After talking to Varamir, Hera was given a brief rundown of all the situated training on the island. According to them, the island had a magnificent wealth of resources. Anything they could ever want or need could be found here. Fertile land, powerful raw materials to create weapons, monsters and animals that could become cattle or could be hunted down for food. Ample supply of freshwater and rare minerals. Everything.
It was an absolutely perfect place. Even better was that according to the people who discovered this room, a mighty Dragon protected the island. She was described as a tree-like species of dragon that could breathe life into anything. And that she always appeared in times of need. It had been a few years since anyone had seen the Dragon, but what could be generations for the Scale Hearts was a blink in the lifespan of a creature so ancient and mighty.
However, they also believe that the Dragon would never abandon the people in a time of need since they were, in essence, their children. At the same time, the Dragon would also understand that it could not fight the battles of its offspring. Because of that, it would only appear if a threat so big that the Scale Hearts would be unable to handle would appear. And if they failed to appear, it meant the people who lived there should be able to handle what was going on.
Unfortunately, the settlement was starting to struggle with the monsters that lived in the room. Most of them were easy to handle to a certain degree, but a couple of variants were starting to appear from the group of creatures that dominated their respective biomes. Some of those creatures were just bigger versions of the monsters that already lived there, others just had different coloration and a slightly different behavior. But the most dangerous ones had a completely unique mutation, and it was impossible to predict what they were, and that's why Varamir had called for assistance throughout the kingdoms. He himself was unaware of which was the biggest issue since he was no longer an active hunter, due to an injury that made him lose one eye.
Hera frowned when she heard that, and just stared at Varamir for a few moments, mostly because she could see two eyes on his face and both of them moved naturally without any issues.
The Scale Heart chuckled and tapped his left eye with his nail, causing a strange clicking noise, almost as if he was tapping on a cup. "This eye is made of glass. I have discovered that people find it unnerving to talk with someone whose left eye doesn't move. I had to deal with a few uncomfortable meetings, thanks to that. So instead, I simply asked my Crafters to create an enchanted version, one that could mirror the movements of my right eye. It's not a perfect solution since it doesn't solve my vision problem, and if I'm being honest, after a long day it gets quite itchy, but it is a more agreeable way of meeting new people."
Hera nodded. "I know the feeling to a certain extent. I had a chunk of my ear taken off. It wasn't an injury as apparent as yours, but people tended to stare, which made me very uncomfortable."
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you solve that problem?" Varamir asked, curious about the solution, since now Hera had a perfectly fine ear.
"I know a very good healer, one that could probably even fix your eye if we have a chance." Once those words escaped her mouth, Hera started to feel a bit bad. This was a dungeon person, someone who will never be able to leave this place. And she was talking about Tara, who could potentially transform even a Scale Heart into an Ophidianite. Then again, this was just politics, empty promises that you don't need to be called as long as they help you achieve your goals. All the pride that Hera was feeling about how she dealt with the situation vanished, replaced by a feeling of being covered in grime as she engaged in the more ugly aspect of high-powered conversations.
"Let's start with the issues we have to solve, the situation with the monsters here, we can discuss that option in the future," Varamir smiled.
Focusing back on the task at hand, Hera asked, "Where should we start? I assume you don't want to just head into the island and start killing everything we see."
"You are correct. I'll ask you to talk to Scarceness. He will be your handler. He works with the hunting guild and will be better equipped to give you the proper location of the monsters that you will need to hunt. For those monsters themselves, kill them. They are disrupting the ecosystem and, if left unchecked, the potential ramifications are too dangerous to be left alone. If possible, avoid killing other members of the same species. We are trying to control the population, not wipe them out entirely. Carcassonne will be able to help you with any supplies you might need, including the delivery of them to the correct locations."
The Empress nodded and turned to Pandora, silently asking for confirmation if there was anything else they should do here. The dwarf paused for a moment before shaking her head with an unsure expression. Still, they left the yard and started heading towards the hunting guild.
Hera was somewhat annoyed with their destination. Just hearing the word 'guild' brought back a lot of bad memories, but she pushed those feelings to the side. Turning back to Pandora and asking, "What was that? Did we have something else to do back there?"
Pandora paused and stopped walking. "Kind of, but I don't know if I should tell you. I mean, are we also practicing exploring? Or you in this case, since I already know about this, don't you need to?"
Hera paused for a moment. "Yeah, I'm not going to just tell them to practice and not practice myself. Even when you're fighting, my goal will be to keep track of the monsters and see what they can do."
"Got it. I'm not going to say anything then, but I kind of already did. So yeah, there was more you could have done back there," Pandora explained.
"Was it something big?"
"It was something that could increase the rewards, but you have other ways of increasing the rewards, too."
"If that's all, then I'll keep an eye out. But speaking of rewards, shouldn't we have gotten the dungeon quest by now?"
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Pandora didn't say anything and just started walking towards the hunter's guild. Hera followed, and she was about to ask again when a blue screen appeared in front of her.
You have discovered a dungeon quest.
The Scale Hearts are being attacked by unique variations of apex predators that live in the island. Kill those variations and destroy the source of mutations.
Prize of the Scale Heart hunter
"Oh, nevermind," the Empress said as Pandora just smiled back.
Continuing to walk towards the building where the hunters gathered, it didn't take that long before someone else came to meet them.
"Hi there. I'm Carcassonne. I was told to expect you. It's very nice to meet someone of noble blood," the Scale Heart had deep green scales and wore a tunic with a leather pauldron over their left arm.
Hera smiled. "Thank you. It's nice to meet you too."
Carcassonne turned to Pandora. "Sorry about what you had to deal with back there. People can be a bit rude, especially with half Dragons."
"What do you mean by half Dragons?" Pandora asked.
"Wait, wait, you don't know you're a half Dragon?" Carcassonne gasped getting a nod in response. "Sorry, I just figured you should already know. I mean, you are one, so yeah."
"I'm a half Dragon?" Pandora asked.
"Yes, that's why people are so rude to you. Even more than usual," Carcassonne continued.
"Help us out here," Hera sighed. "We just figured out what a Noble Blood is. Now there's this Half Dragon thing. What the hell is that?"
"Well, it's kind of simple. It's basically someone whose blood is too diluted so they can't even be considered Dragons anymore. People who don't have tails and their scales are almost invisible. People try to say that they should be treated like everybody else, but in the end there are some issues."
The Empress let out a long sigh. "Of course there are."
"But don't worry. The hunters don't really care about that, for the most part."
"What does that mean?" Pandora asked from the side.
"Just that we understand people coming in various shapes and sizes or, in other words, you don't need to be of Noble Blood to be a good hunter. Not that having it is a bad thing, but it's not a necessity," Carcassonne explained.
"Honestly, that's the first time someone says something to me that actually makes sense," Hera nodded and clapped her hands. "Can we get to business? We need to hunt something, right?"
"Exactly! You need to hunt a few somethings. Basically, we have a list of monsters that we know can be a problem and we need someone, in this case, you, to go after them," Carcassonne continued.
"So you do know what creatures we need to hunt?" Hera asked.
"We currently have found tracks of two creatures, but we believe that there might be more that we need to deal with. You might find their tracks or some clues to help us find it as you travel. We were lucky with the first one. We were able to identify that it has the Apex mutation, but it's still young, meaning we have a chance to get rid of it before it becomes a problem later on. It is a snake that was supposed to live in the desert, but it changed into something weird."
"What do you mean, weird?" Hera asked.
"For one, it has horns. And I don't mean just one or two, but seven. And you know how some snakes have that crown around their head? Yeah, that mutation made the crown all over its body. It can even use it to fly. Or glide long distances, we're not entirely sure."
"How big is that snake?" Viper asked.
"Not that big. It should be around maybe 4 meters long," Carcassone explained.
"And that's not that big?" Crimson gasped.
"I mean when comparing to the rest of the monsters, yeah, that one is small. The other creatures we're going to have to fight are at least 5 meters tall, and that's on all fours."
Hera glanced at Pandora, who nodded in response. "Well then. Where is that snake?"
Carcassone gestured for the group to enter the tent.
There were a few people around the area, but none of them were wearing actual fighting gear, only the type of clothing you would see when they were at home. Carcassonne walked towards the center of the tent and pointed at a large table where a map was located. It was a map of the Thornspire island.
However, it was very different from the island Hera had seen.
For starters, there was no outer perimeter of wasteland, meaning that more likely than not, the fossilized bodies of bugs were also not there. In addition, there was an extra mountain to the east, one that wasn't marked with snow, but instead it seemed like a rocky plateau. But the biggest difference was in the valley itself, the valley that gave the room its name. There were no large thorn bushes in the area. Instead, it was a lush forest with multicolored vegetation.
Hera already thought that this was a beautiful room. Even with the wasteland, even with the dangerous-looking thorns in the center, it was idyllic, an island where people could live and thrive for generations. But seeing this, how it was before whatever happened, happened, made its current state pale in comparison.
"This place is beautiful," the Empress gasped.
Carcassonne nodded. "It is. It's all thanks to the Great Dragon who created this place, or at least, that's what the stories tell us. I can't say I ever saw the Dragon before."
"The Dragon made this place?" Pandora asked.
Carcassone shrugged. "There's some debate about what actually happened. Some people think the Dragon found the island empty and created everything, others that it found the island like it is now and just took care of it like a gardener. Either way, we know it looks because of the blessings that Dragon gave us, and it's our job to deal with some of the plagues that are trying to destroy it. Like I said, we know where two of them are. The snake, we call it Jarnak, is here," Carcassonne pointed to some woods near the entrance of the valley. "It's the only area where no creature has claimed as a territory. The other is a large lizard who lives here, on the top of the Rocky mountain. This variation is able to eat rocks and then make them explode inside its body. I'm not entirely sure why. Only a few people were able to find it and only one of them escaped with their life, so reports are not that trustworthy."
Hera turned to Pandora. "Any suggestion? You are the one fighting the monster."
The dwarf didn't even hesitate. "Then let's kill Jarnak first. If we leave it for later, it gets super annoying to track it down. Then we go for Carithrax."
"Carithrax? I like that name. If you are going, head outside to the Eagle riders. They will drop you at the right spot," Carcassone said with a smile.
Hera and her companions nodded before stepping out. It was time to hunt a few monsters.