Taylor followed the princess down a long hallway made of stone with a very long carpet covering the stone floor. The walls were covered in ornate decorations, intricate picture frames with painted headshots of what he could only assume were the royals of the past. Chandeliers hung from the high vaulted ceilings.
Beside him stood the not so snobby, yes very oddly dressed mage. “So,” he started “why are you dressed so, uh, unusually?” Taylor tries to make small talk while getting answers to a few things that had been bothering him.
“This is the standard equipment for any mage” he answered standing up a little straighter with pride.
“Okay,” Taylor says still confused “but why does the uniform show so much skin? Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, wearing a robe or something?”
“Heavens no!” The mage exclaimed “we wear as little as possible while still being decent to the public. The more skin that’s exposed the more mana one can utilize. Wearing a robe would be like trying to breathe with a cloth wrapped around your head. Sure it’s possible but much more difficult to do than just not having that cloth there.”
“Oh, well that explains that then” he says making a mental note to look into that to see if there’s any workaround for that. No way he’s going to wear booty shorts just so he can do magic a little better. “So where are we going?”
The princess without turning around answers him “we are heading to the mages tower, at least the one in the castle. There’s plenty of instruments and equipment there we need to test you with. We need to know what you’re capable of and your potential so we know how to best train and utilize you in our endeavors.”
“You know I still don’t understand what it is that I’m expected to do,” Taylor sighs, “all I got was, ‘please save our kingdom’ which clarified absolutely nothing.”
“My father is a wise man,” the princess said stiffening up a bit, “he had determined that we will tel you the details of what we expect from you after we know what you’re capable of.”
Sensing he might’ve pressed the issue a bit much he just grunted in response and started to mumble to himself to check a few things. “Status, inventory, analyze-“
After the last word a semi transparent window opened up above the princess’s head.
NAME
Alice Evergold
RACE
Human
LEVEL
??
Mana
??
Alignment
Chaotic neutral
Vitality ?? Strength ?? Intelligence ?? Dexterity ?? Charisma ?? Faith ?? Luck ??
Abilities
??
??
??
??
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
‘Hold on what’s up with that?’ Taylor thought to himself doing his best to not react to the new influx of information, ‘so analyze works, but what’s up with this chick? Chaotic neutral? Fuck, ok I gotta do my best to figure out what I can do and get out of here ASAP’
Turning the corner they all came to a large door. The princess turned around with a smile “welcome to the wizards tower oh hero, follow me and we will be able to see your potential.” And with that she signaled to the two soldiers guarding the door to open it.
Inside was a large room covered in all sorts or instruments and items, all of which seemed to have something to do with magic. Staves, scrolls, an alchemy table, a few glowing swords and shields. Most curious of all was the glass ball in the center hovering underneath a great big blue mass of some sort of energy.
“I know it’s a bit messy but please do come in” princess Alice gestured to the hero, “this tower is a bit unique, with a simple command you will be brought to what ever level you need through that one door. There is no other way to get to any other levels but by going out and requesting a different one.”
The mage that was accompanying them spoke up, “my master was one of the five great sages that helped to build this tower” he boasted proudly.
“That’s quite impressive,” Taylor nodded earnestly, letting himself marvel in the wonder of magic for a little, “I’d love to know how that works. But before any of that, am I correct in assuming my assessment will have something to do with that floating crystal there?”
“Yes actually” the mage said sounding impressed, “you sound like you already know what’s going to happen. Do you have magic where you’re from? The records of the last hero that was summoned claimed there was no such thing.”
“Oh no we don’t have magic where I’m from,” he answered with a slight laugh, “we have many, many ideas of what magic could be and how it could be used. Also many different systems of what magic would look like and how it would work. This is going along the lines of one of them but a fairly consistent thing is glass or crystal balls being used in many of them for multiple purposes.”
“Color me impressed,” the princess said looking genuinely surprised, “just place both of your hands on the ball there and wait, it will get a reading of you and will display some information to you about your capabilities. Just a heads up so you know how we gauge it, the average commoner has between five to ten in any given statistic, the average knight has up to thirty, same with most mages, if you’re fit to be one of the best in the kingdom your statistics would show fifty or above in any statistic and we can determine based off of that what the best course of action will be.”
The princess gestures to a bench nearby, “these bracelets here will track your growth and will be essential to your training. So once you’re done we’ll need you to come out these on.”
‘Right, so I’m definitely NOT putting those on’ he thought to himself, “ok, well, here goes nothing I guess”
Walking at a steady pace he approached the orb coming to a stop just two feet from it. He calmly raised both of his hands to touch the orb and suddenly his hands were sucked to the orb unable to move. Electricity courses through his body, causing his muscles to twitch uncontrollably and making him make an odd sound like a controlled yell through gritted teeth.
He watched as the blue energy was sucked down into the ball and forced into his body, permeating it along his circulatory system. His veins glowed with the strange blue light as his vision slowly became filled with nothing but the blue glow. This felt so much worse than when he had been razed for that one security job.
The pain stopped as suddenly as it started and his vision slowly returned to normal, no wait, better than normal? The skin on his hands was immaculate and he could see his reflection in the ball. His face was more angular but it kept an overall definition so he could still tell it was him. His hair was the same short cut he always had, with a bit longer on the top brushed to the side, still brown too. His eyes didn’t change, a shame really, he would’ve liked something besides brown. But his ears, they were long.
‘Did I just become an elf?’ He thought to himself.
“What does your status say?” Asked the princess impatiently, “I can tell it’s something good with magic otherwise you wouldn’t have been made an elf.”
“What?” He called back a little groggily, “what do you mean? How long was I out?”
“Only five seconds, the orb is designed to change any summoned hero to fit their attributes best, elves are best with magic and have long lives so you must be great with it to have been made one.” The princess explained.
Taylor looked down at the ball again and looked past his reflection to see his status.
NAME
Taylor Longoria
RACE
Elf
LEVEL
1
MANA
500 (+30 from elven blood)
Alignment
Chaotic good
Vitality 1000 Strength 35 intelligence 100 dexterity 25 charisma 20 (+30 from elven blood) faith 5 luck 50
Skills
None
‘Did that say mana five hundred? And a thousand vitality? Am I some sort of magic tank?’ Taylor thought to himself. “Uh it says vitality twenty, strength thirty five, intelligence a hundred dexterity twenty five, charisma fifty, faith five and luck fifty. My level is one and my mana is a hundred. No skills yet though, sorry.”
The princess’s eyes lit up “a hundred in both mana and intelligence! Oh you’ll be a great sage someday!” She hopped in place with excitement, “having no skills at level one is completely normal, come over here and put on the training bracelet so we can continue” she gestured at the table again.
Taylor looked at the bracelets and muttered “analyze”
Bracelets of slavery
Owner Alice Evergold
‘I fucking thought so’ thinking quick he muttered a few things to test something, he tried to focus on that blue energy that went in him. He was sure that was mana but he just hoped he could use it. Putting in as little mana as he could he muttered “blast”
A tiny spark similar to a pop it fire work went off in the palm of his hand. ‘Perfect’
“Oh hero?” The princess began.
“Sorry Alice,” Taylor started, “but I don’t plan to be anyone’s slave.”
Holding his palm out toward the wall he put in about what he tried to make about half of his mana and said “BLAST!”