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MAZE - Chapter 1009 - Breathe
🕑 Added 2025-02-06 18:46:33 +0000 UTCIt didn’t take long for Hera to return to the rest of the group. They were all close to the giant door with a snake’s head.
“Hera!” Pandora gasped once the Empress approached.
“Hey. Were you all waiting here?” the Ophidianite looked around. Everyone was still there, even Callena and Farica, the two who seemed less interested in this place.
“Yeah. We didn’t know if you were going to get back running because of a monster or something, so we all just stayed,” Alex explained.
“You could also have been seriously poisoned, so you might need a healer,” Yerel added.
“Thanks. But everything is ok. Livy and Lurize are the only ones who got poisoned,” Hera walked closer to the group.
“Lurize? Really?” Bonnie gasped. “Isn’t he a poison spirit?”
“Venom. But yeah, we got surprised by that too. The lake is just poison. Literally, just a concentrated batch of it,” Hera thought about summoning the two back, but they were still recovering. Walking back from the lake took less than an hour.
“That actually makes a lot of sense. One of the problems we were having in this room was the rain. The rain is also poison,” Shane explained.
“Really?” Hera frowned.
“It seems we will be able to see that ourselves,” Nimbus glanced at the sky just as the sound of thunder echoed through the room, followed by the noise of raindrops hitting the trees.
“Move!” Yerel yelled, and everyone rushed past the snake-head gate. Everyone except for Hera. The Empress wanted to test what the poison was going to do to her. Even if Lurize had been affected by the liquid, it took a few moments for that to happen. Maybe her connection with him, added to the benefit of her [Ophidianite Poison], could protect her more.
The titled blades started to yell for her to run, but she just walked, letting the poison fall on top of her. She felt a few of the raindrops hitting her skin and the poison slowly trying to get to her. Considering the amount of rainfall at the moment, the Empress didn’t have to worry about getting hurt by the poison. However, if the intensity increased, that could change. And just like Lurize, if she tried to dive into a lake of the stuff, eventually her defenses would be overwhelmed. Still, it would take a couple of minutes for the poison to really start to be a problem.
“Hera!” Alex gasped and rushed toward her, already firing off a Cleansing Flame to remove any poison from the Ophidianite’s body.
A ball of transparent light appeared. There was no color to it, it was just a glow that changed the brightness of the things it passed by.
Hera felt the light impact, and the poison that was starting to invade her body was burned away. There was no pain attached to that, just a slight sensation very similar to eating something spicy but on her skin. Alex’s skill was even more effective, as it also removed the poison that was attached to the Empress’s clothes.
“Thanks. I didn’t really think about what I should do with my clothes,” Hera smiled.
“Why did you do that?!” Vulcan yelled, his voice carrying through the tunnel.
“Because I wanted to be sure how the poison affected me. That’s not just useful for me to know, so I understand when I’m poisoned, but also understanding poison like that could give me some ideas on how to improve my own,” Hera placed her hand on Forge’s arm to calm him down.
“Even so, you shouldn’t be doing that kind of thing without warning us.”
“You’re right. Sorry. Next time I’m thinking about doing something like that, I will let you know first.”
“Thank you. That’s all I’m asking.”
“Now that you’ve already tested that, what do you feel? Is the poison too strong?” Shane asked.
“For me, not really. It will take some time before it can harm me. But for anyone without strong poison resistance, yeah, it’s going to be rough,” Hera turned to the owner of the enchanted court. “Can’t you enchant the area to remove the poison or something?”
“I’ve tried. But nothing worked. Even if I am able to briefly stop something from being poison, it bounces back so quickly that it doesn’t matter,” Shane sighed.
With a nod, Hera turned to the Astral Witch. “And how about you, Bonnie? Anything in the stars we can use?”
“Unfortunately, no. There are constellations related to poisoning someone, but nothing about making it harder for you to get poisoned or to increase your resistance in any way. Even Ruby gets affected by that, so having her act as an umbrella doesn’t work,” Bonnie replied.
“You tried that?” Hera tilted her head.
“Yeah. I mean, slimes are acidic. Maybe it would be enough to clear the poison. Unfortunately, Ruby is not made out of honey or something,” Bonnie continued, already walking back to the doorway.
“Hang on, honey can be poisoned, right? It just can’t spoil,” Callena interjected.
“Are you sure? Isn’t there a thing about it being neutral pH?” Farica frowned as the group started moving.
“You’re thinking about it the wrong way. It’s highly acidic; that’s why it kills bacteria,” Pandora replied.
“Why are you all going to that doorway?” Hera asked. She was the only one who had yet to start moving.
“Because we can’t do anything else here? We need to go home,” Yerel replied with a frown.
“But we know what to do next. Pandora mentioned a dungeon nearby that can drop poison-resistant gear. We need to go there,” Hera replied.
“Yeah, but we don’t have to leave now. I mean, what’s the rush?” Alex asked.
“What do you mean, the rush? We have to move, otherwise…” The Empress paused.
Ever since she got back from helping Alex with the curse, her life had been in constant motion. Together with Freya, she saved the people who were kidnapped. Then she got stuck inside a dungeon, had to become an Ophidianite, and was tossed into the war. Even after saving Blue and the humans, she didn’t stop. Her days were scheduled to the minute with training, moving around, meetings, and all sorts of things to catch up.
Hearing that, Hera realized that for the first time in months, she wasn’t on a time crunch. She could stop and smell the roses properly without thinking something awful was going to happen because she didn’t move fast enough.
Hera took a deep breath. “You’re right. You’re right. Sorry. How about we take two days to prepare and then go?”
“It is going to take about two days to get to the room. So are you thinking two days in Zaxalam and then we leave, or do the two days count with the travel time?” Pandora asked.
“I don’t know. What do you all think?” Hera turned to the group.
“I’m down to go tomorrow. Let’s just rest for today,” Callena said.
“Yeah, if we need any supplies, we can get them in the Aerie,” Farica added.
“Same here,” Yerel smiled.
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
We returned to Zaxalam to talk about preparations for the next day and agreed to leave at around 2:00 p.m. Hera’s first instinct was to wake up at 7:00 and go, but she agreed to take it easy. Even Shane, who was the person who wanted to explore Deakoshara the most, maybe even more than the Ophidianite herself, was willing to move at a slower pace.
The room they were going to was called Thornspire Vale, but the vale itself was not the main attribute of the place. The room itself was an island, one that wasn’t that big when put on the same scale as other islands. It spanned just over 150 square kilometers, being a bit smaller than the island of Oahu, where Honolulu was located. But the diversity in biome was absolutely staggering. From lush forests to deserts, from snow-covered peaks to large underground cave networks, people would be hard-pressed to find any creature or plant that wouldn’t be able to thrive in some area of the island.
According to Pandora, the dungeon they had to go to was actually a historical one. And there were a few things they had to keep in mind when going there. First, the inhabitants of the dungeon were a strange species of lizard men, or, as they called themselves, Scale Hearts. The little that people were able to discover was that this civilization believed themselves to be the descendants of dragons. But there was no actual confirmation of it.
To Hera, that wasn’t really a surprise. Every lizard-like culture ended up comparing themselves to dragons. She had seen that with the Kobolds before, and to a certain degree, with the Naga. Before going there, they would need some supplies, which included a cloak or something that gave the impression of having scales. If they showed up without it, the inhabitants would be somewhat hostile. Not to the point where they would refuse to help them with the dungeon quest or anything like that, but things would go a lot smoother if they had at least gear that appeared to be scaled.
Pandora wasn’t sure what that meant for Hera. After all, she had proper scales herself. But everybody else should get something that could at least emulate them. Shane did bring up a point that she had the [Ophidianite Scale] skill, even if it was still rank 4 and not enough to make them slightly visible. The argument was that maybe it wasn’t so much about visual scales, but more about the presence of scales on their bodies. But the dwarf couldn’t say anything about that. As far as she knew, no one with some sort of scale ability had visited the dungeon, leaving them to just guess what would happen with her.
Aside from that, Pandora also made the suggestion of stopping by the Aerie and stocking up on a few supplies: various kinds of traps for large creatures, some food, and water. Although those supplies could be gathered in the room itself, and even better variations, since there were a few more specialized shops they could use, they still should do their best to take the large explosive devices and various types of poison or other paralyzing agents so they could tackle the dungeon with more ease from the Aerie itself.
The reason why the dwarf was suggesting they pick up all that gear before reaching Thornspire Vale had to do with the price. Since everybody in that room participated in the dungeons over and over again, the supplies they would require were usually two or three times more expensive than what they could get somewhere else.
However, Hera told them they didn’t have to worry about that. This was, in essence, her baby, her dream exploration. Even if that dream was somewhat recent, meaning she would be more than willing to pay for everything for the group.
After all, once the war was over and the alliance took control of various rooms that previously belonged to the guild, they decided to honor the contract that had been set up with Hera and Blue about the Kobold Road. Not just that, but they changed the duration of the contract. They would no longer just receive a percentage of the profits gained by the train station there for just a few years. Instead, they could keep those profits forever, even passing them along to future generations if they wished to. Even more than that, because of the need to constantly travel back and forth between various rooms in order to reconstruct all that was lost during the war, the profits for the last couple of months were staggering. Adding that to the Empress being able to recover her previous bank account as a gesture of good faith given by the Earth’s governments, she didn’t have to worry about money for a very long time. And that wasn’t even considering all the money she got during the war itself, participating in Rampages and clearing dungeons.
And now, while swimming in money, they were more than capable of getting everything they needed for the dungeon and, hopefully, get the right drop quickly so they could return.
Comments
aToTeT
‘We returned’; not something I mind as a reader, but it would nag me in the creation end. No worries either way. Might also want to look at the paragraph that starts with Aside and ends with itself.
DrDankness
Welcome people to Thornspire Vale. Hope yall enjoy your stay!
Perizou
G'damit I always forget to remove those x.x Thank's for the head's up
Personssess
I think there's still a bit from AI prompt just after the talk about leaving tomorrow
