MAZE - The Endless Quest

Once the group arrived at the penthouse, Victor greeted Vanessa, who thanked Alex for saving her family again. There was a brief conversation about Vanessa’s son and how they got closer and he had his own family now, which, according to Elistrae, was very quick for elves since the man wasn’t even 100 years old yet. At the tail end of the conversation, Hera felt the snakes she sent out to prepare the Pool of Styx spell reaching their destination. However, there was no need for that anymore. A bit frustrated, she just called them back. The quest was basically over, there was no need to even try using that spell. Besides, it would take a while for all the snakes to gather again. Leaving them here would just stop her from using the skill, and telling them to kill themselves didn’t feel right.

“Do we know where the other mutated vampire hordes, or the vampire hunters are?” Flint walked closer to the map the purifiers had available.

“They should be-“ Vanessa was about to point somewhere, but Victor interrupted her.

“Dead. The last vampire hunter was just killed by my army.”

Along with his phrase, everyone saw a notification appearing.

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You have completed a dungeon quest.

The purifiers have been saved, and all threats to their existence have been dealt with.

Reward:

Random piece of the Legendary Vampire Hunter set.

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“Yes!” Bonnie gasped as she pulled a necklace from mid-air. Everyone looked at her and she just smiled, “I got the necklace for the Ancestral set. It gives me a low level flying ability.”

“So everyone got one of the types of items? I got the Legendary set,” Hera replied.

Most people ended up with the Ancient Vampire Lord set, only Flint, Fernando, and Hera got the Legendary Vampire Hunter ones.

The group stayed in the dungeon for about one more hour. Victor and Vanessa insisted on giving them some food and drinks as a thanks for all the help, and that also gave them some time to check the rewards properly. Funny enough, Hera also got an item that could allow her to fly.

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Legendary Vampire Hunter Cape

Epic

Active skill:

Wings of light:

Grants the wearer the ability to take flight at half the speed they can normally run. If the wearer is more than 20 meters away from the ground, the wings cannot increase in height and will slowly descend until reaching that height limit. While airborne, wearer gains increased maneuverability, evasion and bonus damage against vampires.

The bonus damage is applied when facing non vampire enemies that have any sort of drain, or leech ability at a quarter of its original strength.

Duration: 20 minutes

Cooldown: 2 hours

Chance to evade attacks: 5%

Bonus damage against vampires: + 200%

Bonus damage against targets on the receiving end of a drain of leech effect: + 50%

Passive skill:

Shadowbreaker Aura:

This cape emits an aura that disrupts shadow related magic and weakens vampire’s abilities.

The weakening effects is applied is applied when facing non vampire enemies that have any sort of drain, or leech ability at a quarter of its original strength.

Radius: 20 meters

Skill effectiveness to vampires and shadow magic: -80%

Skill effectiveness against targets on the receiving end of a drain of leech effect: -20%

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The cape was made with what looked like a dull and worn out brown leather, but it felt like silk. It could easily be used to cover Hera’s body during the cold, but it was breezy enough not to be a problem while under the sun. Inside it, there were several golden runes that gave off a ‘holy’ feeling, as if they were blessed by a priest, or it was something created by the purifiers. To make things even better, the cape split about halfway down the back, which would allow the Ophidianite to move her tail around without having to go under the cape.

“That’s a bit stupid,” Paige frowned.

“What? The skills are not that powerful, and very conditional. Unless I can maybe make a spell that lets others drain me or drain something, but it’s gong to be tricky. Like giving mana to my enemies doesn’t sound like a great idea,” Hera replied.

“What if you make them drain your poison? I mean, you do have poison glands, right? Can’t you use them,” Skyler suggested.

The Ophidianite stopped to think for a moment before nodding, “There might be something there. It does say receiving end of the effect, so if they’re being poisoned, still applies. I just need to see how to make that work.”

“It’s a good idea, but I’m not talking about that,” Paige waited for everyone to turn to her before continuing, “I’m talking about why the vampire hunter set has a flying ability. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe it is for them to chase bats. You know. When a vampire transform,” Vash replied.

“That’s actually correct,” Victor nodded, “It’s pretty common for us to run away as bats. Or at least for the ones who have a decent grasp of their power to do so. Most vampire hunters can’t follow us when we do that. But the good ones can.”

“See! I already knew that,” Vash puffed his chest with a grin,

The Harmony Guardians knew the harpy was full of shit, but none of them said a thing. This was just a minor thing, and there was no harm in letting him have his fun. The items the rest of the group got could be useful for them, but no one decided to keep it. Hera also agreed that nothing was better than what she was already wearing. Most of her defensive gear would increase her natural defenses, meaning her scales. Changing that to something different wasn’t worth it unless the new item had a strong skill.

Once they left the dungeon, Hera, and all other Harmony Guardians, received a text from Milla. They were supposed to head to a specific hotel in a city to meet someone. When getting there, the hotel room was different, First, there was a partition blocking the view of anyone who tried to look inside. They had to move around it. The bed was still there, but in the corner, together with most of the furniture. In the center was a table, some chairs facing the wall, with a large TV screen. And there were runes scribbled everywhere. The TV came to life and Ka’mal appeared.

“Ok, now this makes sense. But why all the cloak and dagger? Couldn’t you have just called us in the Alliance Center?” Skyler asked.

Ka’mal was moving his hands, and there was a sound of paper ruffling, in addition, he wasn’t looking at the screen, but he still replied, “What we are going to talk about is more sensitive. A few of our people took care of making the room you are in secure. It’s harder for anyone who is trying to hear us.”

“Should I add a soundproof barrier?” Hera asked.

“It wouldn’t hurt, but there is already one in the room you are,” Ka’mal replied as we wrote something.

Hera nodded and activated the spell either way. Helping even a little was more than enough for her.

“Ok, and what is this mission, I’m assuming?” Flint asked.

“All of you are aware of what happened in Kertal, correct? In the room Crater of Sky,” Ka’mal continued, looking down.

“The humans took over the city, and we left the room. But some families are stuck there with their children who can’t cross a doorway,” Neria replied, her voice taking a somber tone.

“Exactly. You should also know that we intend to save them. We are going on a large scale battle to take over the room. What you might not know is that we have a time frame for that. The intel we got paints a picture of when the best time to attack will be. We know how long it will take the humans to send people there and when we should have the larger force.”

“Can you tell us that? Besides, isn’t crossing already a problem? I’m sure the humans are all preparing attacks for when people get there,” Roan asked.

“We are not naive enough to believe the humans don’t know that. Their spies likely already told them the danger of the situation.”

“Do we really have people who are on their side? I mean, they hate all of us,” Vash asked.

That made Ka’mal pause and look up with a confused expression, “What? No, I mean, not really. It is possible that one of us is working for them, but those cases should involve hostages and blackmail. I don’t believe anyone is agreeing with their idea that our species are lesser,” for the first time since the call started, the elven spy looked at the group. He noticed how they all looked more or less the same, but their equipment was far from being in a pristine condition. Taking a deep breath, he put aside the papers and continued, “What I called to say is. I know that you can reach our armies if you want to participate in that battle. I know some of you are against going to the front lines, but this is a different situation. The idea is to take over the room, save the people that were left behind, then leave. A couple hundred people will stay behind and they will lock the room. Cutting themselves off from the rest of the MAZE for the next 6 months. Then they will open the room for just a minute to contact us and see if the war is still going on. If it is, the idea is to close the room once more and try again in another 6 months. Also, there are human families in one of their cities. People confirmed the presence of children during one of the scout missions. The humans want to use the lives of those in that room that cannot cross over as chess pieces. But we want to remove from the board entirely.”

“So… you are asking us to go to what should be the largest battle that ever happened in this war?” Vash asked.

“I am asking if you want to go. Your group will not make or break the operation. I believe we can push the humans back fast enough to get them all out of the room before their reinforcements arrive. But, I will say that most of the army that is there is around level 35 to 40. That’s the average across the board. I won’t say numbers in case we someone is listening but people around level 60 will not be as numerous as the rest. Then again, we will have stronger individuals than any of you there, too. Including a couple of familiar faces to you, Hera. I’m asking this because I know that you are strong, and have experience with a few things that I believe will show up during the battle.”

Hera frowned, “You mean that we might see the thing that brought us to this room?” she didn’t want to say anything about the Soldiers of Strength out loud, just in case.

Ka’mal nodded, “Yes. The intel says they are ready and should appear soon. And if we are thinking about who is behind all that, doing this now would be very good for them. If they are able to defend the room, that is. You have that experience in dealing with them. A worst version of them actually, and I know you are capable of doing things that frankly, not many others can do. So, even if you won’t make or break the battle, I do think you would be a good addition to it.”

“And if we don’t want to go?” Flint asked.

“Then you don’t have to. You have until,” Ka’mal looked to the side, “Minus three…. 9 P.M. to leave. So let’s say 6 P.M. for you to confirm if you are going or not. The place is a bit far away and there is a chance that we need to speed things along and start sooner than expected. So the faster you leave, the better. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. Rest for the day and I’ll get you a mission tomorrow. We do have a few things going on that could use the help.”

“Ok… do you mind if we stay in this room, then? To talk?” Skyler asked.

“Feel free. You are the only group I’m talking to in the Pink Coast Forest. Just don’t go out and order food. If you need anything, ask for room service using the menu that’s in that room. They will send someone who knows about that place and how careful they have to be,” Ka’mal replied.

“Thank you. We will tell Milla if we accept the mission or not soon. We just,“ Skyler looked around the group, everyone with very different expressions, “Need to talk.”

“I understand, take your time. Well, not really, but you understand what I meant,” Ka’mal glanced to the side, “Oh, there is another thing. King Rutigan became aware of something and asked me to pass you a message, Hera.”

The Empress perked up, it’s been a while since she talked with the dwarven King, and for him to send a message like that it had to be important.

“The message is this, ‘Helena is going to Crater of Sky. She has family there.’”

Hera stared at Ka’mal through the screen as all the color drained from her face. Up until this point, her vote was not going to that battle. She had no interest in participating in a large scale assault in a room, but that changed everything. How could she live with herself if something happened to Helena? But that was followed by yet another question. Why the hell were all the people she cared about getting involved in the bad parts of this war?