Chapter 556 - Zoned out (Patreon)

Hera's Status

Hera was in the middle of taking apart the skinning knife when an alarm that she had set up started to ring. Cheap weekly walked back to the blueprint storage room to check on Mylo. The fighter was still struggling to find something he understood, and Hera had an idea of how to help him. Pulling Yarnball, she asked, "Where, inside this storage, is the blueprint that Mylo can understand?"

Just like last time, she pumped almost all of her mana into the question. Part of her was sure she wouldn't get an answer. After all, this would be basically cheating, and her question was very specific. Not to mention, this was the first time she had ever asked a question that was 100% unrelated to herself or anything she was looking for. Yet, the screen flickered, and words appeared.

'Two drawers to the left and four down from the one he is currently searching.'

"Mylo, check this one," Hera walked over and opened the drawer her relic told her to. She let the fighter look over it while she kept the one he was just checking open and the blueprints he had already looked at separate from the rest. Just in case the relic made a mistake. After about five minutes, he pulled one of the large blue pieces of paper.

"Found it. It's for a… teapot?" Mylo frowned.

"Well. I got a skinning knife. It's not awful, but hardly useful," Hera chuckled, "Come. I'll help you figure out which one you have to work with. Oh, and I found that the workstations have a book inside them that teaches us how to do this."

"That's good, but you can go ahead. I already know what pot I'm looking for."

"Really? Which one is it?"

"The one you broke," Mylo said as he went inside the storage room.

"Oh… sorry about that," Hera scratched her cheek. Ever since they talked about her relic, things felt weird, and she had no idea why.

Walking back to the workbench, she continued disassembling the knife. It was much harder than she expected, mostly because of the techniques shown in the book. All of them focused on maintaining the current materials and parts as best as possible, and that slowed things to a crawl. Even removing the screws that kept the wooden handle attached took ages because it required a specific solution to be poured in the holes and then let it sit for a few minutes before she continued the work. It would be nice if she could do several of the screws at once, but if the solution dripped into the rest of the knife, it would damage it too much.

Mylo came carrying the teapot with both hands and placed it on the workbench at Hera's side. She quickly pointed to where the book was located, and they continued working. Neither of them spoke much, not out loud, at least. The Empress was still talking with her court. Since they were weapons, they had a unique perspective on this whole situation, and some of their advice proved invaluable. The book said that if the screw started to be a problem, she could try to wiggle it gently with her tools, but Core suggested an alternative. Daskka could use her mist to wrap around the screw and then make a hurricane of sorts to loosen it. Doing so would deal much less damage to the knife.

While continuing the work, Mylo occasionally asked Hera where she found one tool or another. In turn, the Empress would ask similar questions or his opinion on things that she was struggling with, even with the help of her court. Between reading the book and trying to follow the blueprints, neither of them realized how much time had passed.

At one point, Nimbus thought he heard a noise coming from somewhere, but at the time, Hera was starting to melt the metal to fill the cracks in the knife, so his focus wasn't there. She placed the two small ingots, following the instructions given by the book. Their weight should be enough to compensate for the missing weight of the knife plus an additional 10% that would end up being removed in later stages of the reforging. Thankfully, the blueprint was very specific on the measurements the end result should have and there was a scale available to use in the workbench. Inside the furnace there were the two materials that she would use to improve the knife. First a steel ingot that was the same type of metal used on the original, then she added a different material to coat the entire knife and make it sharper. Among the list, she noticed something called 'replenishing bronze' that should regenerate with time. The effects wouldn't be enough to allow someone to split the knife and let it grow back again, but it could work so the blade would never lose its sharpness.

However, that wasn't without its flaws. This bronze was much more malleable than most other metals, meaning that if the bronze was used on a weapon, it wouldn't have a good enough edge to cut most monsters' hide in a single swing, especially when it was covered in mana. On the flip side, a skinning knife that was made to be used when the monster was no longer an issue could prove to be invaluable. Nimbus did point out that if the knife couldn't cut monsters when they were alive, it would have problems cutting them when they were dead, but Hera liked the idea of that material and wanted to try to add it to the item.

With care, Hera removed the melted ingots from the furnace and started pouring the metal over the disassembled knife that was already in a sand frame to avoid spilling it everywhere. She closed the lid over that frame to avoid any contamination from the outside and set it aside to let it cool off. Just as she started working on the handle and decided which type of wood she would use, a voice came from the entrance.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Hera and Milo looked behind them and saw the rest of the party, with Shane in front with an annoyed expression.

"Oh, hi, guys. Did you complete your challenge?" Hera asked.

"Yeah! About six hours ago!" Shane yelled, "What have the two of you been doing?"

"Working on the challenge. We have to reforge an item," Mylo replied.

"I know that, dumbass. I just got the notification when I walked in here. Didn't you figure we would be waiting for you? We were freaking out here."

"We… kind of lost track of time. It's easy to get in the zone here," as Hera was trying to come up with an excuse for not remembering to check the time, she realized how quickly she could focus on something in this place.

"Fine, let's just go. It's already late, and going through those woods will be horrible," Shane rubbed her eyes.

"We could just stay here. We have a dormitory, and that way, we don't have to walk through that forest with no light," Hera suggested.

"Really? Are the beds good?" Blue asked.

"Kind of, they are sort of water beds made out of jellyfish, but they don't hurt. We also have bathrooms here," Hera explained, but her hands were still moving around the bench, grabbing the wood and marking the size and the places she would have to saw and sand to make the handle. Mylo also was still working while still looking at the group.

"Can you two stop! This is not a fucking joke!" Shane yelled again.

"Sorry, sorry." Mylo and Hera both said, trying to calm the situation down.

"I'm not mad. Just irritated. Come on, let's go. You two can work on those things tomorrow," Shane said.

"But are we going? Like it's going to be dangerous to pass through the forest. We could sleep here and go out in the morning," Hera suggested again thinking that Shane didn't hear her the first time.

"Are you saying this just because you want to keep working?" Bonnie snickered.

"No. Not just because of that. It would also help tomorrow. We are closer to the challenges we have to complete right now, so staying here would save us some time." Hera smiled.

"Yeah... and I think we might need that. Or something else," Alex was holding her weather doll. It was red, signaling that it would rain soon.

"How much time do we have?" Helena asked.

"Close to 24 hours. The doll tells me the weather for the next day, and I check it constantly. Before we entered the forest, it was still white."

Shane looked at Alex and then at Hera, who just nodded in response.

"No one follows me. I need a few minutes alone. I'll be taking one of the bathrooms in the dormitory. Actually, if you could all wait here, I would appreciate it," Hera didn't wait for a response and just walked to the side passage in the forge. The Empress left the knife on the workbench, but there was a switch that would create a small shield on top of the table to protect anything on it.

Blue found that odd and was about to ask something, but Shane stopped her, "It's her turn to see if she can figure some stuff out. If anyone is near, things might go south."

"Oh... ok," Blue nodded and waited for Hera to return.

In less than a minute, Hera was already inside the bathroom, surrounded by her soundproof bubble and security cube. She made sure to lock the door and even placed a small stone pillar to stop anyone from opening it. After taking a deep breath, she spoke the words to trigger her skill.

"I call upon the Guide of the Seven Islands. As an explorer, I have proven that my motives are pure."

For the first time, when using the skill, she felt the ground rumble. Then, an opening appeared to her side, showing the middle of the room with the God of Water statue in plain view. She squinted, trying to see what was going on. She noticed some movement in the water as if something was swimming at high speed, but as it approached, Hera realized that it wasn't someone swimming. It was someone surfing their own personal wave.

The figure started to get closer and closer, doing even some tricks that were not fully appreciated by Hera since it was too dark for her to see until, with a splash of water, it arrived inside the safety cube. The ocean water splashed Hera's face, making her close her eyes and unable to see the guide as they entered this obscured area.

"Hera Kingsley. I was looking forward to meeting you," the guide spoke in a gravelly voice, and behind each word, there was something else. In a way, it reminded her of the sounds she would hear in Boothudurn when people were trying to change the stones of a house.

When she opened her eyes, cleaning the salt water, Hera was able to see a giant golem's face in front of her. They had a beak/mouth made of stone with three fins on top of their head. The eyes were deep and completely white, with a pair of small dots in the middle. What was strange was that she couldn't see any limbs. It was just a stone head. A giant stone head that was almost her size when she was standing up, but a stone head nonetheless.

"Hi, sorry for taking so long," Hera replied, snapping out of her daze.

"I… wasn't expecting that reaction. I figured you would be used to our brand of uniqueness. Especially considering Peaches," the guide seemed a bit embarrassed for some reason.

"I mean, to be fair, you're only the third guide I met that doesn't have limbs. It's you, Peaches, and the guide for the Kobold Road, but he was literally a face in a wall."

"What about Kelpi?"

"Well, he's a fish. And he has the suit with limbs. Most guides that I know are either animals or types of monsters that I've seen before. You are the first one who kind of breaks that cycle. Also, it was dark, but I'm pretty sure you were surfing out there, and I have no idea how that is possible without limbs. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive, and I don't mean to say anything bad. It's just something unexpected."

The guide stopped to think for a moment, "That is fair. Also, I apologize for the lack of manners. I got a bit excited here. I am Ruma."

Hera smiled and gave a short nod, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ruma looked up, and a sundial appeared, showing Hera how much time she still had left to ask her questions, "The pleasure is all mine. Now, would you mind if we got started? I understand that you might be pressed for time."