Hera explained the workings of her legacy to a certain point to Insomniac. She didn't go too deep into the specific abilities of each of her blades. Or the type of skills she had to enhance them. Like [Army of One] and the [Empress Palace] and such. There was no need for her to share that information if she was just asking about plain fights. But she did explain how every one of her blades would benefit from her own knowledge of fighting styles and how she spent a long time practicing all of them in order to perform the skills on an acceptable level.
Listening to everything intently without interrupting her, even when it became clear that he had something to say. Insomniac still waited until the Empress was done with her explanation before saying.
"Okay, and just so I make sure I understood this properly, you are telling me that you actually spent months? Years? Practicing fighting styles that you were never going to use just so your weapons became a bit stronger?"
Hera nodded, "I mean, it's not exactly like you're saying, but yes. Eventually I got bladed combat and that skill put all the effort I had to get the various fighting styles together. So now every single one of my blades is a bit better when fighting because of that skill."
"I see, it's commendable even if you did all that in the worst possible way," Insomniac sighed.
"What do you mean? I looked up the information about the skill once I got it and it just said that I should get various types of combat skills you know, short combat, dagger combat and stuff like that to combine them all in one."
Insomniac nodded. "Yes, but there's a difference between getting the skill randomly and actually training that skill. Instead of having learned ax-combat, spear combat, sword combat, and a bunch of things that were really different, you could specialize. It speeds up the process. For instance, something like rapier, Cutlass, scimitar, saber, short swords, long sword, and bastard sword, combat which would make getting the skill much easier. And much quicker. After all, if you're using the same type of weapon, even if they had their differences, there are a lot of movements that overlap. Following the blades you had in order to gain those skills might not have been the most efficient way to go about it. But it worked and I'm not going to argue with the results."
The Empress paused for a moment before nodding. "I understand what you're coming from. Then yeah, I could have gone about this in a better way. But what's done it's done it's not like I can fix that. I can only think about it for whatever I'm going for next."
Insomniac nodded. "Then that's pretty much what we do all the time. But moving on, you mentioned you've been using a skill you gained from a dungeon to be your big attack?"
"Yeah, grasshopper stabs, slash, and throw. I got it from the Pinnacle Mountain dungeon. There was an old martial arts master there who took me in and taught me how to use that skill."
"He actively taught you? It wasn't something you gained as a reward?"
Hera shook her head. "No. He taught me. He was like my master for a while."
Insomniac nodded. "Then I understand why it's been effective so far. But here's the thing, dungeon skills, even if they are taught or not just gifted, tend to not be very versatile. They work great for what they are, but once you try to develop them, it's going to be really hard. If you're going to follow that path and follow the skills that the master taught you, then you're going to need to make those skills your own. You can't simply expect to follow in his footsteps because there are no footsteps to be followed. The MAZE can be amazing to create various things. But it's also not perfect on creating everything. If, as you said, the dungeon was a regular dungeon and not a historical one, then the martial arts that were developed there are stagnated. They are stuck in that same loop that only exists while you were there. And even if you stay there for a few months, that's not really enough for an ancient master to improve on a skill they created. Especially if they are claiming that they mastered it."
Hera looked at the man for a moment, his dark hair intensifying the black of his eyes. "I never really thought about that. I just figured that since it was something that I learned instead of being given, it was a powerful skill. And I could make the skill grow."
Insomniac nodded. "You absolutely can. And proof of that is how you mentioned that you already gained one extra version of that skill, the throw, right?"
Hera nodded again and Insomniac continued. "So you can make that skill grow. But while it is possible, the skill is hardly going to be a true masterpiece. Unless you make it your own. Then you don't need to start from scratch or ignore everything you've learned so far about the skill, but you need to understand why it's doing what it's doing and how you can improve that. It's very tricky, I'm not going to lie and personally, I think you would be better off by trying to either create a new skill or following a different fighting style."
Insomniac paused and shifted his position to face the Empress. "Also, you mentioned you had a few fighting styles, right?"
Hera nodded. "Yeah. I learned one from the old Naga. There were a couple I just picked up here and there, one that I made by accident. And even one that I learned from the dwarves from Boothudurn."
Insomniac nodded. "Yeah. That one. Why did they only teach you the fighting style and not the moves?"
"What?" Hera asked.
"What do you mean what?"
Hera frowned but continued, "Are fighting styles not the whole thing?"
Insomniac shook his head with a genuinely confused expression, "They're just part of it. Like your grasshopper attacks. There should be variations of the complete style. You usually get things like, let's say strong sword fighting style and then you can also learn the strong swords slash or strong sword forward cut or something like that."
"Wait? But the people from Boothudurn never taught me anything like that. They even said that there weren't any skills attached to the fighting style. I had to use other skills to make up for bigger attacks."
Insomniac frowned. "And you just took their word for it? You never tried looking into things yourself?"
Hera shook her head, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Well, if a bunch of people who are hundreds of years old tell you that that's how things are, I just accepted as truth. And also I didn't find anything about specific combat style attacks when I was looking into others. I mean, not really."
Insomniac nodded. "Yeah, because they are generally something that is only shared with more advanced users. Since if you try to learn the attack skill before learning the actual combat style, you make it much harder for you to get the combat style. But at the same time, they should have taught you in the training. Those are very basic things."
Hera glanced to the side, seeing Wild Born and a dwarf chugging an entire bottle of the liquor Nereus created before slamming them on the table at the same time.
Both bottles completely empty.
"I never learned that. My training was only about learning two skills. Fighting Kobolds and then learning to dodge," Hera replied.
"Anyway, if you are saying that the dwarfs from Boothudurn don't know about that, maybe they just weren't able to discover those details. You said that they were all supposed to be descendants of commoners, right?"
Hera frowned. "How do you know that? I didn't talk about them now."
"Right, I was talking more about the interviews you did. There was one of them where you talked a bit about what you were doing in the past."
Hera paused, trying to remember, and it really was an interview where she explained the origins of Boothudurn. And what she discovered in the historical dungeon. The one that she had to participate in order to get the key to unlock the room. And Insomniac wasn't wrong. The dwarfs from Boothudurn were not nobles, they were just the lower cast of their old home who were left to die during an apocalyptic event. In that case, the mountain that they were living side turning into a volcano due to someone igniting the coal mine that was sitting in the middle of their kingdom.
"Wouldn't they have discovered the skills related to the fighting styles by now?" Hera frowned.
"Not necessarily," Insomniac replied. "Historical records show that it took a very long time for people to start noticing that pattern. I mean, we're talking about thousands of years and hundreds of thousands of people learning those skills. Even if the dwarfs were alive for a long time, and already had starting to develop their own fighting styles, without a specific type of training or someone who was willing to go against what they believed to be true, it would be hard for this discovery to be made. And according to everything I heard and saw about the dwarves from Boothudurn, they are very closely knitted to their culture and traditions. Not that there is anything bad about that, but it does stifle progress to a certain degree."
The Empress didn't really like that comment, but she had to agree. The people from Boothudurn spent centuries ignoring the Explorer role. A role that, if it was given to anyone, they might be able to figure out a way to leave the room. After all, if they had someone who could talk to Capri, there was a good chance that they could figure out a different way to leave that area and call for help. Maybe even stopping them from being stuck under there for centuries. But that wasn't the kind of thing Hera liked thinking about. Mostly because what was the point? Even if now she could see that they had better options, how was that going to change anything for anyone. What happened happened, and that was just that.
"Also, not all combat styles will have that option. Some are made to function with other types of skills. But you're asking about a finishing move like you said. And that kind of thing would work better if it was part of a combat style. At least in the way you were describing it. But…" Insomniac frowned, "Is this really how you want to do things?"
"What do you mean?" Hera turned towards him.
"I mean, you are basically spreading yourself thin. Which, it was fine early on when you were not really sure what would be the final form of your court, so to speak, but now from what I understand, all the big players are already there and they're never going to change. Your title blades, was it?"
Hera nodded, allowing Insomniac to continue.
"They are a big part of your legacy. And you know all of them. Actually, you probably could have picked a lane for a while already. Still, now you have all of them. You know every single one of them and you know what they're capable of. Why are you still acting like you need to be a jack of all trades?"
"Because I am the Jack of all trades. My stats kind of force my hand on that part."
"I agree, but that's not the case when we're talking about what do you do during a fight. Each of your court members should have something they excel at. Your job is to find your place in the middle of them, not just act like someone who could do the same thing they can just do, but to a lesser degree. I mean, technically, you have an entire front line of people by your side at all times. If you wanted to be a mage, you could be a very powerful one. You just would need to get a few extra skills related to Mana consumption and magic power, but that's not that hard to get from a start. And since you are an Explorer, you could also go for the mage half-roll that you get. So more than just figuring out the powerful attack to add to your repertoire, if I were you, I would try to wrap my head around what kind of fighter I want to be. Do you want to be on the front lines? Do you want to be in the back lines? Do you want to act like as a full-blown general? Or maybe do you want to be more like a stealth assassin while they fight you can pick off your enemies one by one? There are options, but you need to stop and think about them before trying to find something powerful or a good fighting style to fit it."
Hearing that, the Empress just stared at Insomniac, blinking slowly. After a long pause, the man felt it to be awkward and spoke up.
"Sorry, was I too rude?"
Hera shook her head. "No, no nothing like that, just, that sounds so obvious, dude. Why did I never think about that before?"
The man chuckled. "To be fair, you do have to organize and command a group of warriors during all of your fights. It's not a surprise you try to stretch yourself to cover as many bases as you could. I'm just a bit surprised why you never went for a commander route. That's quite literally what you are. A general guiding your troops to battle."
Hera shook her head. "No, I don't really like that part, and I usually have one of my blades taking that job."
Insomniac raised an eyebrow. "They can do that?"
"Yep, it doesn't even have to be the title ones. It just takes a bit of effort for them to start getting the hang of things. That's why changing them it's not something I like to do very often. But I try to always keep one of my blades as kind of the general and to top it off, I just try to get some buffs on that particular weapon so we can help in any situation that might need."
"That's actually really smart. But back to what you said. If you want to focus on a specific thing and then you want to look into a finishing move or some powerful attacks, let me know. I can help you out there, but until you decide what you actually are going to do, I think it's better not to just blot your skills even more. Some attacks and attributes are a bit more finicky than others and might not work as well if they overlap with something else. You know?"
Hera nodded having understanding since she also had a few skills that didn't like to work together with one another. But she still couldn't believe how quickly Insomniac was able to come up with a way to help her. She had been struggling with that for a while. Yet, he spoke in a way that made everything look so simple.
Before she could start thinking too much about this specific situation, she heard Wild Born and the dwarf causing a commotion. It was too much noise for it to be just a pair of people trying to out drink each other, which made both the Empress and Insomniac to frown and look in their direction. With the Ophidianite dropping the spell and the mist. Only to be surprised when they saw the two men sitting side by side with a microphone in hand while singing,
"Dame da ne! Dame yo dame na no yo!~"
Hera was pretty sure she had heard that song before. But she couldn't believe that the Healer decided that this was a good place to perform an impromptu karaoke session. And to make matters even worse, Nereus was by his side waving some glow sticks that he got from God knows where. It was pretty obvious that any semblance of official business that could exist now was absolutely over. As their mood seemed to be starting to infect everybody else. And the gala devolved into a party full of overgrown teenagers.