Hera was overlooking the city of Zaxalam, in the same spot that she saw it for the first time in her vision. However, there was no tiger chasing after her this time and no Scryotra to come to help and then try to kill her. The city itself was no longer empty. Various Naga were walking around, no children this time, but a large number of guards patrolled the outside. As she arrived, she also saw a hunting party coming back. Each carrying a different cage with something moving inside. There were about half a dozen, meaning that Scryotra's children weren't the only ones who were captured. Aside from that, there were a couple of ballistae around the perimeter, and the large stone gate was ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Still hanging far above the main entrance of the city.

"Even if there are a lot of them, they don't seem that strong. I'm sure we can take them all out," Livy said.

'Yeah, bro. Let's just rush them!' DJ nodded in agreement.

"That's a bad idea," Hera replied.

"Why?" Livy crossed her arms, the war axe shifting on her back.

"We don't know what to expect inside. And this is the hard mode. The beings inside the dungeon usually are more nuanced. There is a chance that if we appear to be a threat, they will lock down the city. Sure, maybe we would be able to open it again, but even Scryotra seemed to have trouble opening that door. I mean, we know that it did attack Zaxalam and that a Naga gave their life to warn the city. But think about it: outside the dungeon. Does the city look like it was hit by acid?" Hera continued to watch the Naga move around.

"Not really. But if Scryotra didn't kill them all, they would've fixed any damage, wouldn't they?" Livy asked.

'If they had the opportunity, yes. But we don't know how long after Scryotra's attack, the Naga went extinct. If it still took 50 years or more, they might have been able to fix all the acid. But if it happened faster, then things might be different,' Lurize continued in their mind. As he did when he had to use long sentences.

"I don't think we ever asked if Rutigan and the others noticed any acid damage in the entrance of the city. But they did mention it was the first place they renovated after making sure they had enough rooms for everyone. We can try to ask la…" Nimbus trailed off, his eyes focusing on something on the mountain where Zaxalam was located, "Does everyone see that? The smoke."

On top of the mountain, there was a thin trail of black smoke rising to the sky. Very similar to the kind of smoke that one would see coming out of a campfire. Hera turned back to the path they took and rushed towards the closest tree. She fired a small fire arrow spell at the trunk and watched as it just singed the bark without actually making it catch fire, "The trees here are too wet for that to be a forest fire."

'Even in that mountain?' Ember asked.

"It should be. We are in Zaxalam this time, so I don't expect any big differences in the layout. But I could be wrong," turning back to Nimbus, the Empress asked, "Can you take us there?"

"Of course," Nimbus turned into his griffon form, and the rest of the court returned to the legacy.

It didn't take long for them to reach that place. And thankfully, the Naga were too used to the lack of flying creatures in the room to pay attention to the sky. Or at least, they were set up like that for this dungeon. In a couple of minutes, the Sentinel was getting close to the source of that smoke. As Hera said, it was a small campfire. A couple of Naga were moving around while preparing something to eat. But what really caught her attention were the similar clothes they were all wearing. It was a leather pauldron tinted yellow with gray accents covering their right shoulder. A strap would make an inverted Y across their chest, and at the left side, where the band reached under their arm, there was a long piece of cloth forming a side cape that almost reached the ground. That cloth had the same yellow tint as the shoulder guard, but the gray details were unique for each person. They would create a pattern that matched their scales. But only a few of the capes had that. Others were just plain yellow.

A moment passed with Nimbus flying above the group, allowing the Empress to realize that most capes didn't have any other markings. And even the ones that did were progressively more complex. In the group of 12 or so, one cap had the same pattern as the Naga who wore it, two had some markings, and the remaining 9 were plain. Around that small camp, there were a few of those cages where monsters would be trapped and brought back to the city.

While looking at that scene, something clicked in the Ophidianite's mind, and she couldn't help but gasp, "Those are ranks!"

"What?" Daskka looked up.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"The capes. They are how the Naga defined ranks. The one with a larger pattern should be their leader, the two with just some marks should be the lieutenants, and the rest are just grunts."

'That's kind of smart. Especially since they make each rank personalized to the Naga who has it. It makes it almost impossible for someone to pretend to be from a higher station,' Nimbus praised.

"It also tells us who should be our target," Hera said in a cold voice while creating a venomous longsword, "Livy, Lurize, you take care of the lieutenants. The rest goes after the grunts."

Hearing the orders, the court got ready. They waited for a moment so most of this group was clumped together, and when that opportunity arrived, Nimbus dove towards them. Just as he passed through the tree line, and he was sure the Empress' trajectory was correct, the Sentinel changed to his bipedal form and shifted to aim at one of the grunts who noticed them. At the same time, the rest of the court popped out. Livy and Lurize appear right above the two lieutenants. Every single other court member did the same, aiming at a different Naga. The Empress and her court landed at the same time. All eleven of them triggered the [Grasshopper Slash] together. Every single one of those attacks bisected one of the Naga without allowing them to react. Eleven simultaneous strikes. They should have been twelve, but Hera still had one opening in her court. However, she also had a herald snake. Daskka didn't stay behind and turned into her giant silver form, biting down the last Naga's head in a single move boosted by a mist elemental strength spell. Her attack wasn't as clean as the others, but after a brief struggle that lasted only a few seconds, her prey was also dead. There was a small pause as the attacks landed and the Empress mana plummeted. Everyone looked around, searching for backup or another Naga who was hiding in the forest. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Whatever this group was supposed to be doing, all their members had gathered together here.

After Hera used a pulse spell to confirm that they were alone, Livy opened a large smile, "Ok, ok. I know we are in a dungeon, and we need to be careful. But can we just talk about how cool this was?! I mean, c'mon. We dropped from the sky in perfect synch like the wrath from the heavens. Look at this," the Leviathan gestured around them. The ground had eleven cuts of various sizes in a misshapen circle, "We look like a fucking bladed meteor!"

Hera looked around, "Ok, I'll give you that one. This was pretty damn cool," she said with a chuckle.

"But what's the plan now?" Daskka asked. She took the longest to kill her target, but unlike the rest, she couldn't use Hera's skill herself.

"Let's look around. Maybe they have something in this camp that can tell us where Scryotra's children are," Hera told her court, who spread out, searching for anything that could be useful.

Just to the side of where they landed, there were a few boxes. Inside them, there were supplies for camping, including food, a tent, and some extra capes attached to pauldrons. But those didn't have any markings, which meant they were made for the grunts. Seeing that Lurize found those, Nimbus opened a big smirk and pulled the Empress to the side, making a point of whispering the idea in her ear.

Both Livy and Lurize noticed that, but the Leviathan was the one to ask about it, "What is going on?"

"Nimbus had an idea on how we can go inside the city without raising any alarms," as Hera talked, the Sentinel called Daskka over and told her the plan, asking her help to grab one more thing they would need.

When he noticed the eyes on him, Nimbus continued, "Well. We need a way to get inside, right? And we have some capes here. So, we might be able to trick them into letting us pass if we show up carrying another monster."

"How does that work? Wouldn't they realize Hera is not one of them?" Livy asked.

"Not really. Usually, people in the dungeon all assume we are part of the same species. Or consider our presence as a normal thing. Unless it's a special circumstance," Hera replied.

'Ok, but that still leaves one problem. We weren't able to find any other monsters in the dungeon. Only Scryotra and its children. I doubt we can just ask for one more to do this,' Lurize crossed his arms.

At this moment, Daskka came back with a large smile, carrying a glass jar with her mist. Nimbus just grabbed the container and turned to the Royal Tutor, "Well… We do have one rare-looking bug here."

It took Lurize a moment to realize what he was talking about. He spoke out loud, "You've got to be kidding me."

Livy choked a laugh, "C'mon, it's just for a bit. It's not that big of a deal."

"Why don't you do this then?!" Lurize gasped.

"She's too big, same with Nimbus," Hera tried to appear apologetic, but she was having fun with the situation.

"How doez that givez them a pazz?" Lurize gesticulated with his hand in frustration.

"Well… Big monsters tend to be stronger. So it's more believable for a grunt to go back with a small bug than it is for them to show up with a large Sea Serpent," Nimbus gestured to Livy and then to himself, "Or with a griffon."

"Besides, they are not from this room. You technically are. We might have a better shot of this if we take something that could exist in this place," Daskka put the final nail in the coffin. But Hera had to say one thing that made the entire situation a little less funny.

"I'm not going to order you to do this. If you say it's a hard no, we can figure out a different way. Maybe I can pretend to be hurt or something. The big thing is the cape anyway."

Lurize groaned loudly, "I'll do it."

Hera reached over and gave the armor a quick peck on his forehead, "Thank you. You can pick the movie we watch for the next three movie nights. And the snacks, too."

"I'll only accept that deal if we can take pictures!" Nimbus protested.

"That's my call, not yours," Hera huffed with a smile. She was too angry with the situation, even if it was a dungeon, and really needed something to break the tension. This was just a hard mode. A simulation of one possible future for the events that were put in place in the normal mode. Getting emotional was a bad idea, and even with everything going on, she still could have fun.

With a plan of action, the court continued to talk and joke around while they got the Empress ready to play the part of a grunt.