[Illsyore's point of view]

 We left the Mehalom Dungeon in a hurry. All the monsters started to act violently as soon as the Dungeon Territory vanished. I couldn’t recall how exactly it was destroyed, but seeing how I woke up after that attack from the High Priest black mage, it was highly possible that it was entirely my fault.

What worried me now was the health state of our only survivor. She was barely breathing, and her wounds given by the mages left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was glad they were obliterated from existence, but for some strange reason, I felt guilty for how we found her.

If we were faster… Maybe if we left yesterday? I thought as I wondered just what exactly I could have done to be able to save more than just this child.

The others had turned into zombies after being sacrificed to that Black Lord of theirs, but not all of them had been that lucky. What I was showed today was simply a part of the world I never wished to see. In these medieval times, there were those who took pleasure from something like this, and others who had such twisted views of the world that an act of kindness was seen worse than the plague.

Indeed, this wasn’t the true face of this world, but it was a part of it, a disgusting, wretched part that needed to be cut out one way or another. I couldn’t speak for all the kingdoms and species out there, but at the very least, in that spot where I was going to build my academy and where I was going to live out my days, I was going to do everything in my power to make sure such things never happened.

While I was thinking about this, I began to wonder if maybe just hunting down all of these so-called monsters, these plagues of society wasn’t the right thing to do. The idea of slowly killing them and let it be known that those who committed such distasteful acts would suffer the same made me smile on the inside.

No! That’s not me… I shook my head and rubbed my forehead a bit.

“Are you alright?” Nanya asked.

“Yes…” I replied and showed her a smile.

I focused my mind on other things, but somewhere deep inside, the desire and thoughts of hunting down those people lingered like an insatiable monster begging and pleading to satiate its thirst for blood. Doing so made me think it was a good thing, but I couldn’t help but also feel it was wrong.

“We’re pretty far now… Should we stop?” asked Ayuseya, pulling me out of my deep, dark thoughts.

“Ye-Yeah…” I said and looked back.

We traveled quite a distance, maybe five kilometers or more?

Looking back at the child in Shanteya’s arms, I knew from one glance that she didn’t have a lot of time left to live, but once I would begin treatment, she would recover immediately.

“Nanya, I suppose you don’t have an instant heal sort of potion?” I asked the demoness.

“Nope.” she shook her head.

I let out a sigh.

Making her my slave just to cure her would have been pointless since my skills didn’t work as they did before, when the Darkness took care of everything. Right now, I was in charge of every detail of each spell, so what I could do inside my Inner Mind, I could technically do outside as well, minus the whole making items part.

“Place her down over there.” I told Shanteya as I pointed at a patch of grass.

The el’doraw nodded and gently did so. Upon feeling that she was once more left alone, the little child let out a soft mew and shivered a bit.

I extended my Dungeon Territory and sat down next to her. The first thing I did was absorb her black cuffs, but I didn’t keep those creepy things inside of me, I immediately spat them out. Thankfully, she didn’t have a [No Steal] enchantment item on her, but those things were quite rare, and only those who had something worth stealing used them on their items.

Using Magic Energy, I began the tedious process of closing her wounds and healing any other injuries she might have had. After creating my rather unique body, I gained the ability to modify and change as I pleased any biological organism by using only the flow of Magic Energy. It was tricky, but as long as the patient didn’t oppose me in any way or manner, I could easily perform quite a number of complicated operations. In other words, I was an actual doctor. The only thing missing was my diploma to certify that I spent hundreds of years analyzing and learning the anatomy of various sentient species.

With a skillful touch, the needles of Magic Energy created from the tips of my fingers closed all the open wounds on her body, leaving no scar behind. It wasn’t that hard as long as you realized that as soon as you pulled the injured tissue close enough at microscopic level, the cells automatically bonded together. Of course, restoring and giving them a boost of energy helped out with the process. In general, the only thing I had to worry about was the removal of the first layer of dead cells around the wound. My needles basically did all of that and then the body’s natural healing stepped over. This process was complicated, but it consumed far less energy than trying to rebuild all of her missing cells, tissue and all.

Once I was finished with this, I scanned her innards to make sure there were no injured organs either. What I found were three broken ribs and a ruptured liver. Seeing this, I realized that this girl literally had only hours left to live. I quickly healed the liver and then repaired the broken ribs. She was also missing three teeth on her bottom jaw, so I triggered their regrowth and accelerated it a bit with magic. In two or three days, the fallen teeth would be replaced by brand new ones.

Now, the kitten was completely healed, but she was in need of some serious bathing. Her fur was literally drenched in her own blood, her clothes stuck to her fur from all the dirt and grime. Seeing this, I triggered and accelerated a bit the production of her blood in her bone morrow. In an hour or so, she would regain most of it. For now, her breathing and heart rate were stable, and there were no other abnormalities with her body. With a small sigh escaping my lips, I leaned back and looked over to my right.

Ayuseya was standing not that far away from me. From the moment I began the operation until now, the draconian watched me with big, curious eyes. The gentleness with which I moved and the skill I displayed at repairing organic bodies surprised her. For me, it wasn’t that much of a big deal, but for her, it was probably no different than a miracle.

“Something the matter?” I asked after a moment had passed.

“Ah? No…” she looked down and blushed.

What’s up with her? I asked myself while tilting my head to my left.

“Are you done?” asked Nanya.

Turning around, I saw the demoness standing right behind me, while Shanteya was nowhere to be seen.

“Yes. I have to say, I’m surprised you used your sword.” I told her.

“I was hoping I could break it, but no such luck.” she sighed and shook her head.

“Anyway, where’s Shanteya?” I asked.

“Over there, she’s searching for some food.” she replied pointing to the forest to my right.

Looking in that direction, I nodded and then looked back at the demoness.

“How much time had pass since we got here?” I asked her.

“Enough… It’s almost sundown. Can you check to see if there’s a spring nearby? I think the nekatar needs a bath.” she told me pointing at the kitten.

I nodded in reply and then closed my eyes.

Going out of my body, I flew up into the sky and looked around for one. Before my eyes was an endless green forest of tall trees. To my left, I could see the tips of a mountain and behind me a long golden strip of sand. That was where the dessert was, but even when I tried to focus in that direction, I couldn’t spot Petro town. Maybe it was too well hidden within the sea of trees?

That being said, there was absolutely no way for me to find a river or stream like this, so I sighed and extended my Dungeon Territory for a few kilometers. Within it, I was sure to find something if I searched diligently. My current form allowed me to soar through the sky without worry about wind resistance. As long as I was within my Dungeon Territory, I could fly endlessly.

Still, with the forest being so dense, I couldn’t just wander around aimlessly, so I searched for the road we had been trying to avoid ever since we left Petro. There was also the thing about Bucket Head’s ambush, but so far, there were no signs of him. He was probably either too far behind us or he simply gave up on the idea of robbing us. Either way, if he showed his face, I would introduce him to me good ol’ lazer.

Following the road turned out to be a good idea. Humans had the natural habit of not straying too far from a stable source of water. Long roads usually had strange shapes because they either wanted to avoid dangerous areas or to be close to a river. Thus, I managed to find one, a water source, but it was at about 3 km distance from our current location. It wasn’t far, especially since we were quite fast on our feet.

With a smile on my lips, I returned to my body and told everyone the good news. Shanteya picked up the nekatar child, and I led the way there. Of course, I didn’t forget to pull back my Dungeon Territory until it was only a little patch inside my body.

“Good job finding this, Illsy, but you know, you could have just made a water source for us right there, on that spot.” Nanya told me with a smile on her lips and a gentle pat on my shoulder once we reached the shore of the river.

Looking at her and letting my brain do a bit of thinking, I realized that she was right. Instead of finding this, I could have just made it right there on the spot by absorbing a few square meters of dirt and filling the hole with water.

Well, it was just an option, so I shrugged indifferently.

“We’ll go and wash the little one.” said Shanteya, and Ayuseya followed her.

I stayed behind together with Nanya.

To keep myself busy, I found a big boulder and laid my tired behind on top of it. The demoness took this opportunity to catch a couple of fish, but with her speed, I could only feel sad for the little critters. They had no way of escaping her claws.

While we were standing there, a bear walked by and saw us. I raised an eyebrow at it, while the beast got up on its hind legs. Seeing him, Nanya threw him a big fish. The bear caught it like a dog and then walked back to the forest.

About half an hour later, the two women returned. They were both drenched and the cat was wide awake, completely soaked and sniffling.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Nekatars and water don’t mix well.” sighed Ayuseya as she looked behind at the trembling kitty.

“Well, at least she is clean now.” I smiled and jumped off the rock, landing on the shore, right next to them.

“Yes, but…” Shanteya looked back at the kitten with a sad look in her eyes. “There’s something you should see…” she told me.

“What?” I asked blinking surprised.

“Tamara, come here.” the el’doraw said.

“Mew?” the kitten looked up at her curiously and then back at me.

So, her name is Tamara, but what does she want me to see? Is she actually a he? I asked myself.

There was no way I could have mistook her gender, but maybe there was something on her skin, like a tattoo, which I could have easily missed? Maybe she had a rash or a skin disease? When I healed her, I didn't go that much into detail, I just took care of the life-threatening injuries.

Looking down at her, I could not imagine how someone would want to harm or enslave something so cute, but as I took a closer look at her, I noticed the missing teeth, the burned fur on her nose, the cut left ear, and the scars on her snout. When I was healing her, with the exception of her teeth, I didn't see all of those other injuries because they were hidden under a thick layer of grim and blood. My scans at that time didn't reveal them as life-threatening injuries either.

What the… I thought, but then Shanteya pulled Tamara’s shirt up and revealed something far more horrifying.

The kitten’s back didn’t even have a single patch of fur left because it was covered in whip scars. Some bastard took great pleasure in torturing this child and inside my heart, another drop of disgust towards slavers was added. Not only her back, but her entire body was literally covered with countless scars, and the tip of her tail had its fur burned off. To not be able to notice all of these when I was healing her just proved to show what a thick layer of dirt and grime she had on her.

“Tamara not cry. Tamara obey. Tamara need not to be punished.” trembled the child as she looked up at Shanteya.

She feared that the reason her shirt was pulled up was because we were thinking of whipping her. I clenched my fists, and fury rumbled in my heart just from hearing the tone of fear in her voice.

How could this child think like this? What did they do to her? I asked myself with the anger inside of me rising by the moment.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to calm myself and then said “We’re not going to harm you…” I then knelt down and looked into her eyes. “Tamara will be healed now.” I said.

“No! No! No! Tamara was good! Tamara not want to be healed!” she then suddenly cried out hugging Shanteya and trying hard to avoid looking back at me.

She was trembling, her ears were flattened on her head, and her tail was coiled around her leg. All of these were signs of genuine fear.

I was simply shocked by this. I blinked surprised, but even I couldn’t understand what just happened. Was she afraid of being healed or was she harmed to the point where she wished to have those scars on her back?

I couldn’t tell, and noticing my confusion, Shanteya asked the kitten something.

“Tamara, what happens when others heal you?”

Perking her ears up and then flattening them again, she looked down at the ground.

With a low volume in her voice, the nekatar then replied “They pull Tamara’s shirt up. Then Tamara feels pain… Tamara bleeds. Tamara not like.” she then quickly shook her head.

“Little one, that’s not healing…” the el’doraw said in a calm tone of voice.

“I heard about this.” Nanya said and when I looked at her, I saw her clenching her fists. “They torture them from when they are young so when they are old and sold, they won’t ask for it even if they are gravely injured. It makes them appear obedient… No crying means that they are alright with what is being done to them.” the demoness then looked away.

She wasn’t the only one furious. Ayuseya felt the same. In fact, all of us were upset by this. The merchant who did this to little Tamara would have to suffer a great deal of pain, or none of us would feel happy about it.

Yes… pain… suffering… He will die. I thought.

Looking at the scarred back, I took in a deep breath and extended my Dungeon Territory until it covered them all.

“Little one, what they did is not healing. What I am going to do now is called healing. What they did to you is called torture.” I explained in a calm and gentle tone of voice, but inside, I was already thinking about how I would skin alive that evil slave dealer.

Reason number one to obliterate this form of slavery… I thought as I gently petted her little head.

At first, she flinched under my touch, but then she realized that I had no intention of harming her.

“Torture?” she asked.

“Yes… torture. Only very evil and despicable men do this.” I then placed my hands over her back and summoned my Magic Energy.

Tamara shivered when she felt the energy flowing through her flesh. She didn’t have even a basic layer of Magic Armor, so it was amazing that she was able to survive in that dungeon for so long. Maybe it was fate for me to find her there?

Instead of thinking about this, I focused only on healing her wounds. Scar after scar vanished as I reconstructed her skin at a cellular level. Thanks to my experience since I built my body, I even knew how to read DNA, so I found the genes that described the way her fur should form and what pattern it should have. Tamara had dark-brown and light-brown fur covering her body. It wasn’t hard for me to repair her back, but her spine and muscles had suffered from the constant whipping as well. I fixed everything I saw as damaged, all while never allowing her pain receptors to send even a single signal back to her brain.

The girls said nothing as I did all of this, and Tamara, out of fear and maybe being unable to understand, she kept quiet and remained in Shanteya’s arms. The el’doraw was holding her like a mother would her own daughter. It was a sweet sight to behold in a way, if not for the damage the said child had on her body.

While using this technique, I also searched for any sort of illness and other unusual medical conditions. Although I was a bit reluctant, I even checked to see if she wasn’t abused in a sexual way, and thankfully I found no signs to indicate such a thing. She was lucky, maybe.

“I’m done with the back and tail.” I said and then began to treat her slender arms and feet.

She was weak, slightly trembling, but it didn’t take long before she understood that I wasn’t harming her. Now that she saw her fixed tail and felt the fur on her back, her expression changed from one of fear to one of amazement. The scars on her snout were the last ones on her body, and I quickly removed those too.

Initially, I wanted to wait for her teeth to regrow naturally, but it didn’t feel right to leave those out, so I poured some more Magic Energy and fixed them. Feeling her chompers back, she couldn’t help but lick them with her rough, feline tongue. She almost couldn’t believe it. The last thing I healed were her burnt whiskers. I regrew them and made sure none of her other senses were damaged.

“ACHOO!” the little one sneezed and shook her head.

The new whiskers tickled her.

“Done.” I said with a smile and stepped back.

Tamara looked around and then moved a bit. The pain was gone, and her senses were renewed. No doubt she felt like a whole new person. The last thing I wanted to remove was her slave collar. That ugly thing hanging around her neck and marking her as another being’s property had to go.

“Tamara not feel pain any more…” she said surprised as she made a jump and landed on all fours.

Sniffing the air around, her whiskers twitched, and she quickly perked her ears up. A little smile appeared on her face, warming our hearts.

“Tamara, come here…” I told her.

The kitten didn’t hesitate and approached me, standing on all fours in front of me. I softly patted her little head and scratched her behind the ears. It was something she seemed to truly enjoy. It was then when I remembered that old cat my parents had.

“Tamara, would you like to be free?” I asked her.

The kitten looked up at me and then tilted her head to the left. “What’s free?” she asked.

I sighed softly. “It means to be rid of the leather collar around your neck. To have a will of your own.” I told her.

“Hm? But Tamara was told if I remove this, Tamara will feel lots of pain.” she said flattening her ears on her head.

“It might be a kill-switch.” Nanya pointed out.

“A what?” I asked surprised.

“If a slave goes rogue or acts against their master’s orders, it will trigger a burst of Magic Energy which will decapitate them or stop their heart.” explained Shanteya.

“Tamara not want her head to fly.” she expressed her worry.

“Don’t worry, it won’t.” I smiled.

“Wait!” Nanya said before I managed to say another word. I blinked surprised and looked at her “If you do that, our quest might end up being a big fat zero. We’ll fail it or just get the exploration reward. We might also end up meeting the actual master of Tamara and if he claims his right over her…”

I knew what the demoness was trying to say, in other words, healing was good, but removing the collar would certainly lead to a bucketful of trouble. Becoming criminals or slave thieves might be just one of them, but hell if I cared!

I sighed. “Nanya… What would you do if I brought Tamara back to the one who did all those things to her?” I asked her raising an eyebrow.

The kitten flinched and looked with worried eyes at the demoness.

“I wouldn’t sleep with you for ten years.” she replied bluntly.

“Now you see my point. I’m not going to risk sleeping on the couch just because I’m afraid of a stinking slave dealer! I’ll burn his business to the ground if there’s no other way around it!” I showed them a confident smirk.

“What’s a couch?” Nanya asked surprised.

“Forget about that! The point is that I agree with you as well, and I’m fully aware of the consequences! However, I think Tamara’s freedom is more important than the trouble we’ll get into because I offered her the freedom she is entitled to!” I declared proudly.

Ayuseya and Shanteya showed me a gentle smile, while Nanya sighed and shook her head.

There was no turning back now.

“Illsy, just make sure you ask her the RIGHT question.” Ayuseya warned me.

“I’m not going to ask THAT question! I’m not a lolicon, and I LOVE big boobs!” I declared proudly.

“Nya?” Tamara simply tilted her head to the left in confusion.

“Sigh, forget what they said.” I rubbed my temples and then asked the kitten “Tamara, do you want to be my slave? Thor Or Non!”

“Yes, nya!” she said with a big smile.

The spell [Make a Slave] was activated immediately and turned to ash the leather collar she previously wore around her neck. Instead of it, a black ring made out of tiny, nearly microscopic runes appeared. It was identical to the one around Shanteya’s neck. The spell the slave master placed on her could not be compared to the one cast by a Godlike Dungeon Lord. I actually doubted there was any way of removing those black rings around their fingers and necks. With this, Tamara had gained her freedom from her previous master, so all that was left to do now was to completely free her of this slavery.

“Great!” I said with a smile, while the kitten carefully touched her neck, surprised by the sudden disappearance of the collar.

Now, it was time for the last step. “Tamara, I wish to free you. Thor Or Non!” I shouted and pointed my hand at her.

“NO!” the kitten shouted and shook her head quickly.

“What?” I nearly stumbled forward. “What do you mean ‘no’? I’m about to offer you complete freedom from a life of slavery! Do you know what that means?” I asked.

Tamara closed her eyes and with her hand over her chest, she said something in the gibberish Kalish, but the tone of voice she used told me that it was something deep and meaningful to her.

For a moment, I wondered why she chose that language, but then I remembered that she also spoke a few words in Shorayan language, which was from the Allasn continent, but her main tongue was supposed to be Kalish.

“She said that now that she has found a master like you, she does not wish to be free. She said that by serving you, she’ll be able to repay you for recovering her fur. I think she means healing.” Ayuseya translated.

“Sigh… I had a feeling this was going to happen.” Nanya simply crossed her arms at her chest and shook her head.

“Master is such a good Master, any slave would desire to stay by his side.” giggled Shanteya.

“What? Seriously…” I complained while the kitten jumped on me and hugged me.

“Master! Tamara’s master!” she said.

“Ugh… This was seriously not something I was expecting!” I shouted.

The kitten only lifted her head up and looked with big curious eyes at me.

“Speaking of which, how old is Tamara?” Nanya asked.

“Tamara is 16 years old!” she declared proudly.

“So, technically an adult…” Nanya narrowed her eyes at her.

“But she’s so small…” I said surprised.

“Not all nekatars are big like Neyalin. Maybe she is from another tribe?” Shanteya asked.

“No tribe. Tamara slave from birth.” the kitten shook her head.

I let out a long sigh.

Thus, another weird fellow joined our group.