MAZE - The Endless Quest

When Hera finally got home, it was around 11 PM, she wanted to talk more with Helena, but she was just too tired. Hitting a wooden dummy for a few hours would do that to you.

She wasn't hungry, but there was some leftover pasta in her fridge. If she didn't eat it soon, it would go bad. Hera also needed food. Even as an explorer, some basic needs wouldn't change. Placing the pasta inside the microwave, she turned it on for three minutes. It would be scalding hot, and that was just how she liked it, especially since it would melt the grated cheese she used for seasoning.

While she waited, Hera picked up the guild tablet and opened the bracelet customization. She toyed with the 2d version of it, but it wasn't for her. The 3d, on the other hand, was right up her alley. Realizing it would be hard to make something good with the touch screen. She placed the tablet on a desk in her room and plugged in her mouse and keyboard. With the set up ready, Hera picked her dinner from the microwave and started to eat while she worked.

Thinking back to Helena's bracelet, she picked a basic model from the menu. Some slides showed up that helped you with the customization. She could change for pure modeling work at any moment, so Hera looked for a good starting point.

She scrolled through the models and found a braided version. Using a slider, she increased the gap between each braid until the bracelet looked like a strand of DNA. She raised the thickness of the sides and changed the colors. Hera wanted to make the bracelet look a bit more sturdy, even though it couldn't break. For the colors, she picked dull silver as a base and changed the color of each strand. One had a shade of red and the other a shade of green. That would be her nod to the heroes. She still wanted to put something in the middle of each loop, and that part would be golden, the same color as Cyrus' aura.

Hera was staring at the model, thinking about what she could place in the empty spots. She didn't find an option to do it in the pre-made models, so she would need to make them herself. Animals were hard, and symbols seemed too bland. She was good at making objects, but what would she make? A chair? A lamp? A can? A fork?

She smiled, a fork was stupid, but a knife on the other hand. She could make weapons. They were objects, after all.

Thinking about the wall in the training hall, Hera considered which weapons would be good to make. Flails, maces, and things with a complex form would take a long time, so she brushed them aside. Swords were a must, easy and simple. She also wanted to do an axe, and a Chakram, on a side that is pointing inside so no one would see it easily. For the rest, she was just going to make what looked cool. When she decided what type of weapon she will use, she can swap the ones in the bracelet.

The weapons seemed a bit odd being in all the shades of gold she tried. Remembering the stained glass, she made the top of each weapon to be a deep metallic black. But the sides would be golden. That made the whole design get together in a way she wasn't expecting. The shimmering golden aura around the weapons would reflect off the red and green strands, making the whole bracelet look like it was glowing, even if there was no light coming from it.

With a smile, she gave a last look at her work and hit the apply button. The bracelet didn't change right away. Instead, it showed the progress of the rendering while the bracelet changed. It seemed fair. It was a fantastic piece of technology, but even so, it still had some constraints.

She placed the bracelet on the desk beside the tablet and went to the shower. She felt sticky after the workout during class. She really needed one. Before walking to the bathroom, she placed her now empty plate in the sink. The work consumed her in a way she didn't even realize she had eaten.

Less than twenty minutes later, she was done, and so was the bracelet. She picked it up excitedly and admired her work. It was beautiful. Even some parts she didn't consider making were added to make it symmetrical. What mainly surprised was that the bracelet wasn't just a projection like she was expecting. The actual form of the bracelet shifted to what she made.

Hera looked at the time and realized it was past 1 AM. She put the bracelet on the desk again and went to bed, excited about what else she was going to learn the next day. She kept moving around in bed, too eager to sleep, but her tiredness overcame, and she fell asleep.

It was barely 5 AM when Hera walked into the training room at the guild. She woke up early and was ready to start. However, she was the second person to get there.

Leonidas was already in front of a training dummy, practicing with his spear while wearing the tracksuit the guild provided.

Hera was surprised, but at the same time, she had the same idea. Her bag was in one of the lockers, and she was already dressed for training. Moving to a dummy near Leonidas, she watched him for a few moments. He was making the same move over and over again. Or at least that's what it seemed. After watching Hera noticed, his attacks were slightly different every time.

The position of his hands shifted, as did the weight he was applying to his front leg. Most hits gave the same score, but now and then, he did something that changed that. Hera understood what was happening. It was a way to perfect his movements. There wasn't any way to do this type of training outside the guild.

After a few minutes, Leonidas had increased his score by one point consistently. Hera gave a soft smile and walked towards the wall filled with weapons.

"Oh, Hey Hera, is it time for class already?" Leonidas asked, noticing he wasn't alone for the first time.

"Not yet, I just couldn't sleep."

Hera looked at the spot where the sword she broke the day before previously was. Now it was just an empty place. She felt a bit sad about breaking a weapon that must have had such a busy life.

"I understand you. There is too much going on for me to sleep."

Leonidas was looking at the girl, curious about what weapon she would pick. The moment she pulled a long sword from the wall, he let out a surprised gasp.

"... What?..." Hera asked sheepishly.

"Nothing, I just pictured you using something with less weight to it," He said, scratching his cheek.

It was rude of him to react like that when she did something unexpected.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to use. My strength stat increased a lot because of my level up, so I need to get used to what I can do. I just thought that a heavy sword could help with that."

Leonidas was taken aback. How much her stats had changed?

"Sorry to ask, but did you really have an increase so big that you need to get used to your own body?"

Hera lowered her head. It wasn't about getting used to her body. She knew that ship had sailed. It was about understanding what it could do.

"Yeah... I... I got a skill that let me redistribute my attributes. I Used to have a 6 strength. Now it's at 12."

Well, 11, Hera thought, but she wasn't going to explain another of her skills now.

"Oh, ok. That makes more sense, although I'm not sure you should have used all your stats in strength. I mean, it's better to increase what you already excel at first and then take care of your weakness."

Hera swung the long sword without hitting the dummy, getting used to its weight.

"I don't think I should say much about it, but strength is my lowest and highest attribute right now."

She swung the sword horizontally, hitting the dummy's side. A 13 appeared in the monitor behind it.

"Wait, does that mean all your stats are at 12? By the Heroes, how OP were your base stats?"

Hera knew Leonidas wasn't trying to make fun of her. But the way he said it made her remember all the times the people at her school teased her when she found her stats.

It was stupid to feel bad about that now, Hera was aware of that. After all, she was going to be an explorer. And she had one of the highest average stats possible. However, it wasn't enough. Hera felt the tears start to form in her eyes and got angry. Angry at the people that teased her, mad at the system for taking so long, angry at herself for being so ungrateful.

She put all her feeling in her arms and, with a big swing, hit the dummy in the head. A score of 18 appeared on the monitor.

"They sucked. If I wasn't lucky to get a skill and some bonus points, I could never become an explorer."

She took a deep breath and kept hitting the dummy. Leonidas noticed her eyes watering and decided not to pry anymore.

"I'm glad it all worked out. I have a feeling the class wouldn't be the same without you here. For one, Mark would have probably quit after Mr. Greyson grabbed his shoulder yesterday."

They both laughed. Hera was glad he understood it was a tough subject. She also appreciated the change in the subject. Most people tend to keep digging when someone is uncomfortable. Or at least that was her experience with people.

The duo kept training. When it had been about one hour, they took a small break. Even with a few idle minutes, they still had plenty of time to train some more and take a shower before going to class.

Hera sat at one of the benches with her back to the glass wall. Leonidas was lying on the floor with both arms spread wide. Hera giggled, seeing the man like that.

"Is that part of your training?"

"Oh Yes, fair maiden, a knight must always lay on the floor after a good workout. The fact that both my arms hurt more than when I first started to go to the gym has nothing to do with that." He laughed, making sure not to move his arms.

"They might have healers that can help with that, you know."

Hera drank half of her water bottle after speaking.

"Nah, I want to feel it. If we are deep in the maze, we might not have healers to help. I need to be sure I can still function even like this."

Hera tilted her head, "Wouldn't be lying on the floor kind of defeat the propose then? You are supposed to be moving around."

Leonidas laughed, but before he could answer, the duo heard a loud voice coming from the door.

"HEY! Not Fair!"

Pamella was walking towards them, wearing a tennis band on her forehead, the guild tracksuit, and a hand towel around her neck.

"If you guys made plans to train, you should have invited me!" she huffed.

"Sorry Pamella, we didn't talk about this, we just had the same idea, if we had talked we would have definitely invited you," Hera said, giving the girl a heartfelt smile.

"That's fine, I guess, but I told you to call me Blue, or Pam, or anything really. Hearing you say Pamella makes me feel like I'm getting scolded by my mom."

Hera twisted her nose a bit. She wasn't that older than Pamella.

"Oh, c'mon Blue, no one is getting scolded, aside from me for being on the floor."

Leonidas tried to jump back up, but his arms gave, and he ended asking for help to get up.

"Now that the three of us are here, we can train together unless the two of you are too tired to keep up with little young me," Pamella said while she walked to a free dummy, trying to taunt the two other students.

"Honestly, Hera is just one year older than you, and I'm 20 how can you be the young one?"

Hera just laughed at the banter and went to her dummy. For the next 30 minutes, the trio was practicing and trading suggestions on how to improve. Hera felt like she was the one who was barely contributing to help the other two, but she noticed a few habits that seemed to be hindering the two.

"Leonidas, when you go to attack, you use the same leg that holds your weight to step forward, kind of like a small skip. Could that be taking away a bit of power from your blow?"

"Oh, I know, that skip is a step up for the rest of the movement. It's a trade-off to make the next attack quicker and more accurate. It took me a while to get this skip right. Let me show you."

The spearman showed the full movement, taking a step forward and then a few rapid stabs at the dummy. Without the skip, he would need more time to prepare for that flurry, or it would be too far to hit all the attacks. Hera nodded, feeling frustrated. She wanted to help them but wasn't sure why.

"Don't feel bad, Hera. You tried to help. Try me, what do I do that seems odd?" Pamella said, excited.

"Well... When you throw the dummy, your free hand always goes to your chin. I'm not sure if that's part of the movement, but if you use both hands, wouldn't the power be stronger?"

Pamella nodded.

"Yeah, but if I use both hands, I lose my balance. My free hand helps me keep my center of gravity. When I throw someone, it changes from being my center to the center of both our bodies. It's tricky to find out the right place to focus."

"Oh.. yeah, I guess it is. And it's not like you can control where the center of mass would be right."

Pamela stared at Hera for a moment and started to try something different in her attacks. Her move consisted of adapting to the enemy weight, but controlling its distribution could lead to something.

Hera saw the woman focus on her new idea and went back to her own training. After some time, she looked at the clock and realized they had gone a bit past the time they wanted.

"Guys, the class starts in 20 minutes, we should go."