The old Episcop answered a few more questions and then left, saying that we will meet again on the way to tonight's banquet. A short version of it will be like this:

Yes, there is magic.

No, he cannot teach it to us right now. We will have classes later.

Yes, there are different races.

Yes, there were previous heroes before though we are the only four right now.

At the moment we are inside a mountain, hence the lack of windows and stone walls.

This is where the church's knights live but thanks to the border tension, all the knights from this barrack were deployed on the front line, that’s why the place is empty a the moment.

Apparently, after summoning, we were naked and unconscious for an entire day so that's the reason why we woke up in rooms. The shirt and pants duo is standard clothing given to the knights of the church. That’s why all four of us are wearing them.

After finishing our breakfast the maids cleaned up the table and left.

“So, what now?” I asked. We all stood around the same, except the now empty table.

“For me, the most important thing right now is trying to access the 'system' and see if we have any unique powers to us. After that will be training to level up that ability. Cracking up the formula to do magic will be a close second. Oh, and speaking of magic, please do share if you find something interesting." Nait gave a more or less expected result.

“I am more concerned with the fact that we are like prisoners here. There is only one entrance to this… barrack and it is closed!” Arthur's mood didn’t improve at all since the talk with the Episcop.

“The Episcop seemed like a typical priest to me.” Nait didn’t agree with Arthur’s evaluation. “A nice fella. Even if we are closed in here for now, eventually we will be allowed out any way to go in the dungeon and kill monsters for leveling up. Worst case scenario we just need to be strong enough to simply get out forcibly.” He shrugged. “But in this case, we better make some allies like the royal family or maybe some influential nobles in the country to have some support for when we are underleveled.”

Arthur looked incredulously at Nait. He appeared to have enough of this anime bullshit and seemed ready to snap at any second, but thankfully didn’t. He looked at me. “Please, tell me at least more level headed.”

Damn, and what should I say now? “Well, I am not sure. I know what Nait is talking about and there is a good basis for that theory. I think it will be smart to act based on this theory until proven wrong.” Hopefully, it will never be proven wrong.

Arthur didn’t like my answer either since he turned to Alice. “What do you think?”

Alice shrugged. “Don’t really know nor do I particularly care. It seems like a good idea to me to play along until we’ll have more information. Aggression from our part right now will only worsen our standing with the episcop and most likely not have any benefit. The guys that came with the old man seemed scary, if this is where they live, there are at the very least 300 on them minimum. I don’t like my chances even against one. We better play by their rules for now.” she said with a neutral expression on her face and stood up. “I am going back to bed.” with the words said, she left us just like this.

That's… A way more level headed response and relaxed attitude than I expected gotta say.

“Tsk” while I am surprised by the chill attitude of others, Arthur seems to be getting more and more annoyed by it. He looked at Alice’s back with slightly pursed lips and frowning brows. Without an extra word, he also rose up and left.

I looked at Nait. “I am going to check out this place a bit then.”

“Sure. I am going to try and find out how to access the system.”

We both stood up and went our own way. I went to explore the building though not before heading into my room and taking a pair of sandals which I was informed were in the wardrobe this whole time...

From walking through the entire place for around half an hour, this place reminded me of a 2 pronged fork with the metal bits being corridors and the base of the fork being the entrance-- the sole entrance to this place. On the leftmost and rightmost sides were living quarters while in the middle were service rooms, like the canteen. Besides it, there was a gym and training area on which Nait was running laps around for some reason, a bathing area followed with a natural-looking hot spring and lastly, there was a modern-looking bathroom except it was of the magical variety. The second floor on the other hand was all filled with rooms. The polished grey stone theme and lack of windows persisted throughout this entire place. The barrack was 25 rooms long but since the rooms were small, it wasn’t that long. If the math serves me well, there should be 150 rooms in total, for a total of 300 persons-- like Alice said... and it is being used by only 4 persons right now. Talk about excess. All in all, a massive place that somehow didn’t give in under the weight of the mountain, though I suspect that magic is the answer to that question.

Stop, more importantly, if there are freaking 150 rooms, why in the heck did I get a roommate? Couldn’t they give me an entire room as Nait and Alice got?

---

I entered the gym and looked at Nait that was shirtless and sweaty doing push-ups. If we were to take the stereotypical image of an otaku as a glass wearing, basement-dwelling, ugly looking, fatass having, mage achieving, waste of oxygen, then Nait was the opposite of that. Young, lean with defined musculature and, if my views on this are to be trusted, rather handsome too. If he will not open his mouth and if not for his, ugh… personality disorder? You will not even be able to tell that he is a hardcore otaku. “How is it going?” I asked.

Nait finished his set and looked up at me. The exhaustion clear on his face. “I… ha… was trying to see- ha, if I will get a notification for ‘+1 strength’ from doing physical exercises.” he then sat down on his ass and continued to breathe laboriously.

“I take that there is no success in this regard?”

“Nope.” Nait even shook his head for emphasis.

“And it’s safe to assume that you tried all of the more obvious stuff like saying ‘status’, ‘inventory’ and what not?”

“Of course!” Nait gave me an accusing glare.

I shrugged my shoulders. “There is no system then. Why do you even care so much?”

“What?” Nait half yelled and looked indignant at me. “How could you say this? A reincarnation story without the LitRpg element’s is like a cake without it’s cherry on top.”

“Dunno." I shrugged. "Seems fine to me.”

Genuine bewilderment was on his face. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. He opened his mouth the second- only to close it once more. “I don’t know you anymore.” he finally managed to say and turned his back to me.

“Oh, come on! It’s not that bad! Don’t exaggerate.”

“Hmph!” Nait ignored me and started doing another set of push-ups.

I rolled up my eyes at him and went to a weapon rack that was near the wall of the gym. There was a variety of weapons in there though nothing exotic. I took a heavier than it’s looks may imply, wooden sword because everyone knows that Heroes use swords. Preferably of the Big Ass variety but since there are only normal one-handed ones in here, I made do.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Upon taking the sword in my hand and squeezing the handle with my right hand, I felt something. It’s… strange. There was a sense of familiarity that shouldn’t be there. Familiarity similar to me putting my index fingers on the F and J keys and feeling bumps under them. The same familiarity when I take my digital drawing pen in my hand-- it just felt right. A familiarity that obviously shouldn’t be there since this is the first time of me taking a sword in my hands- toys not included.

I involuntarily frowned at this. I spread my legs to take a stance, put my other hand on the handle, and slashed forward only to feel shudders run through my body from how wrong it felt. It was the writing with my left hand instead of the right one kind of wrong. It was just… just no. Simply bad. I knew for sure that it was wrong because I have the perspective of writing with my right hand and the left one.

I tried it again. This time I spread my legs a little further, up to my shoulders and trying to use my shoulders and by extension my back-- not only the arms, I slashed downward with all my might. Pushing hard with my right foot on the stone floor, I stepped into the slash that was bearing my weight behind it and in the end caught myself with the left leg. The sword sliced through the air with a satisfying *Fhush*. A euphoric grin spread on my face.

“Hey, Nait!” He ignored me.

“Man!” there were no blue boxes to inform me of it nor were there any bricks of information hitting my brain, but I was pretty sure that “I found my cheat power!”

Hearing this, Nait’s head snapped right away in my direction. “What did you just say?”

“Have you tried the weapons?”

“No? I’ve been doing exercises until now.”

“Well then come and try using one!”

I didn’t need to repeat myself twice since Nait almost ran to the weapons rack. He picked up a sword-- because of course he will-- and turned to me. “So what's next? What did you do exactly?” He asked with the excitement of a little kid.

I frowned. He clearly didn’t get the same feeling as I did. In the meantime, Nait made a casual swing with the sword. Even without my cheat power pretty much screaming at me about how horrible that swing was, I could tell that it was a bad swing. Or should I say, a swing of someone who holds a sword for the first time in his life?

“Come on, Ed, spill it out!” Nait seemed really impatient and eager.

“Just take another weapon.”

“Which one?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just take one.”

Nait took a mace and turned to me with a raised eyebrow and inquisitive glance.

I shook my head in negative.

He then picked a heavy double handed Warhammer looking thing. He turned to look at me with a big smile on his face. Apparently, he liked the weapon.

“No” is all I said and the smile was wiped from his face.

He then took a spear and staggered a bit. He turned around but was still looking at the spear. After a few seconds, he raised his head and looked at me in confusion. I smiled at him. “Try using it.” I said and he did just that.

I clumsy first thrust, followed by a better second one and an even better third one.

Nait stopped, looked at me, and then smiled. I smiled back. He then chuckled and I chuckled back. Not long after we were both laughing our asses off.

----

“I don’t think that I will be satisfied with a simple bath anymore after this experience.” I said to Nait who was soaking beside me in the hot spring.

“Yea, I now understand why the Japanese enjoy their hot springs so much” he took a wet towel, put it on his eyes, and leaned back. “Haa, I don’t think you can beat this. Especially after a hard workout.”

“Well, for maximum immersion we need Alice to be on the other side of the wall, and then it will picture-perfect cliche, don’t you think?”

Not disappointing, his reaction, despite me already expecting to see something similar, was rather exaggerated. At the mention of girls, he jerked his head up which caused the towel to fall in the water.

Seeing his reaction, I struggled to keep the smile off my face.

On the other hand, seeing me cracking up at his expense, Nait frowned, took the wet towel from the water, and threw it at me. “Jerk” he muttered at the end.

“Ha-ha, sorry man, but your reactions are way too ridiculous sometimes. Didn't think you'd react like a typical anime character at the mention of girls.”

“Oh fuck of. Don’t make it sound as if you are some kind of natural with the girls. I am pretty sure that you will be stuttering and flinching like a nervous wreck if a girl was now in front of you. And besides, we were summoned to another world, our situation is as anime-like as you can get.”

“You are exaggerating my dear awkward friend.” I patted Nait on the back.

“Oh yea, then tell me please mister guru, did you ever kiss a girl?”

“O-of course I did.”

Nait smelt blood in the water and went on aggressive.“Stop, no way, you never kissed a girl before. You are what 20? And never ever kissed?”

“Oh shut it, and who in the fuck are you trying to shame here when you are no better than me?” I shot back.

“Well, it’s you who started this you asshole! And besides, I at least am not trying to lie like someone in here.”

“I didn’t lie! I really kissed a girl before.” after some time and silent contemplation I added. “Pecked. In middle school, I went on my first date with a girl and in the end, I pecked her on the lips. Maybe she thought I was awkward or something, I don't know, but she never spoke with me after that.” Man, saying this aloud felt way more depressive for some reason.

Hearing my story, a spark of sympathy appeared in Nait's eyes. He probably recognized a part of himself in my story.

“2D girls forever?” Nait asked.

My downcast feelings were swept away and the gloomy expression was replaced with a smile from hearing Nait’s words. “Fishermans do indeed see each other from afar, don’t they?”

“Peace brother.” Nait said and he offered me a hand for a handshake which I of course accepted.

We stood in silence for a while.

“Sooo… what do you think about this Hero Summoning stuff?” I broke the silence

“Hm? Well, truth to say, it seems a little underwhelming and… un-sparkly, I guess? Not sure how to describe it. I thought it would be a little more... cool? Epic? Like in these fantasy novels and anime, you know? Not to mention that there doesn’t even seem to be a game system. I already started to think of a perfect necromancer build but then it turns out my cheat ability is spear related so that’s the end of that dream.”

“Yep, I know what you are talking about. I also thought if I would ever be in this kind of situation I would be super happy but so far nothing really interesting or out of the ordinary happened, everything seems to go by the script. Not to mention that reading a cliche is one thing but living in one is way worse.”

Nait gave me a knowing smile. ”I feel you, man. Not to mention that it’s not even the good kind of cliche. I’ve spent like an hour or so trying to activate the ‘system’ in some kind of way or another, tried using all the easy ways. Then I tried all the cheesy stuff for magic like yelling ‘Fireball’ or trying to ‘feel’ the mana and ‘imagining’ the spell. Then-” Nait just sighed and shook his head. The mere act of talking about it seemed to sadden him.

“So, found anything interesting in the end?”

“Yep..” he curtly said, and I raised a questioning brow at him, urging him to share his findings “A lot of nothing and a shit ton of embarrassment. Do you want some? I don't mind sharing.” I rolled my eyes at him and he smiled cheekily back.

“I on the other hand, while exploring this complex, found something else though.” I put a serious expression on my face and looked at Nait. “Did you check the wardrobe in your room?”

“Well yea, there was just a pair of sandals and that was it. You had something else in yours?” Nait slightly leaned forward towards me, definitely curious about what I have to say.

“Yep. I don’t know about yours, but mine had a false bottom. When I opened it, I found a parchment. From what I understood, it was basically a simple exercise to help in feeling and…” I made a short pause to look for the appropriate word “‘pushing’ mana.”

Silence.

“So? Come on man, don’t just stop like that!”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. Ok, so basically you need to put hands like this.” I put one hand above the other, palms facing each other, and with a major gap between them. “This position is supposed to help you feel the mana that you release from your palms. Oh, and you need to chant a mantra like the monks from the mountains. Got it?”

“Seems simple enough.” Nait nodded his head in acknowledgment.

“It is. I already managed to feel the mana but still have problems with pushing it.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Come on, try it yourself”

Nait didn’t need to be told more since he eagerly started to copy me.

“Ok good, now you need to chant the mantra to help. Start looking for your inner energy and start chanting ‘HAAAAA’. It's supposed to help in feeling the mana or something.”

"HAAA-" Nait started doing just that.

“Uhuh, good, now just try to push it with your hands”

Nait did a pushing gesture with both of his hands.

“Yep, good, now let’s go through the full exercise. Repeat after me.”

I put my hands in the initial position and started chanting ‘HAAA”. Nait copied me and chanted his own ‘Haaa’

“Good, now the pushing gesture. Ready?” Nait just nodded at my question, obviously deep in concentration, trying to feel the mana.

With one fast motion, I pushed my hands outwards and shouted “-DOUKEN”. Promptly following my directions, he copied my gestures and shouted:

“HAAA-DOUK--!!!” Nait froze up.

Silence.

“Pffft, A-ha-ha-ha-ha” Not managing to restrain myself anymore, I started to laugh my ass out while hammer fisting the rock beside me...

Realizing what he just did, Nait started to become redder and redder by the seconds right in front of my eyes.

“YOU FUCK!!!” Nait punched me in the shoulder with a lot of force

In retaliation, I threw the wet towel right into his face while still laughing my ass out.

---

“So…” I said as we started to get out of the hot spring “do you feel stronger or more… magical?”

Nait let out a chuckle. “I feel as magical as ever”

I looked at him strangely. “By that you mean not at all?”

“Yep. And I don’t think that 2 hours in this supposedly magical hot spring, as was claimed by the maids, is supposed to do some miracles.”

“Well yea, but I don’t feel anything magical or unnatural at all. I am not asking to become a magician right away, just some crumbs will do fine you know ‘cause so far it seems like a typical hot spring.”

Nait just shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a good hot spring,” he said simply while wiping his hair.

Just as we were dressing up, there was a knock on the door.

“Yes?” I asked.

The door to the changing room opened up to reveal a maid that slightly bowed to us.

“Heroes, the preparation for the King’s banquet needs to begin. Please follow me.”

Perfect timing.