"So. What do you all know about Deakoshara?" Hera asked.

"We were supposed to wait for you. No one went there," Callena replied.

Hera gave the controller a blank stare. She didn't change much in the last couple of months. Her hair was a bit longer going halfway down her arm but not reaching the elbow quite yet and the color was still that deep, almost blue gray. The main difference was that she was much more tanned, which made sense considering the terrain of Zaxalam. It was hard not to get tanned in a tropical area like this.

"Do you really expect me to believe that Shane didn't drag any of you to Deakoshara?"

Everyone turned to Shane, who just shrugged. "I promised that I would wait for you before we go to the good part. Not that I wouldn't do some preliminary scouting."

Hera rolled her eyes, "Yeah. And how far did that preliminary scouting go?"

Shane pulled up her tablet and used a small projector they had set up in this meeting room. They were actually inside a building given to the Royal Explorers. Their headquarters, in a way. The structure had a small training room more focused on light sparring than anything else, an Armory where any sort of equipment that could be required for exploring was set up, the type of thing that individual wouldn't carry themselves all the time, an extensive library with books not just about various locations and monsters, but also more specific things such as how to tie a knot or set up a tent.

Following that, there was a floor for the barracks. Everybody could sleep in their own homes, but they had the option of sleeping here. The third floor, where the meeting was currently happening, had a break room, a kitchen, and the meeting room, a large area with projectors and Safeguard spells to stop anyone from trying to listen in to the conversation.

Next came the roof, which gave way to one of the open areas of the city. It was still inside that small mountain, but with a large hole in front of them working almost like a skylight. The floor of that area was entirely covered in grass or moss, a way to replicate the conditions of the outside. Anytime they wanted to practice camping or the more survival aspect of exploration, they would go there.

In addition to that, the roof was also the place they could practice magic. That was all thanks to the Mage Tower that was a couple of buildings away. If a three-story building could be called a tower. The two structures were sharing a few barriers that were created by Ogryn and his apprentices. Each of those barriers could protect the wider city from any stray spells that ended up causing problems.

If even the barriers failed, there was another option, firing the spell through the hole in the mountain. Everybody was already warned that a cone coming out of this part of the city was a dangerous area. This was not just because of the occasionally errant spell, but also because of some particularly aggressive monsters in that region. Thankfully, they were not very bright and being struck by a random spell wouldn't cause them to charge at the city. Even if it did, the dwarves are more than well equipped to handle even large groups of those creatures.

With everything set up, Shane put the map on the wall behind Hera. It showed only a thin strip of land near the doorway, going to the left but then stopping. To the right, there was a small path until it reached a structure. The land was mostly covered by forest, but the green of those trees was a bit odd. Too bright to what people would use to indicate trees.

"I'm going to be honest. I wanted to have gone much farther, but the problem is, there's too much poison," Shane pointed to all the green parts. The parts that formed the edge of the revealed area, specifically a patch of land that Hera knew would lead to the doorway to the Aerie of the First Flight. "This color represents the poisonous trees, or some sort of vegetation that keeps creating this invisible layer of poison mist."

Hera nodded, "I do remember seeing something like that, but it wasn't that much poison. Even Typhera was able to cross a few of those areas without a problem."

"I know. And I did ask Rutigan," Shane paused, noticing the stares of the three dwarves and corrected herself "King Rutigan, to ask about that when he met with the Queen. According to him, she does have a strong poison resistance skill, but there were a few people in the group that traveled with her, and with you, that didn't have any poison resistance skills. And very were able to cross that forest to get here without any issues. Just some mild sneezing."

"Yeah, I remember that. The poison did nothing to me. And I do mean nothing. Even with my poison skills, I still feel as if I'm being poisoned. That didn't happen when I passed by that area."

"The problem is the season," Shane added.

"The season?" Hera turned with a frown.

Shane turned to Pandora, "Could you explain that part?"

The red-haired dwarf jumped to her feet, "Of course! Hi, Ms. Quetzaveth. Like Shane said, I'm Pandora. Huge fan, by the way. I kept trying to talk to you back in Boothudurn, but never got a chance to do that. Thank you for everything you've done. You really changed my life."

Shane cleared her throat, making Pandora stop.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Right. Sorry. Not the time. Anyway. I have an Explorer skill that lets me get some information about an area."

"One that works once per room?" Hera raised an eyebrow while asking for confirmation.

"Yeah!" Pandora said excitedly.

"Ok then. And you used it?" the Empress did her best not to let her mind wander. As far as she knew, Trillian and Legan were the first two people from Boothudurn who became explorers. But considering her level, Pandora had been training for a lot longer than the two kids. That felt really strange and without knowing why that was the case, it was hard to tell if she could trust this person or not.

"I did," Pandora nodded, "the reply I got was that the seasons of the room affect the poison, its intensity. But I couldn't figure out what is the actual time frame of that was. I know that kind of thing is finicky and I have no clue how long it's going to take before the poison mellows out, or if it's even going to get stronger."

"Which is also a likely possibility," Farica added, the woman was Callena's best friend, but this time her long dark wavy hair had been cut to shoulder length in a cut that made her look a few years, or decades for dwarves, younger.

"Why do you say that?" Hera turned to the mage.

"Because of the ruins. We checked there and there were some burn marks on the walls, but he didn't look like it was because of fire. Was something else, almost like an acid," Farica continued.

"More specifically," Yerel interjected, he wore a pure white set of robes with pitch black shoes and blood red gloves. He was one of the heroes in the Royal Explorers, the one who had tried to become Risli's apprentice but was rejected, "when we took a look at the walls we noticed that there was a residue of something with a very high and very low ph at the same time."

"I don't know much about chemistry. What does that mean?" Hera asked.

"It means it's poison. Venom. Something along those lines. Those are the only kinds of things that usually can have both high and low ph," Bonnie explained.

"So there's poison rain? Or did it look more like flood marks?"

The group exchanged a look.

"Now that you mentioned it, it did look like flood marks. Just a line across the wall," Pandora replied with a weak voice.

"Great. That means we're going to have to swim in poison," Hera sighed.

"I don't know why you are complaining. Aren't you basically immune to poison now?" Alex asked.

Hera turned to the assassin, "Sort of. But not really. Poison can still hurt me. It's just harder for it to do that. It needs to be a really strong for me to even feel anything. And hang on. Why is this an issue? Can't you just purify the entire thing?"

Alex shook her head, "I can't. My legacy can take off things that were not supposed to be there. Buffs, debuffs, poison, ailments, diseases, ink, stuff like that. But I can't remove the poison from your body. Because the poison is a part of you. In the same way, the poison seems to be a part of the things in that room. It's not something forced to be there. It's just natural."

"That kind of sucks. So I'm the only one who can walk around there without an issue?" Hera asked.

"We believe so. But we still have to test if you can move into that area without getting hurt," Shane replied, "Also. Inside those ruins, everything is fine, and I was able to find an old stone tablet. It was inside the desk by some paper scraps that were long gone. I think that whoever was there went out of paper and started carving their thoughts on the rock. At least that's what it feels like. There is a certain desperation in the words."

"Was there anything useful there?"

"A couple of things. First. I mention of a weapon that they can turn off. Something about turning it off and stopping something. Second. They were worried. The person who wrote that tablet felt like everything was going wrong, and they had lost faith in their leaders. I can show you the tablet later. It's front and back. And sideways. It's weird," Shane continued.

"Okay then. Do we have any plans about being able to bring more people into Deakoshara? Or are we all just banking on me being able to find a way to stop the poison?" Hera turned to the group.

No one said anything. They all just looked around, hoping someone had an answer.

"If I may?" Pandora raised her hand.

Hera held back a chuckle, "You don't need to raise your hand to speak. Just talk. We're all friends here."

"Oh, ok!" the dwarf's cheeks turned slightly red, but she had a smile on her face, "I spend some training in a room not that far from here, and apparently one of the rewards we can get from a dungeon is poison resistance accessory set."

"Apparently? Is it that rare that you didn't get it?" Bonnie asked.

"Sort of. There are a few pieces of the set are considered an unlucky drop. Because you're getting a very bad item instead of a good one. But there is a way for you to reduce the chance of getting one of those items. There's a specific monster that if you kill early, their drops wouldn't fall into the prize pool. With the exception of the main part of the set, which triggers the full effect. But that one is very hard to come by and when it drops, it's automatically bound to whoever got it."

"So that means we would need to bring everybody who's going to explore into that dungeon?" Hera frowned.

"Yeah, that or we can try to get another item that is an even rarer drop. The second item allows you to unbind one item from that specific dungeon. So if one of us gets two, we can then unbind one of the items and give it to whoever is missing," Pandora continued.

"Do you know what the actual effects of the items are?" Farica asked.

"I don't know the numbers. But two of the accessories give percentage-based resistance to poison. The third reduces the effect of poison. And the full set effect is to change the way poison behaves in your body, so instead of damaging you, it will give you a very small healing effect. But it does cost mana to do that. The stronger the poison the more mana it needs."

"I mean… if it counts as my own poison as something like that, it would be great!" Hera nodded and turned to the group, "Still. I understand the first step of this mission is going to be solo. Or as solo as I can be. I'll be heading out tomorrow, so if anyone has anything else to say, now is the time. Think about it, and if anything happens, I'm let me know. For now, everyone's dismissed." The Empress clapped her hands, but no one left. They all decided to stay and talk.

Hera didn't mind that, but there was one more group she wanted to talk to before heading one. One group that could have some unique insight. Besides, it had been a while since the last time she slept in that place. It was time to go back to her private room.