MAZE - The Endless Quest 30 Pastries And Fruits

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Chocolate covered bagel. It is a bread-based sweet. It has a circular shape with a hole in the middle. The chocolate covers most of the top of the bagel, leaving only the bottom exposed. Usually, it's eaten hot or room temperature.

The chocolate has a dark brown color that s.h.i.+nes in the light. The dough has a tan color, with a light beige line around the midsection of the bagel. The bottom has a few dark tan lines that are crisp to touch. It can be ascertained that the bagel was made in a baking rack, due to the format of said lines.

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Hera kept staring at the texts, wondering what else she could write about this.

Most of the recruits had the same problem. Shortly after they started writing, there was nothing else to say about their items. They would add a line here and there, but the amount of information they could give was extremely limited.

Seeing the student's reaction, Mr. Greyson walked toward the board.

"Think about more than just appearance. What do ye know about the item? The taste, how to make them, where they are from, where ye can find them," he wrote all of the topics down as he talked, "use what ye know, yer own experiences with each item. If ye don't have any, just use the internet. Just remember, it's easier to get the skill if ye take something from yer personal knowledge."

After hearing what the teacher had just said, Hera gave a soft smile. She used to help her grandmother bake when she was little. The way you would need to be careful while making the dough, and how the smell could fill the whole room were among her favorite memories.

Hera quickly looked for a recipe online. After reading it, something felt off. Bonnie got this skill earlier by looking at a nail polish bottle. Even considering how smart the girl was, Hera doubted she would be well versed in the production of acrylic bottles. Maybe the step by step guide is not the way to go. She looked back at her description and started to think about the days she helped her grandma.

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To make a bagel, you need bread flour, brown sugar, and yeast for the dough. For the chocolate, you will need powdered or melted chocolate, milk, vanilla, and b.u.t.ter. It's needed to prepare the chocolate so the flavor can harmonize better with the dough. It's also important to leave the dough resting before baking.

That is part of the process, and it cannot be rushed. After the dough is finished, you need to shape it in circular formats before placing them in the oven. Ideally, you should start baking at a low temperature and only increase it in order to turn the bagel golden brown. After that, you can glaze the bagel with the chocolate mix.

Beware, the smell of a fresh batch is irresistible for most people. Be ready to face the horde of hungry family members.

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Hera giggled after writing the last line. It seemed stupid, but it was what her grandmother always told her. She kept staring at the bagel, complementing her description here and there with any information she could think of.

A few minutes pa.s.sed when Mr. Greyson told the cla.s.s to swap items. Hera gave the bagel to Blue and picked half an apple from Leo. Taking a deep breath, she proceeded to write her description, trying to focus on her own experience with it.

The hours went by quickly. The exercise could be simple, but it required a lot of concentration. The only noise that could be heard was the fingers tapping away at the tablets. Swapping the items among themselves, Hera had described fruits, pastries, cheeses, and even some jam. She was getting tired and really hungry.

When she was about to swap out the banana that was in front of her, Hera noticed a skill pop up.

Skill Acquired: Inspect

Inspect:

Allows you to read the information available of the target.

This information can come from general knowledge or your own experiences

If a new piece of information about the target becomes available it will be added to its description.

"Well, it seems useful. Especially if I need to forage for food or look for a specific plant." Hera mumbled to herself.

Picking the banana in front of her, she activated the new skill.

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Banana

Flora - Berry - Edible

A sweet fruit, rich in vitamin B6, vitamin C, and with moderate amounts of manganese.

Commonly known as being rich in pota.s.sium, this only applies to cooking bananas, also called plantains. Bananas that are made to be eaten raw, such as this, only contains a moderate amount of pota.s.sium.

This type of banana can be considered the first food that was bioengineered. Wild bananas are filled with seeds, along with having a smaller size. It is believed that this species of banana was created more than 10,000 years ago, by hybridization between different species.

When the banana is born it has a green color, it turns yellow when it's ripe and darkens as it gets older. It is possible to eat the banana before it ripens, however it will have an astringent taste.

The banana is used mostly as a raw dish, it can be seasoned with chocolate or cinnamon, among other things. It can also be used to make bread and is famous for being served with ice cream.

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This skill surprised Hera in many ways. Starting with the size of the screen that appeared. It was bigger than her status screen, and there was even a picture of the banana spinning slowly at the side. Hera compared the image shown on the screen with the banana in front of her. They were different, the real version had a few marks and dark spots. The one showing by the description was a perfectly yellow banana. The type you would only see in a drawing.

The information that was being displayed was also impressive. Not only it had some details about its origin, but also nutritional values and uses for the banana. Sure, it wasn't anything she didn't know, but if that would be the same for any item she inspected, it would be amazing.

Still, the biggest surprise was that nothing in the display was a new piece of information to her. She had learned about bananas in one of her school projects. It wasn't the type of knowledge she remembered, even if she tried. And yet, here it was.

"Hera?" Leo called while holding the apple with one hand.

She blinked and looked at the man.

"Sorry, what can I help you with?" confused, he just made a motion toward the apple in his hand, "Oh, right, sorry."

Hera shook her head and went back to the inspect window. Not even moving her arm to pick the apple.

The skill description said the information came from general knowledge or personal experience. Would that mean each person would see a different description?

"h.e.l.looo, Earth to Hera.", looking up, Hera saw Blue holding her hand out towards her.

"Hum? What happened?", replied Hera.

"The banana, can I have it? You also need to pick the apple Leo is trying to give you."

"Oh, right," she replied and mechanical gave the banana to Blue.

"Are you ok, Hera? You seem really off right now." Leo chimed in, clearly worried about the girl.

Hera nodded, "Yeah, sorry. I'm just trying to understand how does the skill works."

"Wait, you got the skill?" Blue said with a big smile.

"Yeah, sorry I should have told you," Hera just realized she's been ignoring her friends these past moments, "The skill is called inspect, and it seems to give you any information about that item, as long as you learned that once."

Mr.Greyson was listening to their conversation. He nodded and decided it was time for an explanation.

"That's right la.s.sie, Inspect is a skill that tells ye everything ye know about the item ye are looking at. The more ye learn about an item the more the skill can tell ye. Not only that, but ye can also buy information that is put directly into the skill. Ye can also share the info, but unless ye want to share yer whole database ye can do it only one item at a time."

The skill was more useful than Hera imagined. Being able to buy and share the information could be a lifesaver. Not only in the MAZE but in the day to day life as well.

"Mr. Greyson, so we can only buy information on one item at a time?" Alex asked.

"No, ye can buy these miniature books called compendiums. Some old researcher figured out how to make the information have a solid form a few centuries ago. That became the standard for info sharing. These days, there are even rumors about getting one of those from monsters."

"How does that work? You ask please and the monster just gives you the contenium or whatever you called it?" the second Mark started speaking, most recruits looked towards him with pity in their eyes. The man already seemed to be on Mr. Greyson's bad side, and his ramblings wouldn't help with that.

"Aye, that is one way to get it. At least according to the rumors, another would be killing the thing and getting it as a drop."

Hearing that Hera stared at the teacher, monsters in the MAZE had drops?

"Wait, monsters have drops? That's not just some videogame bulls.h.i.+t to get items?" Carlos, one of the men who sat with Anaya asked in a loud voice.

"Where do ye think video games got that from? Just don't expect to see that happening with every monster, inside the MAZE some die and become corpses and others die and go back to the room."

The room burst with questions from the recruits, but the teacher answered none of them.

"We will have a cla.s.s for that, today ye all have to get the Inspect skill. The only one who got it so far was Hera. The rest of ye, stop messing around and get back to work."

Little by little the recruits got the skill. After hearing about items the could come from monsters, their excitement only grew. With twenty minutes left for the cla.s.s, all the recruits had the inspect skill.

"If ye are all done ye can eat the items, Ah don't want to carry all that back downstairs."

As if waiting for that order Blue quickly went after the croissant she had started eating. Hera looked around and saw Anaya, eating the bagel she had started with. With a frown, she turned to Alex.

"You are picking lunch today, right? Any ideas?"

The girl thought for a second.

"How do you feel about sus.h.i.+?"