The soldiers parted to reveal twelve regal looking people. Eleven of them stood behind the one who had spoken out in welcome. That middle-aged man radiated power and majesty that overwhelmed even the collective auras of those behind him. Phoenixes decorated his robe, and his long beard billowed slightly in the wind.

“I know all of you have questions and are most likely not willing to protect a strange land filled with strange people, but introductions are in order,” the middle-aged man announced.

“I am the emperor of the Human race, Emperor Cyneric Huang. I am in charge of keeping the twelve Zodiac Clans in check. The kings of the Zodiac Clans are behind me with the exception of the Snake Clan. The Clans they belong to from left to right are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar.

The leader of the first generations of heroes was said to be of the Human race denomination called Chinese. He was the one who came up with the Clan names. Unfortunately, instead of retiring from his hero position here, he had left to go back to your world.”

Everyone’s ears perked up at that final sentence. What the emperor had hinted at was that there was a possibility of going back home.

The emperor sighed and began speaking again, “all of you have the choice of going back to your old world after attaining several meritorious deeds in the war against the other three races. Those three races are the Oni race, the Youkai race and the Akuma race.

Meritorious deeds that you collect is recognized by the summoning formation that brought you here. Every meritorious deed will grant you more power, and a mark of your choosing will appear like a tattoo on a place on your body of your choosing.

If you choose to retire as a hero here instead of going back to your old world, you will retain your power but lose the marks on your body. Of course, that also means that you do not have any more chances of going back. Now, I think that’s enough information from me. Ask what questions you wish.”

A few questions were asked by the twelve people. They found out that the summoning formation binds them and prevents them from committing crimes against the Human race. However, if they were doing something good for the Human race, they could kill any harmful people.

Training would be provided by the twelve clans. The twelve Earthlings were given an opportunity to obtain the best martial scrolls that you could ever find through the Emperor’s martial repository. There was no fear of being unable to read the language of this world. The summoning formation directly imprinted the language into everyone’s minds.

Other unimportant questions like lodging and monetary issues were also brought up, but was clarified as the twelve Earthlings were to be given free lodging as long as they showed the emperor’s seal which they would be given when they were mobilized.

Soon, the question and answer session ended. The group split up and went to the kings that summoned them.

Lunete was at a loss of where to go when Adio stopped in front of her, making eye contact, and walking to the king with a dragon on his robe. Adio stood behind the Dragon King and stared hard at Lunete. Lunete could not help but sigh mentally as she made her way to the Dragon King.

Next to the Dragon King, there was a red-haired, sexy woman. Her facial features were almost as beautiful as Lunete’s own and her assets were equally endowed. The black, tight-fitting clothing that she wore did nothing to hide her body’s curves. Lunete checked out the woman slightly inappropriately before she realized that the woman was doing the same to her. They both realized at the same time and the red-head smirked and gave Lunete a wink.

Lunete grinned back and winked at the red-head. The Dragon King was slightly confused by the strange greeting by the two, but brushed it off quickly.

He spoke as soon as Lunete got close enough, “I am the Dragon King, you can just address me as King Long. I will be in charge of training the two of you. The Dragon Clan specializes in both overall martial might and strategy, so we will be training you both in these two aspects. Soon we will leave for the Emperor’s martial repository. I will let you two acquaint yourselves until then.”

With that, King Long walked aside. He was followed by Adio and they began discussing some things.

Lunete turned to the red-head and introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Lunete Argall.”

The red-haired woman’s eyes widened in surprise, “you are THE Lunete Argall? You only look twenty at most!”

Lunete was startled, and mentally brought up and scanned the status screen. It said that her age was twenty.

“Uh… I’m not sure, but I think the summoning formation turned me back into a twenty-year old,” Lunete said as she was struck into a daze.

The red-head grinned, “I’m jealous of you now but at least our ages are closer even if you are mentally older. It would be fun tasting this famous young piece of ass. In any case, my name’s Kiara. Kiara Callaghan.”

Kiara extended her hand and the two women shook.

Suddenly, two women approached hand-in-hand. Both looked to be of Asian descent. They had beautiful features and lithe bodies.

“Salutations, fellow girls,” the mocha-skinned woman greeted, “lez-be-honest with each other here. We saw you two checking each other out and spotted each other checking you two out. To think that four people who pitched for the same team ended up among the twelve here. I’m sure we’ll all get along, friends… with benefits.”

The Eastern-Asian girl giggled at the mocha-skinned woman’s choice of words.

“Hey girls, name’s Akiyama Yuri. Yuri’s my first name. This naughty girl next to me is Aanjay Aamin Joshi. Her first name’s Aanjay,” Yuri said with flirtatious undertones.

“I heard from Hou-boy – that’s the Monkey King, that we were to split up into groups of four to take on one of the invading races. And coincidentally… our kings, the Rabbit, Monkey and Dragon Kings are on good terms. I say that we arrange our team early. All the more with four sexy ladies in our team,” Aanjay shamelessly and unilaterally decided that the four were together.

However, the three other ladies had tacitly consented to this arrangement. It was much easier if people of the same values stuck together. These two ladies did not seem to be the type to tie people down and were more open-minded in terms of relationships.

***

The four girls talked and laughed together. Time passed quickly and it was soon time to head to the Emperor’s martial repository. The twelve kings led the twelve protectors to the repository.

Guarding the repository was an old man. He exuded a strength that absolutely suppressed the twelve kings. Seemingly informed of the arrangement beforehand, he only guided the twelve protectors into the repository. The kings had to wait outside for the protectors to choose what they wanted.

The twelve Earthlings were immediately overwhelmed by rows after rows of jade tablets upon entering the repository.

“Touch the tablets and they will tell you what martial skill or art they will grant. Bring the tablet that you want back to me. Left side is for men and the right is for women. Do not worry, there are duplicate tablets for martial arts skills shared by men and women on each side,” an ancient but hale and hearty voice came from the elderly man.

With that, the elder did not bother explaining anymore and left the twelve to do what they had to do. He obviously did not want to say anything more than what he was tasked to do.

Lunete looked at the sections in the female section. There was the martial skill section, the martial art section and the general skills section. She wondered what the difference was between martial art and martial skill, so she picked up a martial skill tablet. A window popped up in front of her.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Martial Skill TabletThis skill tablet provides the martial skill .

Attack Power: 250Will you learn this skill?YesNo

Selecting no, Lunete then moved on to the martial arts section and picked up a tablet. Another window popped up.

<> Martial Arts TabletThis skill tablet provides the martial art <>.

<> comes with a strengthening skill, a movement skill, a defensive skill and an offensive skill.

Attack Power: 100Will you learn this set of skills?YesNo

Lunete realized that martial skills are like trump cards that you can use to cause devastating damage once in battle while martial arts were like a set which you can use to battle throughout. With this, it is easy to see that she should learn the martial arts instead.

Lunete did not dismiss the window this time and sought information from the jade tablet. <> was a martial art that grants the practitioner superior agility. Once a certain level is reached, the practitioner can flit through the air like a swallow. Attacks made by the martial subskill were not too strong, but can serve to slowly whittle down the opponents in drawn out fights. Lunete chose to learn this skill as it would be useful for getting away when things get rough.

Selecting yes in the prompting window, Lunete felt images of the skill being implanted in her brain. Seeing as she could learn more than one martial art due to being able to absorb the skill right away, Lunete put the jade tablet back and went about looking for more martial arts tablets. Perhaps she could use a couple more for varying situations.

Sifting through the tablets, Lunete learned two more martial arts. The first was <> martial art which can be used in situations where tying up enemies would be most helpful as all the martial subskills could freeze enemies or trip them up. The second martial art was the <> martial art. This martial art teaches the body how to withstand internal strikes and at the same time teaches the practitioner to deliver devastating internal strikes. This would be the martial art the Lunete would be using when she needed to swiftly dispatch enemies.

Lunete moved on to the general skills section. She noticed that none of the other twelve bothered to touch the general skills section. However, Lunete was curious and maybe she could learn one or two useful things here. Lunete touched the first jade tablet in the general skills section.

MetallurgyContains the knowledge of various metals, and the methods of smithing various weapons and armors.Will you record this knowledge?YesNo

Seeing the screen in front of her, Lunete’s eyes brightened. She immediately assented to the record of the jade tablet’s knowledge. Then, she made her way through the entire general skills section and touched every jade tablet. She learned pharmacology, woodwork, stonemasonry, and a variety of other useful skills related to crafting. With the recipes in hand and the ability to create material from the game system, she would definitely benefit from all of these.

Eventually, Lunete came into contact with the jade tablet containing information on formations. Strangely, the question that was posed to her by the system asked if she wanted to learn the skill. Lunete decided that she would probably take this tablet along with her since she was interested in formations but the skill did not provide the necessary knowledge.

Lunete made her way to the elder, noticing that she was the last to have chosen her tablet. Seeing her emerge from the general skills section with a tablet in hand made eight Earthlings make a strange face. Kiara, Yuri and Aanjay just looked at Lunete curiously.

The elder took the tablet from Lunete’s hands and smiled for the first time since the twelve met him. He performed some seals with his hands and unlocked the tablet before passing it on to Lunete.

“I look forward to your growth,” the elder told Lunete as he passed the tablet on.

Lunete just smiled sweetly and nodded. The elder’s words had piqued the interest of the other eleven Earthlings, but Lunete did not bother entertaining them. She would tell her three friends when they were alone outside with their kings, but the rest did not need to know.

The group moved outside the repository to meet their respective kings. The kings then discussed with the group what skills they had picked and started planning a general outline of a training regimen.

It seemed that Aanjay and Yuri had told their kings that they wanted to work with the two women under the Dragon King. They had both assented and were waiting beside the Dragon King with smiles on all three faces.

Each of the women revealed their chosen martial arts. All of them had the same idea that martial arts were much more useful than being a one-trick pony from choosing a martial skill.

Kiara had chosen a lightning-element martial art called <>. It was based on controlling the battlefield with electricity. When mastered to a certain level, it could boost allies’ movements while hindering enemies.

Yuri chose a light-element martial art called <>. <> was a speed-focused martial art, capable of extending one’s inner energy like a light ray and piercing opponents from afar. It also came with a supplementary martial subskill called that allowed an accomplished practitioner to heal even serious injuries.

Aanjay picked an earth-element martial art. It was the <> martial art. The <> martial art focused on defense as its name implies. However, the martial art also infuses some metal-element characteristics in it. A practitioner that has mastered the martial art to a certain extent can infuse metals into the earthen defenses that the art provides to make defenses nigh impenetrable.

Lastly, Lunete revealed the tablet that she picked. The kings were pleasantly surprised. They gave the same smile as the elder and mentioned that picking up formations was a very good choice amongst the general skills. Even cursory knowledge of formations can allow battles to turn tides. It was much needed knowledge in the war against the other races.

With that, the kings said it was time to call it a day. It was agreed that the four were to stay in the Dragon King’s palace. On the other hand, the four women were thinking that it was high time that they got some “R&R” with the each other to burn off the stress they had gained from the events that had happened that day.

===

Author’s notes:

You guys need to read the prologue. It’s important for context. Seriously. This fiction will not be updating so fast soon enough. I will be focusing on my first fiction and writing this when I run out of motivation for the first, like now.

If this does better than my first fiction, I might just make this my main fiction and let my first one be on the sidelines. Hope you guys enjoy the read.