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Chapter 564 - We are on a boat
🕑 Added 2022-11-30 13:01:01 +0000 UTCHera's Status
When Hera woke up in the morning, she could hear Bonnie's voice. She got up and saw how the researcher seemed okay, despite her arm and leg. Right now, she even had replaced the splints made by the Empress with a couple of stone casks to keep her limbs secure.
"Hey, Hera. Good morning," Bonnie said with a smile.
"Morning. Are you ok?"
"As ok as I could be. Lena said that Daskka kept healing me to help me sleep. Could I thank her?"
Hera nodded, "Sure," she called Daskka and let the snake float towards Bonnie. Taking advantage of that moment, she tried calling Nimbus, 'Are you ok?'
'Five more minutes,' the sentinel replied with a sleepy voice while still inside the legacy.
Hearing him was already enough for Hera to calm herself. Ever since he vanished into the legacy, the Empress was worried about her named blade. While thinking about that, Alex arrived carrying a bottle of water and some bananas and strawberries.
"Here, Bonnie. These looked like the best ones we found there," the assassin placed the food in front of the researcher.
"Thank you. This is a nice start," Bonnie nodded and took a strawberry, "Did you make sure these are not poisonous?"
"I used my inspect and ate one of them. Nothing is going on with me," Alex replied.
"What is going on?" Hera tilted her head.
"Well, I'm like this because of Alex. So until I'm better, she will be my maid," Bonnie smirked. It was clear that she was enjoying the situation. The assassin nodded with a bland expression. Not so much one you would see on someone suffering, but the type of face the butler in a movie would make.
"You are not going to ask her anything weird, are you?" Hera stepped away from Bonnie as a joke.
"What? Of course not! She's with Adriel!"
Alex stepped back, "So that's the only thing holding you back?" she had an exaggerated, distraught expression like an amateur actor in a lousy movie. She even placed the back of her wrist on her forehead while the other hand daintily touched her chest.
"Stop that! This is not a sexual thing. I just need someone to help me move around and stuff!" Bonnie huffed.
Hera and Alex stopped their joking and spoke at the same time with a deadpan expression, "Who said anything about this being sexual?"
"Youβ¦"Bonnie turned red, as red as she could with her dark complexion, and started rapid firing a weak version of a water fist spell at Alex and Hera, who quickly ran out of the house.
The two of them rushed outside, chuckling to themselves while Bonnie continued to curse them. After taking a few steps outside, they stopped, still laughing, "She is doing better than I expected," Hera smiled.
"She is. I'm glad she didn't get a fever, and it seems like the only problem is the broken bones. We wouldn't have medicine for it otherwise," Alex saw Daskka coming out of the cabin and landing around Hera's neck, "And that is all thanks to you. I don't know how bad she would be if it wasn't for your healing mist. Thank you."
Daskka nodded and shook her tail with a smile on her face. She was getting quite big already, but her smile was still adorable. Hera asked where everyone else was since she only saw Alex, Bonnie, and Shane, who was still sleeping. The assassin explained that everyone was exploring the area. They found a fountain with magic engraved that would filter the ocean water to be good for consumption. Additionally, there was a large greenhouse filled with fruits and vegetables that seemed to be growing wildly. The whole building also had some sort of magic cast that was maintained to this day. From what Alex could tell, everyone searched the area to see if there was something else. Not wanting to be left behind, Hera thanked her friend and started walking away to explore this raft.
"Oh, could you do me a favor?" Alex asked as the Empress walked away.
Hera turned around, "Depends on the favor."
"I'm just going to ask you to grab some more strawberries on the way back. I'm positive Bonnie will want more than what I got," Alex replied.
"Oh, sure. No problem. I'm sure I'll find the greenhouse," Hera wasn't trying to be sarcastic, despite how it sounded.
"I thought you were an explorer. Aren't you supposed to be good with this stuff? It's just there to the left. Go past the fifth cabin, and you will see the fountain and the greenhouse," Alex rolled her eyes.
"I am good with this stuff, that's why I said I would find it," Hera waved as she went down the raft to check everything out. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but be excited. Finding a new room filled with mysteries tingled some part of her brain that made her very happy.
"Watch out for monsters. Try to stay close to the repellent stones!" Alex yelled as Hera continued to walk.
The raft was much bigger than Hera imagined. Each cabin was very far apart, leaving large open areas which allowed her to look very far, and yet, she couldn't see the end of this boat. Sending her blades out into the sky, they confirmed her suspicion. This place was as large as a village. Not even her blades could see the other side of the boat. But they told the Empress to look at the water. She turned to the right and froze. She was looking at the sky. The vast blue sky seemed to go on forever, and that wouldn't stop in the water. Instead, it would keep going. She told Core to move closer to the edge to ensure that it was water and not a weird situation where they were floating in the sky.
The rapier plunged below the raft and returned dripping wet, 'Yep. That's water.'
"Really?" Hera frowned.
'I could dive again if it helps,' Core suggested.
"No, no. That's enough. It's just hard to believe," Hera replied and walked closer to the edge. When she was close to it, she could tell that the water was very deep, and the raft was moving. It wasn't too fast, but it moved with the current. Hera noticed that the raft was full of small holes and there was a lot of algae growing on the side. Yet, there were no signs of it sinking. The algae also showed that life under the ocean existed and thrived, "Did you see anything underwater?"
'Not really. It's really dark down there. I think that since the surface is so reflective, the light can't go too deep inside,' Core replied.
"That makes sense... I think," Hera wasn't sure if that would happen back on Earth, but this was the MAZE. Things were supposed to be weird here.
Hera turned around and looked at the several cabins along the raft. Most of them seemed to be made out of stone, but she could see some pieces of wood here and there. Frost and Core started to poke at some of the planks near the edge and accidentally snapped one out of the raft. Noticing that, the Empress walked over and sighed, "I guess we will have to fix that. I don't know if a hole like that can cause problems or not."
She took a few steps toward the hole but stopped when she heard a voice coming from the water. It sounded like Mylo, but the man was screaming bloody murder. It didn't matter the situation, but Hera couldn't imagine the fighter making that sound. Pulling Fang and Claw from her waist, she carefully approached the hole while telling her court to be ready to attack.
When she was two steps away from the hole, a white slime jumped out while yelling in Mylo's voice. Hera was expecting it and, together with her court, quickly attacked the monster. Slashing it in five different angles. But that didn't seem to be enough. The slime started to reform itself when she noticed a small cube in the middle of the goo. Lurize and Ooze came down, attacking that cube with all their might in different directions. The impact managed to break it, and the slime was dead.
"This is going to get annoying quickly," Hera sighed.
"Mum, I think I saw some building supplies in one of the houses we passed by. We might be able to use it to fix this."
"That's a good idea, but let me try something first," Hera turned to her court, "Core, do you mind taking another dip? Since you have fire spells, it's easier to dry you out."
'Of course, Empress. These waters are nothing against my lava. Am I looking for something?'
"I'll use a sensory net through you. I want to see what is going on under the raft," Hera replied.
A second later, she felt a wave of heat as Core entered the water. She didn't tell him to, but he was activating his Volcano Core that game extra fire damage. Doing so made the blade extremely hot and protected it from the water, 'Ah, yes. There's a lot of algae and plants here. Also... Oh... that is... unique,' Core told Hera through their connection.
"Unique?" the Empress tilted her head.
'The bottom of the raft is completely filled with slimes. It's almost like they are what is keeping the raft from sinking,' Core explained.
Hera changed her plans. If she used her Sensory Net, there was a chance that the monsters would try to attack in retaliation for being affected by a spell. She called Core back and went after the repair tools that Daskka mentioned while keeping one of her court members looking at the hole, just in case.
The cabin that Daskka mentioned looked like the maintenance room for a boat. The walls were filled with various tools, and a couple of bundles of planks were inside a container protected by a barrier. However, touching that barrier only made it temporally stop working. Hera saw the spell circle on the lid of the container and realized that this should be something related to preservation. She couldn't actually read any part of this spell circle, but she could see the flow of mana and make an educated guess going from that. Inside it were some planks that looked just like the ones on the raft floor. The odd part of this was that she couldn't find any nails inside the cabin. Only something that seemed to be some sort of glue.
"Should I use this?" Hera asked her court.
'Can't you test it first?' Frost pointed at a pair of small pieces of wood in the container.
After testing it, she confirmed it was glue, but doing that with something close to the ocean felt weird. Still, she grabbed a saw and a couple of large pieces of wood before heading to the hole. To fix the mess her court caused, she first had to cut the splintered wood enough to make it a straight line. During all that time, Core was underwater, making sure none of the slimes were approaching. The vibrations seemed to attract a few, and the blade had to attack them and toss the monsters deep into the ocean, which seemed to work. After about forty minutes, Hera managed to fix the hole, and it looked really good, even if she wasn't entirely sure if this would hold when someone stepped over it. Thinking about that, she returned to the cabin and grabbed a few extra pieces of wood to make a sign. As she was doing that, Shane passed by and noticed the movement.
"Hey. What are you doing?"
"Hey, Shane. My court broke one of the planks of the raft, and I was fixing it. Did you sleep well?"
Shane nodded, "I did. I wasn't expecting to be this tired. Oh, and I borrowed something from Bonnie," she pulled a small spyglass from her pocket, "Want to go dungeon hunting?"
Comments
Gail Burke
Such a weird place, and oooooohhhhhhh dungeons, my fave!π
