Hera moved through the cave as quickly as she could in her current state. Almost all of her body was wounded to various degrees. Her legs were still fine, but her feet hurt like hell after all the running around. Her waist was ok, but her stomach was bleeding, and she was sure some of her organs had ruptured. Everything else above was just a mess, from the shattered ribs to the dislocated arm and the bleeding ears. Still, she reached the deepest part of the cave and sat down. She couldn't hear the monster moving outside or what was going on, and somehow Scryotra moved around without causing the ground to shake in the slightest.

Hera understood how that thing managed to become the Emperor of the jungle and the Naga's Bane. A creature of that size being able to move that quietly could easily destroy a civilization. It took her 10 minutes to reach the deepest part of the cave and collapse on the ground. While sitting down, Hera started casting the few healing spells she had. The problem was that she wasn't exactly proficient with them. Risli taught her a little, but her focus was more on making potions or salves to cure diseases and such. Whatever heal and battle heal she learned either took too long to cast, or it was too weak. Thinking now, she should try to make an elemental armor with the healing element. If she could fight with that, things might be much less risky. As Hera was trying to recover herself, the Golden Rhinoceros Beetle that was on her shoulder flew over to her knee and looked at her.

"Hey, Mr. Beetle. I'm going to be ok. I just need some time. But if you can, don't let me sleep. I need to stay awake for all this," she gave him a blood-filled smile before coughing up some blood. Speaking seemed like a bad idea, but she wasn't going to just roll over and die.

Mr. Beetle turned around and started batting his wings toward Hera, letting some small specks of brown light fall on her. Those particles seemed to burn in contact, and Hera felt her body tensing up as a reaction, almost as if she was being shocked. For a moment, she thought her companion beetle was trying to attack her, but then she noticed how the effect of her healing spells became stronger. Thanks to her poison knowledge, she could tell what was going on. Mr. Beetle was poisoning her, but whatever poison he was using would increase her healing power at the expense of some pain. She wasn't exactly thrilled by that, but Hera wasn't about to complain.

Taking in this new effect, she tried to focus on something else while maintaining the healing spells. One of her dancing lights was hovering right above her, which was the most distracting thing in the area. However, after a few moments, the white light started to turn green. Not because she was changing the color but because something else was happening. With a frown, she made the glowing orb get closer to her. It eventually came back to white, but it didn't take long for the green hue to cover it once more. Before the Empress could even understand what was going on, she took a deep breath and felt her lungs starting to burn. At the same time, the green smoke hit her skin, making it sizzle.

Mr. Beetle flew to the side and tried to stay away from that smoke. Hera looked around and noticed that even the surrounding rocks were starting to melt, "Is this acid?" she gasped, but moving her mouth only made more smoke go inside her.

The Empress rushed over to Mr. Beetle's side, on the lowest corner of this cave, and started to look for a way out. Unfortunately, this was a dead end. But maybe she could make a new path. Pulling some of her mana, she used her stone wall to push the stones away, trying to open a passage somewhere. In her frenzied state, she didn't notice how the acid was also eating away at her mana. Hera knew that she was too wounded to get all the way up in time, not to mention that crossing the field of acid gas would surely hurt much more than trying to dig her way out. When she spent the last bit of mana she had, she saw a glimpse of hope. A small gap that allowed light to pierce through the darkness. However, opening that part of the wall led to two problems. First, the opening caused the acid to rush through, following the air current. Second, the light was coming from far above. It would take at least five minutes of constant walking to reach up there. And now, Hera had no mana. She couldn't even recover more mana since the acid would burn away every extra drop she got.

'I guess this is how Helena felt,' the Empress thought to herself. She looked back and confirmed that the acid smoke was much denser and rushing toward her. Mr. Beetle was still close to her chest as she dug around. She stopped and looked back. This had to be a vision, a dream, or something like that. There were way too many inconsistencies and too many things missing for this to be real. If she died here, she should be back to her friends and her court. She had to. Hera believed that wholeheartedly. After fighting the Blue Spotted Leopard, everything felt like a scripted scene in a video game. A monster that cannot be beaten shows up, and as a punishment for running away, this acid smoke comes to kill her. The right way to go about it should be to attack Scryotra. Maybe that was what she had to do here. Still, it wasn't like she had any other options now. The best would be just to wait for this to finish.

She was about to drop to the floor and take a deep breath when she felt a small vibration against her chest. Mr. Beetle was still there. This wasn't real, or at least, that's what Hera thought, but on the off chance that she was wrong, she didn't want to let her new friend perish along with her. Not if she could save him.

Stepping towards the small hole in the cave's ceiling, Hera turned to Mr. Beetle, "You can pass through here. Run as fast as you can, ok? I'm going to cover the passage behind you, so the acid doesn't follow you all the way up. I'm sure you can get out of here."

Mr. Beetle seemed frazzled with that response. He shook his body, trying to say no, but Hera didn't listen. She grabbed him and shoved the bug inside the hole, holding her hand behind it so it would work as a plug to block the acid smoke. She felt Mr. Beetle attacking her hand, trying to push it away, but soon the bug understood why she was doing that and continued up the tunnel leading to freedom.

Hera continued holding her hand while also holding her breath. She could feel her eyes and skin burning from being in contact with the smoke. Some time passed, and she couldn't hold on any longer. Opening her eyes before taking a deep breath, she saw the bracelet collapsing, leaving only a single piece of dark wood on the ground. She understood that this should be relevant in some way, but she couldn't hold it anymore. Hera opened her mouth and took a large breath, feeling her entire throat instantly burn before she felt extremely sleepy and fell to the ground.

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"Mum!" Daskka's voice reached Hera's ears.

The Empress opened her eyes and got up from the bed, coughing and taking deep breaths. She could feel that her body was fine, but the pain she was feeling mere moments ago was still there.

"Hera!" Blue and Helena called and rushed over to her bed, "Are you ok? What happened?"

"What?" Hera tried to speak, but her voice was hoarse, and she felt really thirsty, "Water."

"Sure, sure," Blue nodded and snatched a cup from Bonnie's hand. Giving it to Hera. This was already what the researcher was going to do, but this time no one said anything. They were too worried about their friend.

Hera gulped down the water and blinked several times, trying to understand what had happened. She could see a couple of notifications in front of her, but her eyes were watering too much for her to read them.

'Daskka? What happened?' she asked without speaking.

'You passed out. After getting that piece of wood, the winged serpent's eyes glowed, and you collapsed. We tried waking you up, healing you, and a bunch of other things, but you were unresponsive. The only reason why we weren't freaking out more is that we, your court, are still here and out without a problem,' Daskka explained.

'Everyone is here?' Hera rubbed her eyes, making a stop motion with her hand. Blue was still asking a bunch of questions, but she had a horrible headache that stopped her from hearing anything.

'We are, Empress,' Nimbus kneeled by the bed. Hera could feel the worry and sadness in his words.

'I'm sorry. How long was I out for?'

'About six hours, people are already making dinner. Are you really ok, mum? What happened?' Daskka floated to Hera's lap.

"I'm… ok," Hera replied out loud.

"What happened?" Alex asked.

Hera could still see a couple of notifications in front of her, but she ignored them for now. Turning back to her friends, she explained where she had spent the last few hours. Or at least where she thought she was. While talking about the jungle, everyone seemed to be calm, but when it came to talking about her fight against the Blue Spotted Leopard, Daskka wrapped herself against her arm while Nimbus hugged her. When she finally mentioned what happened inside the cave, Blue, Helena, Alex, and Bonnie joined in the hug.

"I'm sorry…." Shane said.

Hera chuckled, "Why are you sorry?"

"Because if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be caught in that mess," Shane replied.

"Oh, I absolutely would. Also, as I said, I was sure that it was all a dream. The biggest tell was that I couldn't call Daskka, Nimbus, and everyone else. Legacies are supposed to be something that goes almost beyond the rules of the MAZE, so there is no way that I would be teleported somewhere else without them. Not to mention that I could see myself as a Naga. Even in Spiral, when we talked with Darni and the others. I could still see myself when I looked into any reflections. So that's not how dungeons are supposed to work. I mean, I'm still me even in a dungeon. Oh, and there was the thing about not being able to use inspect or observe on the items. That was also very weird," Hera explained.

"Did you at least get something out of it?" as Adriel spoke, Nimbus, Blue, and Helena stared daggers at him, "What? As much of a dick the system is at times, it would never make her go through something like that and not give her something in return. I've heard about people finding odd things and getting a skill, a spell, or maybe even a level up."

"Don't be angry, guys," Hera patted Nimbus' head, "Also, he is not wrong. I have a couple of notifications floating in front of me right now. I just wanted to make sure you are all ok before checking it."

"You can do that, Empress. I'm just happy you are ok," Nimbus said.

"Yeah. I know how excited we get to see some rewards. Don't worry about us. I hope you can at least get something good out of it," Bonnie stepped back, wiping away a tear that was forming on the corner of her eye.

Everyone else let go of her, and they all seemed to be very emotional. It took a moment for her to understand why they were like that, even if she was just sleeping for a few hours. If the same were to happen with any of her friends, she would be very worried, and when they woke up, she would also be crying out of relief.

"Thank you, everyone. And I'm sorry about this," Hera smiled, the phantom pain no longer in her body.

"It's not actually your fault, and I told everyone that you would wake up soon," Alex turned to Hera, giving a smile back. However, the Empress noticed how there were some black veins coming out of her eyes, almost like some makeup.

"Did you use your curse again?" Hera changed to a stern expression.

Alex crossed her arms, "I did, and it was something we all agreed to do. Shane wanted to use that thing you guys can do to figure out what happened to you, but she wasn't sure if she would even be able to get that information. So I offered the curse. Everyone agreed, and I used it. It told me that it wasn't a problem and that you should wake up on your own after a while. Don't blame this on me," she pointed at the side of her face, "This is technically on you, but I'm not blaming you either."

Hera didn't like that, but she had to agree. She just nodded and turned to the notifications.

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You have discovered the fate of the original Viper's Pit bracelet. Doing so unlocks the remaining skill and upgrades it to a new version of the item.

Snake Pit (Replica) -> Viper Pit

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Viper Pit - Bracelet

Rarity: Legendary - Recovered

A bracelet created by one of the emperors of the Naga. It was used to command large armies, as well as to perform different rituals. It was lost when a Naga warned his tribe about an incoming danger at the cost of his life.

60% increased effectiveness when using Naga skills.

50% increase in mana growth.

40% increase in mana regeneration.

30% reduction in damage taken.

30% increased Naga skill growth rate.

After performing a sacred ritual, these effects will double for up to 2 days. The better the ceremony is performed, the longer the duration will be.

Ritual performed, effects doubled. Remaining time: 41:26:03

Skills:

Rattle

By shaking the bracelet, you can trigger a sound like a snake rattle. This sound can affect allies or enemies depending on the effect chosen.

- Warning Rattle: Can only be heard by those the user considers allies.

Cost: 2 000 mana Range: 2 km

- Battle Rattle: All allies who hear this sound will have their strongest attribute increased by 30% for 15 minutes. Cost: 50 000 mana Range: 300 m

- Threatening Rattle: All enemies who hear this sound will have their weakest attribute reduced by 50% for the next 7 minutes

Cost: 50 000 mana Range 150 m

- Death Rattle: All those who hear this sound, aside from the user, will receive 100% extra damage from all sources for 1 minute.

Cost: 300 000 mana Range: 100 m Cooldown: 24 hours

Only a single Rattle may be active at a time.

Pit of Snakes:

You can store mana inside this bracelet to create a number of snakes that will emerge from it when called. The number of snakes is proportional to the amount of mana in the bracelet, and their strength is proportional to the wearer. The bracelet cannot have more mana than its current wearer.

The snakes can perform simple tasks and listen to basic commands. They can also be used to create a makeshift altar or ritual circle as long as the wearer presents the image to them.

The wearer can also ask one of the snakes to share their senses with them. That can be done with a single snake at a time and said snake will become unable to share their senses again unless they are resummoned.

Maximum number of snakes summoned: 30

Current Mana: 0 / 612 597

Naga Essence

Every 24 hours, you can make a small amount of Naga Essence to drip from the bracelet. You can make two 50 ml vials with this skill. By drinking a single of these vials, it is possible to increase the rank of a Naga skill or learn a new Naga skill. Drinking the essence daily can increase the chances of getting these effects. Even those who are not Naga can receive these benefits at a reduced rate.

A person can only receive the benefits of a single vial each day.

Any essence that is not consumed will vanish after 24 hours.

Current Available Vials of Essence 2/2

As per the will of its creator, the bracelet cannot be destroyed by acid.

If someone who is not a Naga wears this bracelet, its skills will be locked.

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The Venom Spirit - Mr. Beetle is asking to be bound to you.

Do you wish to accept?

[Yes] [No]

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