POV Ansgar

I don't have many good memories of my old life. It wasn't bad, I'm not saying that, but you could describe it in a single word: boring. I was a normal high school student with no special skills. My grades were average, I wasn't particularly good at sports, didn't play an instrument, or had any other talent. I also lacked the ambition to improve myself with a lot of work and sweat. I achieved everything with as minimal effort as possible. I didn't have a girlfriend either, even though I wasn't bad looking. Looking average and not standing out from the crowd probably wasn't attractive enough for the girls. Michael was different, he was always a womanizer. As soon as he entered a room, the girls turned to look at him. He then smiled at each of them and you can tell how their hearts melted. You could also tell that he enjoyed the attention. He always liked being the center of attention and the fact that girls adored him made him even happier.

That's why I never really understood why he chose Jessica as his girlfriend. Jessica is our best friend Jonathan's little sister and a year younger than us. She looked pretty with her blonde hair, no question, but she had a quirk that would really bother me. She was extremely clingy and whenever the two of them were together, she hung on his every word and absorbed everything he said. Her arms clasped his arm and her eyes were always on him. But maybe that's what he needed, a girlfriend to put him on a pedestal and adore him.

But none of that bothered me because the four of us had one thing in common that really interested me. We all had a common hobby and that was role playing games. I lived for the times when we all met and went on adventures together. Here I could be free and embody what I wanted to be. It was a fortunate coincidence that this bookstore had an area that they made available to us so that we could meet up and play. And so it didn't matter much to me that my days on Earth ended during the role-playing game. On the contrary, I died doing what I loved most.

The encounter with the god Lumos took place without much memory for me. All I cared about was the facts. I will be reborn into a world of swords and magic. I will become a hero who will fight for humankind against evil. I get to choose which stats and abilities I will get. My two best friends plus appendages are also reincarnated as human heroes. I didn't care about the rest. Anyway, I prefer characters who can fight well and plow through the hordes of enemies. Others can do the thinking.

My memory starts again shortly before my 5th birthday. I am the son of a diplomat from the northern lands and currently at the emperor's court in the capital of the empire. I find out that on my birthday I have to go to a ceremony where my status will be revealed publicly. Everyone in the Empire does this at the age of 5 to know what their status ​​are. The ceremony promises to be boring and lengthy, as I was never interested in theory and only the result counts. My status shows the following abilities:

Name: Ansgar
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Class: None
Age: 5
Level: 0
EXP: 0
DevP: 0 (development points)
HP: 10 (health points)
SP: 10 (stamina points)
MP: 0 (mana points)
Strength: 30
Endurance: 25
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 5
Charisma: 5
Intuition: 5
 
Skills: Appraisal 0/10000, Limit Break 0/10000
Unique Abilities: Strong Muscles, Persistent Body, Berserker
Title: Hero, Reincarnate, Blessed by Lumos, Cursed by Luna

I nod happily. Which is the way I wanted it, but I would have liked to have done without the curse. Let's just stay in the sun and sleep at night. Immediately after my proclamation, a priest comes up to me and shouts loudly:

“A hero has been found. That makes it three. Dear hero, please follow me. I’ll take you to the others.”

POV Javier

When people ask me what my time on earth was like, I can only confirm that it was a good time. I was successful at school, which was because I had completely planned my route to school. Which subjects I take, which club I join, how I spend my free time, everything. I had caring parents and a somewhat annoying little sister. She was one of the main reasons why everything didn't always go according to plan. For example, I couldn't imagine what happened when I took her to our role-playing games. She kept annoying me until I gave in. But I could have guessed it, because I knew Michael's charm. Jessica immediately fell head over heels in love and never left his side. At least now Michael had to take care of her and I had peace and quiet from her.

I had also planned out my character in the role-playing game. It was necessary to know the rules exactly in order to choose the best one. So it was a shock for me at first when I met the god Lumos in heaven after our death. The reason was not that I was given the chance to be reborn. Having a life is better than not having one. Nor was it the fact that the world was full of swords and magic. I've always preferred wizards and was able to impersonate one again. Wizards have the huge advantage of not having to be in the front line of combat and suffer pain. They can also deal a lot of damage from a distance with spells, which I always liked. No, the fact that shocked me was that I didn't know the rules within which I could choose my character. I could only use my gut instinct to decide what would be useful. But I've had many years of experience in role-playing games, so I was sure I hadn't made a bad decision when I was reincarnated.

I use the time I have until my status ceremony takes place intensively to plan. I also find out about the world and everything else that is important. I first decide to learn to read and write in the local language. I can do that without any problems because I belong to a traveling merchant tribe from the south of the empire who often come to the capital to trade. So my ceremony will take place in a church in Lichtburg. I am part of a larger group of children, around 30 in total. Apparently the ceremony takes place once a month and anyone whose birthday has been in the last 30 days takes part. As always, I try to pay close attention so that I don't miss anything important. And something very interesting actually happens. To determine the status of a person, a certain skill called appraisal is used. Without this ability, it is not possible to view one's own status, let alone that of others. I chose the perk to have this ability at maximum right from the start in order to track my and others' progress in development. This will also help me a lot in identifying our opponents.

When my turn comes, I am informed of the following status:

Name: Javier
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Class: None
Age: 5
Level: 0
EXP: 0
DevP: 0 (development points)
HP: 10 (health points)
SP: 10 (stamina points)
MP: 10 (mana points)
Strength: 5
Endurance: 10
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 20
Charisma: 15
Intuition: 5
 
Skills: Appraisal Master 60000/60000, Limit Break 0/10000, Air Magic 0/10000, Earth Magic 0/10000, Fire Magic 0/10000, Ice Magic 0/10000, Lightning Magic 0/10000, Water Magic 0/10000
Unique Abilities: Enhanced Mana Vessel, Master Elementalist, Master Analyst
Title: Hero, Reincarnate, Blessed by Lumos, Cursed by Luna

Very good, exactly what I imagined and chose. But what's with the blessing and the curse? The blessing is nice, but the curse will still be a problem. This should prevent us from fighting in the dark when we have noticeable disadvantages here. And there's no sun shining in the dungeon, which isn't good either. At least there is no moon there either, so hopefully we won't have any disadvantages there. Then an announcement jolts me out of my thoughts. The priest who carried out the analysis on me announces:

“Praise our Lord Lumos, the fourth hero has been found. Come with me, dear hero, I will take you to someone who will take care of you.” 

With that the priest bows to me and indicates that I should follow him. So I'm the fourth? Then the other three were already found and are together. It's great that this happened so easily and early. Then we have more time to plan. I need to know what the others chose when generating it and what information they have already been able to collect.