Chapter 446 - Unexpected tower (Patreon)

"Is this normal? Being transported to this weird tower?" Blue turned to Helena.

"Kind of. This is what we need to do for the hard mode. We need to find the Jester's treasure inside the tower. But we need to go underground for that, and it's a bit of a mess down there. Not to mention, there are monsters there too, so we are not even gonna touch it," Helena explained.

"And we being here changes anything? About what we should expect," Bonnie asked.

"Nope, traps. Weird prank things and stuff. Since the Jester seems to be a bit unhinged, maybe the traps are more… freaky, but that shouldn't make any big changes," Helena looked down the tower, "I'm guessing we need to go down just five or six floors. The rest seems to be the basement."

"So we only have to deal with six rooms of traps? Alex asked Helena.

"Maybe, but we can't be sure. This is a big tower. I mean, look around. This should probably be 100 meters wide. The Jester could have made smaller rooms, and traps that fit in those rooms. I don't know. We have to just go for it."

This tower that they were on top of seemed to be completely made of stone, and it had 8 spikes pointing up on the surrounding edge, forming the beginning of a railing. Aside from that, space was very barren. There was only the floor and the sign with the staircase leading down right behind the wooden plaque.

"Let me send one of my blades down first. That way, we can at least have an idea of what's going on inside," Hera walked along the Area heading towards the staircase. She then gestured to Beam to head down and tell her what was going on below. The handaxe flew to its maximum range, but all it could see was a spiral staircase that seemed to be following the tower's curve. Hera told her group about it, and they decided to head in. As Beam told her, it was a very long staircase.

"Hey. Quick question. How did the Butler know our names? I mean, we never told him. We just told her first names, but he introduced us with her full names. He even said Pamella instead of Blue. Isn't that a bit weird?" Alex asked as they went down the stairs.

"That's just a dungeon thing. We need titles or important-sounding names and just saying entering Peter doesn't have the same ring as entering, Peter Calgary or something like that," Helena explained.

Bonnie nodded, "Yeah. That's kind of common. Or at least a lot of dungeons have those kinds of things."

"How do you know that?" Blue asked.

"I had to do a thing for the order. They wanted a list of odd but seemingly unimportant circumstances that we can see inside dungeons."

"Oh shit!" Hera gasped.

"What's wrong?" Helena looked around, ready to use a few different spells depending on what was going on.

"Sorry. It's not about the dungeon. I forgot to tell the order about my legacy" Hera scratched the back of her head.

"Do you really have to tell them?" Alex turned to Hera.

"I mean, I don't have to do anything. But, and I don't know how much I can tell you about this, the name of my legacy has to do with what they were looking for. And I can't say more than that, but yeah. Not telling them seems like it would be a big deal, and I don't want to piss them off. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have found the legacy, even if it was a bit indirect. I only found out about the blademaster because I helped Shane and not because they sent me after them," Hera looked back at Helena, "Did I say too much?"

"Well, it's a little bit more than we usually tell people, but I don't see a problem as long as you don't share the thing that you and Bonnie got. Let me add this, as a senior member. The court is looking for something called 'The Court of Heroes.' That seems to be an organization that existed long before the nine heroes, and each member was considered to be an actual hero," Helena looked down and gestured for everyone to stop, "We are about to enter a room."

Beam was sent in front again, and in a few moments, it sent back a report. It was a large room with several holes along the walls. Things like that usually meant an arrow trap. Hera and Helena used some spells to see if they could find the trap and noticed that there were a few pressure plates on the ground. They told the group about them, and carefully everyone crossed over this new room to the door on the other side. It wasn't that difficult since the trap wasn't as intricate as the ones they found in the castle, but there was an eerie feeling coming from everywhere. It was like someone was watching them, observing their every move and waiting for something. After crossing the first room, they found another one. One with five mirrors and another sign.

'Your reflection hides your demons. If you want to move forward, you must face them.'

This one seemed to be simple in a way, but Hera still turned to Helena for confirmation, "We just need to walk towards our mirrors?

"Pretty much. We'll see some illusions and things that will probably mess with our heads but will be fine, don't worry about it. We just have to break free or wait for the spell's mana to run out. Or at least, that was the trap that I saw last time I came to this tower," Helena explained.

With that, the party walked forward. Each of them heading toward a different mirror. They glanced at each other to gather some courage, and they all touched the mirror at the same time. The moment their hands met with their reflection, everything around them changed. Hera was no longer in the middle of a tower with her friends. Instead, she was now back home. In the same house, she grew up in. She heard a noise from the kitchen and saw Stella coming out with a plate of food in her hand.

"What are you waiting for? Come help me. That's the least you can do," Stella scoffed.

She looked down, and her body was considerably smaller than she remembered. She took a look at her reflection in one of the glasses and then realized that this was her appearance from when she was 12.

"Hera, I'm asking for your help! Stop staring at the glass and do something," Stella gasped.

"Now, now, Goldilocks. I know today's your birthday, but that's not a reason for you to give your mother a hard time. It doesn't matter how excited you are about going to the guild, respect your mother," Eridan came from the living room and started helping set up the table.

"My birthday?" Hera asked, her voice crackled, sounding almost like a child.

"Of course, don't tell me you forgot what date today is. It's your eighteen birthday. We're gonna go to the guild after lunch to see how amazing of an explorer you will be," Eridan smiled.

"Or to show you that this is just a stupid dream and you should focus on something more useful. You are no longer a kid, and you need to think about the future. If you're going to work with your dad, work someplace else, and about what you're going to do about marriage," Stella spoke as she put some food on her plate. It was a black sludge that was bubbling and had a terrible smell.

"But mom. I don't want a boyfriend. Boys are icky!" When she finished speaking she felt even more confused. She was an adult. A grown woman that was an explorer. Yet, now she felt like a kid who was in the middle of her 18th birthday somehow, and she couldn't tell which was her true self. Everything here was too real, but oddly fake at the same time. Maybe Helena, Blue, Alex, Bonnie, and Daskka were all parts of a very realistic dream.

"Well, we're gonna have to change your opinion sooner or later. So it might as well be sooner. I don't wanna hear it. We're going to do this to get rid of your nonsense dream of being an explorer, and then we're gonna talk about how you can find a good man to be with you. Or a good woman if that's what you want, not that I think any woman with a drop of self-respect would want to be with you. Men at least are easy and will take anything," Stella continued.

Hera looked down at her plate of food, not having any recollection of actually putting food on a plate, and just stared at it.

"Goldilocks, are you OK? What's happening?" Eridan asked.

"I… I don't remember getting a plate," Hera replied.

"Ah, my sweet girl. I thought you were getting better. Don't worry. We know that your memory can be a bit irregular, but that's OK. We have the doctor's appointment next week, and I'm sure he'll help," Eridan patted Hera's head.

"My memory is bad?" Hera asked, unsure if that was the truth.

"It's so bad that you can't even remember that you have a bad memory," Stella rolled her eyes, "How do you expect to be with anyone when you're this much of a mess? You need a job soon, that way you can pay for your medical bills instead of being a burden to your parents."

Hera looked back at the plate of food. She blinked a few times, and suddenly her surroundings had changed again. She was now in the guild, being carried by her father with a pacifier in her mouth and a beat-up blanket in her hand. Everything around her seemed way too big, her father's head was about the size of her whole body.

She looked around and saw Helena approaching her, wearing her guild clerk uniform,  "Hi. You must be Hera. Come with me. We can check your stats and see what you can do."

Eridan passed Hera to Helena, who carried her to a room where she could check her attributes. By the time she arrived in that room, Hera was wearing diapers and couldn't even speak. Helena placed the crystal ball that she used long ago to check Hera's stats for the first time in front of her, and Hera, who now was a baby, tried to reach it, but she couldn't. The crystal was too far away, and her arms were too small and chubby to reach it.

"Well, sweetie. If you can't even touch the crystal, you can't be an explorer. I'll give you one more chance. Touch it, or you'll be a civilian for the rest of your life," Helena said.

Hera tried to reach the crystal again but to no avail. The object was even further away, now distancing itself more and more.

OK then. You'll be a civilian. And since your parents asked for an explorer daughter, they will get a new child. While you go to work here,"  Helena gestured to the side, revealing a massive warehouse filled with boxes that had to be moved from one place to the other, "Have fun."

Helena vanished from sight. Hera was now back in her normal body. There was a box in front of her with the label LZR 963. She glanced up and saw that she was on sector AAC 053. Without saying anything, she picked up the box using all her strength, feeling her arms burn with the effort, and started walking towards her destination. Her bones seemed to scream with each step, and her skin lost its luster. When she finally delivered that first box, her eyes were cloudy, and her hair was already gray.

Harold picked another box and started walking, and tripped after a couple steps and felt her body fail for the last time. Like when you dream of falling, that reaction was enough to make her jump up. Now, Hera was in a circular room with her friends sitting on chairs, apparently sleeping. Everyone was there, Helena, Alex, Bonnie, and Blue. Her court was also around. Surrounding the chair that she was previously sitting on with Daskka wrapped around her neck.

"Oh boy, oh joy. You are the first to wake up. Now, what do you say? How about you just get out of here by killing your friends? That way, you can be free and get away and you don't have to worry about what you saw ever again. Well, you will still remember what happened, but then again, you should also have nightmares of killing your friends, so just pick whatever you like the best. Go on, you can kill them, have your fun. I'll wait, don't worry about it," the Jester's voice came from a wall on the right, but Hera couldn't see anything else in there.

"I'm not killing anyone but you!" Hera barked at the wall.

"Are you not going to do it? Fine, be like that. I'm sure one of your other friends will be more than happy to take my offer. Besides, it's fun watching you squirm. So fun, so fun, so much, much more fun. I think I know why people kill, and torture, and maim, and play. It's fun! I like it. I can do it now, right? I'm a murderer already, so yeah, I can, no, I can't, but I can, I can't, I can, I can't. Well, I can. Of course, I can. It's my prize for being a good girl. Yeah. I can," the Jester started laughing madly again. A couple of minutes passed while Hera was trying to wake up her friend but to no avail. Finally, the Jester turned her attention back to Hera.

"Why are you still up? No, no, you go to bed again. Have fun there, and maybe the next time you wake up, you can change your mind. Go, go, go, go, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep."

Hera felt woozy and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was no longer in the middle of a tower with her friends. Instead, she was now back home. In the same house, she grew up in.