During the King's speech, we learn some details about this world called Naharren. To my surprise, Humans are the dominant race here, and even hold the title of the most powerful one. It is the other demi-human and monstrous races that are supposedly weaker. Looks like the knowledge of countless novels where Humans were placed on the lowest spot of the race chain won’t come helpful to me.

According to his story, all those races weren’t always friendly or tolerant of each other. There were countless fights and wars in the past with a lot of bloodshed. During one of them, Humans triumphed over other races, securing their spot at the top and regaining their control over this continent, where they were the majority. From that day, other races didn’t dare to stand up to them. That led to the current, peaceful times.

Or perhaps, not so peaceful. The reason why we have been brought to Naharren is nothing but peaceful. Contradicting most stories I know, it’s not Demons or a Demon Lord. No, in this world Demons is a term used to describe some of the humanoid races with dark skin and horns or other demonic features. Like Oni or Tieflings for example. I don’t want to assume which race is considered demonic here without checking that out properly. And well, at least one of those races' leaders is called the Demon King, but that’s just the same title as the Human King.

Anyway. The calamity this world is facing is called Abyssals. They are creatures born from the void and darkness, or perhaps an Abyss. Imagine ghouls from most fantasy stories or RPG games and give them a more shadowy look. Those are the typical grunts. Supposedly, there are various versions of them, with different strengths and some intelligence, but they are not considered a sapient race. Why? Because they are born from this darkness only for one reason—to taint and consume everything. Their only instinct, or perhaps a higher order or something, is to devour everything. The inhabitants of this world still don’t know why and how they started appearing. If this is a natural calamity with a magical origin or a deliberate attack of some higher being.

They started popping out fifteen years ago, when the previous Human King, the father of the current one, was still in charge. The issue was neglected. Adventurers and the military took care of the smaller outbreaks that surfaced around the kingdom, but they did spread very quickly. The Abyssals have completely overtaken one of the Demon kingdoms to the south and started moving towards this Human one. They were repelled by the previous King and his army. They charged forward and cleansed a big part of that country, but at the cost of his and most of his generals' lives. 

The danger has subsided, but it did not disappear fully. The Goddess decided to do the only thing she could at the given moment to help the world and reached out to her believers sending a revelation saying that she will summon powerful heroes from another world. At least that’s what the King said or knew about.

Our mission supposedly is to first, get powerful enough to be able to do something, and second, to possibly gather some clues about the Abyssals while dealing with the outbreaks. But for the most part, it’s just protecting the kingdom.

After the given summary, we decide to take a tour around the castle to learn its basic layout. Then, each one of us goes our way to spend the evening in contemplation and perhaps resting. When I’m done with organizing my thoughts, I move out of my new room, which isn’t anything special, although looks fancy enough to be of a noble origin. Big double bed with a canopy, a lot of wardrobes, a desk and some cabinets. All masterfully carved from what looks like mahogany. 

Anyway, slightly hungry since all I’ve eaten recently is an apple, I walk to where dining quarters are located. Somewhere midway, I clearly hear footsteps behind me. Clearly, because the floor is made out of stone or other minerals and it creates loud sounds, not even mentioning an echo.

I turn back and see Shino walking out of one of the corridors. She naturally notices me. I wave my hand as a greeting and turn around to resume my stroll. After a moment, the sound of closing and hurried footsteps reaches my ears, so I stop and wait for her to catch up.

“Where are you going, Sensei?”

“Kitchen. Or something. I’m not used to surviving on a single apple. Now that I think about it, there goes my healthy diet. I bet they are going to stuff us with overwhelming feasts. You?”

 “I was just looking around. Familiarizing myself with the layout. Can I join?”

“No point in even asking. Why would I decline?”

We begin walking side by side in silence. Shino breaks it first.

“Ummmm… Thank you, Sensei,” she says quietly with a downwards gaze.

“What for?” I ask surprised.

“For everything. For taking the lead when we arrived in that throne room and then keeping up with all that has happened.”

“You know that was just my obligation as your guardian. And besides,” I look at her with a genuine smile, “I noticed that you were going to stand up there at some point, weren’t you? I believe a real princess like you has a lot more experience in talks with people of high status, while my polite acting was just a guess based on all the novels I’ve read. I should have let you do the talking.” I recall the moment when we made eye contact in the audition hall.

She fidgets visibly at the sudden compliment. “That’s not true… I really hoped you’d say something before I did… It couldn’t have gone even more perfect than what you did.”

“Hahahaha, thanks, that’s reassuring!”

Laughing, I give her a few pats on the back. We reach the dining area in silence. Some servants rush to us at sight. Looks like they have already been informed about everything. We get whatever they recommend and sit by an empty table. During the meal, we just dine mostly in silence, chatting from time to time about some things from our world. Like the game that we were supposed to check out together.

At some point, Shino keeps staring at me with a thoughtful expression.

“Something wrong?” I ask, pointing a fork in her direction.

“Ah, no…” She realizes her behaviour. “I was going to say something, but at second thought it sounded rude…” She keeps lowering her voice with each word, to the point where the ending was barely audible.

“Have I ever got angry at any rude remarks? Out with it!” I fiddle with the fork around my fingers.

“Well… Sensei doesn’t seem to be too happy with this situation we are in...”

I stop and stare at her, half confused and half curious.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just… I thought that Sensei was a person who would definitely enjoy being transported to a fantasy world…” She tries to avoid my gaze by looking around. ”All those novels and other stuff… Sorry…”

“Hahahaha! That’s anything but rude. You are just stating a fact! How could I have been offended by that?” I laugh wholeheartedly at her remark. “You are right. And if I were to be totally honest, deep down I am happy and enjoying these new things. But…”

“But?”

“But I’m not alone.” I sigh dejectedly. “If it was just me getting summoned, I would most likely have been playing along with everything more. But there are five more people here, and they were also under my supervision when all this happened. Someone has to act the part. At least until everyone settles in.”

“Most of us are already considered or are adults. And we all received this power and blessings. It’s hard to believe, but this is no longer our classroom but another world. You shouldn’t feel that responsible for us. You should focus more on yourself.”

“You are still illegal in my book, no matter which world it is,” I blurt out with a smug grin.

“I’m seventeen! Eighteen in a few months! That’s totally legal in many parts of the world already!” She blushes slightly after realizing what she just said, picks up one of these tiny tomatoes and throws it my way, which I dodge and then chuckle at her. “Besides! True love knows no boundaries!”

“Oi, oi, oi. Don’t tell me you are all about the shotas? What a shocker. I really thought better of you. To go after the kids...”

I lean back and continue teasing her. She stands up and slams the table. Well… More like pats it heavily while leaning over. She’s still wearing her oversized hoodie, which covers her hands. Making her show anything besides her usual shyness is already considered rare.

“I was being serious! About both things!” She takes her plate and leaves with a soundly ‘Hmph!’

「Hah. Well… She is kinda right… At least about the responsibility part. They aren’t some random folks. It should be fine. They even got that ancient race...」

After returning the dishes, I take a stroll around the castle and end up in my room. We are supposed to check out the city tomorrow and get some clothes, so I should rest early.

 

※ ※ ※

 

The next morning, after having breakfast together, we are taken on a tour around the capital. We are casually led around various districts to familiarize ourselves with their general location. I don’t think they will let us roam freely alone anytime soon, but it’s good to know the city you will have to live in for the next who knows how many months.

As expected, the streets are full of Humans. Most of the demi-human races we spot have collars around their necks, so I guess they are some kind of slaves. There are still those looking free, but they are in the minority. We pass some Elves, Dwarves, Beastkin and such. Naturally, our clothes gather some attention, so we move to a tailor to get something less eye-catching. Everyone buys a few sets of leather and cloth quips that suit them and change at the spot.

When our little trip ends, we are asked if we want to rest around the castle. Few minutes of group discussion later, we conclude that there’s no need to waste another half a day, so we would want to start with the preparations slowly. The knights escort us back to the castle and suggest we wait in the garden or our rooms since it will take some time to inform the King and bring the first planned instructor.

I wait in the beautiful garden full of creative formations of flowerbeds and hedges. An hour later, some servant comes in and informs me that the King wants to explain the System more before we start with the training. With their lead, I arrive at a similar room to the one we have spoken with the King before. Everybody slowly gathers and the King arrives last, accompanied only by the Archpriest Nerphym this time. We sit comfortably and he begins to speak.

“Last time we have focused on your main task and also some parts of the System, but I believe it would be beneficial to you if we also shortly explain how it works for the people in our world.”

Nobody seems to be declining, so he continues.

“Let’s start with the Class. We have already said that it is a quantification of your talent. A person usually awakens the Class once, but there are cases where after some time, due to various circumstances, a person’s class switches to something slightly different or evolves into a higher rank of the same Class. A Class is for the most part helping people survive in this world. Examples are a Longbowman, Berserker, Fire Mage, or Priest for the common ones. The more rare ones are identified by additional adjectives, like for example Divine Priest, Hellstorm Mage, or Ancestral Berserker.” 

He lists some of the possible classes to us. Marcia and Kamil are listening attentively. I also am quite interested in how this affects us.

“So, in short, it shows you your fighting potential, but it’s not something people have to follow like an undeniable law enforced by the Goddess. There are plenty who don't develop their military talents and just focus on their everyday jobs. But I’ll get to those in a moment.”

He takes a sip of his wine.

“How far you have developed your Class is shown by the Tier of it. Right now you are at Tier 0 because you still don’t have one. How to achieve a higher Tier? That depends on the Class. You mostly have to develop your talents, body and mind by yourself, take actions that would be considered as associated with your Class, like fighting with a longbow as a Longbowman, defeat monsters or learn more about your Class. There are also cases when a lucky encounter has led someone to a tier-up, like a Mage finding and touching a pure Mana Crystal. With each tier-up, your stats increase and you gain new class related abilities. Some you gain instantly, some you need to discover yourself, some can be learned from others or books. Understandable so far?”

“Yeah! It’s great! We don’t have to do all this boring grinding shit like in those retarded RPG games!” Kamil says happily, Marcia nods, Paul has his usual thoughtful and analyzing expression, Shino glances down, also most likely dissecting the information, and Natalie just sits there quietly with an absent gaze, but I know she is fully paying attention.

“Great…” the King says slowly. I don’t think he is aware of what an RPG game is. “Then, next is Jobs. You should have one currently.”

Everybody murmurs or says “Status” and then they call up the Summary or Information tab. Shino seems like the only one that has caught up on doing it silently.

「Let’s try to access options from the menu right from the bat. I think it was Information. Nice! No need to open up the menu. 」

A familiar window appears in front of me, but a tad shorter this time.

 

 

Checking it out, I decide to ask first. “Mine says Novice, and there’s some kind of a double-lined symbol in brackets after it. What is it?”

This time it's the priest who answers. “Everyone starts with Novice when born. It doesn’t have any notable benefits. The symbol behind it means that you don’t have any other Jobs available to switch. The symbol will turn into an arrow when you do. People earn their jobs just by learning the craft, training physically or mentally, performing certain actions, like ploughing a field for a week, or just naturally via their inner talents. You can learn as many jobs as you might want if you spend enough time on them. Naturally, not everyone is talented in every field, so acquiring some might be second to impossible or just very hard. A common Farmer will face a lot of difficulties if he would want to acquire a Scribe job. Learning the proper language, writing, etc. You can’t just get a job and the knowledge magically appears in your mind.”

「Oh? This sounds way more realistic than I thought it would be. In your usual novels, inhabitants of a system-ran fantasy world are just born with a destined job. Here it’s the same thing as calling yourself an engineer back at home. You gotta learn the stuff.」

“On the other hand, when equipped, each Job provides small benefits. They boost physical and mental attributes according to their subject, like Soldier boosting Strength and Constitution. There are also skills you learn during or for the job. There’s a segment in your skill window called Common Abilities. Your Linguist is there since it’s not a part of your Class. Various abilities land in that section. You can still learn or master other weapons even if your class specializes in swords, and the passive skills for them will appear in the common segment.” 

He pauses for a moment and glances over us. Now it is Natalie who joins in. She speaks calmly, in almost an absent-minded manner, not even moving a bit.

“So, if I get it right, this Class tells us what we are good at fighting and guides us in knowing what areas to focus on to get better, while Jobs are like professions we acquire by working on non-combat related things. And we can learn and earn skills separately. Like one is your private life while the other is your work life.”

“That’s right. Although Jobs can sound combat-oriented too, like Soldier, General, Guard, etc. But you don’t have to be a Swordmaster in Class to be a Soldier as your Job. Naturally, a person like that would fare a lot better than a Druid Class for example. And you can easily switch between your learned Jobs while keeping the skills you acquired. You just lose the benefits of having it equipped,” he finishes and lets the King speak again.

“It’s amazing how quickly you catch up. But well, that’s the Goddess’s chosen Heroes for you,” he utters with amazement.

“What about the stats? Aren’t they supposed to say how strong we are? They should be important too, right?” Kamil asks.

“Yes, the four main stats do represent how strong you are, but they are not the most important. Class and skills have a much higher impact on combat or everyday life. But, knowing how your stats are distributed, we can guess what kind of Class type you might receive, since it affects their base values and future growth. Oh, but besides them growing alongside the Class, you can naturally improve them with exercises, but at a way slower rate. And the important fact is that they mainly fuel your skills which base their effectiveness on their value.”

“So, if I understood that correctly, higher stats means the skill will be stronger?” Paul interrupts.

“Yes, exactly. But you shouldn’t judge a person based solely on their numbers. Someone who has twice your Strength isn’t necessarily going to crush you with their bare hands. There’s no perfect way to describe how much they influence you by 1 point.” A moment of silence falls before he continues. “Well then, since we are already here, why won’t you share your stats and we will shine some light on your possible classes.”

Marcia and Kamil smile at each other joyfully and bump their fists together. Even Shino and Natalie seem to show some excitement. Paul tries to hide his grin behind the fists of his thinking pose.

“Who shall we start with? Perhaps the ladies?”

“I want to go first!” Marcia yells out excitedly. “Mine are 13 for Strength, 22 Agility, 19 Constitution, 9 Intelligence and 10 Charisma. Are they good?”

“Yes, they are very nice,” the priest says. “10 is around the usual value someone at Tier 1 holds. It’s rare to see one above 20 so early, they appear from Tier 2 and 3 most of the time. You are really a chosen Hero!” he speaks with increasing happiness.

Marcia looks delighted at his compliment.

“Ah, excuse me, I got a bit too excited. Ekhm… Judging by your stats disposition, your main one is definitely Agility while the supporting one is Constitution. Strength is the third one. This looks like an agile frontliner, perhaps an expert at knives, shortswords, or other finesse weapons. Your Class will be highly mobile and quick. Perhaps a Thief, Assassin, Ranger, Rogue, Duelist.”

“Wow! That sounds cool! I really hope it’s the Duelist, it sounds the coolest out of them.” She jumps up and dances around the sofa. The King and priest smile at each other. I call out my stats window and check them out again.

 

 

「Damn… My highest is 15… Well, let’s not judge a book by its cover.」

“What about me then? It’s 21, 19, 14, 12 and 11,” Pauls asks curiously.

“Hmmmm…” The priest raises his hand to his chin and ponders. “Top is Strength, supporting is Agility and then Constitution… Matches those of a warrior kind… with this Agility perhaps a Monk? But also an Archer route is possible since it focuses on both of those stats.”

“God, please, let it be an archer…” Paul whispers barely audible words.

“Can I ask for your opinion now?” Natalie calmly asks, directing her stoic expression at him.

“Naturally.”

“I’m 9, 13, 11, 22 and 20.”

“Oh! Two of them above 20! Amazing!” This time the King shouts in awe. “Intelligence and Charisma, definitely a magical route, can be any kind of a Mage or Priest, or even magical Bard with your Charm so high!” He clasps his hands. “What about you Lady Asakura?”

Shino’s eyes slightly widen and she blushes. I don’t think she’s used to this specific honorary term from people outside of her household. “I... I’m 16, 21, 11, 20 and 9… Is it… good?” She timidly gives her numbers.

“Oh! Another double! And the third stat is high too! Agility and Intelligence, you say… perhaps a Swordmage? A Battle Druid? An Artificer? There are a lot of possibilities…”

Shino backs off as far into the sofa as she can, hiding herself while blushing visibly. She has gotten bombarded with compliments recently. Kamil starts whispering something to Marcia with a smug grin.

「He has been quite calm this whole time… I would have assumed that he was to be much more lively and energetic...」

“Ummm… What about you, Sensei?” A sudden change of direction by the shy girl.

“Me?” I ask slightly shocked by this unexpected turn of events. I have been expecting Kamil to go next. “Well… Uhhh… I’m 11, 11, 14, 13 and 15…” I give out my numbers hesitantly.

The King and the priest frown upon hearing me speak. They must have expected something with at least two twenties with how things have been going. All of a sudden, we can hear almost maniacal laughter. Kamil is holding onto his sides giggling, snorting, or snickering in turns.

“Hahahahaha! I can’t! How the fuck are they so low! Highest 15?! You are trash even in this world!”

He starts banging his fist numerous times onto the table, wheezing uncontrollably. The King looks at me and I just shake my head with my hands spread. I couldn’t care less about his insults.

“Kamil-san!”

“Ouch! Hahahahah, someone got mad for the trash’s sake?”

Shino jabs him in the side and sends him an angry glare. He responds by hitting her arm with his elbow.

“Come on, don’t fight amongst yourselves. Just leave him alone, Shino, I don’t care.” After facing her concerned gaze for a moment, I turn to the priest. “So, anything you can tell me about them?”

He and the King look at each other in thought. After a while, the latter answers. “Well… They are decent, but… Charisma as the main, with Constitution support and the third one being Intelligence, all varying only by 1 point… Honestly, we are not sure. Beast Tamer? Shaman? Druid? Summoner? With all of them so close together, it’s hard to pinpoint the path…” he answers dejectedly.

“Who cares! His stats are shit! It wouldn’t even matter!” Kamil sneers.

“What about you then, you jerk.” 

Shino voices out her displeasure. Kamil stops giggling, sits straight and flashes a confident smile. Something tells me that he has been waiting for someone to ask this whole time. He then stands up, puffs out his chest and announces proudly.

“Be amazed! I’m 31, 19, 31, 15, and 27! That’s what you call a real Hero!”

The King and the Archpriest gasp in shock. I let out a loud sigh and everyone falls silent with him enjoying the spotlight.

“Two above 30?! The other ones are really high too! Your Class must be insanely rare and strong! I cannot fathom what it could be, but judging by your main stats it’s definitely a warrior type,” the priest responds trembling from excitement.

“Truly, what a fearsome potential…” the King murmurs.

They begin to talk about his stats, asking questions, debating on the possible Classes and such. The students join the discussion eagerly. Only Shino seems to be in a slightly sour mood for some reason, and Natalie, well, you can notice some curiosity and excitement, but she somehow manages to keep her usual calm and cool facade.

I lean back, close my eyes, sigh for the n-th time and drift off into my own thoughts.

「Thrice some of mine… Well, it feels a bit sad, but not everyone can be a Hero…  Just hopefully, this won’t end up badly for me...」