My Servant System

"A 'Rune of Decay'? Something that a Nua Fiend created? Damn..."

Jahi pursed her lips and rubbed her jaw as she glanced down at the model, watching as Satanya updated the ever changing model of the Dungeon, continuing to track our progress visually and listen on as we swapped our stories about what had happened.

"Yes, Cali said it was a rune made by a Nua Fiend, and that it was recent. Months old, at the very least, which lines up with the amount of time between the other Fiend's awakenings as well as war against the Kingdoms. Which means that its had ample time to hunt and harvest whatever is rich in Nature Mana on that side of the Dungeon, so who knows what its strength is like now."

"That is worrying... but, it is still manageable. I think. The last Nua Fiend we had the pleasure of encountering didn't actually fight against us directly; it used that Undead Construct to do so. And it was also an Arch Fiend, so there's that. Cali would've been able to sense if it was an Arch Fiend, right?"

"Obviously I would, you sexy blue hunk~!"

Appearing beside Jahi, Cali drifted lazily in the air and caressed Jahi's muscular arm, only to giggle to herself as she floated away when I glared at her, the Arch Fiend rising up and lounging freely above us as she added "I would have sensed if it was an Arch Fiend, yes. Unless they are thousands of feet away in this miasma of Nature Mana, I would be able to tell. Conversely, that Fiend - if it is just a normal Nua Fiend - will not be able to tell that I am here unless it gets much closer thanks to said miasma."

"So we're dealing with a normal Fiend at best, an Arch Fiend at worst... well, isn't that thrilling to hear?"

"Oh, it's vastly unlikely that the Fiend here is an Arch Fiend. That rune we saw was sloppy, and while Nua Fiends are usually sloppy, no Arch Fiend would leave behind a rune like that at all. It's a matter of pride, you see? A mark, a... calling card, if you will. It's instinctual to leave behind a perfect mark if you make one at all, because that mark represents your Domain."

"Still, that doesn't make this any better. We're still dealing with a Fiend of unknown strength inside these grottos!"

Satanya looked up and frowned, adding "On top of that, we don't know if there is anything else waiting for us down here! That Wurm was really close to the surface, and while it might not have been the strongest ever, it is still a dangerous monster. If that's up here, and a Fiend is over there... what the hell else is around us?"

We all exchanged a glance, understanding what the Demoness was getting at; was the risk worth the reward if we stayed inside a Dungeon that potentially had a Fiend inside it?

Was it worth it to stay here if there were monsters vastly stronger than the Wurm lurking deeper inside the Dungeon?

"I think we should stay. Avoid that side of the Dungeon, and continue down this side. If we leave, nothing changes here; we've barely scratched the surface of the Dungeon, so someone else will be dispatched here to cleanse it. Hells, even if we explore for the next week and hunt as much as we can, we'll still have barely cleared any of it. But I think that risk is worth it. The hide of that Wurm, all the metals, those herbs... we should take them for ourselves now and continue to prepare for the fights to come."

Everyone looked towards me, and I just shrugged, standing by what I said and making my stance abundantly clear; there was logic in retreating now, and there was logic in staying, and to me, the obvious choice was to stay and get stronger.

The world was only going to keep changing, getting tougher and more dangerous with each passing day, so if we could grow alongside it, that would be best; both for us, as well as for each other.

Fiends were waking up, Cults were on the rise, and there was still that bitch Jillian somewhere out there, doing who knows what...

She might be getting stronger, she might not, but the last thing I want to do is ignore her and be weaker than her if we ever meet again; if I'm weaker than her, how the hell am I going to beat her down then begin dissecting her piece by piece over days, months, maybe even years..?

Resting my hands on the table, I breathed out and calmed myself down, before looking back up at everyone and adding "Yes, we won't be able to clear out Terracotta Grottos, but we should certainly be looking to harvest as much as we can from here. Try things out, make use of these herbs to push our limits... We have an entire Dungeon to ourselves, overflowing with monsters and resources, and now we know that there is a Fiend here, can we really just leave?"

Jahi and Satanya raised a brow at that, while Anput and Leone just shrugged, making me smile slightly as I added "Think about it; a perfect test of our strength waiting for us somewhere inside the Dungeon, and the reward for killing it is an abundance of alchemical ingredients as well as bones stronger than most metals? And unless we go seeking it out - and as long as Cali here wants to keep us alive, which she does since she bound herself to me - we can take our time to prepare to kill it?"

My smile widened as Jahi's eyes flashed with battlelust at the idea, while Satanya pursed her lips and looked away, towards the Demons that were taking a break around us; Anput was grinning, and Leone just had a small smile on her lips as she stared at me closely, knowing what I was doing.

"There is no reason to leave, and if you truly think it'd be best to wait and leave the Fiend to someone else, we can. But I think it'd be a waste to leave the Dungeon now, when we haven't even gotten to enjoy it yet. From what you said, the grottos that you scouted over here were home to large groups of monsters, right? That's a lot of materials walking around... and I bet you that one or two of those monsters are much stronger than the others; maybe another Wurm, maybe another of those giant bovines?"

"Fine, fine... yes, I agree we should stay... And... yes, we saw a rather large monster in here, a weird leafy monster laden with herbs. More herbs means more potions, which means-"

Jahi grinned at Satanya, who rolled her eyes even as her own lips curled into a grin, the Beliali woman nodding as Jahi said "We can push ourselves even more~! Have some fun and let loose, then come back and heal up like nothing happened... Hey Leone, do you think Lady Fenryas would like it down here~?"

We began to laugh and chat, all while we started to plan a deeper dive into the Dungeon to get even stronger, all whilst acknowledging the threat of the Fiend nearby.