MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera was looking at her stats. She had set them all to 1 to see how many points she would have left. Her math was right. She could make all her stats be at 10. This meant that if she got a few bonus points or increased her stats in some other way by level 3, she could become an explorer.

Her endurance was at the 4 mark when she pressed the subtraction symbol, and nothing happened. Hera gave a few more tries before wondering if the skill had a limit. Maybe she couldn't have over 50 attribute points to distribute. However, the skill never said anything about it.

If there was a cap, it should show in the information, right?

Hera was still thinking about it when she heard the door open. Did she take too long? Michael said nothing about being close to half an hour. She looked back and saw four men walking inside. Two of them were wearing a black suit and tie and sunglasses like the ones you see bodyguards in movies using. Walking with them, there was a man with a pink Mohawk that she recognized as being the same one that passed by her earlier that day.

That seemed to be so long ago.

In the middle there was a kid, he might be older, but his face looked fifteen, he wore a long blue coat with fur on its edge, black pants with a golden suspender and a white dress shirt. Most strange of it all was the fact that he was wearing a golden crown atop his black hair.

Behind them, Michael was looking at her with a worried expression on his face.

The kid approached her and gave her an up-down look.

"Why is there such a useless one making me waste my time?"

Hera looked down. Maybe she took too long, and now she was using someone else time in the leveling chamber.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"What? I can't hear trash," the kid put one hand in his ear while talking, trying to ridicule Hera.

Hera looked down and walked towards the exit.

"Not good enough. Bruiser, do your job," the kid commanded.

The pink-haired man walked behind her and whispered.

"Sorry, it's just a job," before making a small explosion appear in her back.

The blast flung Hera towards the exit of the chamber. She fell on the ground, feeling the impact face first, followed by a sharp pain through her entire body. She never got attacked by someone high level before. The pain was excruciating. She felt her skin burning and even the impact on the ground hurt much more than what she was expecting.

Hera forced herself to get up, the tears rolling down her face as she heard some noise coming from the chamber. Then a voice finally reached her.

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea they would... I'm gonna call someone," Michael fretted.

Hera shook her head, "It's fine, I took to long, I' will be going now."

She heard Michael saying something else, but she wasn't able to understand it. Forcing herself to move and doing her best to hold back the tears, she grabbed her bag and walked towards the exit. The only phrase she understood was.

"You should feel the effects of your level up by tomorrow."

She nodded and went to the exit. She was holding her bag as tightly as she could while she walked into the street towards the train station. Unable to hold back anymore, the tears from the pain rolled down her face before she got to the station.

By the time the train had arrived, she had sat on the ground, weeping for the second time today.

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It took a while, but Helena had managed to calm down her boss. He was worried the last recruits would be too weak. Only when she said that Greyson would be the trainer that he settled down. After all, having one of the top 500 Fighters to train the recruits was enough to settle anyone.

She rushed past the reception towards the leveling chamber. Hera should still be there, and she wanted to be the first to congratulate her. For some reason, her salute left a powerful impression on Helena.

"We need more explorers like that," Helena said to herself.

This day and age, most new members of the guild are greedy and only care about glory. Helena knows that their job is a noble one. They fight to protect and help people. Fame is not the aim. It should be just a side effect.

She was reaching the leveling chamber when she saw Michael in the console outside. However, as soon as he saw her, his face darkened. Helena approached carefully.

"Michael, is everything ok?" she asked.

She looked at him then at the monitor, noticing the group that was inside.

"Why are there four men inside there? And where is Hera?"

Michael explained the situation, ashamed of how he dealt with it. He told Helena that the Kid is the son of the prime minister, and he didn't know what to do to avoid making problems for the guild.

"I understand, now can I please see the recordings from when Hera was there? I want to make sure she is okay." Helena said.

Michael put the recording in the monitor and stepped back. After watching, Helena turned around, moved closer to the attendant.

"Michael, dear," Helena's voice was soft, and she held his face like a caring mother, "I know it's you are new here. But do we have any ties with the government?"

He shook his head.

"They why did you let that prick do whatever he wanted?" She screamed at him while pulling his ears as if she was punishing her child.

"I don't know, he had a level 20 with him, and I was afraid. I'm sorry."

Helena let him go "That's fine sweety, now go to the gym and tell Rebbeca you are there for the drill, a few dozen laps will do you good to remember that we don't let any harm come to anyone in here."

His face turned a bit pale before walking towards the gym. Helena wanted to do worse, but it was his first month, and he never dealt with people like this one.

The leveling process had already begun. There was nothing that she could do about that. Helena glanced at the kid’s file.

-- Seraphin Kelgyn, Age:18

-- Job desired: Explorer

"We will see about that," she said with a smile.

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Hera finally got home. The day seemed to have lasted a week. She took everything out of her bag and put it on the table, hoping her wallet and cellphone were not too damaged because of the rain.

She looked at the fridge, but her stomach was still turning after the explosion. She went straight for the shower. Taking off her clothes, she glanced at the mirror. The shock made her freeze for a second. Deep wounds and burns covered her body. She could barely see her normal skin. Everything was a mess of purple and green.

Turning around, she saw a burn mark covering most of her back. Darker where the explosion hit. She felt her eyes water, but she took a deep breath and remembered that she had leveled up. She could become an explorer. All she needed was time and effort. Soon after thinking about it, she remembered what she was doing before it all happened. Her hands shook violently.

"Status," she said with a weak voice.

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Hera Kingsley -- Role: Civilian   Level:2

Stats:

Strength: 1       Endurance: 0

Agility: 1         Charisma: 1

Intelligence: 1       Luck: 1

Attribute Points Available: 54 + 1(bonus)

Total: 55

Skills:

Stats Reallocation (Expired)

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Hera started to cry after seeing her status, with no one around she could wail without holding back. She had one chance to change her attributes. But now the symbols to increase were gone. That meant that only when she reached level 3, she would be able to use her attribute points. Some explorers kept the bonus points for a level or two, trying to get a higher increase in later levels.

But the reason for her reaction was Endurance, the strongest stat she had, was now 0.

Sitting in her shower, she tapped Endurance to read its information.

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Endurance: Increases the resistance of the user.

That includes physical and elemental damage.

It also helps the user to ward off poison and diseases.

Current damage reduction: - 100%

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Having her endurance at zero meant she could easily get sick, and that any bruise or cut she suffered could be fatal. Right now, she was as sturdy as a porcelain doll. That does not even account for the fact that a 0 stat shouldn't be possible.

Hera had her dreams crushed once. Now she saw a ray of hope only to show that she probably would not live to see where it lead. She finished her shower and crawled up to her bed.

Finally, clearing her head, she searched the net for information on what her stats meant. Some websites said that she would die, but most of them always said stuff like that anyway. Going past that, she found some support groups for people with low stats and even an organization that offered help giving out medication and helping find jobs for someone with an attribute disability.

That seemed to be her future. She kept reading about this organization until she finally fell asleep.

Hera was too tired to dream, but what she had was far from a peaceful night. Her body changed even while she slept. Her skin seemed to burn, and her bones to shift. The feeling should be more than enough to wake her, but somehow she was still in such a deep sleep that even her alarms or the calls from her boss were not able to disturb her.

When she finally woke up, it was well over noon. Hera sat up on the bed, looking in front of her. She still was unaware of the time. Her focus now was on something else.

A screen was in front of her and under it her stats.

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Level up outside the allowed parameters.

Stat under the accepted value located.

Bonus attribute points redistributed evenly to correct value

Bonus points earned for evolving a hidden skill

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Hera Kingsley -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats:     Increase all

Strength: 10    + Endurance: 10  +

Agility: 10    +  Charisma: 10     +

Intelligence: 10     +  Luck: 10     +

Attribute Points Available: 0 + 6 (bonus)

Total: 6

Skills:

Exponential Growth (Evolved from Status Reallocation)

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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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