MAZE - The Endless Quest

Greyson was in the breakroom, staring at his tablet with a frown on his face. The arena generated an extensive analysis of each recruit. It included the number of successful attacks, the time between them, and even the angles that were most used to strike. It was an impressive report.

While looking at that document, he noticed a second file. It was the same type of report but for the previous day. Opening it, the instructor started to compare the results.

It was clear that today's report was much more extensive. Apparently, the dummy training could only gather a certain amount of data. Greyson kept reading both analyses, looking for the differences between them. If they were just a bunch of useless information, he could still vouch for the old ways.

To his dismay, in today's report, the information was much more useful. It wasn't solely the number of attacks or the percentage of success. In the document, he could see the intervals between each attack, the times each recruit was hit. To make it all worse, it even showed where each student should focus their training on.

Sure, the report gave some general ideas on what to do, and it could be wrong from time to time. Greyson even saw a few suggestions that were simply terrible. Why would he tell Pamella to focus on magic? The girl was a tank. Of course, her score would be bad in an exercise focused on aggression.

Greyson was sitting in one of the armchairs on the left side of the room. His frown made most of the staff either leave or to move to the other side of the room. He never asked or complained about sharing space. In reality, despite all appearances, Greyson was very considerate of the people around him. He would always make sure not to be using more space than he should, and he took care not to disturb anyone nearby. Sadly, the man was well known for being ruthless and irritable. His reputation alone was more than enough to drive away even the most friendly among the guild staff.

Helena walked in the breakroom, seeing the scene she couldn't help but chuckle. Twelve people crammed in a small table while one man sat alone in an armchair, surrounded by couches and other chairs. She waved at the group in the table and walked towards Greyson.

"Hey Greyson, why are you so cross?" Helena asked while she sat on the couch beside the instructor.

Greyson raised his eyes and stared at her.

"Cross? What are ye talking about?"

Helena rolled her eyes.

"It means angry. You seriously never heard that expression? Anyways, you are always grumpy but this time, it seems to be something else. What's wrong?"

"Ah've heard it, just misunderstood what yer were saying." The man grunted. "And Ah'm not angry, it's just this bloody report."

"If you're not angry, can you tell me why the rest of the staff is too scared to come near you?" Helena replied before peeking at what he was looking at. "Oh, you found the analysis already? I was coming to tell you about it."

Greyson started to have his tablet with one hand. "Can ye tell me why no one ever told me about this? There is even a report about yesterday's class. All this time, Ah've been taking notes by myself like a tube."

Helena scoffed.

"Oh please, you really think we were just messing with you? The system upgrade on the dummies only finished yesterday and I only found out about it today. If you have a report about yesterday just be happy about it and stop complaining."

The attendant crossed her arms while staring at Greyson. Helena could tease him some times, but she would never be unprofessional about it.

Letting out a long sigh, the instructor slumped in his chair.

"Yer right, sorry. I'm just upset the old ways fell so far behind."

Helena gave a soft smile.

"Oh, so you used the new system?"

Greyson snorted.

"Of course Ah did! Ah'm not gonna let the girl have problems in the training just because Ah can be stubborn at times."

The attendant couldn't help but chuckle.

"Greyson, do you really think I wouldn't help a recruit? Even if you had stuck with your usual training, tomorrow I would be ready for Bonnie."

Greyson put his hand in front of his eyes, holding his head to the side.

"Why are ye such a headache lassie?"

Helena relaxed on the couch, taking off her shoes.

"I told you before we fought. I was going to hit you so hard that your head would hurt every time you looked at me."

The instructor just shook his head, with a soft smile on his face.

"By the way, did you check how they were seeing the spheres?"

Greyson let go of his head and stared at Helena.

"Ah did what?"

Rolling her eyes, Helena pressed a few buttons on the tablet and a list showed up.

"Here, now you can see not only wich sense the recruits used to find the spheres, but also a grade evaluating how well they used said sense."

Helena explained in a mechanical tone as if she had done this a thousand

times before.

Greyson started to look through the list.

Name Sense Grade

Mark Sight C+

Alex Perception B+

Bonnie Magic B-

Percy Smell D+

Hera Mana B-

Pamella Reflex A

Leonidas Intuition B-

Anaya Perception A-

Tifanny Sight B

Kenjiro Touch C+

Carlos Smell B+

Isabel Magic C+

Wallace Sight D-

"Mind explaining something to me lassie?" Greyson asked without looking away from the tablet.

"Sure, what do you need?" Helena leaned forward again to see the information on the display.

"If this is about sense, why do so many of them have things that are not one of the five senses?"

Helena opened a smile seeing the list.

"We call it senses, but it's actually more like what they used to locate the target. The arena produces various types of stimuli, giving them the chance to find the sense they are more likely to use. That's why even smell and perception are there."

"Ah see... but what in the blazes do those things smell like?" Greyson asked while scratching his chin.

"Well, it is programmed to be an iron-like smell, but if we want we can make it smell like jasmine and raspberries." She approached the man and said in a hushed voice, "Or rose and sandalwood."

"That's bloody it!" Greyson yelled while getting up, "Ah want a rematch, now!"

With a smile, Helena replied

"Now? Are you sure? You know I've leveled up since last time right?"

Greyson's face was starting to get red.

"Ye bet yer ass Ah'm sure, this time yer the one who's gonna be in the ground."

Helena got up and stretched her arms.

"Is your work done for the day? I don't want you to be late because you fainted," she said with a grin.

With that, both of them walked toward the basement where the high-level arenas. Followed by a group of staff members who were already placing bets.

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Hera had finally got home, she had to spend over 3 hours to run the whole 30km. By the end of it, her legs felt heavier than lead. Thankfully, she had grabbed something to eat on the way. Stopping by a hot dog stand to have dinner before coming home. Now, all she wanted was to sleep.

Walking towards her bed, Hera took off her clothes just tossing them on the floor. Less than one minute after arriving she was already laying in bed under a blanket. Before going to sleep she picked her cellphone and looked at the messages she got through the day.

Her work friends had sent congratulation messages. They wanted to schedule a day where they could all go out to celebrate. Her grandmother replied, saying that she was happy to hear from her and that she would look forward to hearing the news. There were quite a few typos in the text but that only meant that grandma wrote herself. She is still not very used to the new phone she got.

Her dad gave a longer reply. It said how much he missed her, how he was happy that she had some good news and that he hoped she could join them to watch the opening for the Olympics. That was one of the few traditions her family had. During any big event, they would gather and watch it together. The rest of the text was just about catching her up to what happened to him and the family. His job was doing great after all wooden furniture was a luxury in this day and age. As a carpenter, he was making a lot of money. Her cousins are doing well, most of them got in big universities and are following their dreams.

The only mention of her mother was that she would be there on Sunday. Her dad knew that they weren't in the best of terms and she appreciated him being so considerate.

She replied to all the texts, telling her friends she wanted to celebrate after her training period and her dad and grandma that she would be there Sunday.

After answering the last text Hera was too tired to even move, she just locked her phone and drifted to sleep.

Hera woke up with a jump, her alarm going off. Looking at the time she realized it wasn't even the first alarm she had set up. She picked the first clean set of clothes she saw and put them on, running to the door. The alarm that woke her was the last one she had set. The one that meant she was already late.

She dashed through the street towards the train station. It was already 6:30. And she took at least forty minutes to get to the guild. Each step made her legs scream in pain. It was one thing to walk, but running after the exercise from the previous day was too much. Still, Hera only stopped when she arrived at the station.

The train wasn't there, and a monitor showed that the next one was five minutes away. Hera kept fidgeting, doing her best not to be annoyed with the wait. She knew that there was nothing she could do to change that part. Still, it was hard knowing that at least part of her delay would be her fault.

When the train finally arrived Hera rushed in, lucky the rush hour was just starting, this time there was still some space inside the train, but nowhere to sit. Standing still wasn't as hard as running but it still took some tool on her legs.

Before long, the train had finally arrived at Hera's destination. Looking at the clocks it was already 7:05, she sprinted through the crowd and towards the guild.

She rushed through the reception, not even stopping to greet Carol who was at the front desk. Reaching the elevator she pressed the button and took a deep breath. 7:18, she was almost twenty minutes late. Before the door closed she heard a voice coming from the hallway.

"Hold the elevator!"

She quickly pressed the open door button, she was already late. Being mean to someone wouldn't change that. A man with short black hair walked in, Hera recognized him as one of the recruits who were always sitting with Anaya.

"Thanks, you really saved me." The man was gasping for air and he pushed his back against the wall to help him stand up. "Hey, I know you...Hera right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, and sorry I don't think I know your name."

He gave a soft smile. "I'm Kenjiro, nice to meet ya."

As if under an unspoken agreement both of the just nodded and focused on breathing. By the look of it, Kenjiro was running to get here too.

The elevator doors opened and the pair walked through the hallway towards the classroom. When they got close to the door, both of them did their best to listen to what was happening inside, but there was only silence.

With a smile, Kenjiro opened the door while saying. "Maybe we got lucky and the teacher is late too. He doesn't seem like a morning per..." Before finishing the phrase, Kenjiro looked inside and saw Mr. Greyson, with a serious expression staring at the pair who just opened the door.