#### Author's Note ####
My first story, MAZE - The Endless quest is getting a definitive edition! If you could go the the link below and give it a follow I would really appreciate!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/141295/maze-definitive-edition
MAZE - Explorer's Fate
The world shattered her dreams. Yet, destiny had other plans
Hera Kingsley failed even before her adventure began. The MAZE, a different realm full of magic, monster, and civilizations was her only goal. But when she applied to enter, the Guild rejected her. Just as she gave up hope, a strange woman offered her the opportunity of a lifetime.
However, the MAZE hides deep and dangerous secrets. Following her heart, Hera is faced with a brutal gauntlet of challenges, forging her into a hero she never meant to be.
Will she learn that Heroes are not born, but made, or will the weight of two worlds make her crumble under the pressure?
MAZE is a fantasy Litrpg series set in the modern day. If you like a slow burn story, focused on character growth and people who step up when problem arise, then you came to the right place.
What you will find 🐍
A massive, ongoing journey: Dive into the definitive version of a story with over 1000+ chapters and growing!
Weak to Influential MC: Follow a protagonist who earns every bit of fame and power through her own choices, hard-won accomplishments and just a dash of luck, both good and bad.
Unique Companions: Meet a varied cast, from normal people, to a green apple shaped slime named Peaches that should be voiced by Danny DeVito.
MC Duality: Our MC strives to be kind and gentle, but her specialty is poison, and she embraces the 'Snake Lady' look HARD.
Pacing: A slow burn story that focus on character growth combined with slice of life moments in the middle of dangerous fights and intense battles.
Dungeon Diving: Experience both logical, structure dungeons, and others that are utter nonsense. You never know what you'll find. Some say not even the author knows.
The Endless MAZE: The titular MAZE and it's endless areas. Monsters, magic, items, secrets, entire Civilizations of various species exist there, living their lives away from Earth.
Conflict Focus: There are no singular villain. Conflict stems from various situations that must be dealt with, not a single big bad pulling the strings.
Read it on Royal Road only!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/141295/maze-definitive-edition
Now back to the story!
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The news of our defeat spread like wildfire across the villages. So much so that a handful of hours after we returned, Rex's father arrived. We were all surprised and impressed with how quickly he got here, especially since he came from the main village. But according to my Rodenti companion, Rex's father was the fastest person in all the villages. He didn't even need to use rocks to travel across the rock flight tunnel, benefiting from a different skill altogether.
Before we could ask our him to elaborate, Ash arrived with wide eyes. He quickly looked around, but Rex got up and walked toward his father, holding his head up high. Rixnala was right by his side. Although it was pretty obvious who was more injured during that fight, Rex barely had a hair out of place. Meanwhile, Rixnala was whimpering, and covered in bandages.
"What happened?"
Rixnala started, "All Rex's fault. We—"
Before she could continue speaking, Rex stepped on her foot, which was currently held by a splint, causing her to shout in pain.
"If you lie, then don't speak." Ash was just as surprised as we were by Rex's reaction.
Rex quickly recovered some of his composure before saying. "Apologies, Father. But Rex can't accept this. Many died. It's not right for their memory."
The chieftain turned back to Rex, staring at him while the smaller Rodenti explained what happened. "Fought Guardian Eater. Tier 2, saturated. Expected hard fight. Fight was harder. First, Guardian Eater killed some of us. Then we injured it. When about to die, Eater blew up. Explosion hurt many of us. All fought with honor. All should be honored."
"All of them?" Ash asked while glancing at Rixnala.
To me, it was pretty obvious what he was doing. He was giving Rex an opportunity to lean some of the blame on Rixnala and allow us to punish her for her outburst. He was also likely alluding to all the bullying that Rex suffered throughout his life. Either because my Rodenti companion didn't understand what his father was saying or didn't want to implicate his sister, he simply noted, "Yes. All fought with honor."
Even with the chieftain expressing surprise at his response, and asking him to confirm if that was really the case, Rex simply nodded and didn't elaborate on anything else. However, Ash wasn't just going to take his word for that. Instead, he walked over to some of the other Rodenti that participated in that hunt and asked their opinions about what happened.
But the answer was the same no matter who he asked. 'It wasn't anyone's fault in particular. We encountered a creature that was too powerful for us. We were able to destroy them.'
Ash then turned back to talk to us, the humans. "Thank you. You made sure that not too many injuries happened."
"We are happy to help." Michael smiled.
"I'm sorry things didn't pan out as they were supposed to. But I think that if the plan was for us to level up quickly, this might not have been the best place for that," I added.
Ash nodded. "You're right. Didn't expect it to be this hard." He stared at me and tried to look at my back. "You hurt, right? Doesn't look bad." the chieftain asked with a confused tone.
Figuring that if I were to lie, Rex would eventually tell the truth, I just replied honestly. "I have a skill that lets me speed up my recovery a lot, actually. And a title that does the same. The combination made it so I'm barely even injured anymore."
That wasn't a lie. Once we arrived here, some of the Rodenti healers worked to remove the shrapnel from my lower back. With the shards out, my {Body Regeneration} was more than enough to fix everything else.
"Can you share?" Ash asked.
His request gave me some pause. On one hand, it would be good for the Rodenti to have this skill with them. But on the other, once the fight was over and they started going back to whatever they were doing, giving them an ability like that would be akin to dooming any human who came in contact with them. At least dooming any human who was hostile with them. It could shift the balance of forces, and I wasn't completely comfortable in doing that right now.
Besides, I wasn't the only way for him to get the skill. If he were to ask Michael, I was sure the Archer would be more than happy to share with the chieftain. Or Rex himself, since he also had {Body Regeneration} now. The only reason why I was even considering not sharing the skill was because the other Rodenti were alive and well. Hurt, yes. Out of commission, sure, but no one was in with life-threatening injuries. If that did happen, then we would have a different problem altogether. And if Ash were to ask Michael or Rex, I was sure both of them would be more than happy to share the skill.
"I'm sorry, no. I'm not sharing that skill."
Ash frowned. "Why not? Can help attack on nest."
"But what about after? While I don't want our civilizations to be at odds with each other, that's not really something I can control. If I were to give you the skill, I would be tipping the scales in your favor and making sure that humans who got the System in the future wouldn't be able to fight back against you. I don't like that idea."
"You won't give this skill to them so they can fight us?"
That was a fair question, but I shook my head. "No. I don't intend to give this skill to other humans either. I know how powerful it can be, and I don't really think it's something most people should have. It's too easy to unravel into something awful. Now, sure, I don't imagine that this skill is going to be only with me forever, especially since I have shared it with a few people in the past. Holding onto it feels like it's just me doing my part to avoid more bloodshed."
I hoped that this small speech would be enough. Also, I put enough hints to say that my companions or Rex could have {Body Regeneration}. As long as Ash understood that, he could go after them.
Because after all, I agreed. Using the skill right now would be very beneficial for those who participated in the attack on the nest. I just wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I were the one sharing it.
Doing things in this roundabout way was my selfish way of passing the blame to someone else. I was under no illusion that this was anything else but that. Understanding my meaning or not, Ash dropped the subject and went to check on the other Rodenti.
Since we were back in the city, I also took advantage of the moment to try to increase my Cook class a little bit. I used some of the Eater blood that we had acquired. Not the explosive blood that caused all this, but the regular one. And made some useful nutritious gruel for all the Rodenti who were hurt during the fight. I tried my best, picking up ingredients that could maybe help with people's injuries and hopefully create a buff or some sort of effect that would make it easier for them to heal. It was a bit of a shot in the dark.
However, it seemed to have worked. Just when I finished the dish, the System popped up with some information for me.
[User has created a unique effect.]
[Recovery Chicken Soup. Anyone who drinks from the soup will have the recovery abilities increased for the next 1 hour.]
'Sys, how powerful is this?'
[This effect has the same benefit as users title at 50% of its strength.]
'It is not even one full use of {Body Regeneration}?'
[Correct. This would be the equivalent of 22 seconds of users {Body Regeneration} at least in its current state. {Body Regeneration} is a Tier 3 skill. It is possible that at Tier 3 this effect will be stronger, making the effect of this meal less be equivalent to less than the 22 seconds mentioned previously.]
I took the soup to where they were being treated. The moment they saw the effects, everybody was more than happy to partake of the chicken soup. It was just a shame that this wasn't made from the Wild Chicken of the Desert. It had a unique taste. The chicken was more tender and more flavorful, but this wasn't bad either.
By the time I came back with the food, Ash had already left, returning to the main village as there was still more for him to do. But he gave us a different task. Instead of training, he was asking us to scout the area around the nest. According to Rex, by the way he was speaking, the attack would happen soon. My Rodenti companion was sure that his father wouldn't be increasing the amount of scouts near the nest if they were not preparing for a final assault.
So, we rested for the night and started the long walk back to the main village first thing in the morning. After all, it would take us most of the day to arrive there. By the time we reached our destination, we wouldn't be able to do anything else, really.
What I found somewhat odd was the presence of a couple of Rodenti in the other village who were not supposed to be there. At least according to my expectations. They were three Rodenti that were part of Rex's older brother's entourage. For some reason, I expected that those more powerful Rodenti would be actively participating in the preparations and not just lounging around as if they were waiting for something.
Then again, they could also just be visiting someone they knew in the area. After all, they were not actively together or doing anything weird. They were just moving around in places that to me seemed odd.
Even after I pointed that out to Rex, he just said that it was not our business. They probably were doing something, and that was that. Since he knew more about the place than I did, I just shrugged and accepted his opinion as truth. After all, we had bigger problems at hand, namely starting to scout the area around the nest.
When morning came, after grabbing a quick bite to eat that was already prepared for us, our group of five, led by Rex, headed out of the village. We followed Brett, who was one of the Rodenti scouts that were already looking into the area around the nest. The only reason why we were going to help now is that there was increased activity of Eaters near the nest. Ash was worried that this meant the scouts could be attacked. While it would be awful to fight against a large group of Eaters near the nest, if there was an actual group with the scouts, then maybe they could run away far enough to lure the creature away from the nest. Then, they could kill it before it could get rid of the scouts and, more importantly, before they could warn the nest about our presence.
Good scouts shouldn't even be noticed by the Eaters, but I wasn't in any place to argue. After all, this wasn't my plan, meaning that I should just go along with whatever Ash was saying. Otherwise, he might kick us out of the group that was going to attack the nest itself, and that was something that we really couldn't afford to have happen.