Hey guys, sorry about the wait. School is starting soon, so I'm frantically finishing assignments one after another, as soon I have a large segment of free time, I promise I'll start churning out those chapters like there is no tomorrow. But less about me, here's the new chapter.

Quote:“When you gaze into an abyss, the abyss gazes into you.” – Friedriche Nietzsche 

“What?! Where are we?” Jason asked, wide-eyed.

“This isn’t my house!” Steven realised a little too late.

“Who are you people? And what do you want?!” Lori softly asked while. Shin stayed silent.

“Esteemed heroes, no doubt you are all very confused, but are be assured that we mean you no harm. Please follow the guards and I’ll answer your questions at the throne room,” the person that proclaimed to be the king replied.

Soon Shin and the trio followed men clad in armour pass corridors filled with lavish art and colours and arrived at even more spectacular room where a single dignified throne sat. Calling the place a room was an understatement, the room was as large as oval at Shin’s school. A pair of stairs led up at an incline to a surprisingly simple throne. Several long tables sat in front of the throne that viewed the entire room. Guards in decorated armour were stationed at every exit, two guards that wore golden armour and radiated an air of nobility stood to the sides of the throne. Both guards were extremely handsome and would surely cause chaos amongst women if they were to walk down the streets. One guard had blonde hair and a warm look in his eyes, the other guard had a piercing gaze and a flame red hair; though the colour was unusual, it looked alarmingly natural on the man.

As the King entered all the nobles that sat behind the long tables fell silent, and all the guards kneeled, except the two beside the throne. The King went and sat on the throne with the beautiful girl followed and stood behind the throne.

“How rude of me, I haven’t introduced myself yet. As I said: this is the Kingdom of Estad, and I am its king, King Peon the Third, you can address me as King Peon. Behind me is my daughter, you can address her as Princess Anica. Though I have a son, I apologize he can’t be here today as he is currently on an expedition, leading the subjugation of demons, I’ll introduce him when he returns. Now I’ll do my best to answer your questions,” the king explained.

“I’m Jason Kendrick, you can call me Jason,” Jason spoke first.

“My name is Steven Myers, most just call me Steven,” Steven introduced himself.

“M-M-My name is Lori Hills,” Lori appears to be shrinking as she said her name.

“Call me Shin,” Shin said curtly.

Silence dominated the room before Jason spoke up.

“Why were we summoned specifically?” he asked.

“The human realm is in a dire condition, the demons from the demon realm has suddenly became more active and began attacking villages and small dukedoms. At first it wasn’t too big of a threat as there were many capable knights that fended off the attacks, however demon generals started appearing. The last time demon generals appeared was 500 years ago, when the last demon lord also appeared. The demon general each have the strength on par with 1000 royal magic knights, and the demon lord has even more power than that. Luckily, 500 years ago the demon generals and demon lord were subdued by brave heroes that were summoned using the same spell as we did now. When the demon general was sighted, fear has hit the human realm like a tidal wave. We realised the imminent appearance of the demon lord, so we casted the summoning spell and you four were summoned,” King Peon replied.

“You said that you used a spell, does that mean this world has magic?” Lori asked timidly.

“Yes, this world is believed to be made of magic, that we call mana. There are three basic realms in this world, the human realm, the beast-men realm and finally, the demon realm. There are also elves, fairies and dwarves but due to their low population and high mana affinity they’re considered a sub-race of the demon realm. The human realm is composed of three main countries; Estad, Aldshore, and Fayden, with smaller countries that dot around the three. Estad is the western most country while Fayden borders the Snowlands in the north, and Aldshore occupies the eastern side of the continent and acts as the frontlines against the demon realm. The beast-men realm resides on a single continent, Vertdell, south of the human realm, the continent is ruled by two main clans, the Felis and the Canis clan, while there are other smaller clans, and they lack the influence to control the country. Lastly, not much is known about the demon realm, it occupies the far east of the other realms and is connected to the other two realms through several interconnected landmasses. Normally demons do not often get together to create a lasting country, however with the appearance of demon general, there are news from scouts that the demons has a built a castle and a city around it. Apparently the size of the city rivals the main capital of humans, located in the middle of the three human countries.”

“Though you call us heroes, we lack battle experience and we know nothing about this world and how it works,” Steven interjected.

“Do not worry; you’ll be trained by the best of my subordinates. As for combat experience, we’ll have you register in the Adventurer’s Guild, where you’ll undertake quests for money, you’ll gather experience there. On a side note, do you know of your class yet?”

“What class?” Jason asked.

“I see you still haven’t seen it. Say the word, ‘status’, and a board should appear that shows your details, under your name should be your class,”

“Status,” Shin muttered, suddenly a game-like screened appeared in his head. His name is written and several bars and numbers occupied the screen. The bars represented Shin’s mana, health and stamina, each with a numerical value above it. Next to the bars were Shin’s stats, but where the numbers should be, question marks took its place. Confused, Shin checked his level next to his name; it was the same as his stats, unknown. Underneath his name, where his class should be, the letters appear corrupted and cannot be read.

“Ooooh! I’m a swordsman! This is so cool! It’s exactly like an RPG!” Jason exclaimed.

“It says, I am an archer,” Steven replied evenly.

“I-I-I’m a mage,” squeaked Lori.

The three were chattering excitedly, the situation and the fact that magic existed in this world, obviously aroused their inner child. Shin, however, stayed silent and ignored the three, thoughts about his stats and level and a methods of returning to his world raced through his mind.

“The young man over there, Shin was it? What’s the matter you a have troubling expression,” King Peon asked kindly.

“Nothing, your majesty,” Shin replied as he changed his face to that of his “character”, “It’s just that I am troubled about the fact that’ll we’ll be reported as missing in our world and wondering if we are able to return.”

“Do not fear, we summoned you from a different time-line and universe altogether, so time runs differently, 100 years here is equal to one day in your world. As for sending you back; not much can be done as the method of returning you to your world requires godly amounts of pure mana, but there are texts on an item that possess such amounts of pure mana in the demon-realm. I believe the item was called the Heart of Gaia,” the king attempted to reassure them, but such sentiments passed on the three excited teens. However it greatly troubled Shin as they are basically forced to fight the demon-lord to go home. 

“For now, all you have to focus on is your training as the Oracle of the Lordale Church has predicted the rise of the demon lord to be in 3 years’ time. In the 3 years, please grow strong!”

“Sure leave it to us!” Jason exclaimed as he puffed out his chest.

Idiot, Shin cursed in his mind. They had no obligation to help this world, they were forced out their own world selfishly to help these people, there was no reason for them to accept!

“Thank you! Thank you, heroes! I’m sure you are all very tired, so I’ll have you escorted to your rooms; if you have any questions just ask the servants. The training will start tomorrow,” King Peon thanked them and ordered the guards to show them their quarters.

As Shin sat down on his bed he watched the sun set down in the unpolluted sky, he could see from his windows the soldiers and archers below were swinging at dummies and shooting targets. As the sun slowly disappeared into the horizon, three moons rose into the sky that Shin later came to know that it represented the three goddesses that shaped the world out of mana. The stars were all visible; if Shin was an astrologist he would’ve had a heart attack from the excitement of seeing such stars in a clean sky. As Shin, laid down and slept, a faint voice whispered in his mind: “I’m waiting for you Shin, soon we will meet again,”. Thinking he was just hearing things, Shin allowed the darkness to engulf his mind. Surprisingly he didn’t have the dream that night.