Lurize started talking with Pandora about her combat style after they had killed the Apex Carithrax. All in all, the dwarf had a lot of good points about how fought. She was quick to adapt when something went wrong, and the ability to swap her most powerful skills to better suit her enemy was commendable. However, she had one big issue. Despite being able to react to different situations, her attacks always fell back into one of a few different options: either an upward swing, spinning attack, or a downward slam.

Sure, when using a large hammer, most attacks would fall under one of those three categories, but the way Pandora was performing those attacks was always the same. Not just the same idea of the attack, but the exact same form when doing the attack. It was impressive on one hand. Very few people were able to replicate the same move with such precision over and over again, but unfortunately, this was not a good thing on the battlefield. By being so stuck to the form, it was hindering the dwarf from being able to break free from the convention she was following and make the fighting style her own.

Another more pressing issue was the fact that despite having three different spells attached to her hammer, Pandora only used one during the fight with the giant dinosaur. Forgetting spells now and then was understandable. Hera herself was constantly doing that.

But there was a big difference between the Empress who had dozens of different skills, spells and over 20 Court members to remember and someone who was still early in their journey and revolved her entire combat style around three specific skills that she could swap. It would be fine if the dwarf had simply chosen not to use the other skills for some reason, but she admitted that she had forgotten to use the other ones.

For now, the Royal tutor wouldn't be able to give proper lessons since they were using the dungeon, and Lurize himself was not well aware of how to fight using hammers. But that didn't mean he didn't have any options.

Once they were out, he could use [Whisper of the Ancients] to see if any previous blades from the previous Legacy holders had some idea of how to fight with a hammer. Maybe someone had at some point used some sort of bladed hammer, and if not, it was possible to adapt the combat style Livy used with her war axe to a hammer, even if there were some fringe situations where they would behave very differently.

During the fight, Hera watched the monster and made a note of everything she saw. How it had to eat rocks to activate that explosion effect, the types of attacks it tried to use, and the things that made it angrier or seemed to do more damage to it. All the while, her Court was patrolling the rocky plateau in search of the tracks that would lead them to the next beast.

They had found several of them, but unfortunately, just the Court members noticing those markings were not enough for the dungeon. She had to physically walk to the place and inspect the tracks themselves before it worked. While moving from one location to the next, the Empress also shared with Pandora her discoveries about the monster. She wanted to make sure she was finding the right things and noticing the right kinds of reactions from the beasts.

So far, she was doing reasonably well. There was still a lot she was missing, but it was mostly due to the fact that the battles were short. They were not giving enough time for the monsters to show their full abilities. Even so, Hera had no intention of holding back all that much against those creatures.

It was fine if she was helping Pandora to practice, but if she was going to step in herself, she wouldn't be playing with her food. This was not because she thought herself too proficient in exploring to actually benefit from this training, but because holding back against creatures so much weaker than she just felt wrong. It made very little practical sense, but the entire court agreed that pulling their punches too much would only make them feel awkward. Almost as if they were bullying the monsters.

After the full report they confirmed that Hera's discoveries were mostly spot on, with a couple of exceptions. For instance, she was assuming the monster needed to eat rock because the minerals themselves had some sort of chemical compound that could trigger large explosions. In reality, it was the acid inside its stomach that was able to convert almost any type of rocks into explosive compounds. She also assumed that the monster was chasing after Nimbus due to his constant attacks, but Carithrax was more of the stubborn type. Chasing after a single prey before going for the next. Unless someone else was able to really piss it off.

That conversation lasted long enough for them to find every single track the empress and her court had noticed in the area. Eventually, a large condor came flying through, carrying a scroll on its neck. Pandora felt a bit awkward seeing the creature. The first time she came to this dungeon and saw it, the dwarfs tried to attack it, which caused several problems back in the village.

The scroll didn't have just one new creature, but two. The report indicated the existence of a large spider-like monster inside the valley and one horned beast that lives in the jungle by the beach. Turning to Pandora to show the next target, the horned beast was, according to her, the only of the two that she should be able to take while fighting. The other was too tricky for her, mostly because of its location and synergy with its power.

Quickly calling the eagle riders, they left toward the jungle where the horned beast known as Kongreth lived. The trip to get to the jungle lasted about 10 minutes, but finding a good place to land in the middle of a thick forest was a bit of a struggle.

Hera had already assigned the new partners for this time. Considering that the horned beast was similar to a large ape, something that focused very much on strength, it was one particular title blade that was very excited about the idea of fighting against it. So Livy and Pandora went into the jungle, searching for the creature.

They only had to take a few steps inside the territory before the monster appeared. This was also something Pandora had told would happen since the beast was extremely territorial. This time, she had three new spells on her hammer: a water trap again, a spell that would drain someone's strength so she could buff herself for a few moments, and the last was a fire spell that just delivered a powerful flame blast. She wasn't so worried about burning down the jungle since it was very moist in the area, and the trees would take a lot to burn even if they were trying to do so.

However, she ended up not doing anything during the fight. The monster, which was this massive gorilla almost five meters tall with four-pronged horns and thick light yellow fur emanating strange purple smoke, appeared and noticed Livy right away. More specifically, her size and build. It immediately challenged the by puffing its chest and roaring before a charge.

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The Leviathan responded in kind and the two clashed, grabbing each other's hands in a contest of strength. That didn't last long as Livy quickly gained the upper hand, pressuring the creature to its knees before swinging it to the side and tossing the monster towards the ocean. Despite its amazing size, the Kongreth didn't have the skills to swim or survive in an open body of water. The monster quickly sunk, being dragged by the weight of its wet fur, and died before anyone had a chance to do anything else.

As a punishment, Hera gave Livy a Royal Quest to go fetch the drop of the creature. Thankfully, she moved fast enough, and the currents were not strong enough that they completely lost the item. But unfortunately, it wasn't anything special. It was just one of its horns. According to Pandora, it was a mildly sought-after resource, but not enough to be considered rare. Something a little bit tricky to come by, but one horn was massive, being almost two meters long and could maintain a crafter for a very long time.

They barely had time to look for more tracks during that fight, but even then, they were able to find a couple of them that would lead to the fifth and final creature before the boss. According to Pandora, you would only ever find five creatures on the island. There were more possible monsters to fight, but each run would only have five.

To fight this last enemy, Pandora made it clear that she couldn't handle it on her own. Despite Lurize's advice, the spider and who the dwarf was assuming to be the last monster besides the boss were too powerful. Even when she was participating in this dungeon, she was focusing more on setting up the traps and preparing the land for the people who were actually going to fight.

She did ask to be part of the assault team, but the dwarf had no confidence in taking the lead. Hera understood that, and it was good for Pandora to know her limits. But at the same time, she didn't want to go with her full force against this new enemy; otherwise, there would be nothing for the young explorer to practice with. So the team was decided to be Vulcan and the twins. They would be more than enough to handle everything while at the same time not overusing all the abilities available to the Court. And the last fight would be between Hera, Lurize, and all the blades versus the boss.

Just a few minutes after killing the Kongreth, they left on the eagle riders towards the valley where the second to last Apex creature they had to fight was located. During the flight, Pandora didn't say anything, but she was clearly preparing herself for something. And that something became clear once they approached the valley. A web slashed out from the thickets below, trying to reach for the eagle riders.

They were able to escape, but not before dropping the people they were taking, meaning that Pandora and Hera started a free fall. The dwarf had an item that could slow their descent, but there was no need for that. Just as the two fell from their seats, Nimbus popped out in its griffon form and swooped to rescue them both.

They lowered themselves close to the valley, but stopped once a putrid smell hit their noses.

"Is this part of the reason why you don't like this one?" Hera asked.

"Not really. The smell is awful, but it's manageable. The main problem is how the Hadvoth fights. It goes for hit-and-run tactics, so you need to keep trapping it in different spaces until you find the place where it can't run away from you. To make matters worse, the layout of this valley changes every run, so it's just annoying. There's also the fact it takes a lot to break through its armor. And its powers are super irritating here."

Vulcan took a few steps forward and peered into the valley, noticing how everything was covered in a foul stench that smelled of rotten eggs. Not the type that you find in a volcano, but the type that came from decomposing bodies. It was likely that there were a few hundred if not thousands of corpses down below.

"Is this really a graveyard?" Forge turned to Pandora.

"It's more of a mass grave. The creatures come here as if they were attracted to the area before they die. Kind of like how ants have a designated spot for them to die."

"And does the spider drop anything useful for us?"

"Not really. There are some interesting items but nothing too special. The real powerhouses come from either the rewards or the final boss drop."

"So is it okay if I do something that will finish this mission but stop us from getting the drop?" Forge asked.

"I don't see why not."

"What about you all?" Vulcan turned to the rest of the group.

Everyone nodded in agreement, "Go for it," Hera added.

"Hang on," Daskka interrupted. "Should we send the blades first so we can find the tracks? If what Forge is going to do will destroy everything, better for us to look for the tracks of the other creature first, isn't it?"

Hera passed the message along so Pandora could also hear, but the dwarf shook her head.

"Not really. We found three pieces of information about the last creature. That should be enough to send us in the right direction. We just want to know the name or what the creature is before we get there."

"Then, Vulcan, you're free to do what you want to do."

Forge smiled and walked closer to the edge of the valley. Taking a deep breath, he shot out some [Sacred Flame] from the furnace on his stomach. A large stream of golden flames erupted from his mouth, crossing over the valley until it reached the bottom. For a moment, while he was still pumping more and more fire out of his body, nothing seemed to have happened. But suddenly, from down below, the light started to spread.

Vulcan jumped away from the mouth of the valley, telling everybody to get back just before the entire middle of the island erupted in a massive explosion of golden fire. The corpses that were down below let out a surprising amount of gas that resulted in a violent explosion when encountered with flames such as the one used by the kangaroo blacksmith.

Once the tremors finally stopped and everybody glanced down, they saw the spider trying to get out burning in the same golden flames that Forge sent out. However, it was too injured to leave, causing the monster to fall back down into the hellscape that the bottom of the valley had become.

Hera glanced at her titled blade with her mouth agape before recomposing herself and saying, "I'm pretty sure they told us not to kill everything on the island."

"I didn't kill everything on the island. Just what was under the valley, and I'm positive nothing good would come out of there. There was too much death. Even animals that were able to survive there wouldn't be good food or good materials for anything that wasn't very specific," Forge defended himself.

Pandora kept glancing down below while looking around, almost as if she was searching for something. But eventually, she gave up and turned to the Empress.

"Let's go back to the camp so we can get started on the last hunt. Then it's just the boss left."

Hera did notice the strange action of her companion, but decided not to say anything about that. It was clear that there was something that they might have been able to do in this valley, maybe something related to the hard mode or just to finding this last creature. But it wasn't time to look into that. They would have opportunities to properly explore the area later.

Calling the eagle riders once more, they quickly jumped back into the camp to prepare for the last couple of hunts of this dungeon.