I wake up to the feeling of the sun hitting my face. Opening my eyes, and looking around, I see the same boring room that I went to bed in. Once I sit up in bed, a soldier opens the door and begins to speak.
"Some of the other Heroes are already in the meeting room. We've got food prepared there for you. Once all of you are up, we'll provide a more in depth question and answer about your current situation."
I get up, and notice a new pair of clothes that look a little better than the first pair they provided me sitting on a chair that they must have put in while I was asleep.
The soldier speaks up again, "Once you get changed, knock on the door, and I'll escort you to the meeting room."
I slowly put on the new clothes, and then knock on the door. The soldier opens it up, and escorts me down multiple winding pathways, decorated with tapestries depicting people fighting monsters, and other fantasy scenes. Eventually I'm brought to the meeting hall. If the soldier hadn't told me this was a meeting hall, I'd have assumed it was the largest place within the castle, but considering I don't see a throne or any other similar fixtures, I'm assuming its not the largest space within the castle.
I see about half of the people who were summoned with me are mulling around near the food, which has been placed on one of the side tables in the room. Upon approaching, they briefly look over before continuing their conversations. I grab a plate, and begin taking what looks good. It seems like they've prepared some kind of biscuits, alongside sliced meats and some fruits. I'm not sure if they think they've pulled out all the stops for us or not, given last night's rooms we were presented, but I reflect back on complimentary hotel breakfasts back on earth, and lament the lack of conveniences that seem to be present here.
After filling my plate, I walk over towards one of the groups talking amongst themselves. The current speaker seems to be talking about how they went to high-school and college in Seattle.
"And where are you from?" He asks after finishing up his story.
"I'm from the Chicagoland area." I respond, looking around the group. A few people nod in response as well.
"So far it sounds like everyone has been from the US who was brought here," The guy who was from Seattle says, before continuing his story from before. Over the next 30 minutes, it seems like everyone else filters in, and the pattern holds true, it seems like the only people summoned were US citizens.
After another 30 minutes or so, everyone seems to have finished eating, and some servants come in and clear all the plates and food. Shortly after that, they bring in chairs and set up some rows facing one side of the room, then they bring in more chairs and some tables and set them up on the other side of the room, 2 chairs to a table, across from each other. Once all the chairs are placed, one of the soldiers speaks up.
"Heroes! I hope that the food was to your liking. Shortly Princess Alistra will arrive to give you a more detailed description of your situation, and answer questions you might have. In the meantime, please take a seat in one of these rows of chairs, and await her arrival." The soldier announces, quickly moving back into rank once he has completed his announcement.
We all shuffle around through the rows of chairs, until we're all seated, which by-the-way isn't the easiest thing to self organize when you don't know any of the people present. After a minute or two of sitting, a large pair of doors on one side of the hall opens, and Princess Alistra walks over to stand in front of us.
"Heroes, I must apologize for the brevity of yesterday's meeting. However, as I'm sure most of you are aware of now, not long after being summoned, people experience heavy fatigue. Today I'm going to dive into more detail as to your situation and position." Princess Alistra annunciates, before continuing, "As I stated yesterday, our world is under threat of a Demon Lord that has appeared. Specifically, this is the 6th Demon Lord in known history. I'll go into more detail as to that shortly, but don't panic. A Demon Lord has appeared, but it will be years before they become a true threat to the world, so you'll have time to train up, and get prepared to fight."
"Again, this is the 6th Demon Lord in known history. The first occurred before the Kingdom of Godren's time, during the Empire of Helicus. The Empire of Helicus stretched across many modern kingdom's territories, including Godren's. The first Demon Lord slowly destroyed the Empire until only a small amount of territory existed, as a last ditch effort, a bastion was created, that bastion is the castle you are in right now. Within that bastion, a large summoning circle was inscribed. That was the same summoning circle that you were all summoned from. The first generation of heroes worked together to defeat the Demon Lord. Little knowledge remains of who those heroes were, or what powers they held, but after the Demon Lord was defeated, the Heroes were informed that they would have no way to return home." Princess Alistra stops talking after this and looks over us.
"So we can't go home?!" Someone pipes up, panicked.
"I'm sorry, but that is correct, we know of no way to send you home." Princess Alistra responds. At which point, a large part of the crowd begins to react in many ways, some cry, some yell angrily, and some sit in shock. I personally am not as surprised. Given everything that has happened, I'm partially happy to just be alive. Looking around a little, it appears that the guards are on edge as well. I suppose if the Heroes of old destroyed an entire Empire as revenge, I'd probably be on edge too.
Princess Alistra waits until people quiet down before continuing, "Out of the ashes of the Empire of Helicus, many Kingdoms arose, like our own Kingdom of Godren, and we swore to not make the mistake of the Empire, and to be as upfront as possible about our methods, and what we know. A few Centuries later, a new Demon Lord arose, and we hesitated. Summoning heroes is something to best be avoided, the then King of Godren assessed. After all, they destroyed the Empire afterwards anyway. Years would pass, and it became obvious that Heroes would need summoned. And likewise, they were. This generation of Heroes, we know more about. The King, then panicked at the approaching Demon Lord's armies, poured every resource he could into the Heroes. They likely wouldn't have been successful even with this, were it not for the star Hero from that generation, The Hero of Energy. Its rumored that he was capable of simply aiming his hand at entire armies, and they would instantly turn to Ash. The Kingdom learned two valuable lessons from this generation's Hero summoning. First, a Demon Lord is beyond our current abilities as a civilization to handle, so as soon as one is found, we must perform a summoning. Second, not all summoned Heroes are fit for battle, and to ask them to work with the other Heroes puts more of a burden on both parties than is useful. So we developed a new strategy. We would summon Heroes as soon as we knew of a Demon Lord, and then assess the Heroes for what they are best suited for."
"You see, every human has a potential rating in 5 categories, plus an affinity for a type of magic. The categories are Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma, and the standard types of magic that normal humans have are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Holy, and Dark. The potential rating determines how much certain stats change when you level, and your magic type determines what kinds of magic you could have access to, alongside what kinds of abilities might be available to you. Now a point that we have recorded is that in the Heroes' world, things like level and magic don't exist. So a brief explanation is in order, defeating monsters can help raise your level, but so can training your magic or body, but at a much slower rate than fighting. Something else that is important to inform you of, Heroes' attribute potentials seem to be exceedingly high compared to humans from this world, and Heroes magic attributes are unique. Many of which we've never heard of. Which brings us to the story of the Fifth Demon Lord, and our current system."
"The Fifth Demon Lord arrived, and Heroes were again summoned by the King. The Heroes were assessed, and we determined how to allocate resources and help to the Heroes. The team that we determined would be best suited to fight the Demon Lord would be The Hero of Medicine, The Hero of Armor, The Hero of Artillery, and The Hero of Acrobatics. These Heroes would stay in the Castle and train, provided whatever resources they needed to grow, and every opportunity provided to them. The other Heroes were given appropriate positions or recommendations to other locations, for instance there was a Hero of Books among them, who would later change our Royal Library into a country wide public library system. However, the Heroes objected to one Hero not being put on the Demon Lord team, the Hero of Gravity, who given his attribute alignment, would make for a very successful adventurer and was provided opportunity as such. The then king was a man proud of his own knowledge, but he had never heard of Gravity, and had no way to assess the strength of the Hero's power. 18 months later, disaster would strike, the main team set out to fight the Demon Lord, and were defeated. Despair fell over the Kingdom. Many of you can probably guess, but the Hero of Gravity would singlehandedly defeat the Demon Lord a month later. The King, aware that his own hubris had clouded his judgement laid out two new rules. One, the person who would be in charge of the Heroes would be someone who is not in line for the throne, which is why I am here, instead of the king; and two, after everyone's abilities are recorded, the Heroes opinions on who would be good combat potential should be taken into heavy consideration. So, before we get into the assessment, are there any questions?" Princess Alistra says, changing her posture slightly to be less rigid and formal.
I speak up, "You mentioned that other Heroes not on the main combat squad will receive assistance, to what level is this assistance?"
"While those who choose to do nothing will have basic provisions, like the rooms you were in last night, they won't be provided for beyond basic necessities. That said, those who contribute to our society will be more than adequately compensated for their contribution, and will be given extra consideration for requests, like the Hero of Books was, they had access to almost 1% of the annual costs of the Kingdom at their peak. I hope that answers that question." Princess Alistra responds.
After a few minutes of no one speaking up or gesturing, Princess Alistra begins speaking, "We'll move on to assessments then, behind you are tables set up with a pair of chairs across from each other, please move to an empty table each, and an assessor will arrive at the table to assist you in evaluation and providing any documentation or otherwise that you'll need."