perizou
patreon
MAZE - Chapter 1047 - Before Deakoshara
🕑 Added 2025-04-25 02:54:55 +0000 UTCHera took the next couple of days while they were returning to Zaxalam to study more about combat styles in general. At the same time, she requested that her Court members kept trying to transform the grasshopper setup, meaning the slash, stab, and throw, into something more unique. Something that was just theirs, instead of a replica of a skill given by a dungeon.
She had no idea if that was possible and, unlike what Insomniac told her, there didn't seem to be a consensus if transforming dungeon skills into something that belongs to them was truly possible. When Hera tried searching the net about that information, the discussion was very divided.
Some would say that turning a dungeon skill into something that truly belonged to whoever had it was the epitome of mastery over the skill. Others stated that people just need to figure out the actual setup of the skill. As in what the skill actually did, and not just on a surface level but a deeper understanding of it.
The basic theory behind that was simple. In order to make your skill your own, you would need to be able to create it by yourself without the system or the skill, but in practice, that was much harder than what it seemed.
Hera decided to study about this first, after being reminded again that the training she went through when she joined the guild was pitiful, to say the least. It left way too many gaps in her knowledge. And she wasn't the only one.
Even the dwarves from Boothudurn, from what she knew, had some of the gaps that the empress herself also had. But this was exactly why she wanted to study and understand things better. If she were to just continue as things were, there was a decent chance that she might find something else in the future that could have made her life much, much easier.
The problem was there was a lot to learn, and she didn't really know where to start. Helena even apologized for not knowing that specific detail about combat styles, but she was a mage. She didn't really focus on physical combat enough to know about that kind of thing.
"Now that you mentioned it, I do remember how there was something my classmates talked about once when they were learning combat styles, but I never took the time to properly understand it," she said.
While Shane, Milo and Adriel never thought about bringing that up since it was just basic information. It would be like telling people that they needed to get water if we were going to travel to the MAZE. Still, coming out that she knew about that yet, she was working with Alex and Bonnie to come up with all the topics they learned during the training so that they could double check with someone else, maybe even the alliance and confirm if they were missing anything basic like that from their pool of knowledge.
In addition, it was a good way to distract herself from all the tabloids that were popping out about the event. Apparently, the Empress didn't do anything too egregious aside from maybe talking a bit too loud or being too casual with some people. But her blades were not really the same.
Livy and Crimson ended up joining Wild Born singing once he changed the song to a show tune from a TV show they really enjoyed. And all three of them together were an absolute travesty. Livy had a deeper voice, but she kept insisting on trying to take the high notes. While Crimson wasn't really a good main singer since her voice was too small but she kept trying to get the bigger parts over and over, causing the song to almost sound muted while they were singing.
Nimbus and Viper ended up wrapped up in a prank war between the Elves and the beastmen that resulted in someone shaving a beastman's tail, which was considered a very bad offense to them. But the man took it in stride nonetheless, saying that it was just a cultural exchange and he did need a trim.
Vulcan created an impromptu forge to repair various pieces of equipment. At the same time, he was discussing various techniques and ways to improve the quality of products with the dwarves. Their focus was Elemental affinities and how they should match what the material asked for. It was a topic of much contention all across the board, but at the same time it was a heated discussion that every single one of the crafters around was more than happy to participate. The problem became once someone tried to say that strength wasn't really and element and Vulcan took that personally.
But the worst offenders were Lurize and Filigree. They ended up being pulled to the side by a few reporters. And while they were initially hesitant to say anything, after a couple drinks, things changed. One of the women who was asking questions changed the subject to Hera herself, asking how she was in her day-to-day life. With that, the Royal tutor and the Weaver started to sing like a pair of canaries.
They talked not just about Hera's personality and how she cared about the others and always tried to do what she thought was right, but also started talking about some of her less glamorous habits. For instance, how ever since she discovered she could shed her scales, the empress was constantly trying to come up with a good use for the remaining skin. Or how she tended to spend much more time than she had to taking a bath. Even reaching to the point where the title blades were forced to drag her outside of the bathroom. And how that happened on more than one occasion.
It was the equivalent of having your parents share all the embarrassing stories about her childhood. Which, to his credit, Eridan was able to avoid doing even after he was a bit tipsy. Then again, since he was just level 8, he didn't drink the more potent beverage created by Nereus. But still, his efforts were commendable. After all, no one would blame him for wanting to say how proud he was of his daughter. Especially considering she was a hero aspirant.
Unfortunately, those were not the only problems the empress was dealing with right now. During the meeting with the Council, she became aware of another situation that was going to drive her up the wall.
Apparently, even though she was the leader of her own people, and she was trying to uncover the secrets of a lost civilization. And that she had participated in the final big battle of the war, and that her friends were responsible for saving many of the people who were affected by the Soldiers of Strength. And that she herself decided to help her with the curse, and as a matter-of-fact Hera was the main reason why Alex got cursed in the first place. Despite all of that, the alliance couldn't just leave her be and do whatever she wanted to do.
She could continue for a couple of months, but after that, the alliance would need to request her to participate in other events or deal with other situations that were happening all around the MAZE. This was part of being a hero. A job that Hera never actually asked for, but still, it was something she had to do. At least if she wanted to maintain her status as an honorary member of the council and make sure that in the future Ophidianites will be heard like any of the other MAZE species.
Which meant that, despite everything, if she were not to find a way to clear Deakoshara from the poison in a few months, she would need to deal with something else before she could return and continue her work.
That pissed off Shane even more than Hera herself. And the explorer almost went after the council to complain. Then again, the enchantress couldn't really argue with the council. She had no bargaining power considering she refused to participate in the war and continued to explore Zaxalam while everything else was going on.
Sure, she was also there to protect the dwarves from Boothudurn, but everybody understood that she was basically saying that she was going to sit the war out. And while no one could blame her for doing such a thing, she gained no sympathy from those who had to participate in the fight.
Still, Hera was confident enough that she would at least be able to solve the issue with the lake in the next couple of months. She might be saying that more to calm herself than anything, but considering the time they spent taking the set items, it made sense that doing something like that would be beneficial.
Not to mention, Shane had been working on a way for her to explore Deakoshara by herself for a while. But her legacy didn't allow her to simply say 'Hey, enchant one type of Mana to stop it from hurting me.' Instead, she was having to go the long way around and make various enchantments that would increase her poison resistance to the point where they would become something powerful enough to fight off the poison of the room.
The only problem with that idea was that she would need a specific Legacy skill that she still had no access to. Something that Darni used when he was in charge of bringing emissaries from other places back to his home room. Mostly because it had a possibility of being cast on multiple people. As a matter of fact, the skill itself was supposed to be a multi-target thing. But Shane only wanted it for the single target abilities.
Still, the council didn't have anything specific for Hera to do right now, which meant that there was no guarantee that in 2 months, they would request her services. Then again, the Empress understood that expecting 2 months of nothing going wrong anywhere was a bit much. One way or another, Hera was going to use the time she had to the best of her ability.
Even if she was already working on turning the grasshopper skills into a version of her own, and trying to learn more about combat styles, she was still going to explore Deakoshara, come hell or high water. As a matter of fact, during their trip back, she spent a large amount of time talking to Shane about everything they might be finding in the room.
They knew about the Guardian Beasts of the Naga, which meant that it was possible they had to fight or at least interact with a giant creature that was protecting the structures. Shane had also completed an extensive analysis of their customs and some of the political layout of the civilization. They also knew about Darni as one of the Naga Heroes. As well as his brother, Lantra, the forgotten emperor.
And they kept going over everything they had learned about the Naga, the culture, their type of buildings and everything they saw during dungeons in order to get as well prepared as possible for what was about to come.
They were discussing the possibilities of what was creating that poison in the room. Shane still had a definitive certainty that it wasn't something that became ingrained with the area. Otherwise, they would never be able to explore the place. And in her opinion, it was either some part of an ancient spell that was still working to this day or a creature that was capable of creating that poison or causing that poison to exist.
In the first scenario, where that was just an ancient magical effect, Hera felt somewhat confident of being able to deactivate it. After all, she had enough skills related to magic and enough knowledge related to large-scale spells that she would be able to at least destroy one of them.
If the situation was different, and they were dealing with a guardian beast, that could prove to be more complicated. Chika, who was living at a much lower level, was able to become extremely powerful. Deakoshara was a place that monsters could reach level 69 by just living there. A guardian beast could be, in theory, well past level 100. If such a thing was possible.
Then again, maybe it was still stuck on the right level for the area. And being the Ophidianite Empress, and the aspirant hero, maybe she could pull in some favors and have a high level party coming to help deal with the creature. But that was going to be the last resort.
She still didn't want to destroy even more of the Naga civilization, and getting rid of their guardian beast felt very much like something that would cause that kind of disruption. But all this extrapolation wasn't really going to help or even be necessary. After all, as soon as they got back, Hera would be properly going to explore Deakoshara. And hopefully be able to discover even more about the ancient Naga who were, in a sense, her ancestors.
Comments
Personssess
Tftc!
DrDankness
We are almost there
