Maze The Endless Quest - 125 Assistant Job

“Just their affinity and the skills they use. If you stumble upon more information, it can help, but you don’t have to go out of your way to figure out its mating habits or that wildlife documentary stuff,” Helena was writing something in a notebook. She had several books open in the living room and was crossing references with them.

“Ok then, I’m going to hunt around the city, maybe try to see if I find a different crocodile or something else. See you at night,” Hera turned towards the door but was stopped by Helena calling her.

“Actually, if you don’t mind. I had an idea. This room is a giant cave, as you know. But near the entrance of the cave, there are some monsters that use different skills. Do you mind going there to see if there is any elemental change? I know it’s far, but I’ll buy the supplies and the camping gear, and your party is not going to gather for a few days, right?”

Hera checked her tablet, “Yeah, Blue should be back in four days or so. She wants a couple of days to rest after the trip. Alex is finishing a mercenary contract. There are a few more days before she can come here.”

“So, what do you say, sweetie?” Helena smiled.

“Whatever you want, boss,” Hera smiled back.

They left the house and stopped by a store specialized in camping equipment. Helena explained that there were several campsites through the MAZE. Usually, you could leave your camping gear in those spots, and no one would mess with it. But the entrance of the cave in this room didn’t have any of those. There were few reasons for anyone to go there, the monsters didn’t drop anything special, and they were more unpredictable than other creatures. People did hunt them for materials, but since they didn’t follow a pattern, it was hard to know which was more valuable.

“Ok, so It’s better to find a more or less safe place and focus on either attacking or running from them, right? But what is out there?” Hera asked.

Helena placed the basket with the air bedroll, the monster repellent fire, the supplies, and other things that Helena needed on the counter, “Have you ever seen a pangolin?”

“Pangolin? Those things that look like an armadillo but with longer legs? They are so cute.”

“Well… I hope you don’t find them cute when they charge at you.”

“No… Lena. No… I’m going to have to fight them?” Hera pouted.

“Well, yeah. I mean, you don’t have to, but they are aggressive. And the ones here don’t have the same cute face. It’s more pointy and… toothy. Besides, you need to be ready to attack anything. There are some deadly monsters in the MAZE hidden behind cute faces,” Helena said.

“Well… you are not wrong. But they live in a very complicated place to get. You need to reach the cave entrance and follow a path to the side that leads to the outside. You will reach a rocky plateau where the creatures live. The closest place where people have a foothold is about a day and a half away. And if you try to toss the bodies to the ocean, there are several whirlpools under the area. It’s too much work to get something that will be replaced in a couple of weeks since, in the next room, you can get much better quality minerals.”

“Why is that place so far away from any other settlement? I mean, there are a lot of people over level 50. Couldn’t someone just go there clear the monsters?”

“Yeah, but the terrain is difficult. After a while, the forest turns very dense, and there are very few places to make a campfire, much less an actual house. The guild could do some terraforming, but what’s the point? Money? It makes ten times what the pangolins would sell for with a regular easy to catch the monster in the 10th layer. I do understand that at some point, it could have been worth it. But right now, it’s just a waste of time unless you have a specific reason to go there,” Helena explained.

“You really need to improve your salesmanship. A bit more of that speech, and even I would say no to go there,” Hera chuckled.

“Excuse me,” the cashier interrupted the two, “Your total is 350 gold, and please refrain from holding the line. I hope you can be considerate of other customers.”

Hera and Helena looked back. There was a line of five people staring at them with annoyed expressions. They quickly paid for the supplies, and headed out of the store, apologized to the cashier on the way out.

“I really don’t remember the last time I got so distracted while shopping,” Helena laughed.

“I feel awful. I hated dealing with customers like us.”

“Aww, don’t be. We didn’t do it on purpose, besides we did apologize.”

They headed back to the house, grabbing some food on the way. Since Hera was going to stay away for a while, she wanted to have a delicious meal first. The plan was for Hera to go near the cave entrance by boat, which would take only a bit over a day. From there, there was a small shore that she could use to climb up towards the woods and then head to the plateau. On her way back, Hera could check some other monsters that were in the room. But her main goal was to see the affinities of the pangolins, who all had unique patterns on its scales.

They headed towards the docks. There were several fishing boats, as well as a couple of passenger barges that would travel back and forth to the city of Brinefront. Hera was still surprised by how many people chose to do more mundane jobs inside the MAZE. Shop clerks, cooks, janitors, and such were all a common sight, and quite a few seemed to be human. However, different races were also present. Hera had seen beastmen and dwarfs already, and here close to the next room, those sightings were more frequent.

“Lena, can I ask you something that might sound bad?”

“As long as you are not asking me if I gained weight, sure,” Helena replied.

Hera spoke in a hushed tone, “The people from different races. Like the dwarfs and the beastmen. Where do they come from?”

Helena looked to the sides and pulled Hera towards a less crowded area.

“You should have learned that in class. Did Greyson never explained?”

Hera shook her head, “Not really, he just said that they were a thing. I kind of imagined that it was only types of monsters for us to fight.”

“Dammit, Calvin,” Helena rubbed her eyes, “Ok, I’m going to have to send a text to your class later. Those different races are part of the MAZE, yes, but they are alive just like you and me. They can grow old, have children, create cities, and have thriving civilizations. Part of the reason our technology became so advance was due to the help of dwarven ingenuity. Unlike people outside, everyone here can level up when they reach adulthood. That varies from race to race. I think dwarfs can go to level 2 after they are… 35 maybe. I have no clue about the beastman age. But there are other races. Wildfolk, Fey, Elfs, Anima, the list goes on and on and on. And we probably have many more races to find out there.”

“They don’t need to do anything to start leveling up? That seems unfair. Do they have roles too?” Hera was thinking about all the work she put into saving money to level up.

“Well, sure, but were raised here. We were born in a safe place. They had to deal with monsters since they were kids. Imagine what it would be like to see those giant frogs or crocodiles since you were young. Those who grew up here had dangerous lives, even if they were in a city. They have to deal with incursions, potential attacks, and of course, kids being kids and going outside the city. And the roles, yes, they have the same roles as we do. And a very similar test.” Helena explained as they got closer to the docks.

“Yeah, but I didn’t see any children here. Are they all in a boarding school somewhere?” Hera asked.

Helena chuckled, “Sort of. It’s been, I don’t know how many decades when the guild figured out the best rooms to raise children in. Some are large open spaces. Others are rooms that are mostly towns and dungeons with few monsters. Brinefront is not one of those. A place where frogs are big enough to swallow babies is far from being childproof.”

“Right, but what happens if someone gets pregnant somewhere else? I mean, someone could have a baby here, right?” Hera asked.

“It’s kind of like maternity leave. When someone finds out that they are expecting, they receive a list of rooms they can go to, and the guild even pays for the transport if they don’t have the money. While there, the parents get assigned jobs and a place to live. Of course, that is only if they want to stay in the MAZE. If they are from the outside, they can go back and have their child there. However, if they have a child inside the MAZE, the kid can’t go outside until they reach level 2,” Helena waved to someone in a ship that was getting closer to the docks.

“Why is that?” Hera asked.

“The MAZE won’t allow anyone at level 1 to go through a doorway. Oddly enough, children from other races don’t have that limitation, but they can’t leave the MAZE. Go figure,” Helena shrugged.

Hera kept thinking about what it would be like growing up inside the MAZE. Could that change the type of skills she got?

Helena introduced the captain of the ship to her assistant. She had already set up where Hera would need to be dropped off. The crew was part of a class that had graduated from the training half a year ago. Most of them knew Helena as a helpful clerk and were more than willing to give her a hand. They discussed the best place to drop Hera off, and when they reached an agreement, Helena paid the travel fee.

They still had to wait a couple of hours since the boat was still unloading its cargo and getting supplies. It was a fishing boat, and it needed to replace some nets that were damaged. Talking to the sailors, Hera tried to figure out why someone would become a fisherman inside the MAZE.

“We get 5 000 gold a month doing this job. It’s much less dangerous than fishing outside, and we can stay with our families at the weekend. Why would we need anything more? Or even better, why would we risk our lives fighting monsters if we can live comfortably like this?”

Hera never thought like that. To her, anyone inside the MAZE would be trying to get stronger and make even more money. They kept talking until the ship had been restocked with all it needed. With everything ready, they said their goodbyes.

“Ok, sweetie, you are all set up. Be careful out there. If you get into a tight spot, don’t be afraid to run away,” Helena gave Hera a long hug.

“Thanks, Lena. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon with what you need.”

Hera boarded the ship and looked towards the entrance of the giant cave. It was nice having someone care so much about her as Helena did, but right now the only thought in her mind was how the sky would look inside a room.