My Servant System

Ever since that revelation we had begun to treat the various Trials more seriously than we had before, reading them over thrice and debating their meaning twice before heading on in and completing them, making sure that we were doing everything we were meant to.

We settled into a rhythm once again that was incredibly efficient and worthwhile, one that had us rotating in and out of these Trials so that we could rest up, do some work outside of the city and then had back inside, ready for whatever lay ahead.

These Trials were apparently the key to unlocking a way to ascend to a new world, so we had to take them seriously as well as understand the weight of what we were doing; I also had begun to search for a way to gain access to that key since there was a pre requisite to ascending.

These Trials had a purpose behind them past just being treasure troves locked away behind a challenge; they were supposed to have been some kind of test that people would take before being able to ascend, and that - to me - sounded like they were meant to be curated.

That the people taking them were supposed to have specific Trials they took to ensure they had certain traits or qualities that were wanted for the world above; that was my theory, and I needed to start trying to prove it, or at least see if I was on the right track.

While I did that we continued our rotations at random, but I had been instantly forbidden from pairing with Lady Fenyras, who just laughed it off like it was no big deal; the part of me that was still mulling over our time together was angry at her for being able to move past it so easily while also being frustrated that I wouldn't be able to have another chance like that again... but more of me was relieved.

At least, I believe more of me was relieved, and I wanted to believe it... which was why our nights got so much more passionate as they helped me forget what part of me thought I wanted, replacing those thoughts with new ones that were just as dangerous, only in a different way.

Besides spending our every waking moment at night entangled in a sweaty bundle of limbs and fluids, we also continued to perfect our individual crafts whenever we had the spare time, and it wasn't surprising to notice that we were making some good progress now that we were under some pressure.

Anput's forging got quicker and cleaner, Leone's potions were more potent, while my enchantments were improving somewhat as my mana control was perfected even more; as for everyone else, they honed their own skills too in their free time, wanting to make use of the pressure we were under.

Each Trial we entered could be our last, with the challenges slowly getting more difficult as we moved away from the simpler ones that provided small rewards; we were searching for bigger and better fish in this ocean of plenty, and it was surprisingly easy to find those 'fish'.

Trials related to our elements, to our bodies, to our mana control and so much more were in abundance, each one offering a reward that was equal to the challenge and the requirements that had been placed upon us.

One such Trial was a simple objective made difficult by the requirements; three Fire Mages needed to slaughter an army of fish people that were living in a giant lake, one that was overflowing with excess mana and housed a population of skilled warriors and mages.

Lady Fenyras, Leone and Mom all enjoyed that one very much, requiring two days to rest upon their return and not wanting to even discuss the idea of water, and definitely not wanting anything to do with fish anytime soon, something they made clear when someone brought up the big fish acquired from a previous Trial.

And they weren't the only ones to acquire some... 'traumas' from their various excursions into the wild; for instance, I came back from a den of very fuzzy, very large and extremely unnerving insect monsters that were created apparently to only scare anyone who entered for a very long time.

My skin was still crawling and it had been practically a week...

Then there was the 'doggy paradise' that Leone had gone too, filled with all kinds of dogs that were apparently super adorable and fluffy, but they also were incensed and constantly tried to tear everyone and anyone apart, including each other...

Some of the Trials were simply not the most fun places to be, but others were extremely fun places to be simply because they offered everything that we could ever want, from good rewards to a healthy challenge, even going as far as to be quite difficult but still possible.

I was getting giddy because we were coming up to a Trial that was definitely going to be one of my favorites of all time, and that was simply because it was a Trial that tested how long we could survive an onslaught of monsters and people.

The reward varied depending on our performance inside of the Trial, and there were separate rewards for each of us as well as a group reward at the end, so there was something to look forwards to after we completed however much we could complete.

It was Anput, Draka Mom and I heading on in to the Trial together, and we were prepared for something that was going to become a test of our endurance and our wits since this was supposed to be a non stop slog meant to break us.

I had no plans on breaking, and the thrill of such a test was getting me all kinds of excited since I felt that this was one of those Trials that could help support my theory as well as being one that I genuinely wanted to participate in.

There was so much colliding in this singular place to create something so wonderful, and the moment we stepped into the doorway and were whisked away into someplace else, I was more than ready to start spilling blood and see what kind of crazy things I could do to take the edge off.