The dungeon was over. However, everyone decided to hang out in Spiral for a while longer. Hera was happy to be talking with Darni and the others. Shane was excited about being able to speak to so many Naga, and everyone else had various interests in the place. For most of them, this was the first dungeon where they saw people that were not other Dwarfs. Maybe it was because of Hera's own actions or because of how they were raised, but they were treating the Naga as they would treat any other person. Eventually, she wanted to take them to a place where they would have to fight people just so they understand that inside a dungeon, everything goes, but there was no need for her to do that right now.

After a few hours of enjoying the happy mood, they decided to leave. Shane kept talking with every Naga she saw, asking about their home and trying to get more information about their culture and society. It was just a shame that the city's people couldn't answer all her questions. They would say they forgot some details, but in reality, it was the dungeon blocking some of their memories. Still, it was enough to get a better understanding of a lot of different things.

Bralac also got something unique out of the deal. Because of his passion with crafting, Naph gave him a few pointers on how he could create a portable forge of sorts. She taught him the basics of one of her skills called Soul Forge, the same one she used during the normal mode while they were facing the spiders. Naph was a surprisingly good teacher. Because of that, she managed to pass the first rank of the skill to the crafter. That wouldn't create anything as big as the forge created during the fight, but it was enough to make a flame that could burn for a long time while using a small amount of mana. Adding that to some stone shape spells that most dwarves knew, Bralac could make a forge pretty much anywhere.

After leaving the dungeon, Hera shared the lead she found about the doorway with everyone. She went back to ask Donny about a more specific location while showing him the map, and he pointed to an area where no one had found anything yet. In fact, no one had even found a way to get there. So everybody would be focusing their exploration in that area. She also added the information about the broken doorway but let the people who were already excavating the tombs look for it. In the best-case scenario, they would find a doorway that would be open, and they would be able to cross over, but if the doorway was still broken, then their efforts wouldn't amount to much.

All the Royal explorers were focused on just that for the next two weeks. Finding the doorway to the next room. Hera tried to remind everyone that this shouldn't be a brand new room since the Naga should have passed by, but that didn't change their excitement with the idea. It was thanks to Farica that their search was rewarded. While looking for Hidden passages around the valley, she noticed one of the walls had a path hidden behind it. The only reason she realized that was because she was looking for tunnel networks that could be underground because it wasn't a simple 1 or 2 meter thick wall that was blocking the entrance. No, it was a 50m wall that was separating the valley from this passage. At first, she thought it was just the cave network she was searching for, but on closer inspection, she realized that this part of the valley wall was not supposed to be there. Some groves showed signs of deterioration around the 50m long rock.

When she removed that barricade, people could see that the lines surrounding it were too straight to be natural. Someone had intentionally blocked this path, and no one could tell why. Farica and her team didn't open the path right away. Instead, they called over Hera and the others. Seeing this as a good opportunity, the Countess told Farica and her group to lead their exploration of this new area. After all, she was the one who found it. She ended up doing a great job. By keeping the groups larger, she made sure that no one would be ambushed by monsters. Her next decision was to make a grid map of the area, direct each group to a specific zone, and then go from there. The unfortunate part was that this place was empty. Even when looking very carefully, they couldn't find anything from statues to buildings to pottery or any markings of something living there.

Another weird thing was that beyond the hidden path, there were no monsters. It seemed like after blocking this place, whoever was here made sure to kill everything that was beyond it. The cherry on top was that there weren't any buildings around. It was like they killed the monsters to create a safe location but just left.

Since that was the case, the Royal Explorers decided to close off the entrance and sleep in this new area while searching it. They told Shane and the others about the location, but since everything here was suspicious, they didn't want to risk letting something dangerous free. Two more days went by before Alton, Yerel, Lorna, and Grom found an odd formation. It was a natural pillar in a hexagonal shape with a staircase made out of the same structure surrounding it. On top of that, there was a pure white doorway with the symbol of an island made with that same formation with several small islands in the background.

He called everyone over, and in just an hour, the entire group was there. Hera was the last to arrive, and they were all waiting to confirm if this was what they were searching for.

"Did you guys touch the doorway?" Hera asked.

"We did. And it seems to be working. I think you should check it just so we know it's the right one," Alton replied.

"Right one?" Hera chuckled, "If it's working, that's the right one. You don't have to call me to confirm it. We came looking for a doorway that is working, any doorway that is working. This will be the, well, second doorway anyone ever finds in this room. The first one would be the one that we took to get here. So you just found a path for us to continue exploring. There's no wrong here. It's absolutely right."

Hera walked up to the doorway, climbing the odd hexagonal shapes that reminded her of something back on earth, and touched the ivory frame.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would you like to be transported to:

Shtylla Archipelago - 10th Layer

[Yes] [No]

Or press the button below for your private room:

[Enter your Private Room]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hera frowned, looking at the notification. If she remembered correctly, the 10th layer should have monsters from levels 10 to 28. By itself, that wasn't a big problem, but two things came to mind. First, not everyone in the Royal explorers was level 28 or higher. Even after the extra level in the dungeon, the weakest amongst all of them should be level 25 since both leveled up while fighting the moles.

Another problem was the idea of an archipelago. Fighting monsters on land was one thing. Fighting them in the ocean was completely different. It also came with the problem of traveling. If the islands were far away from each other, they would have to have a boat or something to move around. Maybe she could go by with Nimbus, but that could be a stretch, not to mention that it would mean the rest of the group wouldn't be able to follow her.

She went back down and waited for everyone to get there. Before moving forward, she wanted to have a meeting with everyone, "Okay guys, now that everybody touched the doorway and saw the name of the room, we need to talk. If we go there, we might run into a few problems. First is the level of the monsters, which can be up to level 28. Now, I know that a few of us are only three levels behind, but that is still three levels. The second problem is the room itself. Since it's called an archipelago, we can assume that we're going to deal with islands and water. Fighting a monster on land is one thing. Fighting a monster in the water is extremely different. Unless we are a triton or can breathe underwater, it's close to a death sentence. You guys had your lake, but you never saw how big things can get in the ocean."

"Remember that pirate movie we watched after one of our classes? The second movie night we had," Alex turned to the group and got a few nods as a reply, "In that story, they were running from the Leviathan. That giant creature could swallow a ship whole. I don't know if there is a monster that size around, but its babies, the ones that were about the size of a ship, those exist even back on earth. I can only imagine that things could get much bigger here."

Hera nodded. She knew that Alex was talking about whales, but it was a good comparison, "That's just a possibility. Maybe it's not as bad as I'm thinking. But I want you all to be aware of what can be waiting for us beyond the doorway. Also, it's been a little over a month since we got here, I think, and I understand if anyone wants to go back home so you can see your friends and your family before going forward," she didn't want to do that. Every fiber on her body told her to cross the doorway, see the new room, see the things inside, but she had to be responsible, at least for now.

"Do we have to decide that now?" Yerel asked after a moment. The dwarves were hesitating a bit.

"No, we don't. We can go back to the camp or spend the night here. Since we are close to a doorway, I can take a few people at a time in my private room so everyone can take a proper shower, but then someone else would have to go back to the camp to grab the internet tower," when Hera decided to search for the doorway, she informed the guild and they sent a portable internet tower that could be connected to the doorway in case she found it. It came with a small crate that was a bit heavy, and once it was deployed, it couldn't be removed. It was an expensive piece of equipment, but since she had a silver guild card, they trusted her enough to send it her way. Now that she found the doorway, she had to go grab that tower so people would have an internet connection in the next room.

"I'll go get it," Mylo offered before turning to Yerel, "If you are having a vote while I'm away, I vote for us to go to the next room."

"Same," Blue nodded, "For both, going to get the tower and voting to go."

"I'll go with you guys too. I honestly don't care if we go now or later," Alex shrugged.

"When you guys get back, you can come to my private room," Hera said, she could go inside three times without having it be a problem, and she could bring 6 people along each time. It would be a bit tight, but that way, everyone could take a shower and relax a bit. The issue was that the trip back to the camp should take at least 3 hours, so Mylo and the others will take a long time before getting back.

The dwarfs started preparing a camp using the valley itself to make a small building where they could rest and be more protected if there were any monsters incoming, and after that was done, they went inside Hera's room in groups. Since there were a lot of people, Hera asked them not to take too long in the bath. 2 hours later, the last of the dwarves left her private room while feeling refreshed, and Hera was going to give them some time to discuss what to do next. Wanting to take advantage of her skill, it was her time to take a bath, but before that, she checked the messages from the guides. It's been a while since she managed to talk with any of them. Everyone seemed to be doing fine. Capri was complaining about her lack of messages, the Kobold sisters were now talking with her in the same group chat, but they still sent private messages to her. Laika and Johnny were also in the same group chat, where they would discuss and recommend movies or shows for them to watch. Surprisingly, Luna and Jackie also had their own group chat with Hera, where they would talk about books that weren't exactly safe for work. The raccoon guide had a taste for saucy literature, and she was introducing Lune to the fold.

As she was turning on the water, she tapped Peaches messages. He was giving her some words of encouragement and congratulating her again for becoming the Countess of Exploration. He added that even though he couldn't teach the Royal Explorers himself, he could give her some tips by using what he learned while taking care of the Explorer's tests. However, the last message had a completely different tone, and it was one he sent a few hours ago.

'Kid. I don't know what you did, but we need to talk as soon as possible.'