"Hera, Blue, it's time to get up," Nimbus' voice came softly, as he did when he was going to wake them up. The Empress almost attacked the Sentinel, not because of a nightmare, but because she was feeling exhausted, and to her, she had just managed to sleep. During the entire night, the curse kept creeping into her mind, offering ways for her to see the mana she saw before, to feel the sensation of boundless power that she felt when she used the Pool of Styx against the mantises. The main issue was that it would only say something when she was about to fall asleep. After a couple of hours, Hera became sure that the curse was doing that on purpose, trying to catch her in a moment of weakness or just trying to tire her enough so she would accept the offer, even if just to shut it up.

"Mum? Are you ok?" Daskka asked.

"Not really," Hera rubbed her eyes; her head was killing her because of the lack of sleep. She got up and sat on the bed before saying, "Edge, come here. I might need you around today," she summoned the small knife and activated the Elemental Strength spell so her natural recovery would improve. It was a far cry from a good night of sleep, but it was her best option, especially since they didn't have actual coffee in this place.

"What happened?" Blue asked.

"The curse is being a dick," Hera replied without looking up.

"Really? Mine is barely talking to me, and when it does is super supportive," Blue nodded.

"Oh wow, I'm so happy for you," Hera's sarcasm was so strong that even Bonnie, who had just woken up and was walking towards the door, stopped and looked to the bedroom.

"Sorry…" Blue looked down.

"No, sorry. I'm just really cranky today," Hera sighed and got up from the bed before changing into her armor and leaving the house. She still kept the soundproof bubble up, but she didn't talk with anyone. During breakfast, everyone was in high spirits and talking about the preparations for the hunt, but a couple of people seemed upset about something.

Hera spend most of the day with Kadhan, who was oddly anxious. He even messed up a couple of basic potions, which was very unusual for the witch doctor. Because he was busy making the medicine people would need for the hunt, he didn't have time to teach Hera anything. Since she had just started learning, letting her create the potions herself while unsupervised was not something Kadhan was willing to do. As a result, he showed her a hidden passage in the cave that led to a large room filled with writing on the walls. This was his 'recipe book.' The place where all his formulas were written down. Hera offered to continue working in the new field, but Kadhan refused; he was very particular about the position of everything.

In the end, she would only be able to help by bringing the plants and mushrooms that the witch doctor would need to make the potions and then wait for him to finish. The good part was that after reading each of the potions, they would be added to her Medical Reference. It was a skill that she barely used, but it could let her compare wounds, injuries, and diseases with something she was seeing, but that wasn't all. She could also have a catalogue of herbs and other materials that could be used as medicine and even the recipes of the potions themselves. By the end of the day, Hera already had every single potion and salve present in that secret room in her Medical Reference. The only recipe she didn't get was one for honey-infused wild strawberry jam that Kadhan added for some reason. Apparently, it wasn't something the witch doctor would use to heal someone, but it could heal their soul when they felt sad.

At the end of the day, Multrak told everyone to sleep early and that they would start preparing the traps for the hunt in the morning. Hera and the others went home just after eating like the rest of the village, but they didn't go to bed right away. Helena had some information that she wanted to share with everyone.

"Ok, so remember when I mentioned four people who were suspicious?" the mage asked.

"Yeah, two oracles, a guy who could reinforce magic and another who was pissed at mantises, right?" Shane asked.

"Correct. So we can take them out of the suspect list. I figured out what they were doing."

"And what was it?" Adriel was struggling to clean his shoes. He ended up stepping on a rotten fruit, and he still wasn't able to take out all of the pieces of his shoes.

"Well… Kaela and Thorne came to talk to me today; they invited me to one of their…. hangouts."

"Who are they again?" Blue was double-checking her armor, making sure it was in good condition for tomorrow.

"Kaela is that tall woman with silver fur around her neck, the one with the pierced wolf ears on the top of her head. Throne is the short buff dude with a pair of tusks coming from his lower jaw and the.… well, pig nose," Alex replied while making sure her daggers were in good condition.

"Boar nose. Don't let him hear you saying it's a pig," Helena added, "Anyway, they invited me over, and apparently, all those times they vanished was just so they could bone."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Wait. All four of them? I remember you saying that they would disappear with Nara and Rorik, too," Bonnie asked and noticed Blue's expression. Before the controller could even speak, she added, "Rorik is that mountain of a man with a lot of hair and fur, so much that you don't know where is just body hair and where is fur."

"The guy who looks like they could split you like a twig, but it's a sweetheart that tells people not to hurt butterflies?" Blue asked.

"That's the one. And Nara looks a bit like Kaela, she only has fur on her neck and two ears on top of her head, but her ears are usually down, hiding in her hair, and they have those long hairs coming from the edge of the ears," Bonnie turned back to Helena, "those four are a thing?"

"Yes and no. So, Nara told me everything. According to her, neither of the four should be here. Their only crime was adultery, but because they were married to important people in the kingdom, those people made sure to tip the scales and make their punishment much worse than it was supposed to be. It's very unjust, especially for Thorne. He didn't want to get married again since he lost his first family, but had to for political reasons and pressure from his family," Helena nodded.

"I mean… they are cheaters," Bonnie shrugged.

"Yeah, so you break up and cut them off. You don't send them to a supermax prison," Hera sighed, "But what that has to do with anything?"

"Let me finish. So, Nara was the first one to have a sentence like that, which caused a problem because it set a precedence then the others joined. But according to her, she didn't cheat because of love; it was just desire. Her husband was very frigid, and she is… let's call it sexually inclined. I don't want to use the same word she used. It started with a w. Anyway, the rest of them were all here for the same reason, more or less. A partner who didn't want to have sex, and they did so they looked elsewhere. When they got here and figured out that the story was similar, they decided to enjoy themselves since their libido is very strong."

"Basically, they are horny as fuck!" Alex nodded.

"Really?" Shane chuckled.

"Oh yeah. When Lena told me that, a lot of things made sense. Kaela's house has a full set of strong manacles and some rope attached to the ceiling. I had no idea what was all that, but knowing they like to fuck that makes a lot more sense. The way that rope is set up, it could easily hold a person in a very particular position."

"There you have it. They were being sneaky because not everyone likes that kind of lifestyle, but they were just boning. So I think we can mark them off our list of suspects," Helena chuckled.

"If we are just gossiping, I also have something to add. I thought people were all in agreement that Reynara shouldn't be the chief, but not everyone seems to agree with Multrak. I saw a few people complaining and saying that Grilat was too soft and wouldn't be aggressive enough to deal with some of the biggest threats to the Vanguard," Adriel added.

"Yeah, Berylla had to scold a few people for complaining, but after that, they stopped right away," Blue put all of her gear on a shelf and smiled proudly, having finished her maintenance, "How about you guys? Anything different?" she asked the rest of the group.

"Not really. Everyone is acting like it's business as usual. I don't think the guard is all that worried about this hunt, but according to everyone, they will stay back to protect the village, just in case something happens," Shane said.

"Multrak asked me to help him gather all the knowledge he has about the jungle. We are basically making a manual for Grilat. He is doing a lot of things for the hunt too, but it's not like it's unexpected," Bonnie said.

"Kadhan is on the same boat. I mean, he seems to be stressing out about the hunt and is rushing a bunch of potions. I ended up going to a secret room where he keeps all his recipes; I managed to make a copy of almost everything," Hera was currently applying some oils and polishing her court, not that she needed it, but she liked doing that since it both calmed her and made her closer to her blades.

"How? Can Armory remember everything?" Bonnie turned to the Empress with a confused expression.

"No. I have the Medicinal Reference skill that I got when I helped Risli. That can track the potions I know how to make. Since we never got seriously injured with things that our spells couldn't fix, I never bothered using it. It's not like it could fix a broken leg or something like that. We never found any plants that I already knew about either, so it's mostly useless for me. Now I have a few different options that can increase one attribute or another while reducing others; that might help," Hera explained.

Bonnie just nodded, and they continued their conversation but not much else was discovered. When morning came, Multrak gathered everyone and explained the plan for the next few days. The repair crew would be in charge of carrying the traps to the Night River's home. The hunter crew would tell them where to place the traps and assist with the installation. Hera and Kadhan would apply any poisons or paralytic agents to the traps, and that was something they would have to do every day since they weren't sure when the monster would appear. Bonnie and Mylo would be making sure that no other monsters were invading the perimeter, while Helena and Alex would be helping clear out the area for a camp. Another thing that Multrak did was explain how he could help others with his legacy. The buff he had would allow him to share a portion of his strength. It was temporary, but it had no setbacks aside from a cooldown that would only be counted for each person affected by the spell. The buff would last for 20 minutes, and the person had to wait 1 hour between activations. This means that if Hera got the buff, and then 30 minutes later, Blue got the buff, Hera had to wait 30 minutes for the buff to be applied again, while Blue still had a full hour to wait.

All his other skills would only affect him, or the monsters, so no one had to worry about it. With all that out of the way, he told everyone to finish their meal and get ready to move out. He also asked Hera if she could make houses for everyone when they arrived at the destination. The Empress said she could, as long as she was in a place with rock or stone. If it was just dirt or roots, she wouldn't be able to do much. He thanked her, and with most of the village, they all left. Staying behind were just a couple of guards and some people who would help to hunt for food and protect the Vanguard from any monster attacks.

Hera and the others just continued walking in silence, unsure of what to expect. If anything, they could only hope that the hunt went well, but knowing her luck, the Empress had serious doubts about that.