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MAZE - Chapter 1055 - Missing Cattle
🕑 Added 2025-05-14 01:20:30 +0000 UTCOn the day that Shane left with the others to visit Spiral, Hera had scheduled a meeting to go over some of the bureaucracy related to being a hero. There were a couple of events that they wanted her opinion on. Things that they wanted to advertise as being endorsed by the aspirant hero. Like it or not, in this day and age, publicity was a big part of the job.
After they were done with that conversation, the empress also asked something that had been bothering her for a while. "You might need my help with something, but you're not talking to me about what it is. What is this big thing that might be happening in the near future?"
"For now, you don't have to worry about it. It's just something that is developing. Once I have more concrete information, I'll let you know," Typhera replied and tried to change the subject, but the empress pulled back.
"Look, I get that there might be something I might need to do. But your kind of holding me hostage right now. How am I supposed to know what's going to happen or what I will be doing if you don't give me any information? I get that I am an aspirant hero. Even though I never asked for it, but if you're going to keep asking me not to do what I want because you might need help, I need a bit more than just a hang tight."
The harpy queen, who was looking down on her hologram checking some documents, stopped and looked up to see the empress properly. She never asked to be a hero. That was a position that the Alliance gave to her, with little to no regard for her opinion. They were almost blackmailing her into taking the job, since the presence of her people in the future was attached to that. This wasn't something any of the members of the council didn't know. But they often forgot. They would either treat her like she was just another one of their subjects with very little say in what she was supposed to do, or, they would ask of her a degree of responsibility that went far beyond what anyone would expect of someone so young. And someone who, in reality, had so little influence in the MAZE.
"You're right. It's not fair to not explain to you what's going on. I'll tell you what's happening and I'll be sure to try to maintain that pattern in the future too. If we're asking you to be ready for something, we're going to tell what that something is. Or at least I will. I can't promise anything for the other council members, but I will try to talk to them so everybody's on the same page."
"Thank you. Honestly, thank you." Hera smiled.
"My dear, you're not making enough of a deal over this. I know that we are not really fair to you more often than not. But that's a topic for another time. For now, here's what's happening. We have a room nearby, just a week's travel away, that is dealing with some strange disappearances. Not people. No one is going missing, but a lot of their cattle are vanishing in the middle of the night. We sent some people to investigate and so far, the results are inconclusive."
Hera frowned. "Okay, but why is that something that requires an aspirant hero?"
"Well, there are a few reasons. First, no matter how many cameras were put in place, we just can't seem to find what is making the cattle vanish. Because they're not being abducted out of the screen or something. The animals are actually just walking away of their own volition to an area where they are not supposed to be going and are trained not to go. And then disappearing into the night. We don't know if that's the work of an individual, a monster, something else, maybe even a wendigo. So to cover all our bases, we were thinking about sending you to help."
Hera nodded, but pressed. "Okay. But why me? I'm not saying this in the way of 'I'm better than this kind of job.' But why would you need me to go after missing cattle?"
"We don't. Not really." Typhera shook her head. "But it is good for us if we keep your name around. If you simply vanish and show up the next time something awful is happening, people might start saying that your entire existence as a hero is just a stunt. So if we have evidence that you are still working on various jobs, it helps us solidify your presence. Another reason why we were thinking about sending you was actually because of Viper and Crimson. They are Spymasters, correct?
Hera nodded, "Yeah."
Typhera smiled. "That's exactly why. We think that whatever is doing this has a very powerful stealth skill or a spell. So calling up people who are proficient in that area would help. Another reason to call you specifically is because no matter how many people or cameras we are putting around the farmlands, the cattle are still running away. And it's never in a place where there is something watching. Somehow, whatever is doing this is always able to find a blind spot. And we even tried covering all spots, but when we do that, the cattle don't go missing."
"Isn't that the problem solved?" Hera asked.
"Not really. There's a lot of personnel involved in that and the actual materials needed to make the right types of cameras to cover the entire range of the spectrum, would be a bit too much. In other words, while having people looking over that area is a solution, it's not a long-term one. We can't afford to have hundreds of people all around the farmlands on watch every single day. A lot of effort and manpower that, frankly, wouldn't make the entire operation worth it."
"But is it worth it, though?" Hera frowned. "I mean, I know a lot of dungeons that drop meat. Why do we need to grow cattle? Wouldn't it be easier to just have wild monsters and people hunting them?"
"Maybe. But it will be wildly more expensive." The Harpy Queen tapped a few things on her tablet and sent a few pictures to Hera. "You see, in this room that we're talking about, there are three different types of monsters being raised. This," the first picture showed a field of eight-legged boars that were about the size of horses. They looked like pigs, but had bigger tusks coming from their mouths. "They're called spider pigs." Typhera changed to another picture, now to one where there were several bulls with green and black fur grazing on top of large plains filled with a shallow lake, unbothered by the water and just walking around without even splashing with each step. "These are the Water Buffaloes. And these," the last picture showed a group of red and yellow elephants with two trunks and four pairs of ears. In addition to some spikes on the small tail. "Are the Bumblephants. And there are a lot of them in this room. We are currently taking over 3 tons of meat from there. Which is then sold and transported to various rooms in the MAZE. It is one of the biggest breeding facilities we have anywhere. And while you are not wrong in saying that some rooms have dungeons that could give you meat as drops, you will never get as much as we can get here."
Hera nodded. "Yeah, but that's only because you set up all the infrastructure. Wouldn't the dungeons be more effective in the long run? I mean, having people running dungeons over and over again would not just help them bring more gold and other supplies, but also help them train more levels. We would have people who are stronger and can farm the dungeon quicker than the time it will take to plant one of those animals to grow."
"There is some truth in what you're saying. But that's not strictly correct. For one, if we were taking all our food from dungeons, we would be completely reliant on explorers. And most explorers tend to not stay too long in a single place. Maybe a couple years at most. They are always trying to get stronger until they find a place to retire. There are a lot of people in the MAZE who don't want to spend their entire lives fighting. And because of that, the cost of living for them is different. They don't have access to the endless supply of gold that an explorer might get inside a dungeon. Which is a good thing, otherwise money would lose its value. Inflation would be too widespread and that's already a big problem in the deeper layers of the MAZE. That's even why some of the deepest cities work more with a bartering system than on money level. It just doesn't make any sense to ask for money when running a dungeon can get you a few billion gold."
The queen continued, "With a setup like this, we don't need to depend on anyone. We can just grow our own food and then have more people consuming. That's the reason why agriculture and farming in general was a pivotal moment in our society. Without it, we wouldn't be able to grow as much as we do now. But we can have that conversation another time. The point is, some stuff's been going on in this room. And we believe that you have a few ways of helping that situation. Viper and Crimson are one of them. Being able to have many eyes across a wider area is another. Because while we do believe that the monster or whatever is capable of recognizing cameras and that's why it's evading detection, we don't know if that will be the case for your flying weapons. Especially if we can find a way to hide.You said that we can cast spells on them. Maybe we could set you up somewhere and just have various mages casting invisibility spells on each of your floating weapons so they can keep watch."
"Lastly, there's another possibility that we are exploring right now which we might ask for your help. Some are expecting that this would be the work of a wendigo. And we know that you have a very extensive history with them. More so than many others that live in the MAZE, which is why your name was suggested to be part of the people who are going to deal with that. However, you also know that Helena finally was able to create a working prototype of her wendigo detection device. Between having one person deal with the problem and testing a device that would allow anyone to solve that problem, we are prioritizing the latter. But if we can confirm it is a wendigo, remind me to ask you to go take care of it."
Hera nodded. "Okay. I can help with that, especially if Helena is going to be there. She doesn't have a good history with wendigos. But how long do you think that's going to take?"
"Well, Helena is supposed to get there with the prototype in around 3 days. Once she confirms that there is indeed a wendigo there, we will send you, if needed, of course. And then it's going to take you all week to get there. So about 10 days."
"You're going to let that creature be moving around for 10 days?"
"Yes. We believe that will be enough time for the wendigo to cause any serious damage. And it's just a level 23 area, so we shouldn't have any issues with it growing out of control. But, if we notice that either you're taking too long or the creature is growing too fast, we have ways to pull stronger explorers to help. We know for a fact that there is a group that is currently on vacation about 2 days away and they're all above level 70."
"Why don't you call them now?" Hera asked.
"Because, honestly, they are way too expensive. While I did say that people who live on the higher layers work more with a bartering system, what they're going to request is going to be something absolutely ridiculous like weapons from dragon bone, or the skin of a devil or something nonsensical like that. And we're not going to have much choice other than accepting it."
"So I'm the cheaper option?" Hera raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. But it doesn't mean we are not going to pay you. You're going to receive a fair reward for something like that. It should be already much higher than what anyone could get from that level. And we're also discussing what else we could add as a thank you for your troubles, since we know we are holding you back from continuing your exploration."
"I'll hold you to it. I really wanted to start diving deeper into Deakoshara right now. But if that's all, then I'm going to head out."
"Why?" Typhera asked.
"Because while I can't go deeper into the Naga homeland, we still have a lot to do on the outskirts of the doorways." Hera explained. "We're going to see if flying there is a possibility. We know that the rain is not as dangerous anymore. Although it is still made of poison. But we have yet to see any flying creatures in the area. So Nimbus is going to fly around a bit and see if anything shows up and tries to eat him. If he doesn't come back, then maybe the air is free for us in their home."
Hearing that, the Harpy Queen perked up. "Oh? Really? Let me know if that's the case. I have been talking about the Royal explorers becoming a more inter-species organization than something solely related to one specific kingdom. I would love to have a few of my people joining and helping you with your exploration."
Hera stopped and smiled, doing her best to keep a neutral face. "That is a very interesting proposition, Queen Typhera. I do hope that you are also considering some sort of compensation for your people joining the Royal explorers. More specifically, this particular expedition. After all, we are traveling in a room never seen before and there are many resources that could be very valuable in there. Giving you free reign over them without asking for a recompense would be simply unfair to any other organization who might wish to join us later on."
Typhera stared at Hera for a long moment before smiling. "Okay, that's a good one. That's exactly the kind of thing you need to say anytime someone is offering something that sounds stupid. And I'm sure we can work something out, although considering the help that the harpies will provide, I do have some bargaining power. We were the only ones who would be able to fly and scout the area without using skills, after all."
Hera nodded. "I wouldn't expect anything else, but again, this is the Naga homeland. I can't exactly just let your people gather everything they can from it."
Typhera smiled. "And neither you should. I'm really happy you're starting to get the hang of things."
Hera let out a sigh, breaking all of her stern expression. "Honestly me too. It's a bit exhausting to have to think about this kind of stuff all the time."
"I know. But that's one of the issues of being in command. You have to deal with it. Do let me know how things pan out. I am very curious about that room. Even if not as curious as you or Shane."
Hera smiled and then turned off the call. A few moments later, she was back in Deakoshara, giving a Royal Quest to her blade. Nimbus was going to fly around and try to get a proper map of the plateau where they were located. The lake was steadily getting clearer, although the progress had been slowing down the past day or so. But it was already to the point where the rain wouldn't hurt everyone that touched it too much. Which meant the Sentinel could fly around without being affected by the acid and still come back in one piece.
As a matter of fact, from what Hera had stated, if it wasn't for Typhera's request, she would have doped deeper into the room. Likely vanishing for a couple of weeks before returning. But such were the duties of an aspirant hero. She could only hope that nothing would happen in the room where they were supposedly waiting for her and she could return to her exploration soon. But, unfortunately, she had a skill that usually didn't allow things to pan out that way.
Comments
DrDankness
Hmmmm interesting. Typhera is def thinking long term about her possible change into a ophidiante. This kind of coaching is invaluable.
