I stared at the massage that appeared in front of me, with relief and confusion.

If I was completely honest with myself -and I strived to always be- I didn’t actually think my actions would have any effect on the course of the battle between the legion of Astra and the orcish horde.

There were just too many points of failure for it to be anything other than a desperate gamble. What if they didn’t understand my language? what if they recognized my voice as the guy who was running through the battlefield earlier like a headless chicken and disregarded my words? what if when the promised reinforcement didn’t arrive the legion would be demoralized and rout?

To many if's for me to be sure. Yet apparently it had worked.

And I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I let my disbelief about the success of my gamble fade and anticipation for my reward to rise.

The scroll that notified me of the quest completion has already disappeared and there was no follow up announcing my reward but I wasn’t worried.

I was genre savvy enough to know where I could find it.

I uttered "status" and to my complete and total non-surprise, a new scroll appeared in my view, this one a lot longer than the previous.

Name: Markus Blum.

Class: Paladin (Chosen of Atia).

Secondary class: N/a

Level: 1.

Secondary level: N/a

Attributes:

Strength- 10.

Dexterity- 5.

Endurance- 10.

Faith- 15.

Skills:

Faith born shield (LV 5)- Channel your faith in Atia thorough your shield and allow divinity to turn aside all blows.

Words of courage (LV 3)- Imbue your voice with divinity and speak the words of courage, lift men above and carry them to deeds untold.

Two unassigned skills slots available.

Blessings:

Mark of courage (Atia, goddess of Bravery and Valor)- for your courage's deeds, Atia has marked your soul forevermore with the mark of courage, increasing its capacity to channel the power of Valor.

My first thought about the character sheet presented to me, was how weird it was.

First of all, I might not be the strongest guy around but strength ten seemed too low considering I lifted wights on and off over the years, forget strength I've taken guitar lessons regularly over the last decade, I'm sure my dexterity should be above five. Not to mention my faith attribute, I'm a devoted atheist, why is faith my highest attribute? Is it related to my class?

For that matter why is faith an attribute at all? and where are the mental ones? Like why do I have faith but not wisdom or Intelligence?

And why are my skills already leveled?

That last one, at least, is answered by actually reading the skills and what they do. And coming to the realization that I already used them.

I mean, I did notice some kind of energy in my voice earlier and it doesn't take more than basic deduction skills to realize it's likely the influence of the world Words of Courage skill, which explains how my ashine of a plan actually worked.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Nothing like the power of divinity to change a plan form stupid to successful.

And while I never noticed using Faith born Shield, the obvious conclusion is that I instinctively utilized it to block the many arrows that fell upon the broken shield I hid under.

This does bring to mind the question of how I used skills that I wasn’t aware even existed at the time, especially when the class haven't yet existed.

Questions for later I suppose.

When focusing on different parts of the character sheet I found that some unfurl new scrolls.

Only three though, focusing on the unassigned skill slots brings up a list of available skills, which I ignore for the time being, as I would rather attain some basic understanding of my situation before picking something. Focusing on the secondary class section only brought up a short scroll which says there are no secondary classes I qualify for.

Focusing on the main class brings up the only useful scroll of the bunch.

Paladin (Chosen of Atia)- the chosen of Atia picks up his weapon to spread her word and name, he is both a priest and a warrior, the chosen is composed of absolute faith and pure conviction. He stands at the top of her church, commending her armies and followers with religious zeal. He will never walk alone for his goddess follows in every step. +10 strength, +5 dexterity, +10 endurance and +15 Faith per level.

The archetype paladin gains experience from all sources the architypes priest and warrior gain experience, the paladin gains double the experience when both archetypes would gain it.

The class description really reinforces the weirdness I got form my character sheet; I mean the chosen is composed of absolute faith? I barely know anything more than Atia name, how the hell can I be called someone of absolute faith?

Also, stand at the top of her church? The fuck did I get myself into? it might have been better to just accept the curse then be some kind of religious icon.

At least the mystery of the attributes is solved, partly at least, the gains per level form the class are the exact number I currently possess, so I think it's safe to conclude that the attributes aren't a description of my current situation but rather some kind of boost.

I pick up a medium sized stone and move it around and I certainly don’t feel any stronger but I suppose I wouldn’t really know by feeling -how does one feel if he's stronger anyway? - and solving the mystery can wait until I'm out of the forest and back in civilization.

Which I'm pretty sure should be somewhere around here, soldiers need a place to gather supply and rest, so there should at least be some villages in the vicinity.

I look at the floating scroll for a few more moments and when nothing new jumps out to me I dismiss it and continue my hick.

The forest I'm tracking through is a weird one not that its unexpected what with being in another world -the only real explanation for why there are orcs all of the sudden- the trees are nothing like back home, their trucks are too thick and the few which posses' fruits or flowers are of a kind I've never seen before and that I don’t dare touch despite my growing hunger.

Even the critters are different, the birds make different sound and I'm pretty sure I saw a squirrel that was three times the size of anormal one and not actually a squirrel considering it had two tails.

I don’t know exactly how long I've been trekking through the forest in the search of civilization but the sun was perhaps half an hour from setting and I didn’t want to test if the creatures of the night are as safe as those of the day.

Just as the last rays of light disappeared behind the horizon, I heard something large moving swiftly and dived behind one the trees to hide, I didn’t care to chance meeting with a predator.

Thankfully it wasn’t a predator, unfortunately it was something that could be worse, humans.

My first clue to this not being an animal was the bright light that lit them like beacon in the night.

The other were the words, the group seemed to be looking for someone and it didn't take a genius to realize they were searching for me.

But hey, at least I've got confirmation were speaking the same language.

"Come out" a gruff voice called out "we know you're here".

Yeah, like I'm going to fall for that, that's like the oldest trick in the book. I'm just going to stay here until you pass, nothing good can come from revealing myself.

A different men chuckled before calling out "you're hiding out behind the tree with purple leaves" his voice was gentler but deep and commending as well, I still didn’t come out, there were like three trees with purple leaves here and it could have been just a lucky gauss.

"Come out please" the men asked again, his voice possessing some quality I couldn’t recognize "I promise no harm shell befall you".

There was something hypnotic in that voice and before I could catch myself, I stepped out from behind the tree.

That single step terrified me, I didn't want to do that and yet I did, mind control?

My every instinct screamed at me to run but looking at the group Infront of me and the seven horses they had I realized running was a losing proposition, same as fighting, the five knights put a stop to any thought of utilizing my stolen sword as anything other than a tool of suicide.

With running and fighting out of the question, that left only talking and I'm sure that talking with the people who could mind control me is going to go swimmingly.

"Good" I pinpointed the voice of the men who could apparently mind control me to the only one who wasn’t covered by heavy armor, he was a young man perhaps in his twenties, short heir broad of shoulder and wearing some kind of armored robe with a symbol of a sword over a shield sown into its fabric "come, we've got much to talk about, chosen" he said pointing to the seventh horse which possessed no rider.

With no other option, I reluctantly did as he said.

Wondering how I was going to get myself out of this hole all the while.