Hera still had her eyes closed when she heard Blues' voice coming from somewhere in front of her.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew. What is this? Why is it slimy? What is that smell?"

"Blue, calm down. You've been saying that for a while already," Shane spoke, but her voice was also a bit shaky.

Hera finally was able to move and opened her eyes to understand what was around her. A few dancing lights illuminated the place. All of these were white since now there was no reason to change the colors. Shane used the red hue in Abyssia to stop it from getting too far away. Besides, they all had a pair of monster-repellent stones around their waist. Those things were very awkward, but since they worked with the slimes in a Layer above, they should work with the monsters in this room.

Looking around, she realized why Blue was acting like that. The name of this room was 'The Belly of the Beast,' and it sure as hell looked like it. The walls were red, covered in some odd stringy liquid, making them glisten in the light. Green, blue, and purple veins walked along the walls, going seemingly nowhere and everywhere at the same time. As she paid attention to it, she realized that those strands that were behind the red walls were pulsating. She could also smell something putrid and almost acidic coming from everywhere, including the small puddles of yellowish liquid peppered around the ground.

The whole place felt slimy and had moisture in the air that was similar to what one would find in their breath. They were also able to hear a rhythmic beat that moved through the area in waves. It really felt like they were listening to a heartbeat, and that could only happen inside a creature.

"Where are we?" Hera said out loud.

"We still don't know. This place feels weird," Helena turned back to the Empress, "Are you ok? What happened with your arm?"

"What?" Hera looked down and noticed the large sting mark that was covering most of her left arm. It almost looked like a clump of massive worms, "Oh shit. Right, Daskka!"

As Hera called, the herald appeared and saw the injury in the explorer's arm. The snake instantly wrapped the Empress' entire arm with a violet mist and started to heal. Luckily, even after being transferred to another room, battle heals still could work, "Sorry. I should've noticed that sooner," Daskka apologized.

"Oh, yeah. We were fighting against a giant monster that could easily kill us, and you were keeping it busy for a long time, but it's your fault for not realizing that this happened sooner," Hera rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry. You won't even have a scar after I'm done… hopefully, but it might be good to bring out Edge," Daskka added with a smile, knowing that even in a situation like this, Hera wouldn't blame her. Not that this was ever something she doubted.

Knowing it was a good idea, Hera called her court but warned Nimbus about the floor, worried he might step on the odd liquid barefoot. When they all came out, Lurize was the one who complained, "I would have appreciated a warning about the liquid. I hate how they feel in my feet."

"Oh… sorry. I know you are not wearing armor. You are armor, but I didn't consider that," Hera scratched her cheek before asking Edge if she could wield him while using the Elemental Strength spell. The blade agreed to that and flew to her hand.

"Is everyone ok? Does anyone else need healing?" Daskka asked, and Hera passed the information along.

Mylo and Alex had a few bruises but nothing major. Luckily, most attacks were either blocked or dodged and when few people were around, Alex was fast enough to evade everything while she had the monster's attention. As the two of them were getting closer to Daskka just to get a top-up, Hera turned back to the doorway. It was gray now, and the light it would usually emanate was gone. She reached out just to make sure it was deactivated and got a pleasant surprise.

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

This doorway is currently inactive.

Press the button below for your private room:

[Enter your Private Room]

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

"Oh. Good, we can go to our private rooms from here," Hera said.

"That's good, but we have another problem. Food," Shane sighed.

"Yeah… I'm hungry," Mylo nodded.

"How can you be hungry here? This place is awful," Blue turned to him with a distraught expression.

"Simple. It's been a long time since I've eaten," Mylo shrugged.

"Ok… I'm going to try something bad, but if it works, we can find food… and I'll have some bad news to share," Adriel said and closed his eyes before turning his back to the group. No one understood exactly what he was doing, "There are some odd frog-like monsters to the left from here. Or a dungeon about 3 hours away that can get us some fruit."

"How do you know that?" Bonnie asked.

"Well… that's the bad part," Adriel turned around with his eyes open, and everyone could see how part of the white of his eyes had turned black. Like an ink stain on white paper. It was nowhere near the pitch black that Alex had when she first showed that symptom, but it was something very obvious already, "I think I'm cursed too."

"What did you do?!" Alex yelled while stomping towards him.

"I didn't do anything. I started hearing a voice ever since you told us that it was raining. I kind of figured that you had asked the curse to warn you when that started."

"But this means it has already progressed a lot! You should only start by seeing some things. Markers or something that you couldn't see before," Alex was still yelling with fury in her eyes. The black veins made her expression even scarier.

"Yeah… I was. And it wasn't like I was leaning into those things. But some were useful, or I had to do what the curse was telling me anyway. And I figured I would confirm if I was really cursed or not by getting something useful," Adriel continued.

"But this is dangerous! You could end up as a blob!" Alex gasped.

"Wait, what? What do you mean a blob?" Bonnie asked.

"I.. I… Fuck! I can't talk, but fine. That is the last stage of the curse. It consumes you, and you become a blob that can infect anyone who sees you! You lose your mind. You lose everything just to become a swirling mass of curse that moves. That's why I work so hard not to say anything about it or share information about the curse."

"What?" Hera and Blue gasped.

"Yeah. Now tell me, who else is affected by it? The title didn't show up right away, but who else can see some things that you couldn't before or sometimes get some signals of things you need? Don't make me use the curse to know if you are telling me the truth," Alex stared the group down. It was hard not to be intimidated by her visage, which might have helped. Shane, Mylo, Blue, and Adriel raised their hands. Adriel got slapped since everyone already knew that he was cursed.

"Really, all of you?" Hera asked.

"A little bit. Mine showed me a few ideas for enchantments," Shane replied.

"How to fight better for me. My form was wrong," Mylo looked down, feeling ashamed, "I'm sorry."

"It just told me my family was ok. No one is injured or with any problems, but the money I sent them is helping them out," Blue looked away.

Alex rubbed her temple, "Did any of you interact with the curse whatsoever? Did you do what it told you to?"

"It's hard not to when you get an idea. For example, instead of making fire grenades, I can make compressed air ones, and when I fire, I just ignite the air inside, causing a big explosion. That sounds really obvious, but I never considered that, not until the curse told me," Shane shrugged. Despite the risk. It wasn't the type of thing that she could just pretend not to have heard.

"He helped me fight better and showed how I could block that tail attack from the Anemoray. I did what it told me to," Mylo added.

"I didn't say anything, but I felt really relieved. I mean… we know the curse can tell us things that happened in the past or can tell us about things like Yarnball can, so I figured it was telling the truth, and that made me happy, but that was it," Blue explained. The mention of Yarnball confused Hera a bit. They had tried to ask about their families, but unfortunately, not even with all her mana, she got an answer.

"Right… So please, don't use it anymore. Especially you," Alex stared daggers at Adriel.

"Yes, mam."

"Alex… can I ask you a question?" Hera stepped forward.

"Yeah, sure."

"You said that you are trying hard not to talk about the curse… but if you are showing us what it can do, that also counts as information. So even using it was risky. So why have you been using it so much lately?"

"What? No, that's not the same thing. Knowing what it can do is not knowledge of the curse," Alex waved her off.

"Alex… no. It is. Why do you think it isn't? That changed at some point. When you first got cursed, I remember how careful you were being. Even after you started seeing yellow, you would actively avoid looking at that color," Helena spoke up.

"No… That's… but I… No, no, no, no. When did that change? When did I start thinking like that?" Alex's eyes went wide, and it was easy to see that she was starting to panic, "I'm… I am so sorry," she looked up with her eyes starting to water, but instead of regular tears, it was an inky black liquid."

Hera got closer and gave her a hug, "It's ok. I know it wasn't your fault. It's the curse. It messed with your head."

"But why are you three ok?" Blue asked, turning to Bonnie, "You spent the most time with Alex. I figured if anyone was also feeling these effects, it would be you."

"I honestly don't know… Maybe we have a skill?" Bonnie looked to Helena in hopes of getting an answer.

"That's it! The three of us have the reinforced mana skill. Maybe that makes it harder for the curse to affect us," Helena smiled, not because she didn't have the curse, but because she had an idea of why this was happening.

"Do you think that makes us immune?" Hera was still hugging Alex, but she turned to the mage.

"I doubt it. The curse should affect mana, and I think that's why it's taking longer for us to be infected. Our mana is more protected, and that's why we are still ok," Helena continued.

"Do you think that using that spell we used to take out the parasites could work to cure the curse?" Hera suggested.

"We talked about this before, sweetie. It's not the same thing. We did some tests with Alex's blood and mana. Everything was normal. It wasn't the same situation as it was with me."

"If you all don't mind. Can I make a recommendation?" Lurize spoke up and got a nod as a reply, "We just had a very long day and had to deal with a lot. It would be prudent to retire to a private room. Adriel located food. We can hunt and then gather our thoughtz through the night. In the morning, we can come up with a new plan."

"That's actually a good idea. Where were the monsters?" Blue asked.

Adriel pointed to the left. Soon the entire party followed them. It took just 10 minutes to reach a pool of yellow liquid that was letting out a rancid smell where some odd creatures lived. They were called Frogranires and were a mix of a frog and a donkey, still green in color but more muscular and with more fat. Their front legs were long but very skinny, while the back ones were massive and could still allow the creatures to leap through the air. But they were only level 29, and in just a couple of minutes, the group managed to kill two of them that were big enough to feed everyone. They went back to the doorway and butchered the creatures. Adriel confirmed that the meat shouldn't be poisonous, and Hera could attest to that. She could feel poison pretty well now that her [Naga Poison] was level five, and they didn't seem to have any. With everyone with the supplies they needed, they entered the private rooms in the same setup that they were used to. Shane, Mylo, Alex, and Adriel, while Bonnie, Helena, Blue, and Hera took the last.

After dinner, Hera was the first to take a bath, not just a shower, but a proper bath to take out all of the salt water from her body. Just as she was taking advantage of the privacy to check the guide messages, she saw a new group popping up with all the guides that were her friends. There were a lot of messages right away, but the one that caught her eye was from Johnny, the surfer lion that was responsible for the room where Alex got cursed.

'We need to talk. The curse is spreading.'