"Are we there yet?" Bonnie was feeling tired. They've been going up this tunnel for half an hour already.
"We are halfway there. I told you guys it was a long trek. We could've started with a tour around the city," Hera shrugged.
"You didn't say it would take this long," Bonnie gasped.
"Yeah, I did. I told you guys it would take a couple of hours to get back."
"Oh, that's what you meant? I thought you were talking about how long it takes to complete the dungeon," unlike Bonnie, Alex was doing pretty well in the tunnel. During the last months, she kept training nonstop and her stamina-related skills increased a lot.
"I have no clue what goes down in the dungeon," Hera replied.
"Really? You didn't try to go inside?" Helena asked. She wasn't having any problems getting up the tunnel either. Despite not setting a foot inside a gym ever since Hera and Blue went missing, she still had her skills acquired through the years. This was more than enough for her to avoid getting too tired during that hike.
"We didn't. We found out about the dungeon on the day we opened the doorway. Coming back home was more important than this," Hera explained.
"That's fair. But still, having created a dungeon is a big deal. You girls were busy," Helena playfully bumped into Hera's shoulder.
"Yeah. I don't think that sank in just yet. I mean, there was so much going on when they told us about this dungeon that I didn't even consider what this all meant," Hera scratched the back of her head.
"But she's not wrong. It's kind of amazing how much things changed because of you two," Silah nodded, "I mean, now we have chicken, a greenhouse, we can fight the griffons, and we even opened the room to the rest of the MAZE. You guys changed everything for us."
"Stop talking like I'm some kind of selfless hero. All that was because we wanted to go back home. Like, don't get me wrong, we were happy to help, but that was a consequence, not the objective," Hera rolled her eyes, "And are you sure you wanted to come with us? Weren't you going to stay with your family for a while?"
"I was, but c'mon. I was curious about this too, and now that Ogryn already cleared the dungeon, I can go inside."
"You couldn't go before?" Bonnie asked.
"Oh, right. I guess I forgot to mention that. It seems that if you are one of the descendants of someone present during the events that created the dungeon, you can't be the first to beat it. That's why it had to be Blue and me to beat the hard mode of another dungeon that had the last key," Hera explained.
"Really? That's interesting. I never heard anything like that. Then again, it's pretty rare to see new dungeons popping in. Most of the new ones we find are there for such a long time that no one knows what happened for them to appear," Helena tripped on a loose rock and almost fell down, but Silah helped her get steady, "Thank you, Silah."
"Do you want to take a break? You might have started taking care of yourself again, but you still don't seem to be in the best of shapes," Hera turned to the mage.
"Don't worry, sweetie. I'm perfectly fine for doing this dungeon."
"Wait, you guys want to actually do the dungeon?" Hera asked.
"Yeah, of course. We want to see what kind of monster you two fought," Alex nodded.
"I thought that's why you invited me to come along," Silah said.
"Is that a problem?" Bonnie asked.
"I mean… I kind of thought that I should do it with Blue. We didn't talk about this, but it felt like an unspoken agreement."
"But won't she take some time to get back to the MAZE? If she ever gets back," Silah turned to Hera.
"Well… yeah. I mean, I don't think she will stay away from here. After all, she still wants to be the fourth hero. But still…"
"Still what? Let's just go. There is nothing stopping you from doing this again with her later," Bonnie scoffed. Her breathing wasn't very steady, and she had stopped walking.
"Well.. you do have a point. But can you do a dungeon in that state? You can stay back with Lena," Hera looked at the researcher.
"Why would I stay back?" Helena asked.
"Because you can't use mana?"
"I can use mana. I just can't regenerate my own. But all my mana crystals are topped off. Besides, I'm still a pretty decent fighter even without magic."
"Lena. No offense, but I never saw you holding a weapon. What are you going to do without mana?" Alex asked.
"I know some martial arts, and I still know how to use daggers. When I started focusing on shadow magic, I started as a way to improve my hiding skills to sneak behind my enemies," Helena pulled two daggers from her waist, "These are not just for decoration."
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"I thought they were to harvest things you found interesting," Hera said.
"Well, that too," Helena chuckled, "But you don't have to worry, sweetie. I can take care of myself."
"Question, why do you keep calling Hera sweetie? You don't do that with anyone else," Silah asked.
Helena stopped to think for a moment, "I honestly can't say. I used to call everyone sweetie, but now it feels wrong. Almost like I'm cheating on her somehow."
Silah glanced at Hera, who quickly replied, "No, we never dated."
After a couple of minutes, Bonnie asked for a break, and they stopped in the middle of the tunnel. Another group passed by, coming from the dungeon. The nest was open to the guard or whoever wanted to come to challenge it, but because the boss was the Sky Ruler, almost no one was brave enough to fight it.
Before coming here, Hera got some of the information about the dungeon from Telanz and Pyrrick. The description was much similar to how she remembered the nest, but the scale seemed wildly different. For one, they would have to fight close to a hundred griffons, and the size of the nest was several times bigger. There were also some odd rock formations and some weird environmental effects, but all in all, it didn't seem like a hard dungeon. The best part of it all was the final boss. It was smaller than the original Sky Ruler and only at level 10. Those 5 levels would make a big difference in the fight. Not to mention that Hera was 2 levels higher than when she fought the Sky Ruler.
Arriving at the dungeon entrance, Hera's party took another break. They didn't want to go in, guns blazing, while Bonnie was still tired. It didn't matter if the dungeon was several levels lower them all. They wouldn't take a chance like that.
"Lena, are you really going to be ok inside the dungeon?" Hera asked.
"I will. Don't worry. I may be a bit rusty, but a place where the strongest monster is level 10 should be perfect for a warm-up. Besides, we have two experts in the dungeon to show us the way," Helena winked at Silah.
"I'm far from being an expert. I was there when they fought the Sky Ruler, but I have no idea what the dungeon actually is like," Silah replied.
"Well, we just have to kill griffons, right?" Alex was checking her daggers to see if they required maintenance.
"Yep, but the other issue is the terrain. It's snowy, and there is a cliff. I'm guessing if anyone falls from it, we could die," Hera added.
"So we just have to stay away from the edge. And you mentioned wind or cloud magic, right? Alex kept going with the wind theme, and isn't there a spell you have to make wind pass through us without effect?" Bonnie said.
"Yeah, it's called Windless. It basically makes wind go around us and not through us. Kind of like the wings of a bird or a plane. But it doesn't work if it's an attack, only a weather effect," Alex explained.
"I'm honestly not sure how much that will help. I don't know if the wind will be considered an attack or not," Hera sighed.
Some time passed until Bonnie got up, feeling well-rested enough to fight, "So let's just go inside and try it."
Everyone nodded, and they walked towards the cloud barrier that was the dungeon entrance.
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Sky Ruler Nest
Type: Dungeon
The nest of the creatures known as the Sky Rulers. For eons, they lorded over the mountain, but now they have become vulnerable to attacks.
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This time, the barrier gave some resistance, but as long as Hera pushed forward, she could enter the dungeon without any issues. The first change from the previous nest was the tunnel. Instead of a small opening leading outside, they had to walk for a couple of minutes before getting out of the mountain.
Hera and Silah made note of that and pointed out the differences between the areas. Soon they arrived at the nest proper. When this wasn't a dungeon, it was already massive. It took ten minutes to walk across the entire plateau. However, compared to now, that nest was just a book in a bookcase. The area should be at least five kilometers wide, and it was even decorated. Around the peaks of the mountains, giant griffon stone statues were looking down to the plateau. It was slightly unnerving, but beautiful at the same time.
The plateau itself was also very different. There was a large open area in front of them now, but large stone walls blocked the view to the other side. Hera did notice one entrance close to the edge of the cliff. However, to pass through that, they would have to fight the griffons that were flying around.
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Juvenile Sky Ruler - Level 7 (Wind affinity)
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Juvenile Sky Ruler - Level 8 (Wind affinity)
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Juvenile Sky Ruler - Level 9 (Wind affinity)
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"Everyone ready?" Hera asked while staring at the dozen griffons moving around.
"Ready," the group said together as they prepared their skills.
Silah sent two pieces of metal out of her hands and created the floating saw blades. Bonnie made three small points of energy surround her, one red, one blue, and one glowing white. Helena created a small shuriken made out of shadows and threw it towards one of the griffons. The monster shook and collapsed to the ground, flailing and hitting anything nearby. Alex simply vanished. Hera could still see her footprints in the snow, but the assassin wasn't anywhere to be seen. Then, a squawk came from the side, and Hera saw one griffon with two daggers coming out of its chest. In a split second, Alex covered the 50 meters or so and killed the first of the monsters.
Not wanting to be left behind, Hera tossed her chakram towards one of the flying beasts. The creature evaded the attack, but the mana bursts were able to chase it for a few moments before sinking the blade into the monster's neck. She turned to the rest of the griffons and just stopped.
During the time it took her to kill one monster, Silah killed two, Alex three, Bonnie killed four with her lightning and fire spells, and Helena made two of them unable to see, hear, or smell anything. Hera couldn't tell if it was the difference in levels, but this wasn't a dungeon run. It was just a massacre. Her friends were so much stronger now that she felt like they would've been able to beat the Sky Ruler much sooner than she did.
Not wanting to lag behind, Hera jumped to the ones still moving and finished them off. The monsters dissolved and dropped their claws and beaks. It seemed like meat wasn't a regular drop, as it was in other dungeons. After a quick glance at the loot, nothing seemed particularly interesting. They were all materials that could be used for crafting, and none had any unique properties.
Seeing how no one among the party was even fazed by the small fight, Hera sighed, "I guess the Weeding Disaster made me rusty."
Silah chuckled as they walked towards the passage near the edge of the cliff. The dungeon wasn't over, and Hera still had a chance to catch up.