My Servant System

"So this is... quite the haul isn't it? Wow..."

We all nodded as we stared at the assembled materials, and I took a loose estimate of the resources we had harvested from just two Resource Tortoises, further surprising myself as I said them out loud.

"That's four crates of Shell Stone shards, two crates of Firmius Iron ore, a crate of Rubrum Copper ore, a crate of Fortis Silver ore, and a loose parcel of a few gemstones. Eight crates total, half being those Shell Stone chunks - though that is still really valuable - and a good amount of iron, copper, and silver. The gemstones were an added bonus as well. And I mean... these crates are rather large."

I tapped my fingers against the edge of one crate, which came up to my hip, each of these stone boxes being a cube of three some odd feet on each end.

Not the largest crates ever, but for two monsters?

And that was only considering what was mined; we had another two crates to round it up to ten, with one filled with the bones and the other filled with the meats.

"Yeah... Are we going to be able to get these back home without overexerting the steeds? I mean, this is a rather heavy haul to transport, with us on top of that. Plus the things we got yesterday... this is all rather... much."

"It should be fine, though perhaps we will need to make two separate trips. That won't be a problem though. Now, shall we be heading back?"

Jahi nodded towards the guard before taking a look at the sun above, gauging the time we had left inside the Canyon before dusk would begin to paint the sky a beautiful shade of red and violet... and the dangerous monsters lurking in the Canyon's depths came up to hunt.

Everyone gathered around the crates and began to lift them up, with Jahi and Nirinia picking up two each before stopping at staring at Anput and I as we loaded up a sled with three crates, which we could pull using our mana.

"Work smarter, not harder love~!"

I smirked at the Demoness as Anput made another sled, loading the remaining three and harnessing it with her mana, the Jackalkin already beginning to move up towards the first shelf.

One of the guards created another for the two muscle heads, letting them load up the sled and pull it, freeing up more hands just in case we got ambushed on the way up.

Anput, Nirinia and Jahi began to haul our loot back towards the surface, and the rest of us spread out around them as we kept an eye out for the idiots from earlier, wondering if some of the bandits would want to try their hands at what appeared to be a good haul... and if any of them wanted to try their luck at 'flirting' as well.

It was an epidemic amongst adventurers to be amongst the bottom of the barrel in terms of smarts, since most of their energy went towards being strong and not being intelligent, so sadly it would seem that they suffered from being idiots no matter the location and no matter the world.

Big and buff all to be stupid as well sometimes, and that was a tragedy... though admittedly, it almost always was the loudest in those rooms that tended to be the dumbest.

So as we were dragging everything back to the surface, none of us were surprised to see a group of twenty bandits blocking the slope leading towards the plains surrounding Ungrida Canyon, their small smiles and arrogant posture speaking volumes about what was about to happen.

"Heya there missies~! This 'ere is a toll road, yeah? That means that'cha need to pay up to get by~! Let's say... half of each crate, some of coins from your pouches, and..."

The one speaking was a slimy looking green skinned Lizardkin, his neck and forearms covered in scales while two small horns poked through his matted black hair, which was pulled into beaded braids.

A forked tongue slipped from between his lips and only made us all raise a brow, wondering if he realized how grimy he looked doing that.

"One of you beauts come to give us some... 'service'~? How about... you over there, the buxom Do-"

Before he could finish, the Lizardkin let out an ear piercing scream as a golden dagger punctured his thigh and sliced through the muscle and bone with ease, blood weeping from the wound as he stared down at the blade now lodged firmly inside his leg.

"I'm not the most accurate with a knife, but I think the next dagger will land somewhere... else. So how about the rest of you fuck off and learn to use context clues, hmm? Do you know many blue skinned, horned, tall women? Or do you perhaps recognize this symbol here, hanging around my neck? Perhaps the sparking ash gray hair of my fiancee might also spark some recognition inside your hollow skulls as well?"

The Lizardkin was panting as he tried to remove the dagger made of Light Mana, only to hiss as his hands were seared whenever he grabbed it, burning and blistering his palms.

All of his comrades were taking a few steps back, staring at Jahi in fear before looking towards Nirinia, who casually flaunted her Knight's pendant, while Adelina revealed her Commander's Medallion.

Then there were the two guards, who had stepped forwards and allowed their mana to leak out, swamping the area around us with a suffocating presence that made the bandits all freeze up; the rest of the shelf had turned to look at us after the scream, and a few felt and heard what happened, backing away further from the slope and giving us some more space.

"Come on... I want to get out of here already. Let's finish up."

The guards nodded before reigning in their mana, allowing the bandits to 'breathe' again before walking past them, with the rest of us following behind them quietly.

Though... I stalled and grinned at them all, and as I turned around I hiddenly traced out a few runes, not wanting to take any chances.