~ Chapter 103: The village abandoned by all ~

[Illsyore's point of view]

Our encounter with the stereotypical idiot noble ended with him and his troops facing complete extermination at my hand. I practically could have killed them in countless different ways. If I really wanted to be cruel, I could have frozen their feet then walk up to them and peel the skin and muscles right off their skeletons. The pain, horror, and suffering resulting from this would have certainly been enough to give anyone a nightmare to last. However, scaring my slaves half to death wasn't something I wanted to do.

With a sigh escaping my lips, I looked at the smoking body of the foolish nobleman.

A feeble human... who took upon a foolish action against me. At the very least, now I know another course I need to add in my curriculum at the Academy: Equality of Life. I thought.

“A noble he may be, but if he doesn't understand what this means, he is better off dead.” I said and then looked back the slaves.

All of them were trembling, one even fainted when our eyes met. Several of them had already soiled themselves despite the best efforts of my wives to calm them down. The fear of Dungeons was something ingrained in their culture and dictated as never changing for the better.

Then again, with humans like the nobleman I just killed holding power over how newly found Dungeon should be treated, then certainly those fellows would have no other choice but to become like those rumors just so that they can stay alive.

Another thing I need to change... I thought.

Because I had just killed human beings, I felt a bit cold. My gaze was probably a bit scary, so I took advantage of this moment to speak my mind to these slaves of mine.

“Are you afraid?” I asked them in a low tone of voice.

The words barely rolled off the tip of my tongue. It was... like I was trying to seduce someone.

They nodded.

I closed my eyes and looked up at the green foliage of the trees, covering the sky above me. A gentles breeze rustled the leaves. I let out a sigh and then slowly lowered my gaze upon them.

Fear... Despair... Lack of hope... These were the emotions I could read on their faces.

Me? I was in a half-drunk state... Everything was moving in slow motion for me.

“Illsy?” Ayuseya called out to me.

“I'm fine.” I replied closing my eyes.

With this, I released the dark fog covering my Dungeon Territory. I hadn't extended it beyond the edge of the farthest wall I had summoned to trap those men. Speaking of which, I took this opportunity to reabsorb it and turn the bodies of the deceased into pure Magic Energy. Once I was done, only their clothes, armors, and weapons remained. I absorbed those too and then walked over to where my slaves were gathered.

When they saw me approach them, I realized several of them were about to start begging for forgiveness. I wasn't in the mood to listen to their pathetic cries and begs for something... irrelevant.

“All of you will shut up for now. You can talk after I'm done talking.” I ordered them. Taking a deep breath in, I allowed my nerves to calm down and then spoke “My name is Illsyore Deus. I am a Godlike Dungeon Lord. If you believe my words or not, I don't care. I'm just going to tell you this. I bought you because I wanted to offer you the chance of becoming better... More so, the chance of one day hoping for your own future. I'm not going to kill you, but those who threaten my family, my students, or my possessions, will face my wrath.”

They looked at each other confused. Several of them swallowed their saliva, but the fear seemed to have subsided. No doubt they were thinking that since they were 'possessions' they were safe.

“Now, let me get one clear. I bought you, true, however, in my book you aren't possessions. All of you aren't my things and toys to play around with. You are all individuals with a bright future ahead and the chance to become something in this world. You all are my students at the Academy I'm going to build. Now, if you choose to stay and grab hold of this unique opportunity, I will allow you to attend the classes there. BUT, if you come to the conclusion that you DON'T wish to become students there, I will remove those slave collars and grant your freedom before I depart from this continent. That is all. My wives here will explain the rest.” I told them and then turned around.

“M-Mister Illsyore?” Wolf called out to me then.

I stopped and looked back at them.

To be honest, I was surprised that he wasn't frozen stiff in fear like the rest of them.

“Yes?” I replied.

“Thank you!” he made a bow in front of me.

His forehead was touching the ground.

“What for?” I asked blinking fast.

“For killing that noble. Thanks to you... my parents can rest easy now.” he told me.

“I see... Well, just remember, all those who act like him will ALWAYS get themselves killed one way or another.” I smiled.

“Yes... Erm, am I also considered a student?” he asked me.

“Do you want to be?” I tilted my head to the left.

“Erm...” he looked down.

“As I said, all of you are free to choose whether or not you take the opportunity I'm offering you or wish to strive on your own in this world.” I said.

“But I'm not one of your slaves. Do I need to become one?” he asked.

Blinking surprised, I looked at the child.

“Do I?” he asked again with a slight tremble in the tone of his voice.

“No! No! No!” I said shaking my head. “I'm planning on freeing those slaves, so what's the point of making you a slave? I don't like slavery in the first place! If you want to become a student at my Academy, just say so, and I'll let you. There's no need for anything as ridiculous as turning you into a slave!” I retorted.

“I-Is that so? Then... I want to become a student at your academy!” Wolf declared with a bright smile on his face.

“Yeah... Sure.” I scratched my left cheek.

That smile of his was refreshing. Seeing only fear, hate, or horror on the faces of those who looked at me was getting tiring. I could not wait until I destroyed all of those ridiculous beliefs regarding Dungeons.

With the matter of the nobleman taken care off, I summoned a big outdoor bath for the slaves use. A big wooden wall was summoned in the middle to separate the male area from the female area. I also arranged a pair of new, fresh clothes for them to wear after they got out. However, before they got in, I went on and healed any of their injuries just like I did with the first batch. Zoreya and Ayuseya helped me out with this, while Tamara and Nanya prepared the meal. Shanteya had the role of answering any questions they had regarding what I just said and what was going to happen to them.

Somehow, when these new slaves heard they were going to be healed, washed, dressed, and fed, not only were they surprised, but they also downright didn’t believe it.

The day ended with all of us having a good meal and then sleeping in a cozy bed.

When we woke up, I made a roll call for the slaves. Once I saw that all of them were here and accounted for. I explained to them once more who and what I was, then what was going to happen to them, trying to point out as much as I could the fact that they had both the right and freedom to choose between going off on their own or staying with me to learn at my Academy.

After our breakfast, we got into the MCV, which gained a new attachment in the back. Now it looked like a train with two cars. Our next destination was going to be the Ils Village, located up in the mountains. At the speed we were going, we were bound to reach it sometime in the following six hours. The roads were a bit tricky around these parts, going up in a serpentine and presenting lots of holes and bumps.

About three hours into our drive, the car got stuck...

“Wait here, I need to pull it out of this mud hole.” I grumbled as I got out.

Back on Earth, I would have been forced to call a tow truck... or a tank. This road was so bad, even a monster truck would have had trouble on it. Hm, I had a feeling Truck-kun would not have had that much trouble though if there was some unfortunate soul ready to be sent off to the afterlife.

Luckily for me, I had enough grip and strength in these arms of mine to rip an actual tank in half, so pulling this MCV out of the mud wasn't that hard.

“If this road is so bad, I can't help but wonder how the people in Ils village receive their supplies, if they do at all...” said Ayuseya in a worried tone of voice.

“Yeah, we're lucky we're traveling with this MCV, which is designed for a bumpy road, but I can't see a carriage being fine.” I said shaking my head.

“A road like this would discourage any merchant.” pointed out Nanya.

“By my estimates, it would take at least a week for a normal carriage to reach Ils village.” said Zoreya.

“A whole week?” I asked surprised.

“Yes.” she nodded.

“At this rate, it would be wiser to take a detour through Aura, the capital of Paramanium rather than travel through Ils.” said Ayuseya.

“What for?” I asked a bit curious.

“Kantor is the town we're going to after passing through Ils village, but to the North of it is Aura, the capital. As a merchant, I would rather take the detour through the capital in order to reach Kantor rather than risk getting attacked by bandits on my way towards Ils.” she explained.

“Sounds logical enough, but wouldn't this mean the people in Ils are going to have trouble with their supplies?” I asked.

“Nya~ They have. I was told in the market that the last merchant to reach Ils Village was last year.” said Tamara as she looked up from Shanteya's lap.

The el'doraw was gently petting her.

“I guess they will be surprised then...” I said scratching my right cheek.

“Yes.” Ayuseya nodded.

So far, we were on schedule. I planned on reaching Ilia Port City sometime during the following week. On our way there, the only stops we were going to make were going to be Kantor, Polis, and Nasat. This meant that I would end up buying a total of maybe 50-60 slaves by the time we set sail for the location of the Academy.

Of course, it wasn't a path set in stone, but from my point of view it was the ideal one. If we really wanted to get there fast, the best option would have been on Ayuseya's back or by... running. We were Over Supremes, it wasn't wise to underestimate our speed.

Still, this whole thing with Ils had me a bit worried. If the people there were suffering or were already dead, then was it better to simply go around it and avoid it altogether? Or was it wiser to stop there and offer a helping hand? Were they worth it?

Such thoughts crossed my mind as both my human side and Dungeon side were a bit at odds with each other when it came to what I should do. In the end, I decided it was wiser to simply wait and see rather than make plans for a hypothetical case I didn't know all the variables to.

For lunch, we stopped near the edge of a cliff, which I reinforced with my Dungeon Building Skills and turned into a good spot for camping with a nice view of the mountains and the forest down below. In the future, it was going to be an awesome tourist spot. Therefore, I carved my name into a big rock there: Illsyore's Cliff.

For some reason, my wives sighed when I did this.

Tamara cooked us some good deer steak hunted by Nanya in the nearby forest. Seeing the tasty meat, the slaves at first believed that they were only allowed to savor the scent and look at us eat. Their delight when they were told to sit at the table and dig in was refreshing, especially the big smiles on the children's faces. The little ones were the most pleased out of all of them.

Since we were heading up in the mountains, we offered all of them a coat to keep themselves warm, and I also turned on the heat in the car. I had no way of spreading the engine's heat all the way to the back car. It didn't even produce that much in the first place because it wasn't based on internal combustion, so what I used instead was a Thermal Power Crystal that raised the temperature around it.

To keep them from getting bored on the journey, Shanteya gave them several sets of cards to play with and those who could read received a story book from Ayuseya. Only two of them knew, which brought up the literacy concern.

Back on Earth, not knowing how to read or write was something rarely seen, and those people were often looked down upon. This was mostly because most of them simply never learned out of their own stubbornness. It wasn't as if it was impossible for most of them, even blind people knew how to read and write. They simply didn't wish to nor ask for help from those who could lend them a hand.

For the sake of my Magic Academy, I had to get rid of this problem as well. That was why, I was thinking of making an interactive dungeon through which all those who didn't know how to read or write would be able to learn these two basic skills. It was going to be aimed at kids and the cost for it would simply be a tiny bit of their parent's Magic Energy. If they had none, then they could supply their own or they could write down an 'I Owe You' for when they grew old enough and could repay me in some other way.

Initially, I wanted to make it free of charge, but powering up the pseudo-traps turned into learning materials as well as the Light Power Crystals and other things would require a constant supply of Magic Energy. Running back and forth to power it up felt like a nag, not to mention the fact that many would probably use it in the beginning. Maybe once I built a settlement there as well, it was going to become automatic and free of charge.

I had many plans for my Magic Academy. There were many things I had to focus on, and I was 100% certain that many of my so-called fail-proof plans were going to need a few more tweaks in order to account for many new variables.

The Academy's safety was another of my concerns, but I planned on using monsters and deadly traps for this. Basically, if someone were to kill another person on my territory, I would know immediately. After I determined WHO it was, I just had to turn his status from Ally or Neutral to Enemy. The whole Magic Academy was going to be an actual dungeon, so the many hidden traps and wandering monsters were going to immediately jump on them.

Just imagining a rude noble of level 200 ending up getting chased down by a crazy boot humping imp of level 1000 made me shudder.

It was around six o'clock in the evening when we finally saw the smoke trails rising from the chimneys in the village. I was curious about what sort of greeting we were going to receive as well as in what state we were going to find this settlement.

There were no guards at the entrance to the village, so I pulled the MCV all the way until we reached what appeared to be the main well. I stopped and got out of the car.

No one came out to greet us, despite the fact that we were a rather curious sight to behold.

“This is very strange...” said Ayuseya after she got out.

I walked up to the well and looked down.

“There's not even a single drop of water here...” I pointed out.

“That's bad news. A village like this can easily meet its end without a well.” she said.

I nodded.

Looking around, I noticed that there were several houses with smoke coming out of their chimneys. I walked up to one of them and knocked at the door.

No one answered.

This is unsettling... I thought.

Without further ado, I expanded my Dungeon Territory to the full size of this village and then I began to look for life signs. There were around 48 villagers still alive here, but they were all hiding inside their houses.

Are they scared of us? I don't think they know who we are, but... AH! The MCV! They must have thought we were some kind of monster! I thought and remembered that a vehicle like mine was something quite out of the ordinary for the people of this world. Even back in the Krestan, the people were looking at the MCV with curious eyes and a bit intimidated by its sheer size and the sounds it made. While it didn't have the hum of a modern diesel engine, it did give off a purr from the contact between the inner gears.

“Hello? I know you are inside! We come in peace! We're just travelers passing by!” I shouted at the front entrance.

If the people inside this house were not going to answer, then others in the village would have heard me. It was rather improbable that not even one of them was going to make a move or still think we were some sort of monsters in disguise. Then again, there was another possibility... one that Nanya mentioned.

The villagers could have died off a long time ago and the ones we were going to encounter would be outlaws and bandits who chose this place as a hideout. It was a good location for this. The village was not that far away from Krestan, especially if they knew the woods well and traveled in groups. The only problem was that it was going to be hard for them to find any suitable prey.

I knocked again at the door, but this time, I sensed someone approaching.

With a loud creak and a slow movement, the door was cracked open just enough for the person inside to peek outside.

“Y-You... W-Who a-are you?” he asked in a trembling tone of voice.

It was an old man with grizzled white hair and face covered in wrinkles.

“Hello there! My name is Illsyore, just an average traveling adventurer. My group and I were on our way to Kantor, and we decided to stop by this village.” I replied with a smile.

“A-adventurer? Here? In Ils? It must have t-taken you q-quite a while to g-get here.” he replied.

He was stuttering a bit, but the gap between the door and its frame increased.

“Erm, you could say that.” I showed him a wry smile and peeked back at the MCV. “Anyway, what's happening to this village?” I asked.

The old man looked down and then opened the door. I thought he was going to invite me in, but instead he was the one who came out.

“L-Life in our l-little village had a-always been simple. L-Last year, h-however, the well ran dry. I-It wasn't such a big p-problem, a-at first, b-but then n-no matter where we dug... we c-couldn't find a-another source of w-water.” he began his story with a small stutter, which when combined with his low tone of voice, it sounded as though he spoke out of fear. “T-Then t-the m-merchants stopped c-coming here. W-Without them, we c-couldn't b-buy or s-sell our wares. You see, w-we are mostly h-hunters, f-foragers, a-and t-tanners. O-Our crops are... little.” he said and looked to an open field on the other side of this village.

Using my Dungeon Territory, I saw that they had indeed tried to grow something there, but to no avail. The ground wasn't all that fertile, or it was too cold to grow any crops at all. Pests and diseases could have also stopped the growth of the plants.

“A-At l-least the t-tax c-collector d-didn't show up e-either.” he said.

“I see. That's unfortunate, but why are you all hiding inside?” I asked him.

The old man showed me a wry smile and then looked behind me, at the MCV.

“As I said... that's not a monster.” I nodded.

“Y-You c-can't blame us. W-We are s-simple folk here... W-We never saw s-something a-as fancy as t-that.” he replied.

“Can you please tell the others it's alright? If you have wares to sell, show them to my wives. Maybe they will be interested in something. Meanwhile, you can show me a place where I can set up camp?” I asked him.

“Y-You c-can use the b-barren fields. Or t-the house of the l-late farmer. He died t-two months ago.” he let out a sigh.

“Old age?” I asked.

“N-No...” he shook his head. “H-He was young... H-He slipped and fell w-when he was out, c-collecting wood. Poor f-fellow hit his h-head on the only r-rock in that a-area. Bad l-luck.” he nodded.

“Accidents do happen...” I nodded and showed him a sympathetic smile.

“I-I will go tell the o-others... Y-You can go and s-set up y-your camp.” he said.

“Very well.” I nodded and then went back to the MCV.

After I told my wives what the old man told me, I started the engine and traveled on the small road leading to the barren fields. I parked right in front of the farmer's house. While Nanya went inside to see if there was anything of interest, I summoned the building where we were going to spend the night and made a fire for Tamara to cook us some food. Since this village looked a bit lacking in resources, I thought about being generous and asked her to make something for them as well.

This time it was Ayuseya who went to hunt in the forest. Using her Over Supreme speed, she dashed off to an area that would have been outside of the reach of the villagers here. We didn't want to hunt any of the potential prey of the hunters here.

While she was taking care of this, I also decided to create a small temple for Zoreya to pray to Melkuth. Rather than a temple, it was better to simply call it a shrine.

When Nanya walked out of the house, she shook her head and said “There was nothing of interest inside. The villagers must have scavenged the place of any useful items.”

“Considering their current situation, I wouldn't be surprised.” I nodded.

After half an hour or so, Ayuseya returned dragging back several dead deer and a big wild boar. I think that one was a monster or something like that because it had spikes protruding from its back.

“Oh my! What happened here?” I suddenly heard a woman's voice coming from behind me.

When I turned around, I saw the villagers who gathered to greet us. Some of them were bringing their wares, including carvings and such.

“Just a bit of magic.” I showed her a wry smile.

“You have magic that can summon buildings?” she asked surprised.

“Erm... yes?” I replied.

Technically speaking, that was what I was doing. Practically, I was pulling prefab stuff out of my Inner Mind.

When I took a closer look at the group of villagers and their wares, I noticed not only the scarcity in items but also how poor they looked. Compared to the new clothes of my slaves and the armor we were wearing, it looked as though we were coming from two different worlds, one of the rich and one of the poor.

“W-We have l-little w-ares, b-but... p-please, take a l-look.” the grizzled old man said.

Nanya was the first to look around at their items.

“We don't mind trading for food... or tools.” one of them men pointed out while she was looking through the items.

“Speaking of food, if you all don't mind, my wife cooked a little extra, so you can all join us for dinner. There's plenty for everyone in the village.” I told them.

When they heard this, they were all looking back at me with gaping mouths. It was hard for them to believe the generosity of a stranger like me, but if it was free food, I doubted they would refuse it.

“A-Are you s-sure?” the grizzled old man from before asked.

“Yes.” I nodded and showed him a smile. “But a fair warning to all of you, I will be eating at the same table together with my wives and slaves, who are of different species. I would appreciate it if you warned those you know might have a problem with this not to make any rude remarks. I wouldn't want to believe that my generosity was misplaced.” I told him with a subtle hint.

“O-Of c-course.” the old man nodded.

“Most of us won't have a problem with it... We're simple folk, but we know quite well what it means to sell one of your family into slavery because you can't pay the taxes or buy food for the winter.” one of the men said while looking down.

Villages in a country that valued the slave system like Paramanium did had it rough during tough times. Now, when even the tax collectors abandoned them, they had it the worst from the looks of things. If they didn't make a miraculous comeback, they were destined to end up as either dead from starvation or in the chains of a wandering slaver. Resorting to thievery and becoming bandits was also a possibility.

While I saw them explaining their wares to Nanya, a wild thought crossed my mind: Should I try to help this village survive? I won't gain anything from it, but a good deed from time to time doesn't hurt.