We follow the Queen through an ornate hallway that is filled with paintings of beautiful landscapes, and epic battles. There is even one that depicts Krolowa in her golden years devastating various armies at once.{Ah yes I remember that battle, I killed hundreds of thousands until he showed up and they turned me into armor after failing to remove my soul.}

(actually I’ve been wondering how you did that.)

{It’s not that complicated actually, you just have to take your soul crystal and your astral self, bind them together, carefully embed them inside of an object, and then boom! you’re sealed inside}

(The fucks a soul crystal?)

{When any living creature is conceived the mana from the parents collide and react to create a calcified stone of pure mana. The stone is hollow and is what we mean when we refer to a mana pool because when you absorb outside manna it will be trapped in your crystle. This also explains why a creature's IME is the same color as their soul.}

(IME?)

{Individual magic effect, it’s what happens when an individual releases their mana in its purest form. For example your magic missile, which is supposed to be just a weak training spell, is green because of your soul.}

Okay so souls are now physical things, that’s cool, but what I don’t get is…

(If my soul is made of magic stone, how does my mana pool increase?)

{When you level up outside mana that will usually come from whatever you just killed, in the case of an adventurer, will be added to the outer layer of your soul crystal while the innermost layer melts.... On a side note when you leveled up to 8 all at once, you probably ended up killing anyone else who survived but only had a little manna left.}

(but Renise, Sheamus, and that Necromancer were alive?)

{True but they were all close to level twenty or above and likely were far enough away that at worst you emptied their mana pool. However for everyone else? You ended up dissolving and absorbing their soul crystals because they no longer had a mana pool to drain. And unlike when we personally chipped away at each others souls during our fight you didn’t gain any new skills from it.}

Holy exposition dump, Batman!! This is lot to take in… BUT NOW I HAVE EVEN MORE QUESTIONS!!

(WAIT! Does that mean, that someone can die from having to big a mana crystal? How did Renise get such a high level without committing genocide? What is the max level for a human? What does soul colour mean?! And what's an astral form!!)

{Okay, well inorder the answers are: No because the largest human soul ever recorded was only about the size of a child's palm and belonged to a level 36 warlock. Probably by hiring a high level alchemist to make a level potion out of her collected crystals which would cause a level up of maximum efficiency upon consumption. No one knows but the highest level ever recorded before Rei was a level 40 warrior who slaughtered thousands and survived 2 king wars. And while no one truly knows the reason for a souls color we can guess that it refers to the magical affinity while any other oddities about the souls appearance references their personality or emotional state}

(huh...neat, but what about the astral form?)

{essentially a combination of your psychic and magical energies projected through your crystal into the astral plane. So if you fail to perfect your astral form before death you can’t do what I did and essentially become immortal.}

(and like that this shot to the top of my todo list.)

“Hey Jon, are you paying attention?”[Renise]

“Huh? No sorry I was busy with the voice in my head.”.....

Renise, the queen, and Sheamus all look at me weird, until finally Renise snaps her fingers.

“Oh, right, the dragon. I almost forgot about it.”[Renise]

The Queen raises an eyebrow “ah yes, I remember Reginald mentioning that you stole some of our military's magical items.”

I glare back at her and look her in the eye“Um, I didn't steal shit your highness, I simply took what I thought was necessary to survive the journey here. And while we're on the topic, no I will not be giving back any of my items.”

The queen narrows her eyes at my disrespectful behavior, while my companions gawk silently.

“Is that so, and why is that?[the queen places a hand on her hip looks me up and down as if she were analyzing me for something]

“Because I’ll need them to fight the human king and his armies,but first, [I turn to Renise] you owe me fifty silver.” I hold my hand out expectantly.

“Seriously? I thought that deal wouldn’t apply any more considering how your not really a mercenary.”[Renise is taken aback]

Sheamus guffaws "what!"

I pat his shoulder I promise to tell you later."

BUT FIRST...

My serious face breaks into a grin and turns to Renise again.“Well if it makes you feel any better just think of it as payment for saving you from the arch-necromancer, the goblins, and getting you here quickly...also known as the job description.”

“Ugh, fine,here” Renise rolls her eyes, and reaches for a coin pouch that was tucked beneath her cloak on her side. She then pulls out a gold coin and hands it to me. “That’s for the extra….stuff that happened”

She glances at my right side and I know what she means. “Thanks, with this I can buy myself some real clothes and maybe a mask for when I’m not wearing my armor.”

In my head Krolowa scoffs

{like you’ll ever be safe enough to take me off completely}

She nods as Queen Margaret clears her throat “SO, do you mind explaining how you plan defeat the human king?”

“Well miss, after being murdered in my old world, Rignath summoned my soul and sent me to this world to stop the war. I was hoping that you could help me with setting up a small party of specialists and granting me some training with your best soldiers. Of course if you don’t believe me you can just take a look at my profile”[me]

"Fucking hell lad."[Sheamus sighs]

We all take a second to look at my status

Name

Jon Sizlash

Age

20

level

8(2%)

Health

360/360 regen .01/sec

Class

None

Manna

360/360 regen .1/sec

Fame

0

Infamy

500

Title(s)

The Chosen, Dragon Tamer, Mostly Dead, Pain Train

Stamina

376/376 regen .1/sec

Stats

Strength

47

intelligence

45

Agility

45

wisdom

45

Dexterity

45

Endurance

52

vitality

47

Stat points

39

Skills

Butcher

Level1: 0%

Phantom eye

Level1: 20%

Terror eye

Level1: 30%

Commune with the dead

Level1: 0%

magic missile

Level2: 5%

sprint lariat

Level2: 0%

soul manipulation

Level1: 30%

Acid immunity

Max

Acidic breath

level1: 0/10 ON

Equip

Level2: 0%

Identify

Level2: 4%

Juggernauts Aura

Level1: 0%

Equipment

Black Dragon Armor set

Fang of the Black Dragon Sword

Bag of holding

“Mhm, yes, well considering our hero just got his throat cut by one of my lesser guards men I won’t hold my breath. But sure I’ll help you, if only because your stats are impressive enough to make me hope for the best. Just bare in mind that I will decide your party members and I will be the one to decide when you finish your training...just think me as your business partner, or something more if you’re interested.”[Marget bites her lip and stares intently at me like a cat with it’s prey]

Before I can begrudgingly accept the offer, and question that last part, a young man with brown hair in a ponytail behind his head and a worried look on his face rushes down the hall yelling.

“Mother! Mother! Thank the gods I found you!” the prince stops in front of our group but only looks at his mother, paying the rest of us no mind.

“Deep breaths Richard. What’s wrong?” the queen rubs her sons back as he gasps for air, his hands on his knees.

“It...It’s… Oh gods… a pit, no, a crater. The battlefield is hardly there any more. The Scrying Stone Scouts, reported the the entire thing. The head guard at Cobble town reported someone carrying a boulder and calling himself “The Pain Train” running through town from the direction of Armys rout to intercept Rei’s force. When they went to investigate… Apparently there were only a few survivors on either side, and no sign of Renise or the dragon king armor.”[Richards pale face contorts in sadness]

Infamey Increase!!! A big ass crater has been found and linked to the Pain Train! Word about about your deeds are spreading and will undoubtedly make things harder..... you realy suck at planning ahead +500 Infamey (pray Henry doesn't connect the dots)

Oh wow, now you tell me.

The Queen furrows her brow and turns to me “Can I assume that this is somehow your fault?”

I sigh deeply and rub the back of my head trying to look sorry “Yyyeeeaaaahhh, let it never be said that Rignath lacks a flair for the dramatic. He dropped me out of the sky with a very dangerous skill that caused massive explosions whenever I landed from a high fall.”

Richard turns to me, his face livid with rage, “You. YOU KILLED HER?!” spittle flyes as he screams.

“What? No, she’s right here.” I motion to Renise who stands just behind the queen and his face lights up to see her.

“Your okay… Oh thank the gods!” Richard runs forward a wraps her in a tight tearful embrace, and Renise hugs him back.

“Yeah, I am, and it’s all thanks to Jon’s efforts. He’s the reason we got here so quickly, and how we survived a goblin attack. Also for what it's worth the damage done to the battle feild was an accident and he seem genuinly sorry.” [Renise smiles at me]

Richard pulls way and looks me in the eye, “Hm, is that so? Well I hope you're thankful that Renise pitys you enough to vouch for your life. But in return for saving her maybe we could help you with whatever your hiding under your armour?”[he points to my face]

(was he being serious or was he being a smartass?) {I think he was serious, but be careful about your response, he could be testing your personality} (I’ll keep that in mind)

“Thanks for the offer but I don’t think this is something that can be fixed. But what you can do for me is agree to be my sparring partner and party member for my upcoming mision.” [me]

“{What!!}” [everyone]

“Yeah, I figure that if I were to beat Rei and his forces on my own that would be just fine, but if I were to have the help of a kingdom and their crown prince then after I’m done, there would at least be a suitable alie government with a leader who knows enough about humans to not treat them as criminals for things beyond their control.”[me]

“We agree, and now that we have that sorted lets head to the living room and see if we can’t talk about the final details.”[Queen Margret]