MAZE - The endless Quest

In total, she had made 237 gold with the toad. Almost everything was because of its skin. She could easily make over 500 gold if she hadn't used poison to kill the creature. That made its meat unusable for cooking. The frog that was inside it was completely wasted. Not only it was partially digested, the bits that could be salvaged were also filled with poison.

Hera had to remember that she would need to hold back the poison spells if she wanted to make money.

The group met up and headed towards the dry cleaning, Hera was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that she got the day before when Blue refused to let her get inside their room with the smelly armor. To Hera's luck, she wasn't the only one in similar attire. A couple of people seemed to have encountered the same type of issue and were waiting to get their gear with the cleaners.

Hera picked her equipment and used one of the changing rooms in the dry cleaning to put it on.

The group left and headed towards the doorway. Mark would arrive soon, and they wanted to be there. Even with the good news, there was still some tension in the air. Blue was angry at Hera for being so reckless. Bonnie was still trying to piece her family together, and Alex was annoyed at Leo for bringing his pet frog to the meeting.

Not wanting to cause any more problems, Hera just kept looking through the various threads about what was going on in the Qeeroni Wilds. The people were safe inside the cities. The creatures only roamed the actual jungle. They had been identified as Wendigos, but the actual level was still open to discussion. Some would say they were level 80 while others that they could reach 85. There was also some discussion about the actual abilities of the creatures. Most of them behaved like crazed animals and were not too much of a problem if found in small groups. Yet, some people claimed that the creatures had various skills, from shooting thorns out of their bodies, to breathing fire or camouflaging themselves.

"Hera," the explorer raised her head from the tablet to find Blue staring at her.

"What's up?" Hera smiled, trying not to anger her friend even more.

"Any news about Helena?"

"I only checked when we left the inn. They found the camp during the night, or at least night for us. Now they are following some tracks of people who managed to run from there."

"Well... I can't promise I won't do anything crazy. But I'll be careful, and I'll stick to fighting during the day for now. As fun as it was, I'm not sure I can take another toad like that," Hera didn't want to lie. She had no idea if something else would happen and make her go crazy.

"Did you really think that was fun?" Blue asked, raising one eyebrow.

Hera looked away and nodded, "Yeah. I mean, I almost died but the feeling that I could beat a monster like that during the fight. I felt strong and being able to forget about everything else was... liberating in a way."

Blue kept staring at Hera for a few moments, "Hey, Alex!" The assassin looked at her, "Hera is one of us now."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, getting closer.

"I mean she is a battle maniac like us. Even after almost dying last night, she still says it was fun."

Alex laughed, "Good for you, Hera! Hunting is going to be an entirely different thing now."

The three kept talking about how much they enjoyed fighting, getting some eye rolls from Bonnie until Mark came through the doorway, followed by Tiffany and a few others.

"Mark!" Leo shouted and rushed towards him.

"Wow, calm down, dude. I honestly wasn't expecting this welcome," he said raising his hand and clasping it with Leo's

"You have no idea how much I wanted you here. I couldn't stand being the only man in the group anymore."

Mark rolled his eyes, "Yeah, fighting together with four beautiful women must have been awful."

The rest of the group joined in, and Mark introduced the people he did the test with. He already had gotten his role a couple of days ago, but they all promised to go inside the MAZE together. Some of them already formed a group. Mark had a standing invitation to join, but he wanted to talk to his previous teammates first.

After the group started to leave, Tiffany approached Hera and her friends and apologized for what happened during their test. Before the group could reply, Kenji appeared, and Tiffany dashed to his arms, giving the man a big hug followed by a kiss.

Hera noticed that a few members of the group that came with Mark seemed upset with the sight.

"Did any of you knew about them?" Blue asked.

"Yeah, she told me, they started going out just before the test," Mark said.

"Well. I honestly didn't consider that. But what about you?" Alex asked.

"The position of my girlfriend is still open. Interested?" Mark said, raising his eyebrows repeatedly like a cheesy character in a movie.

"Not what I'm talking about. Are you ok? Don't you want to go with them?"

Mark shook his head, "Nah, they are fun and all. But there was no teamwork during the test. If there were an Anaya in the mix, we would all have failed. I rather be with someone I trust to have my back."

Leo nodded, "Welcome to the team, then."

"What do you mean, welcome? He was always a part of it," Blue said, slapping Mark's back.

"Ouch. That was stronger than usual. And why did that make my hair stand up?" The crafter complained.

"Oh, my bad. I'm practicing a buff. It is just some static electricity, nothing harmful,"

"Wait, is that a skill?"

"Nope. Magic," Blue made a motion with her hand, moving her fingers quickly.

"Do you all have magic already?" Mark asked.

The group nodded. Every one of them had learned a spell.

"Ah, less than a month, and I'm already this far behind?"

"Should we tell him we leveled up too?" Alex asked with a playful smile.

"Awww, maaann!" Mark groaned.

"I guess you just did," Hera chuckled.

The group left the doorway and headed towards the guild. Mark had to do the welcome quest and get set up in a room. Leo was using a single bed one, so they wouldn't share a room for now. After giving the crafter a tour, the group picked a place to eat since the walking around took most of the morning.

As they waited for their food, Hera picked her tablet to check if there was any news about Helena. The last update was still the same, but she saw a new thread talking about the guild's latest announcement. Checking it, she was redirected to the main guild website, where there was an article and a video from the chairwoman herself.

"Guys, look at this," the group gathered to watch the small video. As Hera pressed play, Leliana Mihafrey appeared on-screen sitting on a desk with the Qeeroni Wilds in the window behind her.

"Hello, everyone. As you know, a few days ago, we broke through the wall on the 25th layer. That triggered an event that caused the death of several explorers. Monsters called Wendigos appeared after the wall came down and attacked every living creature in sight. We can confirm that these creatures are at least level 80. We can also confirm that these same creatures are appearing in all rooms in the 25th layer. However, we do not believe them to be able to cross through doorways."

As Leliana spoke, several graphs and pictures of the monsters appeared at her side. They had found three more variations to the Wendigos aside from the wolf, the monkey, and the rat. One was large and muscular, looking almost like a hairless bear. The other was smaller, and aside from the discolored skin, red eyes and bones coming out of its joints was clearly a sphinx cat.

"We also have identified a few abilities that the monsters posses. Number one, they multiply quickly. Some nests were found, and in a matter of days, the fully grown creatures hatched. Number two, they can absorb the attributes of whatever they eat. The video from the broadcast gave us a small glimpse of it. However, they are not limited to a single absorption. Teams that are fighting the Wendigos must only fight them if they are confident of their success. With each loss we have, more the monsters will grow."

The graphics showed some variations, Wendigos using light, fire, ice. Some had wings, others had long spindly members. One even had grown a second head. The graphics vanished as Leliana finished speaking.

"Lastly, we have managed to find a few of our members that were at the campsite. Becca Swan and her team were rescued and are now recovering from their ordeal. We still have many people missing, and we won't stop searching for them while we still have hope they are alive. This happened because of my failure to predict this possible outcome, and for that, I apologize. When this crisis is over, I will be submitting my letter of resignation as chairwoman of the guild. Until then, I hope I can still count on your support. Don't forget. We fight together, we win together, and we survive together."

The video ended with Leliana leaving the office, but the camera stayed in place. Then, the guild's logo appeared atop of the chair she was sitting.

"Is she really stepping down? I mean, no one could predict that?" Alex was still staring at the screen.

"Maybe she feels guilty," Bonnie suggested.

"I don't know. When we come inside the MAZE, we are already accepting that we can get very hurt and even die here. I don't think it's just for that," Blue said.

"My guess is some political pressure from the rest of the board. My uncle told me a few stories about how that happened inside the coalition more than a few times." Leo was already eating again.

"Or maybe she just got tired to be sitting behind a desk. Did you see those guns? I bet she is itching to go after those things," Mark said, biting down on his frog hamburger.

"Really?" Blue asked and rewound the video. When Leliana got up, they could see her arms. She had massive biceps, not as big as Frostbite, but much more defined. It was almost as if they were looking at a granite sculpture.

"Daaaammmm," Alex gasped.

"Tell me about it. I wanna look like that one day," Blue said.

"Keep pumping your strength, and that will work," Hera said, going back to her plate.

The group finished eating and headed towards the shop district. Mark had to introduce himself to someone from a workshop. He had been recruited by jasper to the Forgeshifters, and part of his work would be done here.

After that, the group left to hunt. They wanted to test the new dynamic with everyone being able to use spells, Leo's new pet, and now Mark in the mix.

Before leaving the city, they discussed strategies. Blue had her electricity buff, but no one had something that could boost its effect. Alex had learned a wind enchantment for her weapons. It would make her attacks cut even deeper, and Hera could follow up, hitting the poison spray on the open wounds. That would only be a last resort since they still wanted to butcher the frogs to make some money. Bonnie had tweaked her cold bomb and now could make an area slowly drop the temperature over time. Since they were dealing with cold-blooded creatures, this could be a fantastic tool to kill them without even fighting.

Leo had an odd spell. It didn't affect his actual ability at first, but if he managed to pierce his target, he could make thorns shoot out of it or make the victim be wrapped in vines. Apparently, those were two different spells but with the same condition. Tiger, the dog-sized rain frog, also had a new skill. He could squeak to disorient a monster. It wasn't a strong effect, but much like Blue's buff, it could give the group some priceless seconds to avoid an attack.

Mark would be near Bonnie, sending arrows at the creatures while the rest of the group kited them around. The man was a bit nervous about the possibility of hitting his teammates, but they promised to give him some time to practice.

Just before leaving the city, Hera checked the thread one last time. Someone had updated the fixed post. The rescue team had found Helena and Samera, the assassin. The team would grab the two and head back to the doorway city before searching for Korey, the crafter. But communications had been cut short when the Wendigos attacked the group. That had happened just a few minutes ago.

Hera's eyes started to water. Helena was alive, and someone had found her. She still wasn't out of danger, but at least the odds seemed much better now. Knowing that if she waited for the next update, she would go mad, Hera rubbed her eyes to clean the forming tears and moved to the woods with her group. Right now, she needed a way to distract herself. To be lost in the moment and forget about the rest. She needed a good fight.