My Servant System

The base of the mountainous path wasn't much 'better' than the area we had just been in, what with its stark contrast to what lay around us; it was far too normal and 'empty' compared to the forest on our right, sporadic and diverse mountains in front of us, and the hills and pits to our left.

It was just boring, but boring was what we needed considering the moment we reached the empty stretch of rock Lady Fenyras, Anput and I instantly paused as a wave of various overlapping scents wafted through the air, so pungent and thick that even the others caught a whiff of them, though...

"That is a lot of monsters... In every single direction, there are so many monsters..."

Even though her words implied a bit of worry, Lady Fenyras was grinning as she looked around at the various biomes in the area, her tail swishing behind her as she reached for her blades, only to pause when Mom cleared her throat and said "Then we should likely wait a little to see if Lilith is here or not. No point riling up the local wildlife if we're just going to be turning back around sometime soon."

It was clear she wanted to argue against it, but after looking over each of us the Demon Wolf actually managed to rein in her battle lust as she nodded and crossed her arms, keeping herself from touching the handles of her blades and likely finding solace in this action to remain collected.

"Alright, bring the carriage around, little Demoness, and begin setting up palisades with your Earth Magic, sand whelp. Princess, rummage through the supplies and get the herb bundle with the black ribbon out; the two ice brats, stand guard on either side."

Orders came out quick from her as she spun around and focused on just us, and even though it was a bit irritating for her to speak so dismissively and rudely to us, we did as asked and got to work, with Anput surrounding us in five foot tall walls of solid stone that she reinforced with a metal backplate while Draka and I took positions to overlook the area around us.

That smell that was concocted thanks to the abundance of monsters was just filtering into this clearing, each whiff filled with even more diverse smells that belonged to something different; wet fur, blood, ash, succulent herb or the sickly sweet stench of rot wafted around in abundance, and as I crouched atop the palisade it only got thicker.

Looking out into the minty green forest, I could see shapes moving behind the thick trunks and leafy foliage, with only a few of them appearing similar to one another; now that we were down here on this rocky outcropping and officially within the Labyrinthian, it would seem that the monsters living within the forest were aware of us and actually paying attention.

Eyes began to glow just on the outskirts of the forest, some with unbridled malice and others with mild curiosity, though neither was appreciated as I swept my gaze over the grass that separated us and prayed that none of them decided to come out for now.

When a new scent joined the air - this one coming from behind me - I had to peek over my shoulder only to instantly get reprimanded as Lady Fenyras barked "Keep your eyes on the trees! It's a monster repellent that works even in here that you're smelling!"

The cloying stench of whatever herb it was that she was burning made it hard to smell the monsters after a few more seconds, but the eyes that I could see began to lessen as the yellowish smoke from the herb filled the air.

"Alright, listen up. We'll spend the night here, just on the outskirt of the Labyrinthian. That'll give Lilith enough time to make contact if she is still alive, and it'll keep us safe in more ways than one. If by tomorrow morn there is no sign of the horned bitch we'll head back home and share a drink over how dumb this was... No exploring outside the walls, only nap when I say so and keep this herb burning the whole time. Unless you want to fight an entire army of deadly monsters, in which case I can stamp this fire out now."

I didn't need to turn to know that the Demon Wolf was grinning at everyone else inside of the walls, daring them to agree to that so she could have her fun, but when no one took the bait she just clicked her tongue and said "Well, get ready for a few more hours of boredom. It's going to be a long night if she doesn't show up." Read exclusive content at empire

With that she unceremoniously left us all to our own devices, the satisfied groan accompanied by the creaking of the carriage letting me know she was lounging about, though I couldn't bring myself to care as that smell got worse.

It singed my eyes a little, but it wasn't as bad as the overabundance of ash down in Zhu'Rong Caverns or the putrid stench of a Nua Fiend so I could bear with it, especially since the number of eyes in the tree line was dropping rapidly as the smell spread.

Lady Fenyras was truly serious about remaining here till dawn if that was what it took, and after a few minutes the boredom got to Jahi as she asked "What would happen if we weren't here, but instead in one of those biomes? I know that the land shifts in here, but how does that work?"

"Don't know, don't really care. All that matters is if you lose sight of the entrance - not the mountain range itself, but the actually entrance and this little patch of barren rock - you will likely not find it again when the sun either sets or rises. So we're going to plant our asses right here and wait for Lilith to go ahead and find us, because if she really is out in that, she needs to find her way back to an entrance before making her way here."