The light raced towards the ground behind us before exploding in brilliant rays of light causing us to avert our eyes.
"What was that?" Cameron asked, stupefied. His earlier cocky demeanor was nowhere to be found. Cardinal James let out a small satisfied smile before answering his question.
"That was magic. Light magic to be specific. If you are lucky, you may be able to use that as well." Excited whispering broke out from the students, there was no longer any skepticism to be found, only excitement and wonder. "Now, how about we figure out your statuses?"
"Statuses?" Jasmine spoke up for the first time, her voice quiet but serene. James bowed his head towards her before answering.
"Yes, my lady. Your status tells your strength and what skills you have been bestowed by the Holy Goddess. It will let you know if you can use magic or not." Gasps of understanding broke out after the Cardinal finished explaining. It really is like an anime, we even have status boards. Wait, I hope that doesn't mean I'm going to be super weak like all of those anime protagonists. They usually become strong but it takes a horrific experience and I don't want to go through that. "Come come, let us move to a different room."
Cardinal James moved as he spoke, gesturing for us to follow. We moved forwards, following behind him and Cardinal Hera, while the rest of the clergy members fell into a circle around us. It seemed that they didn't want any of us to get lost. That didn't matter to me, what did was the view in front of me. Cardinal Hera's attire had a loose top so I didn't get a good view on her topside but her bottom was skin tight, and it was a view I wanted to burn into my mind. Her bottom was like a juicy peach in front of me, just begging to be eaten. No matter how much I wanted to dig in however, I knew it wouldn't go over well so I held back and simply admired the beauty in front of me.
A small voice broke me out of my lust fueled hypnotism. "Um, Caesar?" I looked back to see Jasmine right behind me, her face looking both hopeful and not at the same time. "T-that is you right?" She blushed slightly and looked away from my eyes as she spoke. I smiled at her shy nature and hesitant tone before answering her.
"It is, do I look like someone else to you Jasmine?" I teased her lightly, prompting a quick pout from her. I laughed when I saw her pout, this was our usual interaction back on Earth. I had become friends with her in order to give Gordon an in, no matter how much I knew it wouldn't work out. But naturally I grew to enjoy our interactions, and considered her a good friend of mine.
She playfully hit my arm in response to my teasing. "How mean! I was just glad that some I knew was here with me." She huffed slightly and turned her head away from me in mock anger. The blush on her face betrayed her act, making me laugh even more than I had been. She hit my arm once more, harder this time.
"Sorry sorry, you're just too much of a class act for me to not laugh." I said as I stuffed the laughter back down so I could actually communicate. She puffed her cheeks which threatened to bring that laughter back but I quickly muffled it and spoke again. "But do you not know the others here? They all go to our school." I asked the question on the forefront of my mind.
"W-well, I know them, but I'm not friends with any of them like I am with you." I tilted my head in confusion at that statement. She seemed quite popular in the track and field club so I assumed she was popular outside of it too.
"Wait, do you not have any friends outside of track?" I was incredulous, so I asked it more bluntly than I should have, which earned me another hit to the arm. Her face was red and she was stuttering as she tried to respond to my question.
"N-not really…" She finally managed to squeeze out before she turned her gaze towards the ground in embarrassment and let her hair cover her red face. I patted her head lightly in apology as we walked.
"I didn't mean anything bad by it, I was just surprised. Sorry." I smiled brightly towards her as she looked up towards me hesitantly. She smiled softly before fully raising her head again. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get along with the others well too, but I'll be here too even if you don't." Jasmine opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the screech of an opening door and quickly turned her head towards the sound which was coming from the front.
I looked forwards as well, just as Cardinal James spoke. "Inside please, great heroes. Take a seat wherever you wish." James and Hera stayed on either side of the door and herded us students into the room. It was far smaller than the hall we were just in, with a large circular table in the center with a dozen chairs around it, and another door at the other end. We quickly sat down, leaving just two chairs next to each other empty on one end. I had Jasmine on my right and a girl named Hannah on my left. Hannah was a friend of mine from English class. She had black hair, brown eyes and a crooked smile that fit her mischievous personality quite well.
We stayed quiet while Hera and James both sat in the empty chairs. The moment they did, servants appeared from the other door in the room. Bringing glasses of water and tea as well as small triangular sandwiches to go with them. It felt almost like a tea party that girls would throw in middle school.
Once the servants left, James spoke while Hera began to pass out small smartphone shaped stone tablets to each of us. "These tablets that Cardinal Hera is passing out are your status boards, simply press your index finger onto the back and it will display your unique status." James pulled out a tablet of his own before demonstrating. He pressed his index finger into the back and the front began to shine brightly before forming words. He turned the tablet towards us to let us read it.
Name: James
Class: Cardinal
Level: 33
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 23
Intelligence: 30
Wisdom: 33
Charisma: 30
Skills:
Expert Light Magic
Intermediate Speech
Master Healing Magic
Miracle
"It's quite simple, no?" James asked with a smile as we all stared at his status board. "Usually I wouldn't show my status board to anyone, as it is personal information, however for the sake of you heroes I am making an exception. Now allow me to explain the different stats." He pointed towards the top three, Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. "These three are your physical stats, Strength is self explanatory, Dexterity is your agility, and Constitution is your hardiness." He moved his finger towards the bottom three, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. "These three are your mental stats, Intelligence refers to general knowledge, Wisdom to the application of knowledge, and Charisma towards likeability. However they also have secondary uses when it comes to magic. Intelligence effects spell strength, Wisdom effects spell ease, and Charisma effects mana amount. Any questions so far?" He looked around as he asked.
Hannah raised her hand. "Um, what is mana?" She asked. It was a good question for someone who had never watched anime or read fantasy before. Cardinal James had a genuine smile on his face as she asked that.
"I am glad you asked, that segways into skills perfectly, thank you hero. Mana is simply the essence that allows you to manipulate the world around you and use magic. The more mana you have the more complex and greater amount of magic you can cast. Magic is a skill, skills are something you are born with, and you cannot gain or lose skills unless you have a skill that affects them. Skills that aren't magic don't use mana, and they can be used near infinitely. Some of you may have noticed that when I spoke initially on your summoning you felt like you could trust me and be at ease. That was the effect of my Speech skill."
I let out a gasp of understanding at his explanation. It made sense why I felt like I could trust him from the start, despite the weird situation. "Now do you all see the 'Expert' tag in front of my light magic? That shows my mastery of that skill, the more you use a skill the better you become and the easier it becomes to use. However there are some skills that aren't like that, like my 'Miracle'. This skill has no mastery, it is a 'unique skill' only given to Cardinals or above. Hera also has this skill." He looked towards the purple haired beauty next to him who had finished passing out the status boards and sat down once more. "Now since you all have a status board, please activate it and take a look at your stats. I will answer any questions you have."
I pressed my finger against the back of the board just like James had done moments ago and watched as the front began to glow brightly before finally forming words.
Name: Caesar
Class: Famished
Level: 1 (0/100 exp)
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 6
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 10
Skills:
Ravenous (No Information)
I sat there confused for a moment. My stats seemed fine, in fact my Dexterity and Charisma were above average compared to Hannah and Jasmine, but my class and my skill didn't make sense. Jasmine's class was sharpshooter, and her skills fit with it, bullseye, archery, and wind magic. While Hannah's class was dark mage, with black magic, necromancy, and manipulation as her skills. But my class didn't make any sense to me. I wasn't hungry, and Ravenous showed no information about it. So I quickly asked.
"Um, Cardinal. Can you take a look at my board real quick?" James raised his eyebrows slightly at my request before rising and moving over towards me coming to a stop right behind my chair. I tilted the tablet so he could see it and watched as his eyes scrunched in confusion at my class and my skill.
"What is your skills explanation? It's something only you should be able to see, like the exp counter by your level." He asked after a bit of thought.
"Um it just says no information, that's why I was confused." James clicked his tongue lightly before shaking his head.
"As I thought, it's a unique skill. Your class is unique too, I've never seen it before. I assume as you level up your skill will be revealed to you, but it will be rough for you until it is. I will do as much research as I can into your skill, maybe I can find records of it somewhere, until then hang in there Caesar." He spoke with an encouraging tone which made me feel better about my circumstances. It seems he learned my name from my status board. He moved back to his seat and allowed everyone a bit of time to look over their stats and relax before speaking once more.
"Now that you all know why you're here and I've taught you the basics of your status boards, it's time to meet the King." The reaction of the students was varied, some feeling excited at the prospect of a King, others scared of the power the King held and the possibility of doing something wrong and getting on his bad side. Cardinal James picked up on the student's attitudes and assuaged their fears. "Do not worry, His Majesty is a kind man, you won't get on his bad side easily. Come, follow me."
This time it was just the two Cardinals who led us, leaving the other priests back in the room we just left. We went back into the hall we were summoned into and headed the opposite way from the statue of the Holy Goddess, approaching a pair of doors. These doors were gargantuan, adorned with glittering gold and sparkling marble in order to give it a distinctly holy look. It was almost like looking at the gates of heaven themselves, if instead of gates they were doors.
Cardinal Hera waved her hand as we approached and the doors slowly began to open. Sunlight slowly spilled through the ever widening gap between the doors causing me to shield my eyes for a moment. When my eyes finally adjusted I peered through the now fully open door and witnessed the beauty of the world. The church we were in was sat on top of a hill that overlooked the entire city and the forest beyond it, allowing me to see miles of beautiful wilderness only interrupted my meticulously built walls that preluded the city protected by them. It was truly an awe-inspiring sight.
"Quite beautiful isn't it." Cardinal James said with a pat to my shoulder. "This is the very place we are trying to protect so that its beauty will never be tarnished." I nodded in agreement. Just the sight of this place made me want to protect it, almost like a father's instincts to protect his child. "We must go now, but you are free to come back afterwards if you wish, Caesar."
I shook out of my stupor, "Right, let's go, the king is waiting." We both turned and quickly caught up with the others that hadn't stopped to admire the view. I couldn't help but feel that it was a waste, the view really was too beautiful to pass up