In the middle of the Audience Hall several robed people were preparing what looks like a pedestal with a crystal ball on top. The preparations only took a couple of moments, after setting up they called us over.

“Now young heroes, we shall find out how strong each of you are.” Antonius said, “Who among you heroes want to go first.”

I looked around our group and saw that everyone was hesitant to go, everyone except Marvin, heck he’s even raring to go.

“I volunteer to go first.” he proudly said as he stood up and walked to the pedestal.

The crowd was filled with “Oohs” and “Aahs”, some were even saying things like “As expected of the brave heroes.”

‘Damn it people, you’re just boosting his ego.’

Marvin excitedly reached his hands out to the crystal ball, but the old man Antonius stopped him, “Please wait for further instruction young hero.” Antonius said to him, “Now then, as heroes you can check your own status by saying, “Status Open”, you might be asking why you even need to touch the crystal. The answer to that is so that everyone here can see how strong you heroes are.”

Everyone in the group said, ‘Status Open’, after saying the word everyone was gasped in surprise. Letting my curiosity get the best of me, I also muttered, “Status Open”.

I was surprised to see a UI suddenly appearing within my sight, ‘Holy crap, who ever made this UI doesn’t know how to make a functional UI.’

The UI was covering my entire vision and information was everywhere, this is more of a nuisance than anything.

“It seems like everyone has tried looking at their own status, now then, shall we begin showing your status to everyone?” Antonius announced.

‘Don’t you have something like a privacy protection law or something in here?’

“Young hero, you can now touch the Appraisal orb.” Antonius continued as he beckoned Marvin to touch the crystal ball.

Marvin reached out towards the crystal ball without even thinking twice about it. As soon as his hand touched the crystal a hologram appeared that displayed his status, just like the UI that appeared in my vision, the hologram was filled with information that was too much to process. ‘I wonder how the people here process all this information?’.

“As expected of the summoned heroes, your status is already higher than veteran knights despite only being level 1.” Antonius explained.

Upon hearing the explanation, Marvin grew much more excited. He returned to our group with a smug look on his face, despite not knowing what his status is.

‘I just wish that the status UI is more user friendly.’

‘Request was made… processing user request… user request is approved… implementing user request.”

‘What the heck was that!?’

Curiosity got the best of me again as I muttered, “Status Open”.

[STATUS:

         Name: Ian Gabriel Fernandez

         Age:   19

        

         MP:  15/15

         STR: 15

         AGI: 15

         INT;  15

 

SKILLS:

         – None –

]

‘Whoa, that’s more like it, unlike the previous UI which was a clusterfuck of information this one is much simpler and easier to understand.’

As I was lost in my own thoughts, all of my classmates have already finished checking their status, and apparently, I’m up next. ‘Crap’.

I stood up and slowly made my way to the pedestal, everyone’s eyes were focused on me. I wanted to get this over with quickly, so I placed my hand on the crystal ball as soon as I got near.

Just like the hologram that appeared when Marvin touched it, a hologram also appeared when I touched it. And just like Marvin’s, my hologram was filled with information that I can’t even comprehend.

“A-a-s expected of a summoned hero.” Antonius said.

‘Whoa, why’d you stutter there?’

After I returned to the group, the old man went to the King’s side and whispered something. The King stood up and gestured something to someone, “The summoning ritual has now ended, may the young heroes now strive to become worthy of their titles as heroes.” someone announced.

The crowd gathered inside the Audience Hall was led out of the hall, while we were told to stay behind.

After the last of the crowd left the room, a group of Knights and servants? entered the room. The one leading the group approached us, “Young heroes, you must be tired already. A banquet is being prepared, but for the mean time we will escort you to your lodging. Once the banquet is ready, a servant will come to your lodging.”

The guards and servants escorted us out of the Audience Hall and into our ‘lodging’. I just want to have some rest right now, I’m not tired physically but mentally? I’m drained. I’m also looking forward to the banquet later.

+ + + + +

In the King’s study, the court sorcerer and the King were sitting at a table.

“Your Majesty, I have come to report the status of otherworlders.” Antonius said.

“Hmmm, how was it, does anyone seem useful enough?” the king asked.

“Based on their status, they are only stronger than a common man, but given enough time, they will be stronger. Besides, otherworlders level up easier.” Antonius replied, "As for their usefulness, the boy named Marvin might be easy enough to control and for the rest, nothing that a few hypnosis and brainwashing spells can handle."

"I see, I give you full authority regarding those otherworlders, see to it that they will be useful to the Kingdom." the King paused and looked straight at Antonius' eyes, "If they prove to be useless, just dispose of them, we can always try the summoning ritual again next spring."

"By Your Will, Your Majesty." Antonius bowed and turned to leave but he suddenly remembered something, "I almost forgot, Your Majesty, about the boy named Ian; his status is even lower than a child."

"Hmm?! Does he have any useful skills?" The King asked.

"None Your Majesty, the boy doesn't even have a single skill." Antonius answered.

"How is that even possible? Even babies have at least 1 skill." the King said.

Antonius stroked his chin before answering, "I have a theory to explain it Your Majesty, perhaps that boy was just caught up in the summoning ritual."

"What do you mean caught up in the summoning ritual?" the King asked.

"Since the beginning of the summoning ritual, only 12 otherworlders are summoned by the ritual. Never did it summon more than 12, but this time 13 otherworlders have been summoned." Antonius explained.

"I see. An unfortunate victim indeed, too bad for him. Find a way to get rid of him." the King said.

"By Your Will Your Majesty." Antonius said as he bowed and turned to leave.

+ + + Ian + + +

The ‘lodging’ they led us into is actually a detached building from the castle. ‘This will serve as our house then. Isn’t it a little too big for the 13 of us? I mean it’s a damn mansion.’

Upon arriving at the front door, the knight leading us stopped and faced u, “Young Heroes, we have arrived at your lodging.”

My classmates let out gasps of shock and surprise when they heard that we’re going to stay in this mansion, ‘I mean who wouldn’t be, it’s a damn mansion for crying out loud, but I won’t be expecting much since from what I have seen they’re still in the Medieval Ages here.’

As we entered the mansion, two rows of servants welcomed us, the servants then led us to our rooms, each of us were given our own rooms, all of us except for me that is.

“I’m very sorry Sir Hero, the heroes’ villa only has 12 rooms prepared.” a servant apologized.

‘What the heck!?’

An old servant approached me, “Sir Hero, I apologize once more for the lack of rooms, there are only 12 rooms because there should only be 12 heroes at a time, but this time there are 13 of you.”

‘What the fuck!?’, I didn’t want to argue anymore so I just said, “Don’t worry about it, I can sleep anywhere. I’ll just sleep at one of the couches in the common room.”

Carlo and Kelvin heard everything and once the old servant left, they approached me, “Yow Ian, wanna sleep in my room? If you’ll be sleeping in a couch, then there’s one at my room.” Carlo said.

“Don’t leave me out, I’ll go sleep at Carlo’s room tonight too, it’ll just be like a sleep over.” Kelvin said.

“Yeah, let’s go ask Cess and Rika, I bet they'd be mad if we didn’t invite them.” Carlo suggested.

“Hahaha, yeah you’re right, thanks bros.” I said to them,

We went to Carlo’s room to relax a bit while waiting for the servants to call us for the banquet. It didn’t take long for the servants to call us for the banquet, we left Carlo’s room and went to the common room where most of our classmates were already there, and the same knight that led us here was also present.

“Young Heroes, the banquet is now ready, we will now escort you to the great hall.” the knight said.

As soon as everyone was already here the knights escorted us back to the castle.