Hera was at Kahala's place. The blacksmith had already told Rutigan that she would be giving the human her gift, and since this had to be something that the king kept quiet about, there wouldn't be any celebration for it. It wasn't so much that they had to hide this gift, but since he made a big deal about Hera and Blue giving up their rewards, it would seem weird if they suddenly got some armor made by Kahala. Luckily, no one knew where the armorsmith lived, so anyone who saw Hera going inside this random house wouldn't think anything about it.

"Here you go. Silah gave me your measurements. I hope she got them right," Kahala placed a leather sack on the table. Whatever was inside made a loud 'clank' sound as it hit the stone.

"Thank you, and you really didn't have to do it," Here opened the bag and pulled out a pair of dark purple metal shoes. They went all the way to her shins and seemed extremely malleable despite it being completely made of purple iron. Looking inside them, it seemed like they were cushioned and even had some modern impact dampening technology.

"If you are going to fight, it's better to have something heavy on your feet. That way, it can help you put your weight on your attacks. Check the skill too. It should help you do that weird thing you do with the snake," Kahala explained.

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Purple Flight Boots

Very Rare

A pair of tall boots that were made by a master armorsmith. The creation process of this item mixed old techniques with modern ones, creating a result that brought together the best of both periods.

Attribute scaling:

Agility x 3.14

Intelligence x 2.89

Armor skill

Glide

Allows you to glide through the terrain as you move for 30 minutes.

Cooldown 30 minutes.

Required level to use the skills or the scaling: 25

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"Wow, this is amazing. One question. Does the cooldown start when I activate the skill or when I deactivate it?" Hera asked.

"When you first activate it. Look here," Kahala pulled a small leather strip from the bag, "If you use this specific strap on the back, it will trigger the skill every time it runs out. If you stop the skill before the duration ends, the cooldown will continue as it is, and the strap will stop triggering the skill automatically. You can also use that in any other equipment that has a skill. Just tie the strap somewhere on the item. For boots or gloves that are a matching pair, you just need to tie it around one of them and be wearing both, of course."

"Doesn't this mean that I can keep gliding forever if I want to?" Hera asked.

"Basically, yeah. I figured that it would help you not to waste mana on a spell if you had that. If you don't like it, I can change that to something else. But you'll have to wait until I'm finished with all the bullshit that Rutigan asked me to do," Kahala sighed.

"No, this is amazing. It will help a lot. Thank you so much," Hera smiled.

"Don't thank me yet. Try it on. I want to know if it fits."

Hera did as Kahala asked, and she noticed that it was a bit tight on the top and too wide on the sides, but the length of her foot was perfect. Those were quick fixes since all that was needed was a minor reshaping of the boots and not adding or removing material from the frame. Kahala wasn't exactly the chatty kind, so she just worked while Hera toyed with her tablet, double-checking the information she had found about the tamer and her possible legacy. She now had two animals by her side, Daskka, and Nimbus, her mount. Finding that legacy could make her much stronger if mana constructs were considered fair subjects to the tamer's skills.

Hera found a few clues during the past year, not exactly about the tamer, but about the blademasters that worked with her. That was the only lead she had at the moment, aside from the tamer being in the 12th layer, which narrowed it down to just one of the infinite layers of the MAZE. However, for the blademasters, she had found more mentions of such individuals in a few old kingdoms and cities. One of them was still active to this day, but it did not belong to the same civilization that once existed. Well, it belonged to their ancestors, but the people had migrated to a different place for several centuries, and when they returned, most of the language was lost to the ages. Not that there weren't scholars who studied the past, but it wasn't something that the people in the city knew very well.

Hera asked around and found a website that crowdsourced the translation of all the ancient archives. Some of the documents were only available in person, but among all the scrolls, she found mentions of the blademasters, and not just one. One of the group descriptions seemed to match the same one that she got from Naph. In the list of documents, a few about a meeting of powerful individuals happened around the same time, but the contents of such meetings were only available in person. That's what Hera wanted to go check it out. That particular civilization used to keep transcriptions of everything said in meetings that were classified as important, like the one that the blademasters participated in.

The only issue was that the room was very far away. Going through the shortest route, she should take around two weeks just to get there. It was a good thing that she had looked up the actual numbers of people getting stuck without being able to cross a doorway. There was a 1 million to one chance of getting stuck after crossing the 4th doorway, and a 500 000 to one after crossing the 5th doorway. If she tried to cross a 6th, the odds would increase to just 300 to 1. Because of those odds, Hera felt comfortable enough that she wouldn't get stuck anytime soon. Not to mention that those odds were rounded down. The real odds should be lower than all that. In total, Hera would have to cross 52 rooms.

Some would take a day or two to cross, but that would be the quickest route. Anything else would increase her time traveling by at least a week. Hera had another path she could take, one that would reduce her journey by 5 days, but doing so would make her pass through rooms in the 15th layer, including one that didn't have a proper settlement due to the hugely aggressive monsters that lived there. She wasn't crazy enough to try to go there. After the 10th layer, the level of the monsters in each subsequent layer would start spiking. On the 11th layer, she could find monsters up to level 31, and on the 15th, they could be as high as 50. If she was going to make the difference in strength between herself and the monsters she fought in the rampage, a creature at level 50 could kill her in a single move. Putting herself in danger like that was utterly needless. There was no time frame for her search, no one should be aware of the legacy, and if they were, well, that's how things went.

While Hera was double-checking everything, she received a message from Amanda, Mr. and Ms. Kahele's granddaughter. After she got a mana overdose because of the New Dawn oranges, the girl received what was equivalent to a scholarship from the New Dawn. During an entire year, they were helping her level up and supporting her with items and such. After that, she managed to find a nice group and traveled with them for a while. Because she suffered that mana overdose, she had a skill called condensed mana, which was in a way similar to the reinforced mana that Hera, Helena, and Bonnie had, but instead of affecting spell power, it only affected her maximum mana, giving her a secondary storage of mana. Amanda decided to be a mage and contacted Hera about half a year ago when the New Dawn offered a more permanent position on their payroll. Since Hera was the one who saved her from the overdose, the girl wanted to hear her opinion on the matter. Hera talked about her reservations against the New Dawn even if they seemed to be improving. There was still something on the back of her mind that made her suspicious of the company. Ever since that talk, the two had kept in touch.

Hera even mentioned her trip without saying the reason for it. Amanda also wanted to travel for a while with her friends and asked if they could tag along for some time. Hera agreed to that since she would apparently be going alone. Helena was currently invested in her affinity sight research, and she was very close to making a simple version that everyone could use. The goal wasn't simply to sell the spell but to make it part of the basics offered by the guild. Blue was back on earth with her family after the rampage. Bonnie had finally convinced her mother to become an explorer, and she would stay around for at least a month to help her with her studies. Silah was going to stay, and they were having some problems because of the trip. Leo wasn't around that much. He needed to keep moving because of the coalition and his link with that organization made Hera hold back the information about her journey. She wasn't sure if telling the hunter about the legacy was a good idea. Leo could be trustworthy, but he was also trying to find his uncle, and Hera understood that family could make people do things that they wouldn't usually do. Alex was the only person who gave her a maybe when she asked about the trip, but Hera wasn't that hopeful.

The text asked her if she had decided when she would leave. Hera replied that she should be going in the next few days but that they should only accompany her until the 7th layer. Amanda and her friends were around level 18, and Hera didn't like the idea of bringing people to a layer where creatures higher level than themselves could be. The 8th layer was weird, it was where the first wall existed once upon a time, and it was the first layer where the level of the monsters took a leap. On the 7th layer, you normally would find monsters from levels 15 to 18. On the 8th, the monsters jumped to levels 20 to 24. Amanda replied right away, agreeing with that. She also added that there was a chance that they would stay in an even lower layer. They didn't want to risk fighting monsters that were too strong. It was better to level up in areas where there was less risk, and they out-leveled the monsters.

While Hera understood the sentiment, she had to stop for a moment and realize that she was a bit of a hypocrite. She always tried to fight in areas where she was on the same level as the monsters. Sure, she got stuck in Boothudurn, but even when she arrived here, she was on the same level as the monsters in the mountain. After opening the city, she started favoring places where the monsters would be either at her level or a couple levels higher.

Kahala returned while Hera was still thinking about Amanda's last message. This time, the boots were a perfect fit and so comfortable that it almost seemed like she was wearing cozy slippers.

"Great, now that you have your gift. Get out of my house. I had enough social interactions for the day," Kahala waved Hera off.

The explorer knew that this wasn't a suggestion but an order, and if she tried to stay, it wouldn't take long for the blacksmith to kick her out, literally.

She stopped by Silah's workshop to show off her new boots when going back to her place. The two were sitting on the outside wall of the forge while talking.

"Oh, these look amazing. Do you think Kahala will be pissed if I make a matching pair? They are so pretty," Silah asked.

"Well… people do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, but I would ask her. Tell her that you want to see if you can make a similar design, and she might see it as good practice," Hera replied.

"True, that might work," Silah stared at the boots for a moment, "Does that mean you are going soon?"

"Maybe. I still need to make sure everything is OK and that I have enough supplies. I do want to go soon. It's the first significant lead I had since last year."

"How soon?"

"A couple of days, maybe?"

Silah's expression turned cold in an instant then she got up and started walking back to the forge.

"Silah! Don't be like that. At least talk to me," Hera followed her girlfriend.

"What's there to talk about? You say soon, then you say you are going tomorrow or the day after. I mean, it's clear you don't want my company."

"Really? Do you really think that?" Hera gasped and stopped walking.

Silah stopped and stared at the ground for a moment, "No… not really. But I feel like shit. I mean, we are not going to see each other for what? A month at least."

"I know, but I'll call you every night. It will be like I'm still here. I'll annoy you so much that you'll get sick of me," Hera hugged Silah from the back and rested her head on the top of Silah's. Following that, she started rocking side to side to shake her girlfriend.

"It's not fair for you to act all cute when I'm mad."

"I can't help if I'm cute as a button," Hera stopped for a moment but instantly felt her ears getting hot.

"OK, that was cringe," the two said at the same time and laughed.

Hera spent some time there before going back home. Silah was going to meet her after work, and she even took the next day off so they could spend time together. Just as Hera walked through the door, Alex came from the kitchen.

"Oh, you're home. Good, I wanted to talk to you."

"Is everything OK?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. I just wanted to know, do you think we can make some good money on your trip?" Alex asked.

"Probably, I mean, the room I want to go to is on the 10th layer, and even during the trip, there will be some places where we have to wait for a boat or a bus that only runs two times a day. We can look for dungeons, not to mention all the monsters we might find on the way. Also, dungeons in the 10th layer should give us , what? 20-30k per run? And that's not even considering the reset or the first-time rewards," Hera explained.

"OK then. I'm down to go with you. I needed some money for some stuff back home," Alex nodded.

"I'll ask again, is everything OK?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to give my folks a new home, but it's nothing urgent. If it was something serious, I would ask you or Blue to loan me some money."

"Oh, OK. By the way, I have a friend that is going to come with us for a while. It will be her and her group, she still didn't tell me how many are going, but it shouldn't be more than five."

"Are we babysitting?" Alex rolled her eyes.

"I sure hope not. There is a place well known for her rum on our way. I intend to get plastered there," Hera chuckled in reply.

Hera made a mental note of what else she had to do for the trip. Some supplies were always good, and the guild would have everything she needed. She also wanted to say bye to her dad, Risli, and the council. After all, she would be away for a while. Still, this would be a great chance to explore the MAZE, and this was exactly why she wanted to be an explorer so much. To explore new places and find hidden secrets. This trip was everything she ever dreamed of about life in the MAZE.