The group called Runir to apologize later that night. He seemed less frazzled and agreed that he went too far. He asked them to meet him in the Carpon Caverns the next day to talk in person. He also let everyone know what would happen with Tom. He would be in the Kobold Field until the next day, then head outside to go to a proper hospital. In the best-case scenario, he would spend two weeks recovering and would be back in the MAZE, but the healer said to expect at least 2 weeks of healing and some time of physical therapy. He couldn't tell a more precise estimate until they removed his armor, and since they didn't have the right equipment for doing so, it was better to leave it there until they left the MAZE.

They agreed to meet Runir in the morning before he headed back to the Kobold Field. Tom would only be moved around 11 A.M. to match with the schedule of the ships heading to Brinefront. Hera and the girls discussed what they could do. Fighting without a healer was a problem, and having two fewer members in the party was worrying. In the end, they all agreed to wait one more day to decide anything. If Tom really needed just a couple of weeks, they could take a small break while he recovered. If not, they would discuss it again.

Helena pulled Hera aside and asked about her progress and the affinities of the kobolds inside the dungeon. Using humanoid specimens could give her some new insight into her research. Hera completely forgot about that while helping the army. It has been close to a month since she last wrote any further information about that. Helena understood but put it as an actual request for her assistant. She had to bring the affinities of 100 Dragon Kin kobolds and 500 Wolves of the Night. Aside from that, she also wanted the affinities of Zudra and Light Fur. During their talk, Hera also asked about the spell module. She still wasn't able to figure out a way to make it work. They spent some time in the lab, trying to make a breakthrough in that project, but to no avail. Before heading to bed, Helena let Hera know that she had found a buyer for the pangolin scales and the raw mana stones. It was a well-known crafter who was also a part of the order, and they would get a great deal, as long as they could prove it worked. He would drop by in the next few days to finish the transaction. The idea would be using him as a middleman to push the product, so he would have a 20% cut. Helena wanted Hera to have 50% while she had 30% since all she did was clean them up and make the items presentable. Hera refused and said they should split evenly, 40% each. After all, they would only get anything out of it due to Helena's spell.

Just before turning in for the night, Hera checked her messages. One from the guild was informing her that another person had unlocked the hidden skills [Exponential Growth] and [All-in]. Now that they confirmed the conditions matched with what she said, there would be a 1 000 gold bonus for each. For now, only people who had their first level up could get the skill. Higher-level people weren't able to unlock the skills even when making all their attributes identical, but there were still some tests to go through. She could stop by any branch to get her money. Hera couldn't help but chuckle at that. When she first got the skill, the extra thousand gold she made by selling the information was more money than she imagined. Now, the two thousand they would give her felt cheap, especially since she just made 15 thousand in a single dungeon. She locked the tablet and placed it to the side, finally going to sleep.

The next day, the group arrived at Runir's place. It was a small room in one of the buildings on the second floor of the Carpon Cavern's city. Hera had already stopped by the guild to receive her rewards. They were all inside the flat, sitting around a table. Runir had to push the couch towards it so everyone would have a place to sit. There was a long moment of awkward silence after they all sat down. The tension in the air was so heavy that it felt like mud.

"Can I start by saying I'm very sorry about what happened?" Blue broke the silence.

"I appreciate that, but sorry is not good enough. I don't want this to happen again," Runir took a few moments to reply.

"It won't. I'll read the entire compendium before the dungeons. I promise."

"Good. I'll quiz you before that," Runir nodded.

There was another pause, and after it went on for too long, Bonnie spoke up.

"So? What about you?" she was staring at Runir.

"I… I'm sorry."

When it became clear that this was all he would say, Hera asked, "Is that all? Seriously? That's not a great apology."

"What do you want from me? Do I have to kneel before the mighty one? That thing changed you, you know," Runir scoffed.

"Don't change the subject. You basically said that you don't care if we live or die," Hera stared him down.

"I never said that!" Runir gasped.

"Not with those words, but it was pretty close."

"Hera, c'mon. It wasn't like that," Alex said.

"It sure felt like it," Hera replied

"It wasn't my intention. Of course, I care about you guys. I just got freaked out when I saw the state Tom was in. I couldn't get a good look inside the dungeon."

"So tell us that."

"I just did!"

"Say it as an apology, not an explanation," Hera scoffed.

"Ok, what is going on with you?" Alex asked, "It was one thing the confident Hera dealing with Zudra. Now you are just being an asshole."

"I don't like when people talk crap about my friends. Even if it's coming from one of my friends," Hera explained.

"Tone it down a bit, ok? This is an uncomfortable situation, and that is not helping."

Hera crossed her arms, "Fine. Sorry for being an asshole."

"I'll deal with you later," Alex sighed and turned to Runir, "Ok, we accept your apology, right?" the group nodded, "Right, and we need to see if everyone still wants to be a party."

"I still like you guys and trust you to have my back," Runir said.

"Same, we make a good team," Bonnie added.

"I agree," Blue smiled.

"Yeah, me too," Hera sighed.

"Then it's decided. Well, unless Tom has issues with continuing. I kind of doubt that," Alex chuckled.

The group had to agree. It was hard to imagine that Tom could be angry about what happened. He probably would want to jump back in there and fight Light Fur as soon as he could.

They all left Runir's house and headed towards the Kobold Field. Tom would still be transferred to a hospital outside. They would take him in a wheelchair, but he would be under a sleep spell since he still was in too much pain. Runir would go with him the entire time, and the girls wouldn't have a chance to talk to him before he left. Seeing the state Tom was in, Hera and her group decided to talk about what they would do next. It didn't look like those wounds would heal quickly, and the smell of burnt flesh still lingered.

"Before we talk about what to do, what did you guys get in the kobold supplies thing?" Blue asked.

"I got a sword. It wasn't anything special, but it was uncommon, so I put it aside to check if Tom wanted it. If not, I think I'm selling it or just giving it to Mark for him to practice," Bonnie said.

"I got some bracers. They apparently increase the damage I deal to canine kobolds. They are kind of ugly and hot, so I didn't bring them today," Alex explained.

"Now I don't feel that bad. I got something kind of crappy too," Hera said.

"What did you get?" Bonnie asked.

"One of Zudra's rings. It gives me 10% extra charisma when I'm doing a speech."

"Oh… that's kind of good," Alex said.

"For anyone but me," Hera replied.

"What about you, Blue?" Bonnie turned to the controller.

"I got a blueprint for the pitfall traps. If I use it, I can get a spell that turns the materials into the traps, but I'm thinking about selling to a crafter. They might be able to reverse engineer it or something," Blue showed the blueprint in the tablet.

"Oh, that's a good idea. But check the pricing before selling it. Who knows if that is rare," Bonnie said.

Hera looked at her ring in her bag and activated the [Inspect]

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Ring of speech

A ring worn by the Kobold General Zudra. It increases the ability of those who perform speeches for crowds. Although it cannot change the meaning of the words, it allows the wearer to become more interesting.

+10% Charisma attribute when doing a speech for more than 10 people.

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The main issue Hera had with the ring was that it only activated while speaking to a lot of people. There was no use in actual combat unless she started talking nonstop during a fight. It could help in situations like the dragon show they put together, but those would be very rare.

Since they were already in the Kobold Fields, the group stopped by the guild to check the information about the battlefield that would open in a few days. 12 parties had already registered to participate, giving it a total of 43 people registered. Each group would have at least 10 people, and every party would stay together. Worst-case scenario, the groups doing the battlefield would be larger. Talking with the clerk in charge, he explained that battlefields had a system just like a rampage. At the end of the dungeon, it would tally the individual contributions and give the according rewards. After getting more information, the entire group was interested in participating, even Hera.

They would have to help the Wolves of the Night, but the rewards were considerably better. For a regular clear, they would get 10 thousand gold. Doing it for the first time would net them 30 thousand, just as the clear reward, and another set of random supplies. However, they could be elite supplies depending on the rank they got. The only problem was that the rewards would go from rank B supplies to S rank elite supplies, so even doing the same completion grade as they had for the Dragon Kin dungeon could mean they would get a lower tier of elite supplies. To get an S rank reward, they would need to complete all quests, keep every one of the 20 thousand Wolves of the Night alive, and make the Dragon Kin morale hit the lowest possible value. It was almost impossible to do that on a first try. The only time it happened was when a few high-level explorers who never did the dungeon came by.

Still, they had the issue of having fewer members in their party. Bonnie suggested for them to attempt the kobold dungeon, just the four of them. There would be the ripcord in the Dragon Kin dungeon if things got tricky, but during the battlefield, they wouldn't have that option. Besides, starting the quest with Hera's dragon thing could give them more time to enjoy the benefits. Agreeing that it was a good idea, the group would still wait a day to get Tom's situation before confirming anything. If they didn't join this battlefield, there always was the next one.