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MAZE - Chapter 1029 - Entering the tournament
🕑 Added 2025-03-15 04:02:36 +0000 UTCOnce Hera was out of the dungeon, she returned gasping for air due to the sheer surprise of what happened. And the same thing happened to everybody else in the group. They were all breathing heavily, having just witnessed the Feywyrm's death.
"Is everyone okay?" Alex asked, casting a cleansing skill on herself just to be sure she wasn't affected by anything that still lingered with the ancient dragon.
"I'm fine. It's just…" Yerel replied, "How could the Nactra-Valls kill the dragon?"
"I don't think that's what happened. I could tell the Feywyrm was really badly poisoned. And I think the poison was what killed her. The Nactra-Valls just hit it at the same time. Probably getting the experience for it, but their attack did nothing," Alex replied.
"Are you sure?" Hera turned to the Assassin," I didn't feel any poison on the Feywyrm."
"None? Like at all?" Bonnie asked.
Hera frowned, realizing what that meant. At no point she felt as if her body was poisoned even when it was clear the Feywyrm was being affected by something, "Yeah.. I couldn't sense that kind of thing."
"I think because you weren't there. We were essentially ghosts. Alex could sense it because that's what her legacy does," Shane added and quickly changed the subject, "Did anyone see something that might help us figure out how to improve the odds of getting the poison resistance equipment?"
"I don't know. Wasn't it about the spider? Do we have to do something about it? It was the only thing that had poison," Pandora said.
"Maybe, but I couldn't really focus on the spider all that much. I was trying to see if there was anything else in the lab that could help," Yerel said.
"Honestly, I think you had the right idea. The fight was hard to follow. After that first attack, I could only see blurry shapes, but I also didn't see anything related to the spider. Maybe we need to figure out where its body is on the normal mode," Callena suggested.
"Actually, maybe that's not it," Hera replied, causing the entire group to turn to her. "I mean, the only creature that can drop the poison resistant gear is the Jarnak, right? So it would make sense if it involved it. Maybe what we are looking for has to do with that creature. Don't you agree?"
"I mean, it's possible, but it could be something completely new," Shane replied.
"Yeah. But maybe it's not. And I think I saw it in the vision," Hera explained.
"Where? I don't remember noticing that creature anywhere," Alex responded, trying to recall the events she had just witnessed.
"It wasn't all out in the open and it wasn't one of the main experiments the dragon showed me. But do you remember that giant egg thing that was attached to the tubes?"
The group nodded and Hera continued.
"Well, I'm pretty sure that behind it there was a second egg, or a cocoon, one that wasn't really connected to anything. And I think that was the Jarnak. Couldn't see it properly, but it was something. There was some familiar mana on it, that's why I'm saying this."
"Do you really think that was the Jarnak? And if it was, why does that matter?" Farica asked.
"Because the dragon said something about the spider having its energy, having its power, right?"
Everyone nodded at Hera's question.
"And when the fight was happening, when the spider started to get the upper hand. Or the Nactra-Valls did. The dragon started to bleed. A lot. And there was a lot of poison coming out of her, too. But I'm not sure if there was something mixed in with it. Anyway, all those fluids ended up dripping and pooling closer to that egg. I couldn't really tell if it was absorbing all that energy, but the blood and venom was dripping in that direction. I'm positive about it."
"So what are you saying?" Alex asked.
"I don't know," Hera shook her head," just that maybe this has something to do with the Jarnak. The only idea that comes to mind is to help it grow. Fix the regret of the Feywyrm in not being able to complete her work. After all, it is one of the constants of the dungeon, you know. There has to be a reason for that and if the whole idea is to help it reach its full potential, then maybe it is because it's one of the few creatures that could do something like that. I mean, there's absolutely no other reason for that specific snake to appear on every single run of the dungeon. If it was just another Apex creature, it shouldn't do that. And if there was a specific drop that it could give in order to do something with the dungeon, I'm pretty sure someone would have figured that out by now. So maybe that's it."
"Okay, but even if you are right. How are we supposed to help it grow? Just feed it or what?" Alex asked.
Hera shrugged, "That part I really don't know. It's just an idea. We need to figure out if we can even make it be friendly to us."
"So, should we just leave here and start working on that? Try to figure out a way to help the Jarnak evolve?" Farica asked.
Pandora got worried for a second that they were about to leave this dungeon without completing the quest, but after a brief pause, everybody started to laugh.
"That's a good one. As if we were going to give up the first time rewards of a dungeon just for that," Bonnie said with a smile.
Pandora looked around with some confusion in her eyes. "We're not?"
"Of course not," Shane answered with a grin. "Why would we lose the opportunity of getting good items when we're not even sure it's going to work? Let's finish this quest. We just need to figure out how to get it."
"I think we're going to need to participate in the tournament. Maybe just gathering some more monsters for them to fight or actually being a part of it," Callena said.
Hera turned to Anara. "Do you still have an opening to participate in the tournament?"
The scaled heart pulled up a tablet and tapped two buttons before nodding. "We still have an open slot for the tournament itself. It's an odd number of teams right now, so one of them is going to get a free win, so to speak, unless you join. We don't have hunting jobs available. The last cage was already filled up while you were in the vision."
"And how long did the vision last?" Alex asked.
"About 45 minutes. A bit longer than we were expecting, but not enough to cause any problems. You might be feeling a bit stiff, that's all."
"Okay then. I guess we are going to register in the tournament," Hera turned to the group, who all nodded in response. "What do we need to know about that?"
"Well, if you're going to register for the tournament, I'll give you the rundown of the rules. First, everyone will be hunting different monsters in an open arena. The monsters you hunt won't be the same as the ones your opponents will hunt. But we have a point system in place to see who is going to pass to the next stage. The points have to do with how many parts of the monster you are able to destroy, or cut off, how effective your attacks are against it, and how many people of your team are participating in the fight. The fewer people, the more points you get. There are also some points you can get by not getting hit as often and evading certain attacks. You don't have to worry too much, because we have a few mages and healers on standby to cast protective spells if you were about to get seriously injured. But if that were to happen, you forfeit the match. So you lose and the other team would go to the next battle, so to speak."
"And do we know how many people are going to participate in the other team?" Shane asked.
"You do. Every team will receive the list of monsters they will fight and they are required to share the number of people that are going to participate in every match. But you only know that after you decided your own numbers, that way there is no cheating the system by going with fewer people. We do have a recommended number and the average number that usually hunts that particular monster available," Amara continued.
"When you say the average number of people who hunt the monster, do you mean like in the wild or in the arena?" Callena asked.
"I mean the number to hunt here in the Arena. The fights are all again a few of the more aggressive variations since that's what is showing up these past few days. After the tournament, there's a party to celebrate everybody who participated and the awards ceremony, where you get a few items from the greatest crafters on the island. And I warn you, though, those crafters are not… well, they are eccentric. So it's possible that instead of getting a full item, you instead get the materials to make one or to improve an item that you already have. I really wish we could confirm that you're going to receive a full piece of equipment, but the rewards depend on the crafters, and they are very particular about the type of items they offer."
It was pretty obvious that Anara was struggling to find the polite way to explain the situation. It seemed like the crafters were making the job of the hunters giving rewards harder than it had to be. But still, getting materials from experienced crafters was already a nice enough reward. Everybody here understood that experience was king and having the confirmation they would receive something that, as Anara said, an experienced crafter had decided to give made everybody feel more at ease with the idea of the prize.
"I guess we're doing this," Hera said and turned to the group, who all nodded in response. "Okay. If you can, please put us down as the last team to join the tournament."
"Of course," the scaled heart opened, a big smile showing some of her teeth, and a notification appeared in front of everybody.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have discovered a dungeon quest
Hunting Tournament
Participate in the hunting tournament and reach the semifinals.
First Time Rewards:
Exquisite Tournament Prize.
3 000 000 gold
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The money was pretty good and even without the notification saying anything, it was obvious that getting a higher positioning in the tournament would mean they would get a better prize. Hera also knew that places that forced the physical reward on you instead of giving you a random box usually gave better items.
Anara was clearly excited about the idea that the group was going to participate in the tournament and quickly rushed them towards the arena so they could get ready for the fights. Once the bureaucracy involving their participation was over, they also received the list of monsters that everybody was going to fight. There was not a single repeated creature in the entire roster. Every fight would be against a unique enemy. There were even a few names that the group recognized from the normal dungeon. But there was a suffix attached to them, indicating that it was a different variation than the ones they fought. The number of people that were recommended to fight against those creatures also slowly increased.
In total, there would be four matches, all of them set up on the elimination bracket. After a brief discussion, the group decided to always play the odds and have fewer people participate in each fight than the average. They would start with four instead of six on the first match, then lower to three members on the quarterfinal. The semifinal would be fought with two and to guarantee that they would win the first prize, they would send only one person. Although, technically, it was more than one. Hera would be fighting on her own together with the Court.
When they were telling Anara about their decision, she frowned at the mention of Hera not being really alone.
"Hang on. What do you mean by that?"
Hera snapped her fingers and said, "Like this," as her Court popped out. All who could in their titled form."
"I see. That's fine, but it will be counting as, let's see, 1, 2, 3...7 people and not just one."
"Wait, why?" Hera frowned.
"Because golems count as people for this tournament. Even mounts or pets. If you create something like, I don't know, a spell that has the form of a snake, it's one thing. But if you call a construct, it counts as more people participating in the battle. Because even if they don't have all the capability of a regular person, their size alone is enough to distract the monster, so it isn't fair not counting them."
"Oh," Hera frowned. "What about like this?" She gestured to Nimbus, who turned into his griffon form.
"Same thing. It's another big target that can be used as a distraction."
"And this?" she asked again, telling them all to stay in their weapon form.
"That should be fine, since they are just functioning as weapons. But are you sure you're going to go through all that trouble just so you can fight alone in the last match?"
Hera nodded, they all had agreed that it would be beneficial if they got the best possible rewards.
"Are you sure about that?" Bonnie asked.
"I am. Besides, even if the monster ends up being a bit too much, they have mages on standby to get me out of there. I don't think I have to worry that much."
"Look, I appreciate all the confidence, but the Mages will take a few moments to cast their spells. Even if you do decide to fight on your own, you might end up getting hurt, even with the protection of the mages."
The Empress just shrugged. "That's fine."
Having realized she wouldn't be able to convince the noble blood of something else, Amara sighed, "Okay then, but if your weapons appear in that form, your points will be deducted. If you want to truly get the points as a single fighter, you're going to need to keep your constructs just as weapons after all. You're going to have to control them and that takes effort."
No one said anything after hearing that. This was a benefit of her legacy. And she didn't really have to say anything about it. Sure, if this was a real competition against other people, she would be honest and say that her legacy didn't work like that. But in a dungeon, taking advantage of people's lack of understanding was just part of the deal.
With the details out of the way, they were walked into the waiting room and prepared for the fights. Just like all the other Harpies said, this seemed to be a lot of fun, and they wanted to enjoy this small break.
Comments
DrDankness
Time for some arenaaaaaaaaaa At least these guys arents jerks and make me off-weapon with a mediocre armor set.
