Hera took the stairs down to the guild basement. For now, this was the only way to move between floors on the building. They had the structure for an elevator here, but Rutigan asked to wait before showing that to the dwarves. With the presence of the humans, there was already a considerable amount of change going on in the city, and he wanted the people to be comfortable with the idea of an elevator before having access to one. Hera could understand that, in a place where carts were only used to move around objects and never for people, they saw any means of transportation with suspicion. The idea of being locked inside a box and moved to a different place was unnerving for most dwarfs, and they only saw it on videos.

At the moment, Hera was going towards the training rooms. The guild spared no expense here. There was a very large training grounds on the first basement floor. Complete with a gym, an indoor pool, and some arenas for sparing and combat training. All the special training rooms were on the second basement floor. There were several ATRs and five A-heart rooms at the end of the hallway. The dwarves could access all those training areas at a substantially reduced price. Not just that, but the guard could use the ATRs freely as long as they made the reservation a day earlier without paying for it, and they didn’t reserve more than half of the rooms. Rutigan made this deal to help the people of the city, and the guild also tossed in something extra. The guard could use one of the A-heart rooms for 1 hour every day. It was a way to help them understand the benefits the guild could provide. Hera was almost sure that this wasn't a deal that would last forever, but at least for now, this meant they could increase their strength.

Hera walked over to the A-heart room and placed her guild card on the sensor by the door to allow her to enter. With that, the logo by the door shifted. What was supposed to be paint started moving and formed a different set of words.

'Welcome, Hera. Enjoy your time in the ASZ training room.'

"Thanks, I guess," Hera replied as the door opened.

The inside differed greatly from the usual white present in the ATRs. Everywhere she looked, Hera could only see some light grey panels with thick black lines between them. They were all triangular, and in the center, the polygons and the lines were smaller and formed a large circle on the ground about 4 meters in diameter. She took a careful step inside.

Behind her, the door closed and blended with the rest of the room. If it wasn't for the small symbol of a lock on the corner of the panel, there was no way to tell that this was a door.

"Please enter the marked circle in the center of the room," a disembodied voice rang out. At the same time, the lines surrounding the round shape lit up with a soft white glow.

Hera walked over, and as soon as she entered the circle, the glow vanished. Instead, in front of her, a line that went all the way around the room turned on, and a hologram appeared in front of her. It was an orange screen much similar to that of the system. At the same time, the voice read the words in the window out loud.

=========================

Welcome to the Augmented Simulation Zones or ASZ for short.

I have identified that you have a training program for the skill [Shaper of Mana].

You can spend a total of 168 hours trying to learn this skill. Any remaining time available after you acquire the skill will be removed.

If you are unable to learn during that time, you increase the time available by renting an ASZ.

Remember that you can only use this training program.

Please touch the button when you are ready to start.

=========================

"Are they… trying to copy the system?" Hera kept staring at the screen. She pulled up her own stats to compare, but the font used by the message was slightly different. The spacing was a tiny bit off too. It was like they got as close as possible to the system without stepping out of line. If she was being honest, she didn't like this. It was one thing to show the system in shows or comics, but the versions were always significantly different. Some had more ornate frames or different fonts. The most basic one used a green screen instead of a blue one and the default font of cellphones.

For some reason, Hera remembered how Blue complained about her attitude with the dwarves in a dungeon. Maybe this was the same. Hera was just being too precious with something that she shouldn't. Even so, she couldn't help but feel bothered by this.

"Is there a way to change this setting?" Hera mumbled.

=========================

What setting would you like to change?

=========================

Same as before, the voice spoke what was in the window.

"Oh," Hera didn't expect to receive a reply, "I don't want to see those windows."

=========================

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

You cannot remove the window, but you can pick a different style. Please, customize at your will or choose one of our available presets.

For the next 10 minutes, you are able to change any settings without affecting your remaining time in the ASZ. If you go past that, your remaining time will start to count down.

=========================

Following that, another message popped out with all the customization options available. If Hera was to describe those options in a single word, it would be excessive. It went so far beyond the simple color, font, and frame. She could pick what type of bullet points the window would use, the shadows of the letters, the spacing between letters, words, and lines. Even the general layout of everything. It was like seeing a graphics design software made to create magazines. Hera spent a few minutes changing the window that appeared to a format she felt more comfortable with. Despite it all, this was fun. It has been a long time since she toyed around with something like this. The end result was a window with a stylized frame, like if it was from a comic book, a dark purple backdrop with bright white letters. Her last touch was that when a window would appear or disappear, the words inside would shift to the sides as if they were moving to position.

With all that done, she confirmed her choices, and the first window appeared again. That bad feeling was gone, and now she could focus on the task at hand. Pressing the button, the training program started.

All the lights in the room went off. Then, from one side, a small orange hue appeared in a horizontal line. This color started to spread in all directions, and little by little, turned into yellow while growing brighter. Bright enough to be blinding. Hera had to close her eyes, but after a few moments, the whole scenario changed. She wasn't inside a training room anymore, but on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. The smell of saltwater hit her, and the warm sunlight washed over her face.

For a moment, Hera thought she was transported to a different place, but while looking around, she noticed the lock symbol floating behind her. She removed one of her gloves and touched the grassy floor. With a sigh of relief, she got up. Under her, there were the triangle-shaped panels, just like before. This place was an illusion or just a very realistic hologram. She was still in Boothudurn.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

All of a sudden, a loud yell came from beyond the cliff. There was some noise and rumbling, and a pillar of swirling water shoot out from the ocean. Something was riding on top of that , but before Hera could recognize it, the towering whirlpool rushed towards her at a staggering speed. Just as it was about to hit the cliff, the water stopped and fell. From above it, a figure landed on the ground, breaking the stone floor.

"Yoooohoooooo!!!!" the muscular man with sun-tanned skin yelled while looking at the ocean, "Man, that hit the spot! I can't believe I spent so long without doing that."

Hera kept staring at him. This person was familiar. Something about him rang a bell in her mind, but she couldn't grasp what it was.

"You!" the man turned around and pointed at Hera, "How about it? Did you like that little spell? It was actually a gust of wind spell that I controlled to be like that. Impressive don't you think?" the man puffed his chest and put both arms on his waist.

Hera just kept staring at him, waiting for the program to continue. Yet, nothing happened. After a few moments, the man walked closer to her with an annoyed expression.

"Yo, girl! I'm talking to you. Nod or do something, just don't leave me hanging."

Hera found that weird. It seemed like a bad joke just to make this feel more realistic. After everything they did, it really wasn't necessary.

"I'm talking to you, on the purple armor with the handaxes. Can you hear me? Is this thing broken?" the man asked again.

"How does he know I'm wearing purple?" Hera asked.

"Because I can see, girl. What is the matter with you?" the man asked again.

"Wait, you can see me?" Hera took a step back.

"Yes! I can. Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"Erm… because this is a simulation, isn't it?"

The man squinted at her before starting to speak in a peppy voice, "You had to ask, didn't you? Yes, this is a top-of-the-line simulation created by the best minds present at New Dawn. With the training program, you can get a fully automated teacher that will help you step by step in getting your skills. I am the trainer for this skill. You can call me Kale or use my title, Waverider. And for the love of all that is sacred, don't ask if this is a simulation again. It's so annoying to have to say that ad."

"So… you are real? Like, you can answer to me?" Hera asked.

"Yeah, why is that so hard to understand?"

"It's not. It's just surprising. I mean, in the ATR, the trainers only showed our mistakes. They didn't talk to us."

"Yeah, this is more advanced. Why would someone make a training room that was just the same as the others? Also, be careful with jumping around. If you leave that circle, the floor won't shift to keep you in place," Kale continued.

"Right, and how does the training works?" Hera asked.

"Let me begin by explaining how the skill works. Like the name suggests, the Shaper of Mana skill lets you change how your spells work on a fundamental level. What's the most basic continuous spell you have?"

Hera thought for a moment, "I guess the light spell."

"Perfect, that's one of the best ways to change it. Can you cast it?"

Hera waved her hand, and a small point of light appeared in the air.

"Ah, you are a subjective mage. Ok, that might help."

"Really?" Hera asked.

"Yeah, if you use something more strict, it's hard to know how to make the changes. Now, I want you to focus on this," Kale created a light, just like the one that Hera made. A few moments passed, and the light slowly changed colors from white to red.

Hera focused on the mana around the light created by the trainer. Luckily, she already had the [Mana Sense] skill which helped her sense the magic. Even so, she couldn't tell the difference between what she was doing, and the light created by their training program.

"Don't worry, we have time. Focus on all small details. It's a very nuanced skill."

Hera nodded and created a second light, this time a red one just like Kale's. She tried to focus on the differences between the two spells once more but to no avail. Another good thing about this room was that it helped her recover her mana. With spells like these, it was very likely that she could use them non-stop. She created more and more different colored lights, all with different sizes and behaviors, and started to focus on what made each unique. After around 5 hours, she left the training room, unable to even find a single clue about all that. This was an S rank skill. Of course, it wouldn't be easy to get it. Despite that, Hera was still eager to continue. If it wasn't for her stomach, she would probably spend the entire day inside there.