Before leaving the challenge, Hera asked if there was any way for the guides to help her finish this. Unfortunately, they couldn't do anything to help. This was part of the rules of the room, and there was no way to go around it. What they were doing was already to the limit of pulling their punches, even if that expression wasn't exactly applicable to Calina. The polar bear guide apologized to Hera before she left the challenge. This was the first time she had ever participated in something like this, and the fear coming from her armor was a bit too much for her. When the fight started, she genuinely believed it was a matter of kill or be killed. Her anger at Hera for 'cheating' also came from that fear; when she understood that, it became much easier to process those feelings.

Hera still felt her nose a bit numb since Calina ended up breaking it during their battle. Nothing was broken anymore, but the sensation was still there. Blue, Adriel, and Mylo were already there when she came out of the fountain. Blue was a bit battered, while Mylo and Adriel seemed fine.

"Are you ok?" Hera turned to Blue with a worried expression.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Blue shrugged, clearly upset about something. Without saying anything, Hera told Daskka to heal Blue up even if she wasn't going to ask for it.

She then turned to Adriel and Mylo next. "How about you two? You don't look hurt."

Adriel gave a small smile, "I'm fine. Did you complete the challenge?"

Hera shook her head, "I messed up when I was underground and caused a cave-in by accident. I still think I could survive that, but the challenge kicked me out."

Adriel turned to Mylo, "Do you want to pay me now or later?"

"It's still not over. The bet was that half of them would win. We still have four inside," Mylo crossed his arms.

"Are you guys betting on who is going to complete the challenge?" Hera asked.

"Yep. Mylo believes that half of you will complete it on the first try. I said you wouldn't. We both managed to win the challenge, by the way," Adriel nodded.

"Really? What was the item then? I didn't get that far," Hera asked.

"I found a fish tree. He got a tree fish," Mylo replied.

Hera blinked slowly at him before saying, "I'm going to need a little more than that."

"I had to find a fish made out of wood, and the person didn't change the texture of the bark, letting it look like a treant fish, so a tree fish" Adriel replied.

"I found a tree made out of glass, but it had scales in the place of the bark. So a fish tree," Mylo shrugged.

"Ok. I think I understand what you meant. But where did you find that? I went to the house, then the tunnel, but I never saw the tower," Hera was still looking at Blue, but the controller didn't seem ready to talk.

"So, it's a bit weird. I found it inside the tower. But to get there, I had to go to the hill where the doorway should be located and go inside a tunnel leading me away from the house, only to step in a teleporter and then show up there. I tried walking through the front door or going to one of the windows, but I couldn't break them, no matter how much I tried. Mylo, on the other hand," Adriel looked back at the fighter.

"The door to the house was in the tower for me. Then I got to the living room and got teleported to the top of the hill. The four armors were there, and I had to fight them to get my item, then I ran back to the fountain," Mylo explained.

"So you both managed to complete it? Did you get anything? A reward or something?" Hera petted Daskka, who came back to her neck after healing Blue.

"We did, but it wasn't anything that exciting, not for most, at least. I got a lure that will make fish more likely to be caught, " Adriel pulled the lure from his pocket. It was just a tiny crystal fish.

Hera then turned to Mylo, and he pulled a small bracelet made out of tiny sea shells, "This makes me swim faster, and if I use an illusion when I'm in the water, it looks more natural."

"I see. Like it's nothing that amazing, but since the challenge wasn't supposed to be that dangerous, it is a nice perk," Hera nodded.

"I thought the same thing. It's just a shame we can't get money there. It would be a perfect place for training otherwise," as Adriel finished speaking, there was a large splash of water in the fountain, and Alex was there on her knees, coughing like crazy.

"Alex!" Hera and Adriel called at the same time and rushed over to her, but they couldn't go inside the fountain without risking getting sent into the challenge again.

"Nimbus! Don't touch the water and get her out," Hera called Nimbus, who swiftly flew over and pulled Alex out of the challenge's entrance.

They checked on her, but she didn't seem that injured. She was just coughing a lot. Still, Hera told Daskka to heal her just to be safe. It didn't have much result, but everyone felt a bit less worried as the snake started to cast her spells. About two minutes went by before Alex was finally able to speak.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Thanks. I'm ok."

"What happened?"

"I got hit on the stomach. With a war hammer. From a statue that was spinning around," seeing everyone's expression, Alex tried to smile, "It wasn't that bad. It just took all the air out of me," she touched her stomach and moved as if it was in pain.

"We are healing you. Tell us what happened," Hera suggested.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I went to the house to find something about this challenge. I figured that it shouldn't be too hard since there was nothing in the way," Alex paused to cough again, "I ended up picking the lock and then going to the basement. In there, I fought against that armor," she pointed at the angry statue, "I killed it by going for the gaps in the armor. Then I heard some noise and started following it. When I arrived at the next open area, the happy one was spinning around with the hammer. I tried to sneak by it, but it noticed me, and well..."

"You got hit," Nimbus said.

"Yes."

"Did you get any loot?" Mylo asked.

"Not really. I thought about getting some of the small baubles in the house, but I gave up later. I had no idea if they would mess with the challenge."

"Crap," Mylo huffed and turned to Adriel to settle their bet.

"We'll do it later," Adriel replied and turned back to Alex to ensure she was okay.

"How about you guys?" Alex asked.

"I lost. They won," Hera pointed at Adriel and Mylo and then turned to Blue.

"I lost too. Ok? I was stupid and thought I could take the four armors at the same time, and they beat the crap out of me."

"Just be glad it was just four," Mylo added.

"You fought more than four?" Hera looked at the fighter.

"Four types. Six armors in total."

"I got five. Same thing about the typing, though," Hera quickly replied. The guides had told her not to talk about the differences in their armor since, for everyone else, there would only be four types of enemies around.

During the next hour, the rest of the party appeared in the fountain. Bonnie wasn't in that bad of a shape, but she had a couple of bruises around her arms. Shane was mostly ok, and she managed to find the item, but the armors caught up to her as she was heading back to the fountain. The last one to come out was Helena. Despite the mage being currently lower level than Hera. She managed to retrieve the item thanks to her dark spells that allowed her to sneak by the armors. Her reward was a hair tie that would give her the feeling of being under the shade even when she was under the sun. That would only work in tropical areas, but it still helped. Another effect was that it would reduce the damage caused by seawater in the hair of anyone who wore it.

After explaining what the reward was, Helena added, "And this feels a bit racist, not gonna lie."

"I mean.. yeah, but at the same time, it is helpful. And if the system is considering what we need for this place, it makes sense," Bonnie replied.

"Hey! My hair is not that bad!" Helena pouted.

"Yet. C'mon Lena. I know better than anyone here what seawater does to our hair. If you are going to complain about that reward, I'll gladly take it out of your hands," Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Ok... can I ask one thing now?" Blue interrupted and got the go-ahead from the group, "What do we have to do in that challenge? I don't get it."

"But... didn't you fight against the armors?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. I just looked for something to punch. I figured that should be part of it. I heard you mentioning items and taking them to the entrance, but I still don't get it."

"Ok. So there, we need to find one specific item and then bring it to the fountain. From what I can tell, it will be the only item that your Observe or Inspect will actually do something with. If you use it on any other item inside there, nothing will happen. Another thing we can use to know if we are on the right track is the armors. They protect the item, so you need to be on the lookout for that. It's also inside a box, like the one that we saw in the statue back in the campsite," Adriel explained.

While that was going on, Hera sent a text to Shane, 'How many variations of statues did you find in there?'

Shane glanced at Hera and then smiled before replying, '13. Not everyone could come, apparently.'

Hera smiled back, and they knew they had something to talk about in the future when they were in a private location.

Before letting everyone try again, they wanted to confirm one thing. Everyone walked back to the doorway to check if they needed to pass the challenges individually or if it was a case of one person completing them. To no one's surprise, it was an individual situation. Mylo, Adriel, and Helena could see the message telling them they had 1 out of 7 challenges completed while for everyone else, it still said 0 out of 7.

Everyone talked for a bit longer, and they eventually came to the agreement to rest for the day. Bonnie, Blue, and Alex were somewhat bruised, and taking a break before going for the next challenge would help. Not to mention that the sun was already starting to come down, and no one was too excited about the idea of exploring the room at night. Even if they should be safe here, moving with only the light of the moon in the sky was somewhat unnerving. The good part was that the campsite was still there, so they could have dinner in the moonlight. All the while, they were discussing their strategies for the challenge and what they could try in their next attempt. Knowing what to do and having a plan would make things a lot easier and, in the end, would allow them to attempt a few times during the day if needed.

At some point before their meal, Shane and Hera walked to the side and activated a soundproof bubble to talk about the guides who were inside the challenge. They made sure not to mention the names or the details of any they weren't 100% sure the other already knew about. During the conversation, they realized that, despite being safer, the challenge was also harder for them. Everyone else had to worry about only 4 variations of the same monsters, while they would face a dozen different possible versions, and the experience others had wouldn't apply to them. Not to mention, the guides never said they couldn't change their setup between challenges. And, unlike the statues, they were smarter and more able to react to unexpected situations, such as Hera blocking the kobold sisters in the room while running away.

Later, everyone went to their private rooms. Hera ended up sharing one with Helena, Bonnie, and Blue, while the rest stayed in pairs. To their luck, they could even watch some television, even if the quality wouldn't be that good. Eventually, they decided to sleep, and Hera was just staring at the ceiling of her private room while thinking about the day. This place was amazing, but she was feeling conflicted. Part of her loved everything about this room and hoped to be here for a long time. While the other part just hoped they would finish this and go back soon. Staying locked in a place didn't sit well with her. After some time, her tiredness overcame her worry, and Hera drifted to dreamland, excited for a new attempt to beat the challenge in the morning.