"Miss Kingsley? Miss Kingsley?"
Hera felt something tapping on her shoulder and jolted up.
"I wasn't sleeping!" she gasped and looked around, rubbing her eyes.
"Yes, you were, and that's not the issue. As long as you didn't drool on the documents," Krioz, a beastmen with bear ears, leaned over the table to check if everything was still intact. After confirming that there wasn't any damage, he turned back to Hera, "If you are tired it is better for you to go back to your hotel for the day. The scrolls will be here in the morning."
"No, but I still want to find something," Hera was still sleepy, and she remembered that she was doing something important before she lost consciousness.
"That's OK, we are all looking for something. Even if you go to bed, you can still find it tomorrow," Krioz took Hera by the hand and gently helped her up. Being the lore keeper of the ziggurat, he was used to finding some of the more dedicated researchers in similar situations. He also knew that when someone had just woken up, they were highly susceptible to suggestions, and as long as he could take them out of the chair and on the way to the exit, they would go back home to rest.
"No… Hang on. Just give me a moment," Hera asked as she got up. She quickly called Daskka and asked the snake to help wake her up. Daskka nodded and, without any ceremony, slapped Hera's cheek with her tail.
"What the? Is that a feral monster?" Krioz took a step back, flaring up his defensive spells.
"No, that one is a construct. We can talk telepathically," Hera gave him a half-baked explanation. It was easier than telling him the full story. Daskka's tail slap really worked. She suddenly felt awake and ready to continue her search, "I'll be right out. Just give me a moment."
"Very well," Krioz turned back and returned to his post, feeling a bit frustrated. His suggestion trick worked almost every time. Almost.
Hera sat back on the chair and started going through the papers again. It's been four days since she came to this room. During the first day, she and Alex ran one of the dungeons in the city. It was a simple defense dungeon where they had to fight against a few monsters trying to assault the ziggurat. There were a lot of defenses in the city, and the animals that came to attack were very single-minded. All they wanted to do was rush to the top of the structure. So as long as they kept killing the monsters, it wouldn't be an issue. If that wasn't easy enough, people tended to run the dungeon in groups of 10. Hera and Alex joined a team that was missing a couple of people just for the fun of it. It took them about five hours, but they got 120 thousand gold and some pieces of enchanted wood by the end. Hera bought the wood of Alex and sent it to her dad in Boothudurn. The fee for such delivery was almost 50 thousand gold. Despite the price, Hera paid it without a problem. She had made more than that during this trip, and even if she needed to make that amount again, she could do so in a few days of running dungeons. Bringing the wood back herself was something she considered, but the logs were too big, and she didn't have a way to carry them all the way to Boothudurn.
After that, Alex kept doing the dungeons as a mercenary, just filling in for teams who needed one more member, training in the guild, and looking around the kingdom. During all that time, Hera went inside the ziggurat, which had its own subterranean city. Unlike Boothudurn, several windows and light shafts with mirrors helped spread out the sunlight to all corners of the internal structure. Most of the interior buildings, if they could be called that since they were all inside the same structure, looked like they were made thousands of years ago. However, they were also exceptionally well maintained, and Hera understood how that happened. The city employed some crafters who specialized in stonework to rejuvenate the walls every so often.
Hera's goal was the massive library that took the entire second layer of the ziggurat. In total, there were almost 900 kilometers of shelves with various books, scrolls, and ancient texts squeezed into that floor of the structure. Not to say that there were only old books in this library. Many people considered this place the biggest library in the entire MAZE, maybe with the exception of dungeons, but those hardly counted as places to find books. This layer of the ziggurat was 50 meters tall divided into 8 smaller floors, each filled with shelves, tables, and whiteboards that were free for anyone to use. Despite many requests, this place didn't have any private rooms, meaning that it wasn't hard to see teachers and researchers discussing something along those halls. Everyone who worked here had some sort of soundproofing or sound reduction skill to help those groups.
For the past three days, Hera was looking into all the reports, mentions, and even rumors about the blademasters. She managed to find the book that she saw back in Boothudurn without any issues. Unfortunately, the meeting in which the blademasters participated was considered a nobility secret, and those files were the ones giving her trouble. Not because she couldn't find those records, but because during that time, the city was too loose with what was considered a 'Nobility Secret.' And since it was a secret, there wasn't any list of all the files available or a way to cross-reference all the thousands of files. Most of those classified reports were, in reality, just gossip. Some were so juicy that Hera ended up reading the entire report.
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In a particular record, it said that one of the lower nobles saw the Duke and the Baroness in an intimate moment. However, another noble said that she saw the Duchess and the Baron having similar interactions. A third noble stepped up and said they had seen the Baron and the Viscount fooling around during one of the balls. In the end, they discovered that a large number of the high nobility actually had open relationships and would regularly meet with each other to have intimate relations. The nobles who were discussing all felt offended by that information. Not because they were upset about the debauchery, but because they weren't a part of it.
After reading, she didn't even know how many documents, Hera had finally found something that looked promising. She fumbled through the papers on the desk, trying to find the one she was reading as she fell asleep.
"Got it!" Hera gasped as she pulled the piece of paper she was looking for.
It talked about a meeting related to some new danger that could potentially reach the room, but that was as far as she had managed to translate. She continued her work and, little by little, she was able to understand the rest. What they were discussing seemed oddly similar to rampages, according to the blademasters. No, not blademasters. Blademaster, singular. For some odd reason, every mention of them was in the singular form of the word. At first, Hera thought it was her mistake, but she had triple-checked the translation and even the terms coming after the name should be used when talking about a single person and not a group. When she continued reading, it felt much easier to follow along. She quickly opened her status window and noticed that her [Ancient Language] skill had increased to rank 3. Maybe finding out these small nuances about a language would help her increase her skill.
She looked back to the papers and continued reading. The queen and a few other nobles were asking about what was happening in some other rooms. Apparently, there was a room that was suddenly covered in red light, and monsters started appearing from everywhere. Hera realized that they were talking about a rampage. She never considered what happened to people who lived in places where rampages weren't a thing. How would they react to this attack? It would be a surprise, and the assault could put them in a lot of danger.
Not wanting to get lost in her thoughts, Hera focused again on the report. The Blademaster explained what they knew about the rampage, but they still didn't know why that was happening. Someone speculated that it was because of that new race that appeared and brought a curse to the land. In a way, Hera had to agree with that statement. Even if it wasn't intentional, the MAZE only triggered a rampage in a place with a lot of humans and she didn't know why. In fact, no one knew the reason why that happened, even though many had looked for answers.
The report continued with a small discussion amongst the people involved, some debating whether or not they should close down their borders, but in the end, they decided against it. The Blademaster seemed to be one of the key voices in that discussion, and after they talked about how their people never would consider abandoning someone just because of a rumor. Everyone had the right to the benefit of the doubt. For some reason, Hera had a feeling that the Blademaster wasn't part of the beastmen, even though she never managed to find any mentions of their race. The way they were speaking seemed strange, and some of the words used to refer to the Blademaster weren't the same words that the beastmen used to refer to each other. Then again, this was purely conjecture. No one was talking about where they were from, or even if the people in this meeting were beastmen or not. Maybe the only beastmen was the person making the notes. That's why they were using this old language.
The talks continued for another five pages of ramblings back and forth even after they already had accepted to not block the doorways and allow this new race to come to the city. In the end, the Blademaster offered their services when they were in the city. Hera had to translate the next part a few times, they were using an ancient dialect with some very complicated wording, but the way the Blademaster was talking was almost like a formal oath made by a knight. Maybe the Blademaster was part of the beastmen or someone who had a long history with them, at least. After saying that, they also added that they would soon have to travel to the temple, but when they returned, they could help the city with any problems they were having. The meeting ended shortly after, and no other mentions of said temple were made. To Hera, that could only mean one of two things. Either it was a secret place for the Blademaster, and people knew that they shouldn't press the matter, or it was something so common that just by mentioning the temple, everyone would already be aware of what they were talking about.
Whatever was the case, this was a very big lead. Of course, there was no guarantee that finding the temple would lead her to the Blademaster, but it seemed like they never left the room. People here only kept records of those who came through the doorways, and the last mention of the Blademaster was when they arrived. Sure, there was still the possibility of them having found another way to leave the room or sneaked out, but that was the whole point. She had to chase the clues and look for them, and now, she was even expecting the Blademaster to have their own legacy. So far, it was just out of curiosity, but since they were strong enough to be respected by a kingdom like this, they should have more than just levels and skills.