Boothudurn Doorway

It took a while for Hera to wake up. There was a note from Blue letting her know they were invited to have dinner with the king. She also had told Naka that after the assassin's test, she spent the entire day sleeping, so Hera could enjoy another day off. Hera smiled while reading the note. Especially when she saw a line in the bottom that said, 'I'm glad you came back in one piece. I know there was no danger, but still. I was worried, not as much as Silah though, good luck.'

Hera took advantage of that and spent the rest of the morning lazying around. She woke up near 11 A. M, but only got up after noon. Since she was pretending to be sleeping for most of the day, going outside was out of the picture. She also had to be careful with any loud noises. The last thing she needed was to get another scolding from Naka. Despite that, having an extra day to rest was amazing. Hera still felt sore from all the running around in the test.

When she finally got out of bed, the first thing Hera did was prepare a bath. Not so much to clean herself up, but just to feel refreshed. She pulled up a book on her tablet and spent over one hour inside the tub reading. After that, Hera used some of the skincare products that Fethy and Risli gave to them. She was going to treat herself to a spa day, and no one could do anything about that.

That's how she spent most of the afternoon. Taking care of herself and relaxing. Despite that, she also spent most of the time reading about the various monsters in her catalogue. Monster like the frogs from Brinefront and the Sprites from the Underground Forest already had their buffs giving over 70% efficacy. They also had a much more extensive description. She could read up on their attack patterns, skill set, elemental weakness, and resistances. She could also check what materials she could get from each creature and how much each piece was worth, be it a drop from a monster inside the dungeon or something she would have to harvest from a corpse. The price wasn't updated via the internet or something like it. Instead, it took from the knowledge she had from selling the materials. That's why things like the sheep meat and wool didn't have a value attached to them. One thing that was unique to Hera's catalogue was the classification of the monster's affinities. She only had that information thanks to Helena's affinity sight spell.

Curious about one thing, she checked the information about the boss monsters. Just like the others, they still showed up in the catalogue, but not only was there a more in-depth explanation of their attack patterns and phases, but also a list of items that could be dropped from them. It didn't say any odds, but there were things like how rare the drop was. That didn't mean the item itself was rare, but the boss monster would rarely drop that item. That's why, for instance, the Light of the Forest, from the Underground Forest, had money listed as a rare drop despite never giving over 100 gold during their runs.

During the afternoon, Hera realized she had no idea if the dwarves' hunt could affect the griffons. If they could use the pinpoint weak spot, it was an even bigger boost to their attacks. But she couldn't remember if there was a hunter among the team who would fight the Sky Ruler's Spawns.

Hera found herself working out or practicing her spells, despite her initial idea of having a day off to rest. By the time Blue was supposed to be getting back, Hera prepared a small snack for her and her friend. She wanted to check up on her and tell about her new skills.

Blue wasn't the only one that came home after her shift. Silah came along before even heading home. When the two arrived, Hera had already set up a small tea party with some pastries. The one thing that was missing from the afternoon was actual tea. Instead, she had set up a wine bottle and two glasses.

"Hey! You are finally up," Blue cheered as she entered the house.

"Yeah, thanks for putting me on the bed, by the way. If I slept at the dinner table, I'm sure my neck would be killing me."

"No worries, I had a lot of nights sleeping on a desk before a test," Blue walked over the table, making a signal for Silah to join her.

"Hold up. Are you implying that you studied the entire night?" Hera picked another glass for Silah from the cupboard.

"I did. I don't know what's so surprising," Blue huffed.

"I mean... I've seen your grades."

"Well, I had to cram all my studies in a single night before the test. It's a perfectly legitimate way of studying."

"Fine, fine," Hera walked over to Silah, "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too. Are you ok? Do you need to see a shaman?" Silah started looking over Hera, searching for any wounds.

"I'm ok, don't worry. I told you guys that I can't die in there. The room healed any wounds I got in there. Even with that, I didn't get hurt in there. Not really. I mean, a monkey used my body to break another monkey's skull, but the armor took the brunt of it."

"What?" Silah gasped, grabbing Hera's hands

"Hey, hey, Don't worry. Everything is ok. I'm fine. Besides, those dozens of monkeys were nowhere near the worst thing I ever fought."

"What is your top five then?" Blue asked.

"The wendigo takes first place, no doubt about it. The second, I think, would be Light Fur. Imagine fighting him without Zudra," Hera replied without missing a beat.

"I'll pass. That thing was a real monster. Not to mention I still have nightmares about Tom's smell that day."

"Oh yeah, that was rough. Are the nightmares frequent?"

"Not really. It's just part of other things. Anyway, who got the last three spots?" Blue quickly changed the subject.

"I don't know. It falls off pretty hard. Those two were the only ones that made me feel like a squirrel in front of a snake. The Light of the Forest was annoying but never felt… unreasonably strong, and even the Carbuncle. That pangolin that I fought outside the cave in Brinefront. It was strong but nothing overwhelming."

The more the two talked about the different monsters, the more Silah sighed, "I'm still not sure how you two can be so cavalier about being killed, but I'm glad you are ok Hera. Blue said that last time you had a test like this, you came back in a really bad shape."

"Blue! You shouldn't have scared her. You know why the assassin's test was so tough."

"But I told her you were physically fine. You just had a small breakdown."

"Oh gee, thanks. That's much better," Hera rolled her eyes and turned back to Silah, "I don't think I ever told you about what happened in that test. It's a bit of a long story. Do you have time?"

"I do, but I don't think you guys have," Silah nodded towards two packages on the couch, "The king asked you two to try those clothes for your dinner with him."

"Is that normal? The king says he wants to have dinner with us, and that's that? He even sends us clothes? He's not going to try something, is he?" Hera asked.

"If you have a good reason not to go, you can say so, but if not, he might be hurt. For the trying something part, I'm not sure what you mean about it," Silah replied.

"If we don't go and it's not a damn good reason, Naka will skin us alive tomorrow. Besides, these are from Fethy. She had a couple of people working with those and used the dinner as an excuse to give us," Blue added.

"Yeah, I kind of figured," Hera stared at the packages, "Do you guys know if one of those is a dress?"

"I think one of them is, but that's mine. At least that's what Fethy told me," Blue walked over and opened the packages.

In one of them, there was a long-sleeved dress made entirely of what looked like blue silk. It had some white fluff on the arms, making it seem like the effect of Blue triggering her shoulder guards. The dress had a long skirt, but its back was open, and there was a deep blue shawl to accompany it.

"This is beautiful," Blue gasped, "It's a shame I don't have any shoes to go with it."

"Wow, it really is," Hera walked over and touched the dress. It felt soft and smooth, not to mention surprisingly warm. On second thought, she realized it wasn't unexpected. Boothudurn was a cold room. Even inside the mountain, the temperature from the outside still took hold. It was much better than how it felt when she was in the snow, but it wasn't a place that had a warm climate in any way.

"How about the other package?" Silah asked.

Hera opened what should be her clothes and found a pair of black leather pants with a white short-sleeved blouse with a black rim all around it, and a deep red tailcoat with what looked like a corset in the middle.

"Holy crap. I'm kind of jealous," Blue said.

"Yeah, I still feel like this was a way for Fethy to go around my no dresses or skirts policies but this is still amazing."

"Fair point. Can you help me get into this thing? I know Quinn loves these dresses, but I have no clue how to tie this on my back," Blue asked.

"Sure," Hera turned to Silah, "This might take a while. Do you want to go home and get ready?"

"Ready for what? I'm not invited to dinner."

"Oh… sorry. I just…"

"Don't worry. I didn't expect to be invited. Do you guys mind if I wait here? I want to see you two all dressed up."

Blue stared at Silah for a moment, "Sure, but don't make us late because you two were making out."

"Don't worry. There is no dumpster around," Silah replied with a smile.

Hera started laughing while Blue huffed and went towards the bedroom to get dressed. Hera took that chance to give Silah a quick kiss before heading after her friend. If she had learned anything, it was that Blue took ages to get dressed when she was going out to a party. It took them around one hour. Hera was done in just over 15 minutes, but Blue still had to put on makeup and do her hair. After a lot of insistence from Silah, Hera agreed to put some makeup on.

There was one thing Hera had to admit. The clothes were amazing. Using this tailcoat made her feel like a character in a fantasy novel. The half skirt would flow as she walked, and the whole get-up was beautiful. The only thing missing was some knee-high boots.

They helped Blue get ready, and the time to head to the palace arrived. Silah accompanied them for a while, but she headed back home as they got closer to the castle. No one would stop her from entering, but since the King didn't invite her, she had nothing to do there.

A couple of royal guards escorted the humans towards an office where Rutigan was waiting for them.

"Ah, welcome, my dear friends. I apologize for the rushed invite, but a meeting I had was canceled, and I wanted to discuss the new endeavor you are working on," Rutigan got up from his desk and walked towards the two to greet them.

"Don't worry. We appreciate the invitation. I hope the discussion is nothing serious," Hera replied.

"Not at all. I just wish to discuss our future, but first, I must keep a promise," Rutigan smiled, "Please, follow me."

"Where are we going?" Blue asked.

Rutigan led them through the palace. He went past the room where the council would appear and then to the throne room. He kept going towards what looked like a dead end. There, he used a spell, and on the side, a part of the wall shifted, giving way to a small hallway.

"Do either of you have any light spells? I'm not very proficient in that specific type of magic, and well. Leaving this passage open is not something I'm keen to do," Rutigan asked.

"Sure," Hera created a dancing light to follow them inside the tunnel.

Rutigan thanked her and closed off the entrance. The corridor was short, and in the end, he used the same spell once more to shift the wall. Now, they were in a massive tunnel with an entrance to the palace behind them. This specific gate wasn't very well kept, and they could see several cracks all over the stones. There were two additional paths, one heading in the same direction as the door and another to the side that was blocked off by a smooth stone wall.

"This is the path to the doorway. We closed it generations ago to avoid giving our people any ideas of fighting the Sky Ruler."

"Why would people have that idea?" Hera asked.

"You will understand when we arrive," Rutigan replied as he kept heading deeper inside the tunnel.