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82.24% MAZE - The Endless Quest / Chapter 815: What comes next

บท 815: What comes next

After crossing the doorway, Hera and her Team continued moving, passing through another 2 doorways before stopping. Their next destination was 20 rooms away from the Glimmering Graveyard. That wasn't where the closest Alliance-controlled city was located, but it was a place the leaders of the species trusted to be secure. Only then would they give the lab materials to someone who would, on their turn, bring said materials to one of the hidden intelligence places the Alliance had. However, the Empress knew that there was a good chance things wouldn't work like that. 

That plan considered only that they had the materials, not that they had, somehow, saved the Spirit and given it a voice. Hera wasn't feeling great about it. She didn't regret having Vulcan join her titled blades, but the ramifications were starting to worry her. So far, not many people know about her legacy. Sure, they could have some idea she was a one-woman army, but the details were still a secret. Considering what was going on and how much the Alliance already knew about the experiments, it wasn't a stretch to think that some scientists would be involved with the spies, and there lies the problem. Telling people who studied spirits that she had a legacy capable of turning the elemental creature into something closer to a person would make them go wild. 

Maybe she could lie and say that all of this was due to a skill she got from the MAZE or an item, but it would be a hard sell. Anyone who started to look into this a bit more would realize that her story was iffy, and that could result in any information they got from Vulcan being questioned. That would go against the whole point, and the longer they waited, the more people would suffer. 

She mentioned her worry to the rest of the team, but unfortunately, no one had any idea about the best way to go about it. One way or another, more people would start getting to know about her legacy, and trying to hide that information might just make it more tantalizing. 

Hera wasn't the only one who was struggling with something. Although the issues were wildly different. Neria and Vash kept their heads down and spoke very little during the last three days. The team was now eight rooms away from the Glimmering Graveyard. They were sitting in a wide-open field with a massive brown mountain to their side. It was the kind that simply started and went up into the sky and not the ones that had a steady incline. If there were more, this place would feel like a canyon, but here, it was just like looking at a gigantic wall. The room was called the 'Valley of Morning Dew' because every morning, it didn't matter where or how well protected you were. You would become a bit damp. Not wet, not drenched, just damp. Out of the blue. As if the mana inside the room created that dew that covered everything. They didn't have any intention of experiencing that, not because some of the team wasn't curious, but because they would leave the room before nightfall.

It was lunchtime, and they were on the ground, eating some stew with monsters they hunted here. It was a nice change of pace after the last few days where they only had power bars to fill their bellies. They also already could use their tablets, which allowed for them to watch something while traveling. Yet, Vash and Neria were both not really paying attention. When a fight was about to happen, or they had to do something, the two would work like normal, but any time the team could rest, the triton and the harpy would just stare at a random thing with a somber expression. 

Everyone noticed that, and they had talked a bit about what was going on, but never at length. Escaping the Glimmering Graveyard and making sure they didn't leave behind any tracks took precedence over anything. But today was different. They were more relaxed, and after crossing to the next room, the next doorway was less than 500 meters away. 

Knowing that today they had time and could waste some of it talking, Hera sent a message to Skyler. They had decided to be the ones to talk with Neria and Vash. Flint wasn't exactly the nurturing and sentimental type. His advice would be mostly, 'Just suck it up.' While Roan was too used to killing. His previous job included dealing with roaming bandits near the large cities of the beastmen, and the first time he killed someone, he was just 16. 

Skyler noticed the text and nodded to the Empress, walking over to the cart where Vash was eating and staring into the horizon. At the same time, Hera refilled her bowl with the stew and moved closer to Neria.

"Hey, do you want more?" Hera asked with a smile, offering her hand to pick the triton's bowl.

Neria looked down. She still had more than half of the stew to eat, but she wasn't particularly hungry, "No thanks. It's tasty, but I just don't feel like eating."

With a nod, Hera sat by her side, "I understand you are not doing so hot. Well, I mean, you are, but I mean in a different way."

Neria blinked, the weird phrase seemingly able to bring her out of her stupor, "What?"

Hera stared back at the triton, "C'mon. You can't be wearing that and not know you are hot. Even if you are not doing hot, you still are hot, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"I never pegged you for liking the depressed type," Neria chuckled.

Hera let out a genuine sigh, "It's been a while since I was pegged in any way," she flushed a bit, realizing what she just said, "Sorry, that just… came out. Let's go back to you. I can see that you are going through some stuff. Do you want to talk about it?" 

Neria paused, also caught off guard by the Ophidianite's initial remark, but she quickly went back to her serious expression. "Would talking about it change anything?"

"Yes."

"What?" 

"It will help you." 

Neria scoffed, "Yeah, sure."

"Seriously. I have a friend who is a really great therapist, and he explained to me why talking about things helps. When we are thinking, it doesn't always follow a logic. It's not like we are writing a journal. Our thoughts jump, loop, go back and forth, change to something completely different, and use smells, colors, or senses to convey something to us. That's why we think faster than we speak. Our minds don't limit themselves to just language; they use all kinds of inputs to make us understand what we think as quickly as possible. And I'm not even talking about people who have ADHD. In those cases, it's all that while a monkey is playing the piano and a fish doing the macarena, and both are making a presentation about the life cycle of a fruit fly."

Neria frowned, "That was… oddly specific."

"I had some weird dreams in the Cinderspire Citadel. But the point is, while that is super helpful when we are fighting or doing something, we need to think fast. If we have a problem and start to overthink, all those feelings and sensations get in the way. So, talking about it helps us organize the ideas we have. It helps us make sense of what we are going through since we have to explain it to someone else. Maybe you'll already know everything you say, and there will be nothing new. But usually, there will be something, even if it's something small, that will help you understand what is going on a bit better."

"Do I have to?" Neria looked Hera in the eye, her face clearly showing discomfort.

"No, you don't. If you don't want to, that's okay." 

"Thanks. If I want to talk, I'll let you know," Neria ate a bit more of the stew while Hera was by her side, doing the same. After around two minutes of silence, the triton spoke up, "Was that your first?"

"The first time I killed someone?" Hera glanced over, getting a nod in reply. She looked to her stew once again and told the story, "No. The first time was in Dzviery during the centaur attack. There was an elf, his name was Vulmer Keller. He was affected by the madness spell, skill, or whatever it was that the centaur did. He came at me. I tried to fight him off, but he didn't stop. In the end, he walked into my glaive. I didn't swing, just held it there, and he just… ran at it."

"That's… awful. And it wasn't your fault. I mean, so many people died in that attack," Neria was now looking at her with wide eyes.

"I know. Thanks. But I spiraled a bit after that. I spent a couple of months exclusively running dungeons here. I had to fight people. Humans, in that case. I was angry at everything, upset for acting like that, and I almost let Lurize go. My first blade was the only one that came from a previous legacy holder. Yet, in a fit of anger, I wanted to get rid of him just because he was getting a bit weaker than the others. I didn't even have a replacement."

"How did you get past that?" 

"Therapy, a lot of it. It helped me understand that it wasn't my fault, and even if it was. This was the MAZE. Things like that can happen, and we all know that. Two, my anger wasn't just about killing him but for being too weak and too indecisive to knock him out before it came to that. And three, that I really hated when people forced others to suffer. That one is a bit of a given, but it really does strike a nerve. That man was the second person I killed. Well, if we are counting real people. There were a few I had to kill inside a weird vision thing, and at the time, I did believe they were actual people," Hera noticed Neria's confused expression and just chuckled, "It's a long story. I'll tell you later. Either way, in my mind, it was simple. He was helping humans torture people. If we let them live, more people would get hurt, and their blood would be in my hands. After I saw what they did with Silah, and she died in my hands because of those experiments, I decided to stop caring about killing. It's not easy, and I don't want to go on a murder spree. But… if I start to feel guilty, I remember what those people did with Silah and how much the prisoners suffered. Using anger to not feel bad about that may be a crutch, but It's one that I intend to keep using."

Neria nodded, "I get that. Crutches help when we need them. Just be careful not to become dependent on them. Also… Did you say a friend of yours is your therapist?" 

"Yeah."

"You know that's not a good idea, right?" 

"Well… It's complicated. Basically, this friend is a giant turtle that lives on the MAZE. I can give you a referral, but getting there is very tricky. If we are in my private room, I can call him, but the rule is that I can only do that if everyone with me also knows him."

"Your therapist is a giant turtle? Hera, what the hell?"

Before the Empress could answer that question, Roan jumped to his feet, "We have a problem!" he turned his tablet to the rest of the group. There was an S.O.S. message from a team that was in the same room as they were. It seemed like they were delivering supplies but were attacked. There was no mention of who attacked them, but only one type of creature was aggressive in this room. They were called Myradions, bipedal jackals with elongated limbs and green hair. It was rare to see them, but they were always in groups when they attacked. This was a weaker room for Hera and the others. Monsters here were at most level 24, but if the people asking for help were around the same level, they were in trouble. 

"Let's move!" Flint yelled as everyone jumped in the cart, and Nimbus took his griffon form to carry it again.

"What if this is a trap?" Skyler asked.

"Then we make sure no one else falls for it," the dwarf replied as the carriage picked up speed. 


ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
Perizou Perizou

Have a great day everyone!

Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/eqdmMfm

Check out the Patreon for advanced chapters.

https://www.patreon.com/perizou

Thank you Mikael, Redhood, Giuseppe, Theredescare77, RRoss, Dreegonz, Codered999, Matt, Michael, Will C, Pltergeist, Faeolin, Nix, Frightful6_7, Timothy, Vaerama, Cog, J9, Kaouenn, Maren, Tomas, Pletter, Lars, Azur, Timothy, Beckett, Grappleshot, Stepheb, Kensyi, Daniel, Shadowed Forest, Joseph, Chris, Rosy,  Lara, M.K., Keira, Ephemeral, and DevWith13Es our Explorer tier Patreons for the amazing support!

And a special thanks to Jinx, and Lilith our Legacy Holder tier Patreons!

And a shout out to our first Guide tier patreon Lemon Ghost!  

บท 816: You need a hero

Aground 20 minutes after they got the message, Vash was already able to see the group being assailed by a pack of Myradions. The monsters had surrounded the people who were huddled around a large carriage and were doing their best to fend off the creatures. 

"We need to move faster. I don't think they can wait much longer," Vash said as he came back to the team.

"How far are they?" Flint got up but still couldn't see the group being attacked.

"I would say, about two or three kilometers." 

"We should get there in about 4 or 5 minutes," Skyler replied, refreshing the buff that Nimbus was currently having.

"I don't think they have that long. There were three people on the ground, and only one facing the monsters," Vash replied.

"Shit," Flint groaned, but he still didn't move, just stood there.

"Hera, how fast can Nimbus run?" 

The Empress turned to the Sentinel, 'While carrying you all, I'm at my max speed of 40 km/h already. If I carry just you, Hera, I could get to around double that with all the buffs on me.'

"He's already at max speed. The only way to make him faster would be for him to drop you. Even then, that's two minutes." 

"What if you awaken him? With Vulcan? Doesn't that double his stats and skills?" Neria suggested. 

"We never tried with the titled blades. But maybe." 

"Then do it! Go on ahead, and we run the rest of the way there," Flint almost barked the order.

"Are you telling me to go alone?" Hera blinked, unsure if she was hearing it correctly.

"You are never alone. Isn't that the point of your legacy?" Flint huffed.

"Fair," Hera turned around and summoned Forge, "Vulcan do you need-" 

Before she could finish the hammer replied, 'Nope.' And gave Nimbus a soft hit on his bottom.

'Hey!' Nimbus protested, but his body suddenly shifted. He didn't stop running, but his griffon body grew, clouds formed under his wings, and small sparks of lighting appeared with each of his steps. His beak became longer and curved while his eyes grew sharper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Sentinel Nimbus - Protection

Bladed Tonfa - Griffon

Total Stats: 608

Strength: 102 (204) Endurance: 203 (406)

Agility: 156 (312) Charisma: 40 (80)

Intelligence: 46 (92) Luck: 60 (120)

Mana: 6 621 395/ 6 621 395

Sentinel Core: 9 365 621/ 9 365 621

Weapon Scaling 

Empress Attribute 112

Endurance x 23.9 (47.8) Agility x 19.6 (39.2) Strength x 14.8 (29.6)

Luck x 11 (22) Intelligence x 9.7 (19.4) Charisma x 9.2 (18.4)

Passive Skill:

Defender

Fire and Ice

Cold Burn

Call of the Wind

Wind Front

Active Skill:

Griffon's call

Frozen Ash

Griffon Form

Mana Shield

Share the Pain

Awakened 

Awakened:

The Scaling and Attributes are doubled.

All skills have their effects doubled, as well as the duration. The cooldown is reduced by half. 

Nimbus becomes the personification of a griffon. Clouds wrap around his form, increasing the protection he can provide.

All of his attacks and skills deal cold, fire, and wind damage.

Extra Skill:

Cloud Sentinel:

Nimbus creates a cloud around himself. Anyone damage dealt to an ally who is in the area of the cloud will go to Nimbus instead. In addition, the clouds are able to reduce any incoming damage to Nimbus and his allies by 20%

Passive radius - 1 meter

Mana cost for each extra meter - 1%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Daskka knew that Hera wouldn't have time to read the status window. Instead she just forced the information inside the Empress' mind. It wasn't a good feeling, and she could only do this with this kind of thing, but they couldn't go fighting without knowing the capabilities of the Awakened Nimbus. 

After a brief moment for Hera to gather herself again, she jumped on top of the Sentinel, dismissing Forge while summoning Viper and Crimson. She slashed the side of the harness that was currently attaching Nimbus to the carriage, and the two of them just bolted. 

In that initial burst of speed, the Ophidianite almost fell from the griffon, but before she could even use her tail to grab onto something, a cloud appeared on her back. Not only was this giving her the support she needed to withstand this speed, but it was also quite cozy. 

'I got you, and be careful with the eyes. I'm picking up the pace,' the Sentinel said. Despite the situation, it was clear he was enjoying his new powers. 

His speed was staggering. Forget double. Nimbus was moving at a pace that could rival some race cars. Or at least that was the impression Hera got. She only got a handful of seconds to realize how much she trusted the Sentinel. After all, if she were to fall or be dropped at the speed they were going, she would likely die. Her attributes wouldn't matter. Yet, she was comfortable. There wasn't a single thought in her mind that Nimbus could harm her, even by accident. It felt nice to trust someone like that, and she had even more people who she trusted as much. 

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted as she saw the group of monsters attacking those few warriors. There should be over 50 Myradions, including a chieftain. Against them was a small team of 5 people, 3 of whom looked human. And another 3 people in the carriage, seemingly hiding from everything. According to the S.O.S., this team was escorting some supplies. That meant that some of the people here should not be battle-ready and just be in charge of the shipment itself. 

A couple of seconds passed, and the Empress got a better look at things. Of the 5 people, only one was still standing, and they all were very hurt. Blood was splattered on the back of the carriage, and small pools covered the floor. All the while, the Myradions cackled, making a sound very similar to that of a hyena but less human-like. Their voices had some reverberation that messed with one's head. Thankfully, the Empress not only had a title that protected her from this kind of thing, but her attributes were also strong enough to fight back against whatever effect this cackle of Myradions had.

Nimbus slowed down, not to pass them or to hurt any of the people who were already fighting. Hera jumped up, standing on top of the griffon, and created a [Venomous Glaive] on her hands. The Sentinel jumped over the Myradions, and, at the same time, the Ophidianite jumped off of him, doing a flip to keep her back to the people being attacked. 

Just as she landed, the Empress yelled, "Hydra's Coil!" using a new command phrase to summon her entire court. 

Lurize, Livy, Viper, Crimson, and Vulcan all appeared in their bipedal forms, creating a semi-circle of protection around the injured team. Gale, Ink, Tide, Autumn, Chris, Ember, DJ, and Juuchi, the katana that had joined the court recently, all popped from her back, quickly passing in front of Yarnball to get a magnet before flying out after the monsters. Dusa was the only one who didn't do that since she was already on top of the Ophidianite's head. 

'Vulcan, attack or defense?' the Empress before she started moving.

'I'm at 20%, I'll defend,' during the last few days, they tested a few things out and discovered a couple of things. First, the more Daemonic Influence he had, the quicker it would increase. Second, if Forge was focused on making something, the influence would grow at a reduced rate. Lastly, there was one way to lower the influence without using the [Daemonic Form] skill. And that was to let Vulcan fight freely without worrying about strategy, objective, or whatever. If he could just go wild and act as if he were in that form, the Daemonic Influence would slowly go down. Unfortunately, that only worked if he was below 50%. After that, going on a frenzied state would only halt the growth, not reduce it. 

Hera glanced back and saw three humans and an unconscious man on the ground wearing robes. A short-haired woman in leather armor, who was trying to feed a potion to elven men leaning against the carriage, seemed delirious. There was another man on his knees throwing up, but Hera couldn't tell his species. In the middle was a blond girl who should barely be 18, maybe 19 at most. Wearing heavy armor and holding a longsword. She was the one who was the most injured, yet she was the only one still standing. It was clear that at some point, she decided to take the brunt of the attacks to protect the others. All in all, she was lucky. The Myradions had one very bad habit of playing with their food, which allowed her to last this long. 

All the monsters roared and started cackling even louder, angry about the presence of this new group and how their hunt was being interrupted. However, Hera didn't even acknowledge the noise they were making, even if it almost made the blond girl drop her sword. The Empress reached for a small pouch around her waist and tossed it to the human girl, "There are some potions here. A healer is on their way. Don't worry, you are safe now. Give me just a minute, and I'll help you tend to everyone's wounds."

Hera turned around with fire in her eyes. Not exactly angry with the monsters. After all, they were just that. But her entrance, the creature's low level, and the starry eyes of the girl pumped her up. Since she was appearing like a knight in shining armor, she might as well play the part properly, "Wipe them out!"

Most of the court was already engaged with the monsters. Each of the 6 flying weapons was about to kill one of the Myradions. Nimbus didn't waste time. He quickly changed back to his bipedal form, which was almost the same. He still had a muscular bare chest that had a grayish blue color and the loose white pants around his waist. However, his wings had a considerable difference. They were bigger, and clouds formed the feathers on the inside. In addition, those clouds circled his form, showing the area of effect that his awakened skill created. 

Usually, Livy was the juggernaut of the team. The unstoppable force that just mowed down the weaker enemies like they were made out of paper. But now, the Sentinel was simply more powerful. He needed one single attack to kill any monster. At one point, he created a box of mana barriers around one of the Myradions and simply started pressing the barriers against each other, essentially turning the protective spell into trash or, in this case, a meat compactor. 

Hera didn't want to be left behind and used the [Grasshopper Slash] to dispatch a few monsters in an arc around her. After that move, she spun around, using her tail to cut the throat of another creature before tossing the glaive with a broken combo. Livy was doing her best to keep up with Nimbus, not wanting to be outdone by a defensive expert. She swung the battle axe with force, not just cutting but also crushing the monsters as she attacked. At times, she would even let go of her weapon completely, only to rip the Myradions apart with her bare hands. 

Crimson was the less flashy of the bunch, but she was almost as deadly as the rest. Taking advantage of her stealth ability and the [Dorohla Style] tailor-made to the body of a Naga, she vanished in the swarm of monsters, leaving behind a trail of dead and badly injured creatures. 

After arriving, Hera and her court took less than a minute to kill all the 50+ Myradions. The chieftain, who was supposed to be a stronger version of them, died before anyone could even realize which creature was different. By the end, the Empress was even slightly frustrated. Not because the fight was easy, but because she got really close to being able to kill 1 monster each second. 

Turning back to the injured group, Hera asked Daskka to use her purple mist form to help with the healing while she talked about what happened.

"Are you all ok?" the Ophidianite asked the one human who defended the rest of the group.

"I-I am… Who are you," the blond girl asked, still shell-shocked. 

"Hera Quetzaveth, the Ophidianite Empress." 


ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
Perizou Perizou

Have a great day everyone!

Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/eqdmMfm

Check out the Patreon for advanced chapters.

https://www.patreon.com/perizou

Thank you Mikael, Redhood, Giuseppe, Theredescare77, RRoss, Dreegonz, Codered999, Matt, Michael, Will C, Pltergeist, Faeolin, Nix, Frightful6_7, Timothy, Vaerama, Cog, J9, Kaouenn, Maren, Tomas, Pletter, Lars, Azur, Timothy, Beckett, Grappleshot, Stepheb, Kensyi, Daniel, Shadowed Forest, Joseph, Chris, Rosy,  Lara, M.K., Keira, Ephemeral, and DevWith13Es our Explorer tier Patreons for the amazing support!

And a special thanks to Jinx, and Lilith our Legacy Holder tier Patreons!

And a shout out to our first Guide tier patreon Lemon Ghost!  

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