The lucky door

After Freya joined them, the group crossed to the next room. The Volcanic Island had a very literal name. It was an island being created by an active volcano. The cooled-off magma was under their feet, but it still felt hot despite being solid. At least there was no liquid magma being tossed around. Everything came from an underwater volcano that spat out sediment to the ocean's surface. It was funny to see how this island looked like the previous room, even if they couldn't be more different. Lost Ground was covered in shades of black and gray, which was very true for this place too. However, the island was brimming with life and fertile soil that allowed plants to grow freely. Only fire plants could live here due to the temperature of the ground, but still, the contrast between rooms was intense.

Walking around the island's edge, they saw a few birds flying by, which made Freya pause. The woman seemed to be very interested in the monsters, but this wasn't the right time for studying.

"So, I know Becca and Zestra's deal. What's yours?" Freya turned to Hera.

The Empress turned to Becca, who nodded, "She's part of the team. It would be good for her to know everything."

"Well. I discovered Boothudurn, and some of the people who were kidnapped are from there. My ex included. But if you are asking what I can do, I'm an explorer, and I have a legacy."

"Shit, really?" Freya gasped.

"Yep."

"What is it?"

"It's called court of blades, and it lets me summon weapons. Or a few special versions of them. How about I let them introduce themselves," Hera called her titled blades out.

"I am Nimbus, titled Sentinel," the bipedal griffon was flying beside them, not to hurt his feet on the heated floor.

"I am Lurize. The Royal Tutor," the large suit of armor with a beetle motif, said as he walked beside the group. However, his weight was too much for the ground, causing the rocks to break, revealing the magma underneath it, "Unfortunately, I am unable to move properly here. Hence, I will change my form," his form glowed orange. He turned back into a Rhinoceros Beetle that could fit in anyone's palm. Most of his body was silver, but there was an orange skull across his back.

The large pastel pink dragon jumped out from under Nimbus, splashing everyone with water, "And I'm Livy. The Leviathan!" Livy roared as a joke, "I have a bipedal shape too, but if Lurize can't stand there, neither can I. I'm like 3 meters tall and thick with seven Cs. All muscle."

"Her thick has 3 Cs at best," Nimbus rolled his eyes.

"What? Of course not! I have more than 3 Cs," Livy pouted.

"You said I only had half a C. Which is very debatable by the way. Look at my abs! This is not half a C! But either way, your strength is not even double mine, so even if we are not using a linear progression, you can't be beyond 3," Nimbus huffed.

"You are talking about linear whatever. That's why you are half a C! You can't be thick and bothered by all those complicated things!"

"So you are admitting you are stupid?" Nimbus asked.

"No, I'm a sledgehammer. I'm a tool that works very well for one thing, specifically: breaking things. You are a drill bit, great for what you are, and much better for something more precise, but you can't be thick!" Livy dove underwater for a few moments before coming back. Nimbus waited for her before continuing their discussion.

"They are so cool! Oh, and you don't have to put on a show for me. I get that they are very advanced," Freya turned to Hera.

"This isn't a show. They actually have personalities and do that on their own," Hera was rubbing her temple, "For better or worse."

"Really? That's awesome! You are never alone like that… Oh… you are never alone like that. That might suck sometimes."

Hera shrugged, "Honestly, I don't mind. And when I need some privacy, I can ask them to just sleep for a while."

"By the way. I just realized, isn't Livy kind of similar to the one you have, Freya? What was her name again? Athena?" Zestra asked. Since they got to this room, the elf was no longer invisible. In the Lost Ground, they were already alone. After all, it was a place with minimal resources, and even the dungeons were boring. They consisted in either saving a piece of land from corruption or trying to recover a plant that was still alive. To top it all off, the rewards people usually got were not that interesting. When they arrived here, Zestra scouted the area, and after confirming that no one else was around, he dropped his invisibility spell.

"Artemis! And yeah, now that you mention they do look a bit similar. That's so weird. I got Artemis in a dungeon in the Golden Dragon Archipelago thanks to an item that upgraded her," Freya stopped as they arrived at the edge of the island and called Artemis.

Hera wasn't able to see the dragon properly before, but now she got a good look at her. Artemis' scales were silvery blue, with small feathers all over her body, almost like a coat of fur. Her tail was longer than the rest of her body, and at the tip was one massive feather made out of several smaller ones following that same mix of silver and blue scales. It was interesting. Just looking at her made Hera think of the moonlight. Not the moonlight as it was seen in the sky, but as it was depicted in the media in general, a blue glow with shades of silver. Of course, another reason for that thought was that on top of Artemis' head was a single dark blue horn shaped like a crescent moon. However, there was one more detail that caught the Empress off guard. The eyes of this Lung Dragon were golden, a shade of gold that was exactly like the small wyvern that guided her through the dungeon.

"Luna?" Hera asked out loud by accident.

"You know Luna?" Freya turned to the Empress.

"Yeah. Livy was a reward from the Last Moonless Night," Hera nodded.

"Wait… didn't you say you make them? How was Livy part of a reward?" Zestra looked at the Sea Serpent, who was enjoying her time in the water.

"Yeah, but that's only after they are part of the court. Before that, I need to get a weapon that already exists and then turn it into something for my legacy. To make titled blades is even more complicated. I need to find either a weapon and a construct that have good synergy or bind myself to a spirit."

"To a spirit!" Becca and Freya gasped at the same time.

"That sucks. Not just because you can only do it once, but binding with a spirit is hard as hell," Zestra shook his head.

"It wasn't that bad. Getting Lurize bound with Mr. Beetle was kind of easy. I had to die to save him, sort of, but still."

"What?" Becca stopped in her tracks and stared at Hera.

"What?" Hera looked at the reporter.

"You died?"

"Sort of. It's complicated. You said that we have to travel for some time after passing the Lucky Door, right? I'll tell you all then if you want," Hera smiled.

"Yeah, I want that. Fuck me, how are you making my job as a spy seem boring?" Zestra jumped to a rock that was leading them to the dungeon they had to enter. It was called 'Golden Pearl Hunt,' and as the name suggested, they had to find a golden pearl in the ocean. This was one of the rare cases when a dungeon didn't change the surrounding environment, making it hard to know if they entered or not. There were some monsters around, but they wouldn't have to worry about it. Passing through the Lucky Door counted as completing the hidden quest of the dungeon, and the path was as peaceful as possible. No monsters, not even a storm, would appear. The weather would always be sunny with a few clouds.

"You are good at your job. I'm constantly flying by the seat of my pants. I think that's the difference," Hera chuckled and recalled her court to enter the dungeon.

Inside, Livy and Artemis became the stars of the show. Both could carry more than one person and move at high speeds in the water. They moved around the island until they got to a place where the ocean sunk. It was like a crater in the water's surface. Like what would happen during a whirlpool without the actual whirlpool. Instead, in the center of this odd ocean formation, there was a red double door with a golden four leaf clover in the center. Hera and Becca went in first, riding on top of Livy; thanks to the ring, the Empress' luck was already at 100, and that guaranteed the door to open. After they passed, the doors closed, and Freya and Zestra soon appeared, riding Artemis.

"I'm glad this worked. Becca told me you had a skill to get to 100 luck," Hera smiled as the two got closer.

"Yeah, it's actually a combo. I have a skill that increases my charisma the more the people around me trust me, then I have an item that lets me add a percentage of my charisma to another attribute for a few minutes. Adding those two effects, I can reach the 100 luck we needed. Oh, by the way. Do you want to use your private room, or should we use mine? We won't be able to sleep there tonight, but tomorrow should work, right?" Freya turned to Zestra.

"Yeah…Shit, you have a private room, too, don't you, Hera. Why didn't we use it yesterday? I could've slept in a bed," the spy huffed.

"I thought we had to be seen by others. That's why I didn't suggest anything," Hera replied.

"You might be overthinking things a bit, Hera. But it's never bad to be careful. And Zestra, don't complain. We had to share the same room with one bed for weeks. I'm sure the grass was more comfortable than that carpet," Becca shivered remembering the nights she barely slept because of the crappy hotel room they stayed at after getting the intel from the guild.

They continued talking, sharing stories about their adventures while moving across the ocean of crystal blue water, with small islands appearing every now and then in case they needed a break. Becca and Zestra talked a bit about how they stole the files from someone high up in the guild. Then Becca talked about the challenge of the tower and all the details that didn't show up in the broadcast. Freya also chimed in with a few stories about her adventures with Artemis in the MAZE. Eventually, Night came, and they stopped in one of the many islands that were in their path. Hera prepared a campfire while Becca used her tent again, and they all gathered for dinner using their rations.

"Oh, by the way. How did you get Artemis? You mentioned it was in the golden dragon archipelago, but did you do anything different?" Hera turned to Freya, whose expression darkened when hearing the question.

"Yeah… It's not a fun story," Freya petter Artemis who was right by her side.

"Sorry. You don't have to say it if you don't want to."

"No. It's ok. I went to the Golden Dragon Archipelago with my party. We were excited about the ocean and found the entrance to another room. One that was on a small rock in the middle of the ocean. We knew that the current there was strong and that people didn't know how to cross that doorway in particular. But since doorways only being able to open during certain conditions are a thing we decided to try. There were five of us. We had been a party since our training days and realized we had much in common. I always loved swimming. It was even how I started working with my agency. They had a deal with the gym I used to go to, and I met some of the casting agents there."

"Agency?" Zestra asked.

"Yeah, I was a model before becoming an explorer. Since I was a teenager. Not high fashion or anything. It was more sportswear, mostly one-piece bathing suits and variations of it. Surfing or diving gear. Things like that. Anyway, two people in my party were from that gym. We met when swimming, and the other two people that joined during training also loved the ocean. The two of them used to swim competitively when in high school. In the end, we got cocky. We all believed that we could handle the currents in that room. After climbing down the closest pillar, which we were only able to reach because of a consumable glide item we had, we dove and tried to make it to the doorway. It took us just a few moments to realize we messed up. I was the last to jump, not for any reason in particular. I was just in the back of the pack. That might have been what saved me," Freya stopped speaking for a few moments, her eyes just staring into the flames, "Still, they were pulled down. I heard their screams and tried to help. Jumped after them, but it was too much. At one point, I was underwater, trying to do anything to get back up, when I grabbed something. It was a bit rough and scratched my hand, but I could hold on for long enough to calm down and use the charisma combo I used to increase my luck to try to survive. Eventually, after… I don't even know how long the currents threw me against another rock, one of the pillars. I climbed up with my remaining strength and was lucky enough to be near a cave where I could rest."

Freya paused again, unable to finish the story. Hera turned to Becca, who just shook her head with a sad expression, confirming what happened with the rest of Freya's party without saying any words. The Empress gave some time, but eventually, she thought it was better to finish the story so they could move on, "And what about Artemis?"

"Right. I passed out when I got to the cave, and I had this stone dragon scale in my hand when I woke up. It was something called Selene's Gift. Selene is the dragon statue that is underwater by that doorway. The original version of Luna. Anyway, after I completed the dungeon, the scale merged with the dragon egg, and so Artemis was born. She's been with me ever since," Freya smiled at Artemis.

No one spoke for a while after that, but eventually, the conversation returned to lighter subjects until it was time for them to sleep. After this, they would be 7 rooms away from the room where the facility was located, and most of their time would be spent walking around. Thankfully, between Hera's court and Artemis, they had enough mounts for everyone, which would help them a lot to reach their destination. And the sooner they got there, the sooner they could work on getting the captives out.