Can't read a map

"How are we lost? I thought you had a map," Daskka asked.

"I have one. But this place is a mess. Look at this. Why is every mole tunnel showing up as part of the road?" Hera gasped.

'What about this path to the right?' Nimbus asked.

"We took this one already. We ended up back here," Hera replied. It took her 10 minutes to return to Spiral, but now. It's been more than two hours since they were trying to find the rest of the group.

"Isn't the map upside down?" Daskka asked.

"This map can't get upside down!" Hera rolled her eyes.

'But can't you move it?' Nimbus tilted his head. He was still in his griffon form, looking over Hera's shoulder, who was right in front of him.

"I can, but I haven't. Not since we got in the dungeon."

"Doesn't it have a GPS function or something?" Daskka pointed at a line that was behind them, "Here. Isn't this telling us to go back?"

"No, that's the tracking thing I set up, so we know where we passed by. I should've used it before going back to Spiral, but I didn't think that we would have so much trouble," Hera sighed.

'I think we should go to the right,' Scythe tilted towards a tunnel.

'No, that's not the path we took. We should head left,' Core pointed to a path that was still in the valley, but according to the map, it would lead them to a place they hadn't visited yet.

"Everyone, stop talking! Let me think!" Hera huffed. She knew that her court had the best intentions, but she was having trouble hearing her own thoughts while trying to figure things out. The weirdest part is that finding the rest of the group shouldn't be this hard.

When she left Chika and the others, everyone was just a single turn from the main path. Yet, when she went back there, it wasn't the same place she remembered. She tried calling her friends through the communicator or tablet but to no avail. There was no signal inside this dungeon. That's why she gave up and just started going, but when she reached where the mole tunnels were located, things went south really quickly. All the monster-made paths were shown as being the same thing as the road she was currently traveling through, and there weren't even any walls or other things. From Hera's point of view, the map was just a jumbled mess that ended up nowhere.

'Hera, can I make a suggestion?' Armory spoke up. The crown has been silent ever since they got inside the dungeon.

'Sure.'

'I think you should…' 'Let's go to the left.' 'Right!' 'Head straight!'

"ONE AT A TIME!" Hera yelled as the voices of her court flooded her mind, "Please, people, one at a time. You are giving me a headache. Armory, what's your suggestion? Just her. I don't want to hear anyone else."

'Thank you, Empress. Can't you use the pathfinding skill?' Armory said with a calm voice.

"I don't remember the place we were in. I need a clear picture of my destination for the skill to work," Hera sighed.

'Can't you think about a person as a destination?' Lurize asked.

"A person? I can't. It needs to be a place."

"What about a construct?" Daskka suggested, "What if you think about Chika instead of someone else? I mean, maybe it's just enough of a gray area for it to work."

Hera shrugged, "It's worth a shot, at least."

She closed her eyes and focused on Chika, thinking about the giant snake and her appearance. How the pure white snake had one green and one blue eye and how it was bonded with Darni. Her mind kept bouncing between the different versions of Chika, but Hera forced the picture to focus on her current form. After a couple of minutes, the explorer opened her eyes and looked around. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but there was one of the tunnels made by the moles that seemed different. In a way, it was almost like she could see an air current going inside it.

"Nimbus, go to that tunnel," Hera climbed on top of the Sentinel again.

"Are you sure about this?" Daskka asked.

"Not in the slightest, but let's try to put this skill to use."

Hera continued guiding them for a few minutes, going from tunnel to tunnel even when it looked like they were just moving in circles. After another 10 minutes of running, she finally came out in a large open area where they first fought against some of the moles. To her left, there was another path that had the same odd wind current look to it. She passed through another 3 places like that and finally found the group.

"Hera!" Blue gasped.

"Finally, we found you guys," Hera sighed.

"What do you mean? You just go straight and turn left," Blue frowned.

"I know but the path changed when we were on our own. We spent the last two hours running in circles. Either way. We got the cart. That should hold us for a while," Hera gestured to Nimbus.

"That's great," Lorna started to get closer to Hera. He was pushing a large slab of stone with all the pelts the group had collected. At first glance, the man would make you think of a snake. He had long arms and angular features. His purple hair was tied in a way that made it seem like the feathers of a peacock peeking from behind his head. A pair of metal black and white gauntlets that matched his heavy armor was pressed against the rock as he pushed the massive stone slab around.

"Here, let me help you," Hera climbed down to assist the fighter she knew from her guard days, "How are things going?"

"So far, so good," Alex replied, "We killed, I want to say, about 40 moles and got those 20 or so pelts. It's a bit of an issue that we can't understand Chika, but it seems like we are going in the right direction."

"Chika? Are we heading to the right place?" Hera looked toward the snake.

'Yesss. Ssslow, but sssteady.'

"Yeah, I agree. It's a bit slow. Did something happen, or was it just how things went?" Hera turned to Alex.

"It was just how things went. Some of the moles tried to escape and then started doing some hit-and-run. We didn't want to move forward until we dealt with them so as not to be caught in a trap or a pincer attack. The first group that did that forced us to wait a long time, and only when the second third came did we have a more or less stable plan to deal with those issues."

Hera nodded, "It was a good call not to chase or push forward when things were like that," she turned back to the dwarves, "It's always better to be careful and play it safe if you have the option. Our lives are worth more than any rewards."

Everyone nodded to her reply, and they continued their hunt for the day. Hera had to make another two trips back to Spiral to deliver the pelts. She managed to work out what was going on during that time. Going back to the city was simple, but the path shifted when she was heading back to the group. At the end of the day, she asked Chika if they could go to the city to rest, and the snake nodded in confirmation, saying that the moles wouldn't appear again and their progress wouldn't be lost.

As Chika said, completing the hidden quest would take them a few days, which made sense since the normal mode of the dungeon was already 4 days long. In Spiral, Darni offered the group an empty warehouse for them to rest in, or they could make a dormitory on the side of the valley. Unfortunately, making one in the city would cause problems with the rest of the buildings, so that wasn't an option. To balance that, the Naga offered some food, including produce from the farm and meat they harvested from the moles.

On the second day, Hera decided to test one thing. She left the city by herself and headed to the place where they had hunted the previous day. As she expected, she only found the same mess of tunnels and paths that didn't make sense. Later, when she returned with Chika, all the tunnels were gone, and the path was very straightforward. Having the giant snake as a guide physically changed the dungeon, allowing them to move around without a problem.

The hunt continued, and the monsters could prove to be a problem if the party was smaller. Every fight was between a group of 10 to 20 moles versus the 16 dungeon delvers, plus Chika. However, Hera had a feeling that the snake was holding back on them. She saw a moment where Chika simply cut a mole's claw using her tail as if she was swatting a fly, so maybe doing this dungeon with fewer people wouldn't actually be a problem. During all that time, Hera kept going back and forth to deliver the pelts they were getting from the monsters. Thanks to her [Pathfinder] skill, she could do so without getting lost again, even if it took her longer than it would be when Chika guided them. At the end of the day, the Royal Explorers found themselves in front of a massive tunnel filled with claw marks on the sides. Hera asked Chika to stand up and, if the measurement was correct, whoever dug this should be at least 5 meters tall. But, since it was late, everyone agreed to return to Spiral to rest for the day before continuing.

The night went by quickly, and Hera even managed to ask Darni and Naph for some help with engravings. She offered them to the rest of the group because she didn't want to use her legacy for a trial run. A few of the dwarves didn't have weapons that had sentimental value, so having to change them for one reason or another wouldn't be the end of the world. One of the things the Empress managed to do was to engrave a pair of daggers with thunder. By itself, that wasn't all that impressive, but Naph assisted her in creating a pattern that would function as a lightning rod for effect. It required someone to activate it, but when they did, the weapons would have an electric current going from one to another, almost like a pair of tesla coils connected to each other. For a brief moment, Hera considered using that on Scythe, but doing so would only harm her, who was always between the two earrings. Then again, if she managed to do that with a healing spell, she might be able to have a semi-permanent healing affecting her at all times. Unfortunately, they couldn't get that far before it became too late, and everyone went to bed.

When the third day started, the Royal Explorers moved towards the large tunnel and started their expedition inside. Chika became more and more excited as she could feel that they were getting closer, but she wasn't the only one. Waves and waves of moles started to attack the group. It was like Hera and the others had just poked an ant nest, and everyone was now trying to protect their home. This made the explorer feel weird. The moles were clearly trying to defend something, and if this was really basing itself out of an ant nest, that meant that the strongest bodyguards would only show up when they faced the boss. Despite that, it was still a very monotonous experience. All they had to do was to kill the moles until there were none left in the area they were in, rest for a few minutes and then head to the next area. Again, this could be a problem for a small group, but this small battalion could deal with them without any issues.

Either way, it became clear that this tunnel wasn't something they would be able to finish in a day, and even Chika got tired. Hera spent the entire day working as a delivery girl, which only made the Naga happier due to the large number of pelts they received. Late at night, Darni came by and told them they had more than enough pelts to cover the entire city and even a year's worth of expansion. However, if the group decided to hunt more, they could keep the pelts or leave them with the city to have even more spare ones for the future. It didn't take long for the Naga to leave their temporary barracks since they noticed how tired everyone was. Hera took that chance to say that they could leave the dungeon right now if they wanted. That wasn't something she wanted to do, but, at the same time, it was an option they had, and they would keep the first-time rewards. Thankfully, no one wanted to do that. According to Chika, they were very close and wanted to see this through to the end.

Hera didn't ask this as a sort of test, but it made her happy that the people she chose to explore the MAZE were starting to get a feel for exploration. An itch to discover new things and unveil the secrets they found. After eating, everyone sat around, resting and talking. Despite being tired, there was excitement in the air as they all expected the next day to find the unique mole they were searching for and get the rewards for being the first group to ever complete the dungeon.