Blue was sitting on the couch together with her family, or at least most of them. Her mom was in the kitchen finishing up getting so snacks for everybody.
The reason for that was very simple. They were all going to watch the interview Hera was about to give. The controller wasn't super excited about the situation. She had offered to participate via video call, but ultimately that idea was discarded. Becca said that it wouldn't be as helpful to have soone give a virtual statent.
There was a growing unrest about the idea of people faking videos like this, especially considering Hera's species. Because of that, they only wanted people who were there in person. That way, it would be harder for anyone to argue it was a setup.
Blue was a bit saddened by that, but she understood why Becca made the decision. They were going for the best possible reception, and anything that could be a detrint should be avoided.
"I'm really glad you're here, Pala," Robert, Blue's father, reached out for her hand.
The controller smiled. " too," she replied without thinking, but she wasn't really sure if that was the case. It was good to be with her family and know that everybody was doing well, but she couldn't help but feel that sothing was missing. She continued to watch the television without really paying attention to it. Becca was saying sothing about the war and the Alliance. Then she introduced Hera, who walked into the fra.
The Empress was beautiful. Clearly, they were pulling out all the stops to give her an unforgettable look, but Blue could tell her friend wasn't really comfortable in that outfit. Skirts were never much of Hera's style, and the crop top exposing her stomach likely made her feel self-conscious.
"She's gorgeous!" Daphne, Blue's fourteen-year-old sister, gasped. The girl had short blue hair like her big sister, but the shade was darker to match her fishnet shirt layered over a heavy tal band T-shirt and the dark style she had embraced over the past year.
"She really is. Being an Ophidianite suits her," Blue smiled.
"So you know how she ca to be who she is?" Robert asked.
"I do, but she asked not to tell anyone. If you have questions after this, I'll call her and see if she can answer them," Blue replied.
"I would like that. Especially if this is one way for you to..." Robert trailed off, his eyes glancing at the gold band around Blue's stump. That was an item given to her by Wildborn. Apparently, his friend was still traveling to get there and give her a proper lesson, but they already had ordered the item through soone nearby.
The armband was supposed to help her solidify her mana into a specific shape, naly, her arm. She still wasn't sure if she was going to take the operation option or a prosthetic, but while she decided, she could at least try to do sothing. That way, she wouldn't feel like she was just wasting ti.
"Stop looking at her like that, Rob!" May, Blue's mother, walked in with a tray of snacks.
"Like what?" Robert protested.
"Like she's any less than what she used to be. Look at her. Our daughter is beautiful, strong, and very few people could go through all that and co out on top. And she's doing just that. She has many options and many friends helping out. We need to be there for her and help, but not act like she's missing anything," May huffed and placed the tray of food with chips, drinks, and cookies on the table before putting a healthy mix of everything on a plate and giving it to Blue.
"But you're just doing what you said we couldn't do!" Robert gestured to May as she placed the food on the plate.
"It's one thing to look at her with pity and another to realize that she actually needs help!" May gave the plate to Blue and placed a cup of soda in the cupholder by the controller's remaining hand.
Her parents started bickering about what was the best way to help her, but Blue tuned them out. They had been doing that ever since she got back. She knew they were not really angry at each other. it was just a way to cope with the stressI of what she had been through. Arguing about the best way to help her was easier than focusing on all the pain she was suffering.
Blue focused instead on the interview. Becca had already started with a few quickfire questions about Hera's childhood, everything that could be answered in one sentence or two. She made a point to steer clear of Hera's relationship with her parents. Honestly, Blue was happy about that. Stella was an absolute monster of a mother, and talking about her could cause more harm than good.
"Now, let's get to the at of it. When did you beco an explorer? On your eighteenth birthday?" the reporter asked.
Hera shook her head. "No. My attributes were not enough at the ti. This happened a few years before the guild lessened the requirents. I spent five years working odd jobs trying to save up enough money to buy a level-up, which didn’t work. The guild asked for half a million gold, which was just not a realistic amount for to ever earn by myself, especially when I would occasionally send money to help my dad's business."
"Then how did you start?" Becca asked.
Hera glanced toward the crowd, and the cara showed the front row where Eridan, Helena, Alex, Bonnie, and Renette were sitting. The fra seed a bit odd, as if it had been set up to show one more person, but had to be zood in to cut them off.
"It was all thanks to soone who was working at the guild as a clerk. I was having a really bad day, got soaking wet because of a storm, and she helped dry up. She offered a place to take a shower at the guild and even dried my clothes. As a way to thank her, I helped her finish a promotion they were having. People could buy these gachapon things for various rewards. The big prize, the one I won, was a level-up. I got my level that very night. I discovered I had an innate skill, naly, Stats Reallocation. But then there was an issue. Soone walked inside the crystal room, and I had to leave, which made my attributes all wonky."
"Who walked in?" Becca asked.
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"I honestly don't rember. It was so kid whose dad was a big political figure, I think. At least, that's what I was told later. He forced his way in and the clerk in charge couldn't do anything about that. In the end, I just went ho thinking my stats were ruined because of the reallocation. But when I woke up, all my attributes were at ten, a perfect average across the board. That gave yet another skill. It evolved my Stat Reallocation into Exponential Growth, which lets increase all attributes at a cheaper cost."
"Oh?" Becca gasped. "A lot of people would hide the information about their skills, especially considering you can sell them. Any reason why you're sharing this?"
"I understand the market of buying and selling skills. But at the sa ti, I don't think we should hold back on giving information about innate skills. It's not like you can sell soone a way to get an innate skill. I think in these situations, we should just tell people how we can upgrade them. After all, things are supposed to be us against the MAZE. Not in the sense that the MAZE is trying to harm us, but we have to fight monsters, go through dungeons, deal with rampages, and now there are Wendigos. The only situation where helping people get stronger isn’t a net positive is if we allow soone like Morgan to appear again. Soone who only cares about conquering everything."
"Do you really think that's a good idea? What if there are more people like Morgan out there? Wouldn't they gain power if we tell them how to improve their skills?" Becca asked. The tension in the studio beca palpable.
Yet, Hera continued with a relaxed expression, "I do. Yes, it is possible that soone with bad intentions will get so benefits. But I believe that there are more people who want to do good than people who want to be evil. So, at the end of the day, I don't think we should hold on to information like that. Especially since, who can say if the people who are hiding the knowledge about those skills are good? What if they are the bad ones? It's easier to deal with anything that cos our way if everything's out and in the open."
Becca nodded with a smile. "Wise words coming from an aspirant Hero. I think we're starting to see the type of person you are. But let's go back. You won a prize, got a level-up, and then started training. It is common knowledge that you chose the Explorer role. Tell , what ca next?"
Hera started talking about her early days in the MAZE. The Arcanist Tower dungeon, hunting giant frogs. She ntioned watching the wall being broken, and then how one of her friends was seemingly killed by the Wendigos, quickly adding that the friend was okay and nothing bad happened, choosing to avoid ntioning the whole parasite issue that Helena went through. The Empress also made a point of not using anyone's nas. She didn't want to cause problems for her friends, even if they were going to show up on the screen.
She continued her tale while reliving the mories she made as an explorer. How she helped a powerful mage with her research, and that ultimately made her discover the first Wendigo on the lower layers of the MAZE. How she went to the next room for the first ti, fighting with a couple of friends through so dungeons. She talked fondly about coming back and fighting her first rampage, not so much because of the rampage itself, but because of the sense of camaraderie created with the people on her team. She talked about going deeper into the MAZE, to the Kobold Battlefield, and how that resulted in her first ti getting stuck sowhere.
Hera talked about finding the dwarves of Boothudurn and saving them from the Sky Ruler. She talked about helping them unlock their room and find a way to connect to the wider MAZE. She talked about falling in love with a blacksmith from there and how, unfortunately, they ended up splitting due to personal issues.
The interview lasted for a about half an hour as the Empress recounted the major points of her career as an explorer. Discovering the ancient Naga civilization, going after the rumor of a legacy she uncovered with a friend, at which point she introduced her titled blades to the world. She continued talking about the centaur attack on Dzviery and how she had to kill a man there, a man whose na she never forgot, even though she didn’t want to ntion it now out of respect for his family.
She talked about everything while keeping so details vague. The Royal Explorers and their ideas of finding their old ho. The ti she got stuck in the MAZE again due to the weather. How that ended up taking them into a rabbit hole until they found a way back, but not ntioning Alex's curse. And then ca the more serious part.
"After finally coming ho, I hoped to rest for a bit. Or at least slow down a bit, but..." Hera looked down. Daskka perked up and licked the Ophidianite's face to comfort her, causing the Empress to smile. "Thank you," she took a deep breath. "But that's when things started to turn for the worse. The guild had kidnapped my old girlfriend, the blacksmith. A group reached out to , knowing about our connection, and asked if I had any intention of helping. At the ti, a couple of people knew about my legacy, which I believe is one of the reasons they called on , in addition to my luck attribute."
"Why was that important?" Becca asked.
"Just because of the path we took to get there. We traveled through a specific dungeon that required a certain amount of luck to open a specific passage. But the number was actually very high, and each person could only bring one other person along with them. The whole point was to arrive at the location where we needed to be without warning the guild about our movents. Eventually, we were able to do the operation and rescue almost everybody who had been kidnapped, with one exception." Hera held her hands tightly. "My ex-girlfriend."
"You saved everybody but her?" Becca's voice cracked a little bit. This wasn’t the first ti she’d heard that story, but the fact she was able to make it sound so natural was scary.
"Sorry, that makes it sound like we rescued everybody who was kidnapped. By the ti we got there, a few prisoners had already been killed. But amongst the ones that we found alive, she was the only one who didn’t make it. She died in my arms," Hera paused taking a deep breath, "What the guild was doing were the initial trials of the Soldiers of Strength. And during experints like that one, fatalities were not uncommon. During our escape, we were worried about being caught, so we pushed beyond the three crossing limit to make sure the humans wouldn’t follow us. Unfortunately, I was struck with a debuff, stopping from continuing, and was forced to stay inside a dungeon for a few months."
"That’s when you beca an Ophidianite?" Becca asked.
"Yes, and no. It wasn’t the dungeon that gave this ability. I already had acquired the ans to beco an Ophidianite a while back, but the idea never really appealed to . There were a lot of details that I couldn’t know until I actually went through the process, but generally, I preferred to stay as I was. Until the guild started to threaten those I care about. There was this guy nad Peter who pressured my friends to find , saying that if they couldn’t, the guild would consider them conspirators to my acts of terror, since at the ti I was being frad as soone who was part of the Last Line of Defense."
Becca turned to face the cara. "For our viewers at ho, we know this was a very common practice for the guild before and during the war. They would threaten not just powerful explorers but also their families and friends in case they refused to help. But please, do not look for those people, as the Alliance is already in the process of prosecuting them through legal ans. Peter, who Hera just ntioned, is already in custody," the reporter turned back to the Empress. "Sorry about that. Please, continue."
Hera nodded. "I was able to communicate with my friends while I was in the dungeon, and we ca up with a plan. They would chase and kill while recording the event. Then I would ascend to an Ophidianite. For the record, that’s just the na of the process. I don’t think it’s about how my new species is better or sothing like that. I’m just different."
"And after that, you joined the war effort?"
"Correct."
"Tell us more about that. What was your role in the war?"
Hera started explaining, not going into too many details. She knew Becca was going to circle back to the Ophidianite ascension, but she wanted to first finish talking about her achievents. Thankfully, this also ant that the interview was almost over. All that was left was to explain how people could join her in this new species.
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