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Griffon Whistle

A small whistle made out of crystalized wind. Anyone within 10 meters of the whistle when it is blown receives a 10% increase in their running speed for the next hour. This effect cannot overlap with other whistles.

Additional effects: When used inside the Wooly Plains, it can call the next wave of griffons from the mountain.

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"Neat. We don't have to worry about the feathers anymore," Blue said as she looked at her whistle. It was mostly white while Hera's had a light shade of green, but aside from that, both seemed to have the same effects. Even the shape was exactly the same.

"Fethy is going to love that, especially since we don't have to hog the feathers anymore. Should we tell her what a feather boa is?" Hera chuckled.

"Oh yes! Can you imagine how much she is going to annoy everyone with one of those?"

"I bet Telanz is the first to yell at her to stop twirling it."

"My bet is Lural. He's quiet but when he pops off, stay clear from the splash zone."

"Loser does the dishes for a month, be it here or outside," Hera put out her hand for Blue to shake.

"Deal!" Blue sealed the bet.

The two were laughing when Totrak yelled from a distance, "Is it safe?"

"Yeah, you can come back. We killed it," Blue yelled back.

While the group gathered, the Starved Ruler's body dissolved, leaving behind a pile of yellow and white feathers and a spherical object with something swirling around inside it.

"So no gold?" Blue asked.

"I guess not, but it's not like we would need it here," Hera replied.

"Yeah, but what about when the room opens? People still need to make money."

"There's still the sheep. They drop gold sometimes, and there is the dungeon quest too."

"I guess," Blue shrugged while looking over the feathers, "What's that thing?"

Hera was still staring at the globe. Inside, there was some sort of smoke swirling around. It was almost like watching a storm from above. It didn't matter how much she spun it in her hands. The eye of the storm was always in the center.

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Storm Core

A mana core capable of storing and generating wind mana.

Wind Mana storage 10 000/ 10 000

Wind Mana generation: 10/s

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With a single glance, Hera could tell that this was something very valuable. Just by the regeneration alone, using it would be more than enough to fuel most of her continuous spells. If she could use this during combat, her mana would stop being an issue. Well, at least her mana reinforcement would stop being an issue. Even so, it wouldn't work. The globe was the size of a watermelon. Moving around with something that size would be way too cumbersome to make it worth her while. Any hopes she had about using it in a fight went out of the window when the mages arrived. They all got extremely excited the second they saw the core and started discussing possibilities on how to use it even before they finished picking up all the loot. It was the first time they saw something that could not simply store mana but generate it by itself.

While they started gathering the items, Lerynn kept healing the humans. They might have won, but it wasn't an easy fight. Hera and Blue were covered in cuts and had lost a considerable amount of blood. Before moving around, he wanted to make sure the worst wounds were already taken care of. He also gave them a small cookie of sorts that was enchanted to help people suffering from blood loss. The pastry tasted awful. It was like a dirt-flavored power bar, not to mention it was dry. Just a bite made both Hera and Blue beg for water. It took each of them half a bottle before they finally ate the last piece. Unfortunately, there was only so much that Lerynn's spells could do. The only person in the city that could do something about blood loss with her magic was Risli. For the rest, helping the patient's body increase its own recovery capabilities was the best they could do.

"Perhaps we can use this in a staff. There are a few people who could benefit from such an item," Pyrrick suggested while staring at the storm core.

"Really? You want to leave this for only one person to use? I'm sure we can think of something better. Maybe as a training device for who uses wind spells," Totrak said.

"Yeah, but that doesn't seem fair. We would be the only ones benefiting from that," Lija replied.

"Don't you guys have trouble with the cold killing some of the crops? Maybe you can use it to offset that," Hera was thinking about how an air conditioning unit worked. Maybe a hot air spell being fueled by the storm core would give a similar effect.

Pyrrick nodded, "It is a possibility, but we first need to find someone who could use it effectively."

"Why not make a machine?" Blue was picking up the feathers. It should easily have over 3kg of them.

"A machine?" Lija asked.

"Yeah, we have a lot of those back home. Most use mana stones, but one with a mana core can stay on indefinitely. I'm not sure how you would build one though."

"I'm pretty sure you build them just like any other thing with a mana stone. You just have to tweak the amount of mana it uses to avoid making it run out," Hera said.

"That… is incredible. Yes, if we adapt our runes to restrict the amount of mana they use and make it function like a sinkhole, we can make this work," Pyrrick was giddy with the idea.

"Yeah, then ask for a crafter to make something to help with whatever you want, and you can get a better effect for a smaller amount of mana," Hera said.

"Yes, yes, of course. But first, we must think about what we can do with such an item," Totrak said.

"Well, that's up to you guys. Ask Ogryn for help. I'm sure he might have some ideas. If not, I can only think about making carbonated drinks or something to keep food cold," Blue picked the last feathers from the ground. The basket that Silah was carrying was already full, leaving the remaining loot to be taken by hand.

"Why would we want to keep food cold?" Lija asked.

"You guys have no idea what ice cream can do to your mental health. It just sucks that we don't know how to make it," Blue sighed. She and Hera had tried a few times to make something closer to ice cream, but all their ideas ended up tasting wrong. Most foods inside the room were savory, and what was sweet wouldn't work that well for ice cream. At least not a homemade one with the ingredients at hand.

As everyone started walking towards the exit, Silah pulled Hera to the back of the group, "Are you ok? Did you get hurt?"

"No, I'm ok. I mean, I got a bit beaten up, but nothing too extreme. Lerynn's heal helped me out a lot. Besides, I got a new skill. Now, if I stack ailments, they get stronger!" Hera replied excitedly.

"Honestly, I can't understand that. You could've died," Silah sighed while grabbing Hera's hand, "I don't want to lose you out of nowhere like that."

Hera looked at her, "Silah… I understand what you are saying, but that can happen even if we are in the city the entire time. I can get a heart attack, something can fall on me, I can eat something and choke. We can die at any moment, and I can't just stay inside a bubble."

"I'm not saying you have to, but do you have to chase death like that?"

"It's not like that. I'm not trying to get myself killed. I'm just trying to live. Fighting these monsters, it's part of my life. Besides, I'm not going after things that I don't think I can beat. That one was level 8. We were on the same level, literally. Blue and I also had all the buffs to help. I was sure we could beat it, and we did."

"But how can you tell? How can you be sure a monster won't be too strong and kill you?"

"Experience. The more I know about various creatures, the more I know what to expect. Outside we have so many people working together to gather information about the different monsters that it is hard to see a monster for the first time and not know what to expect. Another thing we learn is to always have a plan to escape," Hera caressed Silah's hand, trying to comfort her.

"And what was your plan?"

"I would use a fear spell to make it move away and run around the plains until you guys reached the tunnel. Then I would follow you outside."

Silah stared at Hera, "So even in your escape plan, you would try to save us first?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, if I thought there was no way to save you guys and I tried everything that I'd could, I would run away, but that wasn't the case."

Silah looked to the rest of the team before pulling Hera close and giving her a kiss, "You are amazing, you know that?"

"I'm not, but thanks," Hera smiled.

The team walked outside and discussed their next step. Despite having agreed to do one more run, no one had expected to fight the Starved Ruler. The mages forgot that fact after seeing the storm core, but the guards were still on edge. Seeing that creature filled all of them with dread. As they talked about what to do next, Totrak spoke up.

"Another thing this proves is that the humans are more than capable of defeating the original creature. If Pyrrick uses his buff on them right before the fight, they should be able to defeat the true Sky Ruler without an issue."

"You think so? I mean, the fight was a bit longer than I liked, but it wasn't that bad," Blue replied.

"Yeah, but that new skill I got can be extremely helpful. You saw what it did when it triggered," Hera nodded.

"The ailment one? Yes, it might help, but having only four types of afflictions limits your capabilities. You should try to increase your options as much as possible," Pyrrick said.

"They are not ready. If we send them to fight against the actual Sky Ruler, it would be like sending a child to live outside the mountain, " Naka interrupted.

"What? Why?" Hera asked. Although she agreed, since the Sky Ruler should be level 15, the way Naka spoke annoyed her.

"You don't know how dangerous the Sky Ruler is. Not to mention, the track up the mountain would surely kill you two," Naka didn't even look at Hera while answering.

"Why don't they use the passage in the mines? Doesn't that lead directly to the nest?" Lija asked.

Naka's eyes almost pierced through the mage's head, "How do you know about that?"

"I heard master Ogryn talking about that with the king," Lija looked to the ground like a kid being scolded by her parents.

"I'm sure Ogryn will be glad to know how one of his ace students spends more time spying on him than actually working," Naka kept staring at Lija.

"That's not fair. You don't know she was spying. Ogryn might have just been careless. Not everyone is as obsessed with secrets as you are," Hera protested, "Besides, if you have a safe way to take us to the nest, you should have said so! We could go there to get some intel on the monster."

"You already pushed your luck enough today, and we still have the so-called hard mode for you to train for. Be thankful for what you got, and stop complaining," Naka turned around to the rest of the group, "This will be the end of the day, but first, give me the whistles you gained during the dungeon. I don't want anyone getting ideas about going there with other people."

She picked up the baskets with chicken and feathers and opened the fourth one for them to place their whistles inside. Despite not participating in the fight, all the dwarves also received a Griffon Whistle. They were all different shades of white and green, with the one Ganek got looking like it was made of jade.

Hera didn't like the idea of giving her loot to the captain, neither did Blue, but they didn't want to anger her and make her give up going to the hard mode. Begrudgingly, they turned over the whistles.

"Don't worry. I'll return them to you when you need them. Be it during training or whatever you require. Now everyone is dismissed. We shall meet in the guard tomorrow at 8, then we can verify what that hard mode dungeon is. I'll take the loot to the king. He'll know how to distribute it," Naka picked up the baskets and walked away.

Everyone left the area and went to their homes. Hera invited Silah over, but she refused. She said she was tired and could only imagine how much Hera wanted to rest. Despite not being that exhausted, Hera understood that it might not be only because of that. Silah was quiet ever since they talked on the way back. She didn't seem to be dealing with Hera's attitude about risking her life that well.

After splitting up with the rest of the team, Hera and Blue walked back to their house.

"So… any ideas what is going to happen in the hard mode dungeon?" Blue asked.

"I don't know. I mean. They are supposed to be kind of parallel timelines," Hera replied after thinking for a moment.

"How so?"

"Like, you know the Frog Valley? What happened there was what we saw. The whole poison lizard thing and how we defeated them. That's how things went down when the dungeon was created. The hard mode is what would've happened if things went differently. Or at least that's how most of them are."

"Most? So it might be something else?"

"Yeah, like the kobold battlefield. You know how we only have some idea of how dungeons appear. I have no idea what else can happen?" Hera sighed.

"Are you saying we might not fight the griffons?"

"Maybe. Maybe we fight a bunch of sheep or even the dwarves."

"That would be… complicated," Blue said.

"Yeah," Hera nodded. The dwarves only knew about dungeons that had monsters inside. Finding some sort of intelligent life inside a dungeon would give them a big culture shock. Still, there was nothing they could do right now. Figuring that all out would have to wait until tomorrow. Now Hera only wanted to rest.