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MAZE - Chapter 1025 - Meaning of message
🕑 Added 2025-03-08 04:03:54 +0000 UTCIn her room once again, Hera was talking to Shane and Pandora about the information shared by Nana Mittens. They did have a brief moment to say how much they liked the guide. Which was quickly going to become a favorite for all three of them. But now, the topic in question was the message given by the cat guide.
Thankfully, Twiggy was able to remember the entire life lesson given by Nana Mittens. It was one of the benefits of Hera's court which allow her to give a command for them to remember things they saw, or int his case, heard.
"Right," Shane said with a frown. "So it's about regret. It's about someone doing something that they regret."
"I don't think so," Pandora replied. "I think it's more about plans that were given up. Like, someone wanted to do something, but then something else happened and they stop trying to do this first thing again."
"But what?" Hera asked, "I can't remember anyone in the Scale Heart village talking about not being able to do what they wanted. Is there something? Someone who gave up something, and it's just waiting around there?"
The dwarf had her arms crossed while sitting on her bed. "I don't think so. Or at least, I can't remember anyone in the dungeon who has any big regrets. Not ones that we can do anything about, at least."
"Are you saying that there's no one there who regrets anything?" Shane asked.
"No. I'm not saying that. Of course, people have regrets there. But they're small things. Like there is someone who made a bad stew last night. I mean, the night before we arrive in the dungeon. They felt the food wasn't really good. And they should have used different spices. And there's someone else who regrets not going to a lake with a few friends before the Apex monsters started to get more aggressive. Those small things. Nothing that feels like would make a significant difference, you know."
Shane nodded, understanding what Pandora was talking about. "So there's nothing? Nothing in the past of the dungeon that could help us?"
Pandora shook her head. "Nothing that I think of. But there is one thing about the past that we can take a look at."
"What?" Shane asked.
"Well, if we do the dungeon on the hard mode, it is possible for us to see how the island came to be. To have a glimpse of the memories left behind by the dragon. But we need to go to the Hard Mode for that and it's not really something that you have to do to finish the dungeon quest. It's kind of like an extra. But everybody who runs the dungeons here says that it's a rite of passage. You should do that once just so you know what's going on and then you can have a better appreciation for this room. That's the only thing that I can think of about showing us the past," Pandora explained.
"We will be looking into the dragon's past?" Shane asked.
"As in, The Dragon? The one that created the entire island? I don't see how they would be full of regrets," Hera frowned.
"Have you seen it?" Shane turned to the dwarf.
Pandora shook her head, "Not yet. The hard mode is, well, harder. And because of my level, no one was willing to go with me there."
Hera just turned to Shane. "I mean, that's probably the best option we have for now. Either that or we continue running the dungeon until we get a drop."
"Yeah, but that's not going to be easy. And even if we do get the item, it won't be as good as the drop we would get from whatever Nana Mittens told you, right?" the enchanter asked.
"From our conversation, that's the impression I have. But I honestly can't say anything for certain. It was all one of those guide things, you know. When they are not saying everything clearly," Hera explained.
"Yeah. But Let's do that. Let's check the hard mode. All of us have found a way of getting into the hard mode, anyway," Shane replied with a shrug.
All teams, individually, had managed to trigger the hard mode. To get it was easier than Hera expected, but it was also a bit annoying. For the hard mode of the dungeon, they had to kill the final boss before killing all the Apex creatures. More specifically, they have to kill the two Final Bosses which were the Nactra-Vall and its mate. Both who were still in the process of birthing their children.
To find them, they had to enter the valley and locate their cave at any point before the last Apex creature was found. But the specific location would change every run. There hundreds if not thousands of eggs would greet them. And as long as you killed the parents, they wouldn't hatch. Doing that would trigger the hard mode.
The next difficulty of the dungeon would create a scenario where the Scale Hearts were never driven off the island, and the place was able to continue growing and flourishing for a few thousand of years.
From the little information they acquired about the hard mode from other people running the dungeon, it was set in a futuristic era. Not Interstellar travel futuristic, but flying cars futuristic. And everyone said that the quest was a lot of fun, as long as you could handle what the dungeon was going to throw with you.
"So we're going to need to do another run for everybody to unlock the hard mode and then tomorrow we jump into it. Do you agree?" Hera asked the two.
"Actually, my team doesn't have to do that. We try to kill the Jarnak after killing both bosses and all the other apexes to see if the odds would increase. But after killing the Nactra-Vall, we couldn't find that piece of shit snake," Shane huffed.
"Hey," Hera protested.
"Do I really have to worry about talking bad about snakes in front of you?" Shane rolled her eyes.
"Not just in front of me. You want to become one of us. So yeah, stop talking shit about snakes."
Pandora chuckled at the interaction, causing the two of them to turn towards her with angry eyes.
"And what are you laughing at?" Shane asked.
"I.. I'm sorry?"
"You you want to be one of us too," Shane added. "And I think Hera didn't tell you the rest of the things you have to do to become an Ophidianite. You have to jump into a Viper pit, drink a full glass of snake venom and eat an entire egg hole without breaking it. If you can't do all those things, you can't become an Ophidianite."
Pandora turned to Hera with a worried expression. "What you looking at me for? I did all that"
"How can you swallow an egg without breaking?" Pandora gasped.
Hera shrugged, "You are going to have to figure that one out yourself. Part of the deal."
"But, but," Pandora kept looking back and forth, but she noticed a small quiver in Shane's mouth. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"
That question caused the enchanter to burst out laughing. "Of course I am."
"Why?" Pandora frowned.
"It was funny."
Hera smiled. "I have to agree. It was. But being serious now, you don't need to do all that," the Empress got up, "Let's go talk to the others and see if they are up for going to the hard mode."
The Ophidianite got up and started walking out. But before leaving the room, she stopped by what was left of her coffee break with Nana Mittens and grabbed a boiled egg that was sitting on a plate. She unhinged her jaw and put the egg in her mouth, swallowing it whole.
Shane leaned towards Pandora. "You did notice that she said you don't have to do all of those things, didn't you? Emphasis on all."
The dwarf just stared at the two of them with wide eyes, unsure if they were messing with her or if there was some truth in what they were saying.
Not long after, they met with the rest of the team and explain their discovery. Or at least, what they thought was their discovery. Everybody agreed to run the hard mode, even if it was mostly just out of sheer boredom. Doing the same dungeon over and over again was making everybody a bit stir crazy. But, unlike what they were doing on the regular version of the dungeon, they all would be going together for the hard mode. That way, they could be sure that they would be able to handle whatever was coming at them. If it was easy enough and they had a reason for running that again, they could try to set up teams once more to run it. But Hera made it clear that they would probably be setting off in two teens instead of three. She wasn't willing to risk anyone in the hard mode of a dungeon.
But that would have to wait another day since her team and the dwarven team needed to unlock the hard mode for this week. Both teams decided to speed run the dungeon, going directly to the boss as soon as they arrive. Making one small stop on the way. Since they already had to go into the valley, it only made sense to kill the Jarnak. After all, the snake creature would be on their path. And they had no idea if this new option they had uncovered would be something quick or if it would take time for them to find this new item.
For Hera, there wasn't any change. She killed the snake, only getting a few of its scales and claws from the bosses. On the other hand, the dwarves came out of the dungeon with something different. They acquired one of the earrings that was part of the set they were searching for. By itself, the earrings would just increase someone's poison resistance by 10%. And it's clearly stated that the set effect would allow people to spend mana to become completely immune to poison. But it didn't say any specifics as how much mana it would cost or any other effects of the set.
Beyond that, there was nothing very special about what they discovered. All the items were the kind of thing they were already expecting. The Empress considered for a moment if that extra 10% poison resistance would be enough to protect her from the lake. After all, her natural poison resistance was already extremely high. And that's one of the reasons why people tended to look for that kind of item. As congas they had skills that increased their resistances, the item effect would be compounded to the skill, increasing its effectiveness exponentially.
Then again, 10% might not be enough to solve that issue. It was too small an increase considering how much the poison of Deakoshara was hurting her. The thing that should really fix that issue was likely only the complete set with the ability to trade Mana for poison immunity. Even then, now that she thought a bit about it, it was likely that she would spend way too much mana in order to swim through the lake. Even if Livy was the one pulling her down.
That was another part of the problem. She wouldn't be just spending mana to protect herself but also the leviathan. And all that was even considering that they didn't find any monsters or some strange creature living underwater. If that did happen, there was another whole set of problems to be dealt with. Having that realization, Hera thanked Nana Mittens once more. It was likely that even the items they were spending almost a month to get would not be enough to complete their goals. Now, with this new item as a possibility, there was a real chance she could discover the secrets of Deakoshara.
