Sitting in a cafe, Hera was thinking about what she would do today. Being by herself was freeing in its own way, but she also felt a bit lost. She opened the quest she already had. Aside from the frog hunt, there was also the one about the legends of the city.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Legends of Brinefront

  Explorer exclusive quest

  Brinefront has many legends that were created through time. Discover the three central points of its mythology.

  Type the name of the central figure of the legend in the box to confirm your discovery.

  [ ]????????????

  [ ]????????????

  [ ]????????????

  [_________Enter text here_________]

  Reward: information on a low-rank skill of your choosing.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  It was the first time she saw a quest like that. Then again, it was something given by the guild and not the system. But having to manually input her discovery felt strange.

  At the same time, there was something comforting about the guild not being able to tell when she found something. If she discovered something that was best kept hidden, she could just pretend it never happened. And, what was more likely, if she missed something that was right in her face, no one would be the wiser.

  That was a new line of thinking. After meeting Peaches and getting the Guide skill, Hera changed. What if at some point she found something that should be protected?

  Maybe an item, or a tribe, or even the place where the Guides live. Not only that, but she also had to consider that other people could do the same. They could find things and keep them to themselves. It wouldn't be a surprise if someone found a good place to gather some resources and didn't share the location. No one would announce that they found a gold mine unless they could profit from that. It was the sad reality of the world.

  "Dude, I'm telling you. That was Frostbite."

  Hera snapped out of her trance, hearing that name. To her left, a pair of men talked while drinking coffee. She adjusted herself in the chair, trying not to be too obvious about listening to their conversation.

  "Yeah, right. What would she be doing here?" a man with a bow resting on his legs said.

  "I dunno, maybe she needs to do a job around here," a man with a pair of daggers on his waist replied.

  "I doubt it. Someone like her wouldn't be wasting her time here. She probably got a boat to go to the next layer. You said she was heading towards the docks."

  "No, I said that she took a right before reaching the guild. That leads to the docks, but she could do something else. Aw man, I should have asked her for an autograph."

  Hera opened the map app on her tablet, trying to see where Frostbite could be going. Looking around, she noticed that the inn she was staying was between the guild and the docks. Could the controller be here to try to recruit Blue again?

  Maybe she should warn Blue, but what if the girl went looking for Frostbite? Perhaps she should pretend nothing happened. Then again, if Blue was really being scouted, knowing she did nothing to stop would weigh heavily on Hera's conscience. While at the same time, stopping her friend from following her dreams didn't sound like something she should do.

  Still struggling to make a decision, she finished her meal and left the cafe. In the end she even sent a text to Blue.

  "Hey, I have something to tell you. Can we talk later? Just don't join any groups before our talk, please."

  Right after that, she sent a message to Helena, asking her if Blue would be a good fit for her the Order of the Lost Court.

  Still worried about the situation, Hera made her way towards the library. There wasn't anything she could do about Frostbite, and looking into some books could be a good place to start her search.

  She could also just look up things online, but Hera felt this would go against the spirit of the quest.

  It didn't take long for Hera to arrive at her destination. The library was a huge three stories building with soft yellow walls and a green roof. It wasn't hard to find a few books about Brinefront and its story.

  The first book told about the rulers of the town, how it was once a kingdom, but with time it changed to a democracy. It went to talk about political matters and economics, nothing that Hera felt the need to learn right now.

  The next book talked about the geography of the land. It explained that whole Room was inside the cave. The only way to get out of it was by boat, but the room wall would stop anyone from getting too far from the cave. However, the most interesting part was that fishes would swim into the cave, letting people fish before reaching the ocean.

  Outside the cave, there was a vast expanse of salt water. Inside the cave, it was mostly forest and grassland, but going towards the west, things got darker since the trees and pillars blocked more of the sun rays. Aside from the room wall in the east, the other directions seemed to have natural rock walls. There was even a footnote about a mining expedition to excavate the rock, but Hera could not find any more information about that.

  She found a book that seemed to have a more fantastic ring to it. It looked like various tales to tell children, not that she had seen any children here. A story about a hero who defeated an evil duke. The tale of a fisherman who caught the heart of an underwater city. The adventures of the first dog the MAZE ever saw.

  One of the most interesting stories was about a great invasion that came from the water. It told the tale of a tribe of giants from the upper layers who tried to conquer the town. They came through the doorway near the edge of the cave. It was only accessible by boat, but the giants could simply walk towards the city.

  Along with the explorers, the guard rallied under the banner of a commander to defend the city. After three days of fighting, the town seemed to be lost, when the largest troupe of giant shrimp anyone had ever seen appeared and attacked the giants inside the lake.

  They called the shrimp giant, but they weren't bigger than a cat. With their help, the city was saved, and the giants defeated. After that, the town changed its name to honor the grand battle.

  "So that's where Brinefront comes from. They could have made a better name. Maybe Prawn Bay or Barnacle City, or even Shrimptown... Ok, I suck at this," Hera sighed.

  Thinking about that story, Hera figured it could be grand enough to be a legend. She typed Brinefront in the quest's text field, but a message saying, 'That is not one of the legends' appeared. She tried giants, the name of the commander, explorers, and battle, but all with no luck.

  "Wait... could it be?" she mumbled.

  Typing shrimp, the quest was updated. One of the sets of question marks now read, 'The miracle of the shrimp.'

  "I know this is part of their story, and it probably happened. But the name is just...." Hera said.

  She read the rest of the book, trying to place any names or groups as the answer. Sadly, nothing else triggered a change in the quest. Reading through all the tales, she only had found three possible leads. There was the monument of the first dog near the docks, a hidden grotto by the water. Her last option was the ruins of a fallen tower deep in the woods to the west.

  Hera opened the map on her tablet and took a look at the region. The information she got from the Guild revealed a good amount of the surroundings of the city. She deactivated all the markers, changed the layer of the map to the bird's-eye view and started searching.

  Since the ruins in question were part of a tower, she needed to find a place where that would be advantageous. There were a few places that seemed interesting, but they were blocked by a close by pillar. It didn't make sense to build a tower if something big was in the way.

  In another spot, the tower would have been built in a depression. She marked it as a possibility, although that would mean the tower wouldn't get as high as possible. Which kind of went against the idea of a tower. But at the same time, it could be a landmark.

  There was a last spot that seemed interesting. It was farther away from the town than the others. In the middle of a forest, there was a clearing that seemed to exist for no good reason. If the tower was ancient, the vegetation could have hidden it from the pictures she was seeing.

  Feeling she had gotten everything she could from here, Hera left the library. She thought about looking for Bonnie, but the girl was probably knee-deep in books and wouldn't want to be disturbed.

  Her next stop was the docks. There was a statue there, and that felt very much like the type of thing that would hide some sort of secret. While on the move, Hera kept trying to feel the surrounding mana.

  Ever since entering the MAZE she could tell there was something in the air. Not just it was less polluted, but it had a smell she couldn't really describe. It was as if everything was just… more.

  Sometimes she would pass by someone holding a staff or some item, and the feeling of more got stronger. Maybe being near things of high mana quality could help with the exercise.

  After a few minutes, Hera arrived at the docks. Asking around, it wasn't hard to find out the monument's location.

  The memorial was in the middle of a small square. It seemed to be the central part of the docks, even if the place was towards the south of the town. The statue itself was a large doghouse with a short-haired Yorkshire sitting on top with its ears standing up.

  The house under it was not just a sculpture. Some dogs were lying inside it. There was a water fountain to the side and a food dispenser. It looked like the monument was also a shelter for the dogs in the city.

  Hera couldn't help but find it odd. Not just the existence of the dogs, but the fact that they roamed around so freely in this area. Even if she couldn't see any in the other parts of the city.

  Inspecting the dogs, Hera could see that they all had names. Not only that, but the dogs were really friendly. The workers at the docks all greeted one or another, giving them belly rubs and some food. Each dog also was clearly well cared for. They didn't have the smell of a stray dog, their fur was lush and brushed. Every dog was also very healthy, which was very uncommon for strays.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Turning to the statue, Hera used her [Inspect].

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Statue of the first dog

  Creator: Unknown

  A statue carved out of stone. It represents the happiness and love that the first dog brought to the MAZE. It is unknown if the dog came from the outside world or if the MAZE spawned it.

  After the first dog's appearance in the city of Brinefront, other dogs appeared in different layers.

  This monument was upgraded to become a shelter for all dogs that might wander inside the MAZE.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  While Hera was reading the description, she heard a bark from a dog near her leg. Looking down, there was a Yorkshire, much like the one in the statue. Unintentionally, Hera had the inspect skill active, and the dog's information appeared.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Trickle

  Breed: Yorkshire Terrier

  A breed that is known for its lustrous fur and small size. They are recommended for people with allergies, for its coat being closer to human hair than to fur.

  Trickle was born in Brinefront and never had a single owner. Instead, most of the fishermen treat him as their own.

  [An unique specimen, being a direct descendant of the first dog. Not only they have similar appearances, but they also share the same name.]

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  That notification surprised Hera. Not only did the notification appear on its own, but the last paragraph seemed odd. Instead of the usual white text, it was light yellow.

  Before trying to figure out why that happened, Hera sat on a bench. Trickle followed her and jumped on top of her lap, letting the Explorer pet him as she worked.

  She opened the quest. Since this dog shared the same name as the first dog, it could be one of the answers. Typing 'trickle' in the text box, the second set of question marks changed to 'Trickle the first dog.'

  Hera opened a big smile. She wasn't expecting to get two of the legends in a single day. But the extra information was still bothering her. Scratching the dog's head, Hera picked the tablet. She searched online for that yellow text in the Inspect window.

  It didn't take very long. A few articles were talking about that. According to them, it was something that only those with the explorer role could see. Not everything would have some additional information, though. That's why most explorers had the habit of inspecting everything they could find.

  It was something Hera considered doing, but she didn't want to be rude to others. Although... animals and objects would count, right? She could inspect them as much as she wanted without having problems.

  Stretching herself, Hera got ready to leave when Trickle laid down and closed his eyes. All the while still on her lap.

  "Well, I can't leave now, can I?" she said with a smile, scratching the dog's head.

  A couple of hours later, Hera stood in front of the guild. She had spent some time with Trickle, but now she had other things to do. And there had been one thing on her mind for a while. Could the guild here have an ATR? Maybe that could be a way to learn magic.

  She walked toward the counter and found a familiar face.

  "Hi Gemma," Hera said.

  "Hi! Its... Hera, right?"

  "Yeah, I was wondering. Do you have ATRs here? Or is that something that's only available on the outside?"

  "We have them here too, although the prices vary from layer to layer."

  "And how much is it?" Hera asked.

  "The basic version is 20 gold per hour. The intermediary would be 100 gold per hour and the deluxe 1 000 gold per hour. In this layer, we don't have role-specific ATRs, that is something you can only find deeper in the MAZE."

  "Could I use one now?"

  "If you want the basic one, we have quite a few free rooms, but if you wish to use the intermediary or the deluxe, you have to make a reservation. For the intermediary, you just need to wait a couple of hours, maybe a day. The deluxe has a waiting list of a week or so."

  "Ok, last question. Can the trainers help with magic?" Hera asked.

  "Well, sort of. They can't help you make any new spells or improve the design of the ones you are using. It is too user driven for them. But they can help with the aim, the speed you make the spell, point out any glaring mistakes in it, and the mana efficiency. If you are struggling to unlock your mana stat, it can help a lot too."

  Happy with the information, Hera paid 40 gold for two hours. Before going to one of the rooms, she sent a text to Bonnie telling her what she learned. She even offered to pay for a couple of hours. After yesterday's hunt, she had some money, and having magic-user would help a lot. Not to mention, without Bonnie it felt like the group was missing someone.

  It didn't take long for Bonnie to reply. The girl had no idea they had ATRs and that they could be used to unlock the mana stat. A few minutes later, Bonnie came rushing in, sweat dripping from her forehead. She sprinted all the way from the library.

  "I'm ready. Let's go!" Bonnie said while gasping for air.

  "Yeah, no. Sit down for a moment, drink something. It's a bad idea for us to go while you are still like that. We should be in good shape before going in," Hera said.

  Bonnie wanted to complain, but she knew the explorer was right. Hera grabbed three bottles of water and sat beside the researcher. One of the bottles they could drink right now, but the other two were for the ATR.

  The two women talked about magic, and what else Bonnie had found. After getting the mana stat, you had to start working on spells. There were various ways of creating a spell. One could make a formula much like a mathematical equation, but the numbers would be a mix of mana and commands. Others used a concept close to programming, creating conditions, and instructions on how to behave.

  None of those options seemed good to Hera. Math wasn't her best subject, and she never learned to program. Thankfully, those weren't the only options. Some people took a more artistic approach, creating spells out of a picture of the result.

  However, there were a few problems with that method. People usually had to create each spell themselves since there was no set formula for it. There were also a few problems with the amount of mana spells like that needed.

  It was hard to optimize the consumption, and different casts of the same spells could require different amounts of mana. That happened because the caster's imagination changed after seeing the result of the spell.

  Despite all that, people who took this subjective approach had an easier time creating new spells. Mainly because they didn't have to follow a set of instructions before creating the spell. With enough mana and imagination, they had the potential to make anything happen.

  After Bonnie rested enough, Hera asked Gemma for two spots in the basic ATRs for two hours each. It was a lot of money, but at the same time Hera had made more than that in a single day already.

  They were led to an elevator that went a few floors underground. There, Hera saw a setting similar to the guild outside the MAZE. Big white hallways with many doors on each side. The clerk walked with them and showed the ATR they would be using. It was a large room with five small arenas. Right now, the room was empty, so the two girls chose to be close to each other. That way, they could compare notes during this training.

  Hera's spirit like trainer appeared as she activated the arena. It had the same appearance as the one she customized outside. And now, there was a new choice, mana training. Once that option was picked, the spirit held Hera's hands and closed its eyes. Following its lead, the explorer did the same. She couldn't feel the touch of the trainer, as it was just a hologram. However, she started to feel a warmth around her hands as if her fingers were under the sun.

  The feeling started to spread. It expanded as it moved around her arms. It flooded her torso, and then, the warmth moved towards her legs before dissipating in the air. A few seconds passed, and the feeling began in her hands once again.

  Hera couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the first time she felt something like that. Not the warmth, but the way it moved through her body. After the fifth time that the heat reached her legs, Hera remembered when she felt like that.

  The day she ate too many oranges from the New Dawn Farm. The way the flavor seemed to overflow and leave her body was very similar to how this warmth was leaving through her legs.

  Focusing on the feeling, Hera tried to predict its movement, much like what she did when she was training with the spheres in the guild. Little by little, she managed to follow the path of the warmth by herself. When the flow became faster, she kept going.

  Each loop made her feel more comfortable with the feeling. Eventually, she realized something else. The movement wasn't automatic anymore. She was the one guiding that warmth.

  Not just that, but it was taking closer to a minute to make the heat go from her hands and out through her legs. Hera was about halfway through another loop when a loud noise made her open her eyes.

  "What happened?" Hera asked.

  "Let me show you," Bonnie said.

  The woman closed her eyes, and a small ball of light formed in her hand. It was similar to the non-elemental Light that Helena had shown Hera a while back. Various colorful particles were spinning around and glistening as if they were light going through a prism.

  However, the particles were moving too fast. It wasn't a continuous dance that Helena made, but a turbulent whirlwind. The small lights seemed to be clashing with each other violently. Before Hera could say anything, the light sphere exploded in Bonnie's hand, making the same noise she had heard before.

  Bonnie stepped back, shaking her hand. Hera could see that the researcher's hand had deep red markings and some cuts that seemed to be dripping with blood.

  "Crap, but I got closer. Let me try again," Bonnie said as she raised her hand.

  "Bonnie, wait!" Hera yelled.

  Hera got up and rushed towards the girl. The energy surrounding the Researcher's hand was even wilder than before. Bonnie seemed to be trying to overcome her issue by merely pumping more magic into the spell.

  Before Hera could close the distance, the light ball grew in size and exploded. The force of the explosion pushed Hera, making her fall to the ground with a heavy impact. Bonnie flew back, hitting the floor behind the arena.

  Hera dashed towards her friend, worried about what might have happened. Seeing that Bonnie was still breathing, but she was unconscious, Hera ran outside the room and called for help. She had some basic first aid knowledge and knew that moving Bonnie around could be dangerous due to how hard she landed on the ground.

  There was a healer on call at the guild who rushed towards the room. In less than a minute, she arrived and saw Bonnie's state. Quickly pulling something from a pocket and clicking it, a stretcher appeared while she applied some emergency healing. When her helpers arrived, they quickly immobilized Bonnie's neck and took her to the infirmary. The whole ordeal took less than 5 minutes, proving that the healing staff here was incredibly efficient.

  Hera followed the healer, explaining what happened and stayed in a break room while they took care of Bonnie. It was akin to stay in a waiting room in a hospital, but even more unnerving.

  Hera knew that healers were supposed to be better than doctors in certain circumstances, especially if the injury had something to do with magic. Yet, it didn’t change the fact that she had to idle around while they tried to help her friend. Luckily, she only had to wait half an hour before the healer allowed her to stay by Bonnie as a visitor.

  Cassandra, the healer, explained to Hera what happened. Bonnie wasn't able to control the spell she was creating, and since she kept holding it while pumping more mana, it bottlenecked and exploded. That was a common mistake for newbies, but the researcher had more control than most. That's what caused such a big explosion.

  When Hera saw the spell, she imagined that it was something like that. She asked Cassandra about the lights, but she didn't know what the explorer was talking about. The healer warned her that Bonnie might take a day to wake up, but Hera didn't like the idea of leaving her friend alone here.

  While she waited, she searched the net for the lights she saw in the spell, but Hera didn't find any information about that. Trying to find something about the subject, she looked for elemental affinities. Aside from what Helena had explained to her, she didn't see much else about them.

  However, she found a list of all the known affinities. The list showed the rarity of the element, what would the element change in your skills if used. If it was a primary affinity, secondary or tertiary affinity. Apparently, a few affinities could be either primary or secondary, but the tertiary ones could only be that. The difference between those was simple.

  Primary affinities were elements that could take over most of one's mana. Secondary were elements close to the first one, so the conversion ended up being very cheap. Like ice and water, or earth and rock. If you had one of those affinities, the other element would also have a decent reduction to the mana cost of spells.

  Tertiary was just a step below that in cost reduction. But the reason why they had that classification was that tertiary affinities were mixed. Steam, for instance, required fire and water. Two affinities that couldn't work well together. It would be the same with mud, storm, or lava.

  Regular elements were not the only ones that could be affinities. There were various types from elemental ones like fire, air, and darkness, to mechanical ones like shatter, gravity, and pressure. All those were primary or secondary affinities. The tertiary could also be more conceptual, like softness, pointy, or puppet. The list went on and on, but one name caught Hera's attention. It was the Mana affinity.

  It was marked as tertiary for some reason. According to the website in question, it could give a small boost to the power of spells, and a tiny reduction on overall mana cost, but had no other effects. That seemed odd. Why would something that was everywhere had such a minor impact? If mana was in all things, wouldn't that mean that an affinity like that would be powerful? Why were people saying it was bad.

  She searched for more information on that affinity, but aside from the basic information she found on the list, all the rest was hidden behind a paywall and it didn't seem like it would have what she wanted to know. Giving up on the search, Hera sent another text to Helena asking about that affinity. The mage still hadn't replied to her previous text but it didn't matter, it must be a busy day for her.

  Hera looked at Bonnie, who was lying in bed beside her. The girl had a pale complexion, and her usual carefully put makeup was rushed and uneven. Hera couldn't understand why the Researcher was suddenly pushing herself so much.

  With no way to answer that question, Hera tried to make the heat she felt inside the ATR loop around her body once again while she waited for Bonnie to wake up.

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