The Last Primal

The notification wasn't done after that. There were several others, causing my already barely hanging jaw to descend further down. Aiden's eyes threatening him with popping out of their sockets and escaping with the utter disbelief he was experiencing. There was the one he was actually expecting to appear now or at the very least, soon.

[New Hidden Milestone reached! 

-Create 4 minions (4/4) Completed!

Reward: Minion Management Menu has been unlocked!]

After that, the next update carried a shocking revelation, one of the biggest ones he received ever so far.

[Minion with primal essence created!

Note: Minions with Primal essences will be assigned as officers in the roster. Please note, that their inherited abilities will be limited by the amount of essence they carry. The essence cannot be extracted, increased, or altered in any way.]

[Primal Essence found in Minion: Glohn. Officer rank has been automatically assigned to him.

Minions with the officer ranks have the ability to command and govern lower-ranked minions as per the host's set parameters. Make sure to properly set the parameters in the Minion Management menu!]

'This…' Aiden was gazing at the floating screen in front of his vision for more than a minute, with a mixture of shock and disbelief clear on his face. Accepting and providing energy to the three ex-goblins was mostly an instinctual, subconscious action on Aiden's part. He wasn't thinking about potential gains other than letting these poor, unlucky sods enter his 'family' so that they could move on from all of what happened to them.

They were abused and were basically nothing more than the slaves themselves these orcs kept as pets. The goblins were considered an expendable part of the horde, cannon-fodders, nothing more. 

It was a natural reaction on his part. He wanted to reach out and since he knew he could provide them assistance, he offered. There was no underlying meaning of any kind.

Still, the ever-increasing smile on Aiden's face was a clear sign of the happiness and excitement he felt. If he really could assign officers, -or how he would call it- captains to the servants that pledged to him and created the unbreakable magical bond with each other, that would be incredible. 

Not to mention the fact that with this update, Aiden finally got a glimpse into the System's true goals! It seems one of its goals seemed to be to guide him to create a larger force of utterly loyal, devoted, trustworthy subjects to rule over. But what would be the end goal for such an army of powerful creatures? Who was the mastermind behind it? And most importantly, why him?!

'Just what is the goal?' He sighed, forcing these thoughts to the recesses of his mind. He still needed more information. He got one piece of an enormous puzzle, only a small insight into a huge web of mysteries yet to be uncovered. 

Aiden's thoughts raced back to the silent, recuperating spiritual presence residing in his soul space. This mysterious sub-domain that was somehow his spirit, was honestly yet another big mystery he never truly understood. Is this domain, this dark world, that was created by the system as well? Or it's something related to his true existence, his true origin, the Primals? 

Whatever it was, it wasn't bad for him at the very least. It housed the source of his power, the ever-growing pool of energy, his [Soul Power], as well as it was the home for her currently silent female guide, Enya, who despite her kirks, were looking out for him. When he was out of commission after overusing his abilities in the Pocket World, she did everything she could to reach out to those close to him. 

Even if she had her own goals, in the end, she was loyal to him and wanted what was best for his future growth.

A conflicted, pain-filled smile appeared on Aiden's face, he shook his head, recollecting himself. There were still too many questions, and it seems that every piece of the puzzle he found, was just increasing his list of questions.

He had more important, pressing matters to resolve. Focusing on the system, the image of the interface appeared in front of him, calmly floating in the air, only present to himself. A new menu option, the Minion Management was now visible, which he promptly pressed with a thought. 

The screen changed, and a new, previously unseen interface appeared in front of him. The information was grouped into several tabs from which only two were currently available, but Aiden could see that there were places for at least 4 more in the future that was most likely locked and hidden from his eyes and mind currently.

The first, which was currently active was the Greeting page, which also gave a few statistical information and after taking a look at it, quite a few important ones at that.

[Minion Management

Info | Manage |

Welcome to Minion Management,

Below host will be able to see the summarized statistical details about the host's Minion Army.

---

Minions: 4 / 10

Currently Active Minions 1 / 4

At [UNNAMED] Minion Space: 3

Minion Quality:  3 x Tier 2 (clean)

1 x Tier 3 (clean)

Current Hierarchical Composition:

Soldiers: 3

Officers: 1

---

*Locked* ]

The information on the greeting 'Info' tab was pretty vague but it still held a few quite important details. One of them was the supposed 10 limit he had. He wasn't sure how this would be increased in the future but at the very least, he now knew he 'could' attain 6 more before reaching full capacity.

The second important detail was the fact that the sub-dimension, the 'Minion Space' that came with this ability was that the world itself hinted at it being customizable through the system at some point. 

The rest of the information wasn't new, he knew Roas', Gob', Galina', and Glohn's details perfectly. 

Below that were their current assignments, just like how he expected. Glohn being the only higher-ranked because of the infusion of Primal Essence, reached a higher power level than the rest. While he would leave the two 'youngsters', he planned to further evolve his first servant, Roas further, and make him be his main guardian. However, for that, he needed some way to hide his true identity, his orcish origins.

That, however, had to wait until this whole ordeal was finally resolved. Taking a look at the lone window behind him, he sighed. Most of the night was already gone, and he only had a couple of hours left before the next dawn would arrive, further increasing the difficulty of this already quite a bothersome quest. 

Focusing on his magical connection with Roas, he reached out to him. To his surprise, as soon as Roas felt that his young master was focusing on him, he surprised Aiden by taking the initiative to greet him first.

"[Orc] Young master! I felt the creation of 3 new connections! Did master invite new servants into service?"

Surprised, Aiden took a few seconds to formulate a response. 

"[Orc] That is correct Roas, we have three new souls joining our new family. They are currently resting in a special space. Once we are done here, I can show it to you if you want. It's a special world, just for you guys, who pledged servitude and with whom I have this special link." Aiden explained, not hiding anything from his faithful servant. He offered to take him there, even though he knew that Roas will most likely decline. From their interactions so far, he was fairly certain that Roas would never want to leave his presence if possible.

As expected, his hurried response came instantly.

"[Orc] Young master, please don't throw me away! I would like to stay at the young master's side. You gave me new hope and a new meaning to my life, please don't throw me away!"

Aiden smiled at his servant's agitated response. Standing up from the bed, he walked towards the door whilst he continued the mental discourse.

"[Orc] Don't worry, it was just an option. Anyway, pick up the sleeping beauty and come to me. I am done here, we need to continue further up." As he reached for the lever on the door, he grabbed it, but before pushing down, he continued with a slightly colder tone. "We have a group of arrogant leaders to visit…"

***

Meanwhile, at the other side of the forest, a caravan of girls has finally reached the edges of the orc's territory. After the ambush, the rest of the patrols that have been sent out to search for them have either retreated or have been searching elsewhere. The rest of the journey was finally silent and uneventful. 

Still, none of the slaves, or girls dared to relax their guards. They haven't stopped at all, despite being spent and tired. Sarah, having spent all her energy on the fight, and her stamina barely being regained knew she would be no help in battle. She took the front with Scarlet and continued leading the group in the safest route she knew.

At the back, a grinning blonde amazon, with faintly glowing eyes was holding her huge ornate battle axe over her left shoulder like if it was nothing. A majestic, royal presence kept emanating from within her...