Y/n: Where... am I?

I looked around and found myself in a room that looked like some kind of basement. I noticed I had different clothes on myself, a knife im my hand and some sort of submachine gun in the other. A handgun was in a pocket in my trousers.

(That's what you look like)

It appears that I was in the middle of something that looked like a summoning circle.

???1: My Queen, the summoning was a success!

The summoning? So the thing that I am standing on really is a summoning circle?

???2: Hero, please follow me outside of this place, I'll explain everything to you on the way.

The figure took off the hood revealing a woman with a crown, I'm assuming it's the queen, after all, the other person called her that.

She wanted me to follow her outside, hopefully I didn't get myself into a bad situation.

???2: Allow me to introduce myself, I am Mirellia Q Melromarc, the queen of Melomarc. Before I explain, do you have any questions?

Melomarc? A country like that doesn't exist. What is this place exactly? This is so confusing.

Y/n: You called me a hero, even though I didn't do anything worthy of that title. Why is that?

Queen: You are mistaken, you are worthy of that title, since you answered my summoning in the time of need.

Y/n: So, why was I summoned here?

By the time I asked the question, we were already outside the basement, and it appears the place was a castle. I suppose it makes sense, since I am talking with the queen after all.

The view outside the windows was really beautiful, I didn't notice that I stopped walking and was staring at the landscape with a faint smile.

Queen: As you may have noticed, this isn't the world you lived in, in this world, things called the waves of catastrophe appear every now and then, and with them countless monsters appear all over the world.

Two waves have already happened, and we're struggling to take care of them.

Y/n: And I've been summoned by you to get rid of them?

Queen: Yes, but there's another reason. The heroes of this world do not cooperate with each other, and that's the only way to defeat the waves. I would be happy if you tried to bring them together besides fighting monsters.

Y/n: I can try, but I won't promise anything. I'm not the kind of person that's good at befriending people.

Queen: There also have been rumors about the shield hero raping the first princess Malty and abusing his slave.

This got me interested.

Y/n: Are the rumors true?

Queen: I highly doubt it, my husband has a grudge towards the shield hero, and my daughter Malty is quite the actress, if you meet the shield hero, please try to help him. It's probably hard for him with all the accusations.

Y/n: I see. Very well, I'll try my best.

The Queen smiled at my response.

Queen: There's a few more things I need to tell you before you leave. You are the Assassin hero, and the Assassin hero has an unique ability that the other heroes lack.

Y/n: And that ability would be?

Queen: You probably noticed the black gem on your knife, it indicates that it's a cardinal weapon, every hero has one. The weapons repel themselves, so the heroes cannot grow stronger when they're near each other. The Assassin hero however, doesn't obey that rule and can still grow stronger no matter if he's close to a cardinal hero or not.

Y/n: That's quite convenient.

Queen: While useful, it has a major drawback, the Assassin hero cannot form his own party, therefore he cannot get help with getting stronger from other people.

I'm not mad about the drawback, I prefer to do things alone and it isn't necessarily unfair either, so I'm fine with it.

Queen: Just so you know, the Assassin hero is sort of an emergency hero, so you'll be visibly stronger than the other heroes.

Y/n: I see, is there anything else you need to tell me?

Queen: Yes, the Assassin hero has one more drawback, it's impossible for you to replace or strengthen your armor at a shop. If you tried to put on something else, you would get shocked.

That's a serious drawback, I really don't want to get stuck with this equipment, but it can't be helped.

Y/n: Is there no way for me to make it stronger?

Queen: There is, although I'm not aware how to do it, that's something you'll have to figure out yourself.

I let out a sigh of relief after her response, at least I can strengthen my armor, but the question is how to do that.

Queen: Now then, you shall be given 700 silver coins so you can pay for your expenses. Since we currently aren't in Melomarc, I'll have a few knights escort you there.

Y/n: Very well, I'm really grateful for your generosity.

The queen smiled after hearing my words.

Queen: There is no need to thank me, I'm simply fulfilling my duty. It will take a while to get the escort ready, so I prepared a room for you to rest in until then. My staff will guide you there.

Y/n: Thank you once again, I'll be leaving then.

I bowed out of respect and started walking towards the exit, I noticed a maid gesturing for me to follow her.

Maid: I will guide you to your room, please follow me sir Hero.

Honestly, being called a hero makes me feel weird, when I was younger I wanted to become a hero of Justice, but later I realized that it wasn't possible. I suppose I'll have to get used to this title sooner or later.

After a while of walking through the corridors, the maid stopped in front of a door.

Maid: We're here, this is your room, sir Hero.

I walked into the room with the maid leaving me alone.

It was a really fancy room, it was very big and had great furniture, I suppose that's expected of a room prepared for someone important, although I don't think of myself like that. Not yet at least, I need to accomplish something first before I can be happy about the treatment I'm getting. I don't like the fact that everyone treats me so well while I simply arrived here not even an hour ago. I guess that can't be helped, I am some sort of hero in this world after all.

I noticed a mirror in the room and decided to take a better look at myself.

After finally taking my hood off to see my face, I was quite shocked.

My hair was now white and my skin color darkened.

(Your look like this)

While I am shocked, freaking out about it won't change anything, I'll simply ask the queen about it when I see her again.

She said that everything will take a while to prepare, so I decided to pick out a book from the bookshelf to read in order to pass time.

About an hour later I heard a knock on my door. I put the book away and put my hood back on, hiding my face.

As I opened the door, I saw the maid from before standing in front of me.

Maid: Sir Hero, the preparations are ready, please follow me.

I nodded and followed her back to the throne room.

The queen noticed me and smiled the moment I entered the room.

Queen: Hello again, I hope it didn't take too long.

Y/n: Not at all, it's fine.

Queen: Everything is prepared and the escort is waiting outside the castle, are you ready to leave?

Y/n: Before I leave, I have a question.

Queen: I'll do my best to answer, what is it?

I took my hood off, revealing my face.

Y/n: Is it normal that my appearance changed from what it was back at my world?

Queen: Possibly, the mysterious thing about the Assassin hero, is that each one of them has different weapons, abilities and so on, so it's hard for me to answer that.

Y/n: I see, well since that's out of the way, I'm ready to leave.

Queen: Very well, the knights are waiting outside the castle, I wish you luck on your journey, Assassin hero. Remember, your identity has to stay hidden for as long as possible.

With a faint smile I responded:

Y/n: Thank you, your majesty.

I put my hood back on and exited the castle.

As soon as I did, a knight noticed me.

Knight: Excuse me, are you the Assassin hero?

Y/n: Yes, I was told that you would be escorting me to Melomarc.

Knight: It's an honor to escort a hero, please get in the carriage.

I stepped in the carriage, it looked just as expensive from the outside as the inside, although I won't complain about it, it was rather comfortable.

The knight shouted to the other knights

Knight: The hero is in the carriage, begin the journey!

And with that, I finally left castle grounds, the ride wasn't boring in the slightest. I spent most of the time looking at the scenery, if I ever were to get myself a house in this world, it definitely would be in a place surrounded by nature. I didn't go outside of the city much back in my world, I regret that quite a lot now.

After about 20 minutes I could see a giant gate, I assumed it was the border, the queen mentioned that this wasn't Melomarc, so it would make sense.

Border knight: Halt! Who goes there?

Knight: We are escorting someone, these are orders from the queen.

He showed some sort of scroll to the other knight, after inspecting it, he let us pass through the gate.

Border knight: Very well, proceed.

After about two hours I saw the capital, it was quite a giant city, although that's to be expected from a capital. I really was looking forward to exploring it.

Moments later, the carriage stopped, I left the carriage to find out why.

Y/n: Why did you stop the carriage?

Knight: The queen ordered to keep your identity a secret, so we can't enter the royal capital with a carriage, as it would attract too much attention. I'm afraid you'll have to walk to the capital, I'm sorry sir Hero.

Y/n: No need to be sorry about it, I understand. I wish you a safe return.

Knight: Thank you!

I smiled as I started walking away from the carriage. The capital was roughly 1000 meters away from here, so walking won't be a problem.

About halfway through, I heard a noise coming from the grass, a balloon shaped monster jumped at me with hopes of hurting me.

I quickly stabbed it with my knife, effectively killing it.

I noticed something in the corner of my eye, after focusing on it, I could see a game like menu.

Y/n: Assassin level 1... my stats are here too. Interesting, is this some sort of unique ability?

After further inspecting the menu I heard more sounds coming from behind me. A group of balloons jumped at me. I instinctively grabbed my submachine gun and easily shot all of them down.

Y/n: Weird, I did go to a shooting range a few times, but I never got to this level of shooting. Maybe it's an ability I gained when I was summoned here?

I noticed my experience bar filling up halfway after that, I decided to hunt down monsters for some time before entering the city.

_Timeskip_

After about an hour I managed to get to level seven, I was already exhausted and used up my ammo magazine completely. I noticed I could put materials intothe gem on my knife, and that would unlock different forms of it. I decided to eject the magazine from my submachine gun into it.

After changing my knife into that form it looked like a military knife.

After inspecting the two new skills, I found out this:

Automatic reload will reload my gun for me although the speed isn't the fastest.

Ammo generation will generate a magazine for my gun and a bullet for my handgun every two hours.

I didn't use my handgun much, I decided to keep some ammo for it in case I ever get into a bad situation.

Besides these two skills I learned another one from simply leveling up.

That's quite a handy skill, it makes sense to have it since I'm an assassin.

After all the leveling up, I decided it would be the right time to finally go to the capital.

After some walking I went through the gate and entered the city.