414 Test

Hera walked through the temple for what felt like hours. Even if she knew she was in the right wing of the structure, there were still too many rooms to look through. To make things worse, there were corridors inside corridors which caused her to backtrack several times through hallways that she had already seen. While looking through the temple, Hera found a place that seemed secluded and even tried to call a guide, but the skill didn't work.

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You already have called the guide of the Waperath Jungle.

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With a sigh, Hera continued walking. She finally reached the mausoleum after almost fifteen minutes of roaming around. It was surprisingly well preserved, but instead of having tombs or something like that, there were shelves and shelves filled with urns. As a way to protect them, there was an invisible wall between Hera and the urns. Kirouhebi was probably the only one capable of rearranging them or adding them to the temple. It was nice knowing that some people would still be here even after thousands of years. She could read the names and titles of everyone who ended up here, but there was no mention of the Blademaster or anything like that.

This felt much more like a regular graveyard where anyone could be laid to rest than something exclusive. It wasn't just because of the lack of family emblems as decorations in the room, but because each urn was unique and very different from the rest. Some were adorned with gold and other jewels and had markings and symbols that made Hera think about noble houses, while others were simply made out of clay that seemed very simple. Along with the name of each person who was here, there were also their dates of birth and death, and they varied wildly. Most of them were from thousands of years before Khan. The frequency of people who were 'buried' here was much lower these days. With a quick glance, she found who she assumed was the last person buried here, about 600 years ago.

Leaving this room, Hera started thinking about where the Blademaster could be. First, she looked for a place where people could hang out since he was always accompanied by a group, but it didn't seem like there was anything like that around. Her next idea was to find a blacksmith or a place where people would train. Since she was looking for the Blademaster, it was logical to expect that she would need to find it somewhere related to martial arts. The next ten minutes passed by quickly as Hera ran through the temple looking for those areas and when she finally found them, but they were very barren. Looking for clues in the training area was quick since it was just a sandpit. The blacksmith wasn't that much better, there was a forge with a large anvil, but that was about it.

Hera sighed and kept going through the corridor until she noticed another room. This one was an armory filled with weapons on display. Most of them were in glass cases or in the walls. She could even touch them and pick them up from their display cases, but nothing happened when using [Observe] or [Inspect]. It was like she was using her skills in the air. There was a nagging feeling on the back of her mind that there was something hidden here. Being very meticulous, Hera made a point of checking every single weapon she found. Everything was the same, different types of weapons, yes, but nothing that would even appear in the skills.

She changed her focus to the boxes of random weapons in the corner of the room. Hera felt frustrated, but at least this was better than just running around aimlessly in the temple. After picking up the second to last box on the floor, she noticed a small dagger at the bottom of the container. Everything here seemed well maintained and somewhat adorned, but this felt a bit below the type of item that should be here. Not to mention that it was the only weapon that wasn't standing up. Hera reached for the dagger, but before she could pick it up, a voice came from behind her, and something grabbed her leg, pulling her back.

"I see you have found what you were looking for," Kirouhebi said.

Hera jumped up before touching the dagger. She kicked away at the invisible force that grabbed her, "What the hell was that?"

"I had to talk to you before you started."

"Started what?"

"You'll see," Kirouhebi smiled.

Hera rolled her eyes, "OK, what do you want to talk about? And you could just talk to me, you know, there was no need to grab me like that."

"Apologies. I should have arrived here when you touched that box, but I was… distracted," Kirouhebi's expression was weird for a moment before returning to a smile, "Now, you are about to touch something that belonged to a very good friend of mine. You are not the first to do so, but during all the years that it stayed here, no one was able to complete the task."

"What task?" Hera asked.

"It is not my place to say. It saddens me to see this memory of my old friend stuck here without a new owner. For that, I wish to give you some advice. You may attempt multiple times. Your first attempt will last one full hour. Then, each time you try again, ten minutes will be removed from your time until you are unable to attempt the test again," Kirouhebi explained.

"What test? The way you are talking about this almost makes it look like I'm getting a legacy," Hera tried to hide her excitement, but it was incredibly hard to do so.

"We do not require any more trickery or subterfuge. You already seem aware of what that dagger is. Indeed, it is the legacy that once belonged to the Blademaster, and by touching it, you will have a chance to become its master," Kirouhebi leaned over to stare at the dagger, "I do hope you managed to complete the test."

"Do you know what it is?" Hera asked.

"Unfortunately, I don't. It seems that if you tell anyone what the test is, you lose any remaining attempts. And those who use all their attempts will forget what the test was. I've seen dozens of people trying to get this legacy, but none succeeded. A few didn't even make it past their second try."

"What do you mean by that? Did they die?" Hera gasped, she knew that legacies were supposed to be hard things to get, but she never considered that a test could kill her.

"No, nothing like that, but they gave up after their second try. Or at least, never returned. Perhaps they had an emergency that made them give up the legacy, but that is purely a personal theory."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Hera stared at Kirouhebi. She barely knew the creature, and Alex even looked at a painting she wasn't supposed to. This type of kindness wouldn't happen without reason.

"Because I want this legacy to leave this place. It has been here for thousands of years, and unlike me or this temple, it was never made to stay in a single place for so long. The legacy stops me from speaking too much about it, but every time someone comes here, I pray that they find it."

"Is that really it?"

"It is. You may not trust me, but there is no lie or hidden meaning in my words. I truly hope you can achieve your goals," Kirouhebi nodded.

"OK then…" Hera looked back to the crate where the dagger was located but stopped before doing anything, "Do you mind leaving? I know it sounds rude, but I'm not sure if I trust you yet, and turning my back to a dragon doesn't seem like a good idea."

Kirouhebi turned around, "Understandable. But you realize that I don't need to be here to do anything. My power affects the entire temple at all times. Alas, I shall do what you requested. Peace of mind can be something powerful," as he finished speaking, the dragon jumped to the ceiling again and vanished from sight.

Hera waited another minute before reaching for the dagger again. The moment she touched it, she felt her body freezing, and a notification appeared.

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You have found a legacy.

You are being transported to the location of the legacy trial.

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Hera felt a warm sensation covering her body, much like what would happen when she crossed a doorway. She closed her eyes to avoid the bright light, and when she opened them, the sight made her freeze. It didn't matter where she looked. Everything here was an endless expanse with thousands of weapons stuck to the ground. If one would say the words 'sword graveyard,' it would be hard to come up with anything different from what she was seeing. The ground was brown and brittle like the dirt in a place going through a drought and the sky was gray and cloudy with light coming from somewhere beyond it. Just as Hera was getting her bearings, another notification appeared.

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Find and wield the weapon used by the previous legacy holder.

Time remaining: 1:00:00

If you fail the test, you will receive a time penalty in your next attempt.

If you mention the test details to anyone, you forfeit any remaining attempts to acquire the legacy.

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Hera blinked a few times, "How the fuck am I supposed to find the weapon he used?"

Thinking that it was better to have more eyes to look around, she tapped her necklace to allow Daskka to come out of it, "Are you feeling better?" Daskka nodded, but she still seemed a bit drowsy, "OK, stay on my shoulder until you wake up. Then I'm going to need your help to find something here."

Hera started walking through this field, looking at the weapons to find something that could give her a hint about the weapon he used. The main problem was that there was no mention of what weapon the Blademaster used, even in the pictures or descriptions that Hera found. Considering the only painting with a more crisp image of the Blademasters, she was looking for either a long sword, a dagger, a double-bladed axe, a great sword, a rapier, or a glaive. To make matters worse, she couldn't say for sure if that painting was an accurate representation or just someone who saw them at a distance. If it was the second option, those weapons could be just the rough shapes of the ones used by the group. This meant that she was basically searching for any weapon with a bladed edge. It was the same as saying any of the weapons in this graveyard.

"There is nothing saying that I'm in trouble if I pick the wrong one," Hera said to herself as she picked one of the swords and tried pulling it out of the ground, but the weapon wouldn't budge. Crouching beside the sword, Hera tried to see if there were any markings or something like that. This was a katana with a small blue line going all the way to what seemed to be the edge of the blade, although she couldn't see the tip since it was stuck to the ground. Looking at the handle, she found just some blue wraps and a well-made metal guard, but it was simple and with no unique designs or anything like that. It seemed to be the type of weapon to be mass-produced, aside from the blue line in the middle of the blade. When looking at the other side, she noticed something written down right at the base of the katana, but she couldn't tell if it was something magic or an actual language.

Hera pulled up her tablet and was about to take a picture of it when she stopped. She had no idea if showing someone this picture was a bad move. The test said that if she mentioned the test to anyone, she would fail it and wouldn't be able to try it again. Could that also count pictures? Hera decided against taking pictures, but she did her best to copy whatever was written there. After finishing, she was about to get up when she noticed that the weapon to her left also had something written on the blade. It was a glaive with half of its edge embedded into the ground. Hera looked over the following weapons and found writing in each of them, but everything was different. It didn't even look like they were from the same language.

"Maybe this has nothing to do with the words," Hera got up and started walking, searching for something different from everything else in this place.