The dull blue eye of the girl in the corner didn't even twitch as Rudeus approached her, and he had almost thought he had been mistaken when he had previously seen her blink.

She really did look like a corpse, the gray rag she was wearing was just a strip with a hole in it for her head, leaving her side completely exposed.

Her stomach was as thick as his arm, sure he was in pretty good shape but he was still just a nine year old kid.

'An injured beast-girl slave with a dull look in her eyes, how nostalgic.'

Slaves were basically a staple of Isekais, intended to showcase just how barbaric and behind the times another world could be, but mostly used for waifu shops. And the protagonist's kind nature always endeared his slaves to him, so even if given the chance they wouldn't ever betray him.

'Healing this girl will probably cause her to imprint on me.'

He reached his hand out, his palm open over the girl's black hair and bloody ear-stump.

"O' m—"

"WAAH! MAH!"

Before he could even utter a second syllable, the half-dead girl screamed as remaining dull eye widened. She pushed herself off the wall and collapsed on the ground.

Her breath heaved as her body trembled.

"O' m—"

"WA! WA! WAN! MWA!"

He started his chant, but her screaming interrupted him again. He didn't know where she got the strength in her stick thin arms, but she latched onto his pant leg and pulled herself up. And as she screamed, he saw her toothless maw.

Blood tipped fingers, so thin the bones clicked against each other, reached out for the waist of his pants as she nuzzled her filthy and bloody face against his crotch.

Reflexively, his leg acted on its own as he planted a foot against her chest and kicked her away from him. Her light body was sent flying and her skull crashed into the stone wall with a crunch.

"Mwa, wan, wwaah, huwaan…"

The small girl sobbed as she curled up in herself, the stone wall had cracked on impact.

"O'—"

Her body shook and she smashed her face against the stone floor. "Waahaawaamaa…" She couldn't speak, probably because she had no teeth. Her breathing was becoming rapid and uncontrollable as she hyperventilated.

"—mother goddess of bountiful life, I ask of thee to regenerate that which has been lost. X-Healing!"

Rudeus finished the spell, regardless of the apparent refusal.

As a green glow enveloped the small girl's body, the stump on her head grew out a matching dog-like ear, the scar faded from her eye as it opened, and the light from the lantern in the center of the room was reflected off of her newly grown silver nails.

Two inches long nails, no, claws of silver metal grew from the tips of her fingers and toes. They were sharper than any blade he had seen in this life, edges so thin as to be almost imperceivable.

"I am sorry. I am sorry. I will stop crying! I will stop crying!" The glint of silver had also been visible on her regrown fangs as she spoke and bashed her face into the ground. "I will do better! I will do better! I will do better! I am an animal! I am a filthy animal who exists to serve you whenever! I am a monster! My body is not mine! I am yours!"

The barrage of words coming from her mouth confused him, she wasn't exactly acting like a grateful heroine. Before he could regain his composure, he saw her pinch the claw on her index finger and then she ripped it out with a scream.

"My body is yours. AH! My body is yours. AH! My body is yours. AH! My body is—" Between each phrase, she ripped out another claw.

"Stop!"

Rudeus shouted. He was entirely unsure how to handle this situation, and he didn't have a lot of time to do this carefully.

The girl whimpered and her body shook even more.

"Can you tell what was happening here? I'm just a passing Adventurer."

The girl trembled even more, and she remained silent.

He began to think back a bit more to slaves in other worlds.

"Are you restricted from telling me, or do you just not want to?"

It wasn't uncommon for magical effects to prevent slaves from betraying their masters.

"My body is not mine."

She whined and croaked out.

'Then this is pointless, I doubt I can find out what was going on in this Dungeon from her.'

Rudeus took a step back and left the girl to shiver in the shadows as he walked over to Daisy. Her arm was laying on the ground next to her and the corpse of the bandit.

The blood spilling from her stump was mixing with the blood leaking from the corpse.

It wouldn't be long until Daisy herself succumbed to her injuries and blood loss, then died.

He had been pressured earlier by her bloodlust and when she almost killed him. In a fight, it was unfair how much more likely she would win over him. She was fast, faster than his chanting. She had been watching his spars for almost an entire year, and she was an instinctual killer.

He didn't even have to do anything and she'll die.

Why was she alive in the first place? If his life was at risk, then he would deal with the attacker appropriately. He had killed the assassin without a second thought.

Sure she had been more likely to defeat him earlier, but after he convinced her of a bigger threat she had probably let her guard down. She had been walking in front of him earlier, he could've taken her by surprise, it would've been risky but he could've killed her.

Rudeus wasn't doing anything, just standing next to the dying girl.

He didn't have to think too hard about the reason for his reluctance to kill her. Daisy was just a small girl, the younger sister of Luke, but most importantly, she had saved his life.

Her attack had stopped a blade from slicing his throat. Oh yeah, he hadn't spotted any sort of blade when he poked around the assassin's corpse, it had probably fallen out of their grip and was hidden by the low light conditions. He should probably go back and retrieve it.

Even now, he was letting his mind wander.

Daisy had saved his life, and his life was the most important thing to him at the moment. Any complaints he had so far about his life were only about the 'so far', the future of his life was filled with endless possibilities.

But still, she was bleeding as he did nothing.

She saved his life, then she almost killed him.

She was dying, he wasn't the one to kill her.

Rudeus didn't really feel anything, he wasn't close to her and her actions were complicated, he didn't want to save her because the possibility of her killing him still remained.

Ah, but she has a Legendary Skill, probably. He doesn't have any actual cheats himself, and as he trained Luke he was under the impression they would form a party in the future. A swordsman in the front and a mage in the back.

His vanguard needed to be replaced now since Luke was dead, killed by an assassin. Daisy got revenge, but her rage didn't subside with only one death.

As a favor towards his sparring partner, he decided to watch over Daisy so she didn't immediately follow her brother in death.

'She's still a child at heart, so her rage is probably a mask for her sorrow. If I can get her to break down in tears and be consumed by her grief until she accepts Luke's death, she probably wouldn't blame me anymore.'

With that in mind, he reluctantly decided to heal her. But, this was the end of his gratitude for saving him, and his favor for Luke, any further attempt on his life will be met with her death.

As he chanted the healing spell for reattaching limbs, he heard the slave behind him whimper again. Daisy didn't wake up even after her arm was attached, so he decided to see if he could get anything from the dog-girl.

This time as he approached, her body was shaking.

"Why did you try to stop my healing of your body?"

Until he addressed the issues overwhelming her, he wouldn't get far with any other topic.

"M-my body is yours."

She whimpered as she stared at the ground, where the bloody claws she had pulled off were lying.

Rudeus had heard some people try to raise monsters and magical beasts to harvest materials from them, but most of the time the creatures would rampage and cause damage before being killed.

"I'm not going to do anything to you, I'm just checking something."

He reached a hand out, she flinched and squeezed her eyes shut. After focusing, he let a bit of his Mana out and sensed her magical presence. His suspicions were confirmed.

Her body was giving off Morscules.

She had probably been contaminated by the Dungeon and had adapted instead of dying, but she hadn't become a magical beast, as they adapted to resist Morscules.

This 'Beastkin slave' couldn't even be called by those very descriptors, she would be legally and officially classified as a monster.

Rudeus remembered a snippet he had read about a monster a few years ago.

The Silverback Wargs, a race of demonic wolf-like creatures turned into intelligent monsters with pure silver fur, fangs, claws, have been said to have evolved to protect themselves against the race of Demons known as Vampires.

The entire race, both the base and monsterfied, were massacred a few hundred years ago during a war against a Vampire Lord, and none have been spotted since.

Creature classification was a difficult subject, especially since they evolved over centuries when they were first discovered. It didn't help that Demons and Beastkin existed as separate beings from demonic creatures and magical beasts.

That was off topic, the important thing was that the race known as Beastkin included all 'humanoid' beings with the physical traits of any animal, regardless if they were from demonic creatures or magical beasts.

This small girl was probably a Beastkin of the supposedly extinct demonic wolf-like creature, and then the Morscules inside this Dungeon had most likely transformed her into a Silverback Warg Beastkin.

The only difference between a creature or beast and a monster was whether they used Mana or Mors. So this wasn't a Beastkin slave, it was just a monster held in captivity. Monsters, either born or corrupted, were creatures who could use Mors.

Mors and Morscules were detrimental to everything that wasn't already corrupted by them, this was why even passive or intelligent monsters were hunted down. Just by existing, they're a stain on this world and everything within, it was why Demons and Beastkins were so hated.

Sub Races, or Anomalies, within them could be born with the ability to use Mors, most were killed after their birth but some had founded secret villages for their kind. Even if all the monsters were wiped out, the possibility remains that another monster would be born as an Anomaly.

Anyway, this monster was clearly being used for harvesting silver. The state he had found her in, her resistance to being healed, and her actions of ripping off her claws had all made this obvious to Rudeus.

"I'm going to heal you again, and this time don't rip off your claws. Then I want you to walk around this place and check out all the rooms with no people inside while following whatever rules are in place for you, okay?"

The girl whimpered but didn't say anything as she sniffled and nodded, but she still flinched when he spoke the words to heal her.

She used the wall to help her stand up, and then she wobbled on her legs and lumbered forth.

"What's your name? What should I call you?"

"I do not have a name, but I am Dog, Mutt, Fleabag, Animal, Shitstain, Toothless Whore and Bitch."

Her voice was a bit more hollow than sad, as if she was simply repeating something without caring for the contents.

"What were you and the other slaves doing in that room?"

"Masters told us if we could make it pass them, through the door without dying, then we could be free."

"How old are you and how long have you been here?"

"I am still Fresh and I have eight more years until I am Ripe, I was brought here when I still had eleven years until then."

She spoke in a wavering tone as she stumbled down the dark stone halls of the Dungeon.

Rudeus had obviously checked out information on slaves when he was able to, they were a staple for a reason, and not just because of their appeal. Slaves could be used for labor and combat, so if he needed one in the future he wanted to be prepared.

The age at which the average slave's price peaked was when they were fifteen years old, mostly because they required little care and had yet to find a profession.

'So, she's 7 and was brought here when she was 4.'

She seemed a bit mature and intelligent for a seven year old, but considering that was probably a result of learning to obey her slavers, it probably wasn't a good thing to comment on.

When she arrived at a room, he had asked about it but she remained silent and looked away.

It was pretty small and long, narrow, and mostly filled with rows of purple and green leaves sprouting from stems on the ground. It didn't seem too important, but he snagged a plant by the stem and pulled it out with its roots intact just in case it could prove useful.

The next room Rudeus was led to had definitely caught his attention.

A makeshift altar was in place, and a large shining gem the size of a beach ball was resting at the center of it.

'A Job Selection Gem? Here? Ah, well, there might be a monster farm down here so it would make sense, but still these should be impossible to set up without governmental help.'

The glow of the gem was calling him closer.

'Should I do it now? If I skip out on this chance, then I'll have to wait six more years until I can do it officially. I mean, is there really a reason not to do it? It's not exactly legal, but even then I bet nobles pay for their children to select Jobs when they're still young.'

The entire waiting until the legal age of an adult is mainly for people without a path in life, most families simply inherited their business from the previous generations. The child of a blacksmith was probably going to be a blacksmith.

He was pretty sure there had to be some clauses in the rules that allowed a child to pick a Job under parental supervision, it would only make sense.

As he made up his mind, he reached a hand out and touched the Job Selection Gem.