Chapter 449 -Talking to the order (Patreon)

Hera was currently in her private room. Before going to the store, she had sent a message to Ninelyn, talking about the legacy and how she found that some members of the Court of Heroes might not go by heroes or members of the court. And that organizations or small groups could, in fact, be actual members of the Court of Heroes. She wasn't expecting more legacies to be found by looking at every group that worked with the heroes but considering their lack of solid leads, it was worth a shot to at the very least try. After all, the lead she had about the tamer only narrowed it down to its home being on the 12th layer, and that was like saying the needle was in one of the 25 haystacks the size of a stadium. It helped, sure, but the help wasn't significant enough to give any tangible results.

After they left the store, Ninelyn had already sent her a text and a couple of voice messages asking all kinds of things. He was so frantic and desperate that it got to the point of being funny. In a way, he sounded almost as crazy as the Jester from the dungeon. Hera replied to the message with some information, but there were way too many questions for her to type them all out. Instead, she replied to the most urgent ones and added that she would be going to her private room to answer the rest through voice messages since she didn't want to speak about the legacy out in the street. Ninelyn's reply came right away, asking her to let him know when she got there so he could call her for a proper conversation.

Right now, Hera was waiting for the elf to call. She had already sent a message telling him that she was in her private room and ready for the conversation, but he asked for a little more time so he could gather the rest of the information he had about the blademaster. That way they could see if what they knew was actually right and maybe figure something out about other leads with that.

While waiting, she pulled up the box that she got from the store. She bought a couple of things, first it was a book of engravings. It would show her the process of engraving different kinds of buffs in a weapon or armor and even give her step-by-step instructions on how to create her own engravings, even if they were limited to the most basic types. There was also the belt with a mana crystal embedded in it. Unlike a stone, the crystal could recover the mana independently, but it could hold 20 thousand mana. It was much less than everything else she had, but using this, she could have a sustainable source of mana to summon her blades and to ask questions to Yarnball if she needed. She realized that her relic wasn't seeing as much use as it should have because she was always worried about spending too much mana on that. Using the bracelet with 50 thousand mana was something she could only do once every day or so, if she spent all the mana at once, but the belt would charge itself every couple of hours. That made things easier, since focusing on the amount of mana she was putting in her relic was always difficult. That matched Yarnball's cooldown perfectly, and the fact that the buckle was a snake also made her even more interested in the belt. She was already walking around with a real snake on her neck. She might as well lean in the aesthetic.

Aside from that, she had three other items. A sharp tiara that was made out of several different weapons. This one could give a buff to the lowest scaling of a weapon, and according to Daskka, this meant that her blades would significantly boost their attack since, in the case of a tie, all attributes that were considered the lowest would get buffed. It was only a 20% increase, but that was already amazing. Another pair of earrings, those depicting a scythe that, when triggered, would make subsequent attacks on the same target increase the damage it deals by 1%. The kicker was that the effect could stack, and it would affect her blades thanks to the [Army of One] skill. Meaning that if she was fighting against a single target, every attack that came from each of her blades would not only count to the increase, but it would be 1% stronger than the last. This was mostly useless When fighting multiple targets, but the effect would be permanent as long as she was wearing the earrings. Also, according to Daskka, this could be part of her court, and unlike the sword earrings, Hera really liked the idea of adding them to the roster.

The last item was a new weapon. Hera still had her chakram, but she left the handaxe that Silah gave her at home. There were too many memories associated with it, and she didn't want to think about it now. She even considered not being someone who uses a weapon herself and focusing on spells, but that doesn't feel right. Especially considering that now she was inheriting the will of the blade master. Not to mention that she would all increase the power of her court as long as she could improve her fighting styles. Hera was about to uncover the weapon from the cloth that was protecting it when her tablet rang. She put the items away and hit accept, allowing Ninelyn to appear on the large screen inside her private room.

"Hera! It's very good to see you. Is your legacy already out? How does it work? Where did you find it, and how was the test?"

"Hi, Ninelyn. I'm doing alright, how about you? Technically it's already out, but just a small part of it," Hera pointed at Daskka, "I can show you the rest soon. Just breathe, OK, you're speaking faster than a plane moves, and I'm worried you are going to pass out. The test was about me learning a fighting technique. There were a bunch of weapons on the ground, and I had to pick one and learn the movement that they were showing. But I had limited time to do it and only a limited number of attempts; each attempt was shorter than the last one. I started with 1 hour, and every time I failed, 10 minutes were shaved off the time for the next attempt. I don't know if that's like that for every legacy, but he didn't seem to mind if I took my time between attempts. I tried once, then I spent a few days studying before going back there, and the test didn't say anything, nor did the legacy. Is that normal?"

"Nothing about legacies is normal. I have heard about some that only give you a single attempt. Others allow multiple tries and don't seem to give you any penalty for failing. And even some that have seemingly arbitrary rules about how many times you can try it or fail. Yours at least had an actual structure that was explained in the notification. Now," Ninelyn's eyes started to shine with excitement, "Can you show me the legacy?"

Hera nodded and said, "Blade out!" with that line, all blades appeared around her without Hera even getting up from the couch.

"Those are constructs, yes? How hard is it to control them?"

"I don't, actually. And yes, they are constructs, but I don't have to spend mana to keep them around. It's just the cost of summoning. For my control, it's about orders. I can tell them to do one thing, and they will do it. I can tell them to do several things, and they will follow my orders to the best of their abilities. For instance," Hera looked to the bedroom and said, "Swift, Brute could you fluff my pillows? Bring it here first."

The blades did as they were told, even if Hera could feel that they found the order weird.

"That is… Incredible! And you are not actively controlling them?" Ninelyn was almost climbing inside his tablet. His face was uncomfortably close to the screen.

"I'm not. They get some of my skills and things like that, but it's not like when I'm controlling a dancing light or something like that. I can just tell them to do something and even go to sleep, and they will continue to do so," Hera explained, "Also, Daskka here became the herald. Apparently, the legacy thought I would be more comfortable because she was already close to me."

Ninelyn nodded, "That is rather common. Well, as long as you have a particularly well-crafted mana construct by your side. Usually, the heralds take the form of objects or not beings, but I know of people who have dogs and other animals as their Heralds. I can think of a particular case where an ego construct of a deer became the herald for a particular legacy. The deer and the legacy are now family heirlooms passed on from generation to generation. It's quite an interesting idea, and having an ego item as the herald can jump-start your ability to use the legacy."

"How so?"

"Well, if the ego becomes the herald once more, it will remember a lot more about what happened than a regular herald. Not that it is able to recall everything fully. Apparently, the ego will have some trouble remembering specifics about the previous legacy holder. But things like how to use the legacy, the types of skills you can expect, or some of the more interesting particularities of the legacy will still be fresh in its memory. Now it's my turn. Where did you find it? What lead did you follow?"

Hera did her best to explain what had happened in the Waperath Kingdom, the threads that she followed to reach there, and all the things she found about the Court of Heroes. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could say about the last part. After all, her search wasn't about the court but about the blademaster themselves.

They talked for around two hours, with Ninelyn asking several questions that Hera could never have imagined. How was the handwriting of the person who made notes about the blademaster, any other mentions of large groups or organizations going to that room, and many more details that she never considered relevant. For the last 20 minutes after the conversation, all questions the elf asked had the same answer.

"I don't remember that," Hera sighed apologetically.

"That's OK. It seems like this was the limit of your search. Don't worry, it already helped a lot," Ninelyn smiled on the screen.

"Really?"

"Oh yes. Now we can expand our search and maybe connect some dots. The blade masters were not the only group that we ever found to be related to the court of heroes. But now, maybe they were not simply related to the court. Instead, they might be members of the court that we were considering to be separate entities. For instance, there was a band of mercenaries called 'Flying Fishes,' And we know of a member of the court of heroes who had some sort of aquatic abilities. Although there was never a direct connection between those two, maybe they were just different names for the same person."

"I mean, it is possible, but saying it's a fish just because they use water is a bit of a stretch," Hera added, "Oh, and what about the tamer, the lead that I was supposed to follow. I know I kind of dropped the ball on that one."

"No, you haven't. The lead is still there, and you're still free to chase after it. However, I will say that if we have new members and not enough leads for them, I might ask you to give your lead away."

"But, what if I find it?"

"Well, if you do find the tamer's legacy, I do hope you tell us so that we can send someone to get it. That being said, if it is in a situation where you don't have an option. Or you are running against someone else, or even in the worst-case scenario that a monster has it and you have to kill it, we will understand that the situation was beyond your control."

"Hang on. Does that mean that I can get more than one legacy? How would that work?"

"One moment," Ninelyn walked over to his bookcase and started looking through a few times, "Here, Just keep in mind that this is highly theoretical. Or, based on rumors, I have no idea if they are the truth or not. But, supposedly, if you already have a legacy and you attempt to get another one, your legacy will absorb this new one. Let's consider the tamer and your current… Court of Blades, was it?"

"Yeah," Hera nodded.

"In theory, if you find the tamer legacy, the Court of Blades will absorb everything it can from the tamer. It's hard to tell since we don't know what the tamer legacy actually entails. But, let's assume for a moment that it has some sort of skill that allows you to strengthen monsters and other animals. Your legacy might find a way to change that skill to fit your own abilities. So instead of making monsters more powerful, you'll be able to make your weapons more powerful. But again, this is just conjecture. I've never found any reports of someone who already had a legacy and found another one or anything like that. What I do know is that it is possible to do a test for another legacy while you already have one. I have experienced that myself, even if by accident."

"Really? What happened?"

"It's not that exciting of a story. The legacy belongs to another member of the order, and the test was located at the bottom of a well. While we were going down that hole, I slipped and fell, entering the test instantly. A part of me really wanted to try to get a second legacy. Still, considering that the person I was accompanying was a very old member of the order and a dear friend, I decided to not test this theory. I would be lying if I said that I don't regret the decision at times, but I do think it was the right one. Trying to get a second legacy would be not only greedy but something made only to appease my own curiosity," Ninelyn explained.

They talked for a couple more minutes before the elf thanked her for her time and said his goodbyes. This left Hera alone in her private room again. Now she could do the remaining two things that she wanted. The first was to test out this new weapon and check the engravings, and the 2nd what's to call the room's guide.