Malt felt nothing. In fact he neither saw nor heard either. That was to be expected as he had no form. No sensory organs to perceive from, much less any appendages to move. But even if he could, there was nowhere to go. It was as if he were floating in a sea of nothingness, of void.

How long had he been there? It felt like seconds and eons at the same time. With no recollection of where he was or where he came from, all he could do was wait.

Suddenly, he began to shake violently. With every abrupt motion he seemed to feel more and more, as if the jerking was bringing back the sensations in his body.

As his senses returned one by one he began to hear a faint voice.

The voice grew louder and louder until it was practically beside him.

“Malt! Hey, wake up already! C’mon!”

Malt opened his groggy eyes to find a familiar face in front of, or rather, above him. Light brown hair, handsome features, delicate complexion, it was definitely his classmate.

Propping himself on one elbow, he blinked multiple times to adjust his blurry vision.

“Hmm? Is that you Glenn?”

His tone was calm and weary, as if he had just woken from an afternoon nap. In stark contrast, Glenn looked like he was going through a midlife crisis. He spoke in a panicked whisper, which surprised Malt.

“You need to get it together Malt! We’re in serious trouble.”

The panic in his eyes was alarming. Although the two never really got to know each other, everyone knew Glenn as the perfect and reliable student council president. Seeing him in such a state made him uneasy.

He placed a hand on Glenn’s trembling shoulder,

“Calm down, take a deep breath. What's got you all worked up?”

“What do you mean what’s got me all worked up? Take a look around you!”

Confused, Malt began to examine his surroundings.

His eyes widened as he drew a light gasp.

They were in the middle of a large hall. The hall in question could be described in one word, magnificent.

It was huge and stretched on for what seemed like hundreds of meters. The roof was arched and reached unimaginably high, from it hung great, grandiose chandeliers that painted the room in bright white light.

Nearly everything in the room was made of marble, all tinted in various shades of white and gold. There were intricate designs and patterns expertly etched into many surfaces, enough so to make the room scream lavish, but still sparse enough so that the room maintained a simplistic elegance. Hanging from the columns were countless red tapestries enveloped in golden embroidery.

Dozens of guards, clad in gleaming steel armor, lined the walls of the hall. They all wore the same insignia, the same one that appeared throughout out the room.

The very carpet that the two were sprawled on was soft to the touch, his fingers seemed to sink into the crimson fabric. Two other figures sat, similarly confused, in close proximity to them.

One had straight black hair and a slender frame, her graceful features gave her an air of elegance and intelligence. His classmate Naomi, if Malt recalled correctly.

The other had short, chocolate brown hair. Her smaller stature and delicate features starkly contrasted Naomi’s. Her name was Erika.

Before he could address the two of them, a firm voice echoed from the end of the hall.

“Welcome, otherworlders, to my kingdom.”

Their eyes followed the red carpet to the end of the hall before resting on a grand throne. An old man sat atop the throne, draped in a luxurious red mantle.

On his head rested a majestic crown. Sublime jewels sat embedded in untarnished gold and glittering platinum. Masterfully cut etchings enveloped its entirety.

The man in question was easily in his twilight years. Wrinkles and creases covered his face. Despite this, his noble features shown through. His friendly eyes emitted wisdom and his expression was one of confidence. It was undoubtedly the countenance of a king.

“My name is King Cordefroi the Thirteenth. I am the ruler of this Kingdom of Astoundria.”

He placed a hand to his chest and bowed his head slightly,

“I’d like to first apologize for bringing you to this world so forcefully, but the situation we face is most dire.”

Malt and the others couldn’t even muster words as they tried to process the events unfolding before them. A mixture of panic, fear, and curiosity flooded their minds.

I know I’m not dreaming, so what in the world is happening? Something told Malt that this wasn’t a dream. Although outworldly and fantastical, he somehow knew that this was very much reality.

“P-please raise your head.”

The others looked at Glenn in surprise. Seeming to have mostly calmed down, he stood up straight and took a firm stance.

“Please just answer some of our questions.”

The other three rose from the ground and joined Glenn, standing side by side. Feeling slightly more confident now that he had some familiar faces backing him up, he took a step closer to the King,

“First of all, where are we and how did we get here?”

The King grinned to himself slightly, impressed by his confidence.

“This palace is located in the center of the kingdom, in the capitol. I can personally vouch that you are in safe hands as long as you reside here. As for why we brought you here… ” the King rose from his throne,

“You have been brought here as heroes in order to fight off the demon hordes.”

Confusion once again enveloped their faces. This time Naomi was the one to speak.

“Heroes… You’re not making any sense. What do you mean by ‘demon horde’?”

“I know not of your original world, but in this one the humanoid races are being terrorized by the demons and their kin. This has been the case for many centuries.”

The king sat back in his throne, sighing.

“But as of the last two months, the hordes have been getting worse and worse. We lost nearly a quarter of our men in their last attack, and frankly speaking... we haven’t a chance against another assault.”

The faces of the soldiers and nobles watching became grim after the King’s confession. Of course everyone knew how dire the circumstances were, but hearing it from the King’s mouth somehow made it worse. The nail in the coffin, so to speak.

Glenn swallowed in discomfort. The heavy atmosphere was taking a toll on his already exhausted mind.

“You said something about heroes… what do you mean by heroes?”

“Heroes are beings of legend that possess great power and character. They have been summoned in eons past, but the spell to do so was just recently rediscovered.”

“... I sort of understand but... why us? We’re just four regular students. There are people much more capable than us that reside in our world.”

“I know not of how this magic truly works, only that you have been chosen for a reason. What reason? Even I do not know. But I have no choice but to trust in this magic.”

Malt was beyond clueless. This talk of magic and demons was so far fetched that in any other circumstance, he wouldn’t have believed it. But the setting very much corroborated the King’s story.

Glenn turned to his classmates, huddling them into a close circle.

“I dunno, do we trust him or not? His explanation sounds so strange but… somehow it kind of makes sense.”

Naomi crossed her arms and closed her eyes in thought.

“I suppose we shouldn’t be too trusting but...”

She gave a sideways glance to the guards lining the walls,

“... I suppose we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

Malt recalled the many fairy tales he had heard back in the previous world. No matter which way you looked at it, this was the generic world of swords and spells. He glanced again at the steel armor and swords that the guards had equipped.

“Assuming that we really are in another world, this place is something straight out of a fantasy novel…”

The other two nodded in agreement, but one girl stood there, fidgeting.

“Hey Erika… are you okay?” They all looked at Erika in worry. Now that they quieted down, they could hear her muffled whimpering and shaky breaths.

“Are you guys not worried? We don't even know whether we can get home...”

Naomi embraced Erika, bringing her into her chest. The girl buried her face into Naomi’s blouse, silently crying.

“I understand what you’re feeling Erika. None of us know what's going to happen, but all we can do is follow along for now.”

Glenn nodded in agreement.

“We can decide on a course of action after we hear the King out.”

He gave her a warm smile and gently wiped her tears away with his thumb. She smiled slightly, her mood seeming to have improved.

“Mhm, you're right. Sorry for the outburst.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

… the hell is happening? How do attractive people pull off shit like that without getting embarrassed? Malt stood there awkwardly, he’d never been in this situation before. In fact he rarely even interacted with girls at school, so the popular president’s bold actions bewildered him.

“... I apologize for cutting such a heartfelt moment short, but I must continue.”

The four students all scrambled back into their positions, clearly flustered. As was obvious, Glenn was taking the role of communicator again.

“A-ah, we apologize for chatting so long, your highness.”

“No, it's completely understandable that you’d be distraught in this situation, and for that I cannot apologize enough. However, we must move on to the next order of business.”

He beckoned to one of the people standing at the side of the room. A well dressed young woman carrying some golden contraption stepped forward, followed by two servants. The servants placed a small embellished stand in front of the King. Finally, the lady placed the contraption gently onto the stand before stepping to the side.

“This is a magical reading device invented by elder dwarves many, many years ago. It displays your basic information, skills, and of course, your level. Your level is a representation of how powerful you are, and every living being in this world has one.”

Malt furrowed his eyebrows, but an excitement rose from deep inside him.

“Eh… so like levels in rpgs right?”

Glenn looked at him questioningly,

“... I wasn’t really into gaming back on earth. Care to explain?”

What year were you born in? This is the 21st century, what teenage boy doesn’t at least know what levels are? Malt shook away his troublesome thoughts, there were more important things to attend to anyway.

“So like, whenever you earn enough xp… ahem, experience points by fighting monsters, your level increases. When you level up you get stronger and your stats go up.”

Glenn listened intently, absorbing Malt’s word’s carefully. He almost seemed too serious, nodding in understanding while staring at him thoughtfully. This situation is so weird. Never thought I’d go rambling on about games to someone like prez...

“Your highness, is this correct?”

“... not entirely. Instead of receiving strength whenever your level increases, the device increases your level index in accordance with your strength. It acts more like a measuring device than anything."

The lady who’d brought up the contraption interjected,

“Every living thing has magical power of some kind. The device simply takes in that information and returns it in a language that we can understand.”

The King eyed the device, squinting his eyes in confusion.

“The people of the kingdom cannot figure out exactly how this contraption functions… they say that the skill of those elder dwarves were envied even by the gods.”

The flame of excitement in Malt’s eyes burned even brighter.

“Dwarves as in like, the short, strong humanoids that are master smiths?”

“Ah, yes. Are you familiar with them? Perhaps they exist in your world too?”

“No, they don't, sadly. They’re kind of like folklore in our world.”

Malt’s eyes widened as the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

“So if there’s dwarves… does that mean that there's also… elves?”

“Yes, there's also many other humanoid races. Beastmen, dragonborn, orcs, halflings, gnomes, giantmen, Ko-rin, the list goes on and on.”

The excitement in Malt’s eyes was almost glaring. I mean I’m leaving behind a lot of things back on earth but… maybe this isn’t so bad after all. Seems there's a lot to look forward to. He grinned suspiciously. Especially the elves.

“Anyways that's enough chit-chat. We must now see the extent of your strength.”

He beckoned to Naomi first, most likely because she was in the rightmost position.

She walked confidently up the carpeted steps and stood afront the device, awaiting instruction.

The contraption in question could be split into three parts. One was a blue orb that levitated about an inch above a little copper plate. The plate was supported on four sides by metal rods that stood fastened to the steel baseplate. Just under the plate was a collection of countless gears, dials, and other unknown mechanical parts that all interlocked seamlessly. Finally, sandwiched between the gears and the baseplate was a little cubby where a small quill tip lay, unattached to the piece of equipment.

The lady from before brought a small sheet of parchment, about the shape of an index card, and inserted it into the device’s slot.

“Now please place your hand on the blue orb.”

Naomi hesitated momentarily before placing her hand on the sphere.

At first, nothing happened. But after a few seconds, the orb began to shine brighter and brighter, as if it were being imbued with energy. The gears began churning as the orb continued to brighten.

I can see why Naomi of all people was picked to be a hero. Beautiful, refined, smart, and a good leader. She’s also part of the student council if I remember correctly.

As if the sight could become any more outworldly, little tendrils of water began swirling around Naomi, almost enveloping her. A cacophony of oohs and ahhs echoed throughout the room as everyone's expression morphed into a mixture of shock and admiration.

After several seconds, the orb stopped glowing, returning to it’s original state and the tendrils of water evaporated, as if they had never existed. The gears stopped churning and the dials stopped rotating as the contraption became completely quiet.

Suddenly the quill tip rose from the paper, supported by nothing. Levitating in the air, it moved into position at the card’s top left corner.

After finding its place, the tip pressed against the parchment and began scribbling onto the paper. As if an invisible scribe were holding it, the quill danced across the card leaving neat and well proportioned characters in its trail. It wrote line by line with almost mechanical accuracy and pace.

Kind of reminds me of a printer from back home. Wonder if this world has things like the machines back on earth. Does this mean that magic is a pretty common thing here? No, considering that the King lives in this palace, I wouldn’t be surprised if magic was considerably rarer on the outside.

After a few seconds, the quill finally lifted from the card, dropping lifelessly next to it.

The crowd went silent as the device’s operator carefully took the card out of the contraption, examining it.

An air of anticipation rose throughout as people held their breaths, anxious to see how powerful their savior would be.

After a glance, her eyes widened as her lips formed an astonished smile.

“T-these stats! They’re outrageous! Over a thousand strength at level one?!”

Cheers erupted from the crowd as people began jumping about, hugging one another. After all, they’d just found that at least one of their heroes was beyond exceptional. Naomi, clearly flustered, took the card from the lady’s hands.

“I-is that really all that impressive?”

The King looked most relieved out of everyone in the room, visibly relaxing his shoulders.

“To put it into perspective, the average adult villager has only around ten strength, fifteen at most. The knights under my command only average eighty. Even the best warriors in the kingdom, the cream of the crop, struggle to pass two-hundred.”

Naomi offered the card to the King.

“But you, you have over a thousand. And at level one at that. This means that this is your baseline, you will grow much, much stronger than any warrior that ever existed.”

Not only did Naomi have an outrageous amount of strength, her agility was even higher. Of course, her other stats didn’t lag more than a hundred points behind either. This surpassed even the heroes said to exist in ages past. In short, she was exceptionally strong, even for hero standards.

The operator lady was practically jumping around in excitement,

“Not only that, but she has a strong affinity with water magic and an abnormally high mana pool. She has the making for a world-class spellsword.”

The King straightened his posture again, raising his hand to silence the crowd.

“Now now, calm down. I am just as glad as you are to be blessed with such a powerful hero. Let us see if the other heroes are just as powerful.”

Naomi walked confidently back to her spot near the other three, a faint blush still covering her cheeks. Glenn immediately placed a hand on her shoulder,

“That's amazing Naomi! To think that you’d be so powerful! Even if we three fall short, I’m sure you’d easily be able to save the people with your own strength.”

The blush of Naomi’s features deepened, apparently she wasn’t used to being showered with this much praise.

“That's overexagerationg it a bit, don't you think? After all, I’d be damned if you guys were as strong if not stronger than me anyway.”

“Well, we’ll just have to see, won't we?”

Erika stepped up next. She couldn’t keep her composure as well Naomi could, so her face was as red as a tomato throughout the whole ordeal. An open book, one could say.

She placed her hand onto the orb. The outcome was largely the same besides the element enveloping her. Instead of tendrils of water, beads of sediment formed around her. The beads slowly combined and grew until eventually, various shining and glistening stones flew around her.

I could see why Erika was chosen too. She looks like a cute airhead, but she’s actually plenty smart. Plus, something about her smile raises morale like nothing else can. Also a member of the student council if I remember correctly. Wait a minute. I'm starting to spot a pattern here...

When it was time to announce her stats, the crowd was completely silent again, praying that luck would grace them with another splendid hero.

And blessed they were.

“Her strength is nearly at lady Naomi’s, but her earth magic affinity is off the charts!”

More of the same cheers erupted from the crowd as they thanked the gods for another strong protector.

“Along with her affinity with earth magic, her mana pool is enormous, even more so than lady Naomi’s. With this much mana and affinity, she could even use healing magic.”

Naomi and Glenn patted her back, congratulating her profusely.

Ah crap… I should be like, congratulating them too shouldn’t I? I’ll be left out at this point. He mustered all the courage he had and approached the three.

“H-hey nice job Eri-”

“How splendid! Another amazing hero to protect my people. Would it be impudent to hope for even more capable heroes?”

This King just cut me off didn’t he?

By the time Malt could recover emotionally, Glenn had already walked up to receive his status.

He placed his hand on the orb, eyes blazing with anticipation. After a brief moment, raging flames engulfed him, casting long shadows across the room. The people gasped and awe and surprise, the flame was so brilliant that despite the burning in their eyes, they couldn’t look away.

By the time the flames had subsided, cheers were echoing throughout the wall once again.

“His Strength is unbelievable! It’s almost twice that of Lady Erika’s!”

The mood in the room was beyond lively. People were dancing about, embracing one another. Some even shed tears of joy.

“His affinity with magic and oppressive strength is like none-other, I wouldn't be surprised if he had enough destructive power to rival a sage even at level one.”

Glenn returned to his classmates, receiving encouragement and congratulations from Erika and Naomi as he did so. Malt didn’t even try to jump in this time.

Finally, it was Malt’s turn.

The King had abandoned all semblance of composure at this point. He was grinning ear to ear, probably as happy if not happier than his people at these outstanding results.

“It looks like the gods have not forsaken us! To be blessed with not one, but three amazing heroes, the demons must be shaking in their boots as we speak. I am anxious about the results of our last hero, but judging by the previous luck, we can probably expect similar results.”

Stop hyping it up man! I’m already excited enough as is! Malt placed his hand onto the orb. I wonder what element I’m gonna get! Maybe lightning? No, maybe some darkness power would be cooler. Lightning would look flashier though, hmm...

Strangely, nothing floated around him before his stats were printed onto the paper, but he was far too excited to notice.

Everyone was beyond anxious to see the final hero’s stats, but it was pretty much decided that his stats would be on par with the other heroes.

The operator took the card out of the contraption.

Malt couldn’t take the anticipation. He felt like the entire room, which had gone silent by now, could hear his heartbeat.

“And it looks like our last hero’s stats are… completely basic?”

Huh?

Everyone in the room went silent.

“Umm, his strength is eight, the rest of his stats are about the same… No affinity with any type of magic and... zero mana.”

No one could utter a word. The excitement and jolly atmosphere from earlier had washed away in an instant. Even the King’s mouth was agape in shock.

“... I’m sorry to say but it looks like this one is just a regular person.”

Excuse me?