In the following days, the group kept running the same dungeon repeatedly. Ignoring all the generals and going straight for the boss. At first, they would get some minor injuries and had to be healed by Neria, but after their 20th run, that stopped happening. When they reached their 50th attempt, fighting against the Monarch of the Glen became something mechanical, almost like a well-rehearsed choreography. Everyone knew the moves they had to make, the reactions the stag would have, and the follow-up required. It wasn't fun, it wasn't exciting, it wasn't interesting. It was just work. Dangerous and potentially deadly work where one mistake could cause any of them to lose a limb, or worse, but work nonetheless. Flint compared the situation with his previous work in an explosive factory. The danger was more or less the same, even if there were fewer safety measures inside a dungeon.

Four days after they started, Hera received the weapon that she had commissioned. This was supposed to complete her court, filling the last of the 8 slots she had left. But once again, she miscounted. Currently, her court consists of Ember, Dusa, DJ, Chris, Tide, and Autumn, with this spear being the 7th. But she still had one more slot missing, which led her to search the stores in the room for an interesting weapon, which she did find. It was a dagger called Inkwell Blade, which became Ink as he joined the court.

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Ink - Dagger - Ink affinity

Attribute Scaling:

Empress Attributes: 110

Agility x 20.1, Intelligence x 13.6, Strength x 12.1,

Endurance x 10.1, Charisma x 2.6, Luck x 2.6,

Passive Skills:

Whispering Ink:

Enemies struck by the Ink are marked with a shimmering glyph. Landing three successive attacks on a marked enemy deals bonus damage and temporarily disables one of their skills.

Bonus damage is based on 15% of the target's second-strongest attribute.

Skill disable duration: 7 seconds.

Stained Words:

While the Ink is drawn, the wielder gains a bonus to magical damage based on the number of enemies with active ink marks.

Damage bonus: 2% per marked enemy.

Maximum bonus: 10%.

Active Skill:

Penumbra Dance: By channeling the blade's shadowy essence, the wielder can become shrouded in a veil of ink that blinds enemies within a small radius and increases the wielder's movement speed for a short duration. While shrouded, the wielder's attacks leave behind ink trails that deal area-of-effect damage.

Duration: 7 seconds.

Movement speed increase: 40%.

Area damage scaling is based on 80% of the wielder's intelligence.

Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Mana cost: 300 000 mana.

Familiarity 35%

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What Hera liked the most about this weapon was its ability to deal increased damage after a few hits. Thanks to the [Army of One], every single blade would gain the 3-hit bonus damage. Sure, it would be just 1.5% of bonus damage, but the mark wasn't unique to each blade. Meaning that every single court member was able to mark an enemy, and strikes by another member of the court would also count towards the 3 strikes required. Even better, as long as Ink was responsible for one of the 3 strikes, the damage dealt would always be based on his own skill and not the version the rest of the court was using.

The Penumbra Dance also had a very fun and powerful synergy with that skill. If Hera were to use that skill, the entire battlefield would turn into a minefield. Every single court member would be leaving that trail of ink behind. Unfortunately, it was something useful only for when she was alone. That ink trail didn't distinguish between friend and foe. Anyone who touched it would be damaged by it. The only exception was the one using the skill, or the entire court, since the [Army of One] made this kind of thing recognize the entire court as a single entity.

While Ink had some unique and interesting skills, the spear Hera commissioned was an absolute unit. It was originally called 'Whispering Aeolian Spear' and now had the name Gale. The Empress tries to maintain the pattern of making the names easy to be called.

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Gale - Spear - Wind Affinity

Attribute Scaling:

Empress Attributes: 110

Agility x 25.7, Intelligence x 22.7, Endurance x 22.7,

Strength x 10.2, Charisma x 6.7, Luck x 5.2.

Passive:

Storm's Whisper: The wielder gains a 10% chance to dodge incoming melee attacks.

Active:

Galeforce: Unleash a powerful gust of wind, pushing enemies back and inflicting 150% weapon damage. Mana cost: 3 000. Cooldown: 1 minute.

Whirlwind Dance: Enter a whirlwind for 5 seconds, becoming untargetable by spells and attacks that require a specific target. Attacks far beyond the wielder's strength can bypass this protection. Additionally, any enemy that enters a 3-meter radius around you is attacked by rapid wind strikes for 50% of the damage this spear would inflict in a regular attack.

Mana cost: 50 000.

Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Echoing Strike: Pierce your target with a strike that echoes through the air, dealing 200% weapon damage and inflicting a stacking debuff that reduces movement speed by 5% for 5 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.

Mana cost: 15 000.

Wind Fury: The wind envelops you and follows your steps, creating between 2 and 5 copies of all your attacks during the effect of this skill. Each of the copied attacks deals between 80% and 150% of the damage dealt by the original. You luck stat influences the number and damage of the attacks.

Duration: 30 Seconds

Cooldown: 1 hour

Mana Cost: 2 000 000.

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This was the first blade Hera had that would get an effective scaling of over 100. After all, since all her attributes had the same value, they would stack on each other perfectly. When adding skills, things would get much more skewed, but still. Livy was still the strongest member of the court stat-wise, but Gale took the second place. The passive would make a constant breeze flow through Hera and the rest of her court. If someone was holding Gale himself, then the gust would be stronger. Relying on chance was never a good idea. But having a chance that an attack that was about to hit miss because of the wind was a welcome effect. However, the star of the show was the last skill. Hera expected the [Army of One] to work the same way it did in all other skills, allowing the rest of the court to get a very weaker version of it. Instead, [Army of One] wasn't active during that skill. For some reason that neither Hera nor Daskka could explain. When active, the [Wind Furry] would cover every court member in wind. Or at least, it would do that if Hera was holding on to Gale while activating the skill. Their best hypothesis was that just like the Penumbra Dance recognized the entire court as a single entity, this skill was doing something similar to it. Sure, it was wildly expensive, but for a boss or a situation where Hera could burn everything she had in a moment, this was absolutely perfect.

One week into their mission, the group had long passed the 100-kill mark. Hera's [Hunter's Catalogue] had already capped out the bonus she could get while fighting the Monarch of the Glen. Yet, they were unable to get the drop. This was frustrating, especially when they encountered someone related to one of the people who was sick during lunch. The man asked if the team had found the horn that his daughter needed, but they had to say no. His sunken eyes seemed to sink a bit deeper, and it was clear that he hadn't had a good night of sleep in weeks. Despite that, he just nodded and thanked the group for all their work. He even offered to help in whatever way he could. All to see his little girl getting better. When they explained that there was nothing he could do, he nodded and politely moved away. A tear fell from his face as he left the building.

That wasn't a bad interaction. The man didn't blame them for eating, asked them to push harder or anything of the sort. But somehow, that made things worse. Every member of the team knew they were doing everything they could. They would wake up, have breakfast, and go to the dungeon. Their lunch break lasted for 1 hour, but 20 of those minutes would be spent moving back to the city and then to the dungeon again. They would leave the dungeon close to 9 P.M., and the only reason for that was that most of the stores where they would replenish their supplies and places that could help them clean and care for their equipment would close at 10.

Before breakfast, Hera walked into their hotel room with a deck of playing cards in her hand. The party had come to an agreement: they would enjoy the breakfast the hotel offered while the other meals would be had outside.

"We need to play poker," the Empress slammed the deck on the table, "Ideally now and while we eat. We are betting money. Actual money. For you, each chip is worth 1 gold. For me, it is 100. Meaning I have to pay 100 gold for each chip I lose. Card Draw or Hold'em?"

"What are you talking about? Why do you want to play poker," Flint groaned while staring at the empty pot of coffee. They still had to wait around 20 minutes before the kitchen would open and then another half an hour to get their meal.

"I don't want to, I need to. And you all need to beat me," Hera replied while shuffling the deck.

"Somehow, that makes even less sense. What is going on?" Skyler yawned.

"Remember when I said I had a luck skill?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. Something about good things coming after bad things, right?" Neria was double-checking her gear. She had to confirm if all the enchantments to keep everything wet were still working properly or needed some extra mana.

"Exactly. And a good thing will be getting the right drop. But for that to happen, I need bad things to happen. Going out to get blackout drunk is a bad idea. Not to mention, it wouldn't work, thanks to the poison resistance I have. Running with no armor in the middle of monsters is just stupid. So I figured, what is one thing we can more or less control. Gambling. The house always wins and stuff. Unfortunately, there are no casinos here, and I don't have time to find out people who have their home games. So, enter you all. We play, you rob me blind, and we might have a better shot at draping the horn," Hera was about to start giving everyone their hands but stopped, "Hold'em or Card Draw?"

"Let's go with hold'em. It's easier to read people when they see the cards being flipped," Vash sat in one of the chairs around the large table in the middle of the living room.

"Ok, I'm down for free money. It's not like you are going to try to win, right?" Skyler joined the table.

"I am. If I lose on purpose, then the skill might not work. Since it's not something bad happening, just something intentional. I won't be using any skill or anything, though. Feel free to do that against me. Just don't make it too obvious. That enters a gray area. Like if I see you cheating and don't say anything, would that be something bad or a decision I consciously made?" Hera frowned but kept dealing with the cards.

"And the money? Any reason why your chips will be worth so much more?" Flint sat down as well.

"I figured it would make the bad thing worse for me. Like losing 100-200, gold is not that bad. Losing a few thousand, that would hurt."

"Then wouldn't it be better to make larger bets?" Neria asked.

"Well… Maybe, but I also don't know if this will work. And I don't want to be broke because of an idea that didn't change anything. If we start seeing better drops or things start to be easier for me, then I can try increasing the bet." Hera pulled two sets of chips. They had the same pattern of colors: red, green, blue, and black. But while the ones the team was using had a white center, the ones that belonged to the Empress had a purple snake in the middle. A bit on the nose, but she couldn't help herself when she saw it.

Vash looked at his cards, then at the table, "That is a good idea. Let's hope we drop that item before you have to bet your house. Raise 5 gold."