MAZE - The Endless Quest [Stub]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This page is an Archive version of MAZE.Check out the Definitive version here:MAZE - Definitive Edition

Hera Kingsley failed even before her adventure began. The MAZE, a different realm full of magic, monsters, and civilizations was her only goal. But when she applied to enter, the Guild rejected her. Just as she gave up hope, a strange woman offered her the opportunity of a lifetime.

However, the MAZE hides deep and dangerous secrets. Following her heart, Hera is faced with a brutal gauntlet of challenges, forging her into a hero she never meant to be.

Will she learn that Heroes are not born, but made, or will the weight of two worlds make her crumble under the pressure?

MAZE is a fantasy Litrpg series set in the modern day. If you like a slow burn story, focused on character growth and people who step up when problems arise, then you came to the right place.

What you will find 🐍

Join Hera's adventure today!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: Perizou

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 2,097
Views: 2,331,006

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

KnightfireRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Yes, it is a slow build up. But I like the change from most. Rome wasn't made in a day...yet most litrpg has OP main characters who train for a single chapter. The characters and world are being fleshed out and I look forward to a new chapter every day. We all have time now and I can't wait to see how the story develops.
PagetHereRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So I've debated a while on how I write this. So here goes.
The good- The chatacters in this for the most part are great. The character development on Hera is phenomenal. From a shy anxious mess to being called "empress " and accepting it. The sheer scale(heh) of weapons used. Abilities and such is mind boggling to me. The names are kept semi simple for a while which makes a ton of sense. Hera is a great MC naive, smart and hopeful. Its nice to see.
The bad-Lets start of with the grammar. Overall the grammar is fine to me the mistakes seem to be careless? The type when you type so fast like missing letters and such. Some arcs kinda drag to me. The training arc for one it felt really long when in the end they didn't have enough bare information. Second arc is the curse. I ended up skipping chapters for this is just dragged on to me. Last thing is under using some skills or her relic so maybe find a way to simplify?
Overall. I really like this story. Starts off slow but very quickly I found myself 300 hundred in and not even realising. I personally like that she didn't instantly get OP and able to do what she wanted even now that she's strong she realises theres stronger and it's nice. If you want a story where the mc struggles and works hard. This is for you. If you want something fast pace. This isnt. Thank you author for a wonderful story I look forward to more.
EhlionneyRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I'm really liking the story so far, but I have to point out: I'm currently only about 200ish chapters in, and I REALLY hope a certain incredibly annoying trend ends soon
Every single arc in the early part of the series has one of the core party members getting stressed out about something stupid like family drama, their ex, a guild tryout, etc and gets distracted or reckless in battle and almost kills a party member by accident. Then there will be interpersonal drama between the party members yelling at the person to pay more attention, don't be stupid, share their worries with their friends etc.
Any single one of these incidents would be GREAT storytelling. But the way it keeps happening repeatedly, a different party member every arc, is just extremely frustrating and repetitive and ruins the whole thing. It doesn't feel like character building anymore, it feels like a running gag that was never supposed to be funny
I've still got like 800 more chapters to read so I can't say if this keeps up, but hopefully once the author does this repetitive bullshit for each party member it gets it out of their system and moves on to something new and not incredibly repetitive
TheHuscarlRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
So I like the story concept, a LitRPG without directly taking all game mechanics (HP/Damage points) is an instant plus for me.
But the story reads like the Star Trek Mary Sue Fanfic. Stuff like her giving pointers to the other top classmates when because she studied a lot for the role and suddenly has heightened intelligence and other stats makes sense (sort of, at least in the case of Pamela), but it's a bit too much for a seemingly untrained individual to do that to two trained strangers the same place in the social hierarchy the second time they meet. And her always resolving social interaction by crying and people instantly loving her kinda has driven me off the story.
An example would be the scene where she goes into shock over seeing the bouncer that threw her out (and he's trying to be friendly/say sorry that he had to do his assigned job) and Guild lady comes over susses the man out and fawns over her while having an inner monologue about how the experience would be equivalently traumatizing as a life and death fight with a level 2 Boss and that she's such a lovely person etc..
Also, some things about how money is treated don't really jive with me, but that's a minor point and not really relevant to my larger criticism.
But I really do think the characters in the story are/could-be interesting, and I think it would help the story a lot if the foundations for the rest of the social interactions were checked upon. I don't actually mind the pacing, that's pretty nice for a slice of life. But when the pacing is that slow you can't really time-skip people' first meetings and why they should respect/like each other (i get the case in the classroom with the misdirection is supposed to be that, but again that reads like MS stuff. The same with the "leading the class to the correct drill room", which would take social confidence Hera otherwise doesn't show).
Also the Mary Sue stuff might be on purpose. So there's that. Good luck to writing the story further Perizou <
endoriaRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
It is hard to really desribe how I feel about this story. On one side we have infinite potential for a brilliant dungeon delving story. On the other side are episodes during this story where you can only shake your head.
1) Why the terribly written stuff with her mother always talking shit to her? It has 0 impact on the story and the chapters are wasted time
2) why does the MC get more introvert and unsure about herself during training?
3) Why do all her sidekicks turn into idiots the second they step into the labyrinth? The comedic effect equals zero
I really cannot recommend the story the way it is right now.
impRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The pitch about this story is a lot more interesting than the reality of it. What I thought I was getting was a slow-paced, slice of life style story about explorers and a modern society reliant on a dungeon (or maze). What I actually got was chapter after chapter of school life minutia. Want to read three chapters on earning and using the observe/inspect skill in a classroom? No? Me neither. The good news is that eventually the school arc ends and things pick up a little. The bad news is that the author still struggles with meaningful character development and diverts off into incongrous melodrama when they do try to develop characters.
I enjoy slice of life when it is done well, but that life has to actually be interesting or be set in a world that you want to explore the minutia of. The author seems to be allergic to time skips, which are a totally normal convention in slice of life stories. They're supposed to be slices of life. We don't need to see every minute of every day. The setting and characters should be explored through highlights and vignettes.
For slice of life story writing a chapter needs to do at least one of the following:
- Show a facet of the world we haven't seen before.
- Demonstrate a character trait we don't normally see of a POV character.
- Meaningfully change something about the world or a character.
- Advance a narrative thread meaningfully.
- Show a perspective we don't normally see (a different POV, typically).
- Develop the relationship between two or more characters.
Many of these chapters don't do any of these or they do so in only the most shallow ways. In 40 chapters we still know very little about any of the characters and what we do know is mostly just from exposition or clumsy dialogue. Everyone is still just broad archetypes and what we know about the world and game systems is only what has been revealed by classroom exposition.
For a slice of life story, we should have a better idea of these character's interior lives by now.
NocainRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
I wanted to like this. But after now 65 chapters I'm giving up. A bit Mary Sue is okay, but that went to far. And the school drama/let's go shopping with friends was infuriating.
Some characters are extremely one dimensional. Her mother who always attacks her is just stupid evil for no real reason.
hyeRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
I can honestly say I don't hate this story. But I also don't love it.
My main problem with it is the fact that the MC is just a bit too much of a special snowflake at times. Sure, she's not strong, or wise, or overpowered, but she has, apparently, special abilities that are used to help people who have been doing their stuff for years and are being fawned over for it.
The characters are interesting, somewhat, if a bit flat. I do like some of the interactions between them, but it just feels forced at times. And I actively dislike the instructor and his way of speaking. It just makes it seem odd for him to speak like that, and only him. He also seems like he goes out of character rather often, referring to people by nicknames suddenly.
Now, the story itself seems really interesting, I love the concept behind it, the whole "modern world, but run by an economy driven by dungeons", it's not something I see often enough.
I think the story could really use a touch-up or s rewrite to really shine.
bottleRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
I kind of like the story but the MC is such a clueless, spineless idiot that I simply cannot enjoy the rest of it.
In the beginning the wimpyness was sort of scene-setting and it should be expected to carry on (because self-confidence takes time to build), but this person apparently also has never in her life interacted with any amount of human beings and can't pick up on social cues even if they're repeatedly rubbed in her face. It's beyond pathological.
On top of that, the victimisation of the MC occasionally dips straight into struggle porn, which is probably an acquired taste (this isn't the first time I've seen it). I don't care to acquire it. If it's your thing, great - this story is for you.
AgatzumagintokiRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
The book in itself goes the typical litrp way, loser grows powerful and etc, but the way the system works is interresting and in itself a new idea, good idea (i mean no critic classic plus new works). But sadly there are multiple facts which ruin the hole book for me. For example problem one, that i have is that the humans are somehow the dominat species in the maze even so in the book is often written that there are other species in the maze, which hole civilation lives there and who get trained in the maze from their birth in special floors wgich should give the a huge advantage over the humans. I mean espacially if you consider that it is even said that there where 10 non human heroes(vs 3 human), the amount of human adventurers drops and in general only few humans can go inside. I mean ok the humans are more advanced technological and have a gigantic floor just for themself but shouldnt the other races have the hole mace to spread which seems to be incredible large ( i mean there are a bunch of floors which have gigantic rooms like start) plus the resources from earth should be fairly useless because they arent magical or whatever. So yeah this train of thought just totally destroys the book for me (humans seem to be weaker). Problem two would be how the guild and new sawn are displayed. That the new dawn cooperation seems to be the overlord, a group which is basicly at mercy of the guild (guild could say no quests for you) so again makes no sense why this cooperation should be so powerful if some one thinks because of money, think about how much money the adventurers make and then that the guild takes a cut from every quest which should make them unbelievable rich (which brings again the question why new dawn more advanced in magitec than the guild who controlls basicly the hole maze and should be richer than god, i mean they have a clear monopol on the maze recources). So yeah the stength which which new dawn gets displayed makes no sense against the guild.
Al