After gathering all the herbs around the hole, regardless of quality, Roa walked back to Darvin’s house as the sun began to set. The worn steel dagger that he had previously found was now resting in a sleeve on the inner part of his garb, stitched just to hold the dagger.

Bored along the way, Roa decided to tinker with his weird book skill.

“Summon Book.”

As the book spiraled into existence with its pages flipping, Roa saw a page flip by with a color other than black.

When the book fully materialized, Roa quickly opened the book, shaking in excitement.

On the first page, were a few rows of white words that looked to be popping off the page.

Consumption of 3 Minor Health Pills, +3 Maximum Health after 21 hours.

Due to overconsumption from two Minor Health Pills, -20 Maximum Health for one week.

Roa was both ecstatic and disappointed. It turns out that the pills were, in fact, pills that increased his health. On the other hand, he would be stuck with 20 less health for a while.

On top of that, the book’s skill was utterly useless. What use was a book that told him a little more than what his stat card could tell him? His other skill may be utterly broken, but what use is a broken skill when he would sleep for a whole day after using it? It limited him to using it only in dire situations, and would be rendered helpless after.

Roa couldn’t help but inwardly sigh.

Roa arrived back at Darvin’s place, opening the back door to be greeted by the smell of something amazing.

Following the smell, Roa walked straight through the house from the back door to the opened front door, and saw Emelia spit roasting some meat on the patio. Whilst slowly turning the meat, Emelia was happily chatting with Darvin who seemed to like the company. They were both sitting on a bench made of wood similar to the trees Roa had saw in the forest. He saw a few plates of meat already out and, not wanting to disturb their alone time, grabbed a plate and walked back inside the house.

The chat between Emelia and Darvin was far from happy.

“You know Darvin, I’m surprised you’re the one who is suspicious of Binor. You were the one who brought him in, and you know people can’t get in our village if they harbor any bad intents.”

“I know, I know Emelia. But, people change, and there is a big loophole about our barrier. Once someone enters, and changes their mind about how they think of the village, it doesn’t eject them out. Additionally, those from the inside can bring someone in.”

“You mean to say someone is helping him?”

“Intentionally or unintentionally, yes. You know I’m never wrong about my judgements Emelia.”

“Then, what should we do?”

“Right now, we can do nothing. We have nothing to incriminate Binor with.”

The two sat in silence, losing track of the time as they watched the stars glittering above.

“Ah, I burnt the dragon meat.”

“It’s probably fine if you just scrape off the outer burnt parts.”

As Emelia scraped off the burnt flesh with a small knife, she had a stroke of thought.

“I saw Roa’s card on the stat tracker. Aside from the odd static, I’ve never seen anyone with two unique skills before.”

“Well, now you have. Having a unique skill is a one-in-a-million chance, so having two would naturally be one-in-a-trillion.”

“What about his title? I’ve never seen a title called ‘World Traveler’ before.”

“What about it?”

“Well, there are rumors going around that the humans have summoned otherworldly beings. Those beings are said to break the rules of our world and are many times more powerful than anyone of our world.”

Darvin chuckled.

“Do you think Roa is one of them?”

“Well, what if he is? Isn’t that basically letting the enemy into our home?”

“Didn’t you forget that he was able to get in here? Not only that, but his stats are completely average. ”

“The thing is, him and the dragon we’re about to eat fell from the sky and broke the barrier. We made the most rudimentary patch on it, remember? And what if the static is hiding his better stats? Think about it: if the stats you can see are average, then what would the hidden ones look like if he was an otherworlder?”

The smile on Darvin’s face quickly turned upside-down as he cursed softly.

“Shit, I forgot about that.”

Suddenly, Darvin stood up. Emelia looked up at him questioningly.

“What’s wrong?”

“My foresight was originally unable to determine his alignment. I’m going to check Roa by using the barrier.”

Looking at Darvin’s back while he went inside the house, Emelia could only shake her head helplessly.

Darvin walked into his house to see Roa playfully chasing Fate around.

“Roa, can I have a moment?”

Roa stopped running about and answered Darvin.

“What do you need Darvin?”

“Come with me on a stroll, would you?”

“This late at night?”

“Anytime is a good time to take a walk.”

Roa felt that nothing was out of the ordinary. His benefactor just wanted to get to know him better, what was wrong with that?”

“Fate, stay here, I’ll be back in a bit.”

--

A guard walked up a regal man who lazily sat on his throne, and whispered into his ear.

“The bald ape has not left the second floor.”

The motivational speech from before had really left an impact on the students. Although they could not continue through the dungeon until the next reset due to the bald gorilla on the second floor, they still wanted to gather experience and get stronger. No longer were they afraid of what of stronger opponents, rather they were afraid of not being able to get stronger than the opponent.

“Hmph, this lined up quite perfectly with our invasion. A perfect time to let the otherworlders have a taste of war. Inform the otherworlders to immediately depart.”

--

“Hey, um, Lucin, where do you think we’re going?”

“I wouldn’t know Jarvis.”

For the past few hours since Lucin hoisted Jarvis up from eminent death, Jarvis had followed Lucin everywhere like a puppy.

All the students were on ships that were floating, powered by giant mana crystals that pushed air to lift. Ten ships were quickly flying southwest of the castle, each one accommodating 20 people.

The loud roars from the mana crystal was deafening, and so the people chatting were screaming at each other.

“Lucin, I want to thank you.”

“Spank me? Why would you want to spank me?”

“I said thank.”

“Rank? I don’t really care about ranks.”

“THANK!”

Jarvis had hit a pitch so high up others were able to hear it over the sound of the mana crystals. After a few moments, Lucin grasped his stomach and started laughing until he couldn’t breathe.

“You made such a big deal over that? I appreciate the thanks, but anyone else would’ve done the same.”

“Maybe so, but you were the one that did it. Therefore, I have to thank you for saving my life.”

Lucin merely looked up and sighed.

“I would rather not see another person disappear that way.”

Before Jarvis could question Lucin’s answer, a voice which had previously brought them hope in the past once again resounded in the air. The king had taken out a spherical glass full of holes, and spoke into it. The sphere projected the king’s voice as if he was right next to them.

“My friends, today is the day we finally fight back against the evils of this world! No longer will we be suffocated by the onslaught of our brethren. Today, we will be the ones to slaughter!”

Cheers could be faintly heard from half of the ships over the roaring of the blasts of air from the mana crystals.

“We are guaranteed victory today, for we have a secret weapon. In half of these ships, we have the heroes joining the fray, with stats like this!”

With the flick of his wrist, the king brought out a green cube that projected Laur’s stats.

Name:Laur MofferAge:16Gender:MaleLevel:1Class:Hero Apprentice-Health:1000/1000Mana1000/1000Strength:1000Stamina:1000Agility:1000Resistance:1000Magic:1000Magic Resistance:1000-Elemental Affinity

Wind, Fire, Earth, Water, Thunder, Light

Skills

[Unique] Incantation of Uriel

Continuously drain 10 mana per second to summon and equip Uriel's Sword.

[Unique] Aura of Propensity

Party size increased from 3 to 10.

Increase in 10% experience for everyone in party when leader.

Rite of A Hero

High possibility to become a hero.

Increased stat growth.

Able to understand all languages.

Titles

World Traveler

Jarvis was attentive and noticed a discrepancy.

“Hey Lucin, aren’t those stats from when we came to this world?”

“Hmm, looks like the thing used to register our stat cards saves the most frequent load into a database.”

While Jarvis and Lucin were discussion the mechanisms behind the database, the soldiers from the kingdom were shocked to see Laur’s stats.

“My god, that’s two hundred times higher than my stats.”

“And I thought our beautiful Mana was insanely strong.”

The cheers became increasingly louder, almost drowning out the deafening roars from the gushes of air underneath. The king smirked and continued.

“Our invasion point is at a hidden village at the border of the Daruvan kingdom. Before, we were unable to pinpoint a weak spot, but with the help of an insider we can surprise the evil demons.”

“And for the heroes! Although killing demons may not give as much experience as those monsters you’ve fought in the dungeon underneath our kingdom, they grant plentiful amounts for how easy they can be eliminated. I trust that all of you will be very happy after the end of this invasion.”

Soon, everyone was able to see a red circles in the forest. There were ten locations, each the same distance away from each other.

The ships began to descend, each one closing onto a red spot.

--

It seemed as if the village was in the middle of a circular clearing in the middle of a giant forest. When Roa and Darvin walked in a direction opposite of which he went to pick herbs, Roa noticed that the forest at the end had the same vegetation.

The stroll had been quiet, with Roa struggling to match Darvin’s pace. When they finally neared the forest, Darvin finally began to talk.

“I need you to walk through the forest and back.”

Roa was confused. Why did everyone want him to walk through the forest?

“Someone else asked you to walk through the forest?”

Roa realized that he had accidentally spoken out what he thought. He carefully explained what he went through previously, trying to not omit any details.

Darvin listened attentively, frequently switching between facial expressions as the story progressed. When Roa was done, Darvin had a hard look.

“What you felt when you passed through the forest is the barrier we erected as a second defense. Just like the redirection, if one has malicious intents to the village they would be completely blocked from coming in.”

“However, I have never heard of anyone that could feel the barrier as they passed through it. If you want me to truly believe you, pass through the barrier again.”

What else could Roa do but comply? He walked through the forest to prove his claims.

Oddly, as he walked farther and farther in, he didn’t feel the ripple of the barrier.

It seemed he had walked so far in that Darvin actually went inside the forest to look for him.

“Now, let’s go back.”

Darvin walked behind Roa as they began to walk back. They left the forest, with Darvin giving a satisfied look.

Roa, however, had something to tell.

“I didn’t feel the ripple when coming back and forth.”

“What you probably felt before was a minor fluctuation of the mana inside the barrier. We made a quick repair on the barrier after you and the dragon fell through the top and broke it, so it’s not completely stable. To actually be able to feel the barrier, would mean a keen insight into the inner workings of mana.”

Suddenly, it was as if night disappeared. A scorching white light came from the sky, blinding everything in its radius. A meteor the size of a house quickly descended from a dimensional ripple floating in the sky, heading directly towards the village. As it came down, an audible boom as loud as a nuclear explosion came seconds after the dust flew by Roa and Darvin.

Without hesitation, Darvin ran towards the village so fast he left behind a sonic boom. Roa didn’t want to go, but he remembered that he had left Fate inside Darvin’s house.

Roa braced himself, and began to take the long trek back.