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MAZE - Chapter 1026 - A future city
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 22:34:45 +0000 UTCWith everyone ready for the hard mode, the group asked around just to see if there was anything they should be taking into the dungeon. But everyone said that there was nothing. Everything they needed would be inside of the dungeon, and unlike the normal mode where you could bring your own traps, the hard mode did not allow for that kind of thing. It was a bit strange considering that there was nothing stopping them from bringing the items with them, but people made it clear that they would understand once they got there. Unsure what that actually meant, the group just walked into the same passage that they've been walking every day for the past few weeks. The passage that would lead them to the dungeon.
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Would you like to enter
[Hard Mode] [Normal Mode]
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They all pick the hard mode and continued heading inside. But the moment they emerged from the tunnel, things were already wildly different. The small village of Scale Hearts had turned into a bustling city full of their people and not just them. Harpies, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen, they were all there. Talking, laughing, and moving along as if the place was a city like any other. There were various stores and restaurants everywhere, people selling small knick knacks on the side of the road, along with cars that floated over above the ground moving back and forth only to take off into the sky once they crossed certain roads.
"When they said this was a futuristic city, they were not kidding, huh," Callena gasped.
"Yeah. I was not expecting this much of a change," Pandora admitted.
"And where do we need to go now?" Farica asked.
"According to what some people told us, we just need to find the hunter's guild. We should be able to understand what to do from there," Hera explained. "And don't forget, once we are at the hunters' guild, we need to ask about the past of the island. That should trigger the whole 'here's how you see the past' thing that we are searching for."
"But damn, is this what their future would look like if they had survived?" Alex glanced around, seeing the massive buildings, the floating cars, and people just walking around happy and enjoying life. Even if they were on an island, you wouldn't be able to tell it just by looking at the city. It was a full-blown metropolis.
Just by looking up, she could see various large platforms that seem to be actual floors where people were moving back and forth. One of them was even transparent, made out of glass or something similar to it. It was very strange to see a dungeon with this many people. Especially considering that a good number of them were regular people, not the type of beings that one would only see inside a dungeon.
Hera herself had only seen that once before. In the dungeon back in Boothudurn, where she had to witness the fall of their previous homeland. Alternatively, she had seen fewer people during the vampire dungeon she ran with Alex and Bonnie, but even that sprawling city seemed to be less populated than this smaller one. And the only reason why she was considering this small was due to the fact that she could see the island itself when looking to the left and right. The giant buildings towered over everything, but they were not that wide or spread out, creating this unique feeling of being inside a Tower City instead of a regular town.
"Does anyone see the—" Hera stopped talking right away. The entrance of the dungeon was located inside the giant tree that was at the foot of the village. Or at least, that's how it was supposed to be in the real world and in the normal mode of the dungeon. But here, that tree was gone. The only thing left was this small stump located in the middle of a park with smaller versions of that same tree.
There was a plate by the side of the broken tree stump they were coming out of that read, "The original Torn Spire Tree, bringer of life and great work of the Faywyrm. May your saplings bless our future as you have blessed our past." It was a beautiful engraving, but that wasn't the reason why Hera turned around with a surprised expression.
Behind that park, behind all those trees, was the hunter's guild. And the reason she knew that was due to the large neon sign that was flashing with its name. The entire area didn't look like an actual gathering of hunters, but more like an arena made for shows. A place for spectacle and entertainment. It didn't have just a smaller building that could be recognized as a place for people who made their lives by hunting monsters together, but there was also a giant stadium behind it, the type of thing that superstars would be using for their concerts. Hera was pretty sure that during the olympics, Bright Night and Dark Star used a place very similar to this one for their performance.
"I think we found the hunter's guild," Callena said, but her statement sounded more like a question.
"I guess so. This still feels weird. Why did they change so much? Weren't they supposed to just be going out for food?" Yerel frowned.
"I mean, I guess in a more civilized environment, hunting for food stops being a necessity. You know?" Bonnie explained.
"That may be true but it still feels strange," Farica added.
"Okay, let's not judge a book by its cover. Maybe this is not as weird as it seems. So let's just go there and figure out what's this all about. Unless you guys want to explore the city first," Hera suggested.
"Speaking about that, can't we take a look at those flying cars? Maybe figure out how they work so we can make them outside," Pandora suggested.
"It doesn't work like that," Shane replied.
"Why not?"
"Because any piece of technology that goes beyond what we have, actually not just beyond, that even gets close to what we have outside, is replaced by mana constructs when you're inside of the dungeon. So even if those cars could be made with our current technology, we wouldn't be able to use them to get a blueprint or something," the Empress explained.
"Oh, that kind of sucks," Pandora frowned.
"In a way, yes, but it's actually for the better," Bonnie interjected.
"What do you mean?" Farica turned to her as they started walking towards the entrance of the hunter's guild.
"Think about it. If we could get technological advancements from the MAZE, there would be nothing forcing us to learn and improve our knowledge. We could just get the handouts and do whatever we wanted with it. Sure, on the short term that might be better, but if we don't know how to use them, how to use those tools or whatever we're finding, how are we supposed to improve them or continue developing new and better technology?" Bonnie continued.
"I guess that does make sense," Alex nodded.
"It's also not like the MAZE doesn't help with that kind of thing," Hera gestured to the road where a car was stopping and its wheels were turning sideways before it took off. "Just by looking at the car doing that, we can have some ideas about ways we could create flying cars."
Shane nodded. "The one problem with that is that I doubt any technology would be able to replicate what a high level Explorer can do. I mean, even those cars, I doubt any of them would be as fast as a level 80 Explorer with a powerful flying ability."
"Or a powerful mount," Pandora turned to Hera.
The Empress held back a chuckle hearing that. The Ophidianite prospect was a bit too eager to butter her up. It wasn't needed, of course. Hera had already half decided that she would allow Pandora to join the Ophidianites, but at the same time she would be the first proper addition. The first person who went through the right channels in order to become one of them. All that was left was decide what those were.
But she did have a point. When Nimbus was in his awakened form, Hera had a hard time thinking that any regular car would be able to keep up with him. Sure, maybe a race car, but those are very specifically designed to be fast, not something that could be used by regular people. And Nimbus himself was still relatively low level compared to the other people who were called high-level explorers. His top speed would likely increase a considerable amount as she managed to increase her own level and attributes.
They walked towards the hunter's guild and as soon as they arrived, they saw a few posters by the entrance announcing fights against a couple of different monsters. Including something called the Grand Tournament, which only showed two teams facing each other ready to fight. Maybe that's what people told was fun about this dungeon. They would fight against other people. But for some reason that didn't fit quite well with the personality of those who were running this dungeon over and over again.
Once they passed through the front door, there were quite a few people moving around. Some seemed to be hunters wearing their full gear and preparing for something, while others looked like regular people who came here for some reason or another. They waited in line for a moment until the receptionist, a Scale Heart with green scales and a short stubby tail greeted them.
"Welcome to the hunter's guild! I'm afraid the tickets for the next tournament have been sold out. You are free to try your luck in the gachapon to get tickets as there are still a few available for the tournament, and if you see any scalpers please let us know. That is not allowed under the guild rules."
"Hi there," Hera spoke up, knowing that for being Noble blood she might get better treatment. "We actually just got here and have no idea what this tournament is all about. Could you explain it to us? We also came here for another reason, but I think we're all curious about that part."
"Oh, of course. Glad to see our fame is spreading so much to the point that even someone like you came by," the receptionist smiled, showing her teeth in a friendly manner. "The tournament is a hunting tournament, although hunting might not be the correct term. Basically, every year, the number of creatures who have mutated on the island increases. We try to capture a few of them and bring them here around this time every year when there's a peak of mutations happening, and various teams compete fighting those creatures and earning points for their speed, technique, and various other metrics."
"At the end, the team that wins tournament is able to fight the most dangerous prey that we were able to track down and capture. We also have a different job for those who don't want to be a part of the tournament but still want to help. Which is going onto the island and capturing the Apex creatures. We still have openings for the tournament itself if you are interested in that, or if you want to help to capture the monsters that will be used in the tournament, I can also assist you with that. Like I said, the tickets are a bit of an issue. They are all sold out, but we have our random ticket draw over here," she pointed to a gacha-like machine on the side.
All of them had space for a coin to be placed and then a lever spun, which would make the capsules inside to drop and inside it would have their prize. It was just like the one that Hera used to get her first level up.
"Those are completely random. I do have a list of all the tickets that are still present on the machine, but aside from that, I cannot help you with anything. If you want, you can try your luck and pull them for a ticket to the tournament. We still have," she tapped a few things on the computer in front of her, "23 tickets for regular seats, four tickets for front row seats, and one ticket, which is the grand prize for box seats. The grand prize let's you bring up to 20 people with you and you'll be sat in one of the boxes on the upper floors of the arena. There is catering, there is a meet and greet with the hunters that win the tournament, and it's a whole special package but like I said, special prize you can only get if you try your luck."
"Oh, that's very interesting and maybe we'll be helping the tournament or participating in it," Hera looked back and everybody seemed to agree with her, even though they were not entirely sure what they were going to do just yet. "But before that, can you help me with something else? I heard that we could learn a bit more about the past of this island if we came here. How does that work? Do we have to schedule an appointment or something?"
"Oh, no," the receptionist opened a massive smile. "No need for an appointment. Just give me a second?" She quickly reached for a phone that was on the side and made a call.
Less than a minute went by when someone else, also wearing the same kind of outfit that she was wearing, black pants, white shirt, and a green blazer, which seems to be the uniform of those who worked here, approached. But they were a harpy instead of a Scale Heart. They exchanged a few words before the woman stepped out of the desk and said while gesturing to a corridor, "Please."
She introduced herself as Anara and started explaining the process. "To see the past of the island, you can only do it once a week, but anyone can do it. There's no restriction, we allow everybody to come and check. All I have to do is make sure that the room is empty. If not, we might have to wait a little, but it shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so. That's how long people tend to take. Occasionally there's someone who has a better connection to the Feywyrm and is able to stay for a bit longer but those are very rare occasions."
"Now, I'm taking you to a museum exhibit. You will be seeing the skull of the Feywyrm. The very same dragon that created this island. Everybody is going to touch it. You can touch it all at once or you can touch it each individually and then you will be transported into its memories. While inside there, you won't be able to do anything. You can only listen and look around. But you have full control over where you're looking, but there are areas that probably won't show you anything specific since the Feywyrm won't have memories about what you're trying to look at."
"Keep in mind that everything that you're going to see already happened. Okay? Don't try to change things, don't try to interact with things. You can try, but it's not going to matter because, like I said, it already happened. Nothing you do there will make a difference. You're just watching events that already transpired. The one thing you can do is ask questions to the Feywyrm. But it's not a guarantee that it will answer you. Sometimes it's just going to continue talking and other times the questions are just not something that they were able to know or that they have a response to."
"Because you're not talking to the actual dragon. You're talking to its remnants, its lingering will that still resides on the skull. It took a lot of effort to even unlock this, and it takes a lot of effort to keep that will still be here. And before anyone asks, no, we're not trying to revive the dragon. The dragon is dead, this is not something related to necromancy. It's just someone being able to tap into the memories of an object and using that as a catalyst to speak with those memories." She stopped in front of a large door adorned with the image of a tree-like dragon. "Now, are you ready?" she said with a big smile.
