The old man had a big smile on his face while Feran was trying to suppress his own, that’s when a little girl walks to them.

- “Master! I brought the Eyes of Truth you asked for, also, the master Magic Enchanter said that next time either you give him a challenge or just don’t bother him…” the little girl indicated with an innocent smile.

The old man looked at Sakura for a few seconds before taking Feran’s glasses, put them on the table, and standing up with an irritated expression.

- “That decrepit old man! How dare he tell me to not bother him? He works for me for God’s sake, at least he should show some respect!” the master shouted, he showed himself as angry but in the eyes of the 2 youngsters watching him, it was just funny.

- “do you need anything else master?” asked the little one. The old man only smiled at her and patted her head.

- “Just wait here, okay?… by the way, where’s Veno?” asked the old man while taking the glasses from the table.

- “eh? Oh, sorry master, but… Veno doesn’t really like humans, remember?” said the little girl with a nervous tone and sending an apologetic look to Feran.

- “fuuu… I suppose all Beastiale hate humans, although Sakura doesn’t seem to have a problem with them” the boy gave the little girl a soft smile.

- “… actually, the situation of Veno and Sakura is just slightly different from other Beastiale, both are Herber, a race of peaceful Beastiale who live and take care of nature, and since they have this kind of harmony and peace with nature, they don’t really hate on humans, at least not normally, however, humans did destroy Sakura and Veno home, their town, and these 2 are the only survivors...” explained the man with a sad tone.

- “yes… but luckily the master found us and he brought us here, he gave us a new home and something to do” the girl at first seemed a little sad, but she rapidly changes to have a big smile and a look of joy.

Feran only could smile to the girl, but he felt terrible for the things that she had to go through, and the more stories he heard of the humans of this world, he started to like them even less than before.

Just as Feran was engrossed in his mind, the old man put the glasses back to Feran’s face surprising him.

- “a few minutes ago you asked why we took your glasses and what was a Magic Enchanter, right? Now it is time for the answer. You see, Magic Enchanter is an “Elite Stage Title” with the particular power to increase the power of objects, other people, and give bonuses to equipment among other things, it a “Title” mainly focus on utility and support, but, due to his incredible magic power and High-Level skills, plus all the possible enchants of its own equipment, they are quite powerful and quite rare as well… and your glasses, well, this little thing would have broken in no time in this kind of world, besides, you needed to see it, the difference between Eyes of Truth and the glasses from your world, that’s what we did to your glasses… let’s call it an obvious improvement, HAHAHAHA!”.

- “Hmm… I still don’t understand…”.

- “well, is quite simple, you see, on this world, certain objects like rings, necklace, wristbands, or “glasses” as you call them, have something we call, Vision of Truth, a special kind of “skill”, if we can consider it like that, that only objects can use, and the objects that have the Vision of Truth allow us to see our stats, information, Title, equipment, and skills, sometimes even the information of friends or allies… it’s key for us, humans of this world, to survive since it let us measure our powers and work with them the best as possible” Feran only nodded at the explanation of the old man.

- “now that your glasses have been enchanted to possess the Vision of Truth, which you will need to survive on this world, you need to start thinking about what you’re going to do from now on… also, consider that you will need at least basic knowledge of this world and equipment to live in this world” the old man said with a half-smile while Feran got completely serious.

- “Hmm… previously, you said that I was summoned to this world by the king, right? For war or something… is it possible that other people also were summoned?” the old man was taken aback by the sudden change of topic.

- “eh… well, yeah, I mean, the ritual summons the “world heroes”, not one but many, not much people know the exact amount, is not in the books I give you before either, but I know for a fact that the spell and ritual summon a total of 10 world heroes, or should I say, 10 youngsters of another world” the man answered this time way more seriously.

Feran closed his eyes and tried to remember what he saw moments prior to him appearing in this world, that’s when he remembered his shinning body, and how some of his classmates also seemed to shine, in his mind he counted each one of them, trying to also remember the people itself, who they were, and after a short moment, he counts 10 people in his head, including himself, just that makes him sigh in defeat.

- “… fuuu… as I assumed, I know the other 9 that were summoned to this place… I will take my chance and guess that the king is looking for them”.

- “most likely he is, the world heroes appear in random places, but never too far away from the place the summoning ritual was done, considering everything, the ritual was done in his castle, it just makes sense… honestly, you appearing in the border of the country is either a big coincidence or really bad luck since you died not long after you got here…” the man said with a little chuckle while Feran snorted at the thought.

- “hmm… I should probably look for them, but… I can’t really make them do anything, so if somehow they are convinced by the king to take part in the war you talked about, then I can’t really force them out of it, and as far as I know, most of them don’t even like me… ugh…” the boy started to scratch his head due to the frustration while the man only gave him a serious look.

- “I don’t know about the other kids, but knowing the current king, he will somehow end up making them participate in whatever he’s planning, besides, if they find you, they will take you with them whether you want it or not, even if you don’t cooperate with them, they can’t have a world hero out of their reach…” the man explained with a serious tone and expression that made Feran tense up.

- “… if I have to consider that, then there’s no way I can let them find me...”.

- “Although we could say that you are no longer a world hero, just your existence is quite troublesome” Feran reacted at that giving the man a silent question.

- “eh? You see… since you died, you probably died as well as a world hero, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have the powers you received as a world hero, but that you are no longer considered one… however, you are still a person from another world, and you were brought here as a world hero, so as far as I know, not only the Liberteas king but any other country and royalty or powerful being that discovers about your existence might want to take you… as I said, your existence is quite problematic…” Feran only could groan in annoyance after listening the words of the old man, although he didn’t understand completely, apparently, he needed to hide who he was and where he came from, not like it was something you openly say to people, but it meant that he needed to be on guard and be careful with who he trusted.

- “what do I do now?” the young man said with frustration.

- “well… if you want, I can give you one week, during that week you will have a place to sleep, one of the rooms of the upper floors, you will receive food, and some equipment, all free but only for that week, after that week you will need to start paying for everything you receive here, like a room to sleep, the food, and other things to survive, deal?…” the man asked to the boy in front of him. The boy immediately accepted with a nod and a smile.

- “in that case, I better start to learn everything I can as fast as I can” Feran said with an excited smile.

- “kid, just to be clear, what you do is not of my concern, even though you are an interesting kid, you are not my responsibility, but since you come from another world, and not exactly willingly, I will help you with a few things I can, I will even grant you access to the library and the training field, but the rest is all you, it’s your responsibility to get stronger and get to survive on this world, do you understand?” explained the old man while lazily cleaning his ear with his little finger.

- “I understand, which means that I better start now to prepare myself” Said the boy with a confident and serious tone while standing up and checking his status for the very first time.

Status.

Name: Feran.

Level: 1. (0/100)

Race: Human.

Title: Shieldman.

- Vitality: 52

- Magic E: 10

- Strength: 17

- Magic P: 5

- Defense: 25

- Magic D: 20

- Speed: 15

- critical: 0%

Feran looked his own stats, not sure whether they were good or not, he noticed he was still level 1, which was obvious considering he just got to this world not that long ago.

- “Hmm… Shieldman level 1? my strength is not so high, I suppose just by the name of this that fighting by myself will be problematic…” the boy looked at his stats with an unsure expression on his face.

- “hahaha, just as I thought, you really are a “Shieldman”, HAHAHAHA!!!” the old man couldn’t hold his laugh, while Feran only have a tired expression on his face, by the old man’s reaction it was quite obvious that whatever Shieldman was, wasn’t really something good or useful, just this realization made him feel like at the end of a bad joke.

- “haha, very funny… so, what’s the deal with this title?” the boy only gave the man a blank look and then asked in a monotone voice.

- “oh, don’t feel bad, I wasn’t really laughing about your title, or at least not exactly because of that, I’m just laughing because over 50 years ago, the new king immediately eliminated the title Shieldman, this was done, because it was one of the most common titles to exist, a title that the king himself and I used to have in some point of our lives, the problem is that offensive skills for the Shieldman were basically non-existent, if I remember correctly, we had a Queen in some point in our history that was actually a powerful “Shieldman”, but she was the only one, anyway, the king didn’t like the title so he reunited a huge amount of magician of different kingdoms and they worked together to seal the title and change it for “Soldier” which was at the time the second most common title… so, in a few words, you’re currently the only Shieldman in this world… at least as far as we know” the man said with a wide smile. Feran gives a quick glance to the man before once again looking at his status “window”.

- “Hmm… so this title, what it is supposed to do? You said offensive skills are basically non-existent, right?”.

- “yeah, I’m afraid that Shieldman is a title exclusively focused on the protection of allies, which makes it a defensive and supportive title, which also means that unless you train with someone else to work together then increasing your level will be quite the challenge” the boy in front of the man was serious for a second before a smile came to his face which surprised a little to the old man.

- “… well, in my experience there’s nothing useless, only things not used correctly… so I’ll accept this challenge” Feran smile grew, he was feeling excited at the idea of the “challenge” that will give him to improve with this title.

- “HAHAHA!!! I really like your spirit, kid. Now, tell me, how are your stats?” the old man asked with an expectant smile that confused the young man.

- “can’t you see my status?”.

- “that’s not how it works, kid… to be able to see your stats, we need to be considered friends, allies or be considered master and pupil. To see the information a few requirements are needed, either that or to have certain skills that allow you to do so, but in my case, I don’t have any of those, so I can’t be sure about your information and progress” the man replied calmly.

Feran thought for a moment about what they could do, of course, he could just tell him the numbers in his stats, but if they get away to check his progress without the need to be constantly saying the numbers, it would be easier to do things, for now, and maybe the future.

- “I see… how much do you know about the Shieldman title? And besides that, is there any advantage to have a master?” asked the boy with a serious face.

- “I understand the idea, and as I said before I used to have the Shieldman title, however, I didn’t become powerful until I became a knight, and I took the first chance I had to become one, so I don’t really have much to teach you as a Shieldman, but, on the other hand, if I become your master then I might be able to teach you a few skills that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get, I would be aware of your progress, and you would receive an experience bonus of a 10%” the Man said with an energetic tone and an excited smile, Feran on his side couldn’t help but smile as well, it seemed that he could gain a lot from having a master and pupil agreement with this crazy old man. It took them a second before both nodded at the same time and shared a tight handshake.

After shaking hands, the master gives Feran and the little Sakura a signal to follow him, then they walked to a door at the far end of the library, and once they reach outside, Feran notices a huge backyard with some kind of fence.

- “Alright, kid, first of all, this place will be your training place, this is the training field of the guild, although most members don’t use it so you will have plenty of space to use it. You better use this place as much as possible, because you need to level up soon and get stronger as fast as possible, I will help with whatever I can, of course, as your new master is just the less I could do, just make sure not to disappoint me, kid” the man smiled to the boy.

- “hahaha, I say the same, master, don’t disappoint me...” Feran replied in a playful tone while giving the man a defiant look, which only served to make the man laugh at the daring attitude of the boy.

- “Alright then… Sakura, I need you to go back to the library and then to the equipment zone, if you don’t know how to go there or can’t open the door, ask Veno for help, I need you to bring the “Alpha Shield”, a “Defender’s Ring”, and a pair of “Shieldman Wrist Gauntlets”, also, make sure to bring either a “Storage Ring” or a “Storage Necklace”, did you understand?” the little girl just nodded her head and with a serious face turned around and ran inside the building.

- “what’s all that for?” the boy was curious at the names he heard.

- “those objects will be your main equipment, for now at least, I mean, they are quite special so I really shouldn’t give them to you, consider them borrowed”.

- “… special you say? Is it okay to let me borrow them then?” asked the young man unsure of what to do about it.

- “well… for starters, those equipment are almost useless, even though they are special in a way, they belong to the “Shieldman Title Chain” which mean that only Shieldman or similar titles can use them, so, apart from you, at least in this place, no one can really use them...” the man said with a serious face while Feran only looked at him with a little of irritation.

- “but… if no one beside me can use them, then… why don’t you just give them to me?”.

- “HAHAHAHA!!! there’s no way I would do something like that, maybe I could give you the “Defender Ring” or the “Shieldman Wrist Gauntlets”, but the “Alpha Shield” is a “Mystical Quality Equipment” only inferior to “Legendary Quality Equipment” and “Divine Quality Equipment”, there’s no way I would let you have it for free… unless… you can convince me otherwise, but as you are right now, I see that difficult, HAHAHAHA…” Feran only could sigh at the words of the man who was laughing out loud.

- “Alright! I understand. By the way, what did you mean with the “Shieldman Title Chain” thing? You said I was the only one here that could use the objects, is that thing related to the title chain thing?”.

- “oh, absolutely, you see, each title as a predetermined set or specific equipment they can use… for example, you as a Shieldman can use a shield and other defensive equipment, but you can’t use any form of weapon, no swords, or spears, or even a bow, nothing considered a weapon can be used by you. On the other hand, a “Title Chain” refers to what titles you can “improve” or “evolve” your current title to. Shieldman is a “Base Stage Title” which are the weakest titles, but by fulfilling certain requirements, they can “Stage up” or “Rank up” or whatever you want to call them, to the next level “Advance Stage Title” which are more powerful than your current title but weaker than mine, also, equipment slightly changes for users, for example, when I was a Shieldman I couldn’t use weapons to fight alone, yet, when I improved my title from Shieldman to Knight, I was able to use swords and spears, and if I wanted I could even have trained to use other kinds of weapons like axes, a bow and arrows, and even a halberd...”.

- “… got it, basically like a video game, honestly, I don’t know why I thought it would be any different…” Feran started to rub his temple while talking in a tired tone, the old man only looked at him with an unreadable expression.

- “what’s a video game?” asked the man with curiosity.

- “Nothing important. Hey, old man, what about the thing about Mystical Quality equipment?” Feran dismissed the old man’s question about video games, before asking another question. At the question of the boy, the man only smiled and stretched his hand a little, not long after, out of nowhere, an impressive halberd appeared in his hands.

- “… Amazing!” stated the boy while looking at the big halberd in the man’s hand, it looked like a long “Guan Dao Halberd” that Feran as seen on the internet, the “Handle” had a brown-reddish color, the edge was pitch black and the whole things had dragon-like decorations.

- “let’s take this object as an example, this is my “Earth Dragon Emperor Halberd”, a “Legendary Quality Equipment”, now, types of equipment are divided by their “Quality” which is considered depending of the bonus they give their users, the “Qualities” of equipment are: “Normal”, “Improved”, “Advanced”, “Perfect”, “Mystical”, “Legendary”, “Divine”, and “Superior”. the last 2 kinds of equipment, however, are basically non-existent, no one as ever seen the last one, and the Divine kind is only known off by words, they are practically stuff of stories from the past…” Feran didn’t say anything, he just kept paying attention to the man.

- “Obviously, the better “Quality” these types of equipment are, the better bonuses they will give, sometimes not only bonuses of stats, but also skills or other things… oh! And one important thing you need to know is where to get them, like normal equipment, even common beasts can give you one, they are everywhere… improved equipment is the same as normal ones, only these ones are slightly stronger thanks to objects or materials, Advanced ones are created or reforged by the use of improved equipment and monsters materials, Perfect weapons are special weapons created by Blacksmiths, they are quite special thanks to the materials and techniques used on their forge, finally the last 3, Mystical, Legendary, and Divine, they are quite powerful and special, only can be created by using materials of the highest level creatures, monsters that complete teams of adventurers would have difficulties to kill, and some of these types of equipment are even created by these monsters themselves, or other creatures, legends say that some of the most powerful equipment is actually made by the Gods who put a little of their power in them and then send them to our world in an effort to give different creatures a chance again great disasters and Apocalyptic monsters too strong to fight using our mortal weapons, isn’t great?” the master started to release some fighting spirit the longer he talked about the equipment, and especially when talking about powerful monsters.

- “you are a complete battle junkie, aren’t you?” the young man asked with a nervous smile.

- “What is that?”.

- “It means you love fighting and are kind of addicted to It”.

- “Hmm… damn right I am!” the man smile widened when he answered, which made the boy to awkwardly scratch the back of his head while nervously laughing.

The old man had a big smile on his face after being called a battle junkie while Feran only could laugh nervously and scratch the back of his head to the old man’s attitude.

- “Alright! So I kind of get the equipment thing and the title chain thing, anything else?” asked the boy trying to keep the conversation going.

- “hmm… let me think… well, you can learn the rest later, but I would say you got the basics of what you need to know”.

- “Okay, then, what about my stats?”.

- “hehe, let’s check them” as the man said that, the boy only nodded his head and proceeded to check his stats once again.

Status.

Name: Feran.

Level: 1. (0/100)

Race: Human.

Title: Shieldman.

- Vitality: 52

- Magic E: 10

- Strength: 17

- Magic P: 5

- Defense: 25

- Magic D: 20

- Speed: 15

- critical: 0%

- “… eh?” the man was silent for a moment before making a confused sound. Feran looked at the man with an expectant expression but the man still didn’t say anything else.

- “so?… what do you say about my stats?” asked the guy with curiosity.

- “hmm… I suppose I shouldn’t really be surprised by these crazy stats, you came from another world after all… fuuu” the man sighs tiredly before giving the boy a kind smile.

- “… crazy stats?… what’s that supposed to mean?”.

- “well… how do I explain this?… in this world, we, normal humans, have a total base power quite low in comparison with most living creatures, even some normal animals have more power than us. By just seeing your stats, I can say that your total power is close to being 3 times the usual power of a human” explained the old man with a serious expression. Feran on his side wasn’t really understanding much.

- “Okay, hold on! first thing first, what do you mean by total base power? How can I see that?” the boy asked with obvious curiosity since he didn’t know what the old man was talking about or how to check it on his stats.

- “is quite simple actually, to determine the total base power of a creature, whether a monster, Beastiale, or human, we just check the stats of a living creature in level 1, and then by calculating the total sum of stats we know the total base power of a living creature… for example, the sum of all your stats is equal to 144 stats points, which translates to a total base power of 144, however, a normal human from this world only has in average a total base power of 50” Feran was out of words, it was indeed quite simple, yet surprising.

- “really? what’s up with that measurement method to know how strong someone is?” a scowl appeared in the face of the boy while talking in a tired tone.

- “I don’t know, the method has been revised and changed a few times over the years, I’m just telling you the one we are using in the current times, and, well... that’s how we calculate the “total base power”, but later we have to calculate the “total raw power”, “full power”, and “growth power”... anyway, as I said before, your stats are crazy for a human” the man first shrugs his shoulders before holding his thumb up and smiling at the young man. The boy scratched the back of his head with a small smile on his face.

- “I see, so I’m strong by your standards… just out of curiosity, how strong am I right now? In comparison to normal humans of this world I mean…” once the boy asked, the man stroked his beard with a thoughtful expression.

- “let me think… hmm… I think it’s fair to say that your current “power” is equal to that of an average human of this world in level 19 or 20… that’s quite high considering you are only level 1… also, compared to a beast, we could compare you to an “F- rank beast” level 5… and compared to a Beastiale, you would be… a B ranked level 1? B- or C+ if any of those existed” the man answered after a few minutes, which leave a thoughtful expression on Feran’s face.

- “I see… the difference between a human, a beast and a Beastiale is quite big, for what you told me anyway...” the boy gave the man a serious look.

- “It is, especially if we think that I’m only comparing your total base power... if we also compare your growths then the distance between humans and other creatures is even more noticeable”.

- “How is possible that humans aren’t extinct by now? With such a difference in power, shouldn’t humans be less of the population or at least be about to be extinct? to say at least…”.

- “well, even if is true that we are weaker than other creatures, we can do things other creatures can’t… maybe later I will explain them to you, but for now, don’t worry too much about it, okay?” Feran only nodded at the words of the old man.

- “Alright! Now check your skills!” the man shouted now with excitement making the boy laugh a little before focusing on his skills.

Skills list.

Passives.

Actives.

- passive skill “Revitalization”.

- level 0: activates after resting for at least 20 seconds. The user recovers +5 Vitality points every 15 seconds. There’s no cost of ME.

- active skill “Cover”.

- level 0: lets the user choose and “objective” at a distance of 5 meters max, then the user gets transported there immediately. Each use costs 2 ME.