บท 342: A small reprieve
Hera and Bonnie ended up sleeping really late. After getting all the information about their possible members of the Court of Heroes, the two of them started to dig deeper into everything they had about their respective leads. Ninleyn and Helena helped them for a while, and they also showed them how to add any information they found out to the order database. It was pretty straightforward. All they had to do was edit the page with the new data and the necessary connections to other pages. For Hera, that wasn't a fun thing to do, but Bonnie was excited.
After a few more hours, Ninleyn left the house, heading to the hotel located by the doorway. His next step would be to go back to the deeper layers and return to the archeological sites that he spent most of his time on.
When morning came, Hera went back to the dining room and realized that Bonnie had turned the place into an office of sorts. She woke up early in the morning and started working on her lead. There were piles of paper and a couple of open notebooks already filled with scribbles and notes.
"Please tell me that you didn't spend the whole night here," Hera walked inside the dining room.
"No, I didn't, but I woke up early and bought some notebooks from the shop. I got you a couple if you want to use them," Bonnie pointed to a small pile on the corner of the table.
"Oh, thanks. I'm going to make something to eat. Do you want anything?" Hera picked the notebooks and headed to the kitchen.
"I'll take some coffee. By the way, when is Leo coming over?"
"In a few days, I think. The room he was in was a bit far away. Do you know where everyone else is?" Hera asked from the kitchen.
"Blue and Alex went to a dungeon, and Lena went to the guild for… something."
"I see," Hera nodded and prepared something for them to eat.
After that, she took the rest of the day to prepare some things. First, she headed to the guild to look for mana crystals. She wanted a pair of earrings or something small that she could carry around. Her idea was to use it mostly for asking Yarnball questions, and if the price allowed it, she would take a smaller one to work as a backup when she ran out of mana. She also took a moment to ask around for information about the other rooms. That was available for everyone, but since Hera never looked up that type of thing, she had no idea where it was located in the guild database. Unlike what the order did, the guild had several web pages for each room, layer, and much else. It was a very good page that was easy to navigate and had several search options and ways to connect the different pages. The only issue was finding that part of the website, but after one of the clerks showed Hera the way to get there, she could look up anything about the rooms at any moment. As long as she had an internet connection.
For the crystals, Hera found a bracelet that she could keep under her armor that could store 30 thousand mana. It would cost her 70 thousand gold, but even considering that it had been a while since she went to a dungeon to make money, there was still a lot of gold left over from the months she spent trapped in Boothudurn. Not to mention that she should start getting her share of the profits from the Kobold Road next week. She also got a smaller mana crystal for just 10 thousand gold, but that one could only store 5 thousand mana. That was already more than her total mana pool, but she would only use it in case of emergencies.
Her second stop for the day was on the guard's blacksmith to see Silah. They weren't spending the night together these last couple of days since Silah wanted to stay with her family, but Hera would still drop by to spend some time with her girlfriend. They talked for a while, and Hera explained about the order and what she would have to do now to find the tamer's legacy.
"You know, it's weird. Like, I'm more excited about the idea of finding more about the tamer and her role in the court than the actual legacy. I mean, from what people already found out, she traveled a lot. The rooms where they found the pottery is really far away. Even if you were going directly from one of those rooms to the other, she must have spent at least half a year traveling. I wonder if the people of that Court of Heroes had to be hermits. Also, why the fuck do all the legacies have that 'Court' name associated with them? How the hell did they do that? Was it something that happened after the legacy was already there, or was it something new?" Hera was so excited that she was even frantic while speaking.
"Honestly, I have no idea about any of those questions. But I have a question myself. Does that mean you are going to the 12th layer?" Silah looked into Hera's eyes.
"Eventually, yes. But not right now, not only do I have no idea the room the tamer was in, but I'm too low level to even consider going there."
"So… do you intend to go to other rooms soon?"
"Maybe. I need to level up if I want to go there, but there is no rush. It's not like I have a deadline to find the tamer. Why do you ask? Are you going crazy here already?" Hera chuckled.
"Actually… it's the opposite. Don't get me wrong, I still want to see new things and go to new places, but what we did with Shane was… A lot," Silah was staring at the ground.
"I know. I honestly didn't expect it to be that crazy. That horde of monsters was something else."
"Which one? The one that we fought outside the hidden tomb or the one that chased us with that giant chunk of silver?" Silah scoffed.
"I was thinking more about the first one. The second was weird, but it wasn't that much of an issue aside from having to run around," Hera noticed how Silah was staring daggers at her, "Ah… Ok, I understand. That was the 'a lot' part, right?"
"That and the possible massive snake that I didn't see," Silah rolled her eyes.
"Ok, I understand. But you said you still want to go to new places. Do you have something in mind?"
"It's not that I don't want to go to other rooms, but I don't want to be in danger again. I also hate the idea of you being in one of those situations, but I know you well enough not to ask you to stay in a safe place," Silah sighed.
"But these rooms are safe. As safe as any room at least," Hera replied.
"Really? So you can be swarmed by giant bugs and devoured whole by a lizard if you are here?" Silah stared at Hera again.
"Fair point. But I'll be safe. I promise."
"I know, but I'm still going to worry, and I hope your trips don't take too long. I'm really not sure how that whole long-distance relationship thing works."
"Since when do you know what is a long-distance relationship?" Hera chuckled.
"I have a tablet now. You guys have a lot of shows about all that," Silah giggled and rested her head on Hera's shoulder, "Just… come back."
"For now, I'm not going anywhere, and when I do, I will come back for you. I promise."
The two stayed like that for a while until Silah had to go back to work. Hera went back home to start working on finding something about the tamer legacy. The whole thing about the courts was too interesting and something that she couldn't stop thinking about. Among the files, she managed to get a loose description of the room that should be the tamer's home. It was a grassy plain with a lake of considerable size and a few small orchards with a mountain with white peaks on the back. However, that mountain should be beyond the walls of the room. At first, Hera thought it would be easy to find that room, but even after 1 hour of combing through the rooms that matched that description, she had no idea where the tamer's home was. There were too many results. The guild website allowed one to search for landmarks, but even after putting the entire description of the room in the search bar, over 10 thousand rooms appeared, and it wasn't a bug. Every single one of them had at least an area that matched the description that Hera gave, even if it was a very loose match. However, this was just the current state of the room. The website wouldn't even consider that the rooms could've gone through some change during the years.
Hera spent the next few days doing that. Blue and Alex were still going to dungeons, unable to stay still for long periods of time. Bonnie did what she could to find more about the Astral Witch, while Helena went back to her research. Despite not wanting to share much of what she was looking for, both Bonnie and Ogryn had some insights that helped her regain some of the progress she lost during the months that Hera and Blue were missing.
In the middle of a Friday afternoon, Hera was on the couch reading the letter from/for the tamer again, trying to see if there was anything that she was missing there. She wasn't just reading the version in English but taking the original and translating it herself. The language used in the letter was ancient, but people had already found the equivalent of a Rosetta Stone for it. Even if it wasn't that common of a subject, there was enough information for a newbie to start translating text. The biggest issue was the person's handwriting. Whoever it was could really use some calligraphy lessons. Hera was focused on that when someone knocked on the door.
"I got it. I need to stretch my legs either way," Bonnie, who had taken control of the dining room, got up and headed to the door, "Oh, hi. What can I help you with? …. Sure, just a minute," Bonnie turned around, "Hera, the king is calling for you."
"What? Why?" Hera gasped.
"I don't know, but it seems important," Bonnie glanced at the guard that stopped by. The man was catching his breath as if he had run all the way here.
Hera got up, and the guard just asked her to follow him. There seemed to be an issue near the doorway, and the king wanted her help. Without saying another word, the dwarf started running back, already pulling his sword from his waist. Freaking out about what could've made the dwarves so scared, Hera quickly picked a handaxe and followed the man. She wasn't wearing her armor, but it didn't seem like she would have the time to do so.
As they got close, Hera noticed the agglomeration of people by the road leading to the doorway. There were some dwarfs on one side, including Naka and some humans on the other side. Behind everyone, Hera noticed one thing out of place. A large creature was towering behind the people, around a beast with large black eyes and small limbs, it opened its mouth, and a shrill squeak came out of it, almost like it was something from a dog toy.
"Tiger!" Hera gasped and rushed over. There was a lot of tension in the air, and the guard seemed to be ready to attack.
"Hera!" Leo gasped as she came into view. Hera moved over and gave her friend a big hug, "I'm so happy you are ok."
"Same, but hang on. Let's deal with what is happening here first," Hera turned back to the dwarves, "Can anyone explain what's going on?"
"Hera! I'm glad you are here. Things got really out of hand. This man, who says is your friend, wants to bring that… pet? Into the city."
"It's not a pet. That's a monster that can kill the people in here," Naka snarled at Leo.
"Right. Ok, I understand where you are coming from, tamers are rare among explorers, but they exist," Hera tried to explain.
"That's what I've been saying!" a clerk yelled.
"I don't care what you think is normal. I'm not going to allow the city to be in danger just because someone wants to play house with a monster," Naka's eyes were glued to Tiger.
"I'm sorry about this, we came inside, and people started yelling," Leo sighed.
"How about this. We can all go back to the doorway, and we can talk there. That way, Tiger is far from the city, and we don't have to be so on edge," Hera turned to the clerk, "Can you let me deal with this? I understand what Naka is thinking."
"Sure, but if they try to stop someone affiliated with the guild from entering the city, it will be against the…."
"They are stopping a monster from coming in, not someone affiliated with the guild, and this is new for them. What would you do if a monster like this popped in front of your home back on Earth?" Hera cut the clerk, who couldn't come up with an answer to her question.
The group walked back to the doorway, and Hera took a moment to explain who Leo and Tiger were and how the giant frog was a friend and it wouldn't attack anyone for no reason. Rutigan found the idea of keeping a monster as a pet interesting, but Naka wasn't having it. In the end, the only way to allow Leo and other future tamers to enter the city was to create a small stable for the monsters. They wouldn't be allowed to roam around the city, and every time the creatures had to walk on the streets, they would have to be escorted by a team of guards. This discussion took almost an hour and another three to wait for the dwarves to create the stable. This situation ended up leaving everyone involved with a bad taste in their mouths, but Rutigan assured both Hera and the guild in the future, they would be better at dealing with this type of thing.
Thankfully, Tiger was extremely well behaved and used to being in stables. With that, Hera and Leo went back to her house to talk to everyone.
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Perizou
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