MAZE - The Endless Quest

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[All In] effects deactivated, the cooldown will now start

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"Ouch."

Hera's shoulder had slammed against the bouncer, and now it hurts a lot. Carol stood up and rushed to the two that were on the floor.

"Are you okay?" her eyes were switching from Hera to the security.

"Yeah, this miss pack a bigger punch than I was expecting," the other bouncer was running towards them with an angry look and ready to attack. Seeing that reaction, Carol screamed at him.

"Peter, Stop!"

The man slowed down but still got close to Hera, trying to make sure she didn't try anything else.

"Peter, for fuck's sake, calm down."

Hera got surprised by that. Guild attendants usually were very polite, especially since they worked directly with the customers.

Carol helped the cause of all this trouble to get up, while Peter helped his partner. He was still staring at who had thrown him into the ground.

At this moment, a dark-skinned woman came from the hallway, walking towards the desk.

"What is going on here? I heard that noise from the break room" As soon as Helena saw Hera, she gave a big smile and rushed towards her with a shout. Almost tackling her new friend when she hugged her, "Hera! I'm so glad you are here."

"Ah.. me too.." Still shocked about the situation, Hera could only follow Helena's lead.

"Hey Carol, what happened?" Letting go of the hug, she turned to her coworker.

"Well..." Carol explained everything, being interrupted a few times by Hera apologizing to the security guards and to her. Even Peter, who is the stubborn one, couldn't help but feel bad and apologize to her as well.

"Ok, I got it, but since no one got hurt, we can brush this off, right?" Before even receiving an answer Helena grabbed Hera's hand and guided to the hallway "I'm gonna take care of her in the back, don't worry about the paperwork I'll deal with it too."

Carol could only sigh. That was how Helena was. She would bulldoze through a situation, and there was hardly anything left to do by the end. The attendant looked around and apologized to the other visitors, who only nodded and grumbled a bit.

One of the kids pulled the teacher's coat before asking, "Teacher, what is fuck?"

The teacher glared at Carol, who could only turn pale while looking at the children.

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"Again, I'm so sorry, Michael should have known better. And I should have stayed."

Helena was apologizing for what happened the previous night for the fifth time.

Hera was fine. If things worked out differently, she could have been angry. Now she felt like she owed the man who tossed her out of the leveling chamber a thank you.

"Don't worry. I told you, I'm fine, and everything worked out." She gave a soft smile that almost made Helena cry.

It was such a pure smile that only a baby should be able to do it.

"Okay then, to finish your registration let's see how your stats are looking then."

Helena picked a pale green orb and put it on the desk. There was a cable attached to the back, and the sphere seemed to have some milky liquid inside.

"Just put your hand here. That way, I can see your stats through the monitor. You need this to show your stats unless you become an explorer. After that, you only need to show your card with your level."

Hera nodded and placed her hand on the orb. It was warm, but not too much. After a few seconds, she felt her hair standing. Helena scratched her head and put a mirror in front of Hera.

"Right, sorry about that, sometimes it gets a bit of static, and well, you get a bit pointy," Hera laughed a bit while the orb was doing its job.

With a 'ping', the screen in front of them flashed, and Hera's status were displayed.

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Hera Kingsley -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: Increase all

Strength: 12 Endurance: 11(12)

Agility: 11(12) Charisma: 11(12)

Intelligence: 11(12) Luck: 11(12)

Skills:

Passive:

Exponential Growth

Active:

All in

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Exponential Growth:

While all attributes have the same value,

the user can increase all the attributes by 1 at once.

Cost changes with the value of the attributes

Current attribute point cost to use the skill: 3 points

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All In (Rank 1):

The user can increase one of its attributes to perform a single action, as if all the available bonus points were allocated in the relevant attribute. The attribute will have bonus increments and, at the same time, reduce all other attributes to 11 (10 + level - 1)  for 5 hours.

Value of attribute when the skill is used: 14,5

Cooldown: 36 hours Remaining (35:48:35)

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"Ohhh, that's amazing!"

Helena was reading Heras's status. Impressed with a level 2 with 12 average points. Hera, on the other hand, was staring at her skill. Not only it was an active skill that would make one of her attributes stronger, but it was also a rank 1 skill. That meant in higher ranks, the skill could have more potent effects, or a lower cooldown and debuff.

How much was the bonus increment? If it followed the regular stats rule, it would be around 50%, since she would need 8 points to increase a single stat from 10 to 14.

Skills that had a rank would increase its power with each rank. In theory, the next rank could increase her stats even more, or lower the cooldown. There were many possibilities, and Hera was running trough a few of them in her mind, wondering if she could direct this evolution until she felt someone poke her arm.

Startled, she pulled the arm back. Helena was looking at her with a kind expression.

"Are you okay, you stayed there for a couple of minutes without answering."

Helena gave a warm smile that only made Hera feel guilty for ignoring her.

"Yes... sorry. After yesterday my mind is just... different."

Hera lowered her head, trying not to look at Helena.

"Oh, that's okay, you must have changed your Intelligence attribute. It does that to you, especially in the first few days. Let me check one thing...Wait... What? Hera, what did you do to change your stats so much? You even lowered the endurance."

It was the first time Helena saw something like that. According to the file Hera had some pretty crappy stats, but now they were higher than they should be. Even if she could redistribute her points as Michael had said, there are twelve extra attribute points in the middle.

"Yeah, when I woke up, my Stats Relocation skill evolved into Exponential growth, and then I could use my points to increase them all at once."

Helena's eyes widen, and she quickly tapped on the skill Hera just mentioned. Even before she finished reading the description, her jaw had already dropped. This skill was incredible. Sure, it meant that using this would mean you would never excel at one thing. But you would never have a weakness either. It was perfect for anyone who wanted to cover all their bases. And probably the best skill someone who would have the explorer role could wish for. She grabbed the recruit by the hand and looked deep into her eyes.

"Hera, please tell me everything that happened before your skill evolved."

"Okay... " Hera was staring a bit worried by the look on Helena's face, but she started to recount what happened the night before, skipping the part about the crying since she felt too embarrassed to share it.

"Right, I got it... maybe. I need to put on a requisition really quickly. Just give me a second."

Helena started to type, with a serious expression. Looking at the woman, Hera could see how beautiful she was. A sharp jawline and tiny nose with her curls flowing to the side of her head. She had an intense look in her eyes that only made the hazel color more vibrant. Her skin even seemed to be glowing ever so slightly, and there was also a reddish spot near her jawline. Hera started to wonder what was Helena Charisma at.

"Hera, you are staring, dear."

Hera quickly looked away, getting red with embarrassment before saying softly, "Sorry."

"It's okay. Now, let me give you a quick advanced lesson. Very few skills can't be acquired by other people. Actually, as far as we know, the only type of skill that can't be learned by someone else would be innate skills. Those are skills that you get when you level up for the first time, or that you always had. But they are not exclusive. For instance, other people had your Stats Relocation. The skills will always work the same way, if they have the same name, that is. So your skill is just like the skill anyone else could have. Are you following so far?"

Helena stopped typing for a bit and looked at Hera, who responded by nodding.

"Right. That also means that any change in one skill can be used by anyone else that has it. So if we can replicate the condition, other people could evolve their skill just like you did."

That meant that Hera wasn't special or chosen by the system. She was just lucky, which was fine since she was able to discover this and become an explorer was special enough. Even though she still felt like the system still owned her a bit.

"What I'm doing right now is making a quest to test the conditions of the skill evolution. That way, if we managed to confirm it, we can add to our database, and all explorers that have the skill can know of the possibility and even look for other possibilities with it."

Hera stared at Helena. She never heard about a skill database or something like that.

"This is a trade secret. All explorers know about it, but no one is allowed to tell civilians. We do this so that no one tries to upgrade a skill before leveling up. That can be very dangerous for both the person and whoever is around them. You would probably only hear about this in a couple of weeks since the basic training takes a while to get there. But I felt like it was fair for you to know since you helped find this out. And of course, that way you can have a bit of an easier time in class when you get to this subject."

Hera looked at Helena without understanding those last few sentences.

"What class?" Hera asked.

Helena gave Hera a big smile before answering.

"Your explorer class silly, you have the best average stats I ever have seen, two absurdly strong skills to boot and wanted to be an explorer. Do you think I'm letting such a prime specimen of recruit escape? Now there is a class next month for the new recruits, but honestly, I don't want to wait two whole months to see what type of explorer you will be. Soooo I can pull a few strings and make you join the class that starts today. It will be easy. All I have to do is click this button. But the choice is one hundred percent yours. If you need some time to process and talk to someone, you are free to do so for as long as you want."

Helena stopped talking so fast, looked at Hera with a calm expression, and started speaking a bit more slowly.

"I Don't mean to pressure you. Sometimes I just get a bit too excited. This is a big decision, and even if you say you changed your mind, it will be okay. You can even come back in a few months or years, wanting to join again, and we will welcome you with open arms."

Hera was overwhelmed by all that information. Yesterday at this hour, she was still a clerk in a bookstore with no hopes of having a happy life. And now, she could start the training to become an explorer today. She took a few deep breaths trying to avoid a panic attack, and Helena was giving her some space while placing a glass of water in front of her and pushed towards the potential recruit.

Hera took a big sip of water. After calming down, she looked back at the woman who changed her life.

"So, Hera Kingsley, should I click this button?"

Hera looked back at Helena, who saw the fire in her eyes. She had a sixth sense about which recruits would do well as explorers, and to her, Hera seemed to be one of them. That spark was all the confirmation she needed.

"Yes, please!" Hera answered.

Helena gave a big smile and then clicked the button, getting up and taking Hera by the hand.

"Great, now follow me. You are already late for the first class."