MAZE - The Endless Quest

"At least everything is going smoothly," Hera mumbled.

After she woke up, Hera looked for Heyden, but apparently, the hunter was resting. Hera understood that this was part of the simulation, but it was still odd since the rest of the villagers could stay the whole night outside without a problem.

Most of the morning was spent going back and forth between the village. Hera and Betty took turns carrying the dirt while Frank dug around the flowers, and Florence planted them back in the town. According to them, the few flowers Hera left around the fence would not be enough to scare away the slimes. They would need a much larger ring. Florence also wanted to make a small flower garden at the center of the homestead.

Hera wasn"t in the mood for doing some landscaping. After all, she still had many quests to complete. But since no one seemed to mind the girl"s request, she went along with it.

It took almost all morning to finish transporting the plants. With everything done, Hera talked to Florence to complete her quest, having found a place where she could go flower picking anytime she wanted. It seemed good enough for the mission. However, the girl said that since this was a defense measure, she couldn"t use those. She also said that she wanted a few with more colors to make everything pretty.

Annoyed by the request, Hera focused on farmer Frank for the day. His quest already had a few directions to it, so she at least had somewhere to start. She wasn"t very keen on walking through the forest for hours on end.

Leaving the town, Hera picked a few fruits that Betty had given her. She would have enough for dinner, but nothing for tomorrow. Making a mental note to look for any fruits or berries, Hera walked towards the creek to look for the rake Frank had lost.

Almost one hour later, Hera arrived at the place she met Peaches. Looking around, she found the tall rock where the green apple was, but no one was sitting on it today. She pouted. Peaches was the closest thing to a normal person she found here. For some reason, it was easier to talk to him than to the villagers. Maybe because he was an apple, and that gave Hera the feeling of talking with a stuffed animal.

She searched the area for any markings or traces to find the path the little apple took. After a few minutes without any results, Hera gave up and started to follow the brook back to its source. According to the quest, the rake was near the water spring.

Following the stream, Hera was glad that this time she could see her surroundings changing. Or at least, she could see those changes around the stream. The forest still had the same repet.i.tive pattern over and over again.

It took Hera almost two hours to reach the end of the creek. It looked like a small puddle with a moss-filled rock on top of it. But the water was flowing from under the rock, making the puddle overflow and spill towards the incline. For the first time since she came here, Hera saw a different type of forest.

The trees surrounding this place had a less vibrant color, but they would move slightly as if being swayed by the wind. The soft sound of the water flowing, with the trees rustling noise, gave a peaceful feel to this place.

Hera sat near the small pond. She knew she had a quest to complete, but it felt wrong to not enjoy the scenery a bit. This was one of the reasons she wanted to be an explorer. She wanted to find places like this. Beautiful and amazing places that seemed to be painted, although this particular spot probably was a painting someone made.

She spent half an hour sitting on the gra.s.s, relaxing by the creek. Meditating for a while, Hera couldn"t help but wonder what other places she would find as an explorer. It was nice to start with something like this, but it wasn"t enough. Ever since she read stories about cities in the sky and mountains that would pierce the clouds, Hera dreamt about going to those places.

Feeling that she wasted enough time, Hera got up and started to search for Frank"s Rake. First, she looked for any footprints or markings that could show where the farmer went. Not finding anything, she looked for places where someone could lose a rake in. Behind trees, near the creek, she even went deeper into the woods. Yet, despite all her efforts, the farmer"s rake was nowhere to be seen.

"Did I miss something?" she thought to herself.

She went back to the water spring and found that the water had stopped flowing. Unsure of what that meant, Hera approached the rock where the water was coming from, thinking it could have something to do with her quest.

She carefully reached inside the small opening that was gushing out water before. Part of her knew this was a bad idea, but, at the same time, the guild wouldn"t make the test deadly would they?

She had most of her forearm inside the crack when she felt something soft touching her fingertips. She tried her best to examine it by touch, but it felt almost like a beach ball. She grabbed the soft object and tried to pull it out. It was hard to do so. Not only was there no way to have a firm grasp in it, the object kept shifting because of the water that was trying to come out.

After a few tries, Hera gave one big pull and managed to remove the object from the hole. Following the release, a stronger stream of water came out, splashing Hera"s face.

Moving away from the creek, Hera looked at her hand to figure out what was holding back the water. It was a giant green apple.

"Peaches?" she asked.

"Yeah, it"s me," he mumbled.

"Are you ok?"

"I"m fine."

"Ok.. but what were you doing there? Actually, how did you get there?" Hera asked.

Peaches let out a lengthy sigh.

"I"m a heavy sleeper."

"What?"

"I said that I am a heavy sleeper," peaches snarled.

"I heard you, but what does that have to do with being stuck there?"

"Since when do I have to explain myself to you?" he retorted.

"Since I got you out of there," Hera replied, annoyed with his att.i.tude.

"Fine... Just... put me down, please."

Hera placed the giant apple by the creek, away from the spring.

"Ok, here you are, now can you tell me what is going on?" she asked.

"I"ll tell you, just don"t... don"t tell anyone, ok?"

Peaches looked at Hera with a pleading expression.

"Sure, it will be our secret," she said, unsure what to expect.

"The thing just before dawn, or what pa.s.ses as dawn in this place, the creek has a low tide moment. It pulls the water around the puddle, and then it spills back up," Peaches explained, pointing at the rock with its head.

"Ok, but what does that have to do with you being stuck there?"

"If you let me finish, maybe you can find out!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry."

"Now. Like I was saying. I came up here last night and started floating in the water. It was nice, almost like being in a cradle, and I fell asleep. I only woke up after I was already down there. I tried to squiggle my way out, but when I was near the opening, I got stuck. And that"s what happened,"

Hera stared at Peaches for a moment. That story wasn"t something she ever expected to hear without a tragic ending.

"So... how can you breathe down there?" she asked.

"What? Look at me. In what world do you think I have lungs? I"m a slime for system"s sake."

"Well, bugs and fish don"t have lungs either. But they still need air. How can I know what you need?"

Peaches was about to say something, but he stopped and looked down while furrowing his brow.

"You know, I think I liked you better when you had no comebacks."

"Well, I guess I"m growing," Hera said with a playful smile.

"Yeah, good for you. But what are you doing here?"

Hera explained about the quest and how she needed to find the rake, and the flowerbed, and still find the reason for the slimes to be acting up.

"Speaking of which, you said you are a slime, right? Do you know anything about that?"

"HA, are you really comparing me with those mindless blobs? We may share a species, but I"m vastly superior to them. I honestly think we should be a different species altogether. But the system decides the name, and I can"t do anything about that," he complained, jumping up and down while huffing.

"Sorry for mixing you with them Peaches, but do you know what is going on? Why are they attacking the town?" Hera asked.

"I know, but I can"t tell you. That"s part of the test."

"Yeah, I kind of figured. Can I ask you something else?"

"You just did, but sure. You just helped out of a pretty bad situation. I can answer a few questions."

"Are you part of the simulation? I mean, you are just so lifelike, more so than the villagers. Talking to you feels... normal. And..." Hera stopped before asking about his description. She wasn"t sure how he would react, knowing she tried to look at his information.

"And you used [Observe] on me and it didn"t show the simulation tag. Is that what you were going to say?"

Hera went pale. She didn"t want to offend him, and according to Helena, inspecting someone was really rude. Maybe [Observe] would be just as bad.

"Yeah, I can tell when someone is doing that to me. It"s a skill that is a bit hard to get, but it is worth it. Anyway, try to be more careful in the future, ok? Some people might not take it as kindly as I did. And to answer your question. I"m not like the villagers. You can consider me the supervisor of the test. I"m here to make sure no kind of cheating happens," Peaches explained.

"Oh, got it. I guess that"s why you can"t help me. Sorry to bother you, I"m just stupid, maybe my mother is right, I"m not cut out for this," Hera said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well... Yesterday I got here, and a few hours, I already got three quests and 20% of my test done. By the end of it, I had 30%, and one of them was done. I just thought that today would be the same. I would get another quick 20% and end the day with 60. But I didn"t get anything done so far. I just wanted to do a short mission and feel good about myself. Prove that I can do this."

"Kid, things hardly ever come easy for anyone. It takes hard work, and you can"t just give up because of a bad day," Peaches said.

"I know, or at least I should know that. But I spent my whole life wanting to be an explorer. And when I got rejected, it felt like all the hard work I put into learning was wasted. So, like my mother used to say, I stopped living in my childhood fantasy."

"What did you learn as a practice?" Peaches asked after moving around, trying to get a bit cozier near the creek.

"Well, I was never good at sports or any martial arts. But I spent my time reading about exploration and how explorers used to navigate through the jungle. I even got lost on purpose in a national park near my home and tried to make my way back once. I got a really bad scolding from my dad," Hera chuckled, "but that was just a kid playing pretend. I got rejected, so I had to forget all of that."

"It was a nice plan. Knowing how to find yourself is a handy skill."

"Yeah, too bad, it was just a kid messing around," Hera said, hugging her legs.

"You still haven"t got it," Peaches said, letting out a long sigh.

"Got what?" Hera asked.

"This ain"t pretend anymore, kid. It"s the real deal. All that playing pretend is not playing anymore. It is you getting ready."

Hera stared at Peaches, letting his words sink in. The useless things she forced herself to forget. How to find herself, how to mark a route, the patterns she could look for, everything that her mother judged her for learning. All that was now relevant, useful.

"So, Kid. What would the young Hera do to find something in the forest?" Peaches asked.

Hera thought for a moment. She spent so much time forcing those experiences away from her mind that it felt weird to search for them.

"She would.. look around the area for any tracks first," she said.

"And then?"

"Then... if there was nothing. She would change her point of view. Look for a different perspective, but since she was a bit too literal. She would climb the tallest tree she could find," Hera said as she started to look around.

"So? What are you waiting for, that is the tallest tree around. Get to climbing," Peaches said, pointing to a tree behind Hera.

"No, that is a bad one. The branches are too thin. I need something more st.u.r.dy... Like that one!"

Hera got up and dashed towards a tree on the other side of the water spring. She had a smile on her face, remembering all the fun she had while exploring the parks near her childhood home.

As she ran, Peaches just stared at her.

"I guess the new batch is not so bad."