal light armour, covering most of his body but still providing him with enough maneuverability. The spear he wielded was grasped tightly with his firmly clenched hands. His short brown hair, emerald green eyes and decently sculpted facial structure would have made the guy quite a looker. At the moment, however, the youth's face was horribly distorted while looking at the dungeon lizard currently eating the dead man he had addressed as his father just moments prior. It was obvious that the middle-aged man had protected the youth with his life, as barely any sign of injury could be found on the latter.

Without wasting any more time, Isaac ran towards the host of monsters after telling Jakk to protect the human as best as he could in the meantime.

Why did he decide to do such a thing? Was it out of the pure goodness of his heart?

Of course not.

As there were a lot of monsters here, he could save a lot of time when trying to find them. The huge number of them could also serve as a bit of a training for him. While it was quite dangerous, he was confident in handling the situation. And as Jakk was a Level 2, he should be able to at least protect the human youth in the short time it would take him to kill all of the monsters. If he wasn't confident in reducing the number of monsters quickly, however, he could have possibly consigned the hume bunny to death by sending a newly promoted Level 2 against so many Level 1 monsters. Quantity could trump quality in certain situations, after all.

Another reason for helping the human was that saving someone would earn their gratitude. Now, that might not always turn out to be something useful but it certainly wasn't a bad thing to have. Maybe he would end up getting some money or an item in return for the rescue. Or maybe the human would even end up helping him when he needed him to in the future. One simply never knew.

So because he could potentially earn something and would still not lose out even if he just killed the monsters, Isaac decided to take action.

He started his slaughter by quickly beheading two of the goblins situated towards the outer perimeter of the mob. With this, the nearest monsters had noticed his arrival. One of the kobolds was about to lunge at him but by that time, he had already lopped off its head as well.

Finally, a huge part of the group of monsters surrounding the human youth turned towards him, leaving Jakk to only fend with two dungeon lizards, three kobolds and one goblin. He should easily be able to handle that.

-----

Just like every day, Kalin Myre had come to the dungeon with his father, Marv Myre, to earn their daily income. They had to feed themselves somehow, after all, and the best way that was available to the two of them was the hunting of monsters. The two of them weren't adventurers, however, as they hadn't been accepted into any god's familia and given their blessing. Still, the Guild didn't bar non-adventurers entry into the dungeon. They just wouldn't be offered the same benefits as the adventurers. The Guild simply didn't care about people like them. They would still gladly take their magic stones, however.

Kalin's father had been quite strong, especially for a non-familia Level 1 warrior. He himself… wasn't that strong. He could deal with a kobold or two on his own but that was about it.

Besides earning money to earn their upkeep, the two could also grow just a tiny bit stronger by exercising their bodies. This was the only other way for the people of this world to grow stronger if they couldn't get a falna, after all.

Contrary to all the days before, today shouldn't be a good day. While they had been in one of the corners of a huge cavern, the dungeon, as if to spell their inevitable doom, had suddenly spawned a huge monster party. It wasn't as if the father-son duo hadn't encountered one before. But every single other time, they had been able to escape. This time… they weren't able to leave this death trap.

While Kalin had managed to kill three goblins and a kobold and his father had slain four kobolds and a dungeon lizard, the odds were still heavily stacked against their favour. There were just too many monsters. While fighting, his father had constantly protected Kalin and was wounded quite a lot in the process. And at one point, it was just too much to take. Marv had turned too sluggish to evade an incoming attack… and died.

Rage, fear, pain, hate and sorrow took hold of Kalin's heart at this very moment, paralyzing him and making him unable to do anything but stare at the gruesome and gory scene in front of him that he just didn't want to believe. At the dungeon lizard gorging itself while munching on his father.

But right at this moment, a hume bunny youth about as tall as him suddenly charged in front of him, protecting him from the surrounding monsters with great power.

Taken aback by this development, Kalin was able to keep the sadness at bay for a moment and concentrate solely on his continued survival for now. His father's sacrifice would have been in vain if he didn't live through this, after all.

Just as quickly as the bunny boy had appeared in front of him, the vast majority of the monsters surrounding the two were drawn away from them, their behaviour reminiscent of an army planning to first deal with a strong foe.

When Kalin noticed who the monsters were fighting against, he was rendered speechless. A young man, a human such as himself, was gracefully 'dancing' through the host of monsters charging at him from all sides, leaving corpses in his wake wherever he passed by. Without being able to even touch him, the surrounding monsters dropped like flies and before even a minute had passed, only the dungeon lizard who had eaten his father was left, passively kept at bay by the hume bunny.

The young man who had just effortlessly dispatched the monster party was weak, stat-wise. That, even Kalin was able to perceive. His instincts told him he could knock the guy out with just a single punch. But he was sure that his instincts were wrong this time. If it had been a simple match of raw power, he was definitely superior. But in terms of pure skill, the young man was simply too immeasurably strong for Kalin to even last more than a second against him.

After taking a short few breaths to regain some stamina, the young man turned to the hume bunny and told him to restrain the dungeon lizard. Having given a short nod in response, the hume bunny youth changed his modus operandi from defense to offense. He quickly jumped above the monster and stomped down on its back, just slightly below its neck.

With a loud cracking noise, the dungeon lizard's spine broke, paralyzing the monster. Not being able to move any of its limbs anymore, it could only howl to make its pain and desperation known.

"Go ahead, kill it."

The young man's cold words didn't need any further explanation. Kalin knew why his saviours had acted the way they did. He knew why they had spared the monster that had devoured his father's corpse. They had left it for him, so he could get revenge on the one that had taken his family from him.

With tears uncontrollably rolling down his cheeks and rage warping his face into a mask of despair, Kalin gripped his spear harder and approached the downed dungeon lizard. After looking at the hateful visage for a short while, Kalin pulled his spear back and loosened a heavy stab towards its skull. A short moment of resistance, which he overcame with pure strength, later, the spear's tip embedded itself deeply in the creature's brain. After a second, its death throes subsided and finally, everything was quiet.