Rain stifled a yawn and looked at the half-elf girl, Rhea, as she spoke up, “Pardon, Ma’am. I feel like most everyone knows these basic things since information can be released from the MAZE now. Anyone who wanted to be an Explorer wouldn’t miss that chance to research all they could.”

Juniper seemed to agree, nodding, “Yeah… I have to admit, I’ve fallen into more than one rabbit hole of MAZE forums and reports.”

Liko and Inoke nodded too, but Allie and Kalia luckily had nothing to say about it. Rain knew nothing aside from what his sister blabbed on about. He scrunched his nose in worry, but it looked like it was unnecessary.

Jane shook her head, “Now I know y’all mean well, but ya know there’s no way I can know who knows what. On top a that, ya don’t know how much a what ya saw is actually true. With all this new information the last few years, there are a lotta people that are not too nice. They lie, and they get amused by civilians’ reactions. It’s much safer for all y’all ta get a refresher, even if ya know the stuff. We’re playing with lives here, after all.”

That luckily shut up the others - it was kinda hard to argue with that logic.

That, unluckily, did not stop the boredom, though.

He didn’t know the material, but he didn’t have any motivation to learn the material. This was easily as boring as history class. He felt so terribly lied to by Jane. Yeah right it’s not like a normal class. If he ended up with homework from this he was gonna riot.

After an internalized groan, he continued to focus as best he could on Jane.

The rest of the first class was a blur. If it was a show, it’d be a montage. That’s about how much he remembered from the whole thing. He ended up remembering more about the walk to his little dorm apartment thing nearby.

This was going to be a long month if every part of it was that boring.

The lot of them walked that way, Rain trailing at the back of the pack, Jane at the front with Rhea walking beside her chatting about something. She was annoyed that she couldn’t just go live with her dad in the MAZE while she was in the class, but it was something about liability and whatnot that made that a messy idea, so she was asked to live at the on-site housing, just for the month.

Allie, the first place girl, asked if she wasn’t concerned about monsters and stuff at her level, but Rhea’s response was just, “No? Why would I be? It’s not like I’d head outside of the city. I don’t have a deathwish.”

Jane huffed out a laugh, “Given the laya ya dad lives on, most people wouldn’t see it that way, darlin’. ‘Sides, ya can’t travel all that way every day. Stop ya bellyaching, sweetheart, you’ll be fine. There’s no reason ta be nervous.”

Rhea huffed, changed subjects, and was now chatting/arguing about something else. Rain didn’t know. He was trying his best not to pay attention.

Jane stopped in front of the building and handed each of them a key, “Here, but y’all need to wait a second, alright? I wanna take this opportunity to chat about your skills n’ stuff. Now, when y’all are in the MAZE, ya might choose to hide your stats and stuff from others, but right now, y’all’re in this together. Ya need ta take this opportunity to learn from one another. No one starts at the top. After the exam, do what y’all like.”

She brought out a little tablet from her bag and motioned for Liko to come forward, one of the twins. Rain considered how hard it would be at first to tell them apart. From there, she went one by one through the class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liko Kim -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: 

Strength: 16 Endurance: 11

Agility: 12 Charisma: 12 

Intelligence: 12 Luck: 10 

Skills: 

Passive: 

Observe

Map

Active:

Inspect

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A really nice average, nothing below ten.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inoke Kim -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: 

Strength: 11 Endurance: 11

Agility: 18 Charisma: 12 

Intelligence: 12 Luck: 10 

Skills: 

Passive: 

Observe

Map

Active:

Inspect

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Really similar to his brother, but his best in Agility instead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Allie Manns -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: 

Strength: 10 Endurance: 8

Agility: 10 Charisma: 14 

Intelligence: 20 Luck: 12 

Skills: 

Passive: 

Observe

Map

Active:

Inspect

Dash

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Average across the board aside from that intelligence. He supposed that’s what she put all her points into. She also had another skill called dash. He imagined its purpose was pretty self-explanatory. Did she start out like that? If not, how crazy of a child was she that she got something like that?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kalia Lee -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: 

Strength: 10 Endurance: 10

Agility: 10 Charisma: 12 

Intelligence: 16 Luck: 10 

Skills: 

Passive: 

Observe

Map

Active:

Inspect

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looked like Kalia was going for a mage, maybe? He didn’t put points in anything but that and charisma.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Juniper McCallister -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: 

Strength: 20 Endurance: 8

Agility: 6 Charisma: 20 

Intelligence: 12 Luck: 15 

Skills: 

Passive: 

Observe

Map

Active:

Inspect

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woah. That one got some mutterings going. Wow, her strength and charisma were both so nice. Her luck and intelligence weren’t bad either. Agility and endurance… well… he supposed that explained the wheelchair to a small degree… but still! It averaged out higher than the others!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhea Emerald -- Role: Civilian Level: 3

Stats: 

Strength: 15 Endurance: 16

Agility: 15 Charisma: 12 

Intelligence: 12 Luck: 12 

Skills: 

Passive: 

Observe

Map

Keen Senses

Active:

Inspect

Hide

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone oooh’d over her stats and skills. She was even level three already! Being raised in the MAZE must have had some real perks to it. Lucky her.

Next came Rain’s stats, and he was already dreading it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rain Kaiwi -- Role: Civilian Level: 2

Stats: 

Strength: 5 Endurance: 10

Agility: 10 Charisma: 15 

Intelligence: 16 Luck: 100 

Skills: 

Passive:

Grand Lucky Stars

Observe

Map

Active:

Inspect

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The instant his stuff was up and being shown, everyone went quiet. He could feel their eyes boring into him. His pitiful strength. His insane luck. He was getting stared at like he was an alien. He could do nothing but stare at the floor, wishing it would gobble him up.