Rain was ashamed to admit it, but he was shaking. Most of them were. Rhea wasn’t, she just looked resigned to her fate, but no one else there had had something like this happen to them before. She looked seasoned to this sort of training. Her mom and dad must have been harsh.

Yes, his spell was about as weak as he could think to make it… but fuck.

The first shot went off, and Rain didn’t have a chance to dodge, the damned monster! He was the first to get hit, and the force of it alone had him doubled over gasping for air. Orbit spoke up over his agony, “Your opponents aren’t gonna wait and say when to start. Get to dodging.”

Rain wheezed and stumbled to his feet as the others got pelted and knocked to their knees. Even Rhea couldn’t dodge out of the way and lost her breath to the air bullets. The teacher adjusted slightly for Juniper’s situation, but she wasn’t getting out of the mess without some welts too.

By the end of that session of hell, he and the others were panting, sore, bruised, and exhausted. Even when one of them managed to get the skill, he didn’t let up. With the skill or without the skill, everyone still needed to dodge. Dodge until he felt like giving them reprieve.

Which was quite a while.

Orbit didn’t stop until one of them - also Rain - couldn’t move anymore. He was on his hands and knees about ready to throw up. Kalia, Allie, and Jupiter weren’t far behind him. The twins and Rhea looked a bit better off but were still having to catch their breath once the barrage ended.

“Great job!” said the devil, smiling wide at their misery, “You guys did great. I’ll call a healer. That’s the nice thing about doing all this junk in the guild, I can grab a healer easily and heal you lot. Means we can get a lot more done in a much shorter time frame.”

“You’re insane,” Allie gasped, hands on her knees, leaning way down with her hair a sweaty mess tangled across her face and shoulders. The others all nodded or mumbled in agreement along with each other.

“I’m okay with being called insane. It means I’m doing something right. The more we get done, the better off you are in the MAZE. If you can’t handle it, drop out. If you can’t, it’s clearly not for you.”

She glared at him, “As if any of us would just give up. But isn’t this too harsh for the first day with you?”

“Nope. It’s a harsh world. I’m being easy on you guys comparatively. Nothing but your friends and comrades will be kind to you in there. Think of it this way… I’ll have a hard time forgiving myself if one of you guys get killed prematurely,” he said, making the group quiet for a moment as even Levon seemed morose about the idea before he cleared his throat, “So I need to make sure you lot save dying for well after it’d be my fault. To do that, I’m planning on training you hard. Harder than I probably should. So I say again, and with as much sincerity as I can muster… Drop out if you can’t handle it.”

Those words dampened the mood for a while. It wasn’t until after he brought a disgruntled healer over and paid them a decent chunk of change that the feeling in the room improved a bit. He paid more than he probably had to. Orbit had a skewed sense of how much things cost after spending so long deep in the MAZE.

The healer was a shorter, thick man with longer brown hair, who looked 1000% done with everyone. He got rid of everyone’s physical exhaustion, which was great, but Rain still felt emotionally exhausted. Looking at the others, he was pretty sure they felt the same.

Orbit was unconcerned with such a thing. The teacher was more than happy to continue with training as though nothing even happened.

The seven of them trailed behind the teacher slowly, back to the stupid gym.

The month passed… ungodly slowly. Rain wanted to quit more than a hundred times, but each time, his sisters sounded so excited for him, and they always wanted to know more. He just couldn’t disappoint them like that. The others all had reasons to stay as well, some of which he got to learn over the weeks, some… less so. The whole class was due to graduate. No one dropped out.

Hell, even after Orbit… ah… improved their resistance, no one fled the class. He had never broken a bone before that “lesson”, not something he’d like to repeat, either.

Some small emergency happened, though, just before they could schedule their tests. Orbit had to go handle it since he was nearby. They got a week off for it because he refused to miss their results and made them wait. 

Rain opened his status.

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

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

Mapping

Mana Sense

Improved Resistance

Whip Combat

Crossbow Combat

Active:

Inspect

Hide

Dodge

Track

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

Mr. Levon had worked them hard. The whole class had more skills than average for a starting explorer. He still had no clue what he wanted to pick as far as a role went, though… It was such a big choice! It’d affect him for the rest of his life. He didn’t know how Rhea or Allie or any of them could be so certain about it.

Juniper wanted to be a hunter. Allie and Kalia both planned to be mages. Liko wanted to be a fighter, and Inoke an assassin. Lastly, Rhea wanted to be an explorer. They all seemed so set on their plans. Meanwhile, Rain was conflicted. Crafter was an obvious choice, but that made him not want it. Mage would make his parents happy, but it was supposed to be his life, not theirs. Fighter was out of the question - he didn’t want to get close enough to hit people like that anyway. He had chosen a whip and a crossbow as his weapons for now, mostly to keep enemies farther from him, but he planned to learn magic as soon as possible.

He wasn’t interested in being an assassin or hunter. Healer intrigued him a bit, but that required him to be in a party to be useful. Researcher or explorer seemed like the best all around. He had such a hard time committing to that choice, though!

Ah, well. He had a week to figure it out thanks to Orbit.

In the month Rain got to know the others, his “favorites” solidified in his mind. All of them were friends by now, though, each one of them a person he’d be honored to be in a party with. Juniper and Rhea were top of the list, though. They got along with him the best out of the group. They put up with his complaints the most. 

He always had something to complain about, but the two of them never failed to bite back with a snarky response.

The teacher had already left and Rain was laying on his bed in the hotel-like guild-rooms. The ceiling patterns made their own stories as he wallowed in boredom. He wanted to visit his family, but a week felt too short for the trip to be useful. Plus, if he went home everyone would gush over him, and he already was going to have to deal with that when he got his role.

What was the best thing to do? He was on the big island, so maybe he could wander? Take a walk and see what he’d find? Rain sat up and stared at the door for a long period, then decided to go off and do just that.

He hadn’t explored a whole lot yet. The intensity of training left him exhausted each night, so he didn’t do much more than the occasional random game with the others. It was misting out, not quite raining or even drizzling, but a wet, humid, and sticky cloud that clung to everything. The sort of weather he didn’t mind, but he much preferred a downpour.

His eyes squinted up at the grey sky, pausing for a moment before he sighed and meandered forward.

The guild had a lot of shops nearby. It made sense, considering money follows people. Explorers needed stuff when they came out, not to mention the litany of people that followed suit - families and whatever else. It was midday, not too far off from lunch, so there were a lot of people wandering or eating inside diners and restaurants. He wasn’t hungry. He didn’t feel like hanging out around a bunch of other people either. 

His indecisiveness led him to wander into a grove of Koa trees, a type endemic to the islands. They were beautiful with wild, wide-spread branches, and had giant seed pods that were fun to play with. The wood was strong and a deep red color - it made awesome guitars or surfboards. In old times, people made boats out of it too.

Rain leaned against one of the trees closest to the back of a shop. From the looks of it, maybe a bookshop or an antique store? He could see the barest hints of it from a small window built into the back door. Shelving lined every inch of available space and there were at least two people puttering around inside. There were also a few bits of furniture, a standing clock, and like… some random knick knacks strewn about the grass. It was odd. Maybe they were moving stuff out? Or maybe they were planning to get some new stuff to sell?

The two he could see from the tiny window in the door, both men, came out with more objects. They gave him a sideways glance like he wasn’t supposed to be there, to which Rain openly shrugged. They looked like explorers, though he thought they weren’t supposed to have their weapons on them outside of the MAZE. Maybe they were in a hurry? They looked grumpy enough to be in a hurry.

Both of them went back inside to grab more things, and Rain took that opportunity to push off of the tree and let his curiosity get the better of him.

He got closer to the furniture they were setting out. Now he could see the knick knacks more clearly. Each of them were miniatures of furniture or appliances or other objects, like something that would go in a dollhouse.

Mele would love something like this. Rain glanced back at the door, wondering if they’d sell him some. He didn’t have a whole lot of cash on him, but he couldn’t say no to something this cute that his littlest sister would get a lot of fun out of. The two men still seemed to be busy, though, and hadn’t come back out yet. He watched the door apprehensively for a long moment. Nothing yet… 

Rain took that chance to take an even closer look. He legitimately wanted to buy some of these! Their craftsmanship was incredible. It was like every little detail had been captured.