Hera had Nimbus land in that strange spot. The area where no vegetation was growing and felt like something was supposed to be there. As soon as they touched the ground, the court quickly spread out forming a perimeter around empty space in the middle of the dungeon. Even if they had yet to see any truly dangerous monsters, the fact that the specters were around was still something worrying everybody. The last thing they needed was for one of those to appear out of nowhere, breaking the rule that they only came out at night.
Not to mention the fact that they had yet to see any actual monsters in the dungeon. And that was starting to wait on the Empress's head. Sure, it wasn't impossible to find a dungeon that didn't have any monsters. But all the ones without monsters that she entered and were had a different feeling to them.
More specifically, those dungeons would usually take place in a city or a space that was closed off from everything else. In a forest, there was no reason to believe that there would be no monsters in the area. And the fact that they had yet to find any was starting to make her worried.
But Eli didn't seem to be bothered by anything. The moment they landed, he quickly started looking around and taking samples of the soil in hopes of finding something that would guide them to Au Dorado. Hera joined him in the search and in the experiments only after her court confirmed that everything was okay. There were no creatures around, but they were still keep an eye out just in case.
With Oberon resting on top of her head, the Empress moved quickly from one side of the clearing to the next. Trying to see if there was anything on the edges that could help them understand where they were. Or specifically, help them understand where Au Dorado was located. They couldn't find anything that would start to show them where the city was. And even Eli was somewhat frustrated with that discovery. This seemed to be just an empty space where the ground was somewhat salted.
"Do you think that someone did this on purpose or was it an accident?" Hera asked the Orc.
He paused to think for a moment before replying. "It could be both. While the concept of fighting wars by attacking your enemy's supplies is somewhat new, at least when you think about the full extent of it, it's not really something impossible to consider. Some ancient civilizations were known to burn down crops. Using salt, however, that is novel. At least for the time. But it's not out of place either. We know that the civilization that created Au Dorado was supposed to be highly advanced and very inventive when it came to pretty much everything. All the tools and resources that have been found related to them were all quite unique. Modern technology that failed to be completed."
"What do you mean by that?" Hera asked with a confused expression. The Orc didn't mention any advanced technology that this civilization could have.
"Here, let me show you." Eli created an illusion in front of Hera of a boat. It was a large vessel with a water wheel in the back. A pair of them, actually. One on each side. The illusion showed how there were buckets on the sides of the wheels and there was a figure pulling a large rope making the buckets go up, and when they reached the very peak of their journey, they would throw all the water inside of them into the water wheel causing it to spin before going back and being dumped into the water to refill and bring more.
"When you look at this, what does this remind you of?"
The boat was a crude version of a Viking ship with exception of that strange water wheel and a piece of cabin that was raised on the back to allow for the workers to stand on top of them and keep pulling the rope to make the buckets spin. It took the Empress a couple of moments, but she realized why this felt so familiar.
"Is this a steam boat?"
Eli nodded with a smile. "This works just like a steam engine. The main difference being that they still had yet to figure out the use of steam. They're making this function by going in the opposite direction. Instead of using steam to propel the wheels upward, they're using water to weight it down. It is smart but obviously not something that is sustainable in the long run. Not only would people be too tired to make this work but also the amount of effort being put on moving the boat was likely not enough to justify using something like that instead of just wind. Unless they were using some sort of spell to make the water move quicker or something. But even that didn't seem to be the best solution. The problem was the actual design of this boat, not the general concept. See what I'm talking about?"
Eli turned to the Empress. "This is the type of thing that you would see as a predecessor to the steam engine. But a stepping stone into something bigger. This level of technology, and that's what we are looking for.
"People who were smart enough to make something like this but not smart enough to get to the next step already?" Hera asked.
The Empress turned to Eli, who nodded in confirmation. "Exactly. Not that they were not smart enough to get there. But they didn't have time to do so."
Hera nodded, trying to figure out what this information would help in the search. But before she came up with an answer, she felt something from one of her snakes. A small signal that she had already put into place for the constructs to tell her when they reached the underground river.
And now, the snakes were moving quickly underground, following the current.
"Eli, hang on. My snakes are following the river."
Just after saying that, the Empress noticed that the current was much, much faster than she was expecting. Not the low movement of a creek, but an actual roaring river that should be going at least as fast as Nimbus was able to fly, if not even faster.
"Can you tell where they're going?" Eli asked.
She shook her head. "Not yet. They're too far away. But I told them to try to stop if they see anything out of the norm."
"Can your constructs understand that command?"
"More or less. When I say out of the norm, I mean out of the norm for my perception. Something will show up if I would think it's strange."
"So what do you think we should do now? Should we follow them? Or should we continue moving to the next area that we found to be interesting?"
The next location was a cave that had some unique markings in front of it. As if there was a door there once upon a time that was removed from its hinges not that long ago.
"Tell you what, I'll keep an eye on my snakes and we can keep going to that cave. But I won't be as focused on what we're doing around here. They will take charge of that part," the Ophidianite gestured to her court.
They were also analyzing the ground. Filigree was using her bladed wire to try to map out the environment. Forge was inspecting a piece of stone that he found to be curious, considering that it could be artificially created and maybe that could get him somewhere. While Viper and Crimson were also doing their best to help by trying to see if there were any hidden paths anywhere in this area.
"They can keep an eye out with you while I maintain my focus on the snakes too."
Hera nodded with a smile and quickly left on Nimbus. Reaching the cave was easy, and they started trying to see what else they could find there.
Apparently, Eli's assumption was correct as below the cave, which was located in a tall hill, was an actual metal door, but it wasn't made of gold or silver. It was bronze, but that gave them some hope of being on the right track.
All the while, Hera continued to follow the path her snakes were taking. While they started moving towards her at first, now they had changed directions a couple of times. The underwater river seemingly sneaking around most of the dungeon.
Hera continued to focus on the movement of her snakes while Vulcan and Lurize worked together to understand how the bronze door had fallen from its location. They tracked the metal and confirmed that it was created about 2,000 years ago. It wasn't a perfect estimate as he could be off by a few hundreds, but it was already better than that.
Lurize went to the cave and studied the door for a moment. Eventually, he realized what happened. Parts of the stone where the door should have stayed in the past were eroded. One specific point was mostly destroyed, meaning that either something managed to get in and created this small gap that slowly started to carve a path and eventually, the door broke open.
It was a lot of progress for this small amount of effort. However, Hera wasn't listening to anything that they were saying. She had just received the signal from one of her snakes that there was something strange in the river. It was a couple kilometers to the west. The constructs had just found a large structure underwater. A structure that seemed to be made of some very reflective metal.
She told them to get close to it, and they did their best to do so, swimming against the current. However, only one of them was able to reach that large structure and jump inside it. The water caused the snake to drop and roll violently, the construct barely holding it together until it crashed into an open chamber that had no water inside.
Unfortunately, Hera felt the snake crashing on the floor before it vanished due to the damage, while the other two snakes were still being dragged by the current away from that structure.
The Empress shot her head back in pain as the damage taken by the snake was more than enough to hurt her. But there was nothing else she could do. The entire court rushed to her side with Filigree already triggering her healing abilities to see if she could at least lessen the pain Hera was feeling.
But more than that, something else made Hera forget completely about any injury. The ground began to shake and in the distance, roughly in the same direction that she was feeling the snake before, something was emerging from underground. A giant palace made of gold and silver broke through the canopy of the forest, with the vegetation being pushed away.
They could only see the very top of it. A dome reflecting the sunlight as a sense of wonder washed over Hera, her court, and Eli. This was the type of thing that wouldn't happen for nothing. Only when someone was about to see something that transcended the test of time, they would feel something like this.
Eli's eyes were filled with tears, and he mumbled, "That's it. It has to be. Au Dorado."
Without missing a beat, Hera called Nimbus, completely ignoring the pain that she was still feeling, and they jumped on top of the Sentinel, flying towards the golden palace in the distance.
During that frenzy, the Empress failed to notice how the two remaining snakes suddenly vanished from her senses. Being destroyed instantly by something that lurked deep underwater.
#### Author's Note ####
The city emerges! Is it really that, or a red herring?