MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera had her eyes closed, waiting for whatever the man was going to do. She held her breath, hoping her new endurance stat would be enough for her to survive another explosion.

"Get the hell away from her, Ashe. I told you it wasn't the time."

That was a voice Hera recognized. Carefully opening her eyes, she saw Helena in front of her, with a dark smoke enveloping both her and the guild clerk.

"But I want to apologize to her!"

The dark smoke seemed to lash out towards the man like whips, Hera could see Helena's hair changing color. Becoming darker and darker, a few of her curls also seemed to ooze out the smoke that stretched and expanded from her head.

"I do not care what you want! You attacked a civilian. The guild job is to protect the people outside the MAZE, not to harm them! The second you did that you lost any rights you had to ask for something. Now get out of here, you are still suspended for the next six months."

Ashe tried to speak again, but very few would dare to anger Helena. Her level was higher than his. He knew that. He also knew that she's famous for fighting against monsters almost ten levels stronger than her without a problem.

Hera just hid behind Helena until the man left. Her back wasn't hurting, and even the scar seemed to be gone after the level up, but the pain and fear were still with her. Like a claw grasping her throat, she was even having trouble breathing.

A few moments later, Ashe had left the Hall of Heroes. Helena turned around to check on Hera's condition.

"Are you okay? Did he do something to you?" Her voice was trembling, but Hera couldn't tell if it was panic or anger.

"I'm... I'm okay." Hera had to take a deep breath before answering. Just now realizing that she was shaking.

"No, you are not Okay, you can say when something is wrong sweetie."

Helena placed her hand on Hera's shoulder. Hera forced herself to stop shaking. She didn't realize how terrified she was of the man after the previous day, but it all made sense. During her hurry to get out of the guild, she didn't even consider asking for someone to check her injuries. She was already in the best place to look for help with that. But the only thing she was thinking was to run back home.

Once again, she felt stupid. She was better than that. Her intelligence could be lower at the time, but that wasn't an excuse for that level of stupidity. She is now an explorer. She can be better than that.

She has to be better.

"Hera? Sweetie? Please say something. We can go after a healer if you like. They have skills to help you calm down."

Hera shook her head, "No, thank you. I'm ... I'm going to be okay," she gave a weak smile.

For a high-level explorer like her, what happened to Hera was nothing more than a bad day hunting. However, for a civilian who had just got their first level up, an attack like the one Ashe did, would be the same as taking a direct hit from a dungeon Boss twice your level. Many explorers would quit or take an extended leave when faced with a situation like that one. And there was this girl, facing the same boss two days in a row.

She was still shaking, obviously terrified, but she refused to let that pull her down. The fire in her eyes was still burning.

Helena gave Hera a big smile, "Okay, but I want you to promise me you will talk to me if you feel like it's too much. Pinky promise," She raised her hand while holding her pinky out.

Hera laughed a bit. How can someone change from being strong and mature to acting like a preteen so quickly? She linked her pinky with Helena's.

"Pinky promise," she said while linking their pinkies together.

"Great, now let's go to the office. I still have some things to give you."

Helena walked towards the door, holding Hera's hand. But stopped and looked around, making sure Ashe wasn't in the hallway before continuing towards the office.

It wasn't a long walk, and soon both of them were sitting down on the same desk they were earlier that day. Hera felt weird. It seemed like it's been more than a week since she sat there.

Hera almost slapped herself. It was the second time today she stopped to ponder about the past, and how things changed. She had to stop doing that, or she would become an annoying old lady before her thirties.

"So, Hera, I got all your data now I just need to give you your pre... Post first day information. First, the class starts at 8 A.M. and ends at 6 P.M. This can change depending on the teacher, but most follow that schedule. If you get sick, our healers can help you, so you don't miss any classes. At the end of the course, you will all have a test to ensure you can deal with the MAZE exploration. If you pass, you are a full-fledged explorer. If not, you can retake the class in six months. In the meantime, we will hire you as a clerk in the guild. If the problem was just the final test, you could try the makeup test two times. After that, you need to retake the class," Helena explained.

"Now about the pay, when you become an explorer, it's going to be about contributions, and items and a lot more variables so I won't get into that until you pass the test. As a recruit, you have a 2 000 gold allowance for the month. This should be enough to live comfortably, and if you become a clerk, that will be your monthly wage. You also get this care package," Helena continued placing a black bag with the guild logo in the middle.

"Here you have a guild tablet, a holster for it, a set of training clothes on your size, a patch that you can put in any clothing to show you are a guild trainee and a bracelet. This is essentially a human black box. It tracks your vitals and location inside the MAZE, it can only see the area you are in, but it still can be helpful if needed. When you use the tablet, you can also set your biosignature. For now, that will only be used for the tablet, but after you pass the test, that will be your guild access."

Hera was taking in all the information. The biggest surprise was the payment. She knew explorers made a lot of money, but if even recruits to get 2 000 gold. How much a level 18 would be able to make?

"Oh, right! Before I forget, you also get a 500 gold bonus for each skill you discovered. If we can confirm it's a skill anyone that meets the requirements can evolve the skill, you will get an extra 500, and another 250 if you find any other information on how the skill works. If you figure out how one can awaken your second skill, that will be another 500 and the same 250 for any new information you can give us about that skill."

Hera was looking at Helena with disbelief. Her wage as a bookseller was only 750 gold. And now she was getting 3 000 in one go? Either an explorer gets way overpaid, or her last job was worse than she thought. Seeing her face, Helena let out a sigh.

"I know you are getting way underpaid for the skills, but that is a guild rule. The prices of skills vary depending on several factors. The strength, the method of acquiring it, the number of people who would have access to it. Just because your skills seem to require a rare innate skill, they gave the lowest pay to it. Even though it's an overpowered skill."

Hera shook her head. "No, no, no, it wasn't a complaint. It's just... this is three times my previous salary. Does an explorer really make that much money?"

Helena giggled, "Not at all. This much money a level 5 explorer can make in a bad week of hunting. A terrible one actually, maybe killing around 10 low tier monsters a day."

"Really?"

Hera was in shock. When she got to level 5, would she be making that much money every week?

"Really, after level 10, almost everything you buy, aside from food, will be a few thousand, or a few K like we say. After that, explorers deal with platinum, which is worth 100 thousand gold each."

"So, do I have to change my money then?"

Hera was already considering the problem that would be if she had to carry thousands and thousands of bills around.

"Well, if you want sure, but since almost everything is digital, these days, you don't have to worry about it. Your money will go straight to your bracelet, and when you reach a safe point, it will go to the guild bank. It's all automatic, so that helps a lot."

Hera picked the bracelet and looked at it, it was a deep black color, and it had some runes inscribed around it.

"When you put on the bracelet, it will be bound to you. You can shower and swim with it all you want, it won't break. And if you remove it and walk away, it will teleport back to your wrist. And my favorite feature."

Helena tapped on the tablet in front of her, and her bracelet appeared on her wrist. It was three metal chains spiraling around each other, a gold, a silver and a black one. They seemed to be individual, but when Helena moved one, all three moved in sync.

"You can customize or make it disappear as you wish. It just takes a bit of time to make a more intricate design. Since it needs to be drawn by hand in the tablet."

Hera was more impressed with the bracelet Helena had than with the possibilities. It was such a delicate work.

"Did you make that one?" she asked without taking her eyes out of the metal chains.

"Sort of, I made the idea and created a basic drawing. Then I asked a crafter friend of mine to make it. Honestly, my drawings are not that good, and crafters seem to have skills that help with this."

She remembered all the failed attempts that made her get used to the bracelet being invisible, "You can also make it disappear."

Helena tapped again on the tablet, and the bracelet vanished.

"Can you show me how to do that?" Hera asked, looking at her own wrist.

"Of course!"

Helena was glad Hera asked for something. It was the first time she heard the girl doing that, even though it was something really simple. A couple of minutes later, Hera was able to toy with the wristband. There were two options to change the bracelet. A drawing or a 3D model. Most people would use a picture since it was easier to make, and the system would extrapolate the rest. But Hera always liked the 3D classes at school. She could very well give it a go later.

"Ok, ok, ok, let's not get carried away here, if you want to make your own design let me finish what I need first."

Helena passed a few contracts to Hera sign, standard explorer things. A life insurance, authorization to make the knowledge of the skills available to all, and a Nondisclosure agreement that says she is not allowed to give information about the MAZE or the explorers to any civilian unless it is a life and death situation. This was just to make sure no civilian would try to do something that would put them in danger. Hera gave no mind to it since it was common knowledge that the explorers wouldn't talk about the MAZE to civilians.

"Okay, now we are done, do you have any other questions, sweetie?"

Hera thought for a second.

"Just one, what are monster tiers?"

Helena gave a big smile.

"That, my dear, is for Calvin to tell you in your class."