Some time had passed since they killed all the crows. At first, Amanda and her friends were still on edge about the idea of monsters appearing. Alex was the only one who believed in Hera from the get-go. However, after the first hour, they all got more comfortable with the situation. If nothing happened until then, then the information on the compendium should be correct. Hera even let everyone read it on her tablet to calm them and confirm that she wasn't hiding anything. They all were just doing their own thing for a while, gathering the loot dropped from the crows, which mainly were bundles of feathers and other materials such as beaks or talons. The one thing that was a bit exciting was a bundle of bigger feathers dropped by the boss that seemed to darken the area around them. It was very likely that a crafter could make something amazing out of it.

At the start of the second hour, the entire group was gathered around Hera talking, each with their own stone beach chair. Seeing that everyone seemed to be in a good mood Hera took advantage of the situation to ask them something.

"Hey, I know I'm no one to say this, but can I give you some feedback?" Hera asked.

Cris twisted her nose and just stared at the explorer, but Tim seemed interested, even if he didn't say anything.

Amanda glanced at her friend and turned back to Hera before turning again to Cris, "Calm down. I'm sure she doesn't mean anything bad by it. She's just trying to help," the mage turned back to Hera, "Do me first."

"Sure. I only have one note for you. You need to improve your timing."

"What do you mean?" Amanda tilted her head.

"Like, the snow golems you made were melting when the crows got in range. I get that you were trying to be ready for anything, but that made the attacks weaker. I'm pretty sure that if you had waited a minute or two to create them, you would've one shot every crow you hit," Hera explained.

"But I didn't know how long it would take. What if they were faster?" Amanda asked.

"Fair, but if you are worried about that, you should do something as a preparation. Like, you said you can make snowstorms, right? What if you did a small one just to cool down the area before creating the golems? It would be even better to keep both spells at the same time."

"Well, I think I can do that, but frostbite never did something like that, and she said I should practice not making my snow melt," Amanda scratched her head.

"Never, or just never in front of you? You can't keep putting yourself on the same standards as your teachers. I mean, sure, it's a nice goal and all, but forcing it to work that way won't work. Besides, Frostbite uses ice. You use snow. Even if both are cold, they behave differently when exposed to heat. Ice can pull the cold from its core. Snow doesn't have that option," Hera continued.

"That... Actually makes a lot of sense. Anything else?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah, and this is more of a question. The golems, do you need to make them humanoid? Can't you make like, a rotating catapult that keeps constantly firing? Or a battering ram for when you want to do a big hit?"

"I can't. Not yet, at least. I can make either humanoid ones or snowmen. That's about it," Amanda sighed, and Hera just nodded in reply. She knew how it was like to not be able to change a spell to fit your ideas.

Seeing that this part of the conversation was over, Tim spoke up, "Do you have any comments about what I did?"

"Just a few. You stay too still when you are thinking. I get that your stealth can make you really hard to track, but some things will be able to find you. I mean, I did."

"You did?" Tim gasped, showing more emotion for the first time since they met.

"Yea. With a quick pulse spell. It's kind of like a sonar. I'm pretty sure any monster that has echolocation or something similar would find you really quickly. Now, for your attacks, I didn't see you doing anything physical, but there was some dirt flying around really fast. I assume that was you."

"Yeah. It's a spell that lets me use dust as a weapon. It's good because it doesn't give away my presence. I mean, dust is everywhere."

"Well… don't count on that all the time. Even if I never saw a place that didn't have dirt, I wouldn't be surprised if there was somewhere like that. The MAZE is weird. But more importantly, don't stay still while making plans. Move around to avoid any random attacks that come your way. I think that if you weren't just a statue in the middle of my pulse, I wouldn't have found you right away. Depending on your movement, I could imagine it was just some lingering effects of a spell or that I was misunderstanding what was going on."

After that, Hera turned to Cris, who just rolled her eyes, "Let me guess. Don't use so many traps?"

"Not at all. Your traps worked great. Well… half of them. If I was to say anything, it would be to focus on what works. I mean you wasted all the time you spent making those birdcages," Hera pointed to a birdcage that was still on the field, with no bird inside, "If instead of trying to show how many different things you can do, you focused on making one type of trap that really works well for the situation, it would be much better. Not to say that you can't make several different traps, but think about the current situation. For what you can do with your…. Quata… Kata… Traka… Maka…. your bladed club. I can't say anything since you ended up not even using it."

"Really? More traps? People always say that it's a stupid thing that barely works and requires way too much effort."Cris said.

"Then why do you make them?" Alex asked.

"It's something I learned with my father, and I like to make them. It's like playing a strategy game in real life. You need to think about your enemy and how to lure it to the place you want them to be," Cris had a large smile on her face.

"Then keep doing it. You are the one who has to worry about it being worth it or not. Besides, you can just be a professional rampage defender. I imagine that using your traps during one would be much easier than making them in a dungeon. Just try to think more about the type of traps you are going to use. Like, the bird cages would be great for other situations, but now, not so much," Hera nodded.

"How about me, Hera? Any tips?" Alex turned to the explorer.

"Not really, you already heard everything before. Be careful with the other party members, don't jump in to kill something if that's going to leave you in a bad spot, and don't use that wind wall near other people. You did all that now. How about me? Anyone have any feedback on what I should improve?"

"I honestly wasn't looking at how you fought. We practiced making sure everyone is safe but not doing those deep observations," Amanda said.

"I have a note. Your poison rain. Do you need to make the point of origin of the spell a circle? I feel like it would be better if it was a line," Alex suggested.

"That's tricky. I can increase or decrease the area, but making it a specific shape is something I can't do properly yet. At most, I can make it egg-shaped," Hera sighed.

They continued talking for some time, discussing strategy for the next dungeons. After that, Hera showed that inside the silo, there were a few dozen scarecrows that would give a debuff, reducing their attack power and ability to dodge attacks to any crow that looked at them. The effect should stack but with diminishing returns. One scarecrow would give a 40% debuff, the second would add only an 8%, the third only a 1,6%, and after that, the debuff was so small that it wasn't even worth the effort. If they wanted to trigger the hard mode, they would have to put all the scarecrows around the field and make sure that not a single one of them was damaged during the fight. However, unlike the normal mode, there wasn't a time limit for the hard mode, and the dungeon would take a few hours to complete at least, which meant that it wasn't a good idea for them to do it now.

When the end of the second hour arrived, the large sunflower started to glow. The particles of light coming from it were absorbed by the massive tree. In just a minute, the entire sunflower had been absorbed, and the tree bloomed with thousands of colorful flowers.

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You have completed the dungeon quest

First time completion rewards:

22 000 gold, Sun flower seed

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Sun flower seed

A seed of a sun flower that absorbed enough light to bloom completely. Consuming this seed can buff a single attribute by (10%-50%) for the duration of (1 - 6 hours).

The attribute, the percentage of the buff, and the duration are randomized. Only a single Sun Flower seed can be in effect at a time. Consuming a second one will override the current effect.

This seed can be planted and become a full Sun Flower. Its seeds will have similar effects. For this seed to grow, it requires constant sunlight.

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"Oh, I see why this can be helpful," Amanda nodded.

"Yeah, and people should buy it because everyone likes to gamble," Cris added.

"Pretty much. Are you all OK with going out? Or do you need to get anything that is still here?" Hera pulled her tablet to look at the clock. If everything went as planned, the bus should already be getting back here. In just a few more hours, they could ride it to the next room.

"I think we are all set. We can sell these feathers in the building here, right? I mean the mall-like thing," Alex asked.

"We can, but it might be better for us to take it to the next room. I'm sure that not many people take it there because of the travel time. Maybe we can get some better deals," Amanda was trying to pack all the feathers without damaging them. The years of helping out in her grandparents' store gave her some skills on how to handle products.

They left the dungeon and took a look at the bus stop, confirming that it wasn't there yet, but it should be arriving soon. Hera and the others took a moment to have a meal in the plaza, and soon they were in the line for the bus. The entire thing was made of only first-class seats, and the vehicle was much larger than a city bus. Instead of having around 50 seats, it had 150 and felt more like a train than anything else. Another interesting fact was that it had a driver's seat on both ends. That way, there was no need for the bus to turn at the edge. Behind each chair, there was even a monitor that could sync with anyone's tablet. Adding that to the wireless connection made the ride comfortable enough since they could even watch something during that time.

After an uneventful trip on the bus, they finally arrived at the other side of the room. There was a doorway in the middle of the road, big enough for the bus to cross over. Hera and the others went to the next room called Twin Mountains. As the name suggested, it was a place with a pair of identical mountains, not tall enough to have snowy peaks but forming a valley between them both. In the middle of the left mountain, there was a city on the outside following the mountain's incline. This was the next stop on their journey, but it would be just a place to sleep for the night. In the morning, they should head to the path between the mountains towards the next room.