Dinner Date

Despite saying that she was going to give Hera her reward, Valera didn't do anything right away. Instead, she still needed to check everything in the vault. Which Hera understood. After all, the previous clan head had locked the place so no one could see what was happening inside. There was nothing saying that he didn't also remove some of the more important texts and hide them away somewhere else.

Still, with the door opened, Valera was able to remove that final lock by using the terminal that was inside. And now everybody could go into the vault without needing the legacy. They would still need all the other codes and safety measures, but the legacy itself was not something people had to consider anymore.

While Valera was there, Hera and Insomniac left the vault, letting the Matriarch stay there on her own. Although Joseph was also there to make sure Valera wasn't left completely alone.

After all, there were some worries that someone that old could have some problems. There was also the possibility of something bad happening with some of the old texts. It made sense to have at least one other person down there to help in case he was needed. But that wasn't Hera's job or a job she wanted to have.

Leaving the vault, they stopped by one of the dining rooms for their actual dinner, in which the Empress and Insomniac just talked about various adventures they had. Funny enough, the strongest person in the MAZE didn't have that much experience going into rooms that no one else had gone to before. Mostly because there was no need for him to do that.

Even at high levels, before the wall being broken, there were not really that many rooms for someone like him to explore. He had various stories about difficult battles and he even shared with the Empress a little bit about how he acquired the legacy.

According to the man, it wasn't something he created. But something he found one day while traveling the MAZE and made it his own. As a matter of fact, he only got the legacy because of a specific monster that was causing some problems for one of the routes that people used to get to the higher layers. The creature was, generally speaking, harmless. But it was big, burly, very high level and had an extremely high defensive stat.

Usually, such a monster wouldn't be a problem for anyone. It just hibernated for a very long time and moved around every so often to find better places to nap. Unfortunately, there was a moment when the creature tried to hibernate directly in front of a doorway. Not just that, but the doorway was connected to a room that was about to have a rampage. And the best way for people to leave was through that one specific doorway. Which forced the Guild to issue an emergency hunt for the creature.

A lot of people tried to fight it, but the monster had some sort of skill that allowed it to get stronger the more people were fighting against it. Or, that's what everybody was assuming. But they believed that it was some version of the effect caused by the MAZE walls in skill form.

It wasn't, of course. The reality was that the monster had the Insomniac legacy. And since it would fall asleep after every battle, everyone felt as if it was recovering from its wounds, which, in a sense, it really was.

Eventually, Insomniac was the one who had to step in. And he managed to win the fight by not letting the creature rest. All that happened in 24 hours. Actually, 20 hours with the last four being the time the people from the room had to evacuate before the rampage. But that's when Insomniac gained his legacy. The Insomniac legacy, which gave him the name he used to this day.

Hera listened intently to the tale and asked a couple questions here and there about if he knew that the legacy was a possibility or if it was a complete surprise. After he admitted to be the latter, they started talking about the intricacies of their own abilities.

Nothing too vital to their powers, or their weaknesses, but more or less the general ideas and things that only another legacy holder would relate to. Insomniac really didn't like the drawback that he got. And even among the legacy holders, Hera had to admit it was a rough one. Being unable to sleep was absolutely awful, but at the same time, his powers were on a different level than anyone else. And she understood that.

For most legacy holders, the legacy itself was a new set of skills that would work in some scenarios with the ones that were the most versatile, generally being the ones that had the least amount of punch. Something like Insomniac's, which forced him to feel sleep deprived, affected all of his attributes all the time.

If he was under the Insomniac effect, his attributes would raise. There was a balancing act between how little and how much sleep he had in order to optimize the effects. Not just because of the raw numbers, but also because if he was too tired, he wouldn't be able to properly utilize the abilities.

"I always wondered, what is the best way to go about it?" Hera asked. "Should you just stay a couple days without sleeping, or is it better for you to go a few days into a coma and then go out and fight?"

"Sleep a lot and then go fight," He replied, "Because of the time I spent unconscious due to the New Dawn, I got a new skill. That makes the buffs work like a seesaw. The more I slept before waking up, the higher my attributes will be. And then, they steadily started to lower until they reach their base level. Meaning the state they are without any buffs. They keep staying like that for about an hour to three hours depending on how long the buff lasted, and then they start to climb up again. And the longer I stay awake, the stronger they will get."

"Is there a hard cap?" the Empress asked. "A moment when your attributes won't raise anymore?"

Insomniac shook his head. "No. I even asked the Herald about it and there is no limit. They can reach infinity. But the limitation is more physical than anything else. How long can I stay up and still function."

"Ah, yeah. I'm guessing not that long then. People don't really work well after maybe two days of living without sleeping."

"You're not wrong, but I also have a couple of skills that help me with that. Some from the legacy and one that's not from it. I got that one myself and for some reason it just didn't want to mix with the legacy. Those skills basically let me spend longer periods of time without sleeping or they let me put half my brain to sleep, kind of like a dolphin. It doesn't fully rest me and makes the increasing my attributes slow down a bit, but I can still function somewhat and prepare myself for a big battle."

Hera nodded, but there was a specific question that popped into her mind somehow, "Was that the skill that didn't want to get to the legacy?"

Insomniac started. "Yeah. I really don't understand why. Because when clearly it is something related to sleeping and to resting."

"The other skills are not related just to being able to live without resting, right?" Hera asked, half surprised by the question herself.

Insomniac frowned and paused for a moment before learning. "Yeah. But how do you know?"

"Your legacy works on the basis of you get stronger the longer you stay without rest. It's called Insomniac just because, well, that's the sleeping is the biggest rest we get. So if you try to add a skill that's about resting, then it won't work. It's going to directly contradict the legacy intention. Now if you go the other way around, and start getting skills that are related to pushing through when you are tired, being tired, and such. Things that basically let you stall your rest as much as you can, then I think they will merge with the legacy. I mean, do you have other skills that are about not getting too tired that didn't merge?"

"Yes," Insomniac was not in deep tough.

"but are they saying that you're not getting tired or that you're not feeling the effect of tiredness?"

Insomniac frowned and looked down at his plate. His eyes started to shift back and forth and Hera recognized as someone using the system. Checking his skills, most likely. After a moment, he said,

"Holy shit. You're right. They're not making me feel less tired but keeping the tiredness there. They are just making sure I don't get as tired. There's two that I didn't get."

He pulled his tablet and started going over a few things he had noted down. "All of them said that you don't feel the effects of tiredness or something similar to it."

The Empress just smiled, feeling glad that the legacy Hunter title was at least doing its job.

"Thank you," Insomniac said, looking at the Empress with a surprised expression.

"You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help. Now I won't feel like I'm just exploiting you when you help me out."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm more than happy to help you out. You already saved my life. This is the very least that I can do. And you're helping Valera too. I don't know how I can ever repay you for all this."

"You don't have to repay me anything. The ones that owe me are the clan and Valera. And the advice and training is already more than payment enough."

She was happy that Insomniac didn't press on how she figured that idea about his legacy when he himself had never realized those quirks, and they continued their conversation until it was time for them to go to bed.

Hera found it strangely comfortable to be around Insomniac even though he was in his mid-50s already. It was an age that she was going to reach and go well past, so it might be good for her to get used to that kind of thing.

The next morning, Hera was invited for breakfast together with Valera and a crafter who were working on the chain swords that she had seen in the vault. They were going to eat in the greenhouse surrounded by flowers and a small lake that existed inside the glass building. Which was the sort of ostentatious thing that Hera couldn't wrap her head around.

This was not the type of thing that she would expect from a clan. It was the type of thing she would expect from a king. And only because their ancestors had done this, not because they, living in this day and age, created a place like this.

The man was really excited about meeting Hera and got up just as she arrived, shaking her hand vigorously with a big smile.

"Hi there, I'm George. Matriarch Valera said that you might be interested in my chain swords?"

"I am. Do you have them here? I thought Valera already had one in mind."

"I can show you some pictures and their attributes. But I don't have them here. I figured it wouldn't work bringing them into this garden. I don't know, bringing something that's kind of like a chainsaw near some trees feels aggressive," George replied.

"Also, I was thinking about a different offer," Valera spoke up. "You can check the weapons that are already done. But if you don't like any of them, or you want George here to do something a bit more custom for you, I can supply the materials and pay his fee instead of giving you the weapon."

"That is a very generous offer. But can I see the ones that are already done first?" Hera asked.

"Of course, of course," George quickly pulled up his tablet and a small holographic device to show her everything.

And that's how they spent breakfast for a couple of hours going over every single one of the many chain swords that he had created while Hera tried to see if there was anyone that caught her eye. If not, she was going to have to order a new one and who knows how long that would take.