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MAZE - Chapter 1106 - Baby Steps
🕑 Added 2025-09-13 21:14:47 +0000 UTC"How the hell did you let that happen?" Shane shouted.
Hera turned to the enchantress with a confused expression. "Let what happen? I gave you the snake bracelets so you could rank up the skills faster. That's all I could do. It's not my fault you didn't get lucky enough to get the skills at the right level. Besides, most people would be happy about getting a bunch of different skills instead of just leveling up one."
"Well, most people didn't spend most of their lives trying to find where the Naga went," Shane waved her arms.
"I'm sorry for what happened, Shane. But you really don't need to raise your voice. It was just easier for me since I am lower level. This made some minor mistakes be helpful in trying to raise a skill level," Eridan was trying to follow along with Hera as she taught him how to sit on the ground using the tail as a stool.
It was more complicated than it sounded, as if he coiled his tail improperly, it would really hurt when he sat. Another issue Eridan was having was the fact that he kept leaning backwards, making him fall. The setup didn't allow for that kind of thing, and he would have to be mostly straight, which ended up being the most comfortable position considering that his tail was shifting his spine to prop him up when properly aligned.
Shane turned towards Eridan, but before she said anything, she took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry, sir. I am not upset with Hera or with you. But this is just very frustrating."
"I get that you wanted to be the first, but you're not, and there's not much we can do about it. So how about we just move on from your freak-out so we can talk about Deakoshara?" Hera suggested.
Shane stared at Hera for a moment before nodding. "Fine. What do you want to talk about? Did you find anything?"
"For one, there is a weird dungeon with an orc searching for a city of gold, where you can get one of these," Hera held up the Golden Retriever's Ball and tossed to the side.
The ball rolled towards the back of the couch, and suddenly the golden retriever came from a space that he couldn't really fit in, yet it seemed that the summon had come from there.
"That's adorable," Bonnie gasped as the golden dog wagged its tail.
"It really is," Hera smiled. "But like I'm saying, you can get one of those in the dungeon, and you will end up getting betrayed by the orc."
"Betrayed by the orc?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. It's part of the dungeon, I think," Hera shrugged.
"Are you sure about that? Is there any way for you to not be betrayed by the orc?" Bonnie asked.
"I honestly think so. From the little that he said after he betrayed me, he seems pretty set in his ways. But it's not like it's a big problem, because you finish the dungeon when he betrays you. It's just kind of a curve ball."
"There's something else you want to tell me about that place right? I don't think a random dungeon is all you found." Shane said, turning to the no-longer-only Ophidianite.
Hera nodded, "The real problem is with ghosts."
"Ghosts?" everybody gasped, even Eridan.
The Empress nodded. "Yeah, ghosts, specters or something. I don't know what's going on for them to show up, but they are appearing near the village that I found. Actually, one village and inside the dungeon. And my Observe doesn't work on them."
"Inside the dungeon?" Shane kept staring at Hera as if she were saying something absolutely crazy.
"Yeah, inside the dungeon. There were the same types of ghosts in the dungeon that I was running. They didn't look to be the same, like the exactly same, as those that were in the village. But they were there. And I also know that they were outside the dungeon," Hera explained.
"So inside the dungeon, outside the dungeon, and where else?" Shane finally took a seat in one of the chairs. They were all in Hera's living room at the moment. At the house that she shared with her dad.
"In the village. That's where I first saw those things. But not in the forest. I didn't see any ghosts of monsters or something. Only the Naga."
"That is concerning," Shane frowned.
"And you can't use observe on them?" Bonnie asked, her tablet already out as she took some notes.
Hera shook her head, "It's not like they stop the skill. But as if the skill doesn't recognize them as monsters or anything. You know. Almost as if they were just illusions. The problem is that they can interact with objects, attack things and stuff like that."
"Do you have any idea what they are?" Ales asked.
"I don't. That's why I already talked with Typhera. She's seeing if the alliance has any sort of records about something like this happening. She was also concerned, like you seem to be," Hera looked at Bonnie.
The Astral Witch was sitting on a couch with Ruby bouncing on her knee. The little red slime seemed to be very excited about being here.
"Give them some time, I'm sure Queen Typhera and the alliance will find some answers," Eridan tried to calm his daughter.
"I hope so. Ghosts inside a dungeon is not something that should happen. Not if they are not part of the dungeon itself. If it is happening, then there's something very wrong going on," Bonnie rubbed her eyes.
"That was exactly my thought. I don't know what's making the ghosts appear in Deakoshara, but it can't be good. For now, I'm running on the theory that once the Naga started to die out, they tried everything to survive, and something made them linger eternally as specters. Maybe there's a giant tower that's still running that keeps them reappearing every midnight," Hera continued.
"Wait, they appear at midnight? Not at sundown or something like that? At midnight?" Shane asked.
"Yep. Every day at midnight, and when the sun comes up, they vanish."
"So they are vampire ghosts?" Alex asked.
"I guess. I mean, I didn't see them sucking out the energy of anything, but I also didn't try to see what they were going to do with me. All I know is that they can interact with physical objects since I saw a couple attacking some walls and vines."
"Could ghost generally do that?" Eridan asked.
"It depends on the ghost, Dad. In one of the first dungeons I went to with Alex, Bonnie, and Blue…" Hera felt saddened for a moment, even then she continued. "Even so, we fought some ghosts, and we could only hit them with magic, but they could hit us, although I'm really not sure if they were actually hitting us or just using magic to hit us. Same thing with these specters, I don't know exactly how they work, just that they do."
"Speaking of which," Hera turned to Eridan, who was finally able to adjust himself while using his tail as a bean bag chair.
He still looked a bit awkward and not as relaxed as Hera was when she was doing the same, but he didn't have any issues with the weight or the height he was sitting at. Even if he was a bit taller than her when sitting because of her longer tail, they were both very comfortable despite everything.
"Do you have any idea if you can make something with those roots that I brought you?" the Empress asked.
Eridan stopped looking down at his tail and turned to his daughter. "Right. I didn't get a chance to study them properly, but I might be able to make something. Just not armor. Maybe some bracers?"
"Bracers?" Hera asked.
"Yeah, you know. I've been trying to learn how to make a few different things, not because I want to become an armor smith or something, but because people in the MAZE seem to be more proficient at making weapons and stuff. Bracers are things that are very similar to parts of furniture, basically just a cover for a forearm or leg or something. Making sure they are soft and comfortable to touch is still a bit tricky, but I can make some. But I'm not sure if that will be enough for what you want."
Hera nodded and paused for a second. "Hang on, you're saying that it's easy to do something that is just a cover, right? Do you think you can make like a cover for my tail? I don't know if it's possible to make one that's still malleable."
Eridan paused for a moment, the gears turning inside his mind, "Maybe. Let me try some stuff with wood that we have from Zaxalam first, and then I can see if I can add the roots you found to it. Is that okay?"
The Empress nodded, "I can just go to a different place in Deakoshara, see if the ghosts are also there or if they're more localized."
"Speaking of which," Shane spoke up. "You're not going alone this time, at least."
"I'm not?" Hera turned to the enchantress.
"No, I'm coming with you." Shane replied bluntly.
"We would like to join too," Alex said and got another approval from Bonnie.
"You two? Really? I thought you didn't find this very exciting."
"It's not exciting to just roam around an empty room. But if you're saying that there are ghosts, and ruins, that is much more interesting than just flying around seeing if we can find something," Alex explained, "Besides, you're dealing with ghosts.. Maybe I can purify them and get rid of them."
Hera nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything unless you were going to offer, but I did consider your Legacy to like to be able to do something there."
"And Bonnie, if you want to join," the Empress quickly grabbed her tablet and sent a couple of pictures to her friend. "Those are pictures of the night sky. I took them with long exposure when I could to be better to see the constellations and stars. I don't know if you can start working with this, but I kept taking pictures every night just in case they could help you."
Bonnie stared at them for a moment and quickly started to draw a few symbols with her fingers. Thanks to the Legacy she had, a natural feel for constellations, although the ones that she was seeing right now were not the same that existed in the past. After all, a couple thousand years did change the position of some of the stars in the sky. The difference wasn't big enough to completely erase the constellations that already were there, but there were some repositions among those stars.
"I know this is about your Legacy and that's kind of a touchy subject, but can I ask something that I was always curious about?" Eridan asked.
All four women turned to him,
"Are you saying that to whom?" Hera asked.
Her comment made everybody chuckle, with the exception of her dad, since he still didn't really understand the significance of her phrase.
"Anywhere else, one Legacy would already be more than enough for a single room," Alex tried to explain, but Eridan still didn't get the joke.
"It's about Bonnie's Legacy. My question is, what if you go to a place that doesn't have any constellations? I mean, we are the ones that created them, right?"
Bonnie's eyes were still glued to the screen. "You're right. Constellations are people-made, for lack of a better term."
"The word you're looking for is artificial," Shane added.
"Right, that one. Artificial. Not something that exists in nature," Bonnie nodded.
"Can't you just make any constellation you want? I mean," Eridan looked over at Hera's tablet, which had a picture of one part of the sky, "what if you just decided that this clump of stars here made the shape of a gold coin, and that made you gain more gold or something?"
"Well, for one, as far as I know, there's not really a skill that lets you gain gold from dungeons. The economic aspect of the MAZE is already kind of a mess. I can only imagine that if there were a way to increase how much money you make, things would spiral out of control. To address your actual question, though, I can do that. But creating a constellation is a bit more complicated than just using one that someone left behind. Basically, my Legacy lets me recognize if a set of stars is part of a constellation, and when it does, I need to use the constellation that they used to attach any buffs to it."
The Astral Witch finally looked up from the tablet, "If I see a set of stars that doesn't have any constellation and the area itself doesn't have any constellations that I can recognize, then I can make my own and use them. But there's a specific skill I have for it, and the cooldown is kind of big. I need to be more careful with that. There's also only a set amount of constellations that I could make. Other people can make as much as they want, but to me and my skills, I can only make five constellations in the sky."
"Hang on," Hera frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. I know that there are places where you have more than five constellations to work with."
"Bonnie nodded. "Because I'm not the one who made them. If there's a sky with, let's say, 100 constellations that other people made, then I can use them freely. Well, within the constrains of my legacy. But I, myself, can only make five constellations, and that is only if that particular sky has less than five. So for smaller rooms, it's kind of good since I can just make a few, especially if we're talking about an underground room that I need to use a specific skill to look at the sky. But generally speaking, I don't really use that constellation-making skill very often. Usually there is already a constellation in the sky that is recognized by some civilization that existed at some point, or it's a sky that is similar to somewhere else that already has constellations."
Hearing that, the Empress couldn't help but think about what the Guides were saying the last time she spoke with them. How the MAZE wasn't really a planet, and the sky wasn't really just a globe. It was something that had more dimensions than just three, and because of it, she could see the sun rising and setting as if she were looking from a planet. Maybe this had something to do with that. Maybe the reason why Bonnie was able to see the same sky in various different places was because of these extra dimensions, however many were there, interacting with their own concept of sky.
But the first Ophidianite quickly shut those thoughts down. It was already complex, and she wasn't really in the mood of falling into that rabbit hole right now.
Everybody agreed that they were now going back as a group. It would be Shane, Alex, Bonnie, and Hera. She was also going to ask a few of the royal explorers if they wanted to join. She knew that Pandora and the others were very excited about exploring the place, but at the same time, they also had their own job in Boothudurn.
She also wanted to spend a little longer just to make sure her dad was doing fine and to have some time to prepare everything for the journey ahead. In addition, giving time for the alliance to figure out if they ever seen ghosts like that before was also a good idea. The more information she had, the better it should be.
And lastly, something that she could also do while there but would be helpful to start now was to have Bonnie teach her the Naga language. The Astral Witch was now much more proficient than ever since she had Bonnie and the others properly teaching her how to read and write the language. Speaking was something that only true Naga were able to do since it required a forked tongue to deliver some of the vocabulary they utilized.
Even then, Bonnie was trying to figure out a way to have Ruby acting as vocal cords or the speaker to translate any regular speech into Naga speech. That way, if she were to find anything that was voice-activated or that required a specific voice command, she wouldn't be without any options. It was still a work in progress and something that even the Court was interested in helping with, but for now, it was about letting Bonnie practice until she was able to replicate those sounds.
#### Author's Notes ####
And of course Shane's pissed.
Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I'm doing a side gig that is taking a lot of time and mental effort. Still It's an on off thing. and since that whole job thing didn't work out I have to take advantage of things when they show up.
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