Suddenly, I found myself in an unfamiliar place. There were torches instead of lightbulbs, brick walls instead of a concrete finish. The people that surrounded me were wearing cosplays. Some looked like medieval soldiers and some resembled knights in plate armor. Then, there are those who wore what certainly looked like robes from games. I knew this was not the Earth when I looked to the window and saw 2 moons hanging in the skies. One was grey, and the other had a bluish tint. It was mesmerizing.
A night before the ceremony, Giselle was visited by an old man. He was the Chancellor of the kingdom, second in authority to the king who had suddenly become bedridden. She had been preparing herself for bed when the guest arrived.
Knock, knock.
"Princess, the Chancellor wishes to meet you."
After a moment of silence there was a lovely voice that traveled through the closed room. The servant made sure that the Princess heard her by making her voice loud.
"Please tell the Chancellor to meet me at the drawing room."
"Yes."
The Chancellor who heard this answer flared up, and ordered the servant aside as he opened the door to the Princess' room and entered forcibly.
"Please hurry, Princess, this is an urgent matter."
"Is it so urgent that you would dare to disrespect a Princess, Chancellor?"
"What are you talking about? Disrespect? There's no such thing!"
"Guards. Escort the Chancellor outside!"
"Princess, don't you dare overstep!"
"Overstep? An unmarried Princess of the Kingdom, preparing for bed was suddenly harassed by the Chancellor for an unknown matter. Is this something any married man and a noble, does to any lady? A Princess no less?"
"This…"
The Chancellor gritted his teeth as his indignation bubbled. He was the one at fault but now that he was embarrassed in front of the servants and guards, he was blaming the Princess for whatever affront he received.
"T-Then, I apologize, I shall wait in the drawing room."
"No need, Chancellor. You will command one of your servants to come to me at a time tomorrow morning to relay whatever it is that you wanted to say that was so urgent. Have a good evening, then."
The door was slammed by the Chancellor who was then escorted by the guards out of the Princess' palace. His face was priceless. Giselle who had seen this face of the Chancellor snickered. She did not come out or even show her face but was able to see such priceless expression from the deplorable Chancellor. Giselle was the most looked down Princess in the Acadrian Royalty. Although she was the youngest, she seemed to be the dullest and most talentless daughter of the king. Now that the king is bedridden, the only one who doted on her has disappeared and she became isolated. Even the servants looked down on her as if they were better faring. Such was the state she was in. It was these little pleasures that kept her sane.
"Father, I'll find out what truly happened to you and once I find out who made you ill, I'll exact vengeance upon them!"
The dull and mischievous Princess was in truth, a bright and incredibly clever lady.
In the morning the next day. The Chancellor commanded one servant to give Giselle her appointment as to teach and escort the 'Hero' that was about to be summoned in the ceremony that will be performed by the Chancellor.
"Hero. For what purpose?"
Curious, Giselle snuck to the Royal Library and scanned through all the records of the Heroes of past generations in the royal line. In one book called The Records of Satoru, she found that these 'heroes' were ordinary people from another dimension that were granted incredible powers by the gods upon summoning. They went on to be the pillars of support and prosperity for the kingdom for centuries to come.
"And they want to summon another one today? The king is bedridden, but that doesn't mean he is incapable of deciding for the kingdom!"
Giselle knew something was up with this. However, she was powerless. Although a princess, she was not given any authority to participate in decision-making. All she could do was to do things in the shadows as she had done well in the past even to this day.
"This 'hero', I have to escort him from now on? I'll see to it that he becomes an ally instead of a pawn for the Chancellor."
And so, when the Chancellor's appointed time in performing the ceremony came, Giselle also prepared herself for the coming storm in the Royal Palace.
…
At the time of summoning. Somewhere within the Kingdom of Acadria, an abandoned tower half in ruins. The tower was circular in shape and was fit for drawing magic circle arrays in. The Chancellor commanded a few mages within their ranks to draw the array as he prepared the spell for activating the array to summon the hero of legend.
"Soldiers, prepare to restrain the summoned one immediately after the ceremony is completed!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Good. I can't have a hero that's uncontrollable."
The Chancellor whispered to himself as the preparations were complete. Soon, the ceremony began, and the summoning was a success.
"Now, soldiers prepare to subdue the hero!"
"Yes, sir!"
However, things did not proceed as they intended. The world suddenly lost its color, the darkness had turned into a shade of gray, and the light that the torches emitted did so as well. Time had suddenly frozen over. A strong feeling of oppression suddenly appeared, and this affected the entire abandoned tower. Even time was affected by it. In a world that lost its light, only a reddish emerald-green glow could shine. The hero that had been summoned just then, moved. He went out of the way, the dust that had risen from the ceremony's success had hidden the hero. In a corner where he could observe everything that was happening, he waited. Then he breathed out and everything returned to how it was supposed to be. The dust simply settled after a few more seconds. There were no disturbances in the environment. It was as if no one was there and revealed the array was empty.
"What?! Did it fail somehow?!"
The Chancellor was furious. He spent almost all of his mana in doing the ceremony. If this failed, he would become a laughingstock for these soldiers and mages with him.
"Search the room! He must be here, for sure!"
*Ping*
[Language Acquisition Lv. MAX acquired]
[Language: Common Tongue Lv. 1 > Lv. 8]
The hero raised one of his eyebrows as he suddenly heard the chime and acquired skills. Seeing as the promised accelerated growth was taking effect, the hero curved his mouth a little. It was a smile that was not quite a smile. The soldiers did as ordered and searched the room it was only a few seconds later when one soldier accurately identified the hero's silhouette that he was found.
"Here! I found the hero! Here!"
"Quick, he must still be weak, subdue him! Be careful!"
The Chancellor still hoped that the hero would still be weak. However, contrary to his expectations, the hero was at his peak.
[Language: Common Tongue Lv.8 > Lv.MAX]
When the soldiers came to him, they saw that this 'hero' was in fact a hulking figure. His hair was emerald-green, and his eyes were like that of lions, golden and intimidating. They suddenly stopped in their tracks. Someone reported then.
"S-Sir, I think you should come and see him instead."
"What do you mean?!"
Asked the Chancellor while grumpily coming over. Then, he saw what the problem was. This man, if it was a man, indeed was no ordinary man.
"What…? How tall is this man, three grown men would just barely equal him in height. His body is made up of incredibly robust muscles from the look of it. What is this?! The records in our family never mentioned heroes this impressive! They all started weak!"
The Chancellor's thoughts were thrown into disarray as he processed what he was seeing. This was indeed out of his expectations.
"For now, I should pacify him. We don't know his capabilities yet. He was supposed to be weakened and susceptible to being subdued or even enslaved. This is not how it was supposed to go!"
As a final decision on his part, he trashed all his plans for the evening and just welcomed the hero with open arms and a grand smile.
"Men, stand down! This is the hero of legends! We should welcome him properly. Hello, hero from another world! I am the Chancellor of this kingdom, Aron von Dyruth. I welcome you to Acadria!"
"…"
The hero simply stared at the Chancellor. He was pretending not to understand a single word the Chancellor said. He was observing him thoroughly.
[Aron von Dyruth]
[Profession: Chancellor Lv.15]
[Sub-profession: Mage Lv.57]
[Class: Noble (Duke)]
[Attributes]
[Skill(s)]
[Talent(s)]
[Blessing(s)]
The hero was looking at this scheming old man's status using the God-given talent: Observe.
[Observe Lv.1 > Lv.5]
[Attributes - STR: 18 | DEX: 25 | INT: 85]
[Observe Lv.5> Lv.MAX]
[Skill(s) – General Management Lv. 3 | Magic Attunement Lv. 3 | Magic Weaving Lv. 2 | Etiquette Lv. 8]
[Talent(s) – Mana Sensing Lv. 2]
[Blessing(s) – Status Lv. 1]
While the Chancellor was doing his speech to coax the hero, the hero had already completed his check. His expressionless face resulted in him being insulted by the Chancellor.
"Hah! This hero is nothing but a slave. Why don't you just let me get your neck, you stupid buffoon!"
The hero ignored him and registered every single one of the people here in his memories. In his mind, he said, "Status" and the same Status Window appeared before him. Covering the Chancellor's ugly mug.
[Status Lv.1 > Lv.Max]
[Clay]
[Profession: Hero Lv.1]
[Sub-Profession: Alchemy Master Lv.1]
[Class: Dimensional Traveler]
[Attributes]
[Skill(s)]
[Talent(s)]
[Blessing(s)]
[Condition: Excellent]
The hero named Clay, saw his own status. He was not surprised by it. Instead, he had a sparkle in his eyes. He could finally live in a fantasy world like he wished as a young teenaged boy. After the Chancellor's speech, he gestured for the hero whose name he didn't know yet towards the lady servant who would bring him to the castle for processing. On the way to the castle, Clay checked his status thoroughly and found something missing. His status as with the god's blessings was there. But his initially received 'blessings' were not reflected on it.
"Seems like even the gods can't peer through that being's power."
Clay closed his eyes and quietly traveled via carriage to the castle in the dead of night. Soon, they arrived. The female servant was already instructed to bring the hero to the Princess. It was already night, and the world was dark, but the Chancellor still expected the Princess to keep awake and accommodate the hero. Such disrespect for the royalty could only come from the Chancellor.
Knock. Knock.
There was no answer.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Still no answer. The female servant who also looked down on the seventh princess of the kingdom was getting irritated. Clay noticed this and noted it. He remained silent and waited.
"Dammit, this dumb princess must have slept already! She was ordered to accommodate the hero!"
Without a care, Clay just waited patiently. He was using Observe as a passive. At first, it cost energy to activate it, but with a seemingly inexhaustible energy source, Clay simply had it active as if a passive. After a minute of waiting, the servant couldn't take any more and banged the door in anger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At this, finally, there was movement inside the room. Clay on the other hand knew that the princess was simply irritating the irritable servant. Weird, but he didn't care.
[Observe Lv.Max > Divine Sight Lv.1]
The talent that was given him, suddenly got upgraded. And Clay was surprised but still maintained his calm exterior especially after he looked at the talent's description and functions.
[Divine Sight]
[Level: 1]
[Skill(s) – Analyze Lv.MAX | Clear Sight Lv.MAX | Clairvoyance Lv.1 | Electromagnetic Vision Lv.1 | Supernatural Vision Lv.1 | Truth Vision Lv.1]
"What, talents can evolve? The skills attached to this talent is overpowered. Let's try it."
Clay used his Divine Sight to peer into the room of the princess and saw that she was slowly walking towards the door. She was dignified and elegant. The moment she opened the door, Divine Sight was also deactivated. The scent she wore wafted out of the room and tickled Clay's nose. It was fragrant. Not too strong. It was gentle to the nose. Especially someone of Clay's caliber.
"What is it? I already dismissed my guards and servants for the night. What are you doing? You're the Chancellor's servant? Guards!"
Suddenly, soldiers arrived at the princess' call and surrounded the servant. She was not nervous at all. After all, she was the Chancellor's servant. However, she did not expect that the princess was as everyone expected, unruly and eccentric.
"Drag her to the dungeon and whip her 100 times. Make sure I won't see her again for the next few months."
"Yes, your highness!"
"Go!"
"N-No! I am the Chancellor's servant! You have no right to punish me! No! You have no right! No! You bitch!"
After showing off her authority, Giselle turned to Clay who seemed unaffected by whatever was happening and dumbly just staring at her. Clay in fact, had been staring at Giselle because he was checking her out. Not with observe but with his lustful eyes. After all, Giselle was simply gorgeous. She looked exquisitely and uniquely beautiful. Her pink hair and bluish-green eyes matched perfectly. Her face that was shaped like an almond, cheeks that were full, lips that were luscious, eyes that have extreme allure, brows that were as if handcrafted perfection, spoke of her facial beauty. When he looked down, he was staring at by a perfectly proportioned physique.
"Perfect score!"
Clay couldn't help but exclaim in the common tongue. His exclamation did not escape Giselle's ears and she narrowed her eyes. She knew, this man, he understood them quite well.