A long time ago, Mother Nature planted a seed on an empty planet instilling a bit of her mana inside. That seed grew to become the World Tree, breathing the elements into life and birthing the creation of the world.
As life enveloped the world, mankind developed rapidly and soon the first four mages were birthed, gifted with the powers to interact with an elemental mana: fire, air, earth or water. It is with this evolution that the mages founded a kingdom and named it Alvayer.
For centuries, Alvayer enjoyed prosperity, wealth and magical endowment. However, the four mages soon realise that the ambient mana around them were weakening and so were their powers. Upon investigation, they found that the World Tree had a finite amount of life with in it to produce the elements. In horror, they realised they had about a century left before the World Tree would soon collapse on itself and everybody they loved.
So, the four mages, in hopes of saving the world and the future of their people, imbued their own life mana and sacrificed themselves to create seeds of their own. Their seeds were planted across the kingdom and grew to become shrines that steadily produced elemental mana to be harvested.
Before leaving, the four mages instilled their will into a crown and gifted this artefact to the King of Alvayer with the promise that a hero worthy will rise when the world plunges into darkness. For only a hero can past all the trials given by the mages to collect the crystals and restore balance to the world for another century to come.
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“Look, the probability of you being the hero is like 1 in 8 billion people and that not including any other existing worlds, what makes you so special?”
Timon shuffled uncomfortable before whispering, “I’ve played this game before.”
“What?”
“Heroes of Alvayer, it was the last JRPG game I’ve played.” Timon spoke a little louder this time but was still conscious of the characters in front of him.
Classic, Alex thought, just exactly what you expect from an isekai genre. The engineering student wished he had the time to play games during his degree. Although he definitely could have during his summer break if he wasn’t trapped in a whole other world.
“Still, that’s you against hundreds of thousands of people that played this game.”
“Well, actually it’s an indie game. It’s only sold a thousand units.”
“Still, a one in thousand chance and why wouldn’t they just take the creator of the game.”
“Maybe the player knows more than the creator,” Timon shrugged his shoulders arrogantly, “Maybe I’m more of a hero.”
Alex rolled his eyes, “Or maybe you’re the only one that is stupid enough to accept the quest.”
Alex suppose that if that summoning circle choose someone at random out of the pool of 'Heroes of Alvayer' players, then the chance them choosing to accept the quest or not would be fifty percent. However, if say that the summoning circle had some sort of litmus test that could test for hero factors in a person by considering characteristics and behaviour. Then even if it were able to predict if a person would accept the quest at a 99% accuracy, the unpredictability of human behaviour when their life is at threat, especially the stress of being isekai’d can bring this to a false positive of say 5% (if Alex was being generous). Now, let’s say that only 1% of players are actually stupid enough to accept the quest. Then the probability, according to Bayes’ theory, of summoning someone that will say yes is 16.67% so maybe Alex shouldn’t give Timon too much credit.
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“Look, mistake or not, these people need help. Right now, I’m their best bet at survival. I can’t just leave them to die.”
“These are game characters! NPCs!”
“They look just as real to me as do you.”
Alex threw his hands up exasperatedly, “Okay, and you’re willing to risk your life and potentially lose everything back at home?”
Timon was stunned for a second but nodded firmly shortly after.
Alex puffed his frustration out. Guess I’m stuck here for the time being.
“How fast do you think you can speedrun this game?”
“Well, it depends on how easily the magic system is adaptable to real life combat and training. It might take me a couple of months to master all the components. I also need to find and assemble all the people in my party needed to travel to each shrine and they also need training. That could take another couple of months. That’s not including the journey to the shrines itself and completing the trials set by the mages, it could take-”
“-Years, so I’ve heard. How about I gather the people we need as well as the resources while you focus on training? – Kill two birds with one stone and then we can plot out fastest route to the shrines. Surely, that will cut our time in half.”
Timon looked surprised, “You’re going to help?”
“You want me to just screw around and wait? You need all the help you can get. The faster we complete the quest, the quicker I can get back to my-” Alex stopped himself from mention his beloved crush. “-get back home.”
With a now mutual understanding, Timon and Alex shook on it. Alex was going to help him save the world, even though he didn’t really have a choice in that matter. Timon was just grateful he had a companion to help him through everything.
“Are you ready now?” King Kaizer interrupted their budding comradery.
Timon turned to face the court who were staring at them intently like they were on stage performing. “Yes, your highness.”
Timon kneeled down on one knee and placed his right hand on his chest. Alex got out of the way. The insignia on his wrist glowed white and the crown on the King’s head shook responsively. The crown lifted from the crown’s head and like a magnet however towards Timon. Timon inserted his hand through the crown as it shrunk and clasped onto his wrist like a bracelet. A burst of blinding white energy shot through Timon blowing a gust of wind through Alex that he had to step back to ground himself. As the energy slowly dissipated and Alex could see again, he saw glowing white veins all over Timon before it disappeared completely.
Alex wasn’t the only one in the hall amazed by the display of magic. The knights in the hall began to bow in unison – their holy saviour was here to save them.
King Kaizer looked pleased. “The crown will allow you to manipulate the ambient mana just like the mages in our kingdom can.”
Timon darted his eyes around looking at seemingly nothing.
“What’s wrong?” Alex whispered.
“I don’t see anything!” Timon replied, voice stricken. “There’s no blue box! No notifications, nothing!”
When Alex finally got what Timon was trying to say, he had to rub his temples to soothe his growing headache. “There’s no system so no progression levels, no skill tree. You have to learn everything the hard way,” Alex reiterated Timon’s outburst more succinctly. There were already so many growing complications to this speed run.
The King continued to speak, “I’m not sure what you were expecting but it seems you have to wrong idea. As the legend goes, the hero will be granted power to manipulate all elements of the world: fire, water, air and earth to help him in his journey. Once he collects all of the elemental crystals, he will be able to feed the World tree with an overwhelming force of mana and replenish it for another century.”
Timon and Alex were both silent. Timon stared hard at the golden bracelet on his wrist, fear clouding his mind. He might not actually be the hero they needed him to be. For the first time, he realised the weight of the quest he accepted – he might actually fail. Alex was also fearful but for a different reason, having already resigned to his fate earlier on. The lack of system would delay their speed run significantly.
“So… you’re like the Avatar, master of all four elements – classic.”