My Servant System-Chapter 1268 - 1267: Door Cleared..?

"Shouldn’t be too long then, but you should set up some kind of device to measure the time anyways. We’ll compare as best we can upon our return; I have to admit I am very intrigued to see how this works..."

Checking all of their gear and supplies for the third time, the five who had been chosen to go and clear out the first of many trials stood just outside of the bubble, waiting to head inside and go under the effects of quickened time once more.

With both Lady Fenyras and Lilith heading with them, they should be immeasurably safe and prepared to take on whatever was waiting for them behind that door, and the experience that Leone and Jahi already had with dangerous situations should translate quite well for this trial as well.

At least, that was my hope, and no matter what I tried to tell myself as we stared at one another I wasn’t able to shake the worry that came with being willingly separated from her as she went to a dangerous area far away from me; this was the first time where it wasn’t just space separating us, so... I didn’t really know how to feel.

"Just... don’t be stupid, alright?"

The Demoness flashed that ever smug grin of hers as she gave me a quick, yet warm hug, pressing my face against her breastplate and letting me take a deep breath of her sweet scent that had become engraved inside of my mind.

"When have I ever~ been stupid, hm~? Don’t miss me too much, and enjoy the little break~! After all, you’re up next~!"

Patting my head, Jahi grinned down at me before allowing Leone to come over and hug me instead, the Vampire taking a few more seconds than Jahi had while also squeezing me a bit tighter, her own worry apparently matching my own.

Saying goodbye - even for what should only be a handful of hours, maybe a half day or so for us - was always going to be difficult, and doing so when they were heading off to some dangerous unknown was even worse, but that was just what life had become for us, so... we dealt with it.

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Bidding them farewell and praying for their safety, we watched as they entered the bubble before they ’rushed’ over towards their door, following the mana trails Draka and I had laid down earlier and heading for this trial.

Trying to wrap my head around the dissonance between the two separate spaces was quite hard, and honestly I wasn’t certain I had it completely understood even with Lilith’s explanation, so I was left in the dark with this by just a little bit.

What I was sure of though was the tasks we needed to complete out here; it was just Anput, Mom and I standing guard over the carriage, but we still had some objectives that needed to be completed to ensure our time here was used effectively.

Anput’s task was to begin making use of those wolf pelts from a few days ago to make us all cloaks that would be easily transportable and effective and keeping us warm while my task was to begin setting up the portable herb garden that would be used to keep our potion stores up.

What that really meant was a whole lot of organizing of the carriage, creation of some extra storage and rearranging of the carriage’s parts, and then some thinking of what would make the most sense and what we could afford to do without ruining the carriage’s structural integrity or going through too much hassle.

All the while Mom kept watch on the island and the city while also tending to the hourglass we had set up, making sure she marked down the time as accurately as she could while we waited for the others to return.

The sun moved just like it always had, and yet now it felt like minutes were being drawn out only for the hours to pass us by with immense speed, leading to a rather tiring dichotomy that only felt bearable when we saw them coming back just as the moon began its climb towards its peak.

About eight hours had passed, and yet they looked very much ’worse’ for the wear that they had apparently withstood; they weren’t injured, and their gear wasn’t torn to shreds or anything like that, but they definitely looked exhausted.

They also didn’t come back empty handed, emerging from the bubble with woven fiber sacks filled with meat that they unceremoniously dumped beside the carriage, alongside a few other sacks and bags that were filled with an abundance of herbs and other goodies.

"We were there for... about a month."

Jahi’s voice was drastically different from earlier today, drained of enthusiasm and lacking in any of the usual pride or smugness that she normally had; instead, she just seemed tired and rather done with everything, to the point that she just plopped down on the cool grass and stared at the moon for a few moments.

Even Lady Fenyras was subdued, though she grabbed one of those meat sacks and tossed it to the ground in front of me, not saying a word but making her intention clearer than the sky above; considering Leone or Jahi didn’t seem to care at all, it just further proved to me that there really had been a trail that they had endured in there, one that took a lot of what they had to emerge from.

Getting the fires ready and beginning to cook the meat, I gave them the minutes they needed to just rest their minds before listening to their experience, their retelling of a month that took a mere eight hours out here being both fascinating and exceptionally bland considering it had been a month spent roaming around a jungle. Enjoy exclusive content from novelbuddy

And yet, as I listened to them all I noticed that each of them - while exhausted - certainly felt stronger than before, the mana surrounding them being just a little more potent and abundant than it had been before, something that I wasn’t sure if they had noticed themselves just yet.

It felt anticlimactic, and yet it made sense; these were trials separated from our world by someone so incredibly powerful that time held no real meaning, and so hearing that the fresh and excited group that had departed this morning had come back looking drained and worn with a large portion of a powerful monster in their hands didn’t really shock me that much...

Though I was definitely going to need them to go over this again, at least after they ate and took another few minutes to rest...