With an employee of another god as a companion by his side, Zeth was way more confident about clearing the Dominion than before. Even though there was very little information available about what a Dominion actually was or what was inside it.
In fantasy stories, these questions were supposed to be answered by something called a system, which he had, but it was pretty much useless...no, even worse, it was deadly in a sense.
From what Zeth remembered, Themis possessed fighting abilities as a goddess, which meant that her employee would possess some too. After all, employees only possessed the skills that their gods already had.
'Hmm...will I eventually get the power to pew pew anyone?'
Zeth rubbed his chin, side-glancing at the pretty boy, who looked back at him with puppy eyes. This cow...this is gonna get milked today.
He smiled internally.
Since there was little to no information available about the inside of the Dominion, there was nothing for them to plan ahead or discuss. Looking at the barrier before him, Zeth sighed.
The only way was forward.
"You ready?"
Zeth asked before summoning a blade from his inventory. It had a shiny, grayish surface with a long, thick blade. It curved slightly as it narrowed, and the hilt was wide enough to cover his hand. At first glance, it resembled a saber, but it wasn't exactly one.
The pretty boy looked at him, then closed his eyes. As he did, golden light materialized in the palm of his hand and took the shape of a golden longsword made of energy. The sword was almost as long as the boy himself, yet he seemed completely unaffected by its weight.
'How is he going to use that thing?'
Zeth pondered for a moment, then realized the sword was made of energy, so it wouldn't actually weigh anything at all.
With a slight smile, both of them stepped inside the brownish barrier. Zeth felt a cold chill wash over him as soon as he entered.
Opposite to the world outside, the sky was completely black, without a moon or stars. Chilly winds whistled by. It was almost as if the season had changed to winter.
Looking around, Zeth found an expanse of large fields covered in fog.
Behind him was a small wooden cabin next to a very large, leafless tree that stood dull against the dark sky.
'Creepy.'
Zeth's eyes naturally darted to the only source of light—the lantern inside the wooden cabin, illuminating the place with a warm yellow glow. The pretty boy was also standing a short distance from him.
Tightening his grip on the sword, Zeth continued scanning the surroundings when a bunch of notifications appeared on the blue screen before him.
[You have entered a 'Folklore' Night Farm.]
'A folklore? Not a Dominion?'
Zeth looked at the pretty boy. Though he couldn't see his screen, he could guess that the pretty boy was reading the same thing and probably wondering the same questions.
Zeth looked at the other notification.
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You have been hired for the night shift to take care of the farm. The farm is spread across five acres of land. Your shift starts from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
1. The farm owner has left some rules for you to follow:
2. Every 45 minutes, take a trip around the farm and make sure there are no animal attacks.
3. If rats attack, protect the crops and either kill them or scare them away.
4. Every 2 hours, turn on the motor and water the crops for exactly fifteen minutes.
5. Precisely at 1:00 AM, count the number of crops. It should match the number in the register. If any crop is missing, discard its name from the register. If you see more crops than listed, run away. Do not look back.
6. Between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM, lock the cabin door and turn off the lantern. No matter what happens, do not open the cabin door. You are allowed to sleep during this time.
7. If you fail to follow any of these rules, you will face a penalty.
8. Zeth barely stopped his jaw from dropping after reading the long text on the screen that almost blocked his vision. A cold shiver ran from the back of his neck down his spine.
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'What is this, a fucking horror game? Where the hell are the monsters?'
He wanted to curse out loud, but the atmosphere felt too spooky for him to utter a single word.
There were doubts in his mind. Why was the system calling this a folklore? And what were these rules? Were they meant to simply follow the conditions? Was this what being an employee of a god meant?
Not to mention, the only two sounds he heard in the creepy atmosphere were the creaking branches of the tree in the wind and the ticking of the analog clock inside the cabin.
But hey, he was the adult here, an employee of Death at that. If he got scared, what kind of example would that set for the kid?
"It seems the Dominion is not what I expected."
Putting on a brave face, Zeth was the first to break the silence.
The pretty boy looked at him and smiled back, feeling relieved as the tension eased. He brushed the back of his hair, letting go of the light sword.
"Yeah, actually, I expected it to be some kind of dungeon from those novels I read. Haha."
Zeth sighed. It wasn't like he had expected anything different.
Taking a moment to think of the most logical approach, it would be to simply follow the rules as the system instructed. After all, they were employees by role. Therefore, it wouldn't be weird if this whole Dominion thing was just making him work and complete some freelance job-type tasks.
'What did I get myself into?'
Nodding to himself, Zeth looked around once again. Nothing was visible within the embrace of the fog. Then he looked toward the wooden cabin.