บท 745: Path of no return
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Dungeon Quest Chain found
Escape the attack with the future guardian.
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Hera knew about dungeon quest chains. Those would only happen when the objective of the dungeon changed as they completed different tasks. Quests like this were rare and generally associated with historical dungeons. They also required each objective to be considerably different from each other. She couldn't remember if there was a limit to the number of quests, but she knew that the more chains, the better the reward would be. Some people also theorized that dungeons with quest chains were better to level up than those without them since they would complete several quests at once. Unfortunately, no one could confirm that.
Before the Empress was able to think more about that, something big crashed against the wall of the hut they were currently at. Livy quickly stepped forward to block whatever was coming and to hold the ceiling, giving everyone a chance to run before the entire thing collapsed.
The Ophidianite quickly ran towards the opposite wall and slammed her hand against it, using the stone shape spell to open a large hole, "Here!" she yelled not only to her party but to the Naga inside as well. Everyone scrambled to move and leave while the leviathan was struggling to find a good place to hold on to. The hut's structure was barely holding on together, and Livy ended up becoming its only support beam.
Hera helped as many of the Naga as she could to get out of the house that breaking down as more impacts started to happen around the small village. When the last person left the hut, she recalled Livy to make it easier to get her out before running away.
"Burn all the heretics!" a voice echoed from the woods.
The Empress didn't stop to look around. Instead, she received the information through Dusa. There was an army of Naga charging in. All wearing leather armor and wielding spears. Behind them was who seemed to be the commander, sending large boulders flying towards the small village. They were all carrying the symbol of a snake with its mouth open, showing its fangs.
"Where do we go?" one of the Nagas from the village asked in a yell.
"To the cliff!" the leader of the village yelled.
Hearing that, the party started following the Nagas, trying to escape. They managed to reach the woods, but not before the incoming army reached them. One of the spears came straight for the Empress, who used her tail to sidestep while Dusa redirected the blow with her hidden blade. Dao and Ember flew at one of the incoming Naga, cutting him like butter despite the armor. The difference in attributes and the increase in Hera's skills showing.
Alex saw one of the boulders being launched and used her scabbard to make a jade wind blade that went flying towards it. The spell split midair, creating a fan of 12 different blades, all in the same color. They slashed the boulder to pieces, and the wind following it was enough to push the debris back, removing all its momentum. Bonnie threw a couple of elemental charge spells at the now-broken rocks, turning them into effective bombs of fire, ice, water, and electricity. The moment they fell to the ground, they exploded, killing a number of the attacking Naga. To follow that up, Helena created an area of shadow around the entire army and covered that in a layer of extremely bright light so that anyone who left the darkness would be flash-banged. As they moved inside the woods, the mage also added a swarm of her shadow light army, those small black shadows with glowing eyes, all around the forest. When they touched anyone, they would explode in either light or shadow to deal damage. Legan also joined in, using one of his spells to command two of the dead bodies to stop the attackers.
Just as one of the ghouls started to move, the Naga commander yelled, "Look at this. They even desecrate the bodies of the fallen to their cause. They must be stopped!"
Legan felt like he had made things worse, but stopping that right now didn't seem like a good idea. He dashed forward, passing by the Ophidianite, who was wielding a pair of daggers. Hera and her court were taking care of the ones getting close to the fleeing Naga. Whatever the name of this group, they were being hunted for their beliefs, and that left a bitter taste in her mouth. Using viper to parry another spear, she spun around, smacking a Naga with her tail before using Crimson to stab the neck of another. DJ and Chris flanked the one hit by the Empress' tail. Each of them stabbing on a different part of its body.
They all continued running, ignoring the loot dropped by the attacking Naga. It didn't take long for the army to be left behind, almost as if the forest itself was making it harder for them to approach. To avoid having people following them, Hera told Nimbus and Lurize to return to their weapon forms while she was being sure to stay close to her friends. Not necessarily out of worry since she trusted all of them to be able to deal with whatever the dungeon was going to throw at them, but Legan was an outlier. The new explorer was lower level than them, and the Empress felt responsible for the man.
Still, he was a bit of a surprise to her. Not only was he able to fight the Naga off, as long as it was a one-on-one fight, but he also had Timber running around collecting some of the loot the dungeon monsters were dropping when they were killed. The small skeleton dog wasn't able to grab everything, but Legan shifted some of the bones of its ribcage to be a small basket. He was mostly gathering gold and gems, but there was also a small piece of cloth in the mix.
Eventually, Hera had to take the lead of her group since they were struggling to see the Naga mixed in the trees. Even so, she eventually started to lose track of the Naga she was following; they all seemed to disappear after reaching the forest's end. She took one step outside and started falling. The ground before the cliff at the edge of the woods was just an illusion, making her fall into a deep, slippery tunnel. The Empress tried to stop, but something in here was blocking her spells. Trying to use her weapons to halt her descent also did nothing. Thankfully, her court was around her, and they could push her up if needed. However, before she did anything like that, the Ophidianite noticed some shapes in the distance. Shapes of Nagas sliding down this tunnel.
Pressing her communicator, she warned the rest of the party, "There is a drop after the forest. It seems like the Naga were coming here. It's an illusion, but it seems to be the right place."
Before she finished the sentence, there was some screaming coming from above her. It was not a scream of pain, but one of surprise, like someone had just arrived at the drop of a roller coaster.
"You could've warned me a second sooner!" Bonnie yelled after screaming, her voice echoing in the tunnel.
"My bad. I was trying to figure out what was happening first. And if something were to happen, I would call Nimbus to fly me away," Hera chuckled.
"So we go in the hole?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, I'm following the other Naga. They seem to be here. It's a long slide," Hera bumped into the corner as the tunnel started to spiral to the left. The impact should've been enough to scrap her arm, but thanks to her scales, that didn't happen, "There is a turn to the left, so be careful."
The rest of the party jumped inside. Helena, who was the last one to go, saw something changing behind her. As if a part of the illusion above her was replaced by actual rock, but she didn't have a chance to understand it properly before getting too far away. They all continued going down that slide for around two minutes until they reached a small pool of water that was there to cushion their fall. Hera warned everyone about that so they wouldn't just wait around and end up getting hurt.
It took them a minute to gather their bearings and continue following along this underground tunnel. This place was like an entire village by itself, and it seemed to be recently made. There were still areas being dug up and people moving around, carrying supplies. It was a bit hard to tell if the Naga were already prepared for something like this or if this was just a way for the dungeon to speed up the actual events. They passed by an infirmary with a few people inside being treated for their injuries, then to a temple with that same symbol of the two claws going in a circle with a toothy maw in the center. Beyond it, there were a few other houses and one bigger one at the end of the tunnel. Noise was coming from that last entrance, a specific sound of sobbing.
Hera and her party glanced at each other before moving toward the last room in this underground village. Inside, they saw the chief of the Nagas, the one who was making the speech. She was hunched over something while crying, and another Naga was by the side, holding a large cage where the scorpion praying mantis centaur was being held. The creature was almost as big as Timber right now, even if they had just seen it being held inside a child's hand just a few minutes ago. The Royal Explorers got closer and saw what was under the cult leader. Her son. The child Naga was covered in blood. His left eye and a piece of his tail were missing. The wounds still let out fresh blood. He was a bit bigger than before, but it didn't look like a full year had passed since they last saw him.
"What… What happened?" Legan asked, "Wasn't he in front of us?"
"The Empire dogs found him. They tortured my boy and propped him in a tree to send a message," the cult leader snarled.
"I'm sorry, Dormina, we will avenge him," the Naga holding the cage said.
"No. We won't," Dormina looked up, red tears streaming from her face. She stumbled towards the cage and grabbed the iron bars with her hands, "You are. You are our guardian beast, and you will destroy the entire Empire. I give you the name Scryotra. The name of my son that was taken from me. May it fill you with rage as it does me, and may you live while he died. I will train you, feed you, break you, and build you back up until nothing can stop you!" Dormina glanced back at Hera and the others, "We need monsters to feed our guardian beast. Go bring me the bodies that will let it grow. The stronger, the better. Bring them dead or alive. It matters not."
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Dungeon Quest Chain updated
Bring 10 monster bodies to Scryotra. The strength of the monsters will influence your reward.
The monsters in the dungeon will only drop their loot after they are fed to Scryotra.
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They all felt uncomfortable being in this place, and now that they had a new quest, they decided to just leave without saying anything. Dormina was intense, and a grieving mother was something none of them knew how to deal with. It didn't take long for them to find a way to head back out, but only when they actually left the cave did they start talking about what they saw.
"So… This cult led by Dormina created Scryotra? Like, actually created it. Then sent it to kill the other Naga?" Alex asked.
"That's what it seems like. And by the way she spoke, I don't think she was a caring pet owner," Bonnie sighed.
"Yeah. It sounds like she forced it to be strong, even if it hurt it," Legan nodded.
"You said that Chika was very smart, right?" Helena turned to Hera as they started looking around the forest.
"Yeah, and if I'm not mistaken, Darni said that she got started after they were bonded. So maybe this has something to do with it," Hera nodded.
"Did you ever find out what 'bonding' with a monster meant?" Bonnie turned to her.
"Not really. No, I meant to go to that dungeon again, but now it seems hard. I'll probably have to hope to find something about that either here or in Deakoshara. Why? Are you thinking about bonding with Ruby?" Hera asked.
"I mean, it depends on what it does, but I'm open to the idea," Bonnie looked around, searching for monsters.
"Where is Ruby, by the way?" Alex turned to the researcher.
"Right here," Bonnie pulled a piece of her leather armor up, showing the crimson slime underneath her clothes, "I asked her to be like some padding around my armor. That way, she can block some of the damage I would take. I haven't tested it yet in combat, but in a controlled environment, it seemed to work."
"Well, let's hope you don't get a chance to test that here. And I kind of want to see if we can find a mid-boss or something for this. I want that better reward," Hera said with a smile.
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