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MAZE - Chapter 1076 - A guide in the hotsprings
🕑 Added 2025-06-26 01:04:02 +0000 UTCHera was guided to the hot springs rather quickly. It was pretty obvious that Joseph didn't want to have her roaming around the estate while Valera could call her at any moment. But just the fact that she was going to hot springs was enough for the Ophidianite. And just like the butler had said, it was a truly incredible place.
Not only was it big, but it was also sectioned enough so people could enjoy various levels of privacy or group activities in something like this. Hera knew that there were some cultures across the earth and the MAZE that enjoyed taking showers with family and friends. Although that wasn't something that she ever liked herself.
Going to the leftmost door, she was taken to one of the private areas of the hot springs. It was a simple light green room with a few rocks inside of a pool of warm water that was comfortably being replenished by a waterfall that fell in the middle of that pool.
Yet, instead of a rushing stream of water that splashed everywhere, once the water fell from the ceiling above, it would gently merge with the water from the pool. Allowing anyone to stay there without having to worry about splashing around. Before that pool of water was also a small area where one could turn on a shower that used the same type of water to clean their bodies.
Of course, she decided to take a shower first, cleaning herself properly and even having some of her court members joining in. Mainly the girls. With the exception of Crimson, since she couldn't call her without calling Viper.
But the Empress understood how weird this was. Everyone from her court already knew how she looked naked. And even if they didn't, they were a part of her. Feeling shy about their presence would be the same as feeling shy about looking yourself in the mirror. But at the same time, the Empress felt a bit strange with the idea of calling everybody to help her take a shower.
It was likely an issue born from her upbringing, especially since she herself was someone who fancied women more than she did men. But still, she wasn't trying to prove anything to anyone and didn't want to worry about it, so she just decided to do what felt the most comfortable.
The girls really enjoyed being a part of these moments, helping Hera wash herself. Although no one was touching her, it was more about passing along the soap and such. Once that was over, she called the rest of the court and had them all stick around in the actual pool. Which was large enough for them to stay despite this being a more private area.
They all took advantage of the hot springs for about half an hour, just enjoying and talking without having to worry about anything. Or at least, that's what anyone who could be looking at them would think.
In reality, every single court member was also double checking the environment to see if there were any sort of spells or skills that could track someone inside there. Hera wasn't in a place that she knew, and the way the clan seemed to behave, she wasn't entirely sure if they would respect the privacy of someone when they were taking a bath.
Thankfully, they weren't able to find any signals that they were being watched. No cameras, no sensors, no strange Mana signals coming from anywhere, really. It felt like they truly were on their own in this hot spring.
But this wasn't everything. Hera also wanted to make sure that they wouldn't be caught by anyone when she called the guide. And so, she used [Blade Accord] to create a cocoon of sorts around her. Having every single one of her court members function as checkpoints for the chain to form this oval shape.
Once that was over, using [Noble Shroud], she also added a layer of clouds to stop anyone from being able to peer inside. It was even easier to create those clouds, since there was so much steam in the area. It was a pleasant surprise that her skill, despite coming from the storm cloud legacy, was less restrictive than the original when using it in a situation with mist.
She had no illusion that the mist or steam in this case would be as powerful as an actual cloud. However, since she was just trying to obscure what was happening inside the cocoon and make sure that no Mana could pass through, it was more than enough.
Once that was over, she also added one more layer. Something that she had already mastered enough to make it blend seamlessly with the cocoon. The soundproof bubble. Only when all those protections were in place and her Title Blades were outside making sure that no one was trying to get in, that the Empress took a deep breath and said, "I call upon the guide of the Answer Valley. As an Explorer, I have proven that my motives are pure."
She heard some noise from below and one of the green plates that formed the ground shifted as a staircase appeared and the guide slowly climbed up. It was an anthropomorphic peacock, with electric blue feathers and the large crown tail with vibrant colors. If the coloration wasn't enough to confirm that it was a male, the peacock was also had wrapped a towel around his waist and carrying a small bucket like those you would see in a Japanese-style bathhouse.
He climbed up the stairs with a bit of a swagger on his steps, almost humming softly as he said, "Hello there. I am Sapphire, but you can call me Seth. People seem to be less weirded out when I use a more masculine name. Thank you for calling me. I have been wanting to check this hot spri—"
He paused when he looked around and noticed that despite being in the hot springs, Hera did not call the guide in the actual pool of water. But on the floor above it. In the area that was closer to the showers than the hot spring itself.
"Oh. I guess this is a fine place to chat," he said, clearly disappointed about the location.
Hera felt bad and offered, "Would you like us to step towards the pool?"
The guide's eyes lit up and said, "No, no, it's fine. You Don't have to go to all the trouble of recasting this and moving it all the way."
"Oh, I don't have to recast this. I can just move it. I was a bit worried what the Clan was going to do here, but we can go there without a problem. If that's what you want."
Seth gave some puppy dog eyes and said, "Would that be too much of a problem? I really wanted to enjoy this hot spring for once."
"Not at all," Hera shook her head, "But do you mind if I pick you up? I'm not sure if there's anyone who's going to be watching, and I think I need to lift all this from the ground to move it."
Seth shook his head and said, "No, that's fine. Or if you want," he jumped up and started to float using the small bucket as a hoverboard of sorts. "I can just do this."
"Yeah, that's perfect. So just give me a moment. This is going to be a bit tricky. It won't take time from the five minutes, will it?"
While looking around the cocoon that they created, Seth said, "No, no. You haven't started asking the questions. The time is still stopped."
"Okay then, hang on."
It took her a bit longer than she wanted to, but eventually Hera was able to coordinate with all her blades to lift up at the same time as to not break the entire cocoon, and they slowly walked into the pool of hot water. But unfortunately, Hera still didn't feel confident enough in the privacy of the place to leave a gap between them and the water. So instead, she sealed the bottom, making sure that only a trickle would come in and out during this conversation.
"Sorry about that. I'm just trying to be safe," Hera said, not wanting to waste her first strike because she was in a place like this. If that were to happen, it was very likely that she would just go home, ignoring whatever Valera was trying to get her to do.
"No, no. Don't worry about it. You're doing all this because I asked you to. And it's not like I've never been to this hot spring. Well… I didn't. Not this version, at least. I just didn't expect anyone to be calling me here. Even when you showed up, this was the last place I imagined you'd be calling me."
"Really? Where do you think I would be calling you?"
"Maybe inside one of their private training rooms or inside your bedroom. Those are the most common places where people call me. Not that they remember me," Seth sighed.
"The people who call you here don't remember you? Also, isn't it bad for you to tell me that?"
"Probably not," Seth said, "and the system didn't stop me. I think either you're getting some points for being who you are, or I'm getting some points for being stuck with these people."
"So you don't like them?"
"It's not about not liking them. It's more about they don't get it. They don't understand the benefit of having the guide skill and being able to talk to us. They only care about ways to make their legacy stronger. But we don't know, we can't really understand that skill, you know?"
Hera nodded, "Yeah, I noticed that. It's because it's sort of something… I don't want to say is not supposed to happen, but it's not part of the basics of the system."
Seth finished the thought, "It's something kind of like an extra add-on. And that's something we guide don't really mess with."
The Empress said, "Yeah, I can imagine. I also imagine that every time one of them calls you, they go straight away trying to tell Valera, and that causes them to lose one or all strikes."
"Something like that, or at least something that makes them lose the strike and eventually just quit. At least, I'm talking about the people from this estate. There are other explorers in the room who don't have that problem like…" he froze. "Okay, okay, got it. Yeah, sorry about that. I was going to say a bit more than I could."
Hera said, "No, don't worry about it. But I feel like I'm going to disappoint you now."
"Why is that?" Seth asked.
"I don't really have any questions about the room."
Seth paused and stared at the Empress for a moment, his blue feathers starting to poof from the steam.
"Really? You don't have anything to ask about the room?"
"I mean, I could ask if there's any interesting dungeons you think I should run, but something tells me that any ones that I try to will be held by the clan. And if I find anything interesting, they're going to say that I have to give it to them or something like that."
"You're not far off. But really? You don't have anything to ask about this place? Nothing at all?"
Hera paused, trying to see if she could understand what the guide was insinuating. She didn't really have any questions about the clan or about this room. But there was one thing that caught her attention wasn't exactly in the room, it was beyond it, which she wasn't sure if it would apply to the skill.
"I noticed how the mountains glow blue. It's very beautiful, but I never saw anything like that shade, at least. Actually," Hera stopped to look at Seth for a moment. "It's a very similar shade to your feathers, isn't it?"
Seth opened a big smile and nodded. "You are absolutely correct. To answer that question the way I want to answer, I'm going to spend all 5 minutes. Is that okay?"
Hera nodded, holding back a shrug. Like she had said, she really didn't care much about this place to learn more. It was just something to talk to the guy about. And maybe in the future have him keep an eye out for any trouble that the clan could be creating.
Seth jumped from the water and stood on top of the wooden bucket that he was carrying and started speaking. "You see, this room wasn't like this. This is a relatively new room, at least in terms of MAZE in general. And way back when, before it became this, it wasn't a valley between two mountains. It was just an empty flat field."
Hera found that interesting, "Then how did it become this?"
"A long, long time ago, before people were even people. We are talking about an age where the system hadn't even yet created the roles. It was ancient history when ancient history was still in the future. All that way in the past, there were places in the MAZE that were completely different than you imagine."
"There were creatures, monsters who could travel from room to room and keep growing and growing and growing. And I don't mean it by levels. Eventually, there was this gigantic, massive bird. A bird so big that the system even created a room on top of it. Because basically, there was nothing that could stop that creature. The system and the MAZE couldn't think about that creature dying, and by all accounts he would live forever. That's when something else happened. More monsters started to grow and get stronger. To the point where the first," he paused, looking to the side and rolled his eyes.
"Fine, I have to use that name then. It's wrong, but fine. The first version of a devil appeared. A monster that could grow unimpeded and wanted to destroy everything."
Hera was so far pretty relaxed in this conversation, just enjoying the hot spring with an eager guide who was sharing a story. But the moment she heard that phrase, 'The first version of a devil' she straightened herself up and started to pay closer attention to what was being said. Which, of course, Seth noticed and became even more excited to share the story.
"You see, devils, they have something," he looked to the side, "I have to explain that part. You can't just ask me not to. It's part of the thing," there was another pause, "Thank you."
"Anyway, like I was saying, devils have this thing, this drive that makes them want to destroy everything. We never really figured out why, and I don't know even if the system understands why, although if it does, it never told us. But either way, that urge is there. That instinct for destruction is there. And that was one of the first ones that really got big, because usually back then it wasn't that hard for another creature to destroy them. But this one, this one survived, and it started to grow and grow and grow, and it became so large to the point where it could rival that bird that I was telling you about."
"The two creatures fought, and the battle lasted years. And I'm not talking about on and off battles. It was a single continuous struggle that lasted for several years. Even the guides are not entirely sure how long that took, because they would go from room to room and use abilities that pushed them all away, only to meet them again in the middle. It was something out of mythology. Eventually, the devil struck the bird, the so-called Azure bird, with such a powerful attack that it ripped both of its wings out. The wings fell from the sky into the land below, being pushed from the rooms themselves. And falling in a different place."
Seth looked to the side, gesturing with his wings to create a mirror image of the valley, "The mountains, those are the bones of that creature that exists till this day. And that's all I can tell you about it. Sorry."
A portal appeared directly under Seth, who started to fall as Hera stared at the guide. Freaking out about the recent revelation, she reached to grab the Guide. Wanting to ask more questions about everything. She acted on impulse. Her hand wrapped around Seth's neck and she froze at the same time he gasped, "BAWKA!"
Comments
DrDankness
Oh crap. Hope that doesnt count for a strike!
