The next day, Hera and Helena went to talk to Rutigan about the possibility of building the lab or a workshop for humans. That ended up being easier than expected. The King was already discussing something similar with Ogryn. What they were now calling the Academy of Mages, which was a rebranding of the mage training center, was going to be renovated to allow other races to use their facilities. Since humans and the other races had very different ways of using magic from the dwarves, they wanted a place where they could share their knowledge and help each other expand their abilities. This discussion barely took them 20 minutes. With a single mention of private laboratories that anyone could use or rent, the King and his adviser went into a frenzy of ideas. The one concession they wanted was to allow the dwarves access to said equipment. Not so they could use as they wanted, but they wished to understand what kind of tools Humans would use during their own magic research. Hera had to agree that this was also something she was curious about. She had seen Helena and Bonnie working with things like sensors and other ways to detect fluctuations and magic, but she never saw any other types of equipment for magic research being used.

Unfortunately, Helena wasn't someone who could speak for the entire mage community, but she agreed that as long as it wasn't some very experimental equipment, that shouldn't be a problem. Rutigan gave his permission to bring the mage's equipment, and, if somehow they came back before the renovations were over, she could keep everything in one of the empty storage rooms in the palace. Ogryn even offered to cast some spells to ensure that nothing could be affected by temperature or outside forces. Before leaving, Hera added that they should charge for people to go to the school, not the dwarves, but everyone else should pay, and they should charge for renting the private rooms. Rutigan was adamant against that, saying that sharing one's knowledge should be free, and if he charged, people who wanted to participate might decide against it. Only when Hera argued that Boothudurn didn't have any income aside from the dungeons and that the kingdom's reserves wouldn't last forever that Ogryn stepped in to support her.

Either way, the project would take a couple weeks to get ready, even with the dwarves' usual expedience with construction. Hera and Helena managed to go back home and the very next day, everyone was ready for their journey to the Charring Wastes. Since Bonnie's mom had just gotten to the MAZE, the researcher was worried about leaving her alone. However, Eridan promised to look out for her, and Renette was excited about the idea of taking up baking again. She had chosen to be a crafter exactly because of that. One of her simple dreams from her college days was to own a bakery that specializes in cakes and other sweets. It was something very detached from her business diploma, but it was her retirement plan. Opening a small store in a quiet city where she could spend her old age. Now that she and Bonnie had solved the problems with her father, she could just make that future dream into something it could work in the present.

It also helped that Eridan managed to reach level 10 during the last year without going inside the dungeon more than five times, and those were just because he was curious about what it was like. His leveling up was mostly because of his crafter skills that developed alongside his woodwork. Hera even managed to ask Naka for a favor. If Renette wanted to go inside a dungeon, the guard captain would accompany her to ensure she wouldn't get hurt. The captain still couldn't understand why humans were so open to the idea of going inside a dungeon when they were low-level. Still, after a year of seeing people at levels three and four going to the Woolly Plains, she was more willing to accept that difference.

The last of Hera's preparations was to send a message to Silah, letting her know that she would be traveling again. Even if they had broken up, it felt weird to leave the city without letting the blacksmith know. Also, it was a way to tell her that she could go visit Eridan if she wanted to. Hera's dad and Silah had bonded over their crafting skills during the last few months.

Hera, Blue, Bonnie, Alex, and of course, Helena were leaving the room to go to the Kobold Road. Reaching the Charred Wastes should take only a couple days, and that was following the three-room rule. Hera explained that this was not exactly necessary, but there was no reason for them to rush and risk getting stuck. Even if the odds of that happening were ridiculously low. There was one more reason why everyone was excited about this trip. Their first stop was in the room located at the end of the Kobold Road. The place known as the city of a thousand doorways, Dzviery. Even if that room was close by, Hera never had a reason to go there, and her exploration generally led her elsewhere. Now, the entire party was curious about how that city worked and the things they could see there. Helena even suggested that the group stay in the room for a few days so they could explore.

Crossing the Kobold Road wasn't an issue. It just took a while. The subway that was inside the room would usually take an hour to go all the way to the other end of the tunnel. And considering that Boothudurn was in the second stop, it took them an hour of sitting before they could actually reach the doorway. Even worse, they also had to wait in line for their turn before crossing over. Dzviery was the main destination of most people who would come to the Kobold tunnel, and it showed. Since the doorway wasn't exactly big, and apparently, the other side was also somewhat cramped, people had to wait a few minutes before their turn, and everyone would be going one at a time.

One by one, they crossed the doorway, with Hera being the last one. During that time, she could see the different setup that they had here. There was the usual change. The emblem on top of the doorway was different. It showed a tower with several openings that, at first glance, were just windows, but considering what she already knew about the room, it should represent the countless passages inside it. Another unique detail about this specific entrance was a screen on this side showing a live feed of the other side of the doorway. Hera only had to glance at the monitor for a moment to understand why this was needed. The passage on the other side was so narrow that only two people could walk through at a time. Even some people who were on the broader side of the spectrum had to turn around, or they would end up clogging the hallway. Because of those restrictions, anyone transporting large crates or items of significant size had to schedule a time frame where they could move the items from room to room. That would already be bad enough by itself, but each corridor had about a dozen different doorways leading to different rooms or dungeons, and that was the reason why there was such a long delay between people crossing over. If Hera and her friends crossed together, they would stop the entire line of people who were trying to come and go from different rooms.

5 minutes passed before it was finally her turn. The guild clerk responsible for managing that passage gave her the go-ahead, and Hera placed her hand in the doorway as a notification appeared in front of her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would you like to be transported to

Dzviery - 12th Layer

[Yes] [No]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pressing yes, Hera Was covered in a familiar sensation of warm water. A moment later, she was in this very gaudy hallway. A long red carpet was on the floor and very detailed columns with some beautiful art nouveau parterre made of gold surrender her on all sides. There were also several other doorways leading to different places and two lines of people moving about. One line was heading towards the corridor's exit while the other was heading deeper inside it. While Hera was still trying to get her bearings, she noticed a couple of people walking towards her. They gestured towards the large opening that seemed to be heading into a central chamber of sorts, as if telling her to move along. It wasn't aggressive, but it was clear that people were already moving, and she couldn't stay there for too long. Quickly turning around, she continued the path until she exited the hallway and arrived at this massive circular room that seemed to be at least 200 meters wide and 50 meters tall.

There were countless other corridors here and even more people moving back and forth. This area reminded her of a central train station, even if just because of the sheer number of people walking about. Her friends were waiting for her in this central area, and Helena was the only one who wasn't in awe of their surroundings. She was used to the sight while the others were still admiring the place's structure and beauty. Even if it was just a busy station, everything was not only exquisite but also excessively clean. She couldn't see a single speck of dust even in the cracks between the decorations on the walls, almost like there was some sort of spell stopping the place from accumulating dust. Hera's eyes went up, and she could see several other floors filled with corridors that had a constant stream of people going in and out. Each floor was connected to a staircase on her left, and even here at the bottom, there was another staircase going up towards what was clearly the exit of this place. There was a large hole in the middle of this structure that didn't have any doors. It was just the opening leading to the rest of the city proper.

Helena quickly pushed everybody to the exit, knowing that they would be gawking at the place for a while if they stayed there. Since their plan was to stay here for the night, they had to rush to the hotels to see if they could find something. Helena tried to get some reservations online, but because of the high turnover, she couldn't find any available rooms. Because of those types of issues, some hotels in the room wouldn't accept reservations. Worst case scenario, they could go to another room that was much larger, but that came with the issue of forcing them to cross another doorway and limiting their options to travel.

Outside, Hera was able to see the entire city. Although calling it a city was a bit of a stretch. This room was made out of 10 towers, all of varying sizes, that formed a large circle, and in the middle of it, there was an area of about five kilometers filled with several buildings that included shops, restaurants, houses, hotels, and training rooms, as well as a guild branch. Each of the towers seemed to be different from the others. They had the same decorations in the same look, but each tower had a different color. The one they just left was red and gold, the one to the right was silver and blue, and to the other side, there was a green and orange tower.

"Do the colors mean something?" Bonnie asked.

"Sort of, but not really. They are kind of the theme of the tower, but it's very subjective. For instance, in the green and orange tower, we see a lot of doorways to places with thick jungles, forests, or places filled with grass, but there are some deserts as well. You can have an idea of where you're going by taking the colors of the tower into consideration. But like I said, that's a really big stretch sometimes. It's the same thing with the dungeons that are there. Also, going inside dungeons here is a bit weirder. There are two entrances in a way. One leads to the waiting room and the next one to the actual dungeon. But to leave the waiting room, you have to do the dungeon," Helena explained.

"And can we do dungeons here? Aren't the monsters, like level 30 or something?" Blue asked.

"We can. There are a few dungeons that don't have monsters. Or at least not monsters that we can kill. If we get caught by the monster in question, we just die," Helena explained.

"And you want to go there?" Hera asked.

"Not really. But you guys were the ones talking about running dungeons. We might as well do the ones you could actually do. Even if I think you should start to fight monsters that are above your level. But level 30 might still be too much."

"I mean… I'm down," Bonnie looked to the rest of the party.

"Same," Alex nodded, "As long as we are not walking in a death trap."

"We can do it later. First, we need to find a place to stay," Helena said while walking toward the city.