"WHAT IS THAT THING MOVING AROUND HER FEET!!!" The girl screamed, in the highest pitched voice I had heard, while pointing at the feet of the girl sitting next to her.
This caused the whole class to fall into an abrupt panic. Luckily, the biology teacher had recognized the small creature.
"Relax, it's just a small leech... But how did it get here, and how did it survive such harsh conditions..." he said, with a confused frown on his face.
"Alright class, you can sit back down in your seats, I'll go and take care of this little guy..." he had stopped talking, after noticing something weird about the leech.
"Hmm... why is it glowing? could this be a new species?" he mumbled loudly.
"Teacher, I think it's going to blow up" one of the boys in the class suddenly spoke out.
"Nonsense, it's just a leech, they... AAHHHH!!!! EVERYONE TAKE COVER!!!"
Teacher had dropped the leech, after seeing how it had started growing insanely fast, and the glow from the leech had become less of an orange glow, it turned more yellow. It exploded. The whole classroom was engulfed in a bright, yellow and white light, and the previous small conversations all turned to screams.
"Welcome to Aksus" a voice, from nowhere said.
We had been transported somewhere with this exploding leech, was it the afterlife? I was not sure. One thing I did know was that all of us were still together. We were inside some sort of white room, and some of the students had started speculating that we were in heaven.
"Did we die?" one of the girls asked our teacher.
"I'm... not sure" he responded.
"It seems the transportation worked flawlessly, that's wonderful" the voice from before said.
"Who's there! Where are we!" our teacher spat out, almost instantly after hearing the voice.
"Now now, no need to be so hasty, I shall explain. This, is Aksus." After this statement, the whole room, which was previously all white, had turned into landscapes, with lush forests, grand farmlands, and beautiful medieval cities. Whilst seeing this, you could hear many praises from multiple of the students. It truly was an astonishing sight.
The voice, which had presented itself as Aksus' Guardian, had from then on explained many things about this world called Aksus. Basically, it was a lot like an MMORPG video game from our world, and that everyone received a class, which would determine what work you would do. They then proceeded to tell us how to see which class we had, and that they had chosen our location specifically because they needed a 'Hero' who supposedly was within our class.
'Status'
This was the keyword you had to either think of, or say to be able to see your class, level, skills, and eventual titles.
Name: Kazo, Lv. 1, 12%
Class: Magic Assassin
Skills: Inspect (Common), Dash (Uncommon), Stealth (Uncommon), Dark Magic (Rare), Decipher (Mythic), ??? (???)
'My stats.. seem decent, but what is this question mark skill?' I thought to myself.
"Whoever has received the 'Hero' class, could they please step forward" the now strict voice said.
"I have the hero class!" Corat shouted out.
I had already expected this outcome, of course he'd become the hero, he's been considered perfect by everyone at our school for years.
"Great, the Sage wasn't wrong, now then, I shall send all of you down to the castle you see over there." The voice suddenly took the shape, of a hand, at least twice the size of a normal human, and pointed towards my left. There was indeed a beautiful castle, with a large town surrounding it.
The bright light started shining again, but not for as long as last time.
When opening our eyes again, we were greeted by an older man, with a large brown beard, sitting in a throne. He introduced himself.
"I am Tolvid Risa, the fifth king of Risum, we have summoned you, o' great heroes, in search of your help. We are currently in war with our neighboring country, Kolus, and at this pace, we'll lose all of our territory to them."
Stunned by this introduction, most of us stared with our eyes wide open at this Tolvid Risa. Except for of course, Corat, who was the first person to speak.
"I am Corat Filfried, I'm the person with the Hero class. Now that you've got me, can you send the rest of my classmates back to our world?"
"We'd like to make sure you're actually the Hero, could you please step forward and place your hand on this statistics stone? I'll answer your questions thereafter." Tolvid exclaims, gesturing at one of the people standing by him to walk forward.
The person with the statistics stone seemed to not be a simple one, you could just feel a strong aura emanating from them.
Placing his hand on the stone, which looked like a glass ball, Corat seemed as though he was hesitating. But the things which were making him hesitate shortly disappeared, after floating text appeared not far above the stone.
Name: Corat, Lv. 1, 3%
Class: Hero
Statistics: Strength 10, Agility 10, Vitality 10, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 10, Magic 10, Luck 100
"WHAT!" All the men standing by the king, including the king himself exclaimed.
They started mumbling among themselves before Corat spoke up.
"I have proven that I am the Hero, can you send the rest of my classmates back home now?" Corat seemed a bit angry at this point.
"Well, you see Corat, that is not a possibility. We have transported you here by prayers and sacrifices. You will all be sent back when you have executed the king of Kolus" Tolvid said, with a serious look on his face.
"Of course, we will let them live a nice life here in Risum, if they decide not to join you in the fight that is."
"Did you hear that guys, you don't have to fight in the war, it is your choice, so please, don't join me out of pity, only do so if you really want to." Corat said, most likely to get a small amount of people for a group to fight with.
"Now now, could you all please line up for me, we need to check everyone else's statistics" Tolvid said.
We did what was asked of us, and after a few people got to know their statistics, we started to realize how overpowered Corat really was, with those low numbers.
Name: Tirka, Lv. 1, 0%
Class: Swordsman
Statistics: Strength 2, Agility 2, Vitality 3, Intelligence 1, Wisdom 1, Magic 0, Luck 13
Name: Ultok, Lv. 1, 1%
Class: Ice Mage
Statistics: Strength 1, Agility 1, Vitality 4, Intelligence 5, Wisdom 3, Magic 6, Luck 17
Corat's stats were through the roof in comparison to us other people, it was insane. It was finally my turn, I was anxious to see what would show up when I tried it.
Name: Kazo, Lv. 1, 12%
Class: Magic Assassin
Statistics: Strength 7, Agility 38, Vitality 2, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 13, Magic 9, Luck 78, Potential [Infinite]
Wow! some of my stats are even higher than Corat's, especially my Agility! But what's this potential thing? I didn't see it whenever someone else did it. I decided to wait until everyone else was done.
"You might have noticed another stat called 'Potential' when using this stone, this is something only the person who used it can see. We would like to have this information from you as well, as it can help us in the future, Corat, would you like to start?" Tolvid exclaimed short after the last person used the stone.
"My potential was 1850" Corat said.
"Mine was only 670.."
"Mine was 1240!"
...
As it came to my turn, I realized that if I said that my potential was infinite, I'd get questioned, I lied and said,
"1760"
Whispers and mumbles were heard all throughout the throne room. These mostly consisted of praises, but a small amount was also doubt...
Having finished writing down the important stuff from our stats, we were told we could enjoy Risum for the rest of today, until sundown, because that was when dinner would be served in the main hall, where we were located.
The king was generous enough to give us ten gold coins each, except for Corat who received a hundred, but he of course shared it with the people who said they'd join him in the war.
After having finally grasped the situation I was in, I decided it was time to explore the small town beneath the castle, as it seemed very interesting. The castle felt like a maze, it was extraordinarily huge.
Finally making it out the front gate of the castle, I was greeted by two guards. They asked me if I had my verification so I could come back inside later, and I showed them the stone tablet the king had given us. They let me out, and I was ready to explore the city, however this exploration had to happen another day...