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MAZE - Chapter 1038 - A full court
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 03:51:59 +0000 UTCOnce Filigree returned to her titled form, her appearance had shifted. The horns that were on top of her head were no longer standing up, but instead they curled around her face, almost like the crown of an ancient Pharaoh. Everybody stared at her for a moment.
"You could change the way your horns look?" Lurize asked with the confused expression.
Filigree touched her head and shrugged. "I think so. I just felt more comfortable in my guardian form with the horns down."
"Can we change our forms?" Crimson turned to Daskka, who frowned for a moment before shaking her head.
"No. Well, sort of. You can't change your form now, but when you became a title blade, you still had a day or so to change the way you look. Now… yeah, I can't see a way for you to do that."
"That seems unfair," Livy frowned.
"I mean, is it?" Viper asked. "She said she felt more comfortable with her horns down, but I'm pretty comfortable the way I am. I don't think I would need to change anything."
The title blades looked at each other, thinking for a moment before nodding.
"That's fair. I do like the way I am right now. I don't see a reason for me to change," Vulcan replied.
"Really, you big guy?" Crimson raised her eyebrows.
"Yes, me. I'm not a daemon anymore. There's literally nothing else I could ask for."
"I mean, maybe you could ask for your face not to be like that," Livy teased, but Vulcan just stared at her.
"Like what, exactly?"
She shrunk under his gaze and just shrugged. "No no. Never mind. You look great."
Vulcan frowned. "Sorry. It's the Demonic influence. And I get it. I did my best to have a normal face once I joined the court. But there was something stopping me. The daemon part of me still forced its way through. And it's not something I can change. Maybe by the time I'm no longer part of the court, that part of me will be gone. Or I will be able to handle it better. But aside from that, my face is still my face," he made a point not to mention what would happen to his Strength Spirit self if it was still a daemon once the court was no longer around.
"Okay no hang on," Crimson turned to Daskka. "So Filigree can still change her form today?"
"I wouldn't go as far as saying today. I would say for the next… I don't know many hours. But yeah, if there's something she doesn't like, something minor, you know, like the shape of her horns or the color of her eyes. Small things like that are still open to change. She can't decide that she's no longer going to be a gazelle and be a rhinoceros, for instance, but small tweaks are still doable."
"Why is this the first time we are hearing about this?" Livy asked.
"No one complained about their appearance before. I didn't even know that was an option. Not until Filigree did that."
"This feels like a waste. You know, they could have changed it if they wanted now they're stuck like this," Hera turned to the court. "Not that I don't like you all the way you are, I just feel like I made you and you didn't get any input. Doesn't feel fair."
"I'm fine the way I am," Lurize replied.
"I'm glad," Hera said with a smile, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed how the rest of the team was just standing there, waiting for her to finish. As excited as she was about her new blade, she could imagine that it was a bit frustrating for the others to not be able to participate in the conversation, since there were a lot of the finer details that were only known by herself.
She turned around and started talking to the rest of the group and they quickly went after the Jarnak. Between all of them, everybody had a few ideas on what they could do to befriend the creature but, even after several attempts the result was the same. If they wanted to get another one of the set items, they need to trap it and then force it to attack and kill the Apex monsters in this dungeon. They were all a bit frustrated with that, but still decided to just do the regular plan and follow through. But they also let Filigree be the one taking the lead in attacking the creatures.
The Weaver was a menace when fighting. Hera had tried using the bladed wire gloves, but her abilities were not comparable to someone who actually knew what they were doing. Filigree was able to prepare traps and attack at the same time using one hand to force her target into a specific position while the other setup the wires in a way that the moment the monster touched them the creature would be ripped to shreds. If that wasn't enough, the very few who were able to escape her initial assault were affected by the bleed effect. The percentage-based chance being increased by Filigree's luck, which was considerably high, made effects like that trigger more often.
She ended up using her guardian form against one of the Apex creatures, more out of a way to show off than anything. But it was impressive to see this gigantic form of strings easily destroy a large dinosaur creature. At the end of the dungeon run, they were able to get another set piece, but it was an earring yet again. Meaning that they were still missing the final piece of two sets, but at least they were already working towards the third.
Once the dungeon was over, everybody headed back to their hotel, which was almost like a second home for all of them now. Hera had been here for so long that it was hard to say this was just a temporary residence. Once more, the Empress was in her room with Pandora, and the explorer this time asked a question that no one asked before.
"Say, Hera. Do you mind if I look at Filigree's stats?"
"I'm not the one you have to ask about that." The Empress summoned Filigree and Pandora repeated her question.
The Weaver glanced at Hera, but it was clear that she wouldn't give any opinion because, to the Ophidianite, that was something she was supposed to decide. Each court member had the right to their own body. So if they wanted to share some information, it was up to them. After a pause, Filigree nodded.
"You are free to look at the gloves, but I'm not comfortable showing you my full array of abilities."
"No, you don't have to show if you don't want to. I was just curious."
Filigree turned to Pandora and removed her gloves, revealing hands very similar to Hera's. However, instead of nails, she had hooves in the shape of claws like that of the Ophidianite.
"As I said, I'm comfortable showing you this." She presented the gloves while sending a message through Hera's mind.
'I assume you have noticed that already, my Empress, but now that we have our titled forms, our weapon forms only show the scaling of the weapon instead of the abilities.'
The Ophidianite mentally shook her head, 'No. Never noticed that. If I'm being honest, I don't think anyone ever asked to see your attributes before. Even Bonnie, Alex, Blue, or Helena. They all asked about the abilities but never to see the status screen.'
Pandora was looking at the gloves intently, but once she looked up, the dwarf noticed the uncomfortable expression of the Weaver. Finally, something clicked on her mind and she quickly returned the gloves, "Oh, sorry. That was rude of me, wasn't it?"
"A little bit," Hera couldn't help but nod afterwards. "It's kind of like asking someone to show you their attributes. Or the full status screens, actually. The type of thing you only do to someone you really trust. And while I'm fine showing you mine, my court members have their own privacy. So I'll leave that up to them."
Hera called her court and mentioned Pandora's request before the dwarf could protest. All agreed to share in the same way that Filigree had. They didn't mind showing the attributes of their weapons, but their full status screen was a bit more private. As a matter of fact, the only person who they felt comfortable showing their full attribute sheet was Hera or another member of the court. Still, one by one, the titled blades shared their weapon attributes. Which was mostly just the scaling.
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Nimbus - Protection
Tonfas - Griffon
Weapon Scaling
Empress Attribute: 180
Endurance X 27.9, Strength X 21.8, Agility X 21.8
Intelligence X 12.1, Charisma X 12.1, Luck X 12.1
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Lurize - Venom
Greatsword - Spirit Beetle
Weapon Scaling
Empress Attribute: 180
Strength X 19.6, Endurance X 19.5, Agility X 17.2
Intelligence X 17.2, Charisma X 17.2, Luck X 17.2
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Livy - Water
War Axe - Sea Serpent
Weapon Scaling
Empress Attribute: 180
Strength X 54, Endurance X 49.5, Luck X 45
Intelligence X 9, Charisma X 17.2, Agility X 9
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Crimson - Naga
Twin Daggers - Scryotra
Weapon Scaling
Empress Attribute: 180
Agility X 23.4, Intelligence X 21.2, Luck X 20
Strength X 14.5, Endurance X 14.5, Charisma X 14.5
Viper - Naga
Twin Daggers - Scryotra
Weapon Scaling
Empress Attribute: 180
Strength X 22.5, Endurance X 20.3, Charisma X 19.1
Luck X 16.9, Intelligence X 14.6, Agility X 14.6
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Forge Vulcan - Strength
Forging Hammer - Strength Spirit
Weapon Scaling
Empress Attribute: 180
Endurance X 33.3, Intelligence X 32.4, Strength X 26.6
Charisma X 20.7, Agility X 9, Luck X 9
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"Wow, Filigree's attributes are a lot higher than everybody else, isn't that going to cause some problems?"
"I mean, Nimbus is the oldest here, although technically, I think Lurize was the weakest, the one who had the weakest attributes originally. But because of the way this is set up, they grow together with me. Filigree's scaling is that high but her attributes are severely reduced I think they're about," Hera started to explain but the Weaver answered.
"30% of what they should be."
"Wow? That much?" Pandora gasped.
"Yep. I'm fine saying this but the normal blades get half of their original attributes plus 20% of my own attributes converted into scaling. The title blades, on the other hand, get 90% of their original status and half of my total scaling, but the total attributes they have cannot be higher than my total attributes. Honestly, even if I didn't have Exponential Growth, the Legacy would incentivize me having the most amount of attributes possible. Meaning that I would have to balance out my build one way or another if I wanted to really give them as much power as I can."
"But Filigree's scaling is almost triple everyone else's," Pandora pressed.
"I know. But eventually that's going to level out. I mean, like I said, Lurize and Nimbus were two of the first members I had in the court. Their scaling was really small too, I don't remember if they even broke 10 points in a single stat. But if you look at them now, they are on the same average as everybody else. Since their stats increase along with mine, then this means that they will, eventually, even out. So while Filigree is much stronger right now, in the future everybody will be more or less at the same level of strength."
"But if that's the case, then you're going to need to have almost triple the stats for that to happen. I mean, they take this extra increase from you, right?" Pandora asked.
"I know. It's not going to be easy to have them all at the same level of strength. But it is possible. Besides, I'm not a human that's only going to live to 100. I'm an Ophidianite right now and I have almost 300 years ahead of me to make that work. Even if I end up getting stuck at a few levels, I'm pretty sure I can get a lot of attribute points. I mean, right now I should already get a considerable amount. The last level I got was when the war ended. We will know soon since I have a feeling that my next level is right around the corner," Hera said with a smile, but mentally she also added one more thing to Daskka.
'Pandora makes a good point. Isn't there a way for us to increase the scaling of the older title blades? Maybe a way to make them level out with Filigree or with another court member?'
Daskka paused for a moment. "There is the Bestow Gift skill. You know you can give them skills and buffs and one of them can increase the scaling, so that's a temporary fix. I mean, it fixes the problem for now, but in the future, it will happen again."
'I see,' Hera replied. 'Maybe keep an eye out for some skills that might make the interaction to fix that. Maybe something like Army of One, but that affects the scaling instead of the buffs and stuff. If we could at least bring others to the level of a specific blade or something, we could be a lot more powerful.'
"Will do," Daskka nodded, "Oh, and mum, don't forget that you still need to give Filigree the tattoo base skill. The one you got from the centaur Legacy."
'That's right, I completely forgot about that. It's not automatic?' Hera replied.
"The skill was saved, but to be unlocked, you need to actually confirm that she will get it before being available. It's not like you have much of a choice. The skill is already there and you can't just say, oh never mind, she's not getting it anymore. But without the confirmation, Filigree doesn't have access to it. That's why it wasn't showing up in the attribute sheet," Daskka explained.
Hera quickly gave the confirmation and looked at the new skill. It was a simple addition, but that would be incredibly powerful in the future.
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Balm of Life
Bandages are never complete without a poultice, and you are able to create one such as it to improve the recovery of anyone who is not engaged in battle.
Creates a clear substance that can heal targets rapidly over the course of half an hour. Any aggressive movement or attack will disrupt the mana on the compound, removing all effects.
Mana cost: 10% maximum mana for 100 ml of poultice.
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With that skill now active, Hera felt confident she could focus on trying to get better drops from the Jarnak. Maybe she would be able to find it after a battle and heal it in order to gain its friendship. After all, that was one of the most ancient ways of becoming friendly with someone. Saving their life. As a matter of fact, the Empress realized that as sketchy as it sounded it was likely that she could create a situation like that in order to save the Jarnak and hopefully, be able to let it kill the Nactra-Vall, earning her the last piece of the set.
