As the event was coming to an end, King Galick stood up from the throne, cleared his throat to get their attention, then spoke, "As you all know what the gathering's true purpose is, the time is near for the event to truly start.
I hope you have all acquainted with one another and enjoyed yourselves as much as you can." After he said this, he paused to make sure they were all listening. Then he continued, "All heroes, please gather at the middle of the hall, and the kings and queens of their respective kingdoms should return to their seats."
As soon as he said that, everyone started to move to their destinations. All the heroes, including Jay, moved to the center of the hall looking nervous, especially the twins Eren and Elena, who were visibly shaking. As they reached the center, King Galick spoke, "Heroes, you have been chosen by the Ancient Ones to be the hope of Pantheon, to be the shining light in this era of despair, to be the ones who will save us all.
The power bestowed unto you is a unique gift, a recognition from the Ancient Ones as their sole apostles, their sole vessels in this world, just like your predecessors, the past heroes. And today, you will be given that opportunity to grow that gift of yours.
Now, move forward, each of you, and showcase the potential of the unique power given to you by the Ancient Ones by placing your hands on the sphere. Do not fret; I am very sure the Ancient Ones are not biased. Each of your gifts must be powerful."
Just as he said that, the nervousness and tension that they were feeling reduced a little. He continued, "Then which one of you will be courageous enough to be the first one to come forward?"
All the heroes kept quiet until Aiden raised his hand and said, "I will go first." Then he started walking to the spherical crystal ball. He placed his hands on the ball and closed his eyes as he breathed in and out. Aiden thought to himself, "You can do it. It's your destiny." Then he freed his body. Immediately after, his body and the spherical ball started to glow with a golden light. The light intensified for some seconds before receding.
"What happened to me?" Aiden thought as he showed a confused expression. As he looked around, he saw the rulers of the seven kingdoms discussing with one another with big smiles on their faces, especially Elsa, who smiled beautifully at him. This stunned him for a little while until he snapped out of it, bowed, and went back to his position with a proud expression. The rest were baffled by what had just occurred. But since the other kings and queens were smiling, they thought it was a good sign and were also wishing for the same thing. Only Jay and Rein remained expressionless because jay already knew what was going to happen, as he had already gotten all it's information from his God's Eye skill, even knowing the ball's history thanks to his cheat.
Rein stood there staring at the crystal ball, thinking while maintaining her emotionless expression. "Hmm, judging by how the kings and queens of the kingdoms reacted, the spherical ball must show either the power of the class of the hero, or his/her growth potential as a hero," she thought to herself. If Jay could hear what she thought in her head, he would have been surprised at how accurate her guess was. Then she kept on observing as the rulers of the kingdoms gave a fawning look at Aiden as if they were saying, "As long as you join us, all your needs will be taken care of."
Aiden stood in the middle of his classmates looking proud. Next up was Rein. She too went to the center and placed her hand on the spherical ball. Then a golden light, just like Aiden's, came out from the ball and her body.
"She also has a golden potential," King Galick laughed out loud. "Looks like the Ancient Ones are looking after this era. Two golden potentials in one generation of heroes, amazing!" he said while looking at Rein with a smile.
Rein just bowed and went back to her position, showing no emotions whatsoever. Aiden stared at her with a satisfied expression. "As expected of one of my future wives," he thought.
Not wanting to be outdone, Avalon stepped out and went straight to the spherical ball. As he placed his hand on the spherical ball, a green glow illuminated him and the ball.
"A hero with high potential, not as powerful as the other two with exceptional talent but still good," King Galick said as the light started receding. Avalon stood still, staring at the kings and queens, waiting for any kind of reaction.
When he also saw them smiling at him, he went back with a satisfied expression, staring at Aiden and Rein with a mocking smile as if bragging that he too could be as high-profile as they were.
The next person to go was one of the twins, Eren. She went up with a nervous expression. As her hands touched the spherical ball, a green-colored light emitted from her body and also from the spherical ball. As the light receded, the kings and queens of all the kingdoms were smiling with joy.
King Galick laughed, "Another hero with high potential. Even if the rest were of low potential, I will be satisfied. Looks like the Ancient Ones have really blessed this era," he said with a satisfied smile.
Just as Eren went back, Elena followed. She also placed her hand on the spherical ball. The same green light came out from it and also receded. Then came Darius with a somewhat funny expression as he was nervous while trying to force his face to appear calm.
Adding that to his muscular build made him look kind of funny. As he moved to the very center of the hall, he placed his hands on the spherical ball nervously. Then a golden bright light came out. Everyone was first shocked, then King Galick started laughing again, but this time much louder. "This calls for a celebration! Three golden potentials! Ah, who would have thought something that has never happened in all the times the heroes were sent by the Ancient Ones! You heroes are truly loved by them," he said.
The other kings and queens were smiling with an excited expression, even the elves were no exception. As Darius went back to his position while smiling foolishly, Orion went to the center with a little bit of confidence as he saw others doing great. He also put his hand on the spherical ball. Green lights came out. The others didn't really put their attention on him as they were still talking about what just happened, but as they saw the green light, they became more happy.
"I guess none of us is leaving here without a hero with at least a high potential," they thought. As he went back to his position, Jay, the last person, came up to the spherical ball as everyone quieted down to watch. As he placed his hands on the spherical crystal ball, nothing happened. As they waited for a little bit, still nothing happened. A look of bafflement appeared on King Galick's face as he thought, "What is going on?
This has never happened before. A hero with no potential?" As he thought of that, the other rulers also had a look of puzzlement as they were also surprised at this outcome. Jay just had a blank expression. "Just as I thought, I'm a special case. Well, at least it wasn't a red glow. Yeah, that would have been disastrous."
Just as he wanted to remove his hand, the ball started making a loud buzzing sound. As everyone was surprised by that, a dark bright red color slowly appeared on the surface of the crystal ball. It increasingly became brighter and brighter. Just as it almost covered the entire hall, his system wrote some words in his mind that started glowing with a white colour which stopped the ball from revealing the red light for some time. As Jay saw that opportunity, he quickly removed his hands as he nervously stared at everyone.
They all still had that puzzled look on their face, like they had not seen what just occurred. "Am I the only one who saw that?" Jay thought to himself. Then he removed his hands and went back to his position. Only King Aether had a look of astonishment on his face, then it turned into a frown. "What did that red color mean?" he thought to himself. The rest of them broke out of their astonished expression and continued talking about the other heroes excitedly.
As that was the end of the event, King Galick stood up and said, "As you all have shown your potential, we saw great hope for this. We also thank the Ancient Ones for bringing people like you to us as heroes. We will forever be grateful," he said with a smile. Then he continued, "Now that we have seen the end of this event, I hereby declare the ending of the heroes' gathering.
You heroes will be escorted back to your rooms by the maids while my daughter Elsa will deal with the other rulers' settlement. You will be allocated to your respective kingdoms the next day, so you can all go and rest now." Just as he said that, he walked out of the hall with his butler following him behind. Then four maids came in and stood before the heroes. "We will take you back to your rooms. Please follow us," they bowed and started moving as the heroes followed them.
As they were sent back to their rooms, Jay lay on his bed thinking of what happened today as he called out his status board
As Jay lay on his bed thinking of what happened today, he called out his status board:
Name: Jay
Class: ???
Level: 1
Experience Points: 0/100
Stats:
- Strength: 20 (locked)
- Dexterity: 20 (locked)
- Agility: 20 (locked)
- Constitution: 26 (locked)
- Intelligence: 28 (locked)
- Charisma: 15 (locked)
- Mana: 24 (locked)
Skills:
1. Tamper: Ability to tamper with your stats by unlocking and temporarily and permanently adding to your stats. The more you level up, the more it's used, the more stress your body becomes at a longer period.
- Level 1: Tampering effect of 30.
- Level 2: Tampering effect of 60, and so on.
- Note: As you level up, unlocked stats become permanent.
2. God's Eye: Able to copy ?????? [Skill slots [1/4] and see detailed information on anything or anyone.
- Skills:
a. Solar Flare: A powerful burst of concentrated light that explodes upon impact, dealing immense damage to all enemies in a wide radius and causing temporary blindness. [Copied]
b. Blessing of the Ancient Goddess: Grants enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes far beyond that of ordinary humans. The user can perform feats such as leaping great distances, lifting heavy objects with ease, and moving with superhuman agility. [Copied]
c. Draconic Might: Grants a x3 increase in levels to all physical attacks and damage rolls for a period of time. [Copied]
d. Thunder Strike: Channels lightning magic through the body to enhance physical and magical attacks, adding an extra shock damage to all attacks. [Copied]
e. Divine Healing: Instantly heals a target's wounds by creating a wave of healing magic that instantly heals allies and the caster and restores a significant amount of health, curing physical injuries and purifying poisons or diseases. [Copied]
f. Enchantment: Enhances items with powerful magical properties. High success rate for complex enchantments and allows the use of ancient runes to imbue items with additional magical effects. [Copied]
3. God Possession: ?????
4. ????? Blessed by the ancient god of ???? (????). He ???? Total obliteration of ???? Ancient dea ???? Rule ????
"I thank God I was able to copy these skills. That was one of the reasons why I didn't flinch when I first saw that there was no reaction from the crystal ball," Jay thought. He knew even without resources from the seven kingdoms, he could still become one of the strongest heroes and, most importantly, he could survive what is to come.
As he thought, he suddenly remembered the red light from the crystal ball. "Why did that red light just appear like that? Did the ball perceive my potential as dangerous, even to the ones who created it?" Jay thought with a puzzled expression. He knew all this due to the information the God's Eye gave him when he used it to check the ball's information. "I guess someone is helping me behind the scenes. I really don't think anyone could not have been able to see that," he thought.
"And what were those words the system wrote? I couldn't really see them because of how bright the light coming from the ball was," Jay thought. "Well, let's just leave it alone. It's not like I could do anything even if I knew the truth. I'll just sleep, and hopefully, they will have allocated us tomorrow."
He closed his status board and went to sleep.