It was almost as Frank had predicted, well sort of. Not really, Frank was completely wrong in his earlier assessment. He had thought the king of this nation had come to greet them but as it turned out, it was a duke of the kingdom. "How dare that fatso trick me into thinking he was a king?? He's lucky there's no Demon King or anything we need to save them from!" Frank shook his head as he thought back to the mostly one sided discussion between him, the bag of shit and the Duke of Pigstys.
Frank followed the lead of one of the guards, a nameless man with no face as far as Frank was concerned. He couldn't help but feel anything but rage as he thought about his situation and everyone's mocking attitude towards him made him want to punch a wall each and every time.
The duke had everso boringly described to both him and the stupid yellow bird that their kingdom was the oh-so-very-best in the world. They had subdued the Demon King years ago and only summoned themselves a [Hero] because they could.
Basically it was nothing more than a flex for them, something to show off their might to the rest of the world. Frank wanted no part of it truly, but he was not allowed to leave. He was required to recoup the cost of his summoning, even if he had absolutely no choice in the matter.
"This is your room, [Artificer]." Frank could practically hear the sneer and feel the disdain the guard had for him. He had probably thought he drew the short straw for having to escort him. Honestly past the anger, Frank was confused. 'What was so wrong with being an [Artificer]?' he thought.
Frank rid himself of ideas that would only anger him and ignored the guard. He faced the wooden door and without a hint of expectation, opened the door. Inside was what he thought was a decent room, but because he knew this castle belonged to a duke, he was less impressed.
The room was roughly 10 by 10 and had a queen sized bed, dresser, desk and a single window opposite from the door. Frank entered and slammed the door. He grit his teeth and brought up his hands to his temples to rub them. "Let's calm down, Frank. Maybe mess around with the system a bit, get my mind off things."
Clearing his mind, Frank whispered the single magic word. "Status." It was the same simple one from before, but as he tried to focus on it, it began to expand including much more detail.
[
Name: Frank Cristuado
Class: Artificer lvl. 1
Title: N/A
Health: 80/80
Mana: 120
Regen: 5 mana per minute
Str: 10
Dex: 8
Con: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Cha: 10
Luc: 10
Skills: [1 Unselected Skill]
Spells: [3 Unselected Spells]
Traits: None
]
After taking a look at his status, it was easy to see how he got his mana and the regeneration for it, but he was unsure of the formula used for his health. It was something he would figure out after putting a couple of points into it so he wasn't too worried about it.
Frank's eyes drifted from past his stats and landed on his skills section. He moved his finger to touch [1 Unselected Skill] and narrowed his eyes at the second pop-up that appeared.
[Appraisal: A skill that will allow you discern information from objects and creatures.]
[Chemistry: Work with the building blocks of life to produce effects.]
[Arcane Crafting: Using a combination of magic and science, create artifacts.]
[Runic Smithing: Combine the might of smithing with the ancient runes of the giants to produce wondrous items.]
The four skills: [Appraisal], [Chemistry], [Arcane Crafting], and [Runic Smithing] all looked interesting, but one in particular stood out as different. [Chemistry] was something he didn't think this world would have, he just assumed they had Alchemy instead.
After a moment of deliberation, Frank waved the list away. He did not want to commit to anything before he had a chance to look them up, and he was not even sure if he could earn the skills on his own without selecting one.
He just did not know enough to make a decision so he decided to forgo looking at the spells for now until he could visit a library. Frank dismissed his status window as well and moved over to the bed, flopping onto it backwards.
With a deep breath and an exhale, Frank closed his eyes to try and get some rest. Tomorrow would probably suck and he wanted to at least get a good night of sleep. He tried to clear his mind and imagine good things happening to him.
Slowly the night passed and due to a very loud knock on the door, Frank was up and alert. He looked around the room he was in and let out a shallow puff of air. "Looks like it wasn't a dream. Great."
The knocking continued and Frank climbed down from the bed he was atop. He strolled over to the door and opened it, the guard on the other side mid knock. "What?" Frank asked with a blank expression.
"Follow me, the duke wishes to speak to you." The guard's deep voice commanded and after saying his piece he turned to walk down the hall, not even looking to see if he was being followed. Electing to comply, Frank followed after. Taking the time to rub his eyes and fully wake up, he was taken through the still bland halls to a large, at least to him, dining hall.
Made of a darkened oak and longer than his room was wide, the table was an impressive sight to behold. Hanging from the ceiling was another atrocity made of gold that reminded Frank how much he hated the pointless show of wealth the duke seemed to enjoy.
Frank moved forward to one of the empty seats, sadly opposite of the dipstick. Both the duke and the blight gave him a creepy smile as he sat down and he forced a half-hearted smile in response.
"Good morning, [Artificer]." The duke's distaste for him was immediately once again made known and Frank clenched his jaw and replied through closed teeth, "Yes, good morning, Your Majesty."
The wanker thought his reaction funny, and chuckled while he shoved his stupid face with food. Before Frank on the table was an empty plate, something that was remedied quickly as a maid brought him a tray of food: eggs, a steak, bacon and a goblet of what smelled like orange juice.
As he tried to dig in, the duke coughed and he looked over. "Now then, as new subjects of our kingdom and guests of my mansion, all I ask of you both is to contribute to the glory of our nation. With that in mind-" The duke nodded and a maid ran over and handed him a scroll, of which he unfurled and read.
"You both will be sent to town with a small allowance of gold. While there you will both gear up and report to the barracks for a mission of sorts. It will be well within your skill range." As he said that last bit he looked over to Frank before looking to the arse and continuing.
"That is all, you may go, [Artificer]. I need to speak to the [Hero] some more." Before he could even take a bite of his food, which had Frank salivating from just looking at it, his seat was ripped out from under him.
Nameless guard number 82 picked him up and practically forced him out of the dining hall. He was pushed through the halls and actually thrown out of the building. "Hey! What's the meaning of-"
In the middle of protesting his treatment, a bag of coins was tossed at him, hitting him square in the jaw. Frank rolled to his side and clutched his mouth. A vein threatened to pop on his forehead as Frank seethed in rage.
He had done nothing wrong to deserve any of the things that happened to him, yet he was continually disrespected. "Fuck you!" Frank whipped around as he tried to berate the guard but he realized he was alone in the front yard.
With a huff, he picked up the coin pouch and looked at the contents. "Six, seven…Really? 21 silver coins? That doesn't seem like a lot at all." Pouring the contents of the pouch into his hand, Frank slipped the coins into his socks before tying the pouch on one of his belt loops.
"I really fucking hate this place."