Before leaving the Cinderspire Citadel, Hera and her team stopped by the command center. Vazor was having lunch, but when he heard they were leaving, he went to meet them. Together with Sapphira, he called the other commander and her second in command, the ones who were in the Hearthome at the feet of the volcano, and they thanked Hera and her team. They also gave them an extra 400 thousand gold from their own pockets. 100 thousand from each. In reality, they wanted to give them something more special, an item or something. But since they were leaving now, none of the commanders had the chance to look for a gift. This was off the books; it was just a personal thank you since they knew how much that spell helped during the entire rampage. Sapphira also asked Hera again about sharing it with them, but the Empress was adamant. Not only did it have the potential to be too dangerous, but now she also knew the mental strain that it would place upon the caster. She had a way to share that strain. Others didn't. It wouldn't be a surprise if she was the only person who could cast that spell and still fight.
With that out of the way, the team walked out of the building and checked Milla's message again. The instructions were simple: they were to turn off any internet connection and only then open the file. To make things safe, they should only open that file on one of the tablets. After checking things, they could turn on the internet on the other tablets as long as the one that had the open file was still offline. Their supporter also added that they shouldn't talk about their destination while any of the tablets had a connection. This wasn't part of the orders but a worry that she had since people could've hacked their devices and been listening in to their conversations.
The directions to their destination were quite simple, actually. They headed down to the Hearthome, where Flint would make a carriage, and Nimbus would be pulling it as they moved towards a doorway. From there, they would pass another two rooms, sleep, and then another three quick rooms in the morning. The second day would go by quickly since the doorways were all 30 minutes away from each other. Sunken Splendor was the name of the room that the people of the guild should be crossing. When they arrived there, there was another file for them to open. This time, everyone should turn off their tablets completely before reading them and then only turn them back on after the number of days mentioned in the new file has passed. Again, there was a warning that this would likely be a wild goose chase. There were several possible paths for the guild to take, and the Alliance still didn't know their final destination, which meant that there was a high likelihood that they were being sent on essentially a camping trip.
Hera didn't care about that; even if she ended up not doing anything, the chance of helping people who were kidnapped, tortured, and experimented on was more than enough for her. They moved to the elevator, and after a long ride, the team arrived at Hearthome. Following that, they just headed out to the doorway.
"How about Harmony Guardians?" Vash was lying on the floor of the carriage, looking at the clouded sky. It's already been more than an hour since they left the city, and they still had a lot of ground to cover. If it wasn't for the rampage, they would have a lot of trouble with the monsters in the room. However, after a big event like that, even the creatures that lived here felt tired and slept for most of the day.
"What are you talking about?" Roan turned to the harpy.
"The name of our team. Harmony Guardians. We protect nature and the peaceful life of those who are in danger."
"That's not bad. It's close to my family motto," Skyler stopped speaking, waiting for someone to ask.
"Fine, I'll bite. What's your family motto?" Neria sighed.
"Harmony is our greatest treasure," Skyler replied with a big smile.
"You mean, like, being in harmony with others or with yourself?" Roan stretched her arms before laying down on the carriage as well.
"Both. Self-reflection and external happiness," Skyler continued talking about how her family always tried to balance everything to make sure there was always harmony, including how the clothes and colors of her house were part of this all. During all that time, Neria and Roan were mostly distracted, only mentioning anything on occasion. Vash, on the other hand, seemed interested since it could benefit his idea. After some more discussion, the elf turned to the two members who didn't participate in the conversation, "What do you two think?"
Hera and Flint were by the side, talking about the seal the Empress wanted to give her new blade. The Ophidianite was the first to turn towards the rest of the group, "What did you say?"
"I asked what you think about Vash's suggestion. For our team name," Skyler said with a sigh.
"Oh. Did everyone agree?" Hera replied, still thinking about the possible seals. Flint had some really interesting ideas about the kinds of materials she could use to engrave on the hammer and the effects they might create.
"We did. Are you even listening?" Skyler crossed her arms.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm ok with that. We need a name anyway," Hera turned back to Flint and her tablet, continuing the drawing of the seal. The dwarf had shown her some runes that meant 'masterwork' and 'masterpiece,' and giving those to a blacksmithing hammer might give it an extra boon to crafting.
"What about you, Flint?" Skyler asked, half expecting him not to know what they were talking about.
"I really don't fucking care. Just don't make a short joke at my expense," Flint's reply was a bit more aggressive than anyone expected, but that wasn't directed at anyone in particular, just at the topic. Vash was like a dog with a bone, and any chance he had, he would talk about it with the rest of the team during the rampage. At least he had the good sense of not bringing it up while they were fighting, but it was clear that the crafter was just done with all of this.
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Happy that his suggestion was finally accepted, Vash even started coming up with a song about their accomplishments so far, like a bard of old. Skyler and Neria felt a bit inspired by the idea and began working on an emblem. Something they might engrave in their armor just to show that they were a team. They would likely never use that, but it was still a fun and relaxing project they could do while on the move. Roan continued resting, using his newly enhanced senses to make sure nothing was trying to attack them. Hera and Flint were mostly oblivious about all that had just happened and continued focusing on the seal.
Close to sundown, they arrived at the doorway, quickly crossing over to a room called 'Mirror Plains,' a wide and open place that had a constant thin layer of water covering the ground, creating a mirror on the horizon. Here, monsters were more likely to appear, but they were all slow. They focused on traps and luring their prey to specific areas, which meant that for Nimbus and the carriage, they were hardly a problem. A couple of times, the Sentinel had to swerve away from one of the traps, but it wasn't anything to worry about, even if they had to fight. This was on the 9th layer, where creatures would only be level 27 at most. Another thing they had going for them was that the sun here was 1 hour behind the sun in the Cinderspire Citadel. They only had to travel for around 40 minutes, keeping them ahead of the sunset.
The next room was also quick to pass through. It was called 'Mountain Side,' and it was quite literal in its name. The doorway let them arrive at the foot of a mountain, and the entire room was set up only on its side. People could reach around 50 meters deep into the rock before reaching the invisible wall, and to the other side, where there was no mountain, it was the same distance before being blocked by the barrier of the room. Here, they wouldn't use a carriage, but the doorway wasn't that far, just a few floors up the mountain before they crossed to the last room of the day.
Named 'Waves of Sunset,' it was a beautiful place. The room itself was made out of a long cliff that followed the shoreline. The unique colors of the rock beneath their feet made the ocean turn a beautiful shade of orange, giving the place a permanent sunset feel. There was no change to the actual water, and the materials here were not that exciting. But it was still an amazing place. Even better was that there were no aggressive monsters in the area, not on the clifftop, at least. If one were to dive into the ocean, things would change, but all creatures that lived on land were herbivores and very friendly.
The Harmony Guardians moved along, not wanting to use the carriage here since they would sleep in the room anyway. The miniature bear-like creatures with green and white fur approached the group with curiosity, following along in the journey. So did the emu-flamingo hybrid creatures that would run on the edge of the cliff. Every now and then, those birds would, essentially, get the zoomies and run a few laps around everyone before stopping to follow along once more.
Even Flint had to stop to enjoy the experience. Everyone was so used to fighting to their death against any monsters in the MAZE that seeing them like this warmed everyone's hearts. Especially since they were all so cute. A lot of people had an unexplainable urge to pet a bear cub, but doing so was, on most occasions, a surefire way to get killed. Here, they could give in to those urges without having to worry about repercussions.
At night, when they were already in their tents, Hera and Flint worked together to draw one last seal. It would combine three runes and sigils. 'Production' and 'Empowerment' were the runes wrapped around a 'Mastercraft' sigil. One that a lot of crafting groups used on their emblems.
Hera also used some materials Flint had available. Those were just leftovers from his upgrades, but she still paid for them; after all, money wasn't an issue. When she was ready, she added the new court member.
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Forge - Forging Hammer (Strength)
Scaling:
Strength x 27.4, Endurance x 26.9, Intelligence x 26.4, Charisma x 19.9, Agility 13.4, Luck 13.4
Skills:
Echoing Enchantment: When active, any item struck by this hammer will receive a temporary enchantment. This boon is random, but it will be something that is usable for the item. This effect cannot happen more than once in an item during the same use of the skill.
Skill Duration: 1 minute
Enchantment Duration: 5 minutes
Awakened Potential:
Once per day, an item that is hit by this hammer can be pushed to the limits of the material used in its creation.
Cooldown: 24 hours
Phoenix Touch: This hammer can temporarily bestow the essence of a phoenix on other items. All items affected by this skill can deal bonus Phoenix Fire damage and regenerate any damages with time. In addition, this hammer is able to use a Phoenix Fire wave attack one time.
Cooldown: 7 days.
Master Crafter.
Items crafted with this hammer can potentially enhance their skills.
Buff given by this hammer to other items will be increased by 20%
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"Welcome to the court, Forge."
A low and gruff voice came through the hammer, 'This is… new. I guess I'm out of retirement.'
"Oh… Did you want to stay retired?" Hera asked, confused about the reaction.
'Nah. I spent a long enough time not doing anything for ten lives. I'm glad to be useful again, Empress.'
"I'm glad," Hera smiled.
"Can you ask about that?" Flint pressed. One of the main reasons he was helping was the hope to learn something from Forge.
"You can ask for it yourself! He can hear you, just not reply to you."
"Really? Ok then," Flint turned to Forge, "Do you remember anything about making items? Any old techniques or blueprints?"
'Can I answer him?' Forge asked, his voice showing that he didn't understand the situation properly.
'You can. Well, you can't, but you can tell me, and I'll pass it along to him.'
'Very well. I can't recall any techniques, none that you are not already aware of, my Empress. But… maybe I can indicate when you are doing something wrong… Maybe. It's just a feeling I'm having, but only when we are actually working will I be able to figure that out.'
Hera passed the message along, which only made Flint grumble. Still, he promised they would look for a forge when they had a chance to see what secrets the hammer had. After this somewhat long day, they all rested. Tomorrow, they would go dark and wait for a chance to ambush the guild.