“What if I can give you that, the power that can rival and defeat mages and warriors? What if my knowledge can pave your future?”

• Joseph Algorith

“So, Mr. Soul, we do have a spell that is included within this summoning formation, however, it can only be used once. And we have chosen you to speak to us, but whether we are satisfied with your answer, it will depend on you. If not, we will choose our former option. Hopefully, you will be able to deliver. Remember, you only have 10 minutes to converse with us.”

I calmed my mind, formulating numerous sentences that I could utilize in order to convince them as Rathra’s object began to glow goldish before it shot a beam at me. My vision started sway around, swimming in different directions until it cleared, my eyes staring at the hooded Rathra. I noticed that my arms and legs became more defined with a similar appearance of my former body. Gathering all of my courage, I spoke, “First of all, my name is Joseph, Joseph Algorith. Now, back at home, I could be considered as one of the top greatest minds in terms of research and development of technology. They call us, scientists; a term that you could use if you want. ”

I couldn’t see it, but I could feel Rathra’s gaze burning on my face, scouring for any lies or any reactions she could use to figure out my thoughts or objectives. Thankfully, she didn’t assume anything out of the order.

“Algorith, huh? That’s the same last name as of our nation’s royal family. Though, it may not mean much. And what type of technologies did you create?”

“I created some of the most advanced weaponry in the industry, while civil utilized tech isn’t out of my reach. But it will depend on your technological achievements before I can analyze what type of technology I could build.”

“How powerful are they, the weapons you speak of? How do you compare them to our strength? Also, what about your mages and warriors, what are their powers and can you describe them?”

“Mages? Warriors? Sorry, but if you're talking about magic and such, we don’t have those in my home place. And as for the technology of ours, could you let me see something of your powers, so I may reference from it. Also, what kind of weapons do your army use?”

My answer of there being no magic or mana was a white lie, but since I believed that I was the only one that had discovered this energy, it isn’t wrong to say there isn’t magic in my galaxy. The reason I didn’t say I had knowledge of because it’s best to leave some cards hidden for a rainy day, and I believe that the weapons that I’ll describe should be sufficient to pique their interest. Although Corey didn’t seem amused by the fact there was no magic from my world. He faced Rathra from her right, “See! What could this magicless commoner teach us to empower our armies? I’m telling you, we should choose my option; it’s the best we’ve got!”

“Quiet,” opposed Rathra, “We haven’t finished our conversation yet! If he doesn’t satisfy our interest in him, then we will choose the other soul! Now, Mr. Algorith, let’s continue our talk. We have some memory crystals on us that’ll show some basic power ranking of level 1 to 10 mages. However, this is only the fire type and there are many other elements and powers out there, so you can’t fully use this as your entire reference. As for weapons, we use swords, bows and magic, of course, and we can enchant items to become stronger or to have certain abilities. Though, there is a variety of close combat weapons other than swords.”

Corey looked like he wanted to refute as he shook in anger, but the other members’ watchful eyes were able to calm his temper. On the other hand, my mind was focused like a narrowed telescope on the images formed by the memory crystals they brought out. The images were holographic and were amazing and mythical, like a story from the fairytales. It showed a man, who stood in front of a boulder and demonstrated what seems to be spells of sorts; he performed ten different flame spells on the massive boulder of ten feet, wiping out its existence. As flaring it was, I estimated that the power capacity was on par with a shot or two from a World War II Howitzer. The question is how many of them are in the army?

“I have some questions. That level ten spell, how many can perform them in your army? Also, I assume that your mages don’t have unlimited energy, how many can they conjure? One more thing, is the state of your mages similar to the warriors? What about the strength of your opponents”

“Do you want the long version or short? You have around eight minutes or so left,” Rathra reminded.

“The long version; I want to understand the best I could so I may surmise what’s happening, especially if you want me to prove my worth.”

“Alright, your choice. The level ten mages you saw on in the crystal are the core elites of our army and can produce around three advance spells at a time; it takes an hour to fully regenerate the spent mana. They are second to our group and the Third Hero, which we could produce around four to five times. However, each mage has different elements and spells, so they may vary in terms of power and usage. Warriors are similar, too, in terms of ranking and elements, but are a tad bit lower in strength compared to mages as they focus power in one point rather than an area. In the army, we have around one hundred to two hundred in each category of elements of warrior and mage, but compared to the other races, these numbers are subpar. The Elves and Dark Elves have more than a thousand elite mages, while their warrior numbers are similar to ours. These statistics are similar to the ratio of our warriors and the Orcs’ and Beastmen’s. Because of this, we’re losing the skirmishes with the Orcs and Dark Elves, while the Elves and Beastmen stood as bystanders. As for the Draconic and Demon race, that’ll be another time.”

“If that’s the state of everything, how are you guys still surviving?”

“It’s due to an ancient contract the past rulers of the races have signed. It dictates that if an aggressor were to attack, the other races must help and support the victim, else a terrible curse will befall on both the aggressor and bystanders. We have 26 years to prepare. As for how skirmishes still happen without any repercussions, it is because of the loopholes within the contract. It didn’t say that ‘bandits’ or ‘raiders’ weren’t allowed. The spell that was casted by the contract covers the lands once a day. From what we understood, if it senses one hundred thousand armed combatants of the same race in a certain length or width of land, crossing borders, it will detect it. For a major offensive against our nation, they’ll need an army of more than a million or two, or else, each amount of soldiers they send will be slaughtered”

“I see. I’ve heard from your conversations that you were trading with the Elves and Beastmen, though you are in the losing end. I believe that the Elves and Beastmen will try to siphon the human nation’s resources while allowing the other two races to take the lands. Then, they will use the human lands as the battlefield for the major battlefield. One side is hoping the other is weakened in this minor war, while the other side has something to depend on to still be eager in attacking the human nation even with the watchful eyes of the vultures. Though I don’t believe that the Elves and Beastmen aren't dumb to have no idea of the real reason why their nemesis is willing to weaken themselves, but it seems that greed had stopped them from helping you. Am I right?”

“Yes, you are almost right, however, it seems that we have detracted from the main topic as to why we should choose you. Might I remind you that you have around two minutes.”

“Of course, I haven’t forgotten. But the things that I’ll tell you will increasingly pique your interest eventually choosing my soul.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“In my home place, although we don’t have magic, it didn’t mean we were weak. Our human race evolved and invented numerous technologies, ranging from normal tools to military. Through the advancement of science, we were able to develop medicines to defeat diseases and weapons that had the ability to kill a man in less than a second or destroy buildings in a blink of an eye. Some of the weapons I could create are evenly or more powerful than your elite mages. These weapons that I briefly described were massed produced and that any common man could use. What if I can give you that, the power that can rival and defeat mages and warriors? What if my knowledge can pave your future?”

With that, my ability to speak started to fade while my body began to transform back to its original form from when I first arrived. Before my face disappeared, I made it look intimidating, prideful and arrogant, to appear convincing. With a final look at the six, I closed my senses, prepared myself for whatever choice they made. The reason I didn’t explain too much about weapons was to make sure it didn’t seem unreachable or give them the sense of feeling it was a hoax. Trying to describe how certain weapons work to mages and warriors in the medieval era that probably knew little of science would backfire and make it seem like I’m an idiot. Even if I were to tell them how a simple musket operated, they might destroy me after gaining the knowledge and choose the other powerful soul. A revolutionary idea is better with a powerful soul rather than with a weak one, after all. At that moment, I prayed for the success of my gamble.