The Valley of Steam

"Soooo… is this it? That's the whole, 'Making things easier to see' thing?" Adriel asked as he peered into what was, essentially, a river of steam flowing at the bottom of the ravine.

"Can you give me a minute? I didn't even start!" Shane huffed before closing her eyes again.

It was the day after Alex woke up from their ordeal. The curse was now gone from all of them, and the party had some time to analyze and test their available skills to the best of their abilities. Some of the options were a bit too aggressive for them to try out, and using them on the monsters they had seen in this room so far didn't feel right. Before reaching this place, which should be closer to the bottom of the valley, they passed by a few large green and blue rodents that were like six-legged capybaras and some sort of two-headed monkeys that, instead of having a pair of necks that shared the same skull, but had two faces, one on each side of their head. However, even if they were very weird looking, the creatures were extremely peaceful and seemed to be only enjoying the warm waters in the pools that were formed on each step of this valley. At one point, Bonnie even slipped and was about to fall, but one of the monkeys caught her and helped her to her feet. Then, the monster just walked off, being the gentle giant that it was, and joined a few of the capybaras in one of the pools. Just thinking about attacking a group of peaceful creatures like these ones made them all feel bad.

Currently, they were all waiting for Shane since she was supposed to be able to clear the steam or at least make it clear so everyone could look past it. Using her legacy, she was able to enchant pretty much everything with new properties. Her initial idea was to make the steam less opaque, but before that, she had to understand what she was working with. After a couple of moments, she had an idea and put her hand inside this foggy river, then added the enchantment that would make the entire thing clear.

For a brief moment, a small part of the steam river became clear, allowing the party to see about 10 meters down and 15 meters across. Seeing both the bottom of the ravine and the other side of the valley. Unfortunately, that didn't last long, and in just two seconds, the steam returned to normal, and Shane slumped back, sweat dripping from her forehead.

"Oh, that was a bad idea," the Enchantress mumbled.

"What happened?" Mylo stepped forward to help her.

"I tried changing the mist, but my mana went out in an instant. Man, this is worse than a hangover," Shane rubbed her eyes.

"Was it that bad?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. You know that feeling when you cast a spell that takes more mana than you have, and it all just rushes out from your body?"

"Yeah," Helena and Bonnie nodded, but Hera still looked confused.

"No… I don't think I've ever used a spell like that. The closest thing was when I was looking at that mana well, but even then, it wasn't like I was losing my own mana. At most I had a feeling of getting really tired when I asked a question that was too big for yarnball."

"Really?" Bonnie asked.

"Really. Every time I tried to use a spell that was more expensive than what I had, it would unravel before I spent too much mana. And if I just want to use a spell with everything I have, then I'm the one sending the mana out anyway. I don't get 'hungover,'" Hera explained.

"I kind of envy you on that part. I lost track of how many times I messed up when trying to make a big spell," Helena chuckled and approached Shane, "So, what's next?"

"I need, like, 20 minutes to recover some mana. Then I can try again. I think the best option would be to enchant our eyes. Turn them into, like, steam-free glasses," Shane was looking back at the steam again, trying to think about the things that could work.

Helena nodded, and the group continued talking while waiting for the Enchantress to recover her mana.

"Ok. So you guys mind if I take this moment to give a quick refresher about the monsters and dangers of this room?" Hera asked.

"Sure," Bonnie nodded.

"Do we have to?" Blue groaned.

"I mean, we don't have to, but I think it's a good idea. Even if we talked about this sometime before coming out," Alex poked Blue with her elbow.

"I remember what you said," Mylo joined Blue's side, not wanting to hear another strategy meeting.

"Ok, ok, let me just talk about the things we haven't seen yet," Hera rolled her eyes and pulled her tablet with the info that Shane passed her, "Ok, so we saw the All-seeing monkeys and the Caterpybaras. They don't have anything too special, mostly physical power and a very strong regeneration caused by the waters. Oh, and the waters can heal us too. It's not instant, but if we are injured, we can just stick around and get better with time."

"Heraaaa!" Blue groaned again, "You said you weren't going to talk about those. We already know about them."

"Fine, fine," Hera skipped the next part about the waters, "Ok, here. This we didn't see yet. First, some of the pools are much deeper than they look, so be careful when you need to go inside. Another thing is that, every now and then, we will see a completely empty pond. Don't go in there. If the monsters are avoiding, there is a good reason for that. The temperature might be too high, or there might be a current that will drag you under. Even some toxins that come from what makes the water warm could make us sick."

"Oh… I had forgotten about that," Blue said in a whisper, but everyone heard it and just stared at her before Hera continued.

"There are two more monsters we might see in here. First, it is kind of like a gorilla with light green fur that can hide inside the water. They are not aggressive unless we enter the same pool they are using, then they will attack. The good part is that they are not pack creatures, so even if we are in the middle of a bunch of them and one attacks, the others shouldn't do anything about it."

"The last one was the steam elemental, right?" Shane asked, even if she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, this one should be a rare sight, and even if we see them, it should only be one or two at most. They are creatures made out of magic, and physical attacks will be almost useless. So use magic if you see them."

'You should mention the core that only gets exposed when it will attack,' Crimson said to Hera.

'Crim, she talked with Shane about that one. That information was too specific, and it would be better if she said she noticed the core when they were fighting. She needs to be a bit more cautious when talking about things related to the guides,' Viper explained, trying to calm his sister down.

'Viper, Crimson, can you not interrupt me when I'm talking? And yes, I will mention the core, but I won't confirm where it is until we see the monster. Siege didn't tell Shane the exact location either, just gave a general idea,' Hera looked to the side, replying to her blades.

"Are the new kids giving you trouble?" Helena asked with a smirk.

"A little bit. Viper and Crimson are brother and sister, and that kind of dynamic is very much there," Hera sighed.

"Any regrets?" Bonnie asked.

"None whatsoever," the Empress chuckled, "What they were talking about was the steam elemental. It should have a core, but we don't know exactly where. But since it's an elemental, I think I might be able to notice where the mana is denser, and that's where the core should be."

Everyone nodded, and they paused for a moment waiting for Hera to continue. But she didn't. Eventually, Blue spoke up, "Is there anything else?"

"Not really. The steam here shouldn't have any different effects, but monsters can live there, including the elementals. But that's about it," Hera explained.

The group talked for a few more minutes until Shane recovered her mana to try something new again. This time, instead of enchanting the actual steam, she tried enchanting her own eyes to make them able to see beyond the steam. It worked surprisingly well, making the river of evaporated water, which was almost completely white and opaque, into a lightly smudged sheet of glass. That allowed her to see much more than her initial attempt. From each side, her range of view was getting close to 100 meters before the smudges became too much, making it extremely hard to see things incoming. But since they were in a room where monsters didn't have any ranged attacks, this would let them move without any problems.

"Perfect!" Shane gasped, "Well, not perfect, but good enough," she turned to the rest of the group and enchanted everyone's eyes in the same way she did it with her own, "Oh, this is even better. The enchantment is using your own mana, so we don't have to worry about me having to deal with this for everyone. It shouldn't be that expensive either. Mine is barely reducing my natural regeneration."

"I'm fine," Blue nodded,

"Me too," Bonnie said with a smile.

"I can manage," Mylo frowned very quickly. It wasn't a secret that his regeneration was the smallest of the group.

"Do you want to have a mana crystal with you?" Hera asked.

"No. It will just take some extra time to recover my mana. Nothing that I have to worry too much," Mylo replied.

"Ok then. Now we just have to choose, right or left?" Shane turned to the group

'Where is the steam flowing to?' Armory asked.

"To the left. But we don't know if we want to follow the river of steam or go to the source."

"Isn't the source the steam that falls from the rest of the pools? I mean, it looks like some waterfalls of mist here," Blue looked around, but now, not even the steam coming from the other areas of the room was visible.

"In theory, yeah, but we don't know if there is anything pushing the steam away," Hera replied.

"Oh. That's fair. So what, right or left?" Blue asked.

After a few moments, when no one replied, Alex turned to Adriel with her hand closed, "I'm right, and you are left?"

Adriel hesitated for a moment but then nodded, "Sure."

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

"FUCK IT! We are going left!" Blue gasped and started heading down to the bottom of the valley.

"Sorry," Alex and Adriel mumbled.

"It's fine. You two share the same brain cell, like all good couples do. But having a tie seven times in a row is too much for me," Blue huffed again and continued going down.

Adriel and Alex shared a look, both with soft but awkward smiles, but the elf didn't stare for long. He quickly turned away and started walking. He understood that Alex wasn't to blame for attacking him, but even so, it was hard to be as comfortable as he used to be around her. In the end, it's been just two days since she cut off his arm out of anger.

Going down to the bottom of the valley, Hera was ready to explore and see what was hiding inside this place.

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