MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera was sitting on a bench while Blue kept lifting weights. She wasn't used to working out as the controller. Even though her strength was higher, the repetition was more tiresome than she expected.

She watched Blue work out while trying to regain the feeling in her arms. It felt strange to feel so tired. Hera had leveled up a few days ago. Her stamina should be higher.

"I guess I still need to practice," she mumbled to herself.

After a while, it became clear that Blue was far from tired. Hera called her friend to see if she wanted to eat. They left for lunch, and after some time, returned to the guild. Blue rented an ATR for the day while Hera looked for quests to get her weapon maintenance skill. She was working for about three hours when a notification appeared in front of her.

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Skill Acquired: Weapon Maintenance (Rank 1)

Weapon Maintenance (Rank 1)

Improves your ability to care and maintain your weapons.

The more careful you are with the process, the better the results will be.

Increased durability: 1%

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With a smile, Hera kept working. Not only would that give her some extra experience for the skill, but now she received a slightly bigger pay for each weapon she performed the maintenance. On the breaks, she would be carving her initials in some fruits and taking bites out of them.

When the night finally came, Hera had earned 235 gold for the work. After texting Leo and Blue, the trio went to the pub to watch the coverage of the assault on the wall.

This time they were talking about the previous assaults. From the first wall on the 8th layer, all the way to the last one on layer 22. Apparently, there wasn't a specific pattern for the walls. They could appear after a few layers or take some time to do so. This was the 7th wall.

There was a lot of speculation about how many they were and why they existed. One of the most accepted theories was that it was a way barrier placed by an ancient civilization inside the MAZE. The main reason for that was that the wall didn't trigger any quests or notifications. At the same time, the wall spread through all the rooms in the same layer, which lead some to believe that it was something created by the maze.

Several scholars were contacted through video calls to discuss the possibilities, with Becca being a sort of moderator for the discussion. At one point, it became such a huge mess that the host had to cut off everyone's audio. She joked that it was too much information for the connection and proceeded to divide the group into two different segments.

The next day Hera spent trying to figure out the spell Helena had given to her. Just like the mage said, it was a buff that improved her perception of the elements. If using it in combination with the [Observe] or [Inspect] skills, they could show the target's primary affinity. The general idea of the spell was to increase your sensitivity to mana, and then she had to discern the difference between the types.

Helena had a few explanations about how the elements felt to her. Fire was like a comet, leaving a trail of mana behind. Water felt like a river most of the time, but it could change depending on the target. Wind felt like a fog or a cloud, and earth felt grainy like sand or dirt.

There were other elements in the list light and dark, thunder, and lightning. There were even a couple of odd ones, like gravity, that just seemed to attract the mana around to the center of the target.

Hera considered going to the arcanist lookout to train the ability, but it was a bit too dangerous. She looked around a few shops and found a few minor items that had elemental buffs. An orb that worked as a night lamp, a pair of heated socks, and a waterskin that kept the water inside it cold. All these items cost 450 gold. It was a lot of money, but Hera had made almost a year's worth of her previous salary in just a couple of weeks. She couldn't believe how much money explorers make.

Spending most of the afternoon trying to understand the spell, Hera used her [Pulse] to see if she could see anything helpful. Sadly, her the spell only showed that the objects had denser mana than the rest of her hotel room. Thinking she might need an actual spell to perceive the mana better, Hera started to practice the light spell. It took her 40 minutes to make it work again, and another 30 to create the light with some consistency. By the end of the afternoon, completed her goal.

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Spell acquired

Light

Rank: Beginner

Create a small light around you. The mana cost is spent each second the spell is active. The intensity and radius of the light will affect the mana cost.

Base Radius: 10 meters

Base mana cost per second: 2 mana

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"I wonder if I can make that flash once again," Hera said to herself.

Pumping all her mana to the spell, the light flashed as if someone just turned on a floodlight. Hera spent a few moments blinded by the light. When her vision returned, she was sad that no other notification appeared.

"I guess I need to tweak it a bit more before it becomes a spell."

Leaving her room, Hera went to the guild to meet Leo and Blue and watch the next part of the wall coverage. This time, it was a competition among the ones who were already there. Each participant would spend half an hour doing their best to damage the wall. There was a camera focused on the wall showing the damage. The videos were shortened to just under a minute.

Wildborn was the first contestant. The healer wailed on the wall with his battleaxe. At the end of the video, there were several gashes on the barrier. Even without knowing the structure's actual strength, the fact that he had managed to slash solid stone was incredible.

Azure chain came next. His name came from the chain that was wrapped around his arms. When attacking, it would split into several smaller chains with blades at the edges. His display was more flashy but less effective. The blades twirled around and slashed a larger part of the wall, but the damage seemed much more superficial.

The next contestant was actually a pair. The same two singers Hera had seen during the opening of the olympics. Bright Night and Dark Star. The two flung spell after spell towards the wall. A mix of light and dark magic blasted the barrier again and again. In the end, there was a small pause, and the two sang a small verse of one of their songs. In sync with the music, the two cast a joint spell, creating what looked like a black hole with a ring of light around it. When it hit the wall, there was a chunk of about two meters deep that was just gone. Everyone in the bar cheered and clapped. Becca thanked the two but said that they were not contestants for first prize, but her efforts should be recognized not only as buffers for the team but for being able to do that much damage being just level 60.

Another mage attempted to break it. He used a mix of lighting and ice to attack. There wasn't much damage, since its attacks should be more effective in a biological enemy. The last entry was from Toxic Rain. Her attempt consisted of a few seconds with nothing happening, and then five arrows shot towards the wall. Several bright green veins spread around from each bolt. When most of what the camera was seeing was covered in the green threads, one last arrow blasted through the middle of the wall. After the dust settled, it showed a five-meter deep hole in the wall. Some of the toxic strands were still spreading from the edges of the tunnel.

Everyone in the bar was speechless by the demonstration. No one expected the hunter to do that much damage. There was a small award ceremony where Toxic Rain received a prize from Becca, but she also became the first name in the official guild merch. The screen showed t-shirts, jackets, bags, and other goodies with a stylized version of the explorers' names who participated in the contest. The one with Dark Star and Bright Night was actually the same style that the duo used for their presentations, which explained why they participated in the test.

"Now, dear viewers, I'm incredibly excited to let you all know that tomorrow we are going to have a very special interview, the strongest explorer in the entire world. Insomniac."

There was a loud cheer in the bar. Every explorer knew who that man was, the highest level person on the planet, the man that hunt dragons as a pastime.

"How high do you think his level is?" one of the patrons asked.

"I'm guessing 89. There is no way he's past that," the woman beside him replied.

"Is it true he made a chasm with a swing of his sword?" a man asked behind Hera.

"Where did you heard that? The dude is a superhero, not a natural disaster," someone replied.

On Sunday, Hera focused on trying to figure out the spell Helena gave her. Using her light spell, she could sense something a bit different around the light, but she was having trouble activating her [Pulse] without losing focus on [Light]. During her breaks, she would eat some fruit and practice the etching skill.

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Skill acquired

Etching (Rank 1)

Improves your ability to create engravings. By using specific tools and materials, the etching can create various effects on the targets.

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Hera was surprised when she saw the notification. Looking back at the apple on her hand, she gasped, "This was an amazing tip!"

She kept trying to get the buff, but when the time came to head to the pub, she still wasn't able to get it. Shrugging, Hera decided to meet her friends. If even Bonnie, with the learn skill, took a while to get a new spell, it wasn't a surprise for her to take some time to get one.

The pub was more crowded than Hera was expecting, but considering the person who was going to be interviewed, it was understandable. The moment Becca appeared on screen, not a single noise could be heard from the people in the bar.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Becca Swan, and here with me, we have the strongest person alive. The fighter known as Insomniac."

The camera split, having Becca on the right and the man on the left. He had long black hair, but it was clear the fighter's last haircut was a long time ago. A stubble covered his tanned chin, and he had big dark bags under his eyes.

"First of all, thank you so much for agreeing with the interview. I understand you are a very busy man."

"It's no problem. I had a day to kill here, anyway."

"For the first question and please only answer it if you feel comfortable sharing that information. What level are you?"

The man tilted his head to the side, "Why would that be a problem? That information is available with the guild. Right now, I'm level 93."

Loud gasps came from people on the bar. How could he be so strong already?

"That is impressive. I believe the closest person to you is still level 88," Becca said.

"89 as of yesterday. She leveled up here."

"Oh good, that can help with the assault. But let's get back to you. What is your secret? Do you have a particular farming spot or some trick to it?"

"If it was a farming spot, I wouldn't share while I'm using it. But it is actually a skill from my legacy," Insomniac said.

Becca gave the man a warm smile, "Could you tell us more about that skill?"

"Because of my legacy, I can't sleep like a normal person. To rest, I need to be fighting. It's kind of like sleepwalking."

"I see, so your famous grumpiness is just you being tired? I'm so sorry for that. It must be tough to deal with it."

The man replied with a soft smile, "Thank you. And I apologize for that grumpiness, it is not intentional. But to be at my best condition for the operation, I had to stay awake for a few days."

"Could you elaborate?"

"Just a bit. One of my skills gets stronger, the longer I spend without going to sleep. Because of the legacy, I can stay longer than a regular person without sleeping."

"And how long has been since you had a night of 'rest'?" Becca asked, with a worried expression.

"Today... 13 days. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks. I've tested that before, and that is how I can be at peak condition."

"And how long have you been with that legacy?"

"It's been... 12 years now."

"Did you have trouble getting used to those abilities?"

"At first, but I already had some problems sleeping, so the difference wasn't that big initially."

As the interview went on, Hera got distracted by other things. She wasn't as interested in the man's life story as his skills. He mentioned a couple of his skills and how he had placed the report of how he got the legacy as a freely available resource in the guild. That made a few people leave the bar saying that they wanted to get a copy. Hera made a note to get one later.

After around 40 minutes, the interview came to an end, "Insomniac, thank you for your time, and I hope I wasn't too invasive with the questions."

"Not at all, I enjoyed it."

"I'm glad to hear it! Now for our dear viewers. Tomorrow we will begin the assault at 3 PM. Our coverage starts at noon with all the preparation for the attack. I hope you all join me in this historic event!"

Becca signed off, and the television went back to the music channel. Hera stayed for a while on the bar with her friends. They were enjoying their free time. Even after returning to the hotel, Hera wasn't sure she would be able to sleep. Watching the wall break would be something extraordinary. It would be like seeing the legacy of the first hero.

"I hope Helena is safe," she mumbled to herself while lying in bed.