Hera was meditating on her bed. Ever since she and Bonnie talked about the mana regeneration, she was eager to find where she had a higher absorption rate and if that would allow her to rank up the skill. Following Bonnie's instructions, Hera focused on gathering mana at a single point of her body first. Only after mastering that she could test around to see where the absorption rate was better. It had been just two days since she talked with Bonnie about it. During that time, Hera learned how to feel where the mana was coming from, but blocking it from entering through other areas was still an issue.

"Hera, breakfast is ready," Helena called from the kitchen.

"She means she just finished setting up the table, don't worry, it's all store brought," Blue followed up.

In her meditative state, Hera could've sworn that she heard the sound of someone getting slapped. She opened her eye and checked her mana regeneration skill. During the last couple of days, this had been her main focus.

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Skill Acquired

Mana Recovery (Rank 3)

Improves your natural mana recovery. This effect increases as the mastery of the technique used to create the skill increases. The skill increases your passive mana recovery.

By activating the skill, you can recover mana at an accelerated pace. However, if the skill concentration is broken, you become unable to recover mana for 25 minutes. The amount recovered by the active effect increases significantly with the mastery of the technique.

Passive Recovery: 33 mana per minute

Active Recovery: 46 mana per minute

Mastery: 21%

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"Yes!" Hera celebrated. Having broken through the 20% mastery, she was able to increase the skill's rank by 1. Now she was even closer to getting the mage role quest. Satisfied with the results of the day, Hera headed downstairs to join the others.

After their mock battle, the group formally invited Bonnie to join. She agreed to it, but she had to finish a couple of quests before joining them in Hazelpond. Initially, she was going to find a hotel, but after hearing that she would join Hera's party, Helena insisted on inviting her to stay in the house. They drew straws, and Blue was the one who was supposed to share her room. However, they all agreed that letting the two be roommates would be asking for a crime to happen, so Hera ended up being the one who shared. Alex protested since it was mostly Helena and Hera's place, but in the end, there was no changing the explorer's mind.

In reality, Hera was excited to have a roommate. The only time she shared a room with someone was when she and Blue were in the hotel. Bonnie had the same feeling. She lived her entire life as someone who had all the space in the world, but she became used to sharing a room when she left her father. Having too much space for herself reminded her of the times she got scolded for not performing as her father expected.

The group spent those two days training and workshopping some different tactics. Now that they had someone to take care of the backline they could explore more possibilities. Both Hera and Alex were usually shifting positions, but none of them could fit the role of a ranged attacker. Having Bonnie around would change that. Even if she wasn't there yet, they could already try to consider how the flow of battle would change. The idea would be for Bonnie to help control the field, but they had to talk to her before making any final decision.

Bonnie was coming to Hazelpond today. Hera had already set up her room. She didn't have many clothes, and the second bed came in from the outside on the day before. Bonnie arrived during the afternoon. It didn't take long for her to get set up in her new room. The two had a similar taste, but Bonnie had one thing that Hera always wanted to have. A big collection of books. She had even more outside the MAZE. The ones she brought were just the ones she got after becoming a researcher.

After setting everything up, Bonnie and Hera went to the living room, but Helena stopped them on the way.

"Hey, is everything ok?"

"Yeah, we just finished setting everything up," Bonnie replied.

"Oh, good. Do you need anything else?"

"Yeah, do we have any more blankets? I only have a thin one right now," Hera said.

"I'll check. But before that. Can I talk to you for a moment, Hera? Downstairs," Helena asked.

"Sure. Is everything ok?"

"Just come with me," Helena walked down to the lab, followed by Hera.

There were several of the stones on a table and a training dummy on the side. Hera noticed that the number of stones was much higher than she remembered. She had only brought a pouch of the rocks, but there was even a crate full of them on the side of the room.

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"Am I getting fired?" Hera asked.

"What? Of course not," Helena looked at the rocks, "There is no need to send my ace explorer to collect something that we already know is there. Let's leave the grunt work for other people. Besides, since no one wants those rocks, I can buy them for cheap, and we can sell them for high prices later. Items that increase the power of spells are hard to come by on this layer. Those are considered a luxury even deeper in the MAZE."

"I see…" Hera kept staring at the rocks. Even though it was much more than she could have brought, it still felt weird to have someone else getting what Helena needed.

"Don't worry about it. You help me much more than just by getting resources. In fact, I got a new spell for you," Helena picked up a sheet of paper, "Now. I have no idea how you are going to get it. So I set up the code and the formula here, but I also put all my thought processes into how the spell works. I want you to try it out. If it works like I expect it to, we can even share it with your party."

"Ok… why are you so mysterious? What kind of spell is it? If I'm turning into a frog, you are the one breaking the news to Alex."

Helena placed one hand on her chest, "I'm hurt! How could you compare me with a witch?"

Hera pointed to a pot on the desk, "You do have a cauldron here."

"I'm taking the dirt out of the elemental rocks. If I boil them with some herbs, most of it comes out, then I can just clean the rest out. That can make the effect stronger. I'm even trying to figure out if there is a potion or a salve that can make this faster," Helena defended.

Hera smiled, "Do you hear yourself?"

Helena paused for a moment, "Shut up. Do you want the spell or not?"

"I mean, it's kind of hard to want something that you still haven't explained."

"Oh, right. It's a lesser version of the pangolin scales. According to my tests, the scales can give a 15% boost to a spell. But this… let's call it enchantment, can give a 5% boost to spells and doesn't use as much mana as it would take to give that increase. I'm hoping that with time and practice, the buff is increased."

"Wait, how does that work? You talk as if it's not just a buff."

"It's not. Here let me show you," Helena pointed to one of the pages with the magic formula, "So I used the fire arrow spell you have as an example. The idea is to make this be part of the spell kind of modular. I never managed to do it before because I had no idea how I could increase its potency, but the scales gave me an idea. Instead of having the part of the spell that changes the mana into some element, I put the increased potency part. That finally worked, but you have to use it with the right type of mana."

"Ok, so it’s kind of an attachment? Like a cover for your cellphone."

"Exactly. The problem is, I have no idea if that works. Mages get that increase in potency as we get a complete affinity. And it seems like doubling down on it doesn't work. I mean I have the spell, it just doesn’t have any effect on my magic. Soooo, think you can figure out a way to use it?"

"I have no idea, but I can try. Let me pass those notes to my spellbook," Hera sit down by the desk and started to transcribe everything on her tablet.

"Look at you, having a spellbook always on hand. Are you finally taking magic seriously?"

"It's not like I wasn't. I just had no idea what to do. I need to figure out how to make things work. I realized that I don't know how to make new spells on my own. They just sort of happened."

"I see, well if you need any help you know you can call me. Even though I don't understand how your spells work."

"I will, and if you don't mind me asking this. If you ask around, can you give me all the suggestions that other people talk about? Last time some of the tips would have helped a lot."

"Yeah, don't worry. I learned my lesson," Helena opened her tablet, "By the way. We got an email that might help me. I'm thinking about trying what they suggested."

Hera looked up, "Really? I was thinking about deleting that email account. We didn't get a single useful idea, and it's mostly just… Men being annoying."

"I know, but something useful finally came through," Helena showed Hera the email.

It talked about a medicine that could cleanse the body and remove impurities. It was called 'a drop of honey' due to the amber-colored circle in the middle of the concoction. The problem was the price since it required high-level materials and its demand wasn't particularly high. Parasite monsters were rare and easy to remove on-site since it took them a while to enter the body. Ordering one would cost them 50 thousand gold, and that was just to make it. To gather the materials, they should be looking at another 200 thousand. Helena would try to make the order with the guild since, after all, they still owed her, but it was a long shot. Still, getting that much money would just take some time. Hera would chip in to pay for it as well, but that was a conversation for another day.

"You know what we need?" Hera turned to Helena.

"A potion of eternal youth and a big pile of platinum?"

"No... well, yes. But we need a chemist, someone to make some potions that could help you."

"I think there are a couple of people in the order who can fit that bill. I'll talk to them and see if anyone needs a guinea pig."

"Pigs, plural. Don't even think about leaving me out of it. Not to mention that they might need to test potions in combat situations," Hera replied instantly.

Helena rolled her eyes, "It's my problem."

"And you are my friend. C'mon Lena, we've been over this. I'm part of the drug trials, and that's final."

"If my earings weren't recharging, I would blind you right now."

"Not my fault. You are the one that called me here," Hera replied with a smirk.

"Whatever," Helena scoffed, "Try to figure out that spell. If it works, we can discuss sharing with the rest of your party."

Hera nodded and kept writing down the notes on her spellbook. When she was done, Helena was polishing one of the elemental stones, "Why are you doing that? Do they get better when clean?"

"Not really, but we can't sell these if they are not pretty. Or at least we can charge more if they look better," Helena replied.

"You intend to sell those?"

"Maybe. I have a contact, and she'll take a look at a few to figure out a price. It's the first time that I've seen something that can directly change your mana. Maybe we can make some good money with these since we are the only ones that can tell each element," Helena explained while polishing one of the green rocks.

"Just don't spend the money willy nilly ok. That's going for the potion fund," Hera replied.

"Yes, mother," Helena giggled.

"Was that payback for the witch comment?" Hera stared at Helena.

"Maybe."

"Well, good luck. I'm going to hunt something to vent after that one," Hera got up and left the basement in a huff.

Helena kept calling her out, but she quickly left the house. The rest of her party went after her, hoping she wouldn't do something stupid out of anger.