Hera was back at the entrance taking a break. There were still sixteen hours to complete the quest. She tried a few things with the relic, but so far, she didn't have much luck. According to Peaches, she wouldn't be able to understand the spells or effects that were already inside Yarnball, which means that besides the position and structure, she wouldn't be able to learn anything else about the relic. Sure, she could try to figure out what kind of material the mechanisms were made of and the actual dimensions of each piece, but according to Shane and Adriel, that wasn't required. Not to mention that she didn't have any encyclopedia of materials available. Both of them advised her on what she should focus on, and the main point was to understand the magic. As a matter of fact, now that Peaches told her she couldn't grasp how the magic inside the relic worked, the advice Adriel gave her was much more clear. According to the elf, she had to 'Understand the magic, but it doesn't have to be the relic's.' Her interpretation of this was that she could change the relic's effect to something made by herself, and that would circumvent the issue of understanding that odd magic and the quest would be complete since she was the one who created the new effect.

The first thing she tried to do was to imbue the thread with poison, fire, or some other element, but that didn't work. On the rare occasion when she inscribed a spell, and it didn't unravel right away when the thread was created, it would instantly ignite and burn away. That turned her relic into a bad smoke signal device. Eventually, she reached the conclusion that she had to do something different. She opened the mechanisms and separated every single gear, screw, and plate to see if she could create something different with that. Before just trying random things, she stopped and did her best to draw everything, making an actual blueprint of her relic. After all, this was the name of the skill, so it might be a hint in itself.

After noting down the different parts of the relic, Hera had a moment to talk with her court and decide what could help her. Several ideas were tossed around, something that could trigger another elemental coating on the blades. Something that could track monsters, something for scouting, something for healing, but in the end, they started to talk about their shortcomings to see if the relic could make up for that. The two main points where the blades felt weak were the weight behind their attacks and the limited distance they could be from each other as well as the Empress. With that in mind, Hera came up with a few ideas. First, something like a sticker that could increase the mass of something that had it attached to it, but the constant need to turn that on and off might be an issue. Another idea was to have every blade connected to the string so they could use the centrifugal force to increase the strength of each attack. To fix the distance issue, her best idea was to have something like a small transmitter of mana, maybe even something like a miniature one-way teleportation device that would send her mana to the other part of the device. However, that came with another problem. Hera had no idea what the symbols used to signal those elements were. Not the ones that would be used in the creation of spells. She tried to make some random drawings to attach to her spells, but that didn't work. Even those drawings had to have some type of connection to the actual element. For instance, if she were to draw a fire and try to make it create water mana, it would never work. On a base level, that was very intuitive, but things became considerably harder when it started to deal with more advanced elements like mass, magnetism, or teleportation.

"Peaches, can I ask you for a favor?" Hera was lying on the couch in the reception, staring at her tablet while trying to make a symbol for an element she wanted.

"I'm not giving you access to the internet, kid. That's the rule."

"I wasn't going to ask that," Hera turned to Peaches.

"Ok, then. What is the favor?"

"Can you or Tara give me any of the symbols for mass, magnetism, or teleportation? I know for a fact that my spells work even when I'm using things from different cultures. So any symbol you can give me will help."

Peaches stared at Hera for a while as the Empress gave him lost puppy eyes, but eventually, he sighed, "Check your messages. I just sent you one."

Hera jumped from the couch and opened the texts from the guides. As he said, Peaches sent the symbols for all those elements and even some variations and a few other elements that were close to the ones she asked for, like electromagnetism and weight.

"Peaches, you are the best!" Hera said as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Ah, don't do that. Not even my kids just give me a kiss willy-nilly," Peaches grumbled, but the Empress was already back in the workshop.

Tara stared at Peaches for a few moments, "Can I see the text you sent her?"

"Sure, here," Peaches nodded and sent her a copy. It took the Ancestor just a few seconds to read it thoroughly and turn to her senior.

"Aren't you being too nice? I mean, giving her some of these symbols feels almost like cheating. A couple of them could just give her the answer for her to do what she wants," Tara had a frown on her face.

"Maybe. But Hera here has been through a lot, and more importantly, she made several decisions that benefited no one but the MAZE. Giving Lantra his brother's journal is one of them. She had no idea that would trigger a quest or that giving Chika her toy again would eventually make her have Daskka. Not to mention the whole curse situation," Peaches explained.

"So you are just rewarding her for what she did?"

"Not really. There is one more reason why I'm doing this," Peaches leaned over to Tara, "I just like the kid. She's my friend."

"Really? You are helping her so much because you like her?" Tara tilted her head. She couldn't understand how a guide and a person could be friends. In her eyes, they were different existences, and that difference was too big to allow them to actually become friends.

"Talk to Capri later. He made a compilation of her best adventures, and the 'Director's cut' is a few months long. That includes dungeons, training sessions, travels, and a lot more. Not to mention the interactions she had with us. Unfortunately, he couldn't get everything since we don't record everything, but I don't think anyone else will have as much content as he does," Peaches added. He noticed that Tara was looking down, deep in thought, probably considering if she should use her time like that or not, "I know she said she doesn't want to ascend, but not even we can predict the future. Maybe Hera will change her mind in a few days. Wouldn't you want to know more about your possible first New Naga?"

"I guess you have a point…." Tara nodded, "I'll talk to Capri later."

Peaches just smiled and turned back to the screens to watch Hera again. It took the Empress about half an hour, but she eventually went through the entire list of symbols that the guide gave her and found a couple of options for what she wanted, but there was one that really caught her eye. Entangled.

Most people would consider that just to be about tying someone up with a rope or a vine, but Hera remembered a science experiment she had heard about some time ago. It talked about something called quantum entanglement that, in broad strokes, made two particles react to the same things even when only one of them would interact with something else. Even better, that happened instantly. It didn't matter how far away from each other those particles were. Of course, the experiment talked about things on a molecular level, so there was no reason to expect it to work the same way when she scaled everything up, but it still sounded like a good idea. Especially considering that when using magic, elements were very subjective. The symbol for light, for instance, could be used when creating something to illuminate dark places, when trying to make something weigh less than it should, and with some effort, could even create a small flame to light a bonfire. Meaning that entangle could work as Hera was hoping.

It took another three hours of trial and error, but eventually, she managed to create a spell circle that would, instead of making thread, send out her mana from one point to another. To complete this part of the process, she added a small mana siphon that would constantly take around 100 mana from her and send through that transfer. Even if those parts were actually working, it came with another problem. Doing this would only make her waste mana since there was nothing to attach to the receiving end of the circuit to the blades. To fix that, Hera looked at the other pieces and what she could do. Then came another idea. All of her weapons were made with some sort of metal. She could make a sticker or a tag that would magnetize to her blades and move around with them. Maybe using that magnet, she could even use that as a pseudo thread and let her court get some momentum with their attacks, or even use the magnet as a way to accelerate them as they struck.

With that new idea in mind, Hera started working again. She changed the part that would create thread to create small magnets, and then, instead of using the binding thread, her relic could attach that magnet to her blades with a quick motion. All they had to do was pass by the opening. Opening that now, Hera changed to face the same direction as the visor. That way, they could just fly beside her to get this magnet instead of having to go above her and risk getting too close. To top it all off, each magnet was also connected to the central piece, constantly taking mana from Hera through the entanglement she created. Just as she closed the last piece of her relic in this new configuration, a notification appeared in front of her.

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You have completed a quest Explorer's Crafter Role - Hidden Mission

You have reached enough of an understanding of your relic to unlock the Explorer's Blueprint and your relic's blueprint.

Rewards:

Explorer's Blueprint

Yarnball's blueprint

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To transfer the changes from the replica to the relic, use Explorer's Blueprint to update the relic.

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"Oh shit. It worked?" Hera gasped.

"Congratulations, Empress," Nimbus smiled.

"Way to go, mum!" Daskka cheered, and Lurize clapped with a satisfied expression on his face.

"So I should just update it, right?" Hera was about to open the new skill when a voice came from beyond the door.

"Make sure your new relic works as you want first. Take advantage of this place," Peaches advised.

"Oh.. right," Hera nodded and tried to see if everything was working while using the replica. She could ask questions normally, but when trying to attach the magnet, it wasn't able to get stuck to her blades. Apparently, they were not considered metal since they were made out of mana. Still following the same idea, she spent the next couple of hours tweaking the magnet so it would attract mana, her mana specifically, instead of metal. That way, it could snap onto her blades, and even better, now it would be able to attach to any place and not just the blades. For now, the magnet was just a small black dot that could pull it in a specific direction at the blade's command. But she intended to eventually change that to a less inconspicuous pattern. Something that could pretend to be just part of the blades instead of something clearly out of place, but that was a plan for the future.

After tweaking the strength of everything so she could not just have the magnet on all of her blades but also have some spare mana to allow for more magnets for when her court grew. Unfortunately, she couldn't test the distance properly here. The workshop wasn't large enough to reach the limit of her range, but in theory, everything should be working. Before actually doing it, Hera got up and walked out to the reception.

"Where are you going?" Daskka asked.

"Need to go to the bathroom. I've been holding for a while already. I'll finish this as soon as I get back," Hera replied and closed the bathroom door.