Year 2290

Portland, Oregon

He is called Gecko and later, Gecko the Porter when he entered his present line of work.

He could no longer recall when had the name first stuck but it had been what people used to address him for as long as he could remember.

As for his real name? Who knows? In fact, he doesn’t have one to begin with.

As a child, he was left in an orphanage until the time he turned 8. During that same year, he accidentally discovered that the orphanage he was staying in was actually a front of a branch of a syndicate involved in child trafficking and organ trade. Hence, a portion of the children there that are marked to be commodities were unregistered and unfortunately, Gecko fell under that group.

With that discovery, he fled from the orphanage and started living in the street. He will not mention the full details from Year 8 to Year 18 but in a brief description, he got lucky. This and that happened and 10 years later, he is now living in a small apartment with a job as a Maze Porter.

It ain’t pretty still and he is barely having his ends met but from zero to something, from the open street to having a roof above his head, there’s a lot to be grateful about.

*Ring~ring!

His phone rang and checking the caller…

[TRAIL SUPPORT]

…it’s from the company where he worked. They probably have a porting job for him.

“Hello?”

“Hey Gecko, we have a porting job for you. It’s a semi-pro party of 8 for a Rank 2 Maze. Their porter bailed out in the last minute and needed an immediate replacement. Will you take it?”

Gecko would usually say ‘Yes’ to all his porting assignment but this time he hesitated.

Trail Support is not an actual porter deployment agency but rather, a group of skilled but unfortunately with complex backgrounds laborers that banded together to find ease in acquiring employment, all of the time short-termed and contractual.

It is thanks to this fact that Gecko managed to land jobs and support his necessities despite not having even the most basic of credentials such as a birth certificate. However, due also to this fact that they are at higher risk when working especially in the porting business in which Gecko belonged.

Unlike professional porters deployed by legitimate agencies that has the backing of their companies, porters like him are regarded as Samaritans that aided the Rangers out of goodwill instead of employment and hence, they are undocumented when they embarked into the Maze. So when cases arose where an undocumented porter like himself tragically meet his demise inside the Maze, the law enforcement and the Rangers Association are rarely roused to investigate. Technically, their fates inside the Maze lies at the mercy of the Ranger Team that commissioned them.

Still, that’s the worst of the worst of case scenarios to happen to them and that’s because the frequent employers of undocumented porters are either beginner Rangers raiding to accumulate experience after Awakening or leisure Rangers that raids Mazes for fun. These types of Rangers embarks only to Rank 0 to Rank 1 Mazes where the threat level is very minimal.

However, that’s not the case this time around. This is a semi-pro party that’s about to challenge a Rank 2 Maze. The threat for him is quite high. In fact, Gecko had already guessed that they only contacted Trail Support out of desperation to secure a replacement when their employed porter bailed out as seasoned Rangers will never rely, if possible, to a porter of shady origin whose quality and work ethics are questionable.

Gecko was about to refuse. The risk is quite high and so far, he’s not in great need of money right now. However, he changed his mind in the last second and accepted the assignment when he remembered that Denzel is in need of money for his Dad’s treatment.

Denzel is his friend and his next door neighbor in the compound. His family owned a fried chicken stall and when Gecko was still in the streets three years ago, they would often pay him for menial jobs or give him a meal. They also helped him settle a room in the compound when he literally have nothing. His job as a porter is also thanks to Denzel’s parents’ recommendation to a friend who works in Trail Support.

They helped him when he needed it the most. This time it is his turn to do the same to them in every possible way that he can.

◆◆◆◆◆◆

He arrived at the meeting point half an hour earlier than the agreed time but a couple of people were already there. One is armed with a greatsword while the other is wields a pair of guns. Surprisingly, the one with the greatsword is someone Gecko knew.

“Mr. Drew?”

“Oh hey, Gecko! You’re already here.”

Gecko realized fully now why this semi-pro party had resorted to Trail Support when their porter bailed out. One of their member used to be a frequent client of theirs.

Mr. Drew is an Enhancer-type Ranger and when he was still a newbie two years ago, he and his team are frequent clients of Trail Support. He was recruited by the Soldiers Guild and went pro a year ago and Gecko heard nothing about him since.

“Mr. Drew, what are you doing here?” Gecko asked. What defines a pro-party and a semi-pro is the status of their members. A pro-party is composed entirely of official guild members regardless of which guild each of the party’s members belonged while a semi-pro is mixed with non-guild affiliated Rangers.

“Ah, this raid is a commission to the guild by the Rosewill Entertainment.” Mr. Drew explained. “They hired us to accompany their Rangers in raiding a Rank 2 Maze.”

Next to Guilds and the Association, the families of the wealthy and the one-percenters are the second largest assembly of Rangers. These rich people also scout and rear Rangers to secure more wealth and influence for their family and businesses. In fact, the No. 4 in the Ranger Ranking in Portland belonged to a family or more commonly referred as a Familia.

Gecko nodded then pulled out his phone to start inputting notes. However, doing so, he also realized that he forgot his wallet. Gecko groaned but dismissed it for now and focus on the job. “Uhm so, how many are from the guild and how many are from Rosewill?” According to the overview, this part is composed of 8 Rangers and Gecko wants to identify which is which as like leisure Rangers, Familia hailed Rangers has high tendencies to be bratty and hence, Gecko needed to be extra careful around them.

“Five to three,” Mr. Drew replied. They had raided Mazes several times in the past. Gecko is familiar to Mr. Drew’s abilities as Mr. Drew too is familiar how meticulous Gecko is and hence, he diligently replied to all his queries.

Gecko sighed in relief after completing his assessment. Among the three from Rosewill, there’s just one that can be labeled as troublesome. So long as he won’t irritate that bastard, everything will go smoothly.

“They’re here.” Mr. Drew announced.

Ten minutes later, two vans arrived and exiting them are eleven people. The Rangers are easily recognized due to the gears and weapons they equipped. The rest are probably the manager and assistants of the three from Rosewill as according to what he searched in the net, these three, two males and a female, are models that are about to debut and Rosewill is exploiting the fact that they are Rangers to boost their images.

Mr. Drew and the other Ranger with him joined them while Gecko silently observed them from the side as they make their preparations. Based from the information Mr. Drew provided, the dual-gun wielder that was waiting alongside Mr. Drew, his name is Eric, and he’s an Enhancer-type or a Transmuter-type. The leader of the party is named Hudson and like Mr. Drew, he’s also an Enhancer-type except that he wields a Warhammer instead of a sword.

The last two from Soldiers Guild are Lane and Howard. Both are Transmuter-type. Lane is the Healer while Howard is a Support but at the same time, both also wields a Mana gun to contribute in damage dealing whenever their main roles are not required.

On the Rosewill’s side, the three are Nancy, Edward, and Jason.

Nancy, the only female, addressed herself a Fire Mage, which makes her either a Transmuter-type or a Conjurer-type. Edward wields a bow and a quiver of arrows. He’s either like Eric or he’s a Controller-type.

Lastly, the troublemaker that Gecko mentioned earlier, Jason. In his personal life, he has a few problems with the law such as rape charges and DUI. It’s only thanks to the fact that he’s the nephew of Rosewill’s CEO that he’s not rotting in jail. Anyway, he’s an Enhancer-type and he used daggers.

As for their Levels. All 8 of them are Level 2 but with different Level Stages. The trio from Rosewill are all early stage Level 2 while the Rangers from Soldiers Guild are at least mid-stage with Hudson obviously at the peak-stage.

Then, Gecko suddenly noticed something and approached Mr. Drew. “Who’s that?”

His gesture was pointing at a man that just exits the second van. Gecko asked because this person is equipped with protective gears used by Rangers. That makes 9 now for the party when the overview only says 8.

“He’s the cameraman,” Mr. Drew said. “They’re going to record the raid. Sorry Geek, I just found out too.”

Gecko groaned. Development such as this is utterly unwelcome to a porter that’s under a small scale organization such as the Trail Support.

Extracting the Mana Stones from monsters and collecting items acquired during raids aren’t the sole task of the porter. Carrying their necessities like food and back-up gears also fell to him and for a normal person, a massive weight such as that is impossible to lift. Hence, porters equip a kinetic skeleton provided by their companies which is powered by batteries made from Mana Stones. The heavier the carried load, the faster the battery depletes.

For porters from legitimate agencies, this is not an issue because total battery usage is charged to the client after the raid’s completion. As for a company like Trail Support, battery usage is calculated beforehand and its accuracy highly depends on the number of party members.

Gecko’s battery is only good for 8 people because the request is only for 8 people. If there’s a load for a 9th one, he must inquire if they can provide a battery. Else, he won’t last inside the Maze.

Thankfully, the batteries for the kinetic skeleton of the original porter was to be provided by them. Gecko sighed in relief especially when they finally handed to him the batteries.

Finally, all the preparations are completed and they entered the Rank 2 Maze after receiving authorization.

“Always be on guard everyone! This is a Rank 2 Maze!” Hudson declared as he promptly drew his Warhammer.

Most Mazes under Rank 0 to Rank 2 has cave-like structures. Hence, it’s a given to always bring Lamp Drones for light and Gecko set their drone immediately the moment they entered the Maze.

“They’re here!” Mr. Drew cried out as he gets to notice first the red eyes that began gleaming in the dark. These monsters are quite fast as they immediately closed the distance in a matter of three seconds. Then, when they’re close enough for the light of the drone to reach them, it is revealed that they are direwolves and there’s four of them.

*Swang! Swang! Swang!

The battle commenced. Howard buffed the vanguards which are Mr. Drew, Hudson, and Jason. Edward and Nancy attacked from the rear while Lane kept a close watch to everyone as he too attacks with his gun.

Once the battle was over, they secured the perimeter and when Hudson gave the ‘go signal’, Gecko immediately head to the direwolf corpses and extract their Mana Stones. This sequence repeat and rinse until they reached the Boss Room.

“We’ve reached the Boss Room,” Hudson said as he struck his Warhammer to the ground.

Everything from start to finish went smoothly and now, they’re about to be done. However, for some reason, Gecko is having a bad feeling about this. He wanted to consult this to the party but held himself back.

He’s just a porter and the Association had already read the Maze as a Rank 2. This party of eight Level 2 Rangers can surely handle everything this place might throw.

Unfortunately, Gecko’s decision to stay silent had turned out to be a fatal mistake when they entered the Boss Room.

Examining the surrounding, the chamber looked like medieval prison and in the middle of the room, there’s a skinny man clad in a worn out garment and had his arms and legs restrained by four thick metal chains that are attached to the floor. Then, when the door behind them locked, the chains fall off from the man’s limbs.

The party immediately moved to formation and raised their weapons. That man is obviously the Boss of this Maze. As to what kind of a monster he is, they’re about to find out.

“AWOOOO!”

When the man morphed into his monster form, everyone’s faces paled.

“No way! A Werewolf in a Rank 2 Maze?!” Mr. Drew shouted.

“This can’t be real! This has to be a dream!” Jason panicked. His legs wobbled and he collapsed to the floor.

A Werewolf is a Level 4 monster that’s supposed to only appear in Rank 4 Mazes and higher. They are fast and powerful monsters that can easily rip apart a Level 2 Ranger.

“Hey, pull yourself together!” Hudson chided Jason. However, before Jason or anyone could respond, the Werewolf’s figure flashed and the next moment, he is in front of them.

Hudson, who was in the forefront, was the first to fell to the Werewolf’s might. Bloods fired like a fountain after the Werewolf’s claw sliced his head off of his body.

“AHHHH!”

“Shit!” Gecko cursed as Nancy’s shriek echoed inside the chamber.