Chương 5: Joining The Loki Familia

Right before the red silhouette was able to give Ais a flying hug, she dodged out of the way. This resulted in the light red-haired woman colliding face-first with the floor and rolling for a few meters before coming to a stop. As if nothing had happened, she immediately got up again, quickly dusting herself off. She seemed perfectly fine, not even a scratch could be seen on her face which had so intimately greeted the ground just moments ago.

The woman wore blue shoes, black stockings reaching up to the middle of her thighs, very short but comfortable black jeans and a long-sleeved, hooded, black-blue shirt which was showing off her midriff. Her hair was tied back in a simple pony-tail and her eyes were so narrow that Isaac couldn't tell whether or not they were actually closed. Seeing how the woman could still obviously make out everything around her, they were probably at least slightly open right now. Maybe.

If Isaac was a more lecherous kind of man, he would have commented on the sheer absence of any discernible bosom as well. She was almost as flat as a board. But seeing how Isaac had no interest in this woman from the start, he only gave her, in her entirety, a curious glance.

Yes, this woman was the famous perverted trickster goddess that Isaac had only heard about before, Loki. She was a few centimeters taller than Ais but there was pretty much nothing else that Isaac found noteworthy about her.

Right after she got up again, Loki had noticed the unknown young man right next to her beloved girls. She did pretty much the same thing as Isaac: Sizing the other up, trying to find out more about them. But besides his weird clothing style, he just looked like an average, handsome, young human. Still, Loki sensed some incongruity that she couldn't put her finger on for now.

After the two had finished staring at each other, Loki looked over at Ais and Lefiya, showing a happy smile.

"Welcome back, you two! So, who is this 'friend' of yours here?"

Of course, Loki was already aware that there couldn't be too many reasons as to why her two 'children' had brought an unknown human with them. He was either simply a friend, someone in need of their help or someone they wanted to introduce to her, most likely to let him join the familia. Still, the two girls could possibly be tricked by others with well-hidden bad intentions, so it fell upon her to figure out what exactly this person wanted.

Before either of the two girls could introduce him, Isaac took the chance to do it himself. So, with a polite smile on his face, he addressed the goddess.

"It's nice to meet you, goddess Loki. I'm Isaac Blackshaw."

As soon as she saw Isaac's face when he was talking to her, Loki already figured out what had been nagging at the back of her mind earlier. But instead of letting this show on her face, she turned around and cut off Lefiya who was just about to tell her about the invitation.

"Alright then. Let's talk about anything further in my study. Follow me."

Lefiya was a little confused as to why her goddess had cut her off, but reasoned with herself that Loki probably already knew about what was going on, so she followed beside Ais without making a fuss. Isaac on the other hand had already realized what was happening but didn't say anything.

While they were passing through the luxuriously decorated entrance hall, he noticed someone was staring at him from one of the connected hallways. All he got to see when he was taking a closer look were a pair of huge bunny ears rushing out of his field of vision. He wasn't sure which member of the Loki Familia had bunny ears but he was sure he was going to meet them sooner or later anyway, so he didn't think too much about this encounter.

Soon after, they arrived at the very end of the entrance hall and passed through a door leading to Loki's 'study'. It was more accurate to call it a relaxation area, though. The entire room was filled with bookshelves, green sofas, high-quality wooden tables and chairs. Magic lamps were distributed evenly throughout the room and a cozy fireplace could be found as well.

Loki lead them to three sofas that were facing a huge table. She herself sat down on the right sofa while Ais and Lefiya sat down on the one in the middle. Not wanting to seem like a creep for sitting down next to Ais, Isaac sat down on the left sofa. As soon as everyone was properly seated, Lefiya finally got a chance to inform Loki about the situation.

"My goddess, we asked Isaac whether or not he would like to join our familia. After we convinced him that our familia is trustworthy, he agreed. So that's why we brought him to meet you."

Ais nodded in approval of what Lefiya had just explained and joined in with a few words of explanation herself.

"Isaac has frightening potential."

Although she was quite shocked by what Ais had just said, Loki already expected something along these lines to be the case - and it wasn't really what she wanted to talk to them about. While it now seemed obvious that Isaac didn't ask to join the familia himself, there was still something she had to ascertain about him before these talks could continue any further.

Looking just like a snake staring at its prey, Loki opened her eyes about as wide as she could. Now, Isaac could finally see her pupils - they were coloured a warm red, like a setting sun. At the same time, the air around Loki changed from a tomboyish trickster to an investigative predator. Loki was serious.

"I will only think about it if you stop being disrespectful and take that mask off."

Hearing the word 'mask', Lefiya was confused. What mask was her goddess talking about? Ais however knew exactly what Loki meant and a little bit of excitement could be seen in her eyes. Of course, this hint of excitement didn't escape Loki's gaze. Seeing how Ais reacted to her words, she was now even more invested in seeing this man's 'true face'. If she didn't know more about what was going on, he could endanger her Ais after all. That would be unforgivable.

Isaac had already expected for this to happen. Right when he introduced himself, he knew that he couldn't fool the trickster goddess. She saw right through him. It was ironic how he, who hated nothing more than lies, was mostly keeping his true feelings hidden. The reason for that was that he knew people didn't often get into conflict with someone who seemed polite and nice, so he cranked these and other feelings up to an extreme all the time people were around, to emulate how a normal human would behave. He knew he would have to stop doing so for now, though.

A heavy sigh full of regret left Isaac's mouth, then the expression on his face completely changed.

Gone was the nice and calm smile. Gone was the sparkle of interest in his eyes.

What replaced those was… nothing. His face and eyes turned completely life- and emotionless. He resembled more of a corpse staring into nothingness, not focussing on anything in particular, than an actual living human. The air became stagnant around him, even the flow of time seemed to slow down. All colour drained from the room, leaving behind a lifeless, monochrome world.

Of course, the last few phenomena were just things the minds of the three females in the room made up to somehow visualize the overbearing and profound amount of loneliness that emanated from the very fibre of Isaac's being. However, the reactions of the three were vastly different.

While Lefiya was utterly confused by everything that was going on, she just felt an overpowering sadness in her heart when looking at the forlorn expression on Isaac's face.

At the same time, Ais seemed to resonate with the feeling. As if something inside her, which she normally tried to cover up and lock away, suddenly awakened. Her eyes turned lifeless as well, her face as emotionless as always.

Last but not least there was Loki. The goddess had widened her eyes even further than before because of how shocked she was. Never before in the entirety of her existence had she come across any human, or any being for that matter, that seemed so devastatingly lonely. Before, she had thought the way the 7 year old Ais looked at her when they met for the first time was as bad as it could possibly get. At the time, she had shown the exact same look that had now reappeared on her face. A look that showed she had been alone for an unbelievably long period of time. She had been left behind, not cared about and forgotten.

But what this young man in front of her showed her today was on a completely different order of magnitude. She couldn't even fully understand the feeling - and she was an immortal goddess! It seemed like he had been alone for an eternity. At the same time, it seemed like he hadn't been. The only thing she was sure of was that he was 'alone'. Truly and utterly alone. Empty, lifeless, without any motivation. Without hopes, without dreams, without fears. Without life, without death.

Before Loki could fully lose herself in this abyss of loneliness, Ais and Isaac slowly turned to look into each other's eyes, the familiar feeling emanating from each other guiding their actions. Once their eyes made contact, the loneliness, and all the phenomena accompanying it, completely disappeared. Both their eyes sparkled with a hint of hope and comradery. Colour had returned, time seemed to flow normally again, the previously stale air freshened up.

All that was left behind were two people, blushing a lot and smiling, staring into each other's eyes as if spellstruck.

Lefiya immediately recognized that the current situation was the same as the one which had put Ais and Isaac into danger back in the dungeon. But she couldn't focus on that right now. What she was focussing on was the beautiful smile on Ais' face that made her blush madly, feeling like she was peeking at something she shouldn't be looking at.

After a while, Loki sighed and rubbed her forehead. She understood what had happened just now. Two extremely lonely people, two people who, most likely, would have been alone for their entire life, who would have walked their own, lonely path, had met. They had developed a kind of close kinship even though they hadn't known each other for a long time. That was because they knew the other was very familiar with the feeling dominating their entire existence and what they had been through. What a bother…

Originally, Loki had wanted to remove Isaac from Ais' life as quickly as possible when she had seen the sparkle of interest in her eyes. This was mostly because she thought it was only a minor interest and she wanted to keep Ais for herself. On her own, she wanted to help Ais, to heal her. Now, she didn't have the heart to act on that original plan of hers anymore. She had seen what kind of effect these two had on each other. If she wanted Ais to get better, to have a hope of living a normal life one day, this young man was of major importance.

Although she didn't know this Isaac very well, as the trickster goddess, she was used to lies and falsehoods and could spot them wherever she encountered them. She knew that the feelings he had shown ever since she asked him to drop the mask were nothing but genuine.

What she had to do now was to get these two to pay attention to her and tell her about Isaac's goal after joining her familia. And what his circumstances were. She had to admit that she wanted to have someone who held such huge sway over her Ais close at hand, in her own familia if possible. Where she could at least be aware of what was happening. Seeing how that goal aligned perfectly with why the young man was even here in the first place, this shouldn't be an issue.

Loki grabbed Isaac's chin and turned his head by 90 degrees, breaking the 'weird spell' binding him and Ais, before sitting down again.

"I understand now, I will accept you into my familia. But before doing so, I have to know a few things to make sure I'm prepared for any possible problems I'll be adding to my familia's plate. Tell me about yourself. What are your goals? What are your current circumstances?"

Right after he had stopped looking at Ais, a calm smile appeared on Isaac's face again - the same one he had shown before Loki had asked him to take his 'mask' off. But this time, Loki didn't blame him for wearing it. His true feelings were way too distracting in a social setting, after all.

As these questions didn't touch upon anything Isaac wanted to hide, he answered without hesitation.

"One of my goals is to become an adventurer and grow stronger. As for my current situation… well, I'm home- and penniless."

Just like how Isaac wasn't ashamed to admit this, Loki wasn't surprised about his situation either. In fact, she had already anticipated something along these lines. Having nothing else to ask about, she got up from the sofa with a grin and walked over to him.

"Alright, take your shirt off and lie down with your back facing upwards."

Without thinking much about it, Isaac followed Loki's orders as he was clear that the familia induction ceremony was about to begin. While he was taking his shirt off, however, Lefiya blushed madly and hid her face behind her hands. She was still peeking through her fingers though, as, even though she wasn't used to seeing male bodies, she was definitely interested in them. Right next to the adorable elf, Ais was a lot calmer. No specific expression could be seen on her face but her eyes sparkled with interest as she observed the just shortly exposed upper body in front of her in detail.

Isaac's body wasn't entirely free of every single gram of fat, but his muscles were quite defined and vigorous. Overall, his body was pretty lithe. It could easily be seen that he had to train harshly for many years to reach such a state. To put it in simpler words: Ais approved.

Compared to the two pure maidens on the middle sofa, Loki didn't care about Isaac's body at all. In all of the eternity she has spent in this world and in Heaven, she had seen her fair share of bodies, therefore such a view couldn't even rouse any special interest. After Isaac laid down on the sofa just as he was told, she straddled his back and reached towards the table surrounded by the sofas.

From inside a drawer under the table, she took a small needle and poked the tip of her right index finger. Following that, she brought her finger, and the drop of blood pooling on top of it, down towards Isaac's upper back.

As soon as the blood entered his body through the pores in his skin, it happened. Many system notifications flashed in front of Isaac's eyes.

[ 'Trickster Goddess' Loki wants to bestow a blessing upon you, will you accept? ]

[ Foreign substance has been detected entering the host's body. It has been identified as 'Ichor', the blood of this world's gods. Its intrusion will be either accepted or rejected depending on the decision pertaining to the aforementioned blessing. ]

[ Ichor has been analyzed. Cost of upgrading host's blood to Ichor: 10.000 Achievement Points ]

Without wasting a single moment, Isaac accepted Loki's blessing as he didn't want her to notice anything unusual while engraving the falna. Right after that, he focussed on something else the system had just informed him about. 'Achievement Points'.

'How do I gain Achievement Points?'

[ By completing quests in the Achievements interface. ]

[ Unlocking Achievements... ]

[ Quest - Reward ]

[ Make a friend. - 100 Achievement Points ]

[ Make two friends. - 200 Achievement Points ]

[ ... - ... ]

[ Kill 1000 Level 1 monsters. - 100 Achievement Points. ]

[ Kill 2000 Level 1 monsters. - 200 Achievement Points. ]

[ ... - ... ]

A seemingly endless list appeared before his eyes, full of quests ranging from slaughtering monsters to mundane tasks like making a friend. This was also the first time Isaac found out about the existence of the various 'interfaces' in his system. He could simply display certain menus and windows whenever he wished. Of course, this was already something he expected, as it was quite normal in the VRMMORPGs he had read about. Still, it was calming to get confirmation that he had indeed implemented further virtual reality inspired features. It had all been too hectic before and he didn't really feel like exploring his system further until he got a moment for himself.

[ Ais Wallenstein considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make a friend.' completed. 100 Achievement Points rewarded. ]

[ Lefiya Viridis considers you a friend.

Quest 'Make two friends.' completed. 200 Achievement Points rewarded. ]

It was quite amusing to see how he had judged the simple act of making a friend as hard as killing 1000 Level 1 monsters in this world when he created the system. But honestly, he was a bit surprised that the cute little elf liked him so much. He hadn't really intended to become friends with the two girls to get benefits from his system. Still, he couldn't complain about 300 Achievement Points as a bonus, right?

'I guess I'll take a look at the 'Store' interface when I get some time for myself later. There have to be a few useful things I can buy with this amount of points.'

Of course, Isaac hadn't tested whether or not the 'Store' interface even existed. But now that he knew he could buy an 'Ichor' upgrade for his body, he was sure he had implemented such a feature as well.

Only a few minutes had passed and Loki finished the familia induction ceremony. A symbol resembling a clown's face graced Isaac's upper back, written with Ichor that now looked like pitch-black ink. But instead of having a jubilant expression, Loki furrowed her brows when writing down Isaac's stats on a sheet of paper.

Without saying anything, she just handed him the sheet, waiting for him to take a look first. Just as he had expected, as soon as Isaac laid his eyes upon the written down stats, his system compiled a 'Status' interface for his own personal use as well. The contents were the exact same as what Loki had written down.

[ Name: Isaac Blackshaw ]

[ Familia: Loki Familia ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-10 ]

[ Endurance: I-10 ]

[ Dexterity: I-10 ]

[ Agility: I-10 ]

[ Magic: I-10 ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ None ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ None ]

Every single stat was as low as it could be for a Level 1 human being: I-10. The lowest of the low. Of course, Loki wanted Isaac to see this before she explained what was going on.

"For some reason, I couldn't find any excelia - experiences - in your body that date back to before today. It is as if you just suddenly started existing today. That's why I couldn't give you more than the bare minimum of stats."

Hearing this, both Ais' and Lefiya's eyes widened as they could guess why such a thing happened. And Isaac, contrary to Loki's expression, didn't get disheartened, neither did his mood turn foul. Instead, a wide, genuine smile spread across his face. This couldn't help but make Loki suspicious. But Isaac had already expected such a reaction from her when he decided to let his true feelings show just now.

"One day, I might tell you why this happened."

He didn't say anything else, as he was sure these words would be enough for a goddess who, if nothing else, was an expert at waiting. Also, as he didn't straight up deny knowing the reason and even gave her a tentative promise, Loki should be content. For now.

Indeed, this was the case. Right after getting a reply she could live with, Loki got up from Isaac's back and sat down on her own sofa again. Finally, Isaac could return to sitting up straight. The happy smile hadn't disappeared from his face just yet. Seeing Ais' inquisitive look after he had handed her his stat sheet for inspection, he felt the need to explain his thoughts.

"This is exactly what I wanted. A fresh start without any unfair advantages. Nothing to make my life easier. It's just perfect. Only this way can it be a worthy challenge!"

From his eyes, a never before seen burning spirit could be seen, surprising the three women. In there, they could make out a desperate desire to conquer, to challenge himself. And quite a bit of something very close to pure insanity. But what was even more shocking was that both Loki and Ais were certain these feelings were genuine. Yet another part of the enigma that was Isaac had been laid bare.

Yet just as quickly as this desire had taken root, it disappeared again. This gave Loki a chance to remind Isaac that he had forgotten to put his shirt back on.

While Lefiya outwardly didn't seem to mind that he was dressed again, inwardly, she was quite unhappy about her goddess' reminder. Instead of bottling up her feelings, however, Ais openly showed them on her face… well, as much as she could. She gave Loki a sad glance, complaining with her eyes about the wicked deed she just committed. Loki completely ignored the look of blame on Ais' face and gave her three familia members a new assignment instead.

"My two beauties, please bring Isaac to where he will be staying. There should still be a free bed in room 15 of the male dorms."

After signaling for them to leave and waving towards Ais when she closed the door to the study, Loki fell into deep contemplation. Still, no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't figure out how she should handle the intimate relationship between Ais and Isaac. Seeing how thinking about this alone didn't help her at all, her usual mischievous smile reappeared.

'If I can't figure it out I can just let Riveria rack her brains over it.'

Almost ten minutes after a group of two humans and an elf had left her study, the trickster goddess ran off to add even more tormenting work on her wise elven mage's shoulders.