457 - Finding the room (Patreon)

After leaving the room where she talked to Alex, Hera sent out her blades to look for any other rooms that didn't look particularly complicated. The first three that they found seemed to be a bit too much. All three had very large areas inside, and there was no indication of what the test should be about. Executioner found one that could work. It was a tall cliff with a red flag on top. From the description she received, one could guess that this particular room was going to be a rock-climbing challenge. That wasn't bad, and if she could use her stone wall spell, passing the test should be a breeze. The only problem was that that room was on the 7th floor, and she was currently on the 10th. By itself, that wasn't an issue, but to go down the floor, she would have to cross all the links of the corridor and then do the same thing on the next floor since the stairways were in the opposite corners of each floor. She glanced at her tablets and saw that she still had 7 minutes before the 1-hour timer. Going back to the stairs will take at least 5 minutes, and that could be too much. She would have to find something else if the test took a long time. But she still had one more option.

Unlike most of the hotel, this place was set up like a resort. The building was facing outwards, and while on one side of the corridors, she could see only doors and the weird wavy wall. Looking to the other side would allow her to see a railing and the view. A pretty crappy view, but that wasn't the point. In this place, she could, in theory, drop from floor to floor from the outside, saving her precious time. Not wanting to give herself a chance to struggle with the decision. Hera pulled up Yarnball and tied it on the railing before climbing to the other side.

"What are you doing? The legacy can't help you with this," Daskka tried to push Hera back to the hallway, afraid that she would fall and die.

"Of course, you can. Just push me when I'm getting close to the floor that I wanna be. And I'm not gonna drop all the way. I'll drop one floor, then I'll set up and drop again," Hera explained.

"No! You don't need to. We can just run!" Daskka gasped, and Hera felt the rest of her blades having the same worry.

"We don't have time. If you guys are worried, just push me when I get to the opening," Hera held on to the railing and stopped using her feet for support. She was still around two meters away from the next railing, and that was only counting the distance starting from her feet. After giving Yarnball a quick tug, to make sure it was properly tied, she dropped as she was repelling down to the next floor. Her entire court jumped into action, both trying to lift her up and push her back inside the building. They weren't able to stop the Empress from doing what she wanted, but with their assistance and Yarnball's pull, Hera fell on the 9th floor, tumbling into the corridor. She wasn't injured, even if the fall wasn't exactly elegant, and got ready to do it again.

"Hera stop!" Daskka gasped.

"Don't worry. It's working fine," Hera tugged Yarnball, trying to see if she could activate the phantom thread to keep using the same string on her next attempt. It worked perfectly, and she started tying it on the railing of the floor.

Stop.

Don't.

Careful.

Give me a warning next time.

Those were the messages she was receiving from her court. She ignored those telling her to stop doing this but accepted the advice about being careful and letting them know before she jumped. That would help a lot since there will be more at the ready to assist her. With this new setup, Hera jumped another two floors. Doing it this way only took a minute and a half. In the grand scheme of things, this method wasn't that much faster, but when pressed for time, every second counted. She quickly went towards the door that Executioner had found. Inside, she was met with a very tall rock cliff with some of those rock climbing handles on the side. There was a small coffee table right by the door with a piece of paper facing down on top of it. She quickly checked the test, which was even better than she expected. To complete the test, all she had to do was to climb the cliff as quickly as possible. The catch was that the crag would keep growing exponentially. So even if she had, in theory, unlimited time to complete this test, if she took way too long to reach the top, eventually, the wall would start growing at a speed that was impossible to keep up. If that happened, she would have to leave from the same door she entered and miss the bonus time for completing the test. It was a place where if she did the test or not, she could stay here for an unlimited amount of time.

"Sorry, I really needed to use the bathroom. Where are you?" Blue's voice came through the communicator.

"I'm already in the room you guys are looking for," Alex replied.

"Oh. I'm here too, guys," Hera chimed in.

Blue started asking the same type of questions that Hera did the first time she talked to Alex. Not long after that, Helena also joined the conversation. The mage apparently arrived at a room where she could complete the test and stay for at least one extra hour if needed. Everyone got distracted by the conversation and the idea of understanding how this worked. When they were inside one of the rooms, they could talk with everyone else that was also inside their rooms but outside, they were still on their own. They were about a minute away from the moment where the Housekeeper would be roaming around again when they realized that Bonnie was still missing.

"Bonnie? Can you hear us?" Blue asked.

"Do you think something happened? Or did she miss the timer?" Alex's voice sounded worried.

"I doubt it. I saw her setting the alarm up. She made like 10 different ones to make sure not to mess up. I just hope she didn't freeze," Helena replied.

"What do you mean?" Hera was by the door, trying to see if one of her blades could see the researcher somewhere.

"She was freaking out a bit. I don't think she liked the idea of being alone here, but it wasn't like we could do much, and everyone was already splitting up. I asked if she was OK, and she didn't say anything," Helena sighed.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Blue gasped.

"Because it wouldn't matter. We got stuck in that room, and there was nothing we could do to change the rules. Bonnie would have to go alone even if we tried to make her feel better. This might sound cruel but talking her up and comforting her just to leave her alone in this place sounds even more cruel to me. Hope can be a dangerous thing. Besides, one rule of this place is that there is always a new open door for us to use. We will never be placed somewhere where we can't find another room to enter."

"I'm going to see if she's around here somewhere. I'm in a very wide area, and if push comes to shove, I can jump back in the room," Alex said.

"I'll do the same," Hera walked out of her room and yelled, "Bonnie! Are you here?"

As she asked that question, the alarm went off, and the Housekeeper's roar echoed throughout the entire hotel. At the same time, Hera managed to hear Bonnie's panicked voice, "I don't wanna die!"

Hera looked down and saw Bonnie outside the resort structure, running like a headless chicken. Hera quickly pressed the communicator and started waving her arms, "Bonnie! I'm here."

It took a moment for the mage to find her friend. Not so much because it was difficult to see the explorer, but because she wasn't in the right state of mind, "Hera! Please don't leave me."

"Come up here. There is an open room that we can use. Hurry before the Housekeeper…" As if waiting for her rescue, the Housekeeper appeared in the corridor, from the staircase heading down. She was pushing her cart, and the moment she saw Hera, the minotaur just growled and started walking towards her, "Shit. Come here, Bonnie. I'll keep the Housekeeper distracted. Room 3592C, 7th floor!"

Hera yelled before backing away from the minotaur and tossing a few spells at it. The Housekeeper wasn't going to move very fast, but at the same time, Hera didn't want the monster to change her target. Her fire arrow bounced off the maid's uniform, and her poison needle burst before even reaching it, which only seemed to anger the minotaur more and more. Now, the Housekeeper was walking a little bit faster. Hera kited the creature up to the 8th floor and told Bonnie to let her know when she was in the room. Only after luring the monster all the way back to the 10th floor that the researcher called her through the communicator. Since she was already here, she might as well use the same method she used before to climb back down. Only this time, she wouldn't be using Yarnball since tying the string up took a bit too much time, and she kept the minotaur close enough so it wouldn't think about going after Bonnie.

When Hera jumped from the 10th floor to the 9th, her blades helped her reach the ground safely, but the Housekeeper had other plans. The monster slammed his fists on the ground, breaking it in just a couple swings, and dropped to the lower floor to follow Hera. That scared the explorer since it also meant that even if she arrived on the 7th floor, the minotaur would be between her and the door.

"We are dropping two floors this time," Hera told her court and activated the wind elemental armor. She wasn't that proficient with it, but she knew this armor could help move a bit in the air. Unlike previously, the blades had no protests. This was a very different situation than the one they were in before.

Jumping from the railing, Hera arrived on the lower floor and used her mana to push herself forward, trying to tumble once again into the corridor. Her blades were trying to help her movement, but the combined effort was a bit stronger than expected. She hit her head on the edge of the 8th floor, and the impact almost sent her backward. If it weren't for her blades and the spell, she would have fallen to the ground or hit her back against the railing, potentially crippling her. Instead, she managed to reach the 7th floor, even if she slammed against the walls. From above, she could hear the Housekeeper breaking the floor, and the ceiling started to crack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All in activated

The cooldown will now start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hera didn't even have to think about triggering the skill. It happened as she was running at full speed towards the door. Bonnie was waiting by the door frame and put out her arm to grab her and pull her inside the room. Behind the explorer, there was a minotaur who was now doing a light jog towards them. Maybe they had done something, but the creature seemed to be moving faster now. Hera closed the door after dismissing all of her blades that were still outside. She could call them back again later, and now they needed to stop the Housekeeper somehow. That worked like a charm. The timer started after closing the door, and they had a moment to rest. Hera could see that Bonnie was still shaken up by the ordeal, but she remembered the test in this room. She told her friend to follow her, and using her stone wall spell, they were able to quickly arrive at the top of the cliff. All that Hera had to do was to make a stone platform on the side and then raise it up about 15 meters. With that, they earned another 30 minutes of roaming around and had a moment to talk.

"Are you OK?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. Sorry, everyone, I'm OK," Bonnie replied to all the voices she was hearing in the communicator. Hera didn't notice, but it seemed like something was causing some interference with her device, and she couldn't hear anyone. When she deactivated her elemental armor spell, she could once again listen to what everyone else was talking about. All of them were freaking out and asking a bunch of questions all at once, which seemed to make Bonnie even more afraid than she already was.

"What happened?" Helena asked.

"Sorry, just being alone in the dungeon is not something I wanna do again. I don't think I'm cut out for this part of the job," Bonnie hugged her knees.

"We are fine, and she's not alone anymore. Don't worry. I think she just needs some time. We are going to turn off the communicators. Our test is over. Finish your's up, and we will be back soon," Hera replied as she sat beside Bonnie.

"Thanks," Bonnie mumbled.

"Don't worry, I know how those things can be. The first few days after we came back from Boothudurn were a mess," Hera hugged Bonnie.

"Is it a problem? Me not being able to do things on my own?

"Not at all. There are a lot of people who live in the MAZE that don't actually go in dungeons.We have shops, restaurants, and schools. There are a bunch of places you can be if you don't want to keep risking yourself. Oh, and most people don't go alone in dungeons. They usually have a party," Hera tried to sound confident in what she was saying, but even if those things seemed right, she wasn't completely sure everything  was true, "When we get out of here, we don't have to go into dungeons again. We can just pick up Helena's stuff and then go back home, OK?"

Bonnie nodded and just stayed silent for a while. About 10 minutes later, they turned on their communicators again and talked to the group. Apparently, since they did different tests, the amount of time they gathered added up. Those three tests already gave them an hour and a half to roam about. Now that Bonnie was no longer alone, her fear had almost vanished, and with that, she asked if they could keep going. She wanted to get out of there soon. Everyone agreed to that. This place had stopped being fun the moment they split up. When Hera and Bonnie opened their door, they were in a wide expanse filled with sand on the ground and doors that were standing alone, not even connected to a wall.

"Hey, Alex. You said you were in the desert, right?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"We just found it. Can you go outside and start yelling?"

"Sure," Alex stepped outside her room and called, "The most amazing and beautiful assassin in the world is here. Can anyone hear me?"

Both Hera and Bonnie heard the voice and just stepped to the side, seeing their friend a few meters behind the door they had just come from. The three walked inside the room they were looking for, taking a moment to enjoy the place. It was the best hotel room any of them had ever been to. Another two and a half hours passed, with Helena and Blue having to complete another test before everyone got there, and the quest was finally over. Bonnie pushed everyone to leave soon since she didn't want to be in this place anymore. Blue was a bit sad about not being able to hang out in that room, but she understood how her friend just wanted to go rest outside a dungeon.

However, the moment they all arrived back at the waiting room for the dungeon, all of their tablets rang out, and a warning appeared on the screen.

DZVIERY IS ON LOCKDOWN.
THE ROOM IS UNDER ATTACK.
FIND SHELTER AND HIDE.