[Welcome to the Corrupt Realm!]
[Chaos looms as tensions rise, and it is up to you, the Hero, to restore order back into these blasphemous lands!
Many trials await, and your journey is bound to be fraught with peril!
However, with the aid of the Hero System, no tribulation is impossible and no bridge uncrossable!'
Now, Hero, venture forth into these perilous lands and restore order once more!]
A transparent blue box hovered as it displayed a white wall of text.
"Hmm, that was pretty basic, d'you have anything else?"
*Ding!*
[Grade F Quest Received!]
[Tutorial]
[Access all the system tutorials]
[Reward: Unlock Status Value Sheet]
"Woah, what a coincidence. Or are you listening to me?" A black haired boy squinted at the blue box in front of him. He was alone in what could be considered an abnormally large room, considering that there was no need for a bedroom ceiling to be thirty feet high.
"Well, let's just look at the tutorials," Using his index finger he scrolled to a highlighted section of his system, where he saw a total of three tutorials listed.
[Power Ranks]
[Essence Usage]
[Races]
The contents were rather self explanatory.
Clicking on each of them, Yamada quickly skimmed read through each section. It was quite foolish to skip over such important, foundational knowledge, but his desire to read his status sheet won out.
Anyway, each could be summarised as so.
The power ranks were Unranked, Bronze body, Silver strength, Steel will, Golden mind, heroic Legend, unyielding Myth and immortal Semigod. Where one would temper their body, before moving to the mind, soul and combining all of them in perfect harmony to become a Semigod.
Essence usage detailed the need to channel, certain essences to evoke certain effects and the precautions for mixing various essences and gathering fundamental essences. That being Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth.
Races, just detailed the characteristics of certain races. Yamada paid more attention to this tutorial. There were also images to accompany the text.
Humans were standard. Having no specific elemental affinity, yet capable of being compatible with all. They were rather weak when compared to other races, but still dominated a majority of the realm.
Elves followed the common trope that Yamada was familiar with. They're a secluded race and tend to be neutral in most conflicts, with higher lifespans and stronger affinity toward the fundamental essences, but an aversion toward other essences. Elves also had various subraces, such as forest elves, or high elves, though that is only due to geographical location and have very little differences from each other.
Daemons, not demons, served as an umbrella term because, in the daemon race, there were countless different subraces. Some subraces having completely fundamental differences from each other. Just to show, daemons could range from banshees to baphomets. They were a rather jumbled race with each subrace having its own specialty. A hodgepodge of random affinities and elements.
The tutorial noted that demons were their own separate race from daemons, but gave no further introduction into what they were. Strange.
Then there were the miscellaneous races. Races too small for their own category. Living away from prying eyes, they can include little gemlings, or furry kobolds.
Finally, at the end of the races tab, there was another, rather curious category.
Fallen races…
There was not much meaningful content in this category, apart from being like 'Yeah, this race is dead.' But it did contain what seemed to be folktale and legends of ancient races that rebelled against the gods. An intriguing bit of system that the system offered up.
However, Yamada glossed over this, finding little interest in reading about the lore of this realm. As soon as he finished skimming over the tutorials he heard the familiar sound.
*Ding!*
[Grade F Quest: Tutorial complete!]
[Unlocked: Status Value Sheet!]
Yes! Internally yelling, he motioned to show his new unlock.
A similar transparent blue screen popped up, this time it seemed to be in a list format.
[ Kanata Yamada
Rank - Unranked
Class - Hero
Race - Human
HV - 66 / 66
EV - 0 /74
STR - 5
DEX - 11
CON - 7
INT - 8
WIS - 5
CHA - 14
Skills:
{Fire Magic (Beginner)} ]
It was just as he expected, just a page with different values assigned for each of his characteristics, yet Yamada couldn't contain his excitement as he stared at the numbers. After a while, he let out a sigh.
"You've got to be kidding," Indeed, he was sighing at his status values.
HV represented Health Value. Which was basically the equivalent to the HP in an MMO RPG. It dictated how much punishment one could endure before succumbing and dying. And EV, as explained by the System, was short for Essence Value. Similar to MP, in that, it was a requirement for certain spells, but its practical use was extremely different. EV represented the upper limit of how much foreign essence one could have circulating through their body at any given time. This indicated how much capability one has to quickly cast devastating spells, without the need to spend time gathering essence during combat, which was often a godsend in intense situations or ambushes.
It should also be noted that EV only accounts for foreign essence. One can use their own essence in spellcasting and it would not take away from the EV statistics, as essence originating from oneself is not foreign and thus not accounted under the EV stat. Therefore, it was key to know when one was exhausting their internal essence lest they were to collapse of exhaustion in a combat.
"Why couldn't it just be mana?" He whined.
It would take Yamada a while to get used to this.
STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, and CHA were straightforward, being Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma respectively.
Strength was an indicator of strong he was. While dexterity rated his hand eye coordination and reflexes. The constitution stated his bodily toughness and overall resistance. Intelligence measure, his well, intelligence, but more so emphasised on problem solving ability. Wisdom on the other hand was similar to intelligence but related to street smarts, and being able to read situations. And finally, charisma was just a show of how charming he was and his looks. A relatively useless statistic in combat, but rather important when socialising.
This was fine, Yamada was familiar with this layout, however, he could not help but frown seeing the screen. The problem lay not in the statistic definitions, but in the status results and values themselves. His class was Hero, and that was expected, however…
His stats were garbage!
For reference, as stated by the System, the average human would have status values of around ten. Ten!
His highest stats were DEX and CHA, which were next to useless. They were both heavily situational and wouldn't bring around a wholesome improvement. Unlike STR or INT which directly affected his combat power and overall physique.
Yamada didn't expect much for STR, however, he thought that he could at least beat the average with his INT!
This was rigged! He was the Hero, shouldn't he at least have some cheats?
*Ding!*
As if the System was listening, a new quest popped up. As Yamada looked at the contents, he broke into a wide grin. Just what he needed.
[Grade C Quest Received!]
[Training Arc!]
[Come now, Hero! Your journey is still in its infancy, so it is best that you train and prepare as best you can! Train hard so you can stand against any who threaten the peace of the realm!]
[Rewards:
20 pushups → +1 STR
20 leg stretches → +1 DEX
20 sec plank → +1 CON
20 squats → +1 INT
20 burpees → +1 WIS
20 lunges → +1 CHA]
[NOTE: Status values can only be accumulated up to 15, before values are no longer rewarded.
It was the quickest and easiest way to improve his status values in a short time as well as enhancing them to above average. Yamada didn't understand why he needed to exercise for the last three, but he wasn't going to question something so convenient. He'd be an utter fool to do such a thing.
…
"What a diligent summon," King Astra muttered.
The surveillance officer he placed to oversee the Hero's room gave him a situation report. It seemed the Hero started to do exercise and basic training, as soon as he was left alone. It may seem that the Hero is weak now, but that must be due to the botched summoning they did. Which most likely, led to a direct strength drop in the summon.
As soon as the Hero was back in tip top shape, he would be a force to be reckoned with, and they would crush those Empire scum as well as those Pantheon zealots, all high and mighty because they have tons of money and resources to fling around.
He could imagine their shocked looks as their forces are obliterated one after another.
Thinking about this, King Astra's mind drifted for a bit, before he set himself straight. Now was not the time for daydreaming. It was obvious that the summon would not fight for them for free, or rather it was likely that it might be swayed to join other forces. So how could King Astra watch as his prized summon gets poached? No, he wouldn't let that happen. He wasn't sure what would interest the summon, but if material desire couldn't tie it to his command, then there was another way that would do the trick.
"Maybe he'll take fancy with young Christina,"
Sighing, he stopped observing the summon.
He had lots of work to do.