Hera ended up spending about four hours inside the challenge, and when she left, she had three new skills thanks to the guides' teachings.
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Battle Dancer (Rank 1)
Allows the user to move through the battlefield as if it was a dance. Your movements during combat will be more natural and less predictable. If the user is listening to some sort of music, the effects of this skill will be increased.
Additionally, increases the damage dealt by the attacks that are seen as part of a dance and increases your chance to evade attacks when you are not restrained.
Additional damage: + 20%
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Attack Pathing (Rank 1)
Allows the user to recognize patterns in the attacks of their enemies.
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Synchronized Battle (Rank 1)
When attacking in synch with others, your combat effectiveness will be increased proportionally to the number of people attacking together.
Requires multiple users to be in effect.
Increased in damage per user: 30%
Increased defense per user: 40%
Increased mobility per user: 15%
If any of the users desynchs, the effects are deactivated, and all currently Synchronized users will receive a debuff.
Decrease in damage, defense, and mobility: 20%
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Those were amazing skills. Synchronized Battle should be the biggest boost Hera has ever had on a pure number base. Since all of her blades shared that skill, it meant that when her full court was out, they should be getting a 240% increase in their damage, a 320% increase in their defense, and a 120% increase in their mobility. This was a ridiculous buff for everyone, and it would only grow as Hera managed to get more members to her court. From what she knew about the blademasters, they were a group of seven people, and they should all be named blades. When she eventually got to that point, she would almost double this buff, and that was counting that the skill stayed at rank 1. Of course, this would only be true when the skill was active, but since the beginning, Hera never had to worry about bumping into one of her blades by accident. Even without the skill, they were all already working together.
As Capri said, Nimbus wasn't able to learn a complete skill. He spent the two hours talking with Capri and the other guides and trying to understand more about himself. Unlike Hera, who was a human, he was a being of mana. However, unlike Daskka, who was attached to an item and had some constraints, the Sentinel had more freedom. In a way, he was much closer to having the body of a guide than anything else. Because of that, the guides were uniquely equipped to help him understand more about his shape change and how to, eventually, create new forms.
Hera and her court spent that time practicing the different skills, while Nimbus was in a more theoretical lesson. Still, everyone felt more than satisfied with the rewards. Peaches even told the Countess not to get used to that type of treatment. They only offered that rewards because she already had between 80 and 90% of the skill in her. All they had to do was give her a nudge for the last 10 to 20%. The remaining 57% was used to help Nimbus.
In reality, that wasn't the only reward she got. Inside the box, there was also a small glass leaf. It was purely ornamental and didn't have effects like Adriel's lure or Helena's hair band. When she left the challenge, almost everyone was waiting for her, and they all looked relieved when she finally came out.
"What took you so long?" Blue stepped forward.
"Sorry. I was caught by the armors and ended up running around for a while before managing to go back to the house. Then that happened again, and again, and again," Hera slumped to the side, sitting on the ground. More than just the challenge itself, the training was brutal, and her exhaustion wasn't a lie.
"Sorry to hear that. But don't worry. I'm sure you will manage to complete it next time," Adriel tried to cheer Hera up.
"Next time?" Hera smirked and showed the crystal leaf, "Only if I'm doing it for fun."
"You managed to beat it?" Helena gasped.
Hera nodded, "Yeah. That's why it took me so long. I think I managed to confuse the armors or run around enough to fill them with sand or something because, after a few hours, they stopped chasing me and just stood there," it was a stretch of a story, but something the guides told her to say. This was a possibility, even if the requirements for something like that to happen were very specific. They weren't able to tell Hera what those conditions were, but her story would match what could happen.
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"And what kind of thing that leaf does?" Mylo asked.
"Nothing. It's just a trinket," Hera passed the leaf to him.
"Ah, so you got a dud?" Alex spooked Hera when she spoke. The Countess didn't notice the assassin who was directly behind her.
After gathering herself, Hera replied, "I mean, it's very pretty. And I wouldn't call that a dud. Besides, I kind of expected these rewards to be different. There was never a mention of 'first-time rewards' or something like that."
"Now that you mention it… that's true. I wonder if that's just because of the challenges or if we will get something when completing all of them," Helena started to think.
Hera got up and walked away from the fountain, "Right. And did you beat it, Blue, Alex?"
"We sure did," Blue announced proudly, "But the items weren't that exciting. I got a sand magnet. Just strong enough to remove sand from my clothes, and Alex got a storm alarm."
Hera turned to Alex with a puzzled look. The assassin sighed and pulled out a small doll with a big head and a large skirt/cape covering the rest of its body, "This is called a Weather Doll. I think it's more common in japan, but in essence, If the cloth is white, it will be sunny. When it turns red, it means there is a storm coming. Also, I don't think this has anything to do with how they use it in japan. I don't think they had anything to do with storms."
"Are you sure? I think there was something like a doll that flipped upside down when it's going to rain," Helena said.
"That does sound familiar, but I don't know if that is the thing people in Japan use," Alex continued.
"We can check it later. By the way, what about Shane and Bonnie? They've been there for longer than I have," Hera looked to the fountain.
"Bonnie came out three times already. She looked more focused before going in the last time. Shane came out only twice. She takes longer to come out," Adriel explained.
"Oh. Ok. I hope it works out for them," Hera continued to stare at the fountain. She suddenly felt that Nimbus wanted to come out and called him to the side, "Everything ok?"
"Yeah. I just wanted to continue toying with the idea I had inside, and I can't just do it while I'm not out," Nimbus explained.
"What idea?" Helena turned to the Sentinel.
"During the test, while we were running, I couldn't find an opening to change from my mount form since I was carrying Hera. That made me wonder if there was a way to have other forms. Maybe something that would function as armor or a form that could transition better between the shapes I can appear on. I had the idea of giving her my wings or my legs, and I want to try that to see if it works," Nimbus explained.
"I see… If you need someone to talk to about that, I'll be happy to help. I don't know how much I could assist you, though," Helena smiled at the Sentinel.
"I appreciate the offer, Lena. But I believe that, for now, this is something I have to figure out myself," Nimbus' answer didn't surprise Hera. According to him, Capri and the other guides helped him a lot to figure out how to start, and it would take time to look like he came up with a lot of the information that he already knew. The main issue was how careful they had to be when discussing anything related to the guides, and Nimbus knew that.
Hera also felt something coming from Daskka. She was sad and let that leak out through her connection. Without speaking, Hera reached out, 'Daskka? Are you ok?'
'Oh… Yeah. I am. Sorry, mum,' the herald replied, but her feelings said otherwise.
'What's wrong? Talk to me,' Hera pressed.
'It just… it feels, I don't know. I know I don't have the right to be upset, but I feel left out. You guys got skills, and Nimbus had that training session, but I didn't get anything. I know I got the gems from Chika but still.'
Hera listened quietly to Daskka, 'That's ok. It's ok to feel like that. I mean, in the end, you ended up not getting anything. I'm sorry about that, and we can see if, in the next challenge, they can give you something special. They said that this wasn't the only one they would appear on.'
Daskka seemed to feel a bit better, but she was still quiet. It wasn't the first time she got sad, but it was the first time she felt so strongly about something, and Hera had no idea what to do to help her. Before she could think of something, there was a splash in the fountain, and Bonnie appeared. She was covered in dirt, blood, and water, and it looked like her left shoulder was out of its socket. Bonnie tried to raise one hand that was holding something.
"I did i…." before finishing the sentence, her eyes rolled back, and she passed out. Nimbus jumped to grab her and flew the researcher out of the fountain while everyone else gathered to perform some first aid. Hera, being someone who trained with Risli for some time, was responsible for putting Bonnie's arm back in it's socket and making sure that she wasn't in any danger. Even with the pain that came with putting a shoulder back in place, the researcher was out for the count, but everything seemed ok aside from superficial wounds and bruises.
Hera grabbed Nimbus' shoulder to get his attention, "Hey. Thanks for your help."
Nimbus nodded, "You're welcome. I didn't expect her to be in this bad of a shape. Does anyone have any idea what happened?"
They all shook their head, "No. But the last time she got inside, she was angry. You know, the type of angry she gets when someone tells her what she can't do," Alex added.
"Right. Let's wait for Shane. When she comes back, if Bonnie is still passed out, we bring her to my private room," Hera suggested.
"I'm not sure that is a good idea. What if she spends a long time sleeping? Wouldn't she be tossed out the moment you try to leave?" Blue scratched her head.
"Ok... yeah... that might happen. So if she doesn't wake up, we are going to need to camp out here," Hera sighed. They waited for some time until Shane emerged from the fountain. She had a smile on her face, but like Hera, she only got a small trinket, a wooden sculpture of fish bones. Hera had an idea why she got something so simple, but they would have to talk later.
They continued around the fountain for another couple of hours. Adriel and Mylo had a fire going and had already made food for everyone. Bonnie was woken up by the smell of grilled fish, and her injuries were much less severe than she remembered. After she got her bearings, she showed everyone what she got from the challenge. It was the best item anyone got from any of the challenges. It was a spyglass that, when someone looked through it, everything would be black. However, if you moved around, it would become clearer if it was pointing to the entrance of one of the challenges. When used in other rooms, it could have the same effect, but only once a week, and it would become clearer if it was pointing to a dungeon.
Hera was already thinking about buying that item from Bonnie later, but for now, they were all going to eat and celebrate passing the first of the tests. However, they all knew that this wasn't the end of it, and after their meal, they would head to the next island. There were still six challenges to go and only six days to complete them all.