My Isekai Fantasy Is All Wrong!

Chapter 9: Chain Quest

Coming up on the cave, I hugged the walls and kept a very slow pace as I slowly entered into the unknown. At a moment’s notice, I was prepared to activate Sprint and Iron Body. I had my sword in hand, my eyes peeled, and my mind ready to expect the unexpected.

A couple dozen meters into and around a bend in the cave, I found the source of the lights.

[Observe]
[Name: Magical Lantern]
[Description: A mechanically simple and effective lantern that can be powered by any Magical Source. This one is powered by an F Grade Magically Refined Sapphire. It’s over a decade old, yet still as useful as it was on the day it was made.]

Every couple meters at approximately the same spacing, I found similar lanterns until I reached a crossroads that split that cave into three different paths. With my enhanced hearing, I could make out noises coming from the middle path. The left and rightmost paths were equally as quiet, which I interpreted as meaning they had fewer people and a lower chance of being discovered, so it was down the left path that is where I went after quickly making up my mind.

I continued making headway through the leftmost path until I spotted a door that was left ajar. As I continued to approach, I could start making out the sounds and to put it simply… they did nothing but inspire dread in me. The sounds came in a pattern that left little to the imagination.

Smack! Screech! Whine…

Smack! Screech! Whine…

Smack…!

If I didn’t know any better I would say it sounded like someone was being tortured…

Correction. It was some thing rather than a someone. For the next couple of whips, it didn’t even occur to me that I should cast Observe on either the torturer or the torturee. I was too busy taking in the ridiculous sight, not even knowing what to question first.

These things were not human. At best, the torturer was vaguely humanoid if partial to canines while the torturee was a certified Rank 4 Furry on the Lando Scale. What snapped me out of my wondrous state was the torturer stopped its rhythmic whipping to bark out in a suspiciously intelligent manner. It was obviously conveying a message to the torturee, but to me, it just sounded like unintelligible grumbles, growls, and barks.

When the torturee started screeching back in its own suspiciously intelligent way, expressing far too much emotion on its avian face, I resorted to casting Observe.

[Observe]
[Name: ???]
[Description: ??? is the meanest and toughest Diamond Dog of his pack. Consequently, he has been assigned the role of torturer, which he happily accepts for the praise and status that comes with the gig. He doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty for the pack’s alpha.]
[Level: 9]
[Health: 2,700/2,700]
[Strength: 15]
[Constitution: 19]
[Vitality: 16]
[Agility: 9]
[Perception: 15]
[Intelligence: 4]
[Wisdom: 3]
[Luck: 5]
[Charisma: 5]

[Name: ???]
[Description: ??? is an adventurous Griffon. She had grand plans of traveling across the world, but her bad luck ended with her camping out in the immediate vicinity of a pack of errant Diamond Dogs while on her travels. She is currently being whipped as punishment for refusing to continue working as a slave.]
[Level: 4]
[Status Effects: Thirsty, Hungry, Malnourished, Sleep Deprived, Magically Suppressed]
[Health: 488/600]
[Strength: 2]
[Constitution: 3]
[Vitality: 3]
[Agility: 3]
[Perception: 8]
[Intelligence: 0]
[Wisdom: 0]
[Luck: 2]
[Charisma: 2]

‘What the fuck even is this?’ I lamented, feeling overwhelmed by the situation.

[New World Quest!]
[Name: Griffon Rescue Chain Quest 1]
[Description: The first of a potential chain of decisions you need to make to resolve the situation before you. Choose between (1) Saving the Griffon, or (2) Leaving]
[Reward: (1) Griffon Rescue Chain Quest 2, (2) +10 Exp]

Wow Game, just…. Wow.

The whole world had just frozen over in a monochrome of black and white. Time had stopped and was apparently waiting for me to make my decision. Like there was even an option for me after reading through the Observed descriptions. Clearly, the Diamond Dog was in the wrong and the Griffon was just an unlucky guy— er, gal.

And yet I hesitated to accept the first option. With all the time in the world to evaluate the situation, I could afford to take the time to properly think over the implications that would come from trying to play the hero. To save the Griffon, I needed to take out the Diamond Dog. Yet unlike the Timberwolfs I’d dealt with previously, I wasn’t dealing with an unfeeling magical construct without sentience. The Diamond Dog was a living and intelligent — kind of… — being.

Even if I could commit myself to the act, I didn’t know if I could instantly kill it with all the Health it had. If I couldn’t and a fight broke out, I didn’t know how many more Diamond Dogs or other slavers in this encampment might arrive as reinforcements. This particular Diamond Dog might be the “meanest and toughest” by I had no idea by what margin.

Now, assuming everything went perfectly according to the optimal outcome I could imagine with regards to dealing with the Diamond Dog, after I miraculously managed to knock it out without killing it or drawing any attention, what the hell was I supposed to do with the Griffon when we couldn’t understand each other? I could very well be the first Human it would encounter and there was no way to tell what its reaction might be after I managed to free it.

“Fuck me and my bleeding heart,” I cursed at the void as I chose Option 1 despite all the ways it could spectacularly backfire on me. It seemed that getting killed off once hadn’t been enough to teach me when I was better off fleeing over fighting.

I just had to be a nice guy.

Damn.

[New World Quest!]
[Name: Griffon Rescue Chain Quest 2]
[Description: The second of a chain of decisions you need to make to resolve the situation before you. Choose between (1) Loud Approach, or (2) Stealth Approach]
[Reward: (1) Double Exp until the encampment is cleared of hostiles (Conditional on Griffon’s Survival), (2) Griffon Rescue Chain Quest 3 (Conditional on Sucess)]

I expected the world to resume time in order for my actions to speak for themselves. When it didn’t, I thought of accepting the second option and the strangest thing happened.

[Strength Check: 18.7/15 (Passed!)]
[Agility Check: 20.9/12 (Passed!)]
[Detection Meter: 0/50 (Passed!)]
[Overwhelming Success!]

My body began to move on its own as the world slowly sped up to the normal rate of time. It methodically approached the Diamond Dog from its blind spot, refusing to make a single sound despite moving at superhuman speeds. Then in one smooth motion, it took the Diamon Dog into a rear naked chokehold and squeezed the consciousness out of it.

[+14 Exp]

[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Name: Subdue Lvl 1 | +10 Exp]
[Description: It's not CQC that Big Boss would approve of, but it’ll get the job done.]
[Active Cost: 25 Stamina]

[Level Up!]
[Full Recovery!]
[+3 Stat Points!]
[+1 Skill Point!]
[+1 Ability Point!]

The world promptly froze over after the Diamond Dog slackened in my grip and I dropped its limp body on the floor.

[New World Quest!]
[Name: Griffon Rescue Chain Quest 3]
[Description: The third of a chain of decisions you need to make to resolve the situation before you. Choose between (1) Looking for the Key to Free the Griffon, (2) Attempting to Break the Restraints Yourself, or (3) Attempting to Communicate with the Griffon]
[Reward: (1) Variable (Conditional on Success), (2) Variable (Conditional on Success), (3) Variable (Conditional on Success)]

I decided to go with the option that was least likely to succeed on the hunch that failing would let me at least attempt a different method. On the off chance it didn’t and the chain of quests promptly ended, I was happy with having gotten this far with my rescue efforts.

Option three it is!

With my decision made, the world unfroze and I was given my bodily autonomy back. Hooray!

Screech! Screech!

And… I had a screeching Griffon looking at me like I was the scariest thing it had ever seen. Its facial expressions would put the best Hollywood actors to shame… somehow. Yet I was supposed to try communicating with it. However, could this go right?

I tried the universal gesture for “I come in peace;” at least for humans. Taking a step back I broke eye contact with the terrified Griffon, turned my head down, and put both my hands up. It seemed to be working as the Griffon’s screeching died down quickly enough. When it went totally silent, I tried to make eye contact again and managed to hold it without the beast going hysterical on me.

Not knowing what else to do at this point, I went with the first thing that came to mind: Speaking.

“Look, I know you probably can’t understand me. I definitely couldn’t understand you and this Diamond Dog if you two were having a conversation. But, well, I’m trying to help you.”

Screech?

It was another bird-like screech, but it was suspiciously intoned in a way that transcended spoken languages. Paired with the sudden look of hopeful intrigue that I still couldn’t believe an eagle-faced beast could pull off, I could imagine it asking, “Really?” if it was as intelligent as I presumed it to be.

I shot for a hail mary and asked, “You… Surely you can’t understand me, right?”

It nodded. Slowly, but unmistakably, it nodded.

“Nod if you can understand me,” I said and it nodded.

“Ok, now, just to make sure this is really happening, screech or speak — honestly it’d probably sound the same to me either way — three times if you can hear me and I’ll fully believe you.”

Screech! Screech! Screech!

What kind of bullshit was this? It could understand me, but I couldn’t understand it— her, whatever. This was unfair! Unjust! An affront to my Status as the one with Gamer powers! Speaking of, what gives? Where were my rewards for figuring out how to communicate with the Griffon? Or was finding out that it could understand me not enough?

Screech!

The Griffon called out to me, drawing me out of my thoughts. Right, I had better things to worry about. Like how I was going to use this one-way communication to my advantage. I defaulted to the obvious and tried asking a series of true or false questions.

“So, do you have any idea where the key to free you might be? Screech once for Yes and twice for No.”

Screech!

“Great! Is it in this room?”

Screech!

“On the Diamond Dog I knocked out?”

Screech! Screech!

“Welp, there’s a lot of places it might be stored at in here; too many for me to ask one by one so, uh… Make more noise the closer to the key that I get? Yeah, that could probably work.”

The Griffon hesitantly nodded and I promptly went to seek out the key.

With the Griffon’s help to act as a makeshift key detector, I made my way around the room before settling on one of the many bookshelves that lined one of the walls of the room. To my surprise, the keys to all the cells in the room ended up being on top of one of the bookshelves towards the middle of the ensemble. I would have never guessed it would be there in favor of a more sensible place; like… the numerous cabinets by the desk and chair on the opposite side of the room.

I spent a hot minute trying to pick out the right key from the dozens that were chained together, all the while doing my best to ignore the periodic lowly chirps of distress that occasionally came out of the Griffon. On the one hand, it was an annoying waste of time, which I spent looking like an idiot despite there not being any reasonable expectation that I would know which of the dozens, if not hundreds, of keys was the right one. But on the other hand, I was glad to see the keys being so underutilized. Amidst all the ones chained together, there was only one that needed to be used for the single victim in the room.

I didn’t know if that was because it was rare for a slave of the encampment to rebel or if there simply weren't that many slaves for a sizable minority to need periodic discipline. Hopefully, it was the latter, but anything could happen in this alien world that I’d apparently been dropped in.