When Noboru awoke, he could tell something had happened. The area around him was different from what it was when he saw the light. Instead of a small apartment room, he was now in a large area built of sparkling white marble. He could hear hushed whisperings around him. Worried that he might have been kidnapped, he pretended to still be asleep and listened to their conversations.

“N-no, the tenth… but which one?”

“We can’t be sure, but remember, do not speak of the legend in front of them. They cannot know. We must discover who the tenth is and get rid of him quickly.”

“B-but sir, is there any chance that the prophecy is false, I mean they’re all just kids, probably still in their teens.”

“No, she’s never wrong, the prophecy is true. Hush now they’re awakening.”

Noboru pretended to awaken, and sat up, looking at his surroundings. He was able to get more details than when he took his first look. The white walls were accompanied by stained glass and painted portraits depicting a person standing above all. Noboru assumed it to be a portrait of God, which meant they were in a church somewhere. However, the conversation he overheard was not what he expected, nor was the appearance of those around him. The people who surrounded him in a half-circle all had clergy clothes on, and the one in the center had clothes fit for the pope. Noboru had expected the kidnappers to have weapons and to hide their faces, but now he was just confused. Is this some kind of game show prank? Even if it is, how did they knock me out and get me here? Gas?

As he hypothesized, the people kidnapped with him began to stir. His friends, Akane, Gurou, Orochi, and Yuriko were around him, but there were five others as well. There was one guy and four girls aside from Noboru’s group, the guy was nothing special, just an average looking guy with short brown hair and hazel eyes. The girls were all very different. One girl was taller than anyone else here, with short, tomboy hair and black eyes to match. Another had bright blonde hair with blue eyes. The third was the opposite of the first, very short but an obvious interest in makeup and fashion, her hair was dyed a bright pink which matched her green eyes well. The last girl was the most unremarkable of the four. She had long black hair and a nice face, she wasn’t ugly, in fact she was quite pretty, but when she opened her eyes all that changed. She had two different eye colors, one eye was a deep green, while the other was a light brown.

The weirdest part about all of this was that Noboru recognized all of them, they were all classmates of his in high school. Is this some kind of delayed senior prank? But why us ten specifically? No, for some reason I don’t think so. My gut is telling me that this is serious. Noboru sharpened his senses, making sure to keep a close eye on his surroundings. He didn’t trust the strangers in front of him. But even he could not have guessed what had actually happened to him and his friends.

Slowly, the others around him gained their bearings. Yuriko was the fastest to react, she moved behind Noboru, before whispering in his ear. “Where?” she asked. Noboru shook his head, “I’m not sure, I woke up just before you did. Just stay behind me.” Yuriko nodded, placing her faith in Noboru. Gorou and Orochi were the next to move, they both stood up, dazed, before turning towards the strangers surrounding them. “Hey, you! Where are we, what did you do to us?” Gorou questioned the man dressed like the pope. “Calm yourself, brave one, I will reveal all in a moment, but give those around you time to awaken as well.”

Gorou quickly looked around him, only now noticing the others alongside him. “Wh-What? What is going on?” Orochi stuttered in fear as he looked around. Only now did Akane awake, she quickly ran to Noboru’s side before clinging to him. “W-What do we do, Noboru?” She asked while trembling. Noboru patted her head before moving her behind him, next to Yuriko.

“Stay behind me. Until we figure out what’s going on, trust nothing.”

“O-Okay.”

Yuriko gently hugged Akane, trying to calm her down. The girl with heterochromatic eyes began to look around, before locking eyes with Noboru. Her eyes widened, before a relieved smile spread across her face. She suddenly got up and moved to Noboru, quickly taking another spot behind him. “Emiko,” Noboru addressed the girl by that name. “Are you okay?” She nodded, “Yeah, I don’t feel any different, do you guys know how we got here?”

Noboru shook his head. “No, the five of us were partying together when suddenly a bright light burned my eyes. Next thing I know I’m waking up here.” Emiko began chewing on her shapely lips. “Yeah it was the same for me, I was with Kei and Naoko and then suddenly I was here.” She gestured to the pink and blonde haired girls as she spoke.

“Gorou, Orochi, get those two up and behind us.” Noboru said while pointing to the same girls Emiko pointed at.

“R-right.” They went to get them to move, while Noboru shook the tall woman awake. “Hey, Mika, we need you up and running right now.” The woman Noboru addressed as Mika, groggily turned her head. “Hm? Noboru? Where am I?”

“We aren’t sure, but we need to be on our toes, I don’t like the looks of these guys.”

“These guys?” Noboru flicked his eyes towards the strangers surrounding them. Mika followed his gaze before standing up in a panic. “Look, Mika, I need you to guard the girls okay? I know you don’t fight, but you’re the strongest out of them.” Mika nodded her head, “R-right, okay.” Once she moved to the girls, Noboru moved onto the last guy in their group. He pulled the dazed man to his feet, before spinning him around to look in his eyes. “Minori, are you good?” The man, apparently called Minori, slowly shook his head to clear it. “Ah, yeah, I’m good now.”

“Did you hear what I was saying to Mika?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, you’re the last line okay, I need you to stay with the girls and protect them as best you can.”

“R-right, you got it.” Seeing Minori run off, Noboru gestured to Gorou and Orochi. They moved to either side of him, before they all turned to the strangers around them.

“All right, we’re all up, you want to explain what’s going on now?”

“Yes, of course.” The man dressed as a pope smiled. “Welcome, brave heroes, I know you all must be confused, but I am here to assuage any fears you might have. So before we speak, how about we move to a more comfortable place to converse?” Noboru turned towards the other, sending a questioning gaze to each. They all nodded, trusting Noboru’s decision. “Alright, lead the way.”

The group of ten moved together, keeping the weakest of them in the center and Noboru leading the pack. After a short while, they entered a different room. This one was far smaller than the room they started in, but it had a large, circular table in the center. The man dressed as a pope, and his entourage of 3 men, all sat at the head of the table, before gesturing to Noboru and the rest to sit as well. Noboru sat in the chair closest to them, with Gorou taking up that position on the other side as well. The rest of the students took their seats in between Noboru and Gorou. Once everyone was seated, Gorou spoke up.

“So, how about an explanation?”

“Of course, brave one. I am Grand Cardinal James the Third, of the Church of Life. Our church worships the one true Goddess, the Goddess of Life. In exchange for our piety, the Goddess grants us her blessings. In this case, her blessings are you ni-ehm, I mean you ten. You were summoned in our time of need to help the sentient races defeat the evil that has begun to plague this land.”

“Woah woah, hold on there, ‘defeat the evil’? We are just some students about to go to University, none of us here know how to fight.” Gorou spoke up after hearing the Cardinal’s speech. The other students nodded their heads along with him, all except for Noboru. Noboru had his eyes firmly on the Cardinal. There’s something off about him, I can’t quite tell what it is, but I just can’t bring myself to trust him.

“Wait, Gorou, you actually believe this crap? It’s a prank!” Orochi yelled out. “There’s no chance this is real! It’s one of those gameshows, there’s hidden cameras and stuff.”

“You seem to doubt me, brave one. Though I am not sure what a ‘game show’ is, shall I prove that what I say is the truth?”

Orochi turned a skeptical eye towards the Cardinal. “Alright, prove it to me.” Cardinal James smiled, before raising his right hand.

“From what I know, given to me by vision from the Goddess herself, your world is far more advanced than ours,” Orochi snorted dismissively, ‘From a vision.’ Yeah, right. “However, this world has something known as mana. This mana allows us to activate our abilities, which allows things such as this.” Cardinal James snapped his fingers on his right hand, “Flame.” A small fire lit above his finger, almost like his finger was a matchstick. “This is one of my abilities, known as fire manipulation. I also happen to have water manipulation.” He raised his left hand before snapping again, “Water ball.” A small sphere of water appeared above his left hand.

The students were in shock, amazed at what they were seeing. “I-It’s just like those t.v. magicians, it’s all illusions.”

“No, no. While there is illusion manipulation, that falls under dark manipulation, and I don’t have that ability.” He gestured to one of his companions, who rushed out of the room after a brief nod to the Cardinal. “All of you will be able to use manipulation in some form or another as well. However, to discover what area you are proficient in, we need to see your abilities. In order to do so, we use something known as an information crystal, or an info orb for short.” As he said that, his companion reentered the room holding an almost transparent sphere. “Ah, speaking of, Kale, would you bring that to me, please.” The companion, who James referred to as Kale, handed the orb to James and retook his seat. “By allowing your own mana to flow into this orb, it will display your personal information, which includes your name, age, level, seven attributes, skills, and abilities.” As he said so, the orb began to glow before light projected out from it. A holographic display hovered in the air above the orb showing a status screen.

--------------------------------------------------

Name: James Holden IV Age: 57

Level: 59

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Attributes:

Strength: 70

Agility: 43

Perception: 130

Intelligence: 238

Stealth: 23

Fortitude: 201

Vitality: 33

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Skills:

Fire Manipulation: Expert, Water

Manipulation: Expert, Combat Strategy:

Novice, Staff Combat: Intermediate,

Praying: Master, Piety: Master,

Speech: Master

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Abilities:

Fire Manipulation, Water Manipulation,

Cardinal’s Blessing, Speech.

--------------------------------------------------

“This is my information screen, or my stats for short. I’ll give you a brief rundown of everything so you can better understand when you see your own. The seven attributes show your bodies basic capabilities; Strength is your physical prowess, agility is your ability to move your body as you please, perception is your ability to notice the things around you, intelligence is your mana capacity, stealth is, well, stealth, fortitude is your overall defense, both mental and physical, and vitality is your life force. These attributes grow as you do, so the more you train, the more they increase. As your attributes increase, your overall level will too, this level has a maximum of 100, meaning your attributes also have a maximum amount that they can grow to. However, most people never reach that maximum. In fact, the average person will only reach level 60 in their lifetime.

“But you all are not average, you are the summoned heroes, so you may very well get to level 100. The average amount of each attribute for level 1 is 5, while the extremely talented have around 15 in their best attribute. I, myself, had 13 in intelligence and 12 in fortitude, and you can see how strong my attributes became. Of course, my maximum strength, agility, stealth, and vitality for my level are probably much higher than what they are currently, but I do not train those attributes as I have neither the need nor the time to. Instead I have focused all of my training into intelligence and fortitude, with a bit into perception as well. Most people do the same as me, they focus their training to two or three attributes, while letting the rest passively increase with day to day work. When you all are leveling you may want to consider this method.”

The students began whispering excitedly amongst themselves, all doubtfulness gone from most of them. Even Orochi was beginning to believe that they had actually gone to a different world. While they were whispering, Cardinal James signaled to Kale. Kale once more rushed out of the room, this time taking the other two men with him. “Yo Noboru, isn’t this awesome, it’s like a video game. And we’ll probably end up with overpowered stats!” Gorou was excited. The whole information screen matched with the video games he was so fond of. “It’s not a video game, Gorou, don’t get too comfortable.” Noboru decided to keep him grounded, he didn’t want Gorou getting too cocky and making a mistake somewhere. “Yeah, I know. But still, this whole thing is crazy. Who would have thought we’d actually get taken to another world.” While Gorou and Noboru were speaking, Kale and the other two reentered each carrying three info orbs. They began to pass the orbs out to the students while James stopped feeding his orb his mana. The display flickered out, and the orb lost it’s glow. He rolled his orb to Noboru, “Here, use this one. All you must do is place your hand on the orb, it will automatically begin taking in your mana. You will feel a tingly sensation traveling through your body and down your arm. That is your mana traveling through you to get to the orb. The more mana it takes the harsher that sensation becomes. To stop feeding it mana, just focus on halting that sensation. Now go on, I’m very curious on what your stats may show.”

The students each reached for their orbs, some timidly, others excitedly, and slowly began pouring their mana into it. They shivered as they felt the mana begin to leave their body, but the feeling of discomfort was quickly replaced by curiosity as their orbs began to glow. The orbs began to project, displaying the information of each student.

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Name: Noboru Tobe Age: 18 Name: Yuriko Kaba Age: 18

Level: 1 Level: 1

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Attributes: Attributes:

Strength: 100 Strength: 30

Agility: 100 Agility:100

Perception: 150 Perception: 150

Intelligence: 150 Intelligence: 80

Stealth: 100 Stealth: 20

Fortitude: 100 Fortitude: 60

Vitality: 100 Vitality: 20

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Skills: Skills:

Hand-to-hand combat: Master,

Weapon Combat: Master, Combat

Strategy: Intermediate

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Abilities: Abilities:

????? Light Manipulation, Perfect Accuracy,

Critical Strike, Blessing of Life

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Name: Gorou Uyehara Age: 18 Name: Akane Kawahara Age: 18

Level: 1 Level: 1

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Attributes: Attributes:

Strength: 150 Strength: 20

Agility: 50 Agility: 30

Perception: 40 Perception: 80

Intelligence: 40 Intelligence: 150

Stealth: 30 Stealth: 20

Fortitude: 100 Fortitude: 130

Vitality: 100 Vitality: 40

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Skills: Skills:

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Abilities: Abilities:

Fire Manipulation, Earth Manipulation, All Element Manipulation, Quick Cast,

Cleave, Perfect Slash, Bleed, Blessing of Life

Blessing of Life

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Name: Orochi Takemoto Age: 18 Name: Emiko Amanosawa Age: 18

Level: 1 Level: 1

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Attributes: Attributes:

Strength: 50 Strength: 20

Agility: 100 Agility: 20

Perception: 100 Perception: 130

Intelligence: 40 Intelligence: 150

Stealth: 150 Stealth: 20

Fortitude: 20 Fortitude: 80

Vitality: 20 Vitality: 40

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Skills: Skills:

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Abilities: Abilities:

Dark Manipulation, Invisibility, Silent Light Manipulation, Quick Cast, Healing,

Step, Assassination, Blessing of Diagnosis, Blessing of Life

Life

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Name: Mika Mae Age: 18 Name: Naoko Tamaki Age: 18

Level: 1 Level: 1

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Attributes: Attributes:

Strength: 100 Strength: 80

Agility: 80 Agility: 150

Perception: 20 Perception: 80

Intelligence: 40 Intelligence: 20

Stealth: 20 Stealth: 80

Fortitude: 30 Fortitude: 100

Vitality: 150 Vitality: 80

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Skills: Skills:

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Abilities: Abilities:

Earth Manipulation, Body Water Manipulation, Sword Art, Reflect,

Strengthening, Berserk, Bleed, Blessing Perfect Slash, Blessing of Life

of Life

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Name:Kei Handa Age: 18 Name: Minori Soma Age: 18

Level: 1 Level: 1

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Attributes: Attributes:

Strength: 20 Strength: 100

Agility: 30 Agility: 20

Perception: 150 Perception: 20

Intelligence: 80 Intelligence: 30

Stealth: 20 Stealth: 20

Fortitude: 100 Fortitude: 150

Vitality: 80 Vitality: 150

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Skills: Skills:

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Abilities: Abilities:

Air Manipulation, Speech, Charm, Earth Manipulation, Body Strengthening,

Trap Detection, Blessing of Life Perfect Defense, Blessing of Life

-------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

The students buzzed excitedly, and began looking at each other's stats after inspecting their own, comparing their stats. “Haha! My Fortitude and Vitality are way higher than yours, Orochi.” Gorou even began bragging. “Shut up, my Perception and Agility are way higher than yours too. Not to mention my stealth, I mean it’s 120 above yours.” Gorou frowned slightly, “W-well, my strength is 100 above yours so, let’s call it even, yeah?” Gorou and Orochi frowned at each other for a second before breaking out into smiles and laughing. “Gah, you’re so dumb Gorou.” Orochi said, still chuckling. “Yeah, and you love it, don’t lie.”

Grand Cardinal James took this moment to speak up. “Incredible, brave heroes. Each of your strongest attributes is ten times higher than any recorded human attribute at level 1. It’s astonishing.” James had been to about half the table, starting on Gorou’s side. While he went around, Yuriko and Noboru looked at each other’s stats. Yuriko’s eyes widened faintly, before she puffed up her chest. She seemed proud that Noboru was far stronger than she was. But her expression quickly morphed to confusion, she pointed to his abilities and tilted her head. “Question marks?” She said, in a confused manner. “I’m not sure either, we’ll just have to wait until the Cardinal gets to us to ask.”

“Ask me about what, brave one?” It seemed the Cardinal had already reached them.

“Ah, Cardinal, take a look at my abilities, what does this mean?”

The Cardinal scrunched his eyebrows together before looking towards Noboru’s stats. His eyes widened significantly when he saw his attributes and skills, but he quickly recovered and went to look towards his abilities. His face twitched in surprise, but just like before he quickly covered it up.

“Ah, a hidden ability, this is an ability that you are either not a high enough level to use or you have not met a prerequisite. As for what that prerequisite might be I do not know. Do not worry, you will eventually gain access to it.” The Cardinal smiled. It was a beautiful smile, but for some reason Noboru was unnerved by it. “What I am more interested in is your skills, none of the others have skills yet, but it seems you have multiple. And they are quite strong, those alongside your attributes, mean you might be able to fight against the demons immediately.” Noboru’s eyes widened faintly. “Really?”

“Yes, indeed. To be honest, your attributes are very well balanced and at about the level of our troops in the military. As you level, they will become significantly stronger, strong enough that you could probably take on the Demon Emperor on your own.”

Noboru latched on to the last part of that sentence. “Demon Emperor?”