"Hera, can I sleep with you?" Blue's voice came from the door.

"That nightmare again?"

"Yeah…"

"Grab a blanket from the chest and come to bed," Hera said without even opening her eyes.

"Why?"

"You're a cover hog. I don't want to wake up freezing in the middle of the night again."

"Oh.."

Blue walked over the chest by the foot of the bed and picked another blanket before laying down beside Hera. The explorer took one arm out of the covers and hugged her friend.

"It's just a dream. Your parents are fine."

"You don't know that."

"True, but I seriously doubt that they are being held hostage by a black and white cartoon who tied them up on train tracks."

Blue huffed, "I only dreamt that once. This time was the building."

Hera opened her eyes. Thanks to the light coming from the street, she could see Blue's face. Her eyes were puffy and wet. It wouldn't be a surprise if she cried for a while before coming.

"Tomorrow, we try to sneak in the dungeon. If things work, we can start talking about killing the griffon. We are getting out of here, and you are seeing them again. I promise."

"Thanks."

Hera kissed Blue's forehead, "Now go to sleep, and if you take my blanket again, I'm kicking you out of bed."

It's been two months since they started going to the dungeon with the guard. At their request, the humans would be a part of the hunting parties 6 days a week. It wasn't hard to find dwarves who were willing to give up their positions. Unlike the explorers from the guild, the people of Boothudurn were more than happy to take safer jobs. No one among them liked the idea of getting stronger by putting themselves in danger. Naka could be the only exception to the rule, but the captain wasn't someone who would be open to talk about her feelings.

Hera and Blue had been participating in the dungeons as much as possible. Their days were split into training in the morning and hunting sheep in the afternoon. That was completely different from the majority of dwarves, who would only work 6 hours a day. They even managed to level up once more, both being at level 8. Hera had her attributes at 28, while Blue already had over 35 Endurance. The controller could already take hits even from the mountain rams and keep fighting, even if she needed some healing after the fight. Yet, Naka never allowed them to wait out for the Sky Ruler's spawn to appear during those two months.

Despite that, they had come up with a plan to go around her orders. Among the senior guard, there was one man called Bairen, who was very friendly. He always talked about how one of his ancestors was best friends with Weston and that he should be able to understand the humans better than most. He was a very nice guy, and every time they were in the same shift, he would give them the freedom to train and kill more monsters. It reached a point where he even let them kill an entire flock of sheep on their own. Tomorrow was the day he was responsible for the dungeon. If they pushed a little, it was more than likely that they could convince him to let them enter the dungeon on their own. If he did, they could finally see what type of creature the sky ruler was and if they could actually damage it. Having that information would be a small strand of hope or reveal that they had to think of a different plan to leave the room.

When the morning came, Hera was the first to wake up as usual. She sneaked out of bed, glad that she had asked Blue to take another blanket. It was freezing today. She walked to the entrance door and picked the basket of food they had delivered. It was a service offered by the guard to those who didn't want to head to the warehouse. Hera started to heat up some water for tea, wishing she could make some hot cocoa, but there was no milk here, much less chocolate. While waiting for the water to heat up, she double-checked her status.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hera Kingsley -- Role: Explorer Level: 8

Stats:

Strength: 28 Endurance: 28

Agility: 28 Charisma: 28

Intelligence: 28 Luck: 28

Mana: 1230/1230

Remaining attribute points: 5

Skills:

Passive:

Exponential Growth

Observe

Treasure Map

Handaxe Combat, Chakram Combat, Wire Trap Style, Subtle Strike

Dodge, Run, Improved Stamina, Flee

Mana Recovery

Improved Regeneration

Active:

All in

Inspect

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Hide, Sneak Attack

Local Guide

Weapon Maintenance, Weapons Rebalance

Etching

Medical Reference

Role Skills:

Explorer's Assassinate

Explorer's Map

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her mana grew a lot during the past two months, and she had a few new skills to boot. [Medical Reference] made it so that she could compare wounds, diseases, and herbs with the knowledge she had. It was almost like a cheat sheet for any medical-related thing, but it would only work if she understood what she was dealing with and could identify it. If she saw a herb or a type of wound for the first time, the skill would give her nothing. The skill wasn't omnipotent either. If she misidentified something, the reference wouldn't correct her. Thanks to [Observe] and [Inspect], herbs and medicine wouldn't be a problem since it would be nearly impossible for her to confuse what she saw, but injuries were another thing entirely.

[Improved regeneration] was a simple boost to the ability of her own body to fix itself. If a wound would take 1 week to close by itself, now it would take 5 or 6 days instead. It wasn't that exciting for now, but it could be amazing if she increases its rank. That also matched with Risli idea of her being a healer. The need for one was becoming more and more evident, and the shaman could see some potential on Hera.

[Flee] would allow her to increase her speed if she wanted to run away from something. The skill didn't have a number for the increase, but after some testing, Hera figured out that it was a 10% boost to her running speed. There was also an odd secondary effect. It gave her some instinct on the best place to run to. The effect wouldn't reveal hidden passages or shortcuts. Then again, it was only at rank 1. Who knows what it could do when it ranked up.

Her spells also got a bit of an upgrade. Mend, Pulse, Fear, and Paralyze all had reached the novice rank, allowing her to pull more power when using them. She also got some new additions to her repertoire. Close Wounds was a battle heal. It was much more effective than her Mend, but it only worked on recent wounds. It took the residual mana from the attack to boost the spell effectiveness. Her other new addition was called Flaming Poison Rain. It was a version of her Poison Shower, with a tiny change. The spell's point of origin had a spark of fire mana that would ignite all the poison. The spell could both burn and poison the targets.

Blue got some upgrades as well, but unlike Hera, she focused on a single aspect. The dwarves helped her to learn a new spell. A buff that worked in a similar way to her Static Cover. Instead of creating a protective layer, it would allow her to move faster. She could use both buffs at once, but she would lose both effects if she used the electricity for an attack. The dwarves had a different way of using spells. Instead of math or a code, they used runes to tell how the mana would act. Blue took a single look at the written form of their magic and gave up. On the other hand, Hera was trying to learn it, not to use the same type of magic but to understand magic better as a whole.

After eating, the two left their house for the guard. There was still a training session with Silah and Sevaris before their dungeon run. The dwarves had become dependable friends during the past months. Sevaris could be stern and have an odd sense of humor, but he was always helpful and open to answering any questions the humans had. Silah was their unofficial guide. When not helping them out, she and Hera would work in the forge at times and just talk about life. Aside from Blue, Silah quickly became the person she trusted the most in Boothudurn.

Today's training was cut short since Silah was also going to be a part of the dungeon group. Sevaris wasn't going to join them, but he helped everyone with the preparation. Hera and Blue used the excuse of wanting to chat with Silah and Bairen to join the group. After arriving at the dungeon, they waited for everyone to start getting ready and pulled Bairen aside.

"Say, Bairen. You trust us, right?" Hera asked.

Bairen turned towards her, "No one who ever asked that question wants to do something good."

"Aww, c'mon. We would never do anything bad."

"Aside from making the captain angry during every single interaction you have, and who was the one that started the whole prank idea?" Bairen stared at Blue.

"Wow, wow, wow. You guys asked what we did to let out some steam and don't pretend like you are not enjoying that. I've seen you messing with the people in the squad," Blue waved her hands.

"It's fine when it's with others. I don't like it when they prank my food," Bairen huffed.

"Then tell them. We told you guys that those things are supposed to be only for friends and people who agreed to join. You can set your own rules like food is off-limits or something," Hera suggested.

"I suppose. Anyway, what do you guys want?"

"You know how we miss our friends and family, right? So we need to find a way to go back home, but to do that, we need to search the mountain for a path. We can't do that because…" Blue was cut off by Bairen.

"Because of the sky ruler. I know that part. Cut to the chase, will you? You are getting worse than the council."

Blue put a hand on her chest and stared at him with a shocked expression, "Rude! I am offended. You have sullied my honor, sir. The only way I could possibly forgive you is by receiving your aid in our request."

"Again, I have no idea what you want. And please never do that again. I almost thought you were Fethy for a second."

Blue gasped, but Hera nodded, "You have to admit, she would talk like that," Hera turned back to Bairen, "Moving on. We want to see if we can damage the sky ruler's spawn."

"Are you kidding me? I'm not letting my people get involved in that," Bairen replied.

"No, no, we are not talking about taking anyone with us. Just let us get inside there on our own."

"You can't beat the dungeon. Why do you humans insist on trying to die?" Bairen shook his head.

"We are not going to beat the dungeon. All we need is to wait one hour until the spawn shows up and then punch them, see if they can bleed, and come back," Hera explained.

"You are asking way too much."

"Why? Do you have any reason to stop us from going? Did Naka order you not to let us go?" Hera asked.

"Well… not really. She just asked for us to keep an eye out," Bairen explained.

"You are going to see us enter and leave. Don't you wanna know if we can hit those things? If we do, killing the Sky Ruler is on the table. Imagine taking your wife outside to see the sky," Blue said.

"I do… I mean... Oh, she would love to see the sun, but…"

"So, let us go there. It's going to take just an hour and a bit."

Bairen stopped to think for a moment, "One hit. You guys land one hit on those things and come back and let me distract the rest. I'm the only one who will know about this."

"Deal!" Hera and Blue replied at once.

Bairen called the guard to the side. As he spoke to them, Hera and Blue sneaked towards the broken doorway. Silah noticed the two heading inside. She had helped Hera come up with that plan and just smiled as the humans entered the dungeon. They would have to wait around for an hour before the Sky Ruler's Spawn would appear. Since they had time, they might as well keep training.

King Rutigan wasn't very happy with the busy schedule of the humans. He hoped that after acclimating, they would join him for dinner at least a couple of times each week. Having them spent 6 days a week working, one day more than any other dwarf, made him feel guilty to take up their only day of rest to humor his wishes. There was, at least, a bi-weekly meeting with the council where they could talk about human society and inventions. Sadly, the idea of getting close to the humans didn't seem possible with such few opportunities to interact with them. His current plan was to head to the dungeon. He had received a report that the humans were there on their day off. He could use a fake inspection for a reason to be there. Then, seeing the humans, he would invite them for an afternoon tea back in the palace. It was the perfect plan. Absolutely nothing could go wrong.