MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera rubbed her eyes. This exercise seemed to be easier than the last one, but in reality, it is way more taxing. There have been so many objects to identify that she had lost count.

For three hours the recruits kept marking in their tablets the objects as illusions or holograms, as well as their names. Hera wasn't able to name a few objects. After all, who knows the name of the plastic part of a shoelace or the name of the metal part at the end of a pencil.

They only had around two minutes before the object in the saucer would change. The only noise that could be heard was that of fingers taping away in the tablets.

"Yes! I got the skill!" Blue shouted getting up from her seat "I'm the first one right? Did anyone else get it?" She looked around for a reply. But before she could get an answer, Mr. Greyson commanded.

"Blue! Sit down, ye still have work to do." Immediately the girl sat back on her chair, but she still had a big grin on her face.

The class kept going for another hour without any changes. It was close to 11 A.M and Hera's stomach was already grumbling. Maybe eating only a fruit salad for breakfast wasn't the best idea. She blinked a few times realizing that she got distracted and tried to focus on the task, looking at the object at the teacher's desk. It was a small light green dumbbell, weighing 50 kilograms, and an illusion.

She typed the answer, but her finger stopped before confirming it. How did she know the weight and that it was an illusion? Looking back at the dumbbell it seemed too small to be that heavy. As she focused more and more at the object a small blue window showed up above it.

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Dumbbell 50 KG (Illusion)

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Hera blinked a few times, there was no notification, so she shouldn't have gotten the skill yet.

She quickly opened her status to make sure.

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Hera Kingsley -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats:

Strength: 12 Endurance: 12

Agility: 12 Charisma: 12

Intelligence: 12 Luck: 12

Skills:

Passive:

Exponential Growth

Mapping

Observe

Active:

All in

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Hera found it odd, why did the skill show up there without her knowing.

Tapping the skill the information appeared in a new window.

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Observe (Rank 2)

Allows the user to see the basic information of the target.

The information available is limited by the rank of the skill.

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Looking at the skill Hera was surprised by how simple it seemed. As long as she could see the object the system would give her more information on it. It was simple but extremely helpful. Imagine if this skill can tell if a mushroom is poisonous. Or if a fridge is broken or malfunctioning.

"Mr. Greyson, My skill showed up at rank 2, and I don't remember ever having it at rank 1."

The teacher nodded "Aye, yer supposed to get this one at rank 2, the rank 1 version ye are using since ye were born. Just being able to see is the first rank of the observe skill. A rank up don’t make a notification pop in most cases"

"So.. does that mean everything we do is a potential skill?" The whole class got quiet. Was Hera right?

"Short answer, yes, but not really. Everything we do has the potential of being a skill, but the more common the thing is the harder it is to increase the rank. Walking, for example, many tried to increase its rank, and Ah haven't seen anyone who succeeded. The same with breathing or thinking. Skills tend to be more specific, they require certain conditions to improve. So ye can try to get a skill, and ye might even get one but it's as hard as creating a new skill."

"We can create new skills?" Mark asked interrupting the teacher. Mr. Greysons's face darkened and for a second the whole class was ready to see his wrath. However, as quickly as his face changed, it also softened.

"Aya laddie, many skills ye use today were created at some point. Some are more obvious, like a martial style. While others seem to be skills we were given but in reality, were created like climbing or swimming.

"Swimming was created?" Leonidas asked, but the question was in the mind of most of the recruits.

"Aye, a bit of a history lesson. But before we had swimming styles, like freestyle or breaststroke. No one had a swimming skill. Only after we perfected it that a skill was born."

The class remained silent for a while. It was a lot to process. To Hera, the system always seemed to be an omnipotent and absolute presence. But if anyone was able to create a skill maybe the system was more flexible than she imagined.

"Sir, what's the difference between ranking up a skill and evolving it?"

The teacher got up from his seat and went to the board.

"Well, when a skill evolves or ranks up it gets stronger. The difference is in how it gets stronger. Ranking up means that the skill will work the same way it does now, but it will be stronger or have an extra something. Like the observer skill. It's just how ye look around ye, but now it can also give some information. On the other hand, think about the map skill Leo and Bonnie got. Atlas, unlike the basic mapping skill, already gives you a much bigger area, and also some information like where roads and reference points are. The mapping skill most of ye have, only show what ye have seen."

While talking Mr. Greyson made a circle with an arrow in the middle and drew a simple map. To the side of it, he made a much bigger area, almost twice as large, and placed many roads and points of interest on it.

"Now let's talk about Bonnie's Cartography skill. It can give ye around the same area that yer mapping skill gives. But it will place all the differences in the terrain, the location of the trees, lakes, and hills. It will even give ye an exact format and shape of a river or tree." He proceeded to draw a third circle with an arrow in the middle and gave more detail to the map inside it.

"If we are thinking about regular terms, mapping is the same as remembering the place. Atlas is having someone who knows the area draw it and give ye directions. Cartography would be a satellite image of the location ye want. All three of them have the same function but they are vastly different in the execution."

Even if the concept was relatively simple it still baffled Hera. A single skill could change so much. Yes, the basic function would still be there, but knowing that even simple skill had that many ramifications made her wonder. Could her Stats Reallocation change in something other than her Exponential Growth? Thinking about this possibility, an idea popped into Hera's mind.

"Mr. Greyson, can a skill evolve more than once?"

Hearing the question the teacher let out a resounding laugh.

"A greenhorn already asking for a second evolution? Leave some for the rest of us!"

Hera looked down, feeling embarrassed for the laugh. She wasn't trying to rush anything, just to know if it was possible.

"Aye lassie, skills can evolve a second time. But the ones we know of are very few, and the requirements are very hard. Now if ye gonna ask me if they can evolve even a third time. I don't know, never heard anyone even talking about it."

The teacher gave a soft smile to the class. "Alright, let's get back to work. Most of ye still need to get the skill"

But before the class continued the exercise, Alex still had one doubt

"Mr. Greyson, sorry but is it possible for a skill to evolve if it already has ranked up?"

"Ye mean for a skill that is above rank 1 to evolve into something?" He paused for a while furrowing his brows "Ah honestly don't know. Ah can't remember if any of my skills were like that, much less the skills of anyone that Ah know. Ah'm gonna check it and give ye an answer in tomorrow's class ok."

Alex nodded and the class continued with the exercise. Around half an hour later a few other recruits had gotten their skills. Including Mark, Alex, and Leonidas. Hera kept looking towards Bonnie. She was worried the girl would be feeling bad but her face seemed focused. Unlike the face, she had during the last few minutes of training the day before.

Another half an hour went by, the number of recruits without the skill grew smaller. Hera glanced at Bonnie who was just staring at the air with a serious expression. With a smile, Hera turned back to her tablet. Bonnie probably was reading about the skill, her worries were for nothing.

"Mr. Greyson, I got a different skill." Bonnie said. The whole class stopped after she spoke.

"What's the name of the skill Bonnie?" The teacher asked with a serious tone.

"It's called Inspect."

The reply made Mr. Greyson start to rub his forehead.

"Godammit Bonnie, there is a reason we do things in order."

His reaction was surprising for most of the class. It wasn't a stern complain, it sounded more like someone complaining because their coworker messed up.

"I'm sorry, but what did I do wrong? Isn't it a good thing to get a new skill? Or is it just because I'm the only one who got it"

Bonnie was a bit flustered, but at the same time, she got a new skill all on her own. She would have an edge when she finally went inside the MAZE.

"Yer the only one who got that skill today. That is tomorrows lesson. We teach Observe first because Inspect gets in the way when yer trying to learn it. Ye weren't just telling the name and if it was an illusion or a hologram were ye?"

Bonnie looked down and started to pull on the sleeves of her sweater a bit.

"No, I was trying to look at it with more details. Marking how the objects should be made if they were real to see if any information in the middle of that could help."

Mr. Greyson let out a long sigh "Fine, try to do the right exercise for now. I'm gonna have to think of something else for you tomorrow."

"But isn't it just the same? You said Observe helps to see what something is if I have inspected that is even better right?" Bonnie huffed. It was her achievement and no one was going to take it away from her.

"Ye think so? Then Inspect this thing" Mr.Greyson ripped a page from a notebook in his desk and made a paper ball. The class watched as Bonnie focused on the object and start to read something they couldn't see. At the same time, the teacher lightly tossed the paper ball to the girl.

To a class who had to dodge the dummies attacks the day before, the paper ball moved like a snail. Any recruit could have caught that throw. But Bonnie wasn't even looking at the projectile going towards her.

When the paper ball was almost at her face she jumped back, but it was too late. The toss hit her square in the face. A group of students in the back laughed. and Mr. Greyson let out a long sigh.

"That's why ye need Observe. Inspect takes too much space in front of ye, if ye are in a dangerous situation even one second of distraction can be enough to be yer doom."

Bonnie nodded, still a bit flustered about the situation.

"Now get back to work. Ye still have combat training in the afternoon"