It was a lovely day to work. Ever since the guild stopped being cheap and constructed a few houses in the room, being a clerk became a dream job. Kara lived just a few minutes away from the guild and this room had such a calm environment. There were very few problems here and there even was a nice barbecue place just down the street. Most explorers that came here were just passing by since the doorway to the Verdant Islands was here. That place had a big city and many enticing rewards in their dungeons, not to mention it was a beautiful place. Here, a room with only a single dungeon almost no one would be interested in staying. Thanks to that, they didn't have to worry much about anything. It was only once a month, when they had to organize the groups heading to the dungeon to trigger a special version of it, that there was some actual work to do. However, people who would take part in those were already used to the quests meaning that the clerks had very little to worry about. Even the infirmary was barely used, and it wasn't like anyone got hurt inside the dungeon. Well… there was an unfortunate incident late last year, but that happened before she started working here.

Kara was organizing some papers in the guild reception when a commotion outside caught her attention. People were shouting and calling everyone. Maybe someone famous was stopping by, and she could get a picture with them. Most high-level explorers were very friendly towards the clerks. It was probably because they all had to do some clerical work before getting their gold cards, and if she got a nice picture, her sister might finally stop calling her job boring. Kara barely had anything to do today, and the paperwork was hardly important. Leaving the front desk of the guild, she headed outside to see what was going on.

Unlike what she was expecting, people weren't gathering around the doorways, but instead, they were close to the wooden doors that led to the dungeon. In front of the massive gates, there was a large opaque blue box covering part of the ground and the stairs. This was right in the middle of the doors leading to the dungeon, but what caught everyone's attention wasn't the position or even the box itself, but its hue. Anyone, be it an explorer or a civilian, would recognize that blue color. It was the same shade of blue used by the system. Despite being an exquisite pigmentation, there was an unspoken agreement among all things that this color should never be used by anyone. This led everyone to assume that whatever was going on was something the system was making.

After a few moments, the box became transparent and vanished. In its place, stone stairs that went down to an underground passage replaced the wooden stairs in the middle of the area. Everyone was shellshocked by the situation, but as they got closer, voices came out of the recently created tunnel.

"Can you please wait!" a woman's voice asked.

"Screw that. I'm back!" a blue-haired woman ran up the stairs and shouted, tossing both her arms up to the sky with tears running down her face.

It took some time for Hera and the others to arrive at the kobold field. After the tunnel lit up, Hera suggested that they should walk towards the closest end of that room. Everyone agreed that the edge of the tunnel should have some sign of what they could expect. It took them about one hour to reach the end, and halfway through it, they saw another side tunnel. Their curiosity got the best of them, and the entire group went towards this new discovery. In that area, they found two things. One was the entrance for a dungeon called 'Rolling Menace.' The other was a doorway to a room on the 3rd layer called The Windy Towers.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a room Hera or Blue were familiar with, and they kept going. After another 2 kilometers and roughly 30 minutes, they arrived at another side tunnel right by the end of this cavern. They carefully went through it, worried about the lack of monsters in the area, and found a locked doorway with a very familiar symbol on top of it. The head of a wolf facing the head of a dragon. Hera tried to see any markings or anything that could show that this wasn't the Kobold Field, but the symbols seemed to match this time.

"I think this is it," Hera turned to Blue.

"Please, let this be it," Blue took a deep breath before touching the doorway.

A notification appeared, saying that this doorway was closed and asked if she wanted to open it, but before she pressed yes, the controller turned to the dwarves.

"Ok, so this should be a place we know about, but here's the thing. If anyone crosses over, you won't be able to go back home until tomorrow. That's the three crossing rule that we talked about. If you break that rule, there is a chance that you'll be stuck in whatever room you are in for a random period of time. Some people get locked out for a few days, while others have to wait years. Anyone who comes with us will risk having that happen. So you can't come if you want to go back home today," Blue explained.

"And what do you suggest we do?" Rutigan asked.

"Have some people stay here, and send a couple with stone spells to the doorway leading to Boothudurn. Make a small building that forces people to talk to you before crossing. That way, you can stop people from going in before everything is set up. But you will have to get some of the guards operating that area. Blue and I can go through here and see how we can start talking about integrating you guys into our world," Hera suggested.

"I see. It is a good idea, but I would prefer to have someone among us to go with you as well. To serve as proof if nothing else," Rutigan said.

"I'll go!" Silah jumped at the opportunity.

"Silah. If you come with me, you won't be able to go home for at least a day," Hera explained.

"Can someone tell my family?" Silah turned to the dwarves.

"I got you, and I wouldn't mind going either. We can make some tents and sleep here," Sevaris said.

"Then you wouldn't be able to tell my family about that," Silah said.

"I'll let them know, just…," Rutigan turned to Hera, "Will they be safe?"

"They will. This room doesn't have any monsters. Unless we end up going inside a dungeon, there will be no risk," Hera explained.

"Very well. Silah, Sevaris, can I count on you two to represent the kingdom of Boothudurn in our first interaction with the human society?" the King asked.

"You can, my liege," Silah bowed to Rutigan.

"We shall make you proud," Sevaris lowered his head.

After a moment, Blue cleared her throat, "Ok, so can we go? I don't want to be rude, but I really want to go home."

"One moment, please," Ogryn stepped forward, "We had five people in the dungeon that the two of you created. The Sky Ruler's Nest. As a gift proving our friendship, I want to share some of the rewards with you."

"Ogryn, you really don't have to. We already got more than enough from that place," Hera glanced at Blue, thinking about her legacy.

"Please, I insist. Besides, I'm not giving you everything," Ogryn pulled a small grey egg from his cloak, "For you, Blue, this is a storm mana core. I believe it will fit well with your abilities."

"Wow, it really will," Blue replied after glancing to the side. For anyone who knew, it was obvious that she had just checked something with Stormcloud.

"And for you, Hera. One reward was a fossilized feather. It wouldn't do much by itself since it was a crafting material. However, the moment I received it, I realized that this would be exactly what Risli was searching for. I know you two became close, and you said your farewells before the announcement."

"Yeah, she said she wanted to give me something, but it wouldn't be ready, so I had to come back to get it," Hera nodded.

"Well, apparently, the announcement was enough for her to finish it. She sent a guard to the doorway to pass this along," Ogryn showed a small bracelet made of vines and leaves with a single sky blue feather curving along with the circle and a few small purple and yellow flower petals framing it.

"Wow, it's beautiful," Hera gasped, "May I?"

"Of course, it is yours."

Hera picked up the bracelet. Initially, it seemed very frail, but she could see it wasn't the case as she touched the vines. The structure was solid, and even as she tried to change its shape, it was tough to do so. What made it even more incredible was that there were so many details that Hera couldn't believe it was made by hand. She could see a couple of leaves shaped to be an axe near the tip of the feather, and on the other side was a skull made of vines with a small message under it.

'To my least annoying student.'

She chuckled, seeing that. Even when doing something this intricate, Risli still kept to her grumpy old self.

"This is amazing! Thank you so much," Hera held the bracelet near her chest.

"You're welcome. To be honest, I wasn't sure if Risli would enchant it properly since she is rather new at that. I'm glad I was wrong," Ogryn nodded.

"She enchanted it? I thought she only just started learning how to do that a few months ago."

Blue chuckled, "Who is not using their skills now? Can't you just inspect it?"

Hera rolled her eyes and activated her skill.

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Dream Feather Bracelet

Very Rare

A bracelet created by a shaman who put her life and soul into the work intended as a gift to her student. By adding several plants that can be used as medicine and poison with a feather with propagation properties, the bracelet can increase specific characteristics of some spells and provide a small increase in the defense of other equipment.

100% increased effectiveness when utilizing natural-based healing spells.

50% increased effectiveness when creating plant-based poison spells.

30% increased infection rate with plant-based toxins spells.

Poisons and other types of toxins spells have a 10% chance of propagating to a secondary target.

Poisons spells have a 0.1% chance of mutating on their own when affecting a target.

2% increase in the defense rating of other pieces of equipment.

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"By the system! This thing is amazing!" Hera gasped.

"Wow, it really is. Tailor-made for you, although the healing thing might be wasted," Silah was peeking over Hera's side.

"Hey! I can heal," Hera protested.

"You can. You just never do."

"Yeah, yeah, it's awesome, and that is great. Can we please go?" Blue gasped.

"Sure. Sorry," Hera replied, and they crossed the doorway.

The kobold field was in a frenzy. After Blue and Hera appeared, everyone rushed to ask what was going on inside the new room. Some people even were already going towards the newly discovered doorway, but Kara had to step in. The guild had some safety protocols for when new rooms appeared, but she never thought she would have to use that in here.

"Sorry, everyone. Please, just give us some time. We need to figure out if that is a safe place," Kara pleaded.

Silah was in awe, looking at the sky and the wooden doors that led to the dungeon. Sevaris, on the other hand, wasn't doing all that well. Seeing the dozens of humans freaked him out, and he stepped behind Blue to hide.

"Silah, don't go too far. Sevaris, don't worry, no one is going to bite you," Hera felt like a teacher taking care of kids during a field trip.

"So, you got this, right? I can head home?" Blue asked.

"What? I mean, I got this, but you can't," Hera replied.

"Why not? I'm not the one who is going to deal with the new room."

"Because of the three doorway limit, Blue. Do you wanna risk getting stuck in another room for who knows how long?"

"I honestly don't mind getting stuck back on Earth, and that's going to be the fourth doorway I cross."

"You are missing a room. This one is connected to the Carpon Caverns, not to Brinefront," Hera said.

"Fuck! I forgot about that one."

"How? We spent what? A month there with Tom and Runir. You'll have to wait a day. But at least you can call them, speaking of which," Hera pulled up her tablet but stopped to hold Silah's hand before she wandered off and got lost. With a sigh, she looked over at the numerous notifications that were popping up. She had hundreds of messages, not to mention all the news apps and spam emails that appeared.

She ignored all that and looked for the group chat she had with Helena, Alex, Bonnie, and Blue. The last message was from just a few months ago with Bonnie saying, 'I can't believe you are gone.'

"Hum... I should start with a joke, right?" Hera mumbled to herself before typing, 'Sorry for ghosting you guys, we had to live under a rock for a while.'

"Ok, that's a good one," Blue chuckled, with her tablet in her hand.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to think about what to say after we went missing for almost a year," Hera giggled.

"Sorry, did you say you were gone for a year?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, we were gone for a long time. We were stuck in a room. Actually, we kind of need to see how to integrate a new society with ours," Hera quickly explained about Boothudurn and pointed to Silah and Sevaris.

"Right, please come with me, then. Just one moment," Kara turned around and created an ice wall blocking the path to the doorway. It was a crude way to stop people from going there, but it should be effective until she got some backup.

Hera, Blue, Silah, and Sevaris split off from the group of people in the middle of the room and headed towards the guild. Before reaching the entrance, someone let out a loud gasp. Hera looked over and saw Helena with a giant smile on her face and Bonnie with wide eyes and both hands covering her mouth. There was also a blur that approached too quickly for Hera to realize what was going on until it tackled her, tossing the explorer to the ground.

"Hera!" Silah gasped.

"You're alive! You're both alive!" Alex started crying while hugging Hera on the ground.

"What do you mean, alive? Since when were we not?" Blue asked.