Hera was sitting cross-legged on the grassy floor of the dungeon, staring at the tiny version of Scryotra that she was able to save from the Nagas. Her entire court was out around her, all watching the monster as well. It was just moving around like an actual insect. All that intelligence that the monster had before was nowhere to be seen. The Empress was trying to think of ways to make it grow faster. The entire dungeon seemed to span a few hundred years, or however long the Naga took to age. She had tried taking the creature to the hidden village and then leaving, but when she returned, it was still there, in the same place she left it. Another thing that she had already tried was to search for the monsters outside of the dungeon. The ones that she fed it the first time, but there was nothing. It seemed like killing all the Naga wasn't enough to make the special monsters spawn.

"Are we sure this is Scryotra? Maybe it's too young now," Nimbus suggested.

Hera looked at the scorpion praying mantis hybrid and used her [Observe]

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Future Scryotra - Level 1

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"I mean, it's name is 'Future Scryotra.' I don't think the system is telling me that this is a version of it from the future," Hera sighed.

'But Nimbus might still be right,' Chris spoke up, 'Maybe we can't rescue it right now. It needs to be later.

'How much later is the issue. From what we know, we only have two. Maybe three opportunities to save it,' Ember said.

"Three chances? What are they?" Livy was unable to remember the dungeon all that well.

'The first would be when we arrive at the hidden village. Just after Dormina names it. Then, when we come back with the monsters we hunted. And the third would be after we feed it. The next step of the dungeon already had Scryotra as a giant monster, didn't it?' Dao asked.

'Bro, what? Getting it out after it eats is a crazy idea. Little dude ate the spirit and ran towards that tunnel. The next time we saw it was when it started destroying that first city,' DJ got closer to Dao, getting pulled back by Chris, who noticed they were getting too much into each other's personal space.

'Why does that matter? Can't we just try every option?' Crimson sighed.

'We can, but that takes time, Crim. We only have a week to finish this,' Viper's voice was a bit tired. Not because he overworked himself but because dealing with his hyperactive twin was exhausting. He had to pull her leash constantly during fights. Crimson would always be over-eager and try to push a bit beyond Hera's range at the cost of a small drop in the Empress mana pool. Viper knew that Hera wouldn't order them to be inside the range unless it became a serious situation, but he didn't want to let them get to that point.

Hera nodded, "Yeah. Time is the biggest issue. I mean, we've been here for how long already?" she reached for her tablet but got an answer from Dusa.

'A-a-about 4 hours.'

"See," Hera let out a long sigh.

'But staying here doing nothing also makes us waste time,' Crimson protested.

"That's fair, but we are not doing nothing. Our Empress is taking a moment to rest. Sure, her body might not be tired thanks to all her attributes and the skills she has available, but that doesn't mean constant fighting doesn't put a strain on her mind," Lurize explained.

This was all he needed to say. Despite their unique personalities and desires, there was one thing that the entire court wanted more than anything. For Hera to be safe and well. After around 10 minutes, the Empress got up and started walking towards the dungeon's entrance, "Let's start clearing the options. We'll try to save Scryotra after we get in the hidden village, then, if that doesn't work. We go for the last chance. The one after it eats the monsters we bring it. I just really hope we don't have to get the same 10 monsters it ate back."

'Oh… I didn't think about that,' Crimson confessed.

'Me neither,' Viper sounded a bit down.

"I think I was the only one really worried about it," Hera admitted.

"I think so too, but if that's the case… we might have some problems," Nimbus looked around, trying to see if the current dungeon had any similarities with the stage where they had to hunt monsters.

"What if you ask Yarnball?" Livy suggested.

"I was thinking the same," Hera already had her relic in her hand, "When we reach the part of the dungeon where we need to hunt monsters for Scryotra, what is one of the monsters the original Scryotra ate that are part of this dungeon?" she hated how she phrased this question, but that would usually work, despite the odd wording. She also avoided asking about all the monsters at once since she was sure she wouldn't have enough mana for that.

A few tense moments went by, and an answer appeared on the screen, 'The Rejuvenating Feline.'

"Ok, we have one. In two hours, I can ask again. If our next attempt doesn't work, we already have at least one of the monsters for the next one. But again, I really hope we don't have to get the right combination," Hera was incredibly frustrated with this dungeon. It was one thing if she was just doing several runs, but having to stop midway for something that might or might not work was incredibly annoying.

The next attempt was very similar to the first run. Hera just followed along with the cultists, evading the army's attacks and reaching the hidden village. Inside, the Empress walked straight to the room where Dormina was grieving her son. Without batting an eye, the Ophidianite approached and cut off the cultist leader's head in a single move while wielding Dao. The other cultist that was in the room was already on the move to attack her when he noticed the intruder moving her weapon. However, Livy, in her weapon form, intercepted him, bisecting the Naga. Hera reached out for the cage, where a version of Scryotra was already there but a bit bigger than before. Walking towards the exit of the hidden village, she heard the sounds of battle as her court had already spread to take care of the Naga here. While leaving this place, she felt like the villain in a movie. Sounds of death and war were all around her while the Empress walked, stone-faced and unbothered by all that was going on around her.

Even if she had already made her peace with killing people inside dungeons, this still stung a bit. However, she focused on the loot and the quest she was currently doing. There were a lot of materials left behind from the Naga that she killed, but nothing truly interesting. It was mostly some scales or pieces of armor that could be repurposed. She didn't bother getting them. Instead, she just took the dropped gold since it would go straight to her bank account. This was a gift from Eirik, who took care of making all the documentation for her new identity. People in the higher ranks of the various governments would be aware of her situation, but for everyone else, she was just a new species that joined the MAZE at large.

When Hera managed to leave the village, the dungeon was still in the same state as it was after the attack. There was no more Naga army, but the village was still destroyed. Nimbus even flew towards the sky for a better advantage point but found no movement anywhere. Unfortunately, even with all that, there was no change in the resentment and no new chain quest or anything like that. The final nail in the coffin was when she used her [Observe] on Scryotra.

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Future Scryotra - Level 5

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She should've tried to do this sooner, but the name might also not mean anything. Without any other ideas, she left the dungeon yet again for the next attempt. She did everything like she was supposed to and hunted all the 10 monsters. Making sure to have one of them being the Rejuvenating Feline. After Scryotra ate all of them, including the spirit given by Dormina, Hera jumped into action. One more time, she killed the cultist leader before grabbing the guardian beast. This time, the monster fought back, forcing Hera to use a poison to make it sleep. Then, she ran back outside. The fight this time was somewhat harder but still far from being a problem. If this was done by another person, they might have some trouble since there were around 50 Naga warriors coming at once, but for the Empress and her court, this wasn't an issue.

Yet, once again, when she left with Scryotra, nothing happened. There was no notification, no dungeon quest chain, nothing. Hera dropped the poison and waited for the monster to wake up. After a few minutes, the regeneration it had gained from the feline kicked in, and the guardian beast woke up. Instead of attacking Hera right away, it looked up, seeing the sky for the first time in a long while. The monster glanced at Hera once before rushing off toward the forest. Hera waited a few more moments and even looked at the resentment again, but nothing had changed aside from its name.

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Scryotra - Level 15

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Since it took her around 1 hour and a half to gather all 10 monsters, the cooldown on Yarnball's question was finally over, allowing for another question. Instead of asking for a different monster, Hera just decided to confirm one thing, "Do I have to find the correct 10 monsters for the resentment to be affected?"

'Yes.'

Seeing that answer, the Empress cursed loudly and headed out of the dungeon. This time, going all the way back to Zaxalam. It was the middle of the day, and she was hungry. Despite the dungeon here offering food, that would only happen after she lost the chance to steal Scryotra from the cultists. For the next two days, this was all that Hera did. Go to the Guardian Rage dungeon, reach the point where she had to hunt the 10 monsters, and try a different combination. Hera also used her relic almost every chance she got to increase the list of monsters she had to hunt for the guardian beast. When she finally got the correct order, there were only 3 of the 10 monsters missing from the list she got through the questions. The main reason why it took so long to complete this was the travel from point to point while she was trying to hunt the monsters.

This time, there were two differences. First, the name. Scryotra was now called 'True Scryotra,' meaning that this was the same version as the original. The second change was that after rescuing it from the village and letting it free outside, the dungeon quest appeared to be completed. Hera's reward was just a few thousand gold, but the more important part was the next notification.

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You have unlocked the hard mode for the Guardian's Rage dungeon.

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Since she had no other ideas and the guide told her the dungeon was the key to all of this, Hera decided to just run the dungeon. But that would have to happen the next day. It was already very late, and she was exhausted after an entire day of hunting random monsters inside a dungeon. Not to mention that every time she came here, the stealth spirits would try to attack her. At least she was still on schedule. There were five days before her new team arrived. Meaning she still had five days to deal with the quest. One way or another.