Chapter 563 - Meeting under the rain (Patreon)

Hera's Status

"Well, shit. Shapeshifting slimes?" Shane rubbed her eyes.

"It seems like it. Have you ever seen one before?" Hera replied.

"During the explorer test. There was one I had to deal with. It was like an extra challenge, and I almost managed to beat it," Shane explained.

"Wait, really? Are all the tests the same? I had to deal with slimes too," Hera turned to Adriel.

"As far as I'm aware, there are a few variations. One is against slimes, mine was against treants, and the last one I can remember has you dealing with… fish? Frogs? Something that lives in the water. I think there are another five types of monsters you can see there or something," Adriel scratched his head.

"Really? Treants for the explorer's test? Those are hard to fight," Shane had a surprised expression.

"Well, it's the test version, you know. It's not supposed to be as hard as the original," Adriel continued.

"Can we leave the talk about tests for later?" Alex interrupted.

"Sure. Let's start with you," Shane turned to Alex with an angry expression, "What the hell did you do? How did you find the way to come here, and why did you trick us to do that?"

"Trick you?" Alex gasped.

"What would you call what you did? You had Blue trapping us with her cloud, which we need to talk about, by the way. I don't know if you felt that, Hera," Shane turned to the Empress with a shocked expression.

"We'll talk about that later. But yeah, we need to," Hera nodded, already understanding that this was about their legacy. It seemed like Shane also had a similar experience to her when they were in the whirlpool.

"Ok, later. But I still want to know what the fuck is going on. And you are not out of the woods either, Blue. Trapping us like that was shitty," Shane glanced at the controller, who didn't reply, just nodded in agreement.

"I… I don't think it's a good idea for me to explain," Alex turned to Hera, "Could you give them the rundown? I'll add something when I feel it's necessary."

Hera sighed, "Fine. Just remember you are angry at her, not me, everyone. Basically, Alex was cursed. Sorry, I mean is. She is cursed. And it's not an easy curse to get rid of. It's something that already destroyed an entire room a long time ago, and even an ancient being that lived there was affected by it."

"What kind of being?" Adriel asked.

"I don't know how to explain this. Basically, he was a dragon that existed in a part that was not exactly a dungeon, but it worked kind of like a dungeon. He could talk, and the temple where he lived had the history of that place in paintings and stuff."

"Oh, so he was like the guardian beast of the place?" Adriel nodded.

"Yeah, like that, but he couldn't do anything with the room itself, only with what was inside the temple. He could watch the room, but that was about it."

"Right, but what does this curse have to do with anything? I mean, I already knew she was cursed, but I don't understand how she found out all this," Shane continued.

"So, don't ask me how. I don't know,  but the curse is supposed to be contagious. And the way you get infected is by knowing about it. The more you know, the easier it is for you to be affected by it. If you already are infected, the more you think about it, and the more you learn about the curse, the stronger it gets," Hera continued.

"Ok, so it runs on faith?" Mylo asked.

"We were thinking it runs on knowledge. Since you don't actually have to believe in it for it to do something," Helena chimed in. She also knew a few things about the curse.

"That still doesn't explain what is going on. How did she find out about all this?" Adriel asked. Hera didn't know the answer and ended up having to turn to Alex.

"I'm going to avoid giving too many details. Since the curse gets stronger the more you know about it, it tries to lure me into thinking about it. So it will give me things that I want, or show me answers, and trick me into thinking about it. The first thing it did was show me yellow. The color yellow. I'm colorblind, so seeing that without any special glasses was amazing. Then it…" Alex started explaining but was cut off by Blue.

"Alex, you are giving too many details, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Right, sorry. This is what the curse does. It makes me want to talk about it. It kind of reminds me of a line from a movie. How was it again? 'I spent about 20% of my time talking about the curse, and the other 80% of the time, I was praying for someone else to bring it up so I could talk about it more.'  I paraphrased that line but that is the sentiment. Anyway, it shows me things that I want to know. At times, they are things that are impossible for me to know. Like where some monsters are coming from or where I'm going to find a specific person inside a dungeon. This time, it told me what to do to reach that doorway and how to make sure no one got hurt in the process. To learn all that, I had to pay a price, which was knowing more about the curse. That happened while I was being dragged by the current and then when I opened the passage. Honestly, that part was just weird. Instead of telling me the pattern, it showed me a rhythm game with some flashes of things of the past in the mix. And some of those images were just insane, like…."

"Alex!" Hera warned her.

Alex stopped talking and took a deep breath, "Sorry. It keeps trying to make me speak, and I don't even know if that was the curse or me. Anyway, that's what happened. I know I was a bitch, and I completely understand if you decide you can't trust me, but I'm not going to apologize for bringing us here. I stand by that decision. But I am sorry for getting you guys hurt, especially Bonnie. And for breaking your trust."

There was a moment of silence after she finished speaking. Everyone was processing what she said. During the time she spoke, Adriel, Mylo, and Shane were the only ones staring at the assassin. The rest was making a point of not looking directly in her direction to avoid any possible problems with the curse. After about five minutes, Shane let out a loud groan.

"Fuck this. It's really hard to be upset with you when you are actually being reasonable. But don't ever do that again. I don't make a point of having people make my decisions for me, not anymore," Shane stared daggers at Alex.

"I can't promise that will never happen. If it's an emergency and It's either doing something like this or letting people die, I'd rather break your thrust than lose a friend. But in any other situation. I promise I won't act like this again," Alex replied.

"Ok, that. Do you see how annoying that is? It makes me want to punch you," Shane rolled her eyes.

"If that helps, I'm ok with that," Alex nodded.

Shane groaned once more and turned to Hera, "Now, do you want to talk about that in private, or can we talk here?"

"I think here is fine. Since that is something that could be a problem for everyone depending on the situation," Hera said.

"Ok," Shane looked Blue dead in the eye, "That cloud that you used to bind us. What does the skill say? I mean specifically?"

Blue frowned without understanding why they were being so serious, "Hang on…. Here. It's called Cloud that Binds. And the description says: Binds your target using a cloud. The bind is not powerful but can interrupt certain skills and spells. I've tried using it before on myself, but none of my skills were blocked, so I figured everyone would be ok."

"Yeah… I  wasn't. That skill can mess with my legacy. I couldn't do anything with it during the whirlpool, and that made me panic even more," Shane replied.

"Me too. I couldn't talk with Nimbus and the others," Hera looked to the side. Daskka was sitting on Bonnie's chest while using her mist to heal her as much as she could. The herald knew that her spell now was barely doing anything, but it seemed like at least it was keeping Bonnie comfortable. Hera mouthed a 'Thank you,' since the snake was outside the soundproof barrier, "I didn't try calling Daskka since I was worried that she would be dragged by the current."

"I assume that wouldn't be a problem. She is an item, even if she is part of the legacy, but I don't know," Helena was making her own theories related to what they were talking about. Being part of the Order of the Lost Court, she had some knowledge about legacies.

"But… Nimbus was out when we were bound. Isn't that right?" Mylo asked.

Hera nodded, "It is, and at that time, I could still talk with him and the rest of the court. I think the problem was just when I had to summon them."

"I couldn't make any new enchantments, but the ones that were already active didn't break. So maybe it doesn't affect what we already used, only new things," Shane explained.

"Wait, really? I can stop legacies?" Blue opened a big smile on her face.

"Not exactly stop, but like, make things complicated. That could help a lot," Hera nodded.

"Why do you think that?" Alex turned to the explorer, "Do you think we will find a legacy here?"

"Honestly? I don't know, but I think we have a chance. Like, we are clearly in a place where civilization once existed. Maybe one of them had a legacy and was killed by a monster. Now the monster has the legacy, and if it shows up, we can, at least, stop it from doing stuff," Hera explained.

"That… is actually a fair assessment. From what I know, most legacies are found in new rooms. Now that you mention it, a large number of them end up coming from monsters. The ones that are in a challenge are kind of rare, and they come with some benefits since you have to learn a bit about the legacy before getting it," as Helena spoke, Hera and Shane glanced at each other. They both got the rare ones.

"I think the best option is for us to test how strong that will be. But honestly, let's do it later. I'm not in the mood for that now. I'm just tired," Shane slumped against the wall.

"Me too. Do you guys have food?" Blue asked.

"I have some rations, but I don't know if they got wet in the whirlpool," Alex opened her bag to check. Everything was dry, and it looked like even with the strength of the current, the waterproof bags they got were holding strong.

"I told you it was a good investment," Adriel smiled as he noticed the power bar in the assassin's hand.

"I still think it was way too overpriced. I mean, 50 thousand for just one of them? That is ridiculous," Alex scoffed.

"It's not like we were the ones who paid for it. Rutigan was more than happy to give all the Royal Explorers one of these," Blue chuckled.

"Yeah, but still," Alex shrugged.

"That is kind of the price. The ones we have are a bit more pricey, but they also come with temperature control. To a certain point," Shane pulled some jerky from her bag and started eating.

Everyone did the same and decided to rest for the rest of the day. A lot happened, and with the storm outside, it wasn't like they had the option to explore the area. Some time passed, and the rain continued. People started to find spaces to sleep, and they set up their shifts for the night. Hera insisted on Shane as her partner for their lookout. It didn't take much to convince everyone, especially when she mentioned that they had to discuss something about their relics. They had the second shift, so they slept, and soon they were woken up by Mylo and Blue. Being alone with Shane, Hera covered them in a soundproof bubble and explained to her the last moments with the fake Alex, how someone said it was a warning and that they wanted to talk. Shane agreed that it sounded like the guide, but it would be better if they had more information about the room before using their skills. Hera was thinking the same, and they continued their shift without any problems or monsters trying to come closer. Eventually, it was time to wake Helena and Alex, and the two of them returned to bed. Despite the small reprieve, there was a lot to do in the morning.