บท 527: Here comes the backup
When Hera deactivated the Safety Cube, she realized she had forgotten one thing, 'The snacks in my bag. I'll give it to him later.'
She returned to the rest of the group and explained what she had discovered during her conversation with Kelp. All the while, she was being careful not to mention the guide, of course.
"Your relic told you all that?" Chiton asked.
Hera nodded, "Yeah."
"But you said that it could end up being nothing. How did you get so much information? And how can you know it's correct?" Hayath found it all very odd, and not hearing an explanation wasn't sitting right with her.
"Ok, so I can't say much about it, or I'll risk losing that ability. But I can say it's correct because that's how it works. The answers I get come from the system, not from someone's knowledge. And as you know, the system never lies," Hera explained.
"Are you sure about that?" Hayath pressed.
"Absolutely. It never lied to me, even when I asked some really weird questions and things that no one should know about. But it can't predict the future," a long time ago, Shane showed Hera a manual of sorts about how to explain their seemingly impossible knowledge to others. It was more or less clear that this was something made with the guide skill in mind, even if there was never a direct mention of the skill itself or the guides.
Hayath stared at Hera but eventually let out a long sigh, "You know how weird this all sounds, right?"
"I do. Trust me, it would be much easier if I could just tell you, but like I said…."
"I know. You can't, or you risk losing it," Hayath waved her hand, "Is that something only you have, or other explorers can have it too?"
Hera stopped to think for a moment. She was trying to come up with a way to explain this part without losing one of her strikes, "Well…. You guys know how you can complete a hidden quest during the role test, don't you?"
"Yeah. We get some information about them before we start our test," Bralac nodded.
"You are better than the guild then," Hera chuckled, "Basically, this is a reward for completing the hidden quest. All explorers can potentially get this, but not all of us have it. Also, part of all this is interpreting the information correctly. For instance, the way I found out about where the Naga went makes me think there is another doorway somewhere else. And I don't mean the one we used to get here."
"How so?" Chiton asked.
"It was about the phrasing and…."
Before she could continue the phrase, she heard Daskka inside her mind, 'Mum, I think you should stop talking about the skill.'
Understanding why Daskka spoke like that, Hera changed her answer, " and I don't want to risk saying anything more about it. This already feels like I'm pushing my luck. Sorry guys. Can we change the subject?"
"Oh, sure, so what is the plan now?" Chiton took it upon himself to make sure no one was going to press on that matter.
"Well, we are going to see what the other group finds. If there is something interesting on the other island, we might go there, if not. We will have to check the dungeon again and try to open a new path. It kind of sucks, but that's where we are currently at. I am thinking about going with Nimbus to fly around the area to see if there is any particular island that catches my eye, but I'm still worried about what could happen if we try that," Hera looked to the sky, ever since they found this place the weather has been the same, and it didn't seem like there were any strong air currents in the sky. Despite that, she was still worried about the possibility of something attacking her or stopping her from flying around. If that were to happen, the fall could end up hurting a lot.
"What about us? Do you have any idea what we can do?" Chiton asked.
Hera shook her head, "No. and you can't count on me to tell you how to explore an area. No one knows your capabilities better than yourselves, and you guys should try to come up with ways to help our exploration," the Countess was trying to have a more 'hands off' approach to leading the Royal Explorers. She realized that she was micromanaging too much lately. She wanted the dwarves to start discovering secrets on their own, and a room like this, where there was some danger but not enough for their lives to be constantly at risk, seemed like a great place to start doing that.
Hera's group went back one island to wait for Blue and the others, and soon, everyone was together again. They discussed their findings, but unlike the place with the ruins, the other island didn't have anything of notice. However, it was considerably larger than the one where Hera met Kelp, that's why it took longer for them to search it. In the end, everyone decided to head back to the Wailing Valley and regroup. Adriel should be close, and maybe he had a unique idea about dealing with this part of the exploration.
The elf had already arrived, but, to Hera's surprise, he didn't come alone. Helena and Bonnie were also here and wanted to help everyone look for new rooms. They didn't say why, but Hera figured they would tell her later.
After the greetings and ensuring everyone was doing ok, Hera pulled Adriel to the side, "Say, a little bird told me you have a way to travel underwater. How does that work?"
"Who did…" Adriel glanced at Alex and sighed, "I never expected her to tell other people about that."
"Oh… is that a secret?" Hera asked, a bit confused with his reaction.
"Not really, but it's not like I enjoy sharing my trauma with everyone," Adriel turned back to Hera.
"What trauma?"
Adriel stopped for a moment, "What did Alex tell you?"
"That you had a way to travel and carry things underwater. That's it."
"Oh…" there was a pause where Hera and Adriel were just staring at each other, but the elf eventually broke, "So… what do you need? Take some people across a cave or something?"
"Something. Apparently, there is a doorway near a reef in the next room, but since we don't know how deep it is, we have yet to check it out. I was wondering if what you do could help us with that," Hera wasn't going to ask about the trauma he mentioned. Despite Adriel being part of the Royal Explorers, she wasn't that close to him, and it felt intrusive to ask.
"Are there any monsters around that area?"
"It is possible, but we are not sure," Hera replied.
"Ok… so I have something I can do. You know how I used my drones to carry things? I can set them to make an air bubble and take us underwater. But while I'm doing that, I can't do anything aside from moving the barrier and maintaining it. The good part is that the only thing the barrier stops is water, so if there is anyone else inside it with me, they can attack if they want. The bad part is…."
"That monsters can also attack us when we are there?" Hera finished his sentence, realizing what he was trying to say.
"Bingo," Adriel made finger guns pointing at Hera.
"Ok… and how many people could you carry at once?"
"Around ten. If they are carrying something heavy, maybe nine, but it would be tight either way."
Hera thought for a moment. That was more than she was expecting. If there really was a doorway there, and everyone decided to go with her, then they wouldn't have to make as many trips as she thought, "So, are you up for a diving expedition?"
"Sure am, captain," Adriel saluted Hera, "But can we scout the area first? Just in case."
"Of course. We are not going right now. I first want to see who else wants to go and how we can make sure that you will be protected," Hera nodded.
"That's great. Walking all the way here was exhausting. I'm going to grab something to drink. Do you want anything?" Adrial got up and started heading towards the cafeteria.
"No, thanks. I'm ok," Hera replied, but she also got up. They were currently in the lounge area of the dormitory, and she wanted to have a quick chat with Bonnie and Helena. It wasn't hard to find them. They were talking about the last couple of days with Blue and Alex in their room.
"Hera! Finally done with your job?" Helena asked with a smile.
"I honestly don't know the answer to that. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I'll figure out when someone comes running after me," Hera chuckled and sat by the bed. It was amazing how Bralac and Farica were able to make comfortable beds with rock and dirt.
"That's the life of those in charge," Bonnie smiled.
"Yeah, then how about you two? You were starting your own company, and now you come here to help us? Is everything ok?" as Hera asked, Alex and Blue leaned over. They were also curious, but they waited for Hera before asking.
Bonnie just waved Hera off, "Everything is fine. The thing is, we applied for a patent for our spells since apparently that's the standard thing to do," the researcher looked to Helena.
"Yeah. When you add a spell or skill to the guild's shop, you have to make this, or others can just copy your product and sell it as their own. We have already sent all the paperwork and had a meeting with someone to confirm our patent, but… now we have to wait," Helena sighed.
"Wait?" Blue asked.
"Yeah. Patent things take a long time, not that they actually need to, but it's a lot of red tape to go through. According to the guy who talked to us, it should take two to six months before we can adequately start selling our spells in a more official capacity. And since we are not much of a company without a way to make money, we decided to wait a while before continuing to figure out other spells," Bonnie took a few strawberries that were on a coffee table in the middle of the room.
"But shouldn't you be working on new things already? Isn't that what companies do? Start a new product before the previous one is finished," Alex asked.
"It is, and we tried, but we are too anxious about this. Sure, everything seems to be going fine, but there are so many possible bad endings. Someone might try to steal our idea and apply for a patent themselves. Our paperwork might be wrong, and we get denied, or I don't know. A monster can destroy the patent building and all the files with it," Helena started to shake her head as if trying to get rid of what was inside her mind.
"As you can see, we are a bit on edge. Anxious about all this, and we thought coming here would help us take our minds off things for a while. I hope that's ok," Bonnie turned to Hera.
"Of course. I'll ask the rest later, but I'm sure no one will mind. Besides, we are in a bit of a slump, so any help is welcome," Hera nodded.
"Speaking of which, do you have any idea what we can do next? Hoping to find the right island in the dungeon is already boring," Blue asked.
"Well… I did find something interesting. Apparently, there is a doorway at the bottom of the ocean near a reef. And, to make this even more interesting, the last person who used that doorway was a Naga," Hera said with a large smile.
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