Hera was drawing her eighth map. This time she got the whole landmass, the rivers, and towns. All that was left to do was the forest. Thankfully, there only had a small forest near the edge left, but before she could even put down the first tree, the teacher changed the image on the board.

  "All right, next one." Mr. Greyson was looking at his tablet. Every ten minutes on the dot, he would change the map that was showing without even looking at the students.

  When the ninth map showed up, the whole class groaned. It was an ocean map, and in the middle of it, there was a vast archipelago with dozens of small islands.

  The instructor had alternated between large-scale maps and regional ones. According to him, it was to help us develop the skill faster. But he never said what the skill was or what it would do. Hera had guessed this was the map skill he mentioned the day before, and so did most of the class.

  Five minutes passed, and Hera was still struggling with the islands when Bonnie raised her hand.

  "Mr. Greyson? I just learned a skill,"

  The teacher looked up from his tablet for the first time since this activity had started.

  "Really? What's its name?"

  "It's just called Mapping, is it right?" Bonnie asked, looking a bit troubled.

  "Aye, the system has a bad naming sense. Ye can keep drawing to practice or just rest until the rest of the class got the skill."

  With that, he went back to his tablet, and Bonnie gave a satisfied smile.

  Hera looked back at her map and kept drawing, managing to finish the first set of islands when something clicked in her mind.

  "Mr. Greyson, if we keep practicing, will the skill improve?"

  The teacher gave a soft smile.

  "Ye got a good brain, lassie. Aye, even if a skill doesn't have a rank, it can have better performance if ye practice it and even an evolution."

  The whole class got excited about that. Having map skills could help a lot when exploring the MAZE, and Hera thought about the possibilities. Maybe there was even a way to make the map show where the monsters were, or where dungeons and hidden mysteries would be. That might be just the games she used to play talking, but her mind was still racing with ideas.

  About half an hour later, a couple more students had unlocked the mapping skill. Including Leonidas, who had his tablet in front of him, showing a different map.

  "Leo, what are you doing?" Pamella leaned over to see his work.

  "Well. I finished this one just a bit over five minutes ago. Instead of waiting for the next one, I got a random map from somewhere in the world, and I'm doing that one too," he said without stopping his hand.

  "Well, excuse me, Mr. Overachiever, I can barely do this one in ten minutes," The teacher changed the map on the board once again, and Pamella groaned, "See, I still had to make the woods."

  "I was really close, maybe I can still finish this one," Hera said to herself, doing her best to remember what the map looked like. When she finished the drawing, a notification showed up in front of her.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Skill Acquired: Mapping

  Mapping:

  Allows you to create a map of a place you have been before.

  The more you know about the place, the more accurate the map will be.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "Hey, I got the skill, too," Hera said with a smile.

  "Oh no, I'm not gonna be left behind." Pamella focused on her drawing with all her might.

  Hera wanted to keep drawing, to strengthen her skill even more. But her mind still wandered to the possibilities. Little by little, the other students got their skill, and by the time they had reached the 20th map, there was only one person left to get the skill, the same girl who asked about the pencils.

  Hera got a bit worried if she was having trouble because of Mr. Greyson's response to her question. But there wasn't much she could do about that.

  "Mr. Greyson, is there a way to check how to improve the skill?" Bonnie asked. Being the first who got the skill, she was the most anxious one to discover how to make the skill even stronger.

  "Not yet, Bonnie. Ah'll only talk about that when all of ye get the skill," that remark made most of the class stare at the girl in the back. Her face seemed a bit desperate.

  Hera noticed the group of 4 who got late whispering something and then laughing. Just like the girls did to her during High school. Most of the time, Hera would do what everyone did, ignore other people's problems, but seeing that girl she couldn't help herself. She got up from her seat took a knee in front of the girl's desk.

  "Hi, I'm Hera. Sorry I don't know your name."

  The girl sniffed and rubbed her eyes, "Hi, I'm Alex,"

  For the first time, Hera really looked at the girl. She had silky black hair covering a bit of her face going all the way to her shoulder. A Strong and angular jaw, and thick eyebrows. A small pointy nose and thin lips. Looking closely, it was hard to tell if the face was feminine or masculine. Either way she was very pretty.

  "Are you ok?" Hera asked.

  Alex nodded, "I'm fine," but her hands were still shaking.

  Hera held the girl's hand, "Someone very strong told me that it's okay to say if you are not ok, You can tell me. It's gonna be just between us."

  Alex took a deep breath and whispered, "I don't want to hold anyone back," her eyes never left the map she was drawing.

  "Why do you think you would hold anyone back?" Hera looked at the map. It seemed a great one, although the color was off. Alex seemed to have swapped colors in the middle of a line, so it suddenly went from black to green.

  The girl looked at the group that was laughing and whispered in an even softer voice, "I'm colorblind."

  Hera looked at the map once again. It made sense. The three pencils had similar shades, dark blue, dark green and a black that was almost the deep blue of the ocean. It also explained the question she asked earlier. Alex would need to know which color was which in order to draw. Hera looked at the girl, who was still struggling, and started to think.

  After a few moments, Hera considered what they were doing. The class wasn't about making a good map, but about unlocking a skill. In that case, maybe Alex didn't need to be using the colors.

  Hera took the green and black pencils that were on the table, leaving only the blue one.

  "Right. Forget about those. You need to make a map you can understand with only one color."

  Alex looked at the woman in front of her. She had gotten in late on the first day and seemed so shy and meek. Always avoiding eye contact and trying not to let the spotlight shine on her. Yet, it was the second day, and the second time she went out of her way to help someone else in the class.

  "But.. how? Everything would look the same," Alex didn't know what to do.

  It was obvious to Hera that this girl had some sort of trauma related to this. And considering she looked fresh out of highschool, maybe that was the reason. People in school always knew how to make you feel worst about yourself. Hera knew that very well. Still, she focused on the girl and said.

  "Don't think about the color. You can see darker and lighter colors, right? Like how thick a line is. Use that. The water would be lighter or darker?"

  Alex took a few seconds to answer.

  "Lighter, the woods would be the darker one," Alex replied.

  Hera opened a big smile, her golden locks hiding the corner of her lips, "Great, now the mid-tone one would be the land. Don't worry about it being pretty, you need to understand the map. I think that's the whole point."

  Alex gave an unenthusiastic smile back and drew using the blue pencil. Everything was blue, just in different shades, but it was enough to understand. Seeing the girl so focused, Hera walked back to her desk. Leonidas gave her an approving nod while Pamella gave a big thumbs up.

  Five more maps passed when Alex yelled excitedly, jumping up in the chair, "I got the skill!"

  "Way to go, Alex!" Pamella yelled back and started clapping. Most of the recruits joined in, which made Alex's cheeks get red as she quickly sat down.

  "All right then. Let me tell ye how can ye see what can be improved in the skill. Ye don't. The MAZE doesn't tell ye anything. There is no rule or quick answer. But, if ye look at the skill's description ye might get some hints. Everyone open the skill description. Open yer status screen and that the skill name. C'mon, hurry it up, we don't have all day" Mr. Greyson seemed to be annoyed by the fact they were all just staring at him.

  Hera opened the skill and went to double check the information again.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Mapping:

  Allows you to create a map of a place you have been before.

  The more you know about the place, the more accurate the map will be.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  While Hera was reading the description, she noticed Leonidas grab his tablet and draw even more maps as fast as possible, with a soft smile on his face. On the other side, Bonnie was drawing a map very carefully. She was using a ruler and a compass to make it as precise as she could.

  "Well, it's close to midday, ye should be getting hungry. Let's stay here until the hour is done, and we will have a lunch break. At 1 P.M. we meet in the training room ye all were yesterday,"

  The class nodded, yet almost everyone continued to focus on their drawings. Everyone doing things slowly and methodically. Leonidas, Blue, and Alex were the only ones that seemed to be still drawing as fast as they could.

  Hera looked at the maps she had made, "Mr. Greyson, are we allowed to keep these drawings?"

  "If ye want, yes. But only the digital files. And since they are all real maps of rooms in the MAZE, ye can find them in the guild database after the test. And if ye share with anyone ye will be punished by the guild."

  That was something everyone knew about. If anyone were to share things about the MAZE with those who were not a part of the guild, they would be in big trouble. First, there was a very costly fee. Second, sanctions related to your freedom in the world, such as restricting the places you could go to. And lastly, all of your communications would be vetoed by the guild themselves.

  Strange enough, if someone were to go live inside the MAZE, aside from the fees, all other punishments would be waived.

  Even then, Hera smiled and picked up one of the MAZE maps. She looked at it, thinking about what could be in each place. Where could she find a nice view or something that seemed interesting? Some maps had a valley or a river that would spiral with another before reaching the sea. Those areas could be amazing, and Hera wanted to see them. She was distracted thinking about the fantastic places and noting things down when Leonidas gasped.

  "Wow."

  Hera looked at him as she came out of a trance, "What happened?"

  "My skill.. it changed its name. Now it's called Atlas," he was staring at a blank space, but Hera assumed it was at the skill window.

  "Really? Mine changed to Cartography," Bonnie said on the other side.

  The teacher heard both comments and stepped in.

  "Aye, some skills can change and evolve. How ye use them will decide what the skill will turn to. Atlas is a version that gives ye more general knowledge of the place. But all pretty basic, it's great to plan yer travels. Cartography is the best skill for a really detailed map. With it, ye can even draw the placement of the moss on a rock on the path. What it says on the skill window after ye expanded it tells ye what the path you skill is taking."

  Hera opened her status once again and went for the mapping skill. Trying to see if there was anything that could give her a hint on what to do to evolve her skill.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Mapping:

  Allows you to create a map of a place you have been before.

  The more you know about the place, the more accurate the map will be.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Unfortunately, there was nothing. So instead, Hera went back to her maps, trying to do various things to make the skill evolve. After a while, Pamella touched her arm.

  "Hey, it's noon, let's eat, I'm starving,"

  Hera sighed and got up. Sadly, her skill still was called [Mapping]. But she hoped that would change soon.

  "Do you guys wanna try to go to the cafeteria or try someplace else?" Pamella was standing between Hera and Leonidas, waiting for the two of them.

  "Well, I know nothing about the neighborhood. So unless one of you is a tour guide, I think we should go to the cafeteria. Maybe they have pasta. I would love some lasagna," Leonidas grabbed his wallet from the bag and got up.

  "You say pasta, but I would really go for a burger right now," Pamella said

  "We could go to the strip mall. It's just a couple of blocks away." Both of them looked at Hera, "I worked near here, I know a few places to eat," she smiled.

  "All settled, Hera will guide us to the strip mall," Pamella made a gesture like she was pointing with a sword as if she were a knight.

  "Could... could I go too?" Alex was standing a bit behind the group.

  Leonidas gave her a soft smile and was about to say something when Pamella put her hand in front of him.

  "That depends on one thing," She stared at Alex with a serious expression. Hera looked at the blue-haired girl, not understanding her reaction, "Can you tell me what you do to make your hair so silky?"

  Alex blushed a bit, "Oh, I use a papaya conditioner that comes in a bamboo bottle. It's not that expensive, just hard to find. It's called Fuzzy Panda."

  "I think they sell those at a market nearby. I remember seeing the bottle. The logo is a baby panda taking a bath, right?" Hera thought about buying that one last time she went to the market but ended up getting her same old brand. After all, that version was expensive.

  "Yeah, that's the one. Most people think they are for kids, but they are actually pretty good." Just after Alex finished talking, Pamella clapped her hands together.

  "Okay, new plan, we go to the market and then to the strip mall. Don't even try it, Leo. You don't want to be between a girl and her hair."

  "Well... I wouldn't mind if we ate first," Hera replied causing Pamella to stare at her in shock.

  "And you call yourself a woman? Just because your charisma is higher than mine doesn't mean you don't need to take care of yourself."

  Hera looked away. She never used beauty products. The only reason she was different now was her stat change, which wasn't even that high. She was sure Pamella, Alex, and every other recruit had a higher charisma.

  "Blue, drop it. You don't have to be mean," Leonidas told her with a stern voice.

  Pamella, seeing Hera's reaction, looked at her with a guilty expression. "I'm sorry, Hera. I crossed the line there. It was supposed to be just a joke."

  Hera shook her head, "It's fine, Pamella... I mean Pam. But.. why do you think my charisma is higher than yours?"

  All three looked at Hera, surprised.

  "You are joking, right?" Alex asked after a few seconds.

  "No.. Why would I be?" Hera felt uncomfortable with the stares.

  "Ok, I'm sorry if I'm being mean again, but do you have a mirror? You are flipping gorgeous," Pamella huffed while rolling her eyes.

  "I'm not. It got better after I leveled up, but I'm far from being pretty."

  Leonidas got up and stood between Hera and the girls.

  "Yeah, no, you are pretty, Hera. But let's change the subject before Blue loses it."

  "Oh, no, you don't," Pamella shoved Leonidas aside, "You are infuriatingly pretty, Hera, and never forget that. You look like your charisma could be way above 30."

  Bot Leonidas and Alex looked at Blue, twisting their noses.

  "Pamella, I know you are trying to help, but that's a stretch, and it doesn't help. Hera is beautiful, but saying her stat is at 30 is like saying she's above those supermodels. Not that you are not really pretty, Hera, but they are just... on a different realm than the rest of us," Alex said.

  Hera nodded, "Don't worry. I agree those models are something entirely different. Can we even call them human? Maybe angels?" Models earned a lot of money, so it wouldn't be a surprise if they could level up and spend all their avaliable points in charisma.

  "We can call some vampires. They look like they never eat," Leo joked, and the group laughed.

  "Ok, but I'm not done with this. Hera, what's your Charisma? I want numbers," Pamella seemed to be in a better mood but still went back to the subject.

  "Well, it's 12," Hera wasn't sure if she should mention that she had a skill that lowered her stats. Most explorers seemed to hide what their skills truly did. It felt like an unspoken rule.

  "See, it's not that high, I'm at 12 too," Alex said, smiling to Pamella.

  "And I'm at 13. The difference is not that high," Leonidas smiled, which only made Pamella take a big step back.

  "That's really not fair. I'm the only one here that's under 10?" She lowered her head, looking at the floor before jolting it back up, looking straight at Alex, "We are going shopping NOW," she grabbed her by the hand and started to drag the girl to the outside.

  Leonidas looked at Hera, both still in the classroom, "How long do you think it will take for her to realize you are the only one that knows where they sell the conditioner around here?"

  Hera laughed a bit, "Honestly, I don't know, maybe a few mi..." before she could finish her sentence, a cry came from the hallway.

  "Heraaaaaaa, we neeeeed youuuu," Pamella yelled.

  "Guess we didn't give her enough credit," Leonidas laughed while the two of them walked out of class.

  The recruits were not the only ones eating. A few minutes after dismissing the class, Calvin was in a lounge for high-level explorers at the guild. He had ordered meatloaf from a nearby restaurant.

  For most people, that was a weird order. Especially since it was a cheap one, and he was a very successful explorer. But that wasn't the point. Greyson truly enjoyed the dish. It was simple, and it reminded him of his home and his grandmother.

  He was sitting at a table and getting ready to eat. First placing the dish on his plate and then a napkin on his lap. It was an odd sight, that burly, callous man having such table manners, but it was how he learned, and he wouldn't change the way he was raised.

  The meatloaf was wrapped in bacon, and it had a steamed veggie filling. Greyson cut the first slice and smelled it. The crispy smell of grease mixed with the veggies and meat was enough to make his mouth water.

  He cut a slice and moved it towards his mouth when a heavy hand slapped him on the back, making the slice fall back onto his plate.

  "Calvin! Still teaching, or did they kick you out for beating up a recruit?"

  The man frowned and looked back to a big muscular woman, with pale skin and long deep blue hair that was tied in a single braid and pulled back.

  "Can't a man eat his meal in peace?" he said, knowing this woman was the only one who would greet him like that.

  "Don't be so stingy I know you would be bored out of your mind with no one to talk to about the training," the woman sat on the table across from him and started to eat an apple.

  "Fine, ye are not wrong. The recruits are green, very green, most don't even know how to pick up a sword. But there are some hidden gems around," the man said before taking the first bite of his meal.

  The woman raised one eyebrow, "Oh, really? For you to be saying that, they must be really special. Did they get a good score in your first trial?" she said the last sentence, mocking Greyson, who just rolled his eyes in response.

  "Aye, at least two of them. A girl doubled her strength in a counter, and there is a boy that seems to have some experience using a spear," he took a bite out of his meatloaf.

  "Ok, so there are two gems? That's a pretty decent amount for one group," the woman cut another slice of the apple with a knife.

  "Actually, there might be four... Ok, three gems and one interesting one," he mumbled while cutting another slice of his meatloaf.

  "You got to give me more than that, Calvin," the woman said with a big smile on her face.

  Greyson let out a long sigh and slumped a bit in his chair.

  "Fine, Janna, Ah have two powerful warriors, a grappler, and the spearman. A girl who got the map skill in just a little over one hour. Then got it to upgrade to Cartography. Ye know how hard is to get that one. The interesting one is someone who tried to become an explorer five years ago. Ah never see any recruit who can focus as much as her. She also has a good brain in her head, asking the right questions. And she has an average stat of 12," that piqued Janna's interest.

  "And why is she not a gem? An average stat of 12 is something really rare in a recruit. The way you spoke of her. It seems like she is the most promising one," she took another slice of the apple.

  "She's too green, can barely hold a sword the right way. If the other three are gems, she still is just a lump of coal," Grayson cut off another big slice of his meatloaf, leaving two slices on the plate.

  "Thanks, Calvin. If you can just give me their names when the test is over, I can consider your debt settled," she winked at him.

  "Honestly, Janna, why did ye take this job as a headhunter? Ye're Frostbite, for fuck's sake,"

  Janna waved and got up, having just finished her apple.

  "A job is a job, Greyson. I don't intend to die in the MAZE. Also, it's a great way to meet interesting people," she said as she walked away from the table.

  "Can I still count on you next week?" Greyson called out as she heads towards the door. Without stopping, she looked back and answered with a smile.

  "Of course, Calvin. It will be a great way to see those gems for myself,"

  Calvin looked back at his plate and finished his lunch. Even if the taste had turned bitter.

  After 1 PM. The recruits had arrived at the training area. Hera ended up getting not only the conditioner in the bamboo bottle but a few other beauty products. Pamella refused to let her leave the store until she got them.

  Hera didn't mind. It would be the first time she honestly wanted to take care of herself. She also got a cream that was supposed to be good for scars. Even if she didn't think anything would change. Her thoughts stopped roaming around and focused on the teacher as soon as he walked in, dragging a big black box.

  Mr. Greyson was in a sour mood, and no one could understand why.

  "All right, ye lot need to know how to handle any type of weapon before choosing yer own," he placed his hand in the black box and opened it.

  "Here we have swords, that's the lesson for today. Ah'm gonna show you how to handle this without ye taking off yer own eye."

  The teacher grabbed one of the swords. It was a plain wooden one, but it had a weird feeling to it. As if the surrounding air was thinner. Hera took a deep breath to calm down. She was going to learn how to fight.

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