"I guess we stayed here long enough," Blue got up from the couch and stretched.

"Yeah. I'm sure they finished their discussion by now," Alex nodded.

"I think they don't know how to swim," Mylo got up and walked to the kitchen to grab another glass of water.

"They don't know how to swim?" Hera turned towards him.

"Yeah."

"But, there's a lake in Boothudurn," Blue turned around.

"So? Have you ever seen one of them swimming?"

Hera stopped to think for a moment, she spent almost a year with Blue living in Boothudurn, and the two went swimming a few times to relax. Still, very few people seemed to be interested in joining them, and she couldn't remember any of the Royal Explorers being there, "Not them, specifically, no."

"See. They are embarrassed that they can't swim," Mylo nodded, feeling confident in his answer.

"I don't think they are that worried about that. Or are they?" Nimbus turned to Hera, who just shrugged as a reply. She honestly couldn't tell if that was the case or not.

"Well, I guess we are about to find out," Blue replied, walking to the door.

"You guys can go ahead. I have to do a thing with my court, and I'm going to double-check if there aren't any big messes around. I don't want everything to come out with me," Hera replied.

"Ok. Don't take too long," Alex nodded before heading back to the Wailing Valley.

When everyone left, Hera sat on the couch while Nimbus gave the room a once over, making sure there wasn't anything that could end up flying off when they left. The Empress called over Beam. Aside from Lurize, it was her oldest blade. However, unlike the Zweihander, who still could help her train, she noticed during the current fights that Beam couldn't keep up with the rest and would often seem confused about what to do. It was a shame, but it was time to change her court once again. In fact, she also intended to remove Ooze soon, but she only had one weapon to swap at the moment.

"Beam. You are amazing and thank you for all the help. But I… I don't think you can keep up anymore," Hera's voice was filled with sadness. It hurt a lot doing this. In a way, it was like saying goodbye to a friend that she would never be able to see again.

"I agree, Hera. Thank you for everything. It's been a fun ride," with those words, the blade turned into small particles of light before disappearing completely.

Hera just sat there, staring at her hands that held Beam a few seconds ago. Having the blades thanking her felt worse. Maybe it was better if they felt angry or upset. She didn't know. All she knew was that this sucked.

"Mum? Are you ok?" Daskka got closer to Hera.

"Not really, but I will be," Hera nodded. Suddenly a bird wing covered her and Daskka from the side.

"If it helps, to us, our reason to exist is to help you. Knowing that we are doing something to help you, my Empress is the most fulfilling thing we can ever imagine," Nimbus pulled the two of them closer with his wing.

Hera chuckled, "I'll remember that the next time you complain when I ask for help to move something heavy in the house."

Nimbus frowned, "That is really not fair. I wish I had Peaches' powers. I mean, the whole moving things with his mind is really cool."

"I think it's a bit more nuanced than that, but yeah. Still, I'm glad I can introduce you to them, but I'm sorry about Jackie."

"Oh… yeah… she comes out strong," Nimbus blushed a bit, still remembering the odd advances from the guide.

"Anyway," Hera picked her glaive from the counter, "Can you help me, Daskka?" Daskka nodded, and some mist started to come out of her, covering the glaive, "Can you hold like that for a moment? I want to try something," Hera added.

Daskka frowned but did her best to stop or at least slow down the process. At the same time, Hera started making a spell circle on top of the mist, almost like a stamp to be added to the glaive. Maybe she could do this to avoid using up one of the weapon's engraving slots. She did something simple, a circle that would have the power of ice. Her idea was to use the same rune that was in the Naga hero's tomb to write it here. The first couple of attempts failed, and Daskka's mist couldn't keep its shape, but on the third one, Hera created the spell circle around her hands first and then pressed it on the glaive together with the mist.

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Skill Acquired

Royal Seal - Legacy Skill

The Empress is able to give messages to those who are to join her court. By using her seal, she is able to guide the direction she wishes her new court member to follow. However, using the wrong seal might bring negative results to the blade.

By using an elemental sigil, you are able to change the element of a weapon you are adding to the court. Depending on the weapon, doing so can have positive or negative effects.

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"Oh?" Hera and Daskka gasped at the same time.

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"Shouldn't this be a skill the previous holders have already learned?" Hera asked.

Daskka waited a moment, "They have. This was one of the ones you could get. But I guess you just have it since you figured it out by yourself. I honestly didn't know it worked like that."

"But it does make sense… Can you tell me what the other skills do?"

"I can tell you the end result, not how to get there. Like, you have a skill that gives all your blades a scabbard of sorts. Then you can pull them all from the same place and get a temporary boost when you use them. But I can't tell you how to make that unless you get the skill," Daskka explained as the glaive finished entering the legacy, "You need to give it a name, mum."

"How about… Frost?" Hera said with her hand out as the glaive materialized in her hand. It looked almost identical as it was before, but now it had a slight shade of blue covering the entire weapon.

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Frost - Ice

Glaive

Attribute Scaling:

Empress Attributes: 82

Intelligence x 4.5 [2.5(4.5) + 2.1] Endurance x 4.25[2.15(4.3) + 2.1] Strength x 3.7[1.6(3.2) + 2.1]

Agility x 2.1 Charisma x 2.1 Luck x 2.1

Passive Skills:

Spell catalyst:

When the glaive is used to cast a spell, spell efficiency: + 20%

Mana Blade:

When a magical effect is applied to this weapon, it will generate a mana on a blade that will function as a real blade.

When casting a magical effect on this weapon, mana cost: +10%

Made for magic:

This weapon was created with magic in mind. Magic-based effects are easier to be applied to the weapon.

Ice Seal:

When any spell is cast using this weapon, the residual mana grants it a temporary +25% ice damage.

The more mana used to cast the spell, the longer the duration of this effect.

Engraving Slots: 2

Familiarity: 68%

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Hera whistled, "This is nice. That seal thing can be stronger than I expected, and I'm glad it didn't use up one of the engravings."

"Maybe. I think the mana you used wasn't the best. You can't just use the same element, but if you use something that complements each other, maybe the effect will be even greater. Also, you keep saying you are saving up for the right engraving, but you never do any. How do you expect to improve?" Daskka rolled her eyes.

Hera shrugged. She knew that Daskka was right, but she couldn't bring herself to use her court as guinea pigs. Still, she would have to find a way later. With all that done, she left her private room and went to meet the dwarves who had made a small building inside one of the valley walls. However, she noticed that there was some smoke coming out of one of the windows. Worried about that, Hera rushed inside, calling her friends.

"Blue? Alex? Anyone? What's happening?"

Rushing inside, Hera arrived at a large area where everyone was sitting on tables, and there was a brick barbecue kit on the back, with a lot of smoke coming out of it.

"Hera!" Farica raised her glass to the Countess.

"What are you guys doing? Do you guys know that there's smoke out there?" Hera gasped

"Shit! I knew we had forgotten something. Hang on, Chiton, come help me here. We need to make the smoke trap," Bralac called over the mage, and in a few moments, they set up a few spells that would condense and solidify the smoke to be released later. Blue, Alex, and Mylo were also there helping out to set up the barbecue.

Lorna walked over to Hera with a glass of juice in her hand, "We can't actually bring alcohol here, but Bert had a few juice packets, and he was kind enough to share for this."

"Oh… but what is this? Any reason for a party?" Hera was still confused about the entire situation. She expected a lot of different things when she came to talk to them, but not this.

"Of course we have!" Yerel jumped into the conversation, "We found the doorway we were looking for, so of course, we need to celebrate to lift up our spirits before going in there."

"So… you guys want to go there instead of going back?" Hera asked.

"Oh…" Yerel looked to Lorna, who was staring daggers at him.

With a sigh, Alton, who was sitting by the side, got up and clapped his hands, bringing everyone's attention to him, "Listen up, everyone. Yerel already spilled the beans, so I think it's only fair if we tell Hera our decision now. Can I say it or does anyone else want to?" everyone just gestured for him to keep going. Alton turned around, "Honestly, we didn't even need to vote. The moment we stopped to talk about what we wanted to do we realized that everyone was so excited about going to the new room that going back home didn't even cross our minds. Don't get me wrong, we miss her family and friends, but we are here, and there's a new room right over there. going home now just to come back here feels… I don't know…."

"Stupid! Or like we gave up without seeing our prize," Rayna yelled from one of the tables closest to the barbecue.

"Exactly. So, yeah. We want to go to the new room and we want to continue exploring, and I think I can't speak for everyone on this part. But what we've been doing the past few weeks was the most fun I ever had," Alton chuckled, "Sure, it's kind of boring at times, but more often than not, we have a blast. I never imagined that looking for something could be so much fun."

"Yeah, it's like those treasure hunts you sent us during training, but it's much more satisfying when we find something," Hayat raised her glass, but no one followed her, so she just downed it in one gulp.

"Really?" Hera smiled. She never expected them to be this excited about all this. Not to say that they didn't want to explore, but because of Silah's reaction to staying away from her home, Hera was still very worried about all of this.

The dwarves nodded in agreement, and soon they were all talking about the room. Asking about what they could expect and the things that they might have to be worried about. In the end, Hera couldn't tell them much because she herself didn't know, but she reinforced that it was very likely that dungeons there wouldn't give a level up as a reward since the Naga might have passed by, taking the first-time rewards. They all understood that, but it didn't change their excitement. If anything, what they were looking forward to the most was going to a place with fish or something else more normal to eat. After all, even a barbecue like this couldn't change the fact that they were now eating spider meat.

"I just hope the room isn't filled with crabs," Blue said as she took one of the meats from the grill.

"Crabs?" Bralac asked.

"Yeah. I mean, spider it's like a bad crab. Or at least the shape is the same. I wanted something different."

After saying that, you could hear a pin drop in the room. Everyone went quiet, hoping that she was wrong and that in the next room, they would find something else to eat.