My Servant System

"And... here we are. Ungrida Canyon. Home of some of the most lucrative monsters known to live inside the Empire, and home to some of the dirtiest, scummiest adventurers to live inside the Empire as well. Profits here are the highest you can get legally, and some of the highest illegally too; as such, risks are some of the highest here as well. Gangs and bandits thrive inside the Canyon, evading the patrols of bounty hunters and soldiers alike."

Adelina let out a sigh as she looked down into the large crevasse scouring the earth, the sparse vegetation adding some color to the sandy expanse of land that traveled to the west, albeit not a lot.

We were all present here, with the group consensus being that it'd be best if we all traveled to Ungrida together and left Arbo behind, not wanting to deal with the Dwarves any longer; besides, soldiers had come to reinforce and recapture Arbo City from the Cultists, and after explaining the situation to them, we left the city in better hands than we had found it in.

Thankfully that had been expedited by the guards flashing some medallions and Adelina knowing the Centurion that commanded the century of soldiers that had arrived.

Our carriage was once more submerged below the earth alongside the sensitive, valuable gear, and the steeds had been sent to roam freely once more, allowed to fend for themselves.

The goal had been agreed upon before hand, and the more experienced members of the group had gone ahead and given us a better idea on what we should be realistically aiming for resource wise, from the type to the amount, even to the quality needed on certain things.

Apparently the most common thing the Resource Tortoises carry is called Shell Stone; like the name suggests, their shells are made from a special stone that is a deep, rich brown and ringed with a darker brown.

The darker those rings, the stronger the shell and the older the Resource Tortoise; the difference between a young and old Resource Tortoise's Shell Stone was night and day.

The lighter stone was strong enough to survive being hit with three or four attacks before cracking - from average adventurers, which were slightly weaker than us - while darker stone could be so tough that even Nirinia would need quite a few hits to break it, and she was much stronger than us.

Then there was the gems that could be occasionally found on their shells, and each gem was able to house a large amount of mana - sometimes enough to be considered full on Mana Crystals, and sometimes with more than enough to be worth an insane amount of money.

Those gems could be either incredibly valuable for us to sell or strong enough to act as a battery for enchantments on our gear, increasing the strain that could be placed on the gear by quite a bit, which was just as valuable to us as coin.

All in all, it was sounding like Ungrida was the place to be, but like Adelina had said, there was an equal amount of risk to be had here, and there was one rule that everyone - even the bandits - tried to abide by if at all possible.

Don't be out after dark.

During the day, Ungrida was a relatively 'easy' Dungeon to traverse, with primarily Resource Tortoises roaming around and the occasional earth related monsters popping out as well, but to balance out the good fortunes of the Resource Tortoises, at night Reaper Wendigos begin to hunt anything that remains inside the Canyon, killing each and every little thing that lives and breaths so long as they find them.

It was something the Marquess told us to watch out for - even if she had never personally seen one - and something that was further supported by the guards, who were adamant that we would leave the Canyon hours before dusk just so we could guarantee that we were out and away before the Reaper Wendigos were out hunting.

None of us were conceited enough, stupid enough, or cocky enough to try and argue that we should be here for as long as possible and that those Wendigos are surely exaggerated, so we agreed to leave well before the sun began to set, which was in almost ten hours.

We had around ten hours of gathering to do, and while we might be strong and resilient, the idea of carrying around dozens of ores and gems as we harvested more wasn't the greatest, so we needed to come up with a plan before we entered as well, one that would aid us in keeping our loot safe and making sure no one tried to search for it.

"I think the best thing would be to gather as much as we can from the first Resource Tortoise and determine if we could harvest another or not; if we can, we find one and get to it, and if we can't then we leave and stash our haul somewhere safe, all while Anput, Kat, and Adelina take the rear. Your hearing and sense of smell will be invaluable here, while the ability to diffuse our scent will be equally as beneficial."

Nodding, we continued to observe this edge of Ungrida Canyon, taking in the sights of the deep crevasse into the earth before following behind Jahi as she set off towards one of the many slopes that led into the Canyon.

"If need be, we can always also leave behind materials we don't need if we need to lighten the load a little; we can always come back later to harvest a new set of materials if we need to, and I would rather have us uninjured then have some ores that may or may not be useful. On that same vein, treat any party we come across as hostile, but only attack if you think they're a true threat first. Most of these bandits will likely be easily spotted if they have bad intentions, while the adventurers should be just as wary of us as we are of them."

"So no indiscriminate killing... Got that, Kat~?"

I raised a brow at Anput, who snickered as she sauntered beside Jahi, her enthusiasm for this excursion almost palpable, the smith very obviously beginning to imagine the sheer amount of goodies she'll receive to play around with.

There would be ores abundant for her to tinker with, though that didn't excuse her snide remark... even if it had a hint of truthfulness to it.

Leone and Adelina were frowning at the Jackalkin, while Nirinia just chuckled on the other side of Jahi, who was also smirking as she glanced back at me.

Alternating my stare between the Djinn, Demoness, and Jackalkin, I shook my head and returned my focus towards the front, which had begun to even out as we reached the floor of the Canyon.

It was still sloped slightly into the Canyon, where the depths would continue to grow deeper and deeper according to the guards, but we were currently on the first 'shelf' of the Canyon, and as such... the most populated area of the Dungeon.

Already we could see parties of adventurers moving back and forth around the area, trying to haul their resources towards the top while others were heading further down, where there would be less people to contest their claims to a monster and its drops.

A quick look around let us know that there were multiple parties that were already top of the list for suspicions, their ragtag gear and relaxed posture as they waited around all to clear on what they were actually here for, and the amount of bandits seemed to be equal to the amount of people here to do some real work.

We caught quite a few eyes as well, the composition of an entire party of women always going to draw negative attention, though the armor of the guards and the size of Jahi and Nirinia was enough to dissuade most of the idiots to look away, clearly able to understand that this wasn't a party they could try to steal from or mess with.

Of course, idiots would be idiots, and some had already begun to follow us as we entered the second shelf of the Canyon, going further into the depths and entering the real hunting zone of the Dungeon, where we could already see the abundance of monsters milling around.

True to their name, Resource Tortoises were four legged grey skinned monsters that were rather bulky and large, ranging from the size of a wolf to the size of a bear, which was made even more imposing by their studded, tantalizing shells covered in chunks of ore, spikes of rock, and occasionally the small glimmer of a gemstone.

Their tails were barbed with spikes, each of which had a metallic sheen to it, while their giant heads ended in a metallic beak, like a snapping turtle, likely fully capable of crunching past armor and snapping bone in two.

Slow and heavy, these monsters weren't dangerous per se, but considering the sheer amount of them and the large amount of materials growing out of their thick brown shell...

Trying to fight one of these things would prove challenging enough, since it was clear that Earth Mana was rather abundant within them, meaning their already hardened shell and leathery flesh would be even tougher to get through, so long as they had a moment to prepare.

All in all, this wouldn't be a thrilling fight, but it would be a lucrative one...