Ever since I first learned to read and write, I’ve been utterly hooked on heroic tales. You know, those fantastical stories of valiant people saving towns and people from all kinds of danger. They face countless foes, go through crazy challenges, and finally swoop in to rescue a damsel in distress. Ultimately, bringing peace to the world, and just maybe, find a bit of romance along the way. Yeah, I’ve always found them so fascinating. Even as I’ve grown up, I still get this thrill whenever I read them. It’s like a spark of hope inside me, thinking, “Maybe one day, I’ll have my own incredible adventure, and destiny will call me to do something extraordinary!”
Let’s face it though, reality can be a real bummer sometimes.

In this wild world where magic and technology intertwine, you’d think becoming a hero would be as easy as grabbing a weapon and rallying a group of buddies to fight the evil demon lord. Well, turns out it’s not that simple, not by a long shot. To be a legit hero, you’ve gotta jump through hoops, get all these fancy-schmancy certifications, and, get this, be endorsed by another hero to even get a license! Can you believe it?! It’s like a hero’s club, and I’m stuck outside knockin’ on the door, but no one’s letting me in. I’m just a nobody, and it feels like all the big shots get all the attention and glory.

But guess what? I’ve got a glimmer of hope in the midst of my disappointment. Someone recommended me for this “Hero Care Assistant” role. Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s not exactly the heroic journey I dreamt of, but maybe it won’t be so bad. They say I’ll be a tier-2 assistant, whatever that means. I hope it’s more exciting than being a regular run-of-the-mill assistant. Still, I’ve got to admit, when I was reading the company’s ad on my first day...I couldn’t help but cringe a bit.
 
Welcome to MagicPerformax, your premier destination for hero assistance for over a decade. Our team of highly-trained Hero Care Assistants is at your service 24/7. We’re here to ensure your survival in treacherous dungeons, seal away those pesky demon generals, and of course, rescue the damsels in distress.

Don’t wait! When the call for help arises, reach out to us. Let MagicPerformax be your guiding light, providing unwavering support as you embark on epic quests. Give us a ring today, and together, we’ll conquer the challenges that await!
 
It felt so wrong, but at the same time, this is the closest thing I could be as a hero. As absurd as it sounds, I feel a strange sense of satisfaction–especially after finishing basic training and endorsed to be the part of the front lines, assisting tier-1 Hero Care Assistants as calls and inquiries pour in. As tier-2, my position involves basic office work and taking calls of irate and pissed off heroes–or customers–as MagicPerformax prefers to call them.
“Hey, Vaughn. Can you help me with this call?” An agent suddenly calls my attention, standing up and looking worried. “She’s already looking for a supervisor.”
“Is she? Have you followed-through with the de-escalation process?” I ask, trying to remember the new steps that were just cascaded not long ago.

“Yep. She’s still pissed and wants a supervisor.”
“Of course... Whatever. Transfer it to me then.”
“Got it.”

With a booming industry, it wasn’t rare for customers to ask for a supervisor. And while tier-1 HCA’s are trained to help out, I can only guess that some don’t have that confidence to take a call just yet. If you don’t have confidence, the customer will either get even angrier or ask for a supervisor, which in this case, she went with the latter option.
“Go ahead and introduce me, Neil,” I tell the agent as I hear the beeping sound in my headset.

Neil’s shakily introduces me to the customer, and after the brief introduction, I raise my hand, signaling for him to disconnect the call. Taking a deep breath, I shift my voice to a welcoming and pleasing tone while reading the customer’s profile.

“Good Afternoon, ma’am. My name’s Vaughn and I’m one of the floor supervisors here at MagicPerformax, speaking on a recorde–”

“Well, I hope its recorded, Mr. Vaughn! Because I want everyone to know that your service is ter-ri-ble,” the woman shrieks as I navigate through my usual tools and see several documented calls for this customer.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, ma’am...Valeria,” reading the customer’s name listed on her profile. “Let me go ahead and help you out with your issue today.”

“You better, Mr. Vaughn, because your company is putting my entire expedition in jeopardy here!” she shrieks again, her voice piercing my ears. It’s a bit discomforting, but it was not the worst thing that I’ve encountered in my two years working here.

“Of course, ma’am. Let me go ahead and verify the plan that you have with us... It looks like you’re currently enrolled on our Support 12, which you’re entitled to our services for 12 straight mon–”

“A terrible kind of service!” Valeria snaps. “I asked for some support staff to help my companions, but no one came! I even asked my assistants to call, but the wait times are insane.”
“My apologies for the inconven–”

“Stop apologizing and fix this, Vaughn!” Valeria again interjects, her voice cracking from shouting.

While most would’ve frozen up or got combative having this conversation, this is a typical encounter for the call center.
“I understand, Miss Valeria. Let me go ahead and check if there’s someone on the field that can come by and help out with your problem. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you’ll be needing some support healers and alchemists, correct?”

“Yes, yes. I think at this point you’d know what my usual orders would be,” she hisses as I open another laptop.

“Of course, Miss Valeria. I just needed to make sure, and it is part of our protocol to double-check everything,” I answer in a moderate but restrained tone.
The laptop boots up and I enter my credentials. After a few seconds of waiting, I make my way through the main tool and connect to the back office and logistics.

“What are you doing now?” the customer snaps.

My login screen now shows several windows of available field supports available for dispatch.
“What I’m doing right now, Miss Valeria, is expediting your request and connecting with my support team to ensure that I can get you the first available field agents to carry out your request.”

“Good. And of course, this will be all for free, right?” she asks in a foreboding tone, as if expecting I’ll waive any additional fees.
If I go by the training that I had, the cost would be...nevermind. I wipe the thought from my mind and say, “Definitely, Miss Valeria. I will have all additional fees waived for the inconvenience that this has caused. On behalf of the entire MagicPerformax management team, we appreciate your continued confidence in our ser–”
A loud beeping tone fills my ears as Valeria ends the call abruptly and the dull buzzing noise of the call center fills my ears once more. Taking my headset off, I raise my hand and signal Neil that the call has been finished.

“I appreciate it, Vaughn.” Neil sighs. “That customer was a handful.”


“Most customers have been, as of late.” You tell Neil while completing the customer’s request and closing the laptop in front of you. Ever since that grand announcement of new worlds being discovered, there has been a surge of “brave heroes” who have carried out expeditions to these strange lands, establishing friendship or something completely different.
“Anyways, I need you to go back to the phone lines.” I tell Neil while pointing at the giant LCD screen near the manager’s deck where it’s displaying the current call queue line at 500 and the abandon rate at 20%. “We need more calls if we’re going to lower that abandon rate down.”

“Sheesh, Vaughn. You need to calm down a bit. You’re starting to sound like TL now.” Neil lets out a quick laugh while picking his headset back up. As I hear him say the opening spiel to take another call, I get up my chair and roam around and look at the seemingly endless cubicles of agents taking calls. The first time I stepped into the production floor, I felt intimidated and confused. I wasn’t entirely sure on how we can the hero care assistants that they’re expecting us through the telephone but with every call and every irate customer I managed to calm down, I started to learn that magic and technology has come that far to make it possible.

Heading back to my desk, I open my laptop once more and go through my emails. As tier-2 personnel, I have the privilege of not being at the very front lines and taking every call as my role would be an assistant to the TL or Team Leader. Asides from the top brass and leadership roles, being a TL gets all the action as they’re usually on the field, handling customer requests and supporting operation agents and logistics. Tier-2 personnel could also do field work but would require prior approval from his TL and luckily enough, my TL has given me a bit of leeway of taking on some jobs before which is probably the closet thing to a hero quest that I could get.
 
After going through the usual company memos, I check on the last email and saw its title.

“Fieldwork Request?” I read the subject email and open it. “That’ll be one way to go out of the office.” I whisper to myself as I go through the details.



 

TO: All Subject Matter Experts/Tier-2 On Duty 
Subject: Open  Field Work Request

To all active personnel, we have received an urgent fieldwork request. Please refer to CASE 0035 - 2256 for more details. Should you wish to take this request, please reply to this email with the following: 

• Your Badge ID
• Your Immediate Supervisor Name and Badge ID 

Let us know if you have any further questions, 

Olivia C.
Workforce Management - Scheduling
MagicPerformax LLC. 

 
 While a part of me wants to take the case, I just can’t leave the team behind and after checking the case file, I noticed a lack of documentation from the escalating agent. A necromancy spell malfunctioning can be attributed to several factors, and I wouldn’t want to be trying out solutions for something that can be quote volatile.

“Oh well.” I sigh as I close the email and then notice another agent raising her hand.

“Yume.” You call the agent’s name as she stands up and approaches your cubicle, her headset dangling on her shoulders.
“S-Sir.” She starts with a quivery stutter. “I have a customer on the line. He said that the potions we sent him were botched and it resulted to having to fall back. He’s asking for a supervisor and for a refund.”

“Alright. First off, you need to calm down.” I tell my agent as I look her face in near tears. Being in this industry for quite some time, I’ve seen confident and proud people who think that they can take the job falter and crumble. Yume is one of the few trainees of graduated product training with flying colors but ever since being endorsed to the production floor, she has been a mess, always fumbling and panicking when a customer so much as snaps at her.
“But Sir Vaughn…”

“Go ahead and cold transfer the call to me. You know how to do that, right?” I calmly answer her as she nods.
“Y-Yes, I don’t need to introduce myself and just transfer the call to you.”

“Good, now go back to your station and do that for me, please. Also, we’ll have to do some coaching sometime later today…don’t’ look scared all the sudden. I’m just going to talk to you about the call and how we can improve moving forward.
With a quick nod, Yume heads back to her station and after a few seconds, I see the phone on my desk ring. With a quick smirk to the agent, I grab my headset and take the call. As I hear the customer’s angry voice full of cursing and insults, I can’t help but remember the first time I took a call. I was also confident that this would be a walk in the park but when you hear someone just barrage you with insults, you would freeze in your seat, not knowing what to do and just thinking on how you’d help the customer out or at least, that’s what I did and it was a simple request from her end too, a boost on her healing spell in which any tier-1 agent could do with a few clicks on the computer but somehow, my mind went blank and if it wasn’t for my supervisor taking over, I would’ve probably resigned on the spot.
 
“Don’t be too serious. Remember, its just a bad call, not a bad day.”

I still remember her saying that while patting my back as she skillfully handled the customer and ended the call within minutes. Perhaps, that served as motivation for me to stay and I also guess that she saw my determination and asked me to be her tier-2 and assistant and while she can be a bit hyperactive and crass, I can’t deny that my TL and I work well together.



 “Mr. Roberts, my apologies for the inconvenience that this has caused you. My name’s Vaughn…”
…
After a few minutes of back and forth from Yume’s back and forth with the customer, I finish the supervisor call with a sigh. It was not the hardest call to handle so I’d have to listen to Yume’s call later and see what happened. The management has been strict these days with quality so I-

“Vaughn!” A loud, upbeat voice suddenly interrupts my voice as a girl with flowing black hair and bright brown eyes arrive with a big, almost stupid smile on her face. “Thank you so much for holding down for me while I was away.”

“TL Alliana.” I greet her back with a small smile. “Finally. How was field work?”


“It was okay.” She answers while putting her back on the desk beside yours. “How’s the team, by the way? A lot of irate customers? I received a memo while I was making my way back here. Ever since this exploration boom, we’ve been getting more calls and inquires.”

She says while taking a blue laptop from her bag and opening it. “Though, I’m not that worried. My capable tier-2 is here after all~”
Alliana suddenly pinches my cheeks, making me flinch and move away. “Please don’t do that while we’re on the production floor.” I tell her with a sigh as she snickers. “Have you received the memo about agent attendance? They’re really pushing it this time huh?”

“Oh yeah. They’ve been quite touchy with it.” Alliana answers with a groan. “I wouldn’t blame the agents though. With an a-hole of a manager telling them that they’re an expendable on the day they get regularized and with other support centers offering lucrative salaries, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of our agents would jump ship.” Alliana scoffs while stretching her arms and turning on her laptop. “But you know that I don’t care about those is accomplishing as much fieldwork as possible.” She declares in a determined tone. “If can at least maintain a 90% average satisfaction rating, it’ll mean some a week’s worth of free meals for the team!” She finishes in a dreamy tone.

“That’s quite the enthusiasm you got there, TL but if we’re going to do that, we’d need more agents trained. Their quality of calls and support have taken a plunge as of late.” I tell her as I hear cheering from the neighboring bay and with it, a resounding sound filling the entire operations floor.

“We have white-glove sale from Team Nessa!” The booming voice announces as Alliana sighs.

“They sure love selling their white-glove services.” Alliana mumbles as the cheers die down. “Well TL, the white-glove service is pretty much the most expensive package that we offer…”

I remember the trainer telling us that we should push the service as it drives the revenue of the support center up. To avail a white-glove service means that the customer would gain the support of the entire company, from logistics, spellcraft, improving weapons and would have direct communication with a TL of their choice.”

“Yeah, but I feel like the white-glove service is quite sleazy.” Alliana groans. “I mean, its already uncomfortable enough that these high-rolling customers can have full access of our profile and work experience but to call us at any time if they need help with something…that’s borderline harassment!” Alliana shudders as I can’t help but laugh at her reaction.

“Like there’s anyone who would get your services, TL. I mean, you’re the only TL on the floor who hasn’t gotten a client, right?”
“Shut it, Vaughn.” Alliana hisses. “I’m just…sophisticated and these expensive clients wouldn’t understand my prowess but anyways…” Alliana looks back at her laptop and her eyes suddenly light up.

“Ooh, Vaughn. Have you decided on what focus you’ll be taking up?” She asks. “HR just contacted me, and they wanted to follow-up as it’s a tier-2 requirement to have a focus. I’m not sure what’s going on with you but if you’re going to get some field work done and move up the ladder, you’d need to get a focus.”

“Right, right.” I sigh. “I haven’t had the chance to decide yet since its all so complex, but I’ll let you know this week, okay?”
Perhaps, I felt insulted that I’m a mere hero’s assistant that I put hold on deciding a focus. As far as I know, each support center has their own way of doing it but for MagicPerformax, a tier-2 can choose a focus; a specialization that would enable them to support customers better. I remember in the tier-2 orientation that there’s two kinds of focus that the agent can choose from. A tech focus and an arcane focus. I also remember asking TL on what he focus was and she proudly declared that she’s a tech focus and recommending that I should be one, following her footsteps and whatnot.

“…Maybe I should go with an arcane focus, TL…” I tell her in a teasing tone and making her nearly spill her can of coffee that she just opened.
“I…I would be so heartbroken, Vaughn. D-Don’t you want to explore the mysteries of technology with your TL?!”
“That would be tempting but you know…I think I’ll hold it off for now. If I’m going to stay long in this company, I’d want to take my time.”
“That’s…you’ve got a point.” Alliana nods while taking a sip off her can of coffee. “The HR doesn’t see that point though so I need you to have a decision by the end of this week, okay?”

“Got it TL.”
“Excellent. Now, let’s get back to work, shall we?”
“Yeah.”

…

Time always flies so fast while you’re on the operation floor. Amidst the ringing of phones and chattering of colleagues, it brought a serene yet anxious kind of calm. To some, the call center life is thought to be relaxing, you sit there all day, listening to customer complaints and inquiries and an occasional, ‘I need to know where my son is, he’s gone missing for two years.’ most would think that its a dream come true job when its not.

The mental and emotional duress that people go through cannot be explained by normal words, not to mention, the magical and technological knowledge that one has to know or at least, pretend to know. You can’t be a call center agent if you’re not an expert.

“Well, this is at least a bit comforting.” I hear my Team Leader yell from her station as she gives me a stare, telling me to come over. Standing up, I put my headset down and go towards her station.

“The weekly rankings are now out, TL?” I ask as she nods. “Yeah.” She responds in a somber tone. “The Operations Manager is telling me that we should need to take in more field work. Not that its a requirement, that baldhead know that.” She scoffs, her eyes traveling towards the operations bay where a few figures were standing up and observing the noisy production floor.

“It is a part of our job, TL.” I try consoling her as she snorts. “I know, Vaughn but field work is a lot of hassle. I wish it was like just like back then. Workforce emails you an open request and the supervisory group who pings first get it but now, there’s a lot of these processes that I don’t want to remember.” Alliana groans while I pat her back.

“If you want, TL I can go ahead and look at the open request and process it for you. I think it's due for me to take some field work as well. There was actually an open one earlier that was sent out by the admins. I wanted to tak-" 

“Eh, you would?!” Alliana’s eyes light up in delight as she grabs my hand. “That's a shame about the open request earlier but yes, definitely. I think it's time to show operations the things that I’ve taught you and then they’ll stop teasing me as a no-good TL.”

“You’re nothing like that, TL.” I try and assure Alliana. “Because if you are, Sona would not promote you and have you lead this amazing team. Also, don't call her a baldhead." 

“Vaughn…You’re not leaving me or anything, right? Why do you sound like you’re transferring or something! Also, why are you taking that baldhead's side?!” Alliana groans in protest while I shake my head.

“Stop that, TL. Of course not and I'm not taking anyone's side. Now, let me go and get my laptop and check on those open requests.”