746 Grocery Shopping

Hera and her party took half an hour to find the first monster they could hunt, and it wasn't anything special. It was just an oversized raccoon with red fur around its eyes. It was called 'Redmask Bandit' and just level 14. Despite the name, the creature didn't seem that skilled in robbing or hiding. It was just lumbering around awkwardly while trying to chase after some fruits that rolled down the hill. They let Legan attack it, but even the low-level explorer had no trouble getting rid of the creature. All he had to do was send Timber after it and finish it by creating a bone spike on top of his skeleton dog when it went in for a headbutt.

"Are we going to give this one to Dormina?" Legan asked.

"Honestly. I'm not that interested in the idea of getting a mid-boss like Hera said, but this one feels like it's too little," Bonnie sighed.

"Yeah. But it's going to take so long to find enough monsters. I mean, the place is barren. It took us half an hour to find one. If we keep that pace up, it's going to take what, 5 hours to get them all?" Alex shook her head, "I'm not in the mood for a long dungeon like that."

"What if we split up? I take Legan with me and fly with Nimbus around. Then we all meet up near…" Hera looked around for any landmarks and noticed a single tree with red leaves in the distance, "There. We hunt for, let's say, one hour and meet up there. If anyone gets a monster that is too big to carry, which I don't think will happen, you can tell us through the communicators."

"Why don't you think we will find monsters that are too big?" Legan turned to Hera.

"Because of the size of the passage to get back to the hidden village. I don't think the dungeon would make us butcher the monster or have us getting Dormina and Scryotra out here. Not now, at least," Hera explained, "But that is just an assumption. Not a hard rule. It's perfectly possible for the size of the passage to change, or for when we get here with a big monster, the cult leader will show up outside."

"I see… That's good to know. We can still consider some things to stay the same in a dungeon."

"Generally, dungeons still follow some sort of logic. There are exceptions, but you can make some assumptions," Helena nodded and looked around, "Well. I'm calling my guard then," she used the skill she had from the wasp dungeon to summon her Shadow Wasp Knight, this time not using any light mana to increase its stealth abilities.

"I guess we are splitting up then," Bonnie sighed.

"Legan, do you want to come with me? I don't think it's a good idea for you to be alone here," Hera turned to the dwarf.

"I would like that. I don't think I had a proper chance to watch you fight," the man replied with a smile.

"Great! Nimbus, do you mind taking us for a ride?" Hera turned to the side as the Sentinel appeared.

"It will be my pleasure," he said before turning into his griffon form.

Hera and Legan jumped on the mount's back as Nimbus started to run. He would need to find a place that was more open to take off. The rest of the party did the same, all going in different directions. Alex stepped in the air and started to run with the wind. Helena jumped on the back of his Wasp Guard, and Bonnie was the only one left to walk on foot, grumbling about how unfair all of this was. She was the only one without a good mobility option, and that was starting to bother her.

It didn't take long for Nimbus to find a place to start flying, and they were soon looking around the dungeon for any interesting monster. Nimbus could fly at around 50 km/h now, which let them cover a large area very quickly. It was a bit odd since they seemed to be in the middle of a reverencing forest, but after 10 minutes of searching around, they noticed one thing. Close to one of the mountains, there was gray rock that seemed to be moving. It wasn't that big, but thanks to it being around a place with very little foliage, they could see it moving.

"I think that's a golem," Hera yelled to Legan. Since this was the first time he was flying, the Empress wrapped her tail around his waist to help secure him behind her. Doing so felt a bit intimate, but she didn't say anything.

"Can Scryotra eat rocks?" the dwarf asked.

"Only one way to find out," Hera replied while Nimbus started to move toward the creature. Once they got closer, the two explorers triggered their [Observe] to confirm if this was a monster.

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Granite Golem - Level 16

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"Granite affinity. Seems about right," Hera mumbled to herself when she realized the type of mana the creature had. Level 16 should also be above the average for the dungeon, which should mean this creature would give them a decent reward, "So, Legan. Do you want to try killing that?"

"I'm not that confident fighting against something made out of rocks. My attacks are mostly physical," he replied.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of this one then," Hera nodded.

Nimbus understood what she wanted, and they landed near the creature. Dismounting the griffon, the Empress started to move closer to the golem and called Livy and the rest of her court out. Unfortunately, the Sentinel had reached a point where having her blades out while flying became a problem. If Hera was holding on to them, she would lose her balance, and if they tried to follow him, they would slam against the edge of the range and be dragged along while taking damage.

"Livy, think you can handle that one?" Hera asked with a smile.

"A big chunk of rock?" the Sea Serpent opened a wide grin while gripping the war axe in her hands, "It's going to be easy."

Livy turned around and started running towards the creature. The golem finally noticed the people approaching and raised both its hands to grab the Leviathan. After placing her axe in her back, the two giants clashed, grabbing each other's hands in a test of strength. For a moment, they seemed to be even, but the Sea Serpent scoffed.

"Is that all? You don't even deserve my blade," she leaned back and pulled the golem up, almost as if she was bench pressing it, "YOU LACK MUSCLE!" she slammed it down to the ground, cracking some of its body, "YOU LACK POWER!" she yelled and did the same move again, this time, the golem's legs crumbled under its weight, "YOU LACK STRENGTH!" with a final scream, Livy jumped five meters in the air before doing a flip and tossing the golem back to the ground. The impact turned its body to dust, leaving behind a single gem that was the creature's core.

Legan dropped his jaw as he watched the Leviathan fighting. He turned to Hera, "Does she… always do that?"

"Livy is our brute. That's pretty much her style. But to be honest, I called her because she has water spells, and I figured that would help," Hera turned to the Sea Serpent.

"This thing wasn't worth the mana," Livy huffed, "Ever since the Pinnacle Mountain, I haven't found a proper challenge. I want a fight. A really good fight!"

"We'll find one. I promise, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to call you during the prison break," Hera reached up to pat her shoulder.

"That's ok, Hera. I know why you did it. Even if it was kind of a waste. The whole idea was to not reveal your identity, but that happened anyway."

"Yeah, but the guild didn't know about the legacy. So that still worked," Hera nodded and walked over to the golem's core, using her [Inspect] to see if there was any useful information.

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Granite Golem's Core

The only piece of a golem that Scryotra can eat.

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"Oh. That's great," Hera smiled and turned to Livy, "In the end, we needed to grab this. It's better than having to carry the whole thing with us."

"So… we still need 9, right?" Legan asked.

"That is correct, and the Empress also has to show you how she fights," Nimbus nodded.

"Hey! This is how I fight," Hera protested.

"Even if we are part of you, this is not you fighting. You telling us to fight," Lurize shook his head.

"Fine, I'll take care of the next one then," Hera huffed and looked around, "Can anyone see any tracks or anything? Should I ask Yarnball?"

"Oh! I have an idea," Legan spoke up and pulled the bone dust from his small bag, summoning his skeleton dog again, "Timber, can you see if you find any monster around here?"

"Can he even smell?" Livy asked.

"More or less. It's like he is attracted to bones. So as long as we are looking for a monster with bones, he can find them," Legan explained.

They all waited for a moment while Timber sniffed the ground, waving his bone tail. After around 30 seconds, he pointed to the left, away from the mountain. Legan smiled and told the skeleton dog to continue moving. They followed it around for around 10 minutes, running through the woods with Hera, keeping an eye out for any monster that could be interesting to take back. Eventually, they reached a small clearing where a multicolored manticore about the size of a medium dog was lying on the floor, basking in the sun. It had the classic shape: the body and face of a lion, the wings of a bat, and the tail of a scorpion. A lot of people would confuse this creature with a chimera, but unlike its 'cousin,' this one only had a single head. The main difference between this manticore and the ones the Empress knew about was the colors. Its hide was almost like it was made out of bismuth. The colors shifted as the light hit it, making the creature resemble a rainbow of sorts.

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Chromatic Manticore - level 18

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"I'll take that one," Hera told Legan. Not because she didn't think he could do this, but because she promised to show him how she fought.

To start, she tossed a single poison needle at the creature. An attack that was so sneaky that the manticore wasn't even able to tell it was hit. Taking Ember and DJ in her hands, she told the rest of her court to focus on defending. Daskka, who was oddly quiet during this dungeon, dropped from Hera's shoulder and turned into silver mist, getting ready to attack the monster.

The Empress took a few steps back and got ready to try one thing, 'Dusa, can you guide me?'

'Of-of course. I'll do my best!' the diadem replied and helped her get into position, 'I think this is enough space. Maybe.'

'Don't worry. If things go south, Nimbus and the others can step in,' Hera replied and took a deep breath before starting to run.

She jumped and did a flip, stopping upside down as her tail wrapped around one of the nearby branches. Becoming a pendulum, her hair brushed against the ground before she reached enough height to let go and fly through the air, aiming to attack the manticore from above. Unfortunately, she didn't release her tail at the right moment and ended up overshooting the attack.

The monster jumped up, surprised by the sudden appearance of someone jumping in front of it. Its instinct was to attack. Dao blocked the claw as Viper and Crimson intercepted the incoming tail. Hera covered her body in a fire elemental armor and used her tail to slap the manticore's face, singing the creature's mane. As a follow-up, she swung Ember in a spin that cut the tip of the monster's scorpion tail. The manticore roared and went in for another attack, but the Ophidianite was already spinning around it, humming a tune to resonate with DJ and increase the power of the attacks while Ember became engulfed in flames. Each time the creature turned to attack Hera, she was already in a different spot. The fight could've ended a long time ago, but she was putting up a show for Legan. The way she fought, when not considering the court, was to confuse her opponents and never be in the same place for a long time. It was a shame she replaced her shoes and couldn't glide on the ground as easily anymore, but her shoes let her cover the area in a thin layer of ice, which was already enough for the moment. To top it all off, she added the battle dancer skill, hitting the manticore in a rhythm while the rest of her court just focused on defense. This was nowhere near the best use of that skill, but it was enough to show it off.

After around 2 minutes, with the monster already bleeding and with burns all over its body, Hera decided to end things and made the poison that was spreading inside it freeze all its muscles. The moment the manticore did that, Hera brought Ember straight down its head, breaking the skull and piercing the brain in a single move.

Taking a step back, covered in the blood of her enemies, the Empress turned back to Legan with a big smile and asked, "So? What do you think?"