"Before anything, explain to me why my emotions are affecting the court," Hera asked while sitting on the bed with all her weapons in front of her.

"They always have. The court is part of you, so anything you feel, they feel. The thing is, when the difference between the stats that you have in the stats that the blades inherited from you is too great, then your emotions can influence them more. We didn't have any problems this time, but I figured it was time for me to talk about this," Daskka was sitting on the other corner of the bed, on top of a pillow. When the two of them were discussing something about the legacy, they liked being able to look into each other's eyes.

"Okay, I get that. What is the problem? Why is having the court sharing my feelings a bad thing?"

"Well... It's one thing if you're angry and want them all to be angry, but when you start getting stronger, and the difference of attributes gets bigger, the emotions your court will be feeling are enhanced. So, imagine that you are angry at someone, But not too angry. If you have a blade that has too big of a difference between the stats they inherited and the stats you currently have, they might be blinded by rage. Think of it like this, each blade is a cup, and your emotions are the water. When you make a weapon part of your court, the size of the cup will be based on how much water you can put into it. When you level up and increase your stats, then the amount of water you can put in a cup will increase, but the size of the cup that you already made will stay the same," Daskka explained while using her mist to illustrate what she meant.

"Right. Why are my emotions even relevant? Shouldn't my attributes be what controls them? Like they can't use my strength if I wield them as weapons for myself, would they get hurt or something?" Hera crossed her arms, trying to understand why her emotions were an issue.

"I don't know the reason why your emotions are relevant and not your attributes. From what I can tell, it's just another way to encourage you to change your blades often. Or at least once every level," Daskka sighed. She understood Hera's frustration, but, unfortunately, she was also in the dark about why this happened the way it happened.

Hera was in deep thought for a few moments. She knew that she should be changing her blades often, but worrying about them going crazy just because she leveled up would be an issue, "Realistically, what's the worst that can happen? And how big does the difference have to be for that to start to be an issue?"

"It's hard to say. Since all your stats increase when you level up, I think it would happen sooner rather than later. It's hard to explain, but if they have one of your attributes that still matches what they got from you, it can give them a baseline of what the emotion should be. I know that doesn't make much sense to you, but it's the best way I can explain it. For the worst case scenario. Your blades might exaggerate their orders. So if you say stop them, they might just go for the kill," Daskka rested her head on the pillow, looking a bit defeated. She even tried to send Hera the explanation through their connection, but the concept was too alien for a living person to understand. It was something that would only make sense for the legacy.

Hera could tell that Daskka was doing her best, but it was still a bit frustrating not being able to understand those kinds of things. Still, since she was talking about a legacy, it was understandable that some things couldn't be explained.

"Okay. Moving on. How do I change one of my court members? Do I just add a new one and pick who is going to go away?" Hera asked.

"No. You have to use another skill. You technically always had this one, but since you never said anything about removing one of your blades, I never gave it to you. The skill is called Exile, but you can change the name of that one. Before being called Exile, it was called Revocation of Nobility. The previous legacy holder made that change. Anyway, to use the skill you have to basically break up with your court member. You have to tell them you don't want them to be part of your court anymore and explain why. You don't have to be too specific, but you can't lie while doing it. So if you're changing a blade because they are weak, you have to say you're too weak for me now or something to that effect. I know it's a bit rough, but that's how it has to be done," as soon as Daskka explained, Hera saw a notification in front of her.

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Exile - Legacy Skill

You are able to relinquish one of your court members from its duties. Doing so will remove the court member from your court.

Once a court member has been exiled, it can never return to the court.

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"Okay. I hate that name. It seems too mean. I know that technically I'm going to be killing them, but I don't know," Hera sighed.

"You are not killing anyone, mum. Your court is not alive. I am not alive. I know this sounds very weird, but that's the truth of it. If you want, I can change to the other name or something else."

"Let's go with that other one for now. Can I change it later if I want?"

"You can. This is one of those skills that the legacy understood would vary from person to person," Daskka got up and looked around to Hera's blades, "Do you know which one you're going to let go of?"

"I do. Brute, Swift and Executioner, could you come here?" Hera asked the blades, "Do you guys mind if we do it all at once, or would you rather have this conversation individually?"

They all replied that they would do whatever Hera felt was best. Their response was somewhat mechanical, which helped her to understand that they were just weapons and not actually living beings.

Hera took a deep breath, "Okay then. Look. You are amazing. You are part of my first court, and I'll never forget you. But, the legacy doesn't let you grow with me. Not really. And I need to… I need to be more willing to make hard choices. I hope you know that letting you guys go is harder for me even than dealing with being a murderer," Hera felt tears forming in her eyes but did her best to hold them back, "I love you guys, but it's time for a few new members to join the court."

'It was a pleasure serving you, my Empress,' Swift replied as the form of the blades started to become translucent.

'I will never forget the time we spent together,' Executioner added while tiny specks of light formed around them.

'The sweet moments by your side made my existence worthy. Thank you,' when Brute spoke, the blades vanished from sight, and the light went up as if their souls were ascending.

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Level Up

Current Level: 27

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"What? Why did I level up?"

"Okay. This is a weird subject. The Revocation of Nobility skill has a bit of history behind it. Lurize helped me piece things together, but apparently, the system may or may not consider your blades as monsters. So, in theory, if you just add a bunch of different weapons to your court and send them away, you could level up like that."

"Wait. What? But how can you tell the system sees the blades as monsters? Everything we do can make his level up. I once leveled up because I was walking."

"I don't know. No one does. This was just a theory that one of the previous legacy holders had," Daskka explained.

"If I may," Lurize interjected, and Hera nodded, giving the blade the chance to speak, "My original owner performed some tests using the skill. After a lot of trial and error, he concluded that the number of blades he would have to relinquish to level up was similar to the number of monsters he would have to kill to do the same. Nevertheless, this is merely a theory. He was never able to confirm or deny that possibility."

"Well, maybe the system just says that letting a blade go is something as hard as killing a monster. That's why the amount of experience we gain is similar. Not that we have a way to test it," Hera shrugged while wiping out her tears. She was grateful that something had happened to stop her from crying. " Either way, That's just really mean. Why would the legacy force me to do that? And why would it tell them to say those things?"

"I think it forces you to do that because it doesn't want you to take the blades for granted. But the legacy never made them say anything. Those were their actual feelings. Feelings of weapons but still feelings," Daskka wiped one of her own tears with her tail.

"This really doesn't seem fair," Hera mumbled, but she slapped her cheeks, unwilling to let herself get depressed by the situation, "Okay. So I'm going to add 3 new members to the court. The sword, the scythe earrings, and the tiara. Also, just before I forget. Lurize, can you remember more things about your past?"

"I cannot. I was only able to recall this piece of information because it was related to the skill and my previous master asked the legacy to pass the information he discovered along."

"Exactly. Even if you make him one of your title blades, he won't remember what happened in his previous life. He already is a new version of the same weapon that once existed. Now back to the matter at hand. Why are you picking the earrings and the tiara?" Daskka asked.

"I was thinking about that elf that wanted to join us. I don't expect Alex and Blue to keep going with me to that dungeon all the time, so it would be good to have some court members that could be on me without attracting too much attention. Also, I just want to confirm one thing. The skill says that if a court member is exiled, they can never join the court again. Does that mean that if I have a blade with a specific skill, I can never have another blade with the same skill?"

"No. It just means that even if you use the exact same model of the weapon and give them the same name, the new blade you get won't be the same that you let go of. If you try to recall one of the blades you sent away, you'll be creating a new one and not bringing an old one back," Daskka explained.

"Ok, so I can buy or order another pair of earrings with the same skill and even the same shape and just replace them in the future."

"Oh, so you're thinking about making those two more like supporting characters in your court. Yeah, you can keep replacing them with the same skill. Just… they won't be the same. Remember that."

"Okay then. Before I start, let me just do one thing," Hera opened up her status window, she had a total of 54 points to spend, and as usual, she used everything on her [Exponential Growth] skill. It would cost 15 points to increase all her attributes to 75 and then 16 to go beyond that. Still, thanks to all her points and the leftovers from the previous level, she could now have her attributes sitting at 77 and still have some points to spare for the next level. With that out of the way, Hera started using her [Courtship] on the items she wanted to join her court.

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Scythe - Chain

Earrings

Weapon scaling: Empress Attribute: 77

Intelligence: 1.76 Charisma: 1.76 Strength: 1.76

Dexterity: 1.76 Agility: 1.76 Luck: 1.76

Chain Attack:

After you have hit a target, the next attack will deal increased damage. This increase will stack additively with each subsequent attack. If you attack a different target, this bonus will be reset.

Increase damage per attack: 1%

Familiarity: 29%

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Armory - Metal

Tiara

Weapon scaling: Empress Attribute: 77

Intelligence: 1.54 Charisma: 1.54 Strength: 1.54

Dexterity: 1.54 Agility: 1.54 Luck: 1.54

Lowest Stat Buff

Increases the lowest stat scaling of your weapons by 20%

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 2 hours

Familiarity: 20%

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Core - Lava

Rapier

Weapon Scaling: Empress attribute: 77

Agility x 4.65[2.8(5.6)+ 1.85] Endurance x 4.5[2.65(5.3)+ 1.85] Luck x 4.35[2.5(5) + 1.85]

Intelligence x 1.85 Strength x 1.85 Charisma x 1.85

Volcano Core:

This weapon is imbued with the power of a volcano. Attacks with this weapon deal additional fire damage

Additional fire damage: 50%

Tempered:

This weapon was created in a harsh volcanic environment. It is sturdier than it looks.

Glow:

You can make this weapon give off low light in an area.

Duration: 1 hour

Area: 10m³

Cooldown: 2 hours

Sediment:

Your attacks can leave behind a piece of hot magma at the expense of mana.

Cost: 400 mana per cm²

Volcanic Ash:

You can make the ash resting in the wrist guard become a shield to protect you from attacks.

Cost: 10 000 Mana

Familiarity: 41%

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