The ceremony itself was a bit bland. The guild leader, who was supposed to give a speech, was a no show. Because of that, Morgan had to step up. Hera did her best not to seem too bored. They weren't hearing a rousing speech of a general. It seemed more like the princ.i.p.al of a school congratulating the senior cla.s.s.

Blue had to be kept in check by Hera and Leo. Otherwise, the controller would start talking and disrupting Morgan.

"As you know, you were all graded during your final test. I will call you to come up to the stage in order of the highest grade to the lowest. You will also receive a token that you can redeem it, along with any other tokens you received during your test, for equipment or gold in the armory," Morgan Explained.

Alex was the first one to be called. Morgan congratulated her on getting an A on the evaluation and being the top of the cla.s.s. Blue was the second one. She also got an A, but apparently, the written test was the tiebreaker. They were followed by Leo, Hera, and Bonnie, all of them got a B. Anaya, and Kenjiro were the last two, both getting Cs. The token was just an envelope, and your grade inside it on a piece of paper. The only thing that made the thing unique was a wax seal on the bottom of the envelope. It seemed a waste. The seal wasn't actually stopping anyone from opening the letter. It couldn't even be called a seal. It was just a wax stain.

Hera twisted her nose when he called Anaya's name. She hoped that the woman had failed her test. It would be karmic justice if she had to redo the training. At least she had gotten a bad grade. Hera wandered when did Anaya arrive. The first time she saw her was when she got up on the stage.

"Now, for those who failed to get your roles skills. Don't worry. You can try it again on the makeup test. If I'm not mistaken, we have one spot available for the one taking place next week. If you fail again, we have another makeup test next month," Morgan explained.

Hera looked at Mark, who was sitting on one of the tables. She tried to give him a thumb up to support him, but the man just replied with a sad smile.

"Excuse me," Tiffany, who was sitting at the same table as Mark, asked, raising her hand.

"Yes?" Morgan replied.

"Do we have to pick the same role in the makeup test? I think I'm not made to be a fighter."

"You may choose a different role if you wish. However, the tests for each role are unique. Don't expect to have an easier time because of what you already saw in this test," Morgan explained.

Tiffany thanked him, confirming her interest in changing her choice.

"Very well, any more questions?" the speaker asked.

After a small pause, a man who was sitting in one of the tables near Helena yelled.

"Yeah, when can we eat?"

That was followed by the laughs of a few other people who were sitting around. They all seemed relaxed, as if this was a daily event.

"As long as you don't take the trays like last time, you can start eating," Morgan Heckled, "As for you, young explorers. Let me congratulate you all on becoming official members of our guild. Every single one of us started just like you, as a greenhorn who was completely lost. But we pressed on, and today, we are all proud of calling ourselves, explorers. I hope you will be in our shoes someday."

There was another pause. Morgan was just staring at the former recruits. They looked at each other, trying to understand what was happening until the speaker cleared his throat.

"Well, that is it. Enjoy the party and try to know the groups that went out of their way to come here. Thank you."

Morgan stepped out of the platform, going towards a table where Frostbite was with a few other people.

"That's odd," Alex said.

"Yeah, why the pause?" Blue asked.

"Do you guys think he was waiting for claps?" Leo suggested.

The group stared at Morgan. The man was the guild master's a.s.sistant. He wouldn't have a wait for claps cue in his speech, would he?

After checking on Mark, the group then split off to meet the people who came to their graduation. One hour later, Hera finally was able to get a plate of food. She sat on a table at the corner of the roof, looking at the rest of the party.

She managed to talk to quite a few people, and according to what she gathered, she had met all the groups present. The companies here were the New Dawn, represented by Frostbite. Sprite Technologies, one of New Dawn's compet.i.tors. They sent an uptight businessman called Levi Gilbert, who seemed wildly out of his element here. Yet he offered her an interview. They would have to perform a few tests, but she could get a starting position earning 5 000 gold a month. She would need to do a certain amount of quests per month and share any information that interested the company free of charge. The problem is she would have to share 40% of the pay she would get if she took a quest from another company or even the guild itself. Not only that, but the wording on the contract Levi showed her was vague. The little she knew about law told her that they could even ask for whatever the quest reward was, even if it was an item or something else. The final nail in the coffin was knowing that any materials she brought back were supposed to be sold to the company at a set value.

Chiefbite was the third company. They were part of the food industry, and apparently, quite a few ingredients can only be found or grown inside the MAZE. A friendly man called Adam Eymann gave his card to Hera, asking her, the explorer, to contact him if she found any exotic ingredients or dishes. His company was even open to working with her as a freelancer. That was quite different from the exclusivity offer from Sprite.

Hera listened to Frostbite's offer with Blue. To an explorer, the contract would be almost as bad as the one Levi offered. But to Blue, she was willing not only to wave the fee when she took quests from the outside but also to fund her completely until she reached level 10. She would also have a monthly payment of 10 000 gold plus bonuses depending on the number of quests she completed. It seemed too good to be true. Hera was worried that her friend would sign the contract right there. Luckily, Anaya approached them, thanking Frostibe for the generous offer and asking if they would be willing to fund her until level 15 if she only took quests from the company. The way she spoke made clear that it wasn't the first time the two talked about it. Frostbite said she would have to confirm it with her superiors but that there was a good chance of agreeing with her counter offer. That was enough to push Blue away. She decided to talk to other groups before making any decisions.

Aside from the companies, there were a few groups of explorers. They called themselves with various names. Factions, divisions, alliances, cabals, coalitions, but they were mostly the same. Groups of explorers who shared knowledge and help each other grow and deal with hard quests.

To Hera, those groups seemed much more interesting than working with a company. They didn't offer any regular pay, but they could give her information about quests, items, and places, which seemed much more valuable to an explorer. They also shared databases among the groups, and even equipment was available as long as you show your contribution to the party.

"So, what you think about the groups here?"

Helena sat down in front of Hera with a big plate of cheeses and quiches on her hand.

"Well, the companies kind of suck. They treat each of us in one way. Anaya even got a deal much better than I did from New Dawn," Hera said as she ate the pigs in a blanket she had on her plate.

"Yep, unless you are one of the gems, as they call it, they only give you a c.r.a.ppy started contract."

"Gems?" Hera asked.

"Very talented People. People who they a.s.sume are good enough to be a candidate for a Hero."

"That seems like a bad move. They probably only have people who peaked early working for them."

Hera bit down on another appetizer. Hearing that Anaya might be on the path of a Hero really annoyed her.

"Yeah, but that's just one company. But what I really want to know is, what did you think about the other groups?" Helena asked as she leaned in towards Hera.

"They seem nice. The Phantoms of Fortune seem really interesting. They focus on finding treasure. That looks like a good fit for me. I want to be able to explore many places inside the MAZE. But I feel like they are a bit too greedy. Maybe there is some drama every time someone finds a really expensive thing."

"True, there were some really bad fallouts in that group, but they are good people. What else?" Helena asked.

"The Forge s.h.i.+fters are kind of weird. They freaked out about my bracelet since I made it as a recruit. Jasper is one of them, so it would be nice to have a friendly face. And they seem to be the most... inclusive ones. Like they don't care about your role as long as you can contribute. But I'm not so keen on the idea of having a fixed base as they seem to have."

"Oh, but their city is amazing. I spent quite a few years there during my younger years."

"Like you are so old," Hera mocked, "Moving on. There are also the Shark Fin soldiers."

"Souldiers," Helena said.

"What?"

"Is Shark Fin Souldiers, Like Soul but with a dier at the end."

"You are kidding me," Hera doubted.

Helena just shook her head.

"Ok.. they seem less fun now. But they focus on fighting, right? Always in the front lines, looking for the next big enemy. It looks like a great place to improve my combat skills. I'm just no to keen on the militaristic aspect of it. They kept calling each other by rank and not names. And now, that Souldier thing seems too cringe."

"I guess you are right," Helena said, "But aren't you forgetting a group?"

Hera stared at Helena. There was one other group she met, but the woman didn't talk about anything aside from the name.

"Well, there is another one. I think it was called the Velvet Veil, but the woman only said it's name. So I have no clue what it is all about."

"Did you just said, Velvet Veil?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"That's the guild commander-in-chief's group. For someone to talk about it so casually, they must be a higher up. Who told you that?"

Hera looked around but didn't find the woman that sai she was from that group.

"It was a blond woman, really tall, and she seemed very strong. She had a long feather earing and a tribal tattoo on the side of her head."

Helena picked her phone and pulled up a picture of the same woman, wearing a longword on her waist and a big grey fur cape.

"Is this the one?" the mage asked.

"Yeah, that's her."

"Holly c.r.a.p, Hera. You just met the leader of the guild. Leliana Mihafrey. I knew the guild master had a meeting with a bigshot, but I had no idea it was that big of a shot."

Hera kept staring at the picture, playing their interaction again in her head. Was she rude is anyway, or did she say something that could have offended her? What if she had done something unforgivable to someone so powerful?

Helena noticed that Hera was white as a sheet.

"Hey, Hey, Sweetie. Calm down, what's wrong?"

Hera explained her fear, but Helena rea.s.sured her that one of the guild leaders wouldn't do anything to her just for saying something rude. Seeing as the explorer was still distraught, Helena tried a different angle.

"In any case, I think you forgot one group," the mage said.

"Which one?" Hera asked.

"Well, my group, of course. We are a group that focuses on improving the whole explorer community. It doesn't matter the role. We tend to be a more independent bunch. One of our members is even the creator of the ATFs we have in the guild. He is an amazing crafter. Now what we ask is just to help out when you can, and sometimes one of the members can post a quest when they need something to help them. I already have quite a few that I intend to give to you should you choose to join."

"That seems nice, and I was already thinking about joining your group. Even though you took so long to talk to me about it that I thought you had given up on me. What's the group's name?"

"We are called The Order of the Lost Court."