"OK, everyone. Settle down. Find a spot before we start talking," Peaches voice rang out, louder than usual, but it was simply because he was the one in charge of the meeting. If you don't have a seat, let me know, and I'll make you one."
He was in a large circular room with several chairs, benches, and excessively large pillows forming rings on the edges of the area. In the center, there was a small sphere with some holes that could be used to create projections.
Little by little, everyone in the area sat down. Talpa and Nina made a point of staying on opposite sides of the room to Peaches' dismay.
"Everyone settled in? If anyone wants water or something to eat, you should all be able to conjure it here without a problem. I tried setting it up for that, but this is kind of new to me too," Peaches looked around.
"New? This has been going on for a while, my old friend. How is this new?" Percy asked, his chameleon eyes looking at the other guides in the room.
"Dealing with the explorers is one thing. This whole room that only I can control is another. The setup for the place is more complicated than doing a thousand tests at the same time."
"Really? Is it that bad?" Berthellemy asked as he got up to his seat. More guides appeared, each going to different spots in the room.
"Yeah, I need to set up each invitation individually. I'm trying to find a way to make things easier, but I can only see the setup when I'm doing this," Peaches sighed and looked around. All the seats were filled, so it was better to get this going, "Anyway. Let's start. Everyone knows why we are here. But as a reminder, we are here to vote if Hera Kingsley is a worthy explorer."
As he spoke, a projection appeared in the middle of the room. It was an image of Hera sitting in a chair in front of a table with a few dozen books spread around. On her shoulder, there was a small white and blue snake which seemed to be reading a book while Hera herself was reading a different one.
"Why is there a snake there?" Laika asked.
"It's an item she has. It's a necklace that lets her summon Daskka, a construct with an ego," Peaches explained.
"She got it by killing Chika. A snake that lived for thousands of years in my room. Even after Chika saved Ms. Kingsley from death," Percy crossed his arms, holding his cane in his left hand.
"Your lies cannot deceive my cunning mind. Hera is the one who finally freed the magnanimous me. During the entire time she was stuck in Boothudurn, she never showed that kind of cruelty. She went as far as saving people who were constructs of a dungeon. Even if that Chika snake really died, I'm sure you are not telling the full story," Capri opened his wings, trying to seem bigger and more intimidating but to no effect.
"She might as well have dealt the killing blow. Chika deserved more than being killed by greedy humans," Percy rolled his eyes, one at a time.
"So humans were the ones who killed the snake, not Hera. Do not lie in my presence!" Capri flapped his wings and started flying, but suddenly, the pillow he was sitting on turned into a massive green translucent hand and grabbed the sheep, bringing him back to the ground.
"Capri, stop that. I know you like her but behave, or I'll kick you out," Peaches turned to Percy, "This is exactly why we are here. But please, tell the entire story."
Percy twisted his nose and explained what Hera did in the Wailing Valley. He told them all about the hidden tomb, how she helped someone open an ancient temple and find a legacy, then about how she fell after using a spell on a spider, a spell that should be considered the worst kind of torture. Then he told about Chika, how Hera and the snake talked, and the dungeon she entered to leave the nest. Finally, he explained how Chika died because the guild put the kill order when Hera's vitals started to show some odd behaviors due to Casks spells to protect them while they slept inside the dungeon.
"I'm sorry to say, but I feel like you are projecting. Hera herself never wanted Chika to die, not according to your story," Berthellemy said.
"Her intentions are irrelevant, only the result of her actions," Percy slammed his cane on the floor.
"C'mon, dude. That's lame, and you know it. I get that your friend died, and that sucks, but it's not like she's the one who did it," Johnny tried to calm Percy down.
"How would you feel if Kirouhebi died because of her?"
"Of course, I would be sad, but that's just how things are. When it's your time, it's your time, and that's that."
"OK, OK. We all heard your opinion on the matter, Percy, and it will be taken into account. Now, we have another issue to be discussed. The spell you mentioned, was it a one time thing or she used it again? " a small figure holding a large cigar with the hooves on its hand asked.
"I did not see her using that spell," a soft voice replied.
"Neither did I," Laika added.
"Same here, but to be honest, I only saw her a few times. Usually, she just passes by," Nina took a gulp of a soda that she conjured.
"We. Only saw her a few times," Talpa stared daggers at her sister.
"And what was your interaction with her? If I recall correctly, yours was a bit more unique than what happened with the rest of us," Berthellemy turned to his left, where Talpa was sitting.
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"Well. She called us in front of a friend of hers," Talpa started speaking.
"See! She is not worthy. That was a strike, and having one already removes the condition for what we are discussing. I don't know why we are even here," Percy tapped his cane on the floor and got up to leave.
Nina spoke up, "Wow, wow, wow. Hang on, that wasn't a strike. Her friend was unconscious, and the system agreed that it wasn't something about showing our existence. Besides, she was in a situation where she would've died without our help."
Talpa nodded, "Yeah, she could survive without us if she ran, but she didn't want to leave her friend behind. She carried the other girl all the way to a hidden doorway, running away from magma, giant boulders, and spells. In my book, that's worthy."
"She's also really fun. It's been a long time since anyone played along with my alien bit," Laika was wagging her tail.
"But the subject of the spell still remains. I asked a question, so please do not make me ask again. Has Ms. Kingsley continued to use that spell?" the figure with the cigar pressed.
Capri sighed, "I'm not sure if it is the same spell, but I have seen her use something that changes the very essence of a creature. The process seems far from pleasant, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was torture. Also, the spell is incomplete, she is still not satisfied exactly because of the pain it causes."
"That is a heinous act, and I refuse to be a part of a meeting where people dare sing her praises, much less to give her this gift. My vote is no," without saying anything else, Percy turned around and left the room. In the center, above Hera's projection, a scoreboard appeared, with 'Yes' in green and a 0 under it and the red 'No' in the other side already with one vote.
"If she is playing with that type of spell, I must also vote no. Spells like that are always a problem," the figure with a cigar got up from his large leather chair, "My vote is also no."
He got up and left as the scoreboard changed to show 2 votes for no and 0 for yes.
"Wait, stop that. She helped the people of Boothudurn, unlocked the room, and even tried to mediate a deal for the dwarves to join the rest of the MAZE. She's a really good one. I vote yes," Capri was exasperated. He really wanted to give Hera the gift.
"I second that. She's fun," Laika nodded, "My vote is yes."
A gravelly voice coming from a very large figure that should easily be three meters tall echoed through the chamber, "She wasn't bad but wasn't good. I'll vote for the one who has the most votes."
"I hate that you can do that," Peaches sighed. When someone said that and a tie happened, these meetings could go south very quickly.
"I vote yes. She was nice," the soft voice replied.
"Yeah, she was cool, dudes. I vote yes too," Johnny smiled.
Talpa and Nina stared at each other for a moment before Talpa got up and walked to the other side of the room. They whispered to each other for a moment and said, "We vote yes."
"My vote is also yes. She asked my personal opinion on a matter that could change her life. Few would do the same," Berthellemy nodded.
Peaches smiled, "Well then. We have 6 votes for yes, 2 for no, and one for the one who has the most votes. Our part is done then. It's all up to her if she will get it or not."
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Hera put a book back on the table and rubbed her eyes. She's been reading for hours, and so far, she only managed to expand one of the theories, and that was only because the system was being very forgiving. Her addition was 'talking to the people who were part of dungeons is a good way to get more information about hidden things inside the rooms. It is very likely that some information that the person who was part of the dungeon has is not known to the people currently living there.'
It was a very simple thought, but adding that line was enough to change the current progress of the test, marking that now she only required two additions to the information to complete her test. She tried writing other simple information she had found, but either she was saying the wrong thing or what she added wasn't enough to count as something new.
Reading the books, she tried to find something else to give her an idea. Just picking a book was being a bit of an issue. Instead of straightforward titles, everything seemed to be something along the lines of 'Mysteries of the MAZE, a deep dive into the wonders of the world.' They were nice names for a book and all, but it did very little to help her understand the subject. Another problem she was having was that most books fell into the same basic ideas that she had already seen in the first book she read. Hera closed yet another book and went to the index again. There had to be something different in here, something that she could add to or that could give her an idea of a new theory. Among the thousands of books, she found a section dedicated to the items found hidden in the MAZE.
The particular book she decided to pick felt like a book of fairy tales for children. It talked about several different items, a sword given by a creature inside a lake, and then it got stuck into a rock. When wielded, that sword could amplify the mana of the user's spells. It also had mentions of a scaling that shouldn't be possible, but there was no direct description of the item. Another passage talked about a headband hidden inside a mountain that had to be excavated out. Said headband increased the user's overall strength; however, it also made them vulnerable to a specific codeword that caused them extreme pain. Even worse, to use the power of the item, you had to give the codeword to someone else and allow them to speak it one time. On that page, there was a small footnote saying that the headband was taken to Earth, where it became the inspiration for a famous Chinese tale.
After reading that, Hera got an idea. If items could inspire stories back on Earth, that also should happen inside the MAZE. She even remembered Lantra's journal and how she was able to acquire some rewards and uncover Darni's temple with it. It was highly unlikely that the journal was the only thing of that kind in the MAZE. Hera glanced at the clock in her tablet and tried to make sense of how much time she still had left. She gave up after a few moments and turned to peaches, who were still inside her private room, "Peaches. How much time do I still have left?"
"About 20 hours. Look up. There is a large clock in front of you. I can make it a digital one if you are having trouble with the analog."
Hera looked towards the other side of the room and saw a medium-sized round clock above one bookcase. It took her a moment, but she managed to understand how the clock worked. It was going backward, but it was still kind of hard to know how much time had passed. There weren't any numbers, and it was looking at a pie chart slowly moving, "Can you change it? The way it's set up is weirding me out."
"Sure, kid," Peaches nodded and changed the clock. Now it displays the remaining time digitally, with the number of hours on the left side of the circle and the minutes on the right. Everything is in the same black and white color, almost like it was painted on the screen.
"Thanks! That's much better," Hera smiled and started writing in the book. It's been a while since she had done a dissertation, but since this should be a theory that wasn't included in the book, she had to write the entire thing. It might take a while, but it should work.
Peaches watched her write with a smile, the meeting was over, and he was already getting the gift ready. He could only hope that Hera could find it, "I'm rooting for you, kid."