"Hera, please! Help me!" Alex had half her head missing while crawling on the floor. Tears, snot, and blood were coming down her face. Below her waist was a writhing mass of something that seemed to be eating the assassin as the sound of crunching bones echoed through the alley.

Hera glanced at her friend, but she didn't stop. After seeing about a dozen versions of the slimes and stopping to confirm whether they were their friends, the group started to notice one thing that would give the monsters away. They didn't seem to be able to copy weapons properly. This version of Alex had a Scimitar on her waist. Hera knew that the real one wasn't a fan of longer blades. That was the kind of thing that they had to focus on to make sure they wouldn't be going to check on a fake.

"No! No! No! Please!" Bonnie's voice came from inside one of the cabins. Her body was smashed against the window as blood started to spurt from her back, as if something was ripping her to shreds.

"Bonnie!" Blue gasped, but Adriel stopped her from moving away.

"Look at her hands. She has brass knuckles. Would she ever use something like that?"

Blue clenched her fist, "No… she wouldn't use that."

"C'mon, honey. Let's keep moving," Helena said.

Even if they all understood that those were monsters, it was hard to accept that. Seeing their friends brutally killed wasn't easy, and walking away was even harder. But that was their only option. The alternative would be to risk being attacked by those slimes and then have to fight them while they wore the faces of the rest of their party members. Oddly enough, between all the possibilities, seeing themselves begging for help was the less disturbing version of it. Early on, when the slimes were still turning into one of the four present here, it was the same as being asked to be attacked.

But then, the slimes changed. Now, they looked different. And because of that, they no longer appeared exclusively as their friends in need of assistance. It was more like a crime scene. A murder where the victim was screaming for help.

Still, according to Hera's map, they were close. The corner of the raft was already visible in the distance, and they would only need to turn and reach the first cabin to be safe. During the afternoon, the group grabbed a few extra monster-repellent rocks and placed them in their temporary house to ensure they would be protected from any slimes or other creatures that existed here.

"Hera… Please. Help. They are in danger," Mylo appeared from the corner of a house. He was carrying the floral-themed staff that he used, which made the entire group stop.

"Fuck!" Hera looked around and found a repellent stone by a cabin where a version of Shane and Alex were trying to kill each other. She tossed a couple of poison needles and told Dao to use her [Chain Lightning] on both of them. When the shapes lost their form and became puddles on the ground, Hera hacked at the wood that was around the repellent stone and took it out of the structure. Then, she turned to Mylo and walked toward him with the glowing rock in her hand.

"Hera…" Mylo stepped back, trying to move away from the Empress.

"What? Don't you need help? C'mon!" Hera yelled and tossed the rock at him. Just as it flew through the air, the shape collapsed into a pitch-black slime. She couldn't remember before, but this was the same color she had encountered the previous night.

Without even having to ask, Dao flew through the air and slammed the monster's core against the ground, breaking it with the impact.

"Are you ok?" Blue asked.

"No. I'm not!" Hera yelled. Her anger wasn't directed at Blue but at this entire situation. Watching her friends die or having to attack them made the Empress remember the elf she killed. This already wasn't a pleasant experience without dealing with that memory.

"Let's just go back to the cabin. Yesterday they stopped trying to mess with you when you got there, right?" Helena asked.

"I think so," Hera nodded and continued to walk following her map.

In about five minutes, they finally arrived at the cabin. Rushing inside, Hera raised her hand and snapped her fingers to create a soundproof bubble.

"Stop there!" Bonnie yelled with a stone fist floating around her, "How can we be sure you are not a monster?"

Hera's group finally had a moment to see what was going on in the cabin. Mylo, Shane, and Alex were gathered around Bonnie's bed with weapons drawn. Around the floor, there were several repellent stones like a minefield.

"Are you serious?" Hera asked and gestured to the ground, "Do you think any monster would be chilling here?"

"So… you guys had to deal with those things too?" Blue asked.

"Yeah… It wasn't fun. Especially when they started to cry for help," Shane nodded and looked at the people who had just walked inside, "Could you guys pick a repellent stone? Just to ease our minds?"

Hera rolled her eyes, but she felt terrible about it right away. It was a good idea. That way, everyone could be more at ease with the situation. She grabbed one of the rocks and passed along the line. The last to take the stone was Adriel, and he walked towards Alex, giving the rock to the assassin.

"Can you guys do the same? For the same reason."

Alex nodded, and soon everyone confirmed that there were no monsters in here unless one of them could withstand the effects of the repellent stone. When all that was over, the entire group started to hear screaming outside. All of their voices were calling for help or yelling in pain.

"Hera, can you make a bubble that stops the sounds from outside?" Blue asked.

"I can try. Give me a moment," Hera sat down on the side of Bonnie's bed.

Nimbus went to her side and sat beside her. Without saying it out loud, he asked, 'Empress…Hera, are you ok?'

'Not really. This is a mess, and I really don't like these places that mess with our heads like this. I don't mind if it's just like a trippy place, but when it tries to play with our hearts like that, it just makes me feel like crap,' even if Nimbus wasn't around for what happened in Dzviery, he knew the story well and could tell that this was part of what was eating her up. The rest of the court didn't know what to say, but they were all close to her, trying to comfort the Empress.

'Mum… it's ok. You know you didn't have a choice,' Daskka snuggled with Hera, who just let her head rest against the snake.

'I know… that doesn't make things easier, though. Let me focus on something else. I need to figure out this spell,' Hera sighed.

'Sure, but don't forget you leveled up. I believe you haven't increased your attributes just yet.'

'Oh. Right. Let me do that before I forget,' she quickly opened her status window and increased her attributes. Somehow, she got a total of 54 points to distribute, which translated to an increase of 3 points in all her stats. Her mana was also growing a lot, and it was hard to tell why

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

Hera Kingsley -- Role: Explorer Level: 30

Legacy: Court of Blades [Blades]

Title: Mana Touched

Total Stats: 510

Strength: 85 Endurance: 85

Agility: 85 Charisma: 85

Intelligence: 85 Luck: 85

Mana: 1 053 984/1 053 984

Remaining attribute points: 6

Skills:

Legacy:

Court Ruler, Courtship, Bestow Title, Army of One, Revocation of Nobility,

Royal Quest , Bestow Gift , Royal Seal

Passive:

Exponential Growth

Observe: Red sight 3

Treasure Map

Handaxe Combat 3, Chakram Combat 2, Glaive Combat 2, Sword Combat 1, Two-handed Sword Combat 2,

Dagger Combat 1, Scimitar combat 1, Axe combat 1, War Axe Combat 1, Knife Combat 1, Tonfa Combat 2, Rapier Combat 1

Wire Trap Style 3, Subtle Strike 3, Dorohla style 3

Battle Dancer 1, Attack Pathing 1, Synchronized Battle 1

Dodge 2, Run 3, Improved Stamina 4, Flee 2, Jump 2

Mana Recovery 4, Mana sensitivity 2, Shaper of Mana, Reinforced Mana

Improved Regeneration 3

Ailment Mastery 3, Poison Mastery 2, Allergy Mastery 1, Earth Mastery 1

Earth resistance 2, Wind resistance 2, Water resistance 1, Sturdy Body 1

Magic Armor Proficiency 2

Naga poison 4

Nature connection 1

Silver Lining 2

Ancient language 5

Pathfinder 1

Active:

All in 2

Inspect 2

Hide 4, Sneak Attack 3

Weapon Maintenance 2, Weapons Rebalance 2, Weapon break

Etching 3

Medical Reference 2, Identify Ailment 1

Green Thumb 2

Chain of Command 4

Role Skills:

Local Guide

Private Room, Meeting Room

Explorer's Assassinate

Explorer's Map

Hunter's Catalogue, Explorer's Hunt

Explorer's Research

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

There were some skills that she had to focus on right now. She intended to get the crafter role, and by the looks of it, there was a chance she would miss that. When she was done with her attributes, the Empress opened Nimbus' status screen to distribute the Sentinel's points. He always got the same number of points that she did, and the only restriction was that his total attribute points couldn't surpass her own. One surprise was that his mana increased significantly, which seemed to have happened when he completed the royal quest. After setting everything up, they arrived at his new total. In the end, it wasn't that much of a difference. He just increased his endurance by 3 and rounded out his luck to 40.

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

Sentinel Nimbus - Protection

Bladed Tonfa - Griffon

Total Stats: 479

Strength: 102 Endurance: 145

Agility: 106 Charisma: 40

Intelligence: 46 Luck: 40

Remaining points: 1

Mana: 306 128/306 128

Weapon Scaling

Endurance x 15.5[11.5(14.5) + 4] Strength x 10.2[6.4(8) + 4] Agility x 10.2 [6.4(8) + 4]

Charisma x 4 Intelligence x 4 Luck x 4

Passive Skill:

Defender

Fire and Ice

Cold Burn

Call of the Wind

Wind Front

Active Skill:

Griffon's call

Frozen Ash

Griffon Form

Mana Shield

Share the Pain

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

She also checked his skills to see if she was missing anything, but the reality was that he didn't have that many opportunities to participate in combat. Even in this last dungeon, his focus was on getting the fish, not fighting. Hera knew the Sentinel was feeling self-conscious about that and made a silent promise to let him have a more active role in the fights in the future.

With that out of the way, Hera focused on the spell she wanted to make. Her idea was to invert the barrier. Making it so that noises from the outside would be stopped. However, as she tried to change it, she noticed one thing. Her soundproof barrier was already perfect for that. The spell would create a very thin layer of vacuum, stopping sounds from coming out and in. She could hear what was happening beyond the bubble because the next part of the spell would register the sound waves from the outer layer and replicate them inside the barrier. In the end, the soundproof bubble she used was already more complicated than what she needed right now. Tweaking that was extremely easy. All she had to do was to make an imperfect barrier intentionally. With a snap of her fingers, the barrier changed, and now it was so cheap to keep it up that she would never have to deactivate it.

"Oh wow. Thanks," Blue let out a sigh of relief as the yelling vanished.

"No problem. It's easier than I expected."

"Really? How so?" Bonnie asked, and Hera gave a brief explanation about it.

"Speaking of spells and skills. Blue, what was that? The last attack you used in the dungeon," Adriel asked.

"Oh, right? Did you get fish?" Alex turned to the elf, who just pointed at the corner of the room where his drone was located, "If we are going to cook it, it might be better doing it outside…."

"Or we can keep it there for the night. I can set it up as a cool box so it won't go bad, but the smell will still be there…"

"I could cook it outside. I can make a cloud to hide us from the monsters, and we just attack anything that comes through," Blue suggested.

"I'll help you. My court can stay on guard," Hera got up. She noticed that the controller avoided the question and felt there was a good reason for it. The least she could do was to help her out.