MAZE - The Endless Quest

"Ok, despite having to pay for Blue's lunch. It was a really nice place." Bonnie said as they walked in the guild.

"Yeah, what was that thing with black beans and pork? That was amazing," Leo commented, rubbing his stomach like an old man.

"I'm not sure. It's a bean stew that came from Brazil. Since it's Friday, I thought we could try something different," Hera said.

"Can we go there again? There were a few dishes I wanted to try?"

It was hard to believe that Blue said that. The girl ate four dishes, and they were all big.

"Seriously. Where the food goes to? You eat way too much for being that skinny," Alex chimed in.

"I'm not skinny, look at this." Blue grabbed her belly through her clothes to show the size of her gut, "I'm fat!"

"C'mon Blue, you might be a bit overweight, but saying that you are fat is just like Hera when she said she wasn't pretty," Alex countered.

"Hey! What do I have to do with this?" Hera protested. She was the one who told them about the restaurant. There was no need to put her in the middle of it.

"Wait. You said you weren't pretty?" Bonnie stared at Hera in shock.

"We will be late for class, let's go." Hera walked away towards the training area.

The group still tried to get an answer from her, but to no avail. In a few moments, they had arrived at the training room.

They had to wait a few minutes before class started. Thankfully, Alex had changed the subject, and no one was pestering Hera about her appearance.

Looking around, Hera saw that all the recruits were already waiting for the teacher, including Anaya. She wanted to finish her conversation with the girl. What she said was odd, and Hera wasn't able to wrap her head around the meaning of what she said.

Hera kept trying to find an opening to talk to her. However, before she could find one, the teacher arrived.

"Ye'r already here? Good, let's start."

The teacher opened a big white box. This one was more wide than tall. Taking a bow, he tested the string and nodded before calling the recruits to pick their weapons.

When all the recruits were back in line, the teacher asked.

"How many of ye ever used a bow and actually hit something before? Raise yer hands."

To everyone's surprise, the only one who raised his hand was Mark. Feeling the gaze of the recruits, Mark scoffed.

"What? I always liked movies about archers, so I took some lessons." He crossed his arms, not letting go of the bow.

"Very well, then show us how it's done, laddie." Mr. Greyson pressed a key in his tablet, and the wooden dummies moved towards the arenas.

Mark picked one of the arrows he got from the box and took a deep breath. Getting into position, he raised his elbow high. It was an odd sight, the arm he was using to hold the arrow was in a weird angle.

After a few seconds, Mark fired the arrow, hitting the dummy straight in the chest. The screen behind it showed a score of 12.

"Very Good. Master archers can only hit a 15 with those bows." The teacher complimented the recruit for the first time.

Tiffany gasped, "Are you saying Mark is almost a master? That Mark?"

"Are you daft lassie? Of course not. Bows work differently than other weapons. With a sword or a spear, ye can use yer own stat to increase the force of the attack. Using a bow, it's harder to do that. Ye need to switch the materials used to make the weapon to show yer true strength," Mr. Greyson explained.

"Is that why explorers don't use guns? The stats don't translate well to it?" Bonnie asked while she tried to copy Mark's stance.

"Exactly. If ye try to use a gun, sure it will work in lower level creatures. But as they start to become stronger, the bullets stay the same. It doesn't matter if ye have a 10 or a 10 000 in strength. Shooting from a gun will always have the same effect. Some explorers use guns. But they are very few. Ye need to enchant the weapon to increase its power. That gets very expensive, very fast."

Hera nodded, hearing the explanation. She always wondered why people even bothered creating guns. After all, explorers were always a thing. A high level explorer can withstand being hit by a car. A gun should barely tickle them.

The teacher showed how to use the bow for the rest of the class. Explaining that they should always have the bow pointed down, only raise it when they were going to shoot. He also talked about stance and aiming, going as far as correcting each recruit's form before the beginning of the practice.

This was the first time Hera felt she was actually being taught how to fight. Still, it felt weird. The teacher was acting weird. He was never this hands-on. Thinking about what this meant made Hera feel a chill. She chose to ignore it for now and focus on the training.

After the first couple of minutes, Mr. Greyson made a change in the training. Every five minutes or so, he would tell the recruits to pick up the arrows they shot. He did this after the second time someone almost got shoot while tried to pick the arrows from the ground.

Hera kept shooting, little by little her aim, and handle of the bow seemed to improve. She went from barely making the arrow leave the bow, to reaching halfway to the dummy. One lucky shot even hit the edge of its body.

The class kept going. The teacher did his best to help the recruits improve. When the time where the teacher normally issued his challenge came, all the recruits could hit at least once every ten shots.

Mark, on the other hand, was only missing one in three shots. It was genuinely impressive. Still, the biggest worry of the recruits was the lack of a challenge. This was odd behavior for the teacher.

Ten minutes before the class was over, Mr. Greyson asked everyone to stop and gather near him.

All the recruits were tense. The teacher had a serious expression that none of them had ever seen.

"As ye know, we have class on Saturdays. But it is different than our usual lessons. Ye need to be here by 10, and we will probably be done by 2. Ye all can plan yer weekends accordingly. Just one more thing, don't come in with a full stomach. That might be a problem for the test ye will do tomorrow."

The second he finished explaining, a few recruits started to ask questions. Wanting to know more about the tests.

"Pipe down! Tomorrow ye will learn more about the test. Don't worry, it's not something that ye can study for. Just come in and do yer best. For today, ye are all dismissed."

Ending the class early, Mr. Greyson left the training room. The situation confused most recruits, and it took a while for them to leave the guild.

Hera and her friends went looking for a place to eat. At this hour, there were a few food trucks near the station. They chose to go there. Not only because it was on the way, but also, Hera and Blue were craving junk food.

"Any ideas about what this test is going to be?" Leo asked between bites of his hotdog.

"No clue, maybe it's the one where we have to beat our first score," Blue said, after finishing her taco.

"I don't know, it seems too soon for it, right? Just one week." Alex commented. She just finished putting ketchup on her fries.

"It doesn't matter what the test is. I will not fail," Bonnie said with a veggie wrap in her hand.

The whole group turned and stared at her for a few moments. When Hera finally finished chewing her burger she said.

"Bonnie, no one wants to fail. That's a given."

"No, no, little miss perfect is already telling that she will pass the test. Without even knowing what it is," Blue snickered.

"At least I'm confident enough in my skills to say that. Not like you, who only won the bet by sheer luck," Bonnie countered.

With that, the two women started bickering once again. The rest of the group sighed and finished their meals while speculating about the test.

Hera let herself wake up late in the morning or, at least, later than she was waking up. Sleeping until 8 differed greatly from having to get up at 5:30.

She took her time to get to the guild, and yet she arrived well over one hour before class was supposed to start. The idea of a test made her too anxious to wait around someplace else.

Hera wasn't the only one. Most of the recruits were already there when she arrived. By 9:30, the whole class was present. As time went by, the tension in the classroom grew. At one point, any small noise coming from the hallway was enough to silence the recruits.

It wasn't simply because of the test, Mr. Greyson's actions on the previous day were also disturbing. Why would he act so differently just because of a test?

At exactly 10 A.M. Mr. Greyson walked through the door.

"Yer all here already? Good. Follow me. Ye can bring yer stuff with ye."

He barely took one step inside before giving his command. Soon the whole class was following him to the elevator. He beeped his bracelet on a scanner and the elevator went down.

"As ye may know. They build the guild around the place where ye can unlock yer level up. But what is less known, is that the building was also built around an entrance to the MAZE. Since the great war, when Cyrus led the armies of men to push back the monsters, it was decided it would be built like this. Today if a really strong monster tries to pass through we can collapse the building to prevent it from reaching the outside."

The teacher looked at the recruits. All had different expressions, but it was clear that they were all worried.

"Don't worry, ye are not going inside the MAZE today."

The elevator door opened, showing a big hallway. Being led by the teacher, the recruits quickly arrived at an auditorium with a big white doorway in the middle.

The doorway had a pearl frame that seemed to be filled with small glowing lights. Almost as if it was covered in a thin layer of glitter. Just enough to make it seem like you were looking at the night sky. Above it, there was a circle with an extremely intricate design. Various lines would twist and turn, spiraling with each other. In the center of the circle, there was the image of a blank card. The same type of card everyone older than 18 had.

"Today, ye will go to a simulation. It's an artificial room that was created to give you an experience close to the ones ye will have inside the maze."