My Servant System-Chapter 1291 - 1290: Trial Marathon (2)

A single swing of my Warpick shattered the skull of the unlucky bastard that had been chasing me through this maze, the sound of his bone exploding the moment the ice clad hammer connected with his forehead flooding my ears and echoing down the long, dark corridor.

I had come here with Mom and Lilith, the loose parameters and simple reward of improved mana flow rate luring us into a rather difficult yet simple trial; reach the center of a maze without perishing.

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Sadly we weren't together, and there were dozens of these odd, pale freaks wandering around muttering to themselves as they combed through the labyrinth mindlessly, searching every nook and cranny before continuing onwards to find... something.

They weren't even attempting to follow some sort of pathing that might lead them out of the maze or towards the center; they were just patrolling their sections and occasionally killing one another if they got too close.

Their skull masks and starved, thin bodies made them quite creepy, but creepy wasn't going to keep me from moving forwards, not when I could bash their skull mask and their actual skull with my Warpick, destroying that image permanently.

They reeked and wielded rusty - yet deadly - swords that dripped with some kind of poisonous liquid that sizzled against the ground, and sometimes I wondered if they were disciples of some sort of Nua Fiend that had managed to slip inside of this trial, only to realize that they were just crazy and demented.

They had no real purpose that I could logically understand, no driving motive that kept them wandering around in search for the next kill; I just knew that they were dangerous and that they needed to be put down, especially since it was clear they wanted more than to just kill.

Not once had they aimed for a vital spot like my head, throat, heart or any major arteries, and that made it even easier for me to put them down like animals whenever I saw them, especially since it gave a surprising amount of experience per kill.

During my walk around the maze as I searched for a way deeper I found a few outcroppings of Mana Crystals and herbs, surprising me a little and causing me to grin as I began to purchase a few of the more interesting natural materials from the System Shop, stuffing them into my bag and preparing to claim them as found from this maze.

Now that I was getting stronger and also acquiring some more materials to improve our strength the maze wasn't even that bad anymore, the dank, dark corridors that melded together in a confusing, worrying way no longer causing my mind to falter every few minutes.

It still sucked being trapped in here alone with lunatics running around, but it could definitely be worse, and that was something that Jahi would tell me all about whenever she returned from her particularly unlucky trials...

After the obligatory and very necessary 'cuddle' sessions that had us being thankful that the tent was both far away from the center of the camp and that everyone was now accustomed to everything that happened...

~~~

Jahi PoV

Settling into a rhythm that had us constantly on the go as we traveled between trials was surprisingly easy, and at times I found it downright enjoyable - and not even because some of those trials were done with just Anput, Leone and or Kat to keep me company.

There were some genuinely difficult, fulfilling challenges in these trials that pushed me to be a better warrior and fighter, that helped me grow both physically and mentally as we kept ourselves fresh and submerged.

The hours of rest were doing wonders each time we came out, and the days to weeks spent inside of a trial began to blend together into a medley of what I considered 'fun', each one testing something different and forcing me to improve another of my skills so that I might emerge victorious.

There were trials of the mind, body - endurance or strength - waiting to be completed, and each one pushed me further and further even if they sometimes felt far too difficult to complete, like this trial that had Anput, Lady Fenyras and I traveling into the heart of a volcano to slay a Drake.

Rivers of magma burned the air as the volcano bled, and the ash clung to our lungs as we got ever closer, making it impossible to breathe in lest we choke on this burnt air; all the while we had to fight against various Salamanders, Newts and other lizard related monsters that were brimming with Fire Mana.

A reward of not only the Drake that we killed but also of a vial filled with the diluted blood of a real Dragon was beyond tempting, and while this was definitely a challenge and a half we were more than willing to face it head on, even if we could hardly breathe.

All of the monsters popped out of the ash whenever we got close, and every single step we took was grueling, testing our endurance, prowess, and mental state as we were made to fight for every single foot of ground we gained, never allowed to rest as swarm after swarm emerged.

This was a true trial to me, and as my blade rose and fell I could only think of the drastic improvement that I had made during this time, not once thinking about how much my arms and shoulders ached, not caring about the burn of my lower back and knees; I just knew that my body was stronger than ever and that the rush of adrenaline had never felt better.

I was high off of this battle, and I could feel how much stronger I had gotten as I cleaved through the hardened scales of a flaming lizard, slicing its body in two and leaving it to hiss in agony as it slowly bled out behind me.

The enemies only got stronger with each trial we took on, but we weren't being outpaced at all; if anything this was a measured battle between our improvements and our enemies, like someone was tinkering with the difficulty each time we entered a trial.

And for right now I didn't have the mental capacity to think about that too much, but I did know that the moment I did, it was the first thing that I was going to bring up to Kat when we returned; I felt that there were something off about these trials, not in their actual purposes but in how they had been feeling lately.

Nothing certain just yet, but Mom and Mother had both taught me that a gut instinct is almost always correct, and even when it isn't there is still a kernel of truth to find within it that could make all the difference going forwards... and right now my gut was telling me that these trials were so much more complicated than we initially believed.