My Servant System



With the forest shrouding us from sight and my spell diffusing our scent, we escaped the battlefield once more and made our way deep into the forest, where we could reorient ourselves and begin to search for where these monsters and undead are coming from.

It stands to reason that there are places that they gather - at the very least, anyways - before making there way out to base of the mountain to initiate the battle for the heart of this place.

If it isn't just a gathering spot, then perhaps some type of object that allows them to spawn again, or just a place that all the energy gathers to reform and regrow the monsters and undead, since the Marquess told us that they are technically the same monsters each time, just evolved to survive better.

There was a chance that we could destroy or at least hinder those spawning locations so that we could storm the mountain ourselves without needing to worry about the monsters and / or undead swarming us as well; they were passable enemies on their own, but there is strength in numbers, and that is something that they excelled in.

The sheer amount of these enemies was incredible, and since we hadn't breached the mountain yet to reach the heart, I wasn't too keen on trying to do so with both hordes on our tail.

Besides, we had no idea on the strength, number, or anything else regarding the third faction of the island that we had yet to battle - the Guards, which were Earth and Metal Golems.

Constructs of rock and dirt and metal... they'd be a pain to deal with on their own, and doing so with hordes of Skeletons or Goblins behind us wouldn't be fun.

On top of not knowing how strong their base Golems are, we have no idea if there is a boss Golem that protects the heart, and while my physical stats may have surpassed my 'intelligence' stat, I was willing to bet everything I had that the island had a guardian - or a group of guardians - protecting its heart, preventing it from resetting again.

I was more then willing to bet on that, so we needed to prepare for the boss fight ahead as well, which would definitely need Nirinia to help us, even if it was just drawing aggression away from us and creating some openings for us to strike.

Though, considering none of us had pulled out some of the larger spells we knew, I was also willing to make a - albeit smaller - bet that we could do this on our own without Nirinia as well...

Either way, that was the future, and right now we were once again rushing through the forest, the sounds of the two factions clashing filling the air once more, but just past that, wafting through the trees and dancing on the wind was the sound of trees being felled in the distance, which both Anput and I caught as we nodded to one another.

The island was rather large, but with our speed we managed to cover large swathes of ground swiftly, placing us on the edge of an interesting little clearing near the direct opposite side of the island from our Gate.

Creeping forwards, we pushed some underbrush aside and stared out into the grassy expanse before us, remaining deathly quiet as we watched Goblins pour out from a large cave, moving over towards the giant pile of logs that were being cut down and fashioned into clubs for them to wield.

Boulders and rocks were stacked up around the clearing, and the entrance of the cave was surrounded by stones that led into the earth, where more and more monsters continued to stream out, blinking away the harsh light of the sun before arming themselves and setting out towards the battlefield.

It was a never ending stream of monsters, with Serpents slithering out and allowing bunches of Goblins to hitch a ride on their back, while felines leapt out and bolted into the forest.

Avians flew out and took to the skies, while the giant ants remained stationed around this clearing, their feelers twitching as they guided monsters to the right direction or guarded their 'posts'.

Jahi pursed her lips before gesturing for us to pull away, getting us a hundred some odd feet away before asking Anput and I to go towards the Undead's portion of the island, back towards the shrouded, poisonous, decaying expanse that they called home.

Like with the monsters, finding the base of the undead was easier then I expected, with their chittering and screeches letting us locate the fortress that had been erected in the forest, made from bone and stone and surrounded by a miasma of noxious purple gases.

Skeletons armed with staffs lined the top of the fortress, directing the flow of the other undead below them as they pointed and gestured with their intricate staffs, while a few of the skeletons were wielding gigantic swords or axes made from metal and covered in thick plates of metal as well.

The mage skeletons and warrior skeletons directed everything before sending the basic undead out towards the battlefield, with the occasional Spartoi or Beastman skeleton leading the way, while a few of the leaders of the undead built new constructs slowly, piecing them together with magic and imbuing them with mana.

They were more organized and methodical with their actions, and some of their actions were hidden behind the large bone walls of their fortress, but we got glimpses of the undead clawing their way out of the ground whenever the gates opened, making us all purse our lips as we pulled back again, making our way out towards the battlefield one last time to finish of the day before retreating entirely.

With both camps now preliminarily scouted, and a deeper understanding of what was going on on this side of the island, we cut down some more of both factions before retreating before the sun set, which prompted us to return to the beach to eat and rest, our discussions taking us well into the night as we came up with a plan on what we needed to do going forwards, and how much longer we were willing to stay here.