The center of the raft was filled with hundreds of cabins close to each other. And it looked like a few of the cabin doors had been removed and replaced by a heavy steel mesh, which allowed air in but kept out anything larger than an insect. On top of the mesh were several layers of metal that also prevented people from getting inside easily. It was hard to tell why that was the case, and coming up with theories seemed counterproductive. The most confusing part was that those metal spikes and wires wouldn't be enough to stop any of the slimes. Not to mention that, instead of them being in good condition like the wood that made the entire thing, the metal was heavily rusted, and in some places, it was clearly broken off.

"Why would someone do this?" Hera asked out loud while looking at the cabin doors.

"I don't know," Blue replied. "Maybe they wanted to make sure no one could get in without their permission."

"I think this is more likely to be to stop things from getting out. Look at that one," Bonnie pointed to the left, where the bottom of the metal actually looked like a set of iron bars.

"So this place was a prison? In the middle of the raft? That sounds…" Adriel trailed off.

"Stupid?" Alex finished his sentence.

"Well… I don't want to speak ill of the dead."

"I honestly do not care. If these people died because they ended up putting a bunch of criminals in the middle of the city, thinking it was a good idea, it's their own fault," Alex scoffed.

"I don't think that is the case," Shane looked inside one of those cabins with the mesh and the metal outside, "Look here. This doesn't look like a house or a place like the other cabins. If anything, this is bigger. A storage, maybe? Then again, there are no windows, and the place does look like a jail cell."

"It's still strange. Why would you put a prison in the middle of the city if it wasn't for the fact that the city was a prison?" Adriel asked.

"Because there are people who want to lock up others and then force them to work for free, even if it poses a threat to them. Their comfort is more important than safety. " Helena replied.

Adriel and Mylo looked at her with surprised expressions, but it was the fighter who spoke up, "Do you have experience with that kind of thing?"

Helena rolled her eyes, "Really? I kind of expected it from Adriel, but c'mon, man. You know what happened in our past. Or were you in one of those schools that didn't mention what happened when people were being colonized?"

"Ah, I see. I'm sorry. I didn't consider that possibility," Adriel looked at Helena, "We have studied your past, but even in the MAZE, slavery was only done with war prisoners. Never with... well.."

"I know. It's harder to do that with others when everyone can get to the same level. Back on earth, we needed to go to a specific place to start leveling up, and a number of tribes didn't have access to those places. When people who could literally fly and make fire rain from the sky came to capture them, there wasn't much they could do," Helena let out a long sigh, "Sorry for bringing the mood down. That subject always pissed me off."

"No, no. It is interesting to see your point of view. But let's continue our search."

"Guys, I think I found a hotel!" Blue called the group, a few meters ahead of them all. What she found was a house with a reception desk and with six bunk beds in each of the six rooms.

"Why would they have a hotel here? It's not like this is a prime vacation spot," Bonnie scratched her head.

"Could this be just a regular house?" Blue suggested.

"I don't think so. We've seen cabins that only have a single or a double bed, or at least the space for one. This feels like something different. Maybe it's the barracks?" Hera suggested.

Unfortunately, this was yet another question that they couldn't get the answers to. Deciding to continue their exploration, the group arrived at a large structure. It was the tallest building here, being three stories tall, and it looked almost like a town hall of sorts. Looking inside, they could tell that the ground floor seemed to be okay. Just like all the other cabins, this place didn't have anything aside from wooden furniture. A couple of tables, long benches, and a single empty cabinet in the corner of the hall. However, things changed when going to the second floor. Not everyone was able to go there, Bonnie and Alex stayed behind. The researcher couldn't climb stairs with her broken foot, and the assassin wasn't going to leave her alone. After climbing the stairs, Hera noticed that the ground was still fine, and it didn't seem to be having any trouble, but the walls and the ceiling were starting to rot and form holes everywhere. It was like they had left a normal raft and entered a post-apocalyptic place.

"Maybe we should turn back," Shane suggested.

"I'm not sure that is a good idea," Adriel said, "If what we are looking for is here, we will be running in circles for a long time. Not to mention this is close to the center of the area on Hera's map."

"Daskka, Nimbus, let's go to the next floor," Hera called her court, "The rest of you can keep looking here. The ground seems sturdy enough, so you don't have to worry about falling."

"What about you?" Blue asked.

"Daskka and Nimbus will be going in front of me. If something breaks, they can fly, and in the worst case scenario, I can use an Earth Armor to stop my fall."

"Sounds like a plan," Shane agreed.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Hera waited for her court members to pass and then climbed the stairs. As she got to the top, she could see the roof had also started to rot. The top floor had a bit of a different structure. It had a large open area in the middle that would lead to the outside. There was a large wooden table surrounded by chairs. And there were bookshelves in the corners of the room. However, there was no sign of life. It looked like something made to be a meeting room for something important. The whole floor felt like a war room, which started to worry Hera. Could the people here be at war with the people from the sky city? Or would this be just so they could figure out how to deal with monsters?

Nimbus started Moving to the left side, with Hera right behind him. The Sentinel had his wings out at the ready in case the ground caved in. The Empress started to look around and noticed that the pattern continued here. The higher it got, the worse the condition of the wood became. Even when she was considering a single slab that was placed vertically, she could see the difference between what was closer to the water and what was farther away. As she looked around, Hera had a weird feeling, as if there was something watching her. Looking to the side, towards where the large table was located, she felt a presence of sorts. It wasn't a strong presence by any means. Even the ghosts or apparitions she saw in dungeons or around the MAZE seemed more… tangible.

"What is that?" Hera asked out loud and took a step to the left. Unfortunately, the new spot on the wooden board wasn't strong enough to hold her and collapsed just as she shifted her weight, "Shit!" she quickly activated her stone elemental armor to increase her defense in case she was about to land on a monster or something.

Nimbus and Daskka jumped toward her, trying to catch the Empress, but they were too slow, and, to make things worse, the hole was too small for the Sentinel to spread his wings. Daskka, on the other hand, could easily follow Hera.

"Mum! Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Hera mumbled as she steadied herself. The floor here was sturdy, and it wasn't rotting at all. She should be stepping on the equivalent of the cabin's roof. Maybe this was why this was in good condition.

"What happened?" Blue yelled.

"Hera? Are you ok?" Helena's voice came from beyond the wall where Hera was located.

"I'm fine. I just fell," Hera replied.

"Where are you?" Shane asked.

"I… don't know," Hera used one of her dancing lights to take a better look at wherever she was. Oddly enough, she couldn't see any doors, only an empty room with the exception of a single chest with a large lock sitting against the wall behind her, "Can you guys see the light?"

"Not really," Blue tried to send a few clouds after the empress, but they couldn't find her on the first floor.

"Hang on," Hera turned around and closed her eyes before making a flashbang behind her.

"I see it!" Adriel shouted.

While the group was getting closer, Nimbus was trying to figure out a way to come down and help. At first, he didn't want to go down in case the ground was also rotting, but now that he could see that wasn't the case, the room itself became the problem. Hera wasn't in a large room by any measure, and she was only moving around comfortably because she was alone there.

"Don't worry. I'm ok. You can go down and help them if you want," Hera smiled at Nimbus, but the Sentinel refused to leave even if the rest of the court was also down in that secret room. The Empress could see that the rest of her party was trying to find a way to reach her, but so far, they were only running around, looking for a door or a hidden passage. She could try jumping to the next floor, but the wood would likely break with the impact or her weight. Breaking one of the walls was also a possibility, but that seemed excessive for now. Even using her fire elemental armor to give her a boost to her jumping power was a bad idea since she was sure that the heat from her spell would end up starting a fire.

With nothing else to do for the moment, Hera turned her attention to the chest in the corner. If this was really a secret room, and there was a box hidden here, it was likely that this would have something interesting inside. She crouched down and started to analyze the lock. It was bulky and sturdy and connected to a large chain that went around the chest a couple of times. She tried pulling the box to look at it from the back, but the container wasn't moving. It seemed like it was almost connected to something. Hera almost climbed over the chest to see what was going on in the back. While she was trying to understand why the chain was wrapped around the wooden wall, the top of the chest opened in several different places, revealing a mouth split seven ways and filled with teeth that bit down on her with such force that it broke through her armor.

Hera yelled in pain and grabbed two of the mouth flaps, pulling them out of her ribs. Dao, Frost, and Core came rushing to the Empress' aid. They attacked the box, cutting more flaps and trying to release their ruler from the monster's grasp. Hera triggered a poison elemental armor to hurt this monster and shoved her hand inside the chest before starting to cast poison needles, wind feathers, and all spells she could think of. There was a thin layer of frozen ash covering her body, and Daskka decided to start healing Hera right away instead of attacking. Too many of them were already fighting against that monster, and if she were to help, there was a chance she would get in the way with her larger body.

"Get. The. Fuck. Off!" Hera yelled as she managed to escape this chest's grasp. She didn't even use a skill to know what she was looking at and just wailed at it with Fang and Claw. Lurize was in the corner of the room, just floating around, and Ooze jumped toward the creature while screaming.

'Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!'

In the middle of all that, Blue decided that the noise was too much and broke through the wall. She saw the monster and jumped in to help. However, Ooze was too angry and scared to notice that this new being wasn't a threat, and with a spin, they aimed for Blue's neck. The controller managed to block the attack and swat the blade away. That made the chakram snap out of it, staring in shock at the monster chest.

Between Blue, Hera, and the attacking blades, they managed to destroy the chest enough and reveal a small cube object that looked a lot like the slime cores that they had to break to kill them. Hera took a moment to use her [Observe] to ensure she was looking at a monster, not a trap.

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Mimic Slime - Locked Chest - Level 30 (Wounded)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Shifting mana? That is weird," Hera said just as Blue stomped the core and killed the monster.

"Are you ok?" the controller asked.

"I'm not great," Hera mumbled, and she noticed that she wasn't the only one in pain. Looking up, she saw Nimbus with a few wounds around his body in the same places where she was hit, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Empress. This was just the share the pain skill. I'm glad it worked well."

"Daskka, can you heal him?" Hera turned to the herald.

"Only after I'm done with you," Daskka replied.

Hera nodded, and the rest of the group arrived. After explaining what happened, they all decided to leave this place. The fact that a slime mimic appeared made everyone worry. Those things would even trick their [Observe] or [Inspect] skills which only made them more dangerous. Not to mention that it was a creature strong enough to pass through both Hera's armor and her rock elemental armor with a single bit.

Just as the group left this town hall, feeling a bit distraught about this new information, Bonnie and Alex called them over to a large group of cabins that were connected to each other, "I think we found something!" Alex had a big smile on her face.