"Apparently, there is a pathway to another dimension, named the Purple Bridge, here. That place has unique monsters, herbs, and resources.
"You can think of it as a haven of resources. The only problem is that the monsters inside are strong.
"Until recently, the Ashfang Tribe has been hiding its existence and slowly bringing out resources," Emily said.
She traced a line with her finger, following a route that wound through narrow passes.
"However, recently, monsters coming down from Mourning Frost Mountain have caused a lot of problems. One of these monster species is wrecking havoc near this mountain range. They are called the Tyrannical Golden Hen species. They are system monsters—"
"Wait," Isaac interrupted. "System monsters?"
Emily hesitated and turned her head slightly toward Catherine.
She herself didn’t know what exactly System Monsters were.
Catherine nodded and spoke instead. "Monsters inside the dungeons are created by the system. They are called system monsters."
"So how are they outside the dungeon?" Isaac asked.
Catherine’s hands paused for just a moment on his shoulders before continuing the slow massage.
"This world is a dungeon, Isaac. To be exact, the apocalypse was an open dungeon that terraformed our world. So, system monsters can appear ’outside’ too," she explained.
Isaac blinked, stunned.
For a second, he didn’t say anything. He stared at the map without really seeing it, his mind replaying her words.
An open dungeon.
The idea settled in slowly, bringing with it a familiar sense of unease.
The more he learned about the world now, the more it felt like every answer only uncovered something larger and more complicated behind it.
He shook his head lightly and focused again.
At that moment, Celia spoke up.
"I’ll explain it from here. It might be uncomfortable for Emily."
"Celia—" Emily started.
"It’s fine. I know you don’t want to hide from your past, but you shouldn’t rush to face it. Just do it slowly," Celia said.
Isaac looked between the two of them, a small frown forming.
"...?"
He couldn’t help it. The way they were talking made it sound like something heavy was about to drop.
Did something huge happen here?
Why did it feel like he had just walked into the middle of a story he didn’t know the beginning of?
Celia took a breath.
"The Ashfang Tribe is so eagerly bowing to Emily because of their greed too. They know about the Thousand Year Stampede and want to take refuge in our city."
Isaac nodded slowly.
"I see. Actually, this is good. If they were just supporting Emily out of pure goodwill, I would be worried that not all of them were on our side and instead had hidden intentions. But since they want something from us, I can trust them more," he said.
He tapped the edge of the map lightly.
"So how is the Crawling Serpent Tribe related to all this now?" he asked.
Celia leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.
"As Emily said, a group of warriors from the Ashfang Tribe was facing the Tyrannical Golden Hens and died.
"A lot of groups have died, but this one is special, because they hadn’t actually died. They were rescued, or I should say captured, by the Crawling Serpent Tribe," she said.
Isaac’s gaze sharpened.
The casual tone Celia used didn’t hide the weight of what she was saying.
He could already see the shape of the problem forming in his mind.
"You know about the Thousand Year Stampede. Even monster tribes are trying to prepare for it. Unlike Lord Cities, monster tribes can’t upgrade their cities, so they plunder each other for resources to make better defenses," Celia continued.
She paused for a moment, letting that sink in.
"This was why the Crawling Serpent Tribe captured the group of warriors from the Ashfang Tribe.
"They were tortured for information, which the Crawling Serpent Tribe would use to attack the Ashfang Tribe.
"One of the captured people knew about the Purple Bridge Dimension, and that’s how the Crawling Serpent Tribe found out about it," Celia explained.
Catherine spoke up from behind Isaac.
"Normally, the Ashfang Tribe would properly check on their warriors’ deaths. But due to the preparation for the Thousand Year Stampede, facing the Tyrannical Golden Hen race, and trying to mine more resources from the Purple Bridge Dimension in hurry, they didn’t have time to check."
"Yes," Celia nodded. "After finding out about the Purple Bridge Dimension, the Crawling Serpent Tribe began to eye it.
"If before they were unsure whether they could defeat the Ashfang Tribe, now they had decided to defeat the Ashfang Tribe, regardless of the cost. They were preparing for a war. It was supposed to happen the day after tomorrow," Celia said.
"Huh?"
Isaac straightened.
"Does this mean...?"
"It’s exactly what you’re thinking," Celia said. "After Emily and I led Ashfang Tribe warriors to the Eltari race, the Crawling Serpent Tribe believed this was the perfect opportunity to take over the Ashfang Tribe while most of their fighters were away. However..."
She leaned back, a grin spreading across her face as she remembered what had happened.
"Since the Crawling Serpent Tribe came in a hurry, they weren’t in perfect formation and their preparations were lacking. And then Emily... let’s just say her new skills, Abyss Summons and the Catastrophe, allowed her to slaughter through half of the Crawling Serpent ranks easily.
"At the same time, Professor reached their commander while hiding and forced them to surrender," Celia finished.
Isaac looked at Emily after hearing Celia’s words.
Emily smiled, blushing under his gaze.
Knowing what she wanted to hear, he said, "...good work. It must’ve been hard."
"It wasn’t that hard."
’Wasn’t hard?’
Isaac’s lips twitched, but he knew Emily was not trying to be humble.
Her Abyss summons were Abyss monsters at Overlord rank.
There was no way normal Overlord rank monsters could face them head-on without being overwhelmed.
On top of that, Emily’s new class skills allowed her to create a near-infinite number of Champion-rank summons, as long as she kept killing more and more enemies to fuel the process.
What did that mean?
It meant Emily was the worst possible person to face if you brought an army.
’It’s just... seeing her smiling like that, I wouldn’t have guessed she just slaughtered hundreds of monsters.’
As for the Catastrophe, Isaac had already told Catherine about how the others Lords all knew the Catastrophe had been "eliminated."
They were already guessing that the Crimson Sky Wyrm had either faced true death or been tamed.
And when anyone looked at Emily, especially after seeing her summons, it wasn’t hard to connect the dots. Her ability to tame creatures’ soul after she had killed made the conclusion obvious.
Sooner or later, everyone would guess that Emily had turned the Crimson Sky Wyrm into her summon.
There was no point in trying to hide it.
’Well, I still have a copy of the Crimson Sky Wyrm. That’s the real surprise for our enemies.’
Emily could have avoided using the Catastrophe altogether, but Isaac had told her to rely on it if things truly went out of control.
The fact that she had used it against the Crawling Serpent army meant she had judged the situation to be that dangerous.
"You did good by using the Catastrophe," Isaac said.
Emily nodded.
There was a small but clear sense of relief in her expression, as if she had been waiting to hear those words.
She looked quite happy after having crushed an entire race and won, even if she didn’t say it out loud.
’Well, it wasn’t just her,’ Isaac thought. ’It was a combined achievement of Emily, Professor Catherine, and the Ashfang Tribe. The Crawling Serpent race must have realized victory was impossible, so they surrendered before things went even further.’
He turned his attention to Celia.
Before he could say anything, she spoke up.
"I asked Professor if we could defeat the Crawling Serpent, and only after she said we could win did we fight. Plus, we had already allied ourselves with the Ashfang Tribe, so we couldn’t just not help, or a lot of their people would have died."
Isaac raised an eyebrow.
"Are you supposed to be giving excuses, or should you be saying something else?" he asked.
Celia’s shoulders drooped slightly. She lowered her head and bit her lip, clearly understanding what he meant.
"...I’m sorry. I will be more careful next time," she said.
"Good that you know," Isaac nodded.
He didn’t say what he was thinking out loud, but the idea was already forming in his head.
’I should keep a clone near each of them from now on. Otherwise, I’m just going to keep worrying that they’ll walk into something dangerous when I’m not around.’
They talked for a bit longer, going over smaller details.
Isaac would need to visit both the Eltari race and the Crawling Serpent race tonight. There were agreements to formalize, warnings to deliver, and rebellion to crush.
He also had to look through the supplies Emily had acquired after crushing the Crawling Serpent race.
Resources, weapons, and strange materials were all likely mixed in there, and he didn’t want any surprises slipping past him.
As he was thinking about how to organize all of it, there was a knock on the door.
The voice of Morga, the daughter of the War Chief and one of the leaders of the Ashfang Tribe, came through clearly.
"Great Carus, the War Chief has arrived."
Isaac looked around the room.
Emily and Celia both moved next to him.
Catherine, who had been standing behind him just a moment ago, quietly disappeared.
"Come inside," Isaac said.
The door opened, and two people appeared.