MAZE - The Endless Quest 42 Dotting The 'I's

Hera and her friends went to the food court in the strip mall. The group was discussing the roles the whole time. 

Leo considered being a fighter, but after hearing about how the [Hunt] skill can affect other skills, he was really interested in being a hunter. Bonnie was split between researcher and mage. Her goal was to use magic even if she had to be in the front lines, but she never imagined that there was a role less dangerous that allowed her to learn about magic even faster. 

Alex liked the idea of being a mage as well, but she also liked the a.s.sa.s.sin role. Hiding in plain sight and dealing a lot of damage seemed to be really interesting. She was just worried that being colorblind could give her some trouble when ambus.h.i.+ng creatures. 

Hera was still divided. There were many interesting roles to choose from. Her friends agreed that if she wanted to do many, she could just become an explorer and learn the other roles. The idea seemed nice, but she was still worried about having trouble early on. 

Blue, however, was the only one 100% sure of the role she wanted. A controller, of course. After seeing Frostbite, she was enthralled with the idea of following her footsteps. Hera wanted to tell the girl the full story, but she had promised Helena not to tell anyone. For now, it didn't seem to be a problem, but later on, Hera might need to have a serious talk with her friend. 

Coming back to the guild, with their bellies full and their wallets thinner, the group went straight for the ATR.

When they arrived a set of 10 white silhouettes were standing in the room. 

The teacher was already there, with a satisfied expression on his face. They waited for a bit until all the recruits arrived. 

"Now that this b.l.o.o.d.y thing is doing what Ah want, we can start. These things yer seeing in the room are yer new trainers. In the back, I got some training weapons for ye to use. Choose the one ye want to learn and walk toward one silhouette. Show yer bracelet to it and the trainer will register its data in you. Then... Hang on a second," Mr. Greyson cut his explanation short and looked for something in his tablet. 

The man seemed to read something, Hera could see his lips moving.

"Right, after the data is registered, any ATR ye use in the guild will have the same trainer. They all share the same... databale?... no database, yeah that's right. Ye can also use yer tablet to change its appearance and voice too. Whatever that means. These trainers can teach you how to fight with any of the weapons we have here in the guild. If ye want to use something else, ye need to see if there is a trainer for that. One last thing, because we are in the deluxe ATR... Why this b.l.o.o.d.y name?... Since we are in the deluxe ATR, the trainers also will put a spell on you to improve yer concentration. That will help ye to learn faster."

The teacher stopped staring at the tablet and looked to the recruits.

"I advise ye to focus on a single weapon, if ye manage to get a fighting skill then ye can try another one. If ye can't do it today, don't worry. Ye will be using the basic ATRs once a day, it just won't have that spell, and we won't be here the full day." 

Finis.h.i.+ng his explanation, Mr. Greyson told the recruits to train. Hera walked towards the weapons looking for something she could use. She was already having trouble to decide what role she would take, and now she had to pick a weapon. Swords didn't fit her very well, and her wrists ache just by looking at the daggers. She noticed a chakram in the mix. She never did tried them out. 

However, she felt like this wasn't the right moment for it. She should grab something less complicated, that way she can take advantage of the ATR she was using right now. Finally, she saw a hand axe. When she tried, she got a bit confused with the reach, but aside from that the movement was very comfortable. It was also the first weapon she used to kill something, even if it was just a simulation. 

She looked back towards the silhouettes. Only Anaya and Kenjiro had chosen their trainers. Hera made a point of choosing the area farthest away from the woman as she could. After she had realized what Anaya thought of her, Hera noticed that the previous conversations between the two of them had very different meanings. She already had to deal with a mother that kept judging her, she didn't have to deal with another random person doing the same. 

Arriving in front of her trainer, Hera moved the bracelet towards it and a system message appeared in front of her. 

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Thank you for choosing this trainer. 

Please choose the starting appearance and personality of it. 

Gender

[Male] [Female] [Androgynous]

Personality

[Warrior] [Sensei] [Personal trainer] [Drill Sergeant]

Appearance

[Athlete] [Adventurer] [Sergeant] 

[P.E. Teacher] [Kong-fu Master]

Exotics

[Elemental Spirit] [Angel] [Devil] [Monster]

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Hera wasn't expecting that many options. She thought about what type of trainer she would want. However, she caught a glimpse of other recruits already training. She didn't have time to experiment with its appearance. She quickly tapped a few options, barely looking at them, just making sure not to choose drill sergeant as the personality. The result was an androgynous spirit with a personal trainer personality.

Confirming his choice, the silhouette s.h.i.+fted. It became an orange creature with flowing hair and big eyes that had no iris, just a yellow glow coming from it. It seemed to wear fire in the place of clothes. 

The appearance surprised Hera. She didn't expect the trainer to look so different, even with an odd appearance. It looked so real. 

The trainer looked at the handaxe and materialized the same weapon in its hand. It showed Hera a simple attack. Starting with the stem of the axe pressed on its hip and the leg on the opposite side forward. The movement was simple, a quick horizontal slash and then moving back to the starting position. 

When Hera tried the first time, an overlay appeared around her, showing the movement she made, and the places where her posture was wrong. The trainer also gave her some pointers in a weird mechanical voice. 

It took Hera a few tries, but after she managed to do the attack without leaving the surrounding boundary a few times, then the trainer showed the next step on the move. Instead of using the axe, she would use her off-hand to push her enemy away while resetting her stance. As weird as it felt, doing it like this would make the enemy always be far away enough to be struck by the axe's blade. 

The recruits kept practicing for the entire day. At one point, Mr. Greyson went towards the 9th silhouette and activated his trainer. Even the teacher seemed curious about the effectiveness of the deluxe ATR.

When the day was almost over, Hera got a new skill.

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Hand axe Combat (Rank1)

Improves your ability to use hand axes during combat. Techniques that you already learned can be used with muscle memory alone. However, using a technique like this lowers the effectiveness of it.

This skill also improves the user's ability to learn new handaxe techniques and skills.

Hand-axe effectiveness increase:  5% 

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Reading the skill Hera was surprised. This skill seemed too strong for being a rank 1, but thinking about it, it wasn't strange. The skill would only be useful during combat, and if she stopped focusing on her movement, the attack would be weaker. 

She gave it a go, and it wasn't as odd as she expected. Moving without thinking about it felt just like walking. She just needed to have the right intention. The second she stopped thinking about the movements, however, the trainer stopped. Apparently, the trainer would only teach if she was doing it consciously. 

When the cla.s.s was over Hera and the rest of the recruits were impressed with the results they got from the ATR. All of them got combat skills, and the ones that already had them felt they were genuinely improving.

The rest of the training month went by quickly. Hera kept updating her grandma and dad about the new things she was learning, but she never went back to visit during the training. 

She finally told a few friends about her new job and promised to go out with them to celebrate when she pa.s.sed the test. 

At the end of the month, Hera learned a second combat skill.

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Chakram Combat (Rank1)

Improves your ability to use chakrams during combat. Techniques that you already learned can be used with muscle memory alone. However, using a technique like this lowers the strength of the attacks. 

This skill also improves the user's ability to learn new chakram techniques and skills.

chakram effectiveness increase:  5%    

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After some incentive from her friends, Hera tried it out. It was an incredibly versatile weapon, with a grip in the middle she could use it like a dagger at close quarters and still throw it if she needed to hit something at the range. The problem was having to go after it again. But that would be only a last resort thing. Mr. Greyson talked about being able to imprint your mana into an item so it would show it on the map her skill created, that way she could try to recover it. 

When they reached the third week, part of the training became sparring matches with other recruits. Since they only trained with one partner each day, Hera managed to avoid fighting Anaya altogether. Although Blue ended up giving the woman a good beating on their first match. 

In the week before the final test, Mr. Greyson asked the entire cla.s.s to focus on the skills [Dodge] [Block] and [Run]. Hera only got [Dodge] and [Run] sadly, she wasn't used to blocking and found out that to her, evading an attack was easier. In that week Hera also got the skill [Improved Stamina].

Before she knew, it was already the Sunday of the final test. Hera got dressed in an outfit that could help move around. All ready to leave, Hera opened her status.

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Hera Kingsley  -- Role: Civilian Level: 2 

Stats: Increase all                                 

Strength:  12 Endurance:  12

Agility:  12 Charisma: 12    

Intelligence:  12 Luck: 12 

Skills: 

Pa.s.sive: 

Exponential Growth 

Chakram Combat, Hand axe Combat

Improved Stamina 

Mapping, Observe 

Active:   

All in 

Inspect 

Hide, Dodge, Run

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Run (Rank 1): 

Increases the speed and the coordination of the user while running at the expense of increased stamina consumption

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Dodge (Rank 1): 

Increases the judgment of the user when dodging, decreasing the strain placed in the body while doing so. 

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Improved Stamina (Rank 1): 

Increases the stamina of the user as well as its regeneration. The effect increases when the user is less active or more relaxed.

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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 

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Checking her skills again, Hera felt confident. She had made sure to not waste her [All in] in the last few days, she might need it for the test. 

Taking a deep breath, Hera looked back to her studio apartment. The next time she came here, she would be an explorer.