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MAZE - Chapter 1021 - They just don't fit
🕑 Added 2025-02-28 04:04:04 +0000 UTC"What do you mean? How can this be a part of the legacy," Hera frowned.
These gloves, from as far as she could tell, had no synergy to any of her items. And there was nothing that could be considered part of the same set. As a matter of fact, from what she understood, every titled blade had to be made from a weapon and something that was related to a living creature. Like the twins and the piece of Scryotra that was blessed by spirits. Or Livy coming from a literal sea serpent.
The only items in her possession that had a connection to a living creature were her necklace, which housed the herald itself and the bracelet that was integral to the existence of the Ophidianites. It was obvious that she was not willing to give up either of those items in order to get a titled blade. After all, those were two things that she would likely never be able to replace, while a titled blade could be acquired in different ways.
"Yeah, mum. I'm not 100% sure about that. And the Legacy is trying to see if this would really work. But it seems like this pair of gloves has a really good synergy with your brooch."
"Brooch? You mean my cloak pin?" Hera glanced towards the small metal pin by her shoulder. The one she got from the hard mode of Yulan's dungeon. It was loosely connected to a sphinx since it could create riddles and was basically the bust of one of those creatures. But it was far from being alive in some form. Every other title blade had a deeper connection to their animal side. The brooch was, at most, the sculpture of a living creature. Not the actual creature itself.
Daskka nodded in response. "Yeah. That's why it's a bit weird. It's saying that if we were to reach 100% familiarity, it might be enough to connect the gloves and the brooch. But it's not giving a full confirmation, just stating a possibility."
Hera frowned and shook her head. "But it really doesn't make any sense. What do those two things have in common? I can't see the connection being made."
'Maybe it has to do with both of them having healing abilities,' Lurize suggested in their minds, not wanting to speak out loud.
"That feels too much of a stretch. It's like saying that a weapon that can create fire could be linked to a blanket. It's just not the same," Hera sighed.
"Maybe it has to do with the trapping aspect," Crimson suggested.
"I think that enters the same issue with the blanket thing. It's too broad," Nimbus frowned, " What about the color?"
Once more, the idea was completely dismissed as the gloves and the pin did not share the same colors. The gloves were brown with treads of white while the brooch was a multicolored metal like bismuth.
"Maybe it's because both of them are egyptian?" Livy suggested, making everybody turn to the Leviathan.
"I get the brooch, but why are the gloves egyptian?"
"I mean, they're not. But the thing we fought was kind of egyptian. He had that Crown thing that we see the Pharaohs wearing. Maybe that's enough for the connection. Like, not enough, but enough to maybe work."
Livy's suggestion made the court exchange a glance. They felt what that was probably the best explanation they could get.
Turning to the Herald, Hera asked, "Ok. Then all I have to do is reach 100% familiarity with this and then we will know if we can add it to the court as a title blade or not?"
"That's pretty much it. But we only be sure after you add the weapon to the court. Unfortunately, if it's not a part of the court, we won't have the final answer."
"I see. And can I add a new court member, or are all the slots full?"
"You can't add another one right now, but you don't have to kick anyone out. You still have to reach 100% familiarity, so maybe by the time it gets there, we can have another slot," Daskka explained.
"I guess that's how I'm fighting the dungeon next. Using some strange bladed glove wire thing that I never use before," Hera sighed.
"Well, you did say you wanted to practice," Daskka smiled at Hera.
Hera rolled her eyes and turned to Pandora in order to explain the situation. The dwarf had only heard part of the conversation, meaning that she missed a few aspects of it.
"Now all we have to figure out is how I can practice with these gloves if they don't fit my hands. Even if I try to get something similar, it won't get to 100% familiarity unless I use the real thing."
"What if one of us uses it?" Livy asked.
Hera return to the Leviathan and asked, "Who? This is not going to fit anyone."
"What do you mean?" Livy frowned and started looking around.
Her hands were not a good fit, for obvious reasons, they were just too big. Nimbus had a similar issue to Hera, as his hands were talons instead of fingers. The twins also had claw-like hands instead. That left only Lurize or Vulcan. The royal tutor was a giant suit of armor and his hands, or more specifically, his gauntlets, we're also too big and the gloves wouldn't fit him. Vulcan, at first, seems like a good idea. But once he showed his fingers, it was clear that it wasn't going to work either. He also had large claws instead of nails.
"Well shit," Livy rumbled.
Hera nodded. "Yeah, that's going to be a bit of an issue."
"You could probably find a blacksmith or a crafter who can modify those gloves for you," Pandora suggested. "The harpies here are kind of used to getting rewards that they can't use properly. So they became something well versed into fixing weapons, armor, or whatever into something that can be worn by them."
"Really? That's a good thing." Hera tried to put on the gloves again, but her claws were just two pronounced to fit properly.
In a way, the glove seemed to be made out for a human, not a Harpy or a Scale Heart, which was very odd in her opinion. Maybe the system still had not realized that she became an Ophidianite or something. She made a mental note to ask Tara about that. Maybe the ancestor could give her some idea about how to fix that issue.
"Either way, while we wait, I think I'm going to be working on this," Hera tried to create a venomous pair of those bladed gloves. Unfortunately, the first version didn't move quite right. The tread was too small, and it didn't unravel well enough.
She asked for Nimbus to look up crafters in the room that could help her with that kind of thing online while she started analyzing the new weapon. If she wanted to create a proper version of it, she needed to understand how it actually worked. He did find someone who could do that kind of job but, unfortunately, wasn't able to make an appointment for today. They did have an opening on the next morning which he promptly reserved. During that time, Forge was working with Hera to try to understand the gloves a bit better. And after a couple of hours, they were able to create decent version of the gloves.
"By the way, why doesn't Vulcan try to make the modifications?" Pandora asked.
"I don't know how to even start. Even if I'm good at making things from scratch, I never tried modifying something before. Much less a dungeon reward," Forge explained.
"I also never tried doing that before," Hera added, "Because of that, there was no knowledge about that kind of thing to go to him when he was born. We need to learn it from the beginning before trying something like that. The closest thing I did was changing my relic, but that feels very much like its own thing."
Pandora nodded. "Yeah, I can't understand that. That is like nothing I ever tried to do. It kind of feels like changing a part of yourself. Not exactly, but it's the closest thing I can think about."
"I agree. It's almost as hard as it was to become an Ophidianite," Hera paused and shook her head, "No, scratch that. Becoming an Ophidianite was much, much harder. There really is nothing like it." Remembering the actual steps she had to take before changing her species made her realize how wrong her statement was. Comparing to that, changing her Relic was a walk in the park.
Not long after, Hera received a message from Farica's team, who seem to be leaving the dungeon. And just like she expected, the Royal Explorers were able to beat Alex, Bonnie, and Shane on finishing the quests first.
Sure, the three Legacy holders probably were not taking the competition as seriously as the dwarves, but it was still an accomplishment, nonetheless. The group said they wanted to head to the hotel room so they could rest for a while and the Empress agreed to that. After all, it wasn't fair to ask for a report right after they had finished the dungeon. They were not on a deadline or something that forced them to act fast.
But in the end, the meeting to talk about the dungeon happened without the last group. Hera's assumptions seemed to be correct, as they were apparently going to stay the night there. While hearing how the run went it was clear that Callena and the others had the similar experience as what Pandora was used to. They were not treated particularly well when they arrived, even if they were wearing clothes to pretend they also had scales. And then had to fight with various monsters in order to complete the quest.
Funny enough, they did fight with the Jarnak, but they left the snake as one of the last enemies they had to find. Which apparently was very tricky because the snake hid from them in the middle of the territory of another large creature that they were not even supposed to be hunting. They also had encountered a couple of different beasts. Instead of the Karin, there was one two-legged lizard that spat out poison. And instead of the spider, they had to fight a giant octopus like beast on the beach. Pandora confirmed that there were only two constants in the entire dungeon. The Jarnak, which always would be available from the start and the final boss. Every other monster was a bit of a mystery even if the non apex version of them could be found spread around the island.
A few of the harpies even attempted to kill every single one of the monsters in the same dungeon run, hoping to get something special, but nothing happened. Just like Hera, the dwarven team was unable to get any drops that could help with the poison issue they were trying to deal with. The rest of the rewards were only materials that could be sold to the Crafters in the room, but they did find a necklace that could store damage and release it with an explosive force. That seems to be an item from the Carithrax, which was odd since they had not fought against that specific target. That ended up being a confirmation that the final reward of the dungeon could give any of its drops.
Pandora also decided to reinforce the fact that they wanted a specific drop, they should try to make sure their Jarnak was one of the last creatures they killed. This was the only way to tilt the odds of acquiring the item in their favor. But even then, it was going to be a struggle to get the entire set. Especially for as many people as they were trying to get.
All that conversation happened during dinner in one of the many restaurants in this settlement. The food here was absolutely marvelous as the meat that was sourced on the island was not just incredibly tender but also extremely tasty. It was almost as if the blessing of the dragon that the Scale Heart mentioned was still working however many years after they were gone. Hera was very curious about those beings and if they had any other civilizations out there still alive to this day. At least, since they would probably stay here running this dungeon for a few days, if not weeks, she would have a lot of time to try to figure that out. And hopefully, it wouldn't get to months before they finally got the items they were searching for.
Comments
aToTeT
Just two pronounced—going to want too, I think. A ‘tread’ here is also missing an h for ‘thread’.
