"I still can't believe you two!" Bonnie gasped, staring at Hera and Alex.

"What? It was funny," Alex shrugged.

"To be honest, I didn't expect you to fall, but then again, it's not my fault," Hera held a chuckle.

"They went inside my mouth, and one of them pinched my nose!"

"That was awesome," Blue laughed.

"Shut up!"

"That's right. Why are you blaming only Hera and me? Blue was also a part of it," Alex turned to Bonnie.

"You can't expect anything from that one," the researcher pointed at Blue, "I expect the two of you to be more mature."

"Says the one complaining about a prank," Shane mumbled.

"What?!" Bonnie glared at the enchantress.

"Oh, c'mon. It was funny. No one was expecting it, and no one got hurt. You only fell down and didn't even get a scrape. Our attributes are strong enough to handle that kind of thing. You don't need to be such a bad sport," Shane continued.

"You only say that because you can enchant that shell to be stronger."

"That has nothing to do with anything. And I don't see you dropping the shell you got."

"I went through all that. I'm getting the reward," Bonnie huffed.

"I, for one, enjoyed that. Having the crabs move around my hair felt surprisingly good. Like a dozen hands going through it," Helena had her eyes closed, remembering the sensation as they walked inside the cave where the doorway was.

The tide was still low, but it was already rising. During the last hour, the water went from being about 50 meters away from the shells to being just 20 meters away. They should still have a lot of time since, according to Shane, the time limit was when the entire shell was filled with water all the way to the top, which should still take at least one hour. This also meant that, on the other side, they would have close to two hours to get out of the water before the current became too strong.

"Hey, I found the doorway," Mylo called. They didn't walk much, but it looked like this was a very small cave, and they had already reached the end.

"Is it the right one? I don't know, this feels weird," Shane looked around, trying to find another doorway or a path leading somewhere deeper.

"What is the name of the room we are going to?" Helena asked.

"Golden Dragon Archipelago," Shane was still searching for another path.

"Then this is it," Mylo pointed at the pure white doorway. It had the image of a dragon sleeping on a pond above the doors.

"Fuck, this really is it. I mean… the information I got made it seem like this was a deep cave. I guess I'm just disappointed," Shane shrugged and walked towards the doorway, but before they could touch it, Alex spoke up.

"Hey, before we go. Are we sure we are safe on the other side? I mean, in theory, the MAZE will never drop us in a place where we can instantly die. Right? But if Hera and Shane are right, we could die if we cross that doorway at the wrong time. Isn't that weird?"

Everyone took a moment to think about that, but when no one seemed to have any answers, they all turned to Helena.

"What? I don't know," the mage crossed her arms.

"You usually have some knowledge about this kind of thing. I mean, aside from Adriel, you are the oldest member of the group, and that's just because no one knows how old he is," Bonnie turned to Alex, who just shook her head. Following that, everyone turned to the elf.

"I don't know either. It is weird but not unheard of. Some of the people I know talked about similar situations. I just don't know what exactly that means."

Hera stopped to think for a moment, "Maybe… Maybe the whole deal is that the MAZE won't drop us where we will die right away. But it can still send us to a dangerous place. Remember the doorway we took to Boothudurn, Blue?"

"I remember what you told me. I was out during that time."

"Right, so it was inside a cave that was slowly being filled with lava. From the moment the cave showed up, the doorway should be active, and even when we crossed, if there was anyone on the other side, they could have gone from Boothudurn to that cave. But it wasn't safe, just safe for the moment, since eventually, lava would fill everything. The Red Dunes were the same thing but on a different scale."

"What do you mean?" Shane asked.

"Well, it was very hot, and there was no water anywhere. If we left the mines and went there without any supplies, we would've died. But one way or another, the MAZE put us in a safe place. It's not its fault we died right after arriving. The same thing might apply here. It probably won't make us appear right where the current is strong, but to get out of wherever we are, we will need to pass through it," Hera finished her thought.

"That… actually makes a lot of sense. And it fits very well with what we know," Helena nodded.

"Look at you being all explorery and finding stuff out," Blue patted Hera's back.

"You do realize she just got all of us a very good item, don't you? If this is being explorery, then what was that?" Bonnie scoffed.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I don't know. It was something," Blue shrugged and walked to the doorway, "Can I?"

"Let me go first. I think I'm the one who knows better what to expect. Wait for, like, one minute, then cross," Shane said as she touched the doorway. Her form started to glow softly and become transparent before vanishing in just a few seconds.

Despite the possible danger, no one was feeling too worried. They already knew that the Golden Dragon Archipelago had no monsters, but it also had no food, so the rations they had would need to suffice until they reached the next room. After getting inside, Hera would have to make sure to call the guide to learn more about the place. In her mind, something with that name had to be interesting.

The minute went by in a flash, and they all started to move to the next room. Mylo first, then the rest. When it was Hera's turn, she called back Daskka and her entire court before touching the doorway.

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

Would you like to be transported to:

Golden Dragon Archipelago - 18th layer:

[Yes] [No]

Or press the button below for your private room:

[Enter your Private Room]

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

She touched the yes button, and that familiar feeling of being submerged in warm water washed over her. She was enjoying that moment only to be snapped out of it when a cold wave washed over her body. The impact made her bump into someone and slip into the wet rock, falling into the ocean. Despite the current not being insanely strong, the sea wasn't completely calm, and the Empress could feel herself being dragged by the current. She could still fight against it, but only to delay the inevitable.

"Hera!" a voice reached her ears, but before seeing who it was, another wave came crashing down.

'Nimbus! Go out of the water and be ready to catch me!' the Empress yelled in her mind as the bladed tonfas flew off before transforming into their bipedal form.

'I'm ready!' the Sentinel yelled.

Hera covered her body in fire elemental armor, using the flames to push herself out of the water. It wasn't enough to make her fly off, but she was able to raise her body enough for Nimbus to grab her by the shoulders and fly up. In the air, he tossed the Empress up and changed to his griffon form. Hera coughed for a moment, spitting out the water that she had almost swallowed. Only then she stopped to look around.

The doorway was located on a tiny platform of rocks. Bonnie, Shane, Mylo, Helena, and Adriel were all there, almost hugging each other so as not to fall into the sea. This place was mostly water, but there were massive pillars of stone rising up to the sky, covered in some weird orange-ish moss. Going towards one of those pillars, there were two figures. One of them running in the air and the other flying on a dark storm cloud.

"Hera! Can Nimbus take someone else along?" Shane yelled, her voice barely reaching the Empress, thanks to the crashing waves.

"Not to fly that high. I can go there and send him back," Hera yelled back, getting a confirming nod from the Griffon.

"Ok. Then can you hurry? Blue said she was going to look for a place to make a bridge to, but she can't make us go up," Bonnie added.

"Are you guys ok? Do you need anything?" the Empress asked as Nimbus moved to the side, to where Alex and Blue were going.

"I'm keeping us all together with my shadows. Sorry, I wasn't fast enough to catch you," Helena said.

"Don't worry," Hera turned around, telling Nimbus to move as fast as he could. But before she was out of earshot, she was able to hear the party's conversation.

"Can't your wasp thing help us here?" Adriel turned to the mage.

"No, it can walk and hover but not actually fly. How about your drones."

"They are not in a configuration that lets them get that high. I need space and time for that," Adriel replied.

Nimbus didn't move slowly, but Hera was still able to take in the sights. The entire room was made out of those gigantic pillars rising hundreds of meters above the water. She could see some caves and openings that could lead somewhere, but the top of those mountains was mostly flat. Between the gray of the rocks and stones, the Empress could also see that orange moss-looking growth peppered everywhere. The more Nimbus raised the height he was flying, the more pillars Hera could see. She wasn't entirely sure, but it seemed like there were dozens of them, maybe even hundreds. However, this wasn't the right moment for looking around. In less than ten minutes, the Sentinel, who was moving at his top speed, reached the plateau of one of the pillars ahead of Blue, but after, Alex had already landed and was now currently sitting on the ground, breathing heavily.

"You know… That whole wind walk thing… Is harder than it looks… Especially when… If I stop… I'll die," the assassin said between breaths.

"I can imagine that," Hera dismounted Nimbus and immediately gave him a Royal Quest, "Take 2 and a half million mana and go take the others. Bring them one at a time up here. I'll send the rest of the court out to make the conga line, so you don't have to use that much mana for being away."

"As you command, Empress," Nimbus kissed her hand to get the mana before returning to his Griffon form and flying off.

Hera called her court right away and told them to spread out in a line, keeping on the limit of her range using the magnets so her mana wouldn't be drained. Even Armory and Scythe had to move out. She trusted her court and believed they would follow what she said, but Viper and Crimson still were acting like overactive children, which led her to give them all an order not to go beyond the limit of the magnet range but to stay as close to Nimbus as possible.

Soon Blue also arrived at the top of this mountain, and as the minutes passed, one by one, the rest of the team arrived with the help of Nimbus. Helena ended up being the last one since she had the ability to hold on to the rocks, thanks to her shadow grabbers. This was a part of her kit that didn't change even with the light abilities she had.

It took about 1 hour to get everyone up there, and strangely enough, the ocean seemed to become less violent with time. But as a test, Shane had tossed a rock, enchanted to glow, only to see it being swept away in the current very quickly. From what they understood, the waves were more frequent when the current was weak, but when it became stronger, the ocean would seem calm on the surface even with the storm raging underwater. The doorway they used was an exception to that, however. Maybe because of its location in the middle of the current's path, but waves would constantly crash against the rocks trying to push anyone who was there into the water. After one of the said waves, Helena noticed something in the rocks, just beneath the surface, but she was unable to see as the shadow cast by the mountains was too intense.

Now, with the party on top of one of the pillars, the group took a moment to check if everyone was doing well and looked at the sun, which was starting to set.

"Oh…This is amazing," Adriel had his back facing the sun, looking over the rest of the room.

Hearing that, everyone got curious and followed his eyes. Just as the light hit the rocks, they could see in between the gray and orange of the room where the name of this place came from. Every single one of them was sure that they were looking at the pillars, but from this angle, with the sun reflecting in the water, they could see a massive golden dragon sleeping on its side, formed by the mountains and its reflection in the seemingly calm water. Some of the pillars formed the structure of the wings, whit the light coming from the orange spots filling in for the sails. The rocks looked like scales baked in golden sunlight, and the nostrils were two caves of different sizes that, on the angle they were looking at, seemed to have the same dimensions, even if one of them was much further away.

Being in the face of such a wild and beautiful sight made Hera smile. This was the exact reason why she wanted to be an explorer.