It was 11 PM when Hera finally got home. After all that workout, she still felt somewhat nauseous. However, there was some leftover pasta in the fridge. If she didn't eat it soon, it would go bad, and wasting food wasn't something she was willing to do. Hera forced herself to eat, thinking that she did need some fuel after the day.

  That ended up being the one thought that allowed her to eat, even if she was forcing herself a bit. Being a high level explorer wouldn't mean she no longer had basic needs like using the bathroom, sleeping, drinking water, and eating. After 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 that was on top.

  While waiting, Hera picked up the guild tablet and quickly found the bracelet customization app. It was a very standard image editor for the most part. The main difference being that it already had an image inside instead of it being a blank canvas. The default view was a 2D rendering of her bracelet, which right now was just a black bangle. Hera did try messing with but it wasn't for her. The 3D view, on the other hand, made her feel much more at home.

  Realizing it would be hard to make something good with the touch screen, she placed the tablet on the desk in her room and plugged in a mouse and keyboard she had stored away for when she got a computer. With the setup 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. There were some sliders that helped you with the customization of the more basic details. Such as thickness, malleability, and shine. She could change to pure modeling work at any moment, so Hera looked for a good starting point.

  In addition, there was a set of presets she could pick from in a gallery. 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. After toying with the options for a bit, she reached a nice starting point.

  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.

  Her meal was over, and so was the base version of the bracelet. Hera was staring at the model, thinking about what she could place in the empty spots. It was a very specific thing, so she would need to do it 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 paused. 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 chose what type of weapon, she would use in the future, then she could swap all of them for that one.

  Still, once the modeling was over, the swords and axes looked a bit odd. Mostly due to the color. The gold was too aggressive. Remembering the stained glass, she made most of each weapon to be deep metallic black. While the sides would be golden. Just like Cyrus and his armor. 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.

  Placing the bracelet on the desk beside the tablet, Hera went to the shower. 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. And the axes ended up becoming the clasp locking it in place once inside the chakram. What mainly surprised her was that the bracelet wasn't just a projection like she was expecting. The actual form of the bracelet shifted to what she made. She could feel each ridge and point, and yet, it felt surprisingly comfortable on her arm.

  Her eyes darted to the tablet, and the lock screen showed 1 AM. It was way too late for her to be up, so Hera rushed to bed. A part of her was worried that she was too excited to sleep, but soon after her head hit the pillow she was gone.

  Just a few hours later she woke up felling completely rested and decided to go to the Guild. It was barely 5 AM when she arrived in the training room. 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 a bit surprised with that, not expecting company this early in the morning. However, she was also wearing the tracksuit and ready to start. 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. However, after watching a few strikes, Hera realized there were differences. Each strike had minor adjustments. The position of his feet, the angle of his arms. Even the speed, all were just a little different from the other attempts.

  Most hits gave the same score, but now and then, he did something that changed that. It didn't take long for things to be clear. What she was watching right now was someone with experience looking for a way to perfect his movements.

  After a few minutes, Leonidas had increased his score by one point consistently. Yet, the man showed no signs of stopping. Not wanting to waste more time, Hera walked towards the wall filled with weapons that they could use for training. It was nice to know how to practice in the future, but now she had to first understand the basics.

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

  "Not yet, I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep."

  Hera looked at the spot where the sword she broke the day before previously was. Now it was just an empty place with the hooks still there. 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.

  She tried to ignore her embarrassment. Especially since there was no reason for her to feel that way.

  "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, "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 just about getting used to her body. 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."

  "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 weaknesses," Leonidas said.

  His tone wasn't condescending, and he seemed to genuinely be wanting to help. However, at the same time, Hera couldn't help but wander if she truly looked that clueless. If she had her original attributes, she would've focused on endurance. Only after that she would balance things out. Every game she ever played worked better when she specialized. Life inside the MAZE shouldn't be that different.

  Hera swung the long sword without hitting the dummy, getting used to its weight. It was a bit unwieldy, and it took a moment to return to the starting position, but she could work with that.

  "I don't know if I should say much about it, but strength is my both lowest and highest attribute right now," She swung the sword horizontally, hitting the dummy's side. A 13 appeared on the monitor behind it.

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

  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. 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. Just as she fell backwards due to the impact, dropping the sword in the process.

  "They sucked. If I wasn't lucky to get a skill and some bonus points, I could never become an explorer," Hera patted her pants to remove the dirt while getting up.

  Without saying anything else, she picked up the sword again and continued attacking the dummy. Her score now floating around 9. 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. And Hera 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 chuckled, seeing the man like that.

  "Is that part of your training?"

  "Oh yes, fair maiden, a knight must always lie 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.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "They might have healers that can help with that, you know," Hera downed half of her water bottle.

  "Nah, I want to feel it. If we're 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 lying on the floor kind of defeat the purpose 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, I 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 that's not Pamella. Hearing you say my full name 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.

  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 might 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 how.

  "Don't feel bad, Hera. You tried to help. Try me. What do I do that seems odd?" Pamella said with a happy tone.

  "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?" Hera asked.

  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."

  The trio arrived five minutes before seven. However, they were not the first ones. A few other students were already in class, including Mark, who was behind a blond girl with dark skin in the front seat.

  Everyone was talking, Hera felt like she was in High school again, but this time without the bad memories. That didn't last long as the second Mr. Greyson walked through the door, the whole class went quiet.

  "Good, ye are here already. Aside from a few stragglers, all seem to be here."

  As if they were waiting for their cue, two men and two women walked through the door, just before the clock hit 7.

  "Ok, that's everyone then. Ah guess no one gave up after the first day," The teacher looked at Mark, who recoiled with the stare.

  "I planned to make ye lot run a few laps before coming back here to hear me talk. But someone told me that Ah should talk first, and then tire ye in the training room. There is a chance some of ye would end up sleeping after the training, and if that happens, ye are going to be the dummy Ah hit."

  The whole class got quiet after that remark. Mr. Greyson had punched a silver dummy and got almost 200 points. If any of the recruits got hit by something like that, they would be lucky to just end up at the hospital

  "Relax kids, Ah won't be fighting ye at full strength. But don't expect me to be playing around."

  The students were not as relieved as the teacher expected, but they seemed to be a bit less scared of the idea. Little did they know that a match against him was a part of Mr. Greyson's lesson plan for the next week.

  "All right now, to start the class. Can any of ye tell me what skills are?"

  The blond girl with twin tails, dark skin, and long sparkly nails raised her hand.

  "Skills are special abilities that the System gives us. They can vary from physical like a strength or resistance boost to magical like being able to shoot fire or lightning from your hands."

  Mr. Greyson nodded, "Ye are half right, lassie. I mean..." He stopped to look at his tablet.

  "Ye are half right, Bonnie. But it isn't the System that gives the skill. It just helps us use it. We need to learn it on our own."

  Most of the students nodded. That statement felt right. The System never gave anything, not really. Even if some people say they have been blessed by the System it was always their own accomplishments. It was something they learned from a young age. Even if they had yet to unlock it's full capabilities.

  Saying that the System gave or took something was the same as finding excuses for why that happened. Hera agreed with that, even if she had spent years blaming the System for not letting her be an explorer.

  "But Mr. Greyson..." Bonnie had a confused expression of her face, " if the System doesn't give any skills, how do we learn magic? I mean, even civilians that level-up can't cast any spells. It doesn't matter how hard they try to learn it."

  Hera stopped for a second. The girl was right. Magic was not used by anyone that wasn't an explorer. Even high-level civilians had no access to it.

  "Aye, that's because we can only learn magic inside the MAZE. The air there is different than out here. It's full of energy. Inside, ye can start to learn how that energy behaves, and little by little change that into what ye want."

  "So, do mages take a long time to learn how to use spells?" Hera was wondering how much time it took for Helena to be able to use magic.

  "Yes and no, if ye choose a role that deals with magic ye will manage to use spells quicker than ye expect. There is sort of an explanation for that, but it's a subject for another class. The MAZE and the System are still full of wonder and mysteries, so it's better if we don't change the topic at hand for now."

  The teacher walked to the board and started to write. He made two columns and put a type in each of them.

  "We have two types of skills, the ones ye can learn, and the ones ye can teach. A skill ye can learn is any skill ye can train and practice until you manage to unlock it on your own. A skill ye can teach is any that requires a specific thing that ye can show other people so they can learn too."

  "Let's try an example," Mr. Greyson wrote Punch in the learn column, "Ye can punch enough to learn that skill, but if someone teaches ye a fighting style ye might get a boxing skill."

  He finished his sentence by placing boxing in the teaching column.

  "Now, can anyone give me another example?" the teacher asked.

  Pamella raised her hand, and the teacher nodded so she could give her an answer.

  "Sooo... a skill you can learn would be Dancing, but doing the waltz or salsa or samba would be a skill you can teach?"

  "That's a weird one, but aye. Those would be right."

  "Mr. Greyson, what about magic? Is there any type of magic we can learn? Or any that you can teach us?" Bonnie asked.

  Hera recognized the expression on the girl in the front seat. The face of someone who desperately wants something. For some reason that made the fresh level 2 recruit to feel more at ease. Maybe she wasn't the only one who had big dreams related to the guild.

  "Aye, there is. Both magic ye can learn and magic ye can teach. Then again magic is not considered a skill. I can't tell ye why that is. Ah'm a fighter, not a mage. Don't worry. Ye will be able to talk to a dam good wizard during this training."

  Hera instantly thought about Helena, but she doubted it would be her. The mage didn't seem to be interested in teaching a bunch of recruits.

  Looking at the board, Hera noticed that there wasn't a mention of skills that you were born with, like her [Attribute Reallocation]. She raised her hand and waited for Mr. Greyson to notice it.

  "Sir, what about the skills you are born with? I heard people calling them Innate skills."

  The teacher nodded.

  "Aye, some skills you have since birth. Even if ye can't see them right away, the System is stingy with information. It only tells ye what ye are able to use, never what ye can one day use. Some explorers only discover those skills when they are very old or very strong."

  As much as it bothered her, she knew about how the System behaved. If she had known before about her skill, she would have had hope. But like the teacher said. The System never gave information that you couldn't use.

  "Do we have any other types of skills?" Leonidas was writing everything Mr. Greyson was saying on his tablet. He even made a copy of the drawing on the board.

  "Aye, aside from innate skills, there are also quest skills, and something called legacy skills. Quest skills ye can get after completing a specific mission inside the MAZE. Or as part of a dungeon reward. They mostly work like a skill ye can learn, not letting you teach it to someone else."

  Mr. Greyson sat in his desk and let out a deep sigh before continuing.

  "Legacy skills are a tricky bunch. These skills can be passed from one explorer to another. But doing some makes ye lose the skill. If an explorer dies with a skill like that, the legacy either goes to the monster that killed it or to the room where it died. The System turns a dungeon or an area into a trial for that skill. Those places are more dangerous than most monsters ye will find in the MAZE. And if it's a monster who inherited the skill just run, those things can rip ye apart like cotton candy. I say this, so ye know what ye are getting into if ye find a place like that. Explorers stronger than me have tried to get these legacies and died in the process. They are not to be taken lightly."

  The way Mr. Grayson spoke made the whole class take a moment to absorb what he had just said. A skill that changes even the MAZE should be powerful and, at the same time, would easily kill who tried to acquire it.

  "In exchange for that. Legacies are powerful. Ye get one, you don't need to worry about levels anymore. It's all about what ye can do. Again, it's dangerous, and rarer than a legendary item. So don't even think to chase after it."

  There was another pause as the teacher started putting a few other skills on the board. While doing that, Mark, the same man that joked about Mr. Greyson's face in the last class spoke up. He had light skin, thin arms and legs, a round nose and short curly hair, framing his golden brown eyes.

  "Okay, that's just weird. Why are we calling them skills you can learn and skills you can teach? If you can learn something, you can tell everyone how to get that skill too. So you can teach the one you can learn. The naming sense is just weird, especially since there are skills that have a simpler category. I mean, you say Innate or legacy, and you know what to expect. Shouldn't we change to basic and advanced skills? Or complex or anything that isn't so... odd to explain?"

  The whole class looked a Mark who had just started to ramble, most of them seemed to nod in agreement. The others looked at Mr. Greyson instead as the man walked to Mark's side.

  "Laddie, if ye think the names we use since Ah was a wee baby are a problem," The teacher started speaking calmly but suddenly put his face as close as it could to Mark's and yelled the last sentence. "THEN COME UP WITH BETTER FUCKING ONES."

  "Sorry!" Mark yelped, jumping back into his chair.

  His reaction was probably the same as anyone else's. After all Mr. Greyson wasn't simply intimidating. He was also a seasoned fighter and had a high level.

  The whole exchange took less than five seconds, and by the fourth, the entire class was laughing. Mark's face got red instantly, and he seemed to try to burrow in his chair. While Mr. Greyson walked back to the board and started rambling while erasing everything that was on it.

  "Don't worry, Mark. Any of us would have the same reaction," Pamella said, trying to comfort him.

  "I wouldn't say the same. Honestly, I think I would pee a little," Leonidas followed the comment.

  Pamella, Hera, and Bonnie, the only girls who were sitting close enough to listen to his answer, replied with an "Ewwwww" in sync. It was childish, and silly, but Hera felt good doing that. Being able to play around like that felt great.

  "What, the dude could beat us with his pinky. I wouldn't be able to control my bladder," Leonidas leaned into the joke.

  "No more talking for you, you are in a time out until we leave class," Pamella interrupted whatever he was going to say next.

  "Sorry, but I agree, that was too much," Hera said while laughing.

  Calvin looked at his class. That was the type of people he liked. Who could understand a serious situation but would start to joke around the second it was over. In his experience, those were the explorers that make it. Taking this teacher job might not have been the worst thing he did. With a loud clap, he settled his students.

  "Alright, now. Ah'm teaching you the first skill ye will ever learn."

  He walked to his desk and picked a few notepads, giving one to each recruit, along with three pencils, one black, one blue, and one green. Then using his tablet, he pressed a few buttons, and a map was displayed on the board.

  "What Ah want you to do, is to look at this map and copy it in the notebook. Use the three colors to make it more precise."

  A girl in the back raised her hand, "We should use each color for what?"

  Mr. Greyson sighed. Maybe he was wrong and this teaching job was the worst thing he ever did.

  "Blue is for water. Green is for forest and black for everything else. You don't need to have a 20 in intelligence to figure that out, lassie."

  Hera twisted her nose a bit. Sure, it was obvious, but not for everyone. One thing would be being rude to a student that disrupts the class, but that one just seemed uncalled for.

  "Now, start drawing, make it precise and not pretty. In 10 minutes, I'm changing the map. We will be doing that for the next few hours, so try to keep up."

  Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, Hera started working. If they only had 10 minutes to make this, she wouldn't have time to think about anything else.

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