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 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."

"And can I use a voucher I got outside? Or that only works there?"

"Most coupons issued by the guild outside can be used here. But that's not a universal truth. We just have a close relations.h.i.+p with that branch since we are basically linked," Gemma explained.

"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 showed the voucher and confirmed that she could use it in this guild. Before renting one of the rooms, she sent a text to Bonnie. Telling about the ATR and offering to pay for a couple of hours for the two of them. After yesterday's hunt, she had some money, and having magic-user would help a lot.

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 rus.h.i.+ng in. 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. 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. It was also harder to turn a spell into a skill. Before that happened, you had to make the spell manually each time it was cast.

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 of making anything happen.

After Bonnie rested enough, Hera asked Gemma for two spots in the basic ATRs for two hours each. She could use the voucher for her 2 hours but had to pay for Bonnie since the coupon is nontransferable. Paying for both would be too much, but she could cover the fee for a single person.

They were lead 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. After choosing the mana training in the first option menu, the spirit held Hera's hands and closed its eyes. Following its lead, the explorer did the same. 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 pa.s.sed, 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. She 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.

In the arena at her side, Bonnie was standing up with a hand raised forward. The researcher had a big smile on her face.

"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 show Hera a while back. Various colorful particles were spinning around and glistening as if it was light going through a prism. But the particles were moving too fast. It wasn't the continuous dance that Helena made, but a turbulent whirlwind. The small lights seemed to be clas.h.i.+ng at each other violently. Before Hera could say anything, the light sphere exploded in Bonnie's hand, making the same noise had heard before.

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

"c.r.a.p, 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 was even wilder than before. Bonnie seemed to be trying to overcome her issue by merely pumping more mana 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 into 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.

There was a healer on call at the guild who rushed towards the room. She saw the state Bonnie was in and called for a stretcher 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 10 minutes. The healing staff here was incredibly efficient.

Hera followed the healer, explaining what happened and stayed in a waiting 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 circ.u.mstances, 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.

Ca.s.sandra, 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 Ca.s.sandra 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. Each affinity also had a rank of strength, going from S to D. There was also a link that would explain how to get said synergy, but that was behind a paywall.

There were various types of affinities, from elemental ones like fire, air, and darkness, to mechanical ones like shatter, gravity, and pressure those were the primary or secondary affinities. The tertiary were 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 a tertiary affinity that seemed to be among the rare ones to get. According to the website, it would give a tiny boost to the user's skills 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 was it ranked D?

She searched for more information n that affinity, but aside from the basic information she found on the list, all the rest was hidden behind a paywall. 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. It must be a busy day.

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. What had happened for the girl to be like that?

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.