"Wait, really?" Hera asked, surprised by the information. She would be lying if she didn't consider asking something similar of the guides when this was over. After all, they showed her that she had the option of making such a request.
"Really. Now this will be an exception and not something we could do on a different occasion. Unfortunately, even guiding you here was something that only could happen because we had authorization from the system. And guiding you back to civilization will be your reward for that," Siege continued.
"I see… Does that mean that Shane or I will have to use our skills to get directions? I mean this skill to talk to you guys," Hera asked.
"Unfortunately, yes. And since your path will take you to the Temple of Sands again, I will be the one telling you the sequence of symbols you need to find."
"Oh? Really? That's kind of good. I think. I was half expecting that room to have a bunch of connections because of its layout," Hera sighed, "It still sucks that I have to use the skill for this. Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful, but I kind of wanted to be able to ask about the rooms again. Some of the places we passed by were really interesting. This room included."
Siege tilted their head, " Really? You say that, but you have only seen the interior of this cave."
"And it's a massive pool of thermal waters where a psychologist turtle lives who can jump inside people's memories. If you don't see how that is interesting, I don't have much to tell you," Hera looked into Siege's eyes, seeing the swan process what she just said.
"I suppose I am too used to this kind of thing to consider it interesting. But if I look at this from an outside perspective, I can understand how this would be alluring. Not the most interesting part of this room, in my opinion, but still."
"And what is the most interesting part of the room for you?" Hera asked.
"Unfortunately, I can't say much. But the steam from this place behaves in a very interesting way. Being hotter than regular air but still falling to the bottom of the valley instead of rising to the sky. One has to wonder what kind of marvels or secrets are hidden in the steam-covered ravine that crosses the room. And, maybe, someone who could use a spell, an enchantment to allow others to see through heavily obscured areas, could prove invaluable in the exploration of such an area," Siege replied with a smile, "Now. I apologize for rambling on things that are not related to your reward. The workshop is already added to your private room. When you return to the Temple of Sands, you only need to add three more symbols to the picture on the ceiling. The last one will be an image of a mask surrounded by blue flames. There you will find a doorway to the next room in your journey."
Hera wrote that down on her tablet, "Mask with blue flames. Ok, got it," she stopped for a moment, "Actually, can I ask you a question? About all this."
"Of course. However, I may not be able to reply depending on the question."
"Why are you the one telling the sequence? This reward is for everyone at my party, right? Shane has yet to call Shiretaa, so she could get that info herself."
"Well… In all honesty. We saw how the two of you split the questions. With you having to ask about the destination and Shane asking about the room itself. We decided it was fair to let you keep doing things that way. But you could talk with her and change jobs. Letting her ask about the destination while you question the guide about the room. You could just say that your skill can't do this anymore, but Shane got a reward that let her do the same to get you all back. I can suggest that to her when she calls me."
"I like that idea. But I'll let you talk to her first. I'm assuming she will have the full 5 minutes of questions?" Hera asked.
"She will," Siege nodded.
"Ok. I'll give her one question I wanted to ask, and can I ask you to share the information you just gave me? About the Temple of Sands." Hera smiled.
"Of course, and I appreciate you not pushing for it right now. Having to tell you no would be uncomfortable," Siege gave her a soft bow.
"No worries. I know how those rules annoy you guys sometimes."
"Once more, I thank you for that. And to avoid any unpleasantries. I will go now. I do hope we can have a proper conversation at a later date. If you don't mind."
Hera nodded, "Of course. It was a pleasure to meet you, Siege. Oh. Just before you go. Is there a time limit for how long we can take to get back? I mean, now that we don't have to worry about anyone getting swallowed by a curse, I was thinking about taking a more scenic route. Maybe run some dungeons."
"I don't believe time frames would be any problems. Especially since now, you are all just a few days away from a place where you can start contacting people once again. Maybe a bit over a week, depending on some weather conditions, but it will be nowhere near as complicated as the rooms you already went through. I'm just talking about an issue with high and low tides."
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"I see. That's fine, then. The only reason we are taking so long to get back is because of the Abyssal Deep. I'm sure if it wasn't for that, we would end up taking a few weeks at most to get back."
"That is very likely. Now, I must go. Once more, it was a pleasure," Siege gave Hera another bow, their long swan neck going far below the rest of their body before swimming in the air again and vanishing in a portal of steam.
With that out of the way, Hera also took a moment to call her court and check how everyone was doing. Funny enough, for the blades, everything that happened in the Vanguard felt like a dream. Something they more or less remember, but it didn't feel as real as it was to Hera. Despite that, the abilities and skills they learned while in the curse's memory remained there. No one was able to create a new spell, but Nimbus and Lurize felt like they were close. It was a good thing that all their progress wasn't gone.
The Empress also wanted to do a couple of more things before leaving. First, she opened her spell book to check which of her spells could activate the [Mana Vessel] skill. Unfortunately, only the poison needle had reached the expert rank, and she didn't have any way to boost her intelligence to the thousands. Still, being able to have one spell that worked like that was amazing. She tried flinging a poison needle towards the wall, just to see what would happen. The mana inside the spell felt like a sink swallowing the ambient mana to make it stronger while keeping the needle's shape. It was much more intense than what happened when fighting Reynara, but at the same time, it didn't feel like it was getting as much mana as it was inside during the fight against the curse. However, the moment it hit the wall, the spell just vanished, unable to take hold of anything. Hera had a feeling that now the skill was working as it should with the help of the system. Now that she was back, she realized that any of her new attempts at skills were odd. Wrong or wild in a way. The skills there were unbound by rules, which made them more unpredictable.
She realized that to continue that kind of test, she would need an actual target, and poison wasn't something she wanted to use against someone she cared about. Going to the next thing she had in mind, Hera picked Fang and Claw and turned to her blades, "So, what do you guys think? Should I add them to the court?"
"I think it's a good idea, mum. Even if you are wielding them like usual, their attributes will be a bit better, and we can avoid any situations like what happened when fighting the Night River," Daskka said.
"Then again, if you bring them into the fold now, you are confirming that eventually, you will swap them out," Nimbus added.
'That is something that is likely to happen anyway. Unless something like a weapon that grows its scaling exists, changing weapons is something that will happen,' Lurize said.
'I agree. I mean, even if I'm one of the oldest members of the court, I understand how much we are falling behind attribute-wise. And I'm the one who got an extra buff from the Royal Gift,' Ooze was above Lurize, almost like a halo on top of his head.
"Then we agree? I should add them to the court?"
'Actually. I don't think this is the best idea,' Armory spoke up, and everyone turned to the tiara, which flew off Hera's head and took center stage in the conversation, 'Siege mentioned that there was something interesting in the bottom of this valley, and Shiretaa mentioned we are the pioneers of the Temple of Sands. I might be overthinking things, but I feel like we will soon find a dungeon that no one has ever found. That means a couple of extra levels. After that, then yeah, you could add them to the court.'
"Humm… that is a fair point," Hera nodded.
"Is it? It feels like a stretch. No offense, Armory, but you are counting on a lot of luck for that to happen," Nimbus leaned back against the wall.
'Is she? We know the Naga went to the Belly of the Beast, and we do know that others have come to this room. Otherwise, he wouldn't have treated anyone. That being said, the Temple of Sands is extremely unique. Unless there was a large civilization nearby, I doubt anyone random adventurer found all the dungeons that could be there. And like she said, Siege made a very big deal about the bottom of the valley. If we consider how the guides seem worried that the rewards we are getting are not enough. Then I do agree that there is a good chance we can get something special down there. At the same time, I doubt it would be something incredible like a title or something else since those things are usually too costly for them to even mention. So, the logical conclusion is that it would be a dungeon that can give us some good rewards. Since Siege said that there are secrets hidden down there. We can consider that for a secret to be hidden, no one would ever be able to find it,' Lurize spoke in everyone's mind, not wanting to have to deal with his buzzing voice during a large speech.
Daskka floated up, getting a bit in front of Hera, and turned to the Royal Tutor, "Ok, first. It's very weird seeing you speak so much. Second, that is still a lot of conjecture. We have no idea what is down there. It could be just a hidden quest that will have no effect on mum's level. Or it could be something that will let her get a new titled blade. It could also just be a place where we can get a cake or some really good wine."
Core and Frost agreed with Daskka and Nimbus, but Scythe, Dao, and Edge were on Armory's side. They continued that discussion for a while, saying the same arguments over and over but using different words to try to convince the others of their point of view. Hera was listening to everyone's opinion while thinking about it herself. They were all making good points, but in the end, everyone knew that she had the final say in the matter, and eventually, no one in her court had anything else to say.
"Thanks, everyone, but in the end. I think that I should add them to the court now. If I had to swap one of you out, I wouldn't, but according to Daskka, we also have one more slot to fill. The system considers Fang and Claw one weapon, and the legacy should do the same. I'm still worried about losing them again, and even if I can make new weapons now, they won't have any skills. Also, I realized that fighting while wielding one of you feels much better than fighting using a regular weapon. You guys help me with the moves I want to make, and I think that would even help me increase the rank of my fighting skills."
Daskka reached out to Nimbus with her tail for a high five while the 'other team' grumbled a bit, but they just nodded and moved back to let Hera add the new court members.