Chapter 625 - Odd mana path (Patreon)

It took five tries before Hera could actually disassemble one of the replicas successfully. The second time, she accidentally broke one of the parts that would make the string by grabbing it with too much strength with the tweezers. The third attempt had the visor shattering when she put a bit too much strength into the Liquid Crystal Chisel. The fourth seemed to go well, but the part where the string would be stored after it was created ended up unraveling, and that caused a domino effect that destroyed the rest of the mechanism. Finally, when she picked the fifth replica, it worked. She managed to remove all the pieces without breaking or causing any type of problem.

"Ok… so… do the pieces still work by themselves?" Hera tried to pull the string and cut a small piece of it. Nimbus and Lurize had to help to keep the rest of the pieces in place, but after a few moments, it worked. She removed a 10-centimeter-long piece of string that would work just like everything else.

"Now for the question part," Hera picked up the black visor and put about 10 thousand mana inside. She noticed that the mana would coat the entire piece of glass, almost as if it was being submerged in water, "What is my name?"

As she asked the question, the mana tried to go inside the visor, but it couldn't and ended up vanishing into the air. With a frown, Hera took another of the replicas from the shelf and asked the same question, using the same amount of mana. The only difference was that this was on a single piece. This time, the skill worked, and a name appeared on the screen, "Hera Kingsley."

"Mum, you don't have a middle name?" Daskka asked.

"Not really. Apparently, when I was going to be born, my mother wanted to call me Stella. You can all guess the reason why. Anyway, my dad was adamant against that, saying that it would feel weird in some situations, and then when Stella suggested using that as my middle name, he had to say he hates middle names and would never let his child have one. According to him, this was a big fight they had and one of the few where he 'won' the argument. He once said to me that he regretted that, saying she might treat me better if I was also called Stella, but I don't think that would matter. If anything, she would be even more of a bitch because I was a 'stain on her name' or some bullshit like that," Hera replied and then looked at Daskka, "Why is that? Do you want a middle name?"

"I don't know. I mean, I'm just Daskka. I would already like a last name."

"What are you talking about? You have a last name. All of you do," Hera looked at her court, "You are all my family. So it's obvious that each of you is also a Kingsley," the Empress smiled.

Daskka looked at Hera, her eyes starting to water, "Mum!" she cried before shoving her head on Hera's chest.

"I am honored, Empress," Nimbus bowed.

"Me too," Lurize did the same.

"Ok, ok. Everyone stop that. I don't want to get emotional right now," Hera waved everyone off, but her entire court gathered for a hug.

After a few moments, they let the Empress go so she could focus on her task again. Going back to the dismantled relic in front of her. Hera tried a few things, including using some of the tools available to understand how the mana behaved as it created the string. Since her goal was to change some of those effects, she had to first grasp what was the spell or skill that was currently in effect and how it worked. Only then could she work on changing those effects.

Even with her court helping her and all the tools she had at her disposal, it took Hera about 3 hours to start to understand the spell that would create the string. The main issue was that this wouldn't create a basic string, but the Phantom String that could pass through objects and creatures. Additionally, that was wrapped around the command to trigger the Binding String effect, which only helped to confuse the Empress.

Despite all that, she persevered, and after stopping the use of tools and focusing only on her natural sense of mana, she was able to slowly piece together what was going on. Once she understood the basics, the rest came easier. It wasn't an easy process, though, since there were many steps involved. First, creating a phantom string, which was a mess by itself. To Hera, the easy way would be making the string and then adding the phantom property to it, but this wasn't the case in the relic. Yarnball already created the enchanted thread from the start. Then came wrapping the binding string around it, or at least part of it. The Binding Thread skill used the same string that was already created instead of making a new one. Because of that, the string itself also had to get another enchantment that would make it more resistant. Third, making sure the strings didn't break, the enchantments didn't overlap, and the spell didn't unravel while doing all these steps.

However, there was another problem on top of all of this. Even if Hera was able to identify what each piece was doing, she couldn't understand how they were doing that. Things worked like they were in a spell, but there was no language. Each piece of the mechanism, each cog, and each of the small bolts inside it didn't have any writing or something that could be considered an instruction.

Another hour went by, and Hera could now see the path of mana that would receive the commands, but she still couldn't grasp how the mana knew what it had to do. Frustrated, she turned back to the visor for the first time, hoping that she could see how it worked. After all, this piece was only a single thing, not a connection of a few parts that would make a complete thing. Unfortunately, the moment she focused on the visor to see the path the mana was taking, Hera almost went blind. The black piece of glass suddenly became bright white with all the mana that passed through it. The Empress tried again and even asked Daskka to make some dark mist to lessen the brightness of the mana and allow her to see what was actually going on. Yet, not even that worked. Looking at the visor only made it seem like it was so jam-packed with instructions using the odd paths that the mana would take that the entire thing changed colors. There was no way for Hera to see even where all of that started.

Frustrated, she put the pieces back on the table and got up. Hera left the workshop and walked to the kitchen, passing by Peaches and Tara, who were half watching her and half talking about other things.

"No luck, kid?" Peaches asked.

Hera didn't answer right away but grabbed a large glass of water and downed it in one go. She filled it up again and started drinking slowly to calm her nerves while Nimbus, Lurize, and the rest of the court waited in the reception.

"Does she… get like that often?" Tara asked.

"Not often, but when she thinks too much and things don't work, mum needs a moment to calm down. This is not even that bad. You should've seen when she was trying to figure out a spell circle," Daskka shivered.

"Oh, yeah. That one was bad. After drinking two liters of water, she ran a few laps around the building without saying anything, but she kept gesticulating wildly," Nimbus added.

"Her mind waz a mezz too. Not even we were able to understand what she zaid," Lurize spoke up.

"It wasn't that bad. I just needed to move around to help me think," Hera walked out of the kitchen while taking a bite out of one of the apples that was in the complimentary fruit basket that came with the test.

"Do you need that right now?" Tara asked.

"I don't think it would help this time," Hera sighed.

'Empress, why don't we ask Peaches for help? For him to explain how the mana is doing what it is doing,' Ooze suggested.

"I don't think he can help us with that," Hera replied to her chakram.

"With what?" Peaches asked since Nimbus looked at him as Hera spoke.

"With the relic. I'm not able to understand how the mana is behaving the way it is. How is it getting the right commands by just making some odd turns here and there?"

"What are you… oh. Wait, you were trying to do that?" Peaches gasped.

"Well… Yeah, I need to understand what the relic currently does to be able to change it. Don't I?" Hera tilted her head.

"No. Shit, kid. What you are trying to do is figure out how the system works on a fundamental level, and let me tell you, you just can't. Not because you are not smart enough or anything like that, but because you are just not supposed to understand it. It's like telling a rock to comprehend the math behind a black hole," Peaches explained.

Tara pulled the guide to the side and whispered in a not so quiet voice, "Are you sure you should be saying that?"

"Yeah, yeah. This is fine. It's one thing if I'm giving her an answer, but this is just explaining how she is going in the completely wrong direction," Peaches continued, "Listen, what the system does is something beyond you and me. For one, those paths are never the same. It all depends on the room you are currently in. There is also something to do with the overall layout of the entire MAZE, and I can't even explain how that works because I simply don't know. So just scrap that idea and the idea that you only have one chance. You have an endless supply of relics. Just try stuff out."

"Oh… Ok. Thanks… I mean, you could have told me that a while ago. I just wasted what, four, five hours?" Hera sighed.

"You didn't ask, kid. I can't intervene otherwise," Peaches rolled his eyes.

"Fine. I hate how pedantic this part of the test is," Hera finished her apple and went for another fruit.

'Hera, now that we are here. Could I ask Tara a question about the ascension?' Armory asked.

"Oh? I think so," Hera turned to Tara with a banana in hand, "Tara, can I still ask you things about the ascension? Armory has a question."

"Of course," Tara jumped after being called. She went for her hat to pull it over her head but stopped herself, trying to be brave, "I-I-I'll do my best to answer every question you have."

'What's the question, Armory?' Hera asked in her mind, trying to help Tara a bit.

'If you ascend, can you still leave the MAZE?'

"What? Of course I can still leave the MAZE. I'm human. I was born on Earth," Hera gasped.

'Yes, but you no longer would be a human. That's why I'm asking. If we are saying we want to do that, this would be something big we would have to consider,' Armory added.

"Ok... That's a fair point," Hera turned to Tara, "Sorry about that. If I ascend, can I still leave the MAZE?"

"Oh… hang on, let me check," Tara stopped and looked to the side for a few moments. Her face was mostly hidden by her hat, but Hera could still tell that she was changing her expression a lot, "So… Short answer is no. You will be a being of the MAZE and no longer just a person of Earth. But you will have a small benefit since you were born on Earth. Once per week, if you go to a doorway connected to Earth, you can travel to another room in the 1st layer. The one that has a doorway closest to what would be your Earth location."

Hera nodded and thought for a moment, but even after a while, she had to admit, "Sorry, I don't understand."

"Ok, where are you from? I mean, you arrived in the MAZE at Brinnefront, right? Where would you end up if you left the MAZE through there?" Tara asked as if she already had that answer in her mind.

"It's called Brilansis."

"Right, so. After you ascend, if you go to Brinnefront and try to go to Earth, instead of going out of the MAZE, you will go to the room that is closest to Brilansis, aside from Brinnefront."

"So I would be like… fast traveling to a different room?" Hera asked.

"I mean… not really, but I guess that's a way to look at it."

"That is… very weird…" Hera sat on the bench.

"Does it change your feelings about ascending?" Tara asked.

"Not really. Honestly, the idea does not sound that appealing to me overall. This is just another thing on the con column," Hera replied.

"Oh… I see…" Tara looked dejected. It never crossed her mind that becoming part of a new species wouldn't be something that Hera wanted.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Hera quickly finished her banana and returned to the workshop. Since Peaches said she didn't have to figure out how exactly the spell worked, she might as well run before walking.