"So...you have finally awoken after two days..human.."

An arrogant and condescending voice was heard from the lips of the man who just entered.

He looked tall, about a head higher than the guards with horns that I am arbitrarily calling 'Devils' for now. At least until I get more information. But seeing that I was in a cage, I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

The man also had elegant, silver hair, pale skin, and deep golden eyes. His countenance was more than arrogant, almost overbearing. Those eyes that looked at me like I was an insect sent shivers down my spine.

What he wore was a large dark cloak that had golden marks on it. If you asked me if this guy was royalty, based on appearances, I would say a resounding yes. I would like to run as far away from him as possible right at this moment.

But for now, let's inquire about what he said just now after introducing myself. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.

"A-ah, My name is-"

"Silence."

I instantly found my mouth shut by force, with teeth chattering sounds that was audible to only myself.

Ah, I didn't get lucky. Not in the least. 

"I have no interest in knowing the name of an insignificant existence. You might have succeeded in infiltrating my hidden temple of darkness, but there is no escape now that you have been sealed in that magic-sealing cage. Even if you did manage to somehow escape, this temple is also a large labyrinth. No hope is left for you who is at the very center of it."

I can see my light of hope dimming by the second. This was way too cruel. How did I even end up in a giant labyrinth?

"Execute him tomorrow and offer his soul to the titan summoning. A human soul will make the summoning even faster than before. Soon, one of the seven 'Seraphim Shrines' shall fall into ruin."

Eh!?

Execute!?

You have got to be kidding me, here...

Where are my human rights? I demand an audience with the legal system right at this moment!

Of course, I could only scream inwardly since I had a feeling that if I suddenly acted up, I would only make my date of execution earlier. By that I mean, my head will roll right after I utter a complaint.

There were some dangerous things such as summoning, and ruining shrines but I decided to leave that part for later. The most important thing now was to gain information. Even a little bit is fine. So, I resolved myself once again..

"Stop right there, I'll have you tell me who you are, and where the heck is this right at this second."

I bluffed.

With an overpowering tone, I command the scary man that was about to walk away after giving out orders.

Ah, he got enraged. I can already see the veins on his forehead about to pop. But still, I had to press on. There was no other way. If he left, I could only wallow in regret over not doing anything. So this might be the better option.

"Hou, a mere insect can actually talk back to myself? How amusing.."

Or maybe not. I could feel the sweat on my back, flowing like a waterfall as the tall man glared at me like I killed his parents. I'm the victim you know? Why are you getting all mad at me for?

A moment of excruciatingly painful silence followed soon after. Mainly because his glare made my stomach churn, though I still kept quiet and stared right back. Which took most of my mental strength to do.

*Exhale*

After what seemed to be an eternity, the tall man finally released a breath of air and..

"Well, it's not like you can do anything now. Rejoice human, since you have been given the honor of knowing this one's name, Erebus, the god of total darkness. You are in the middle of my hidden labyrinth, deep within the depths of an underground dungeon!"

With exaggerated movements that would remind you of a middle school student's rare disease, the tall man, no, Erebus, the self-proclaimed god of darkness, released a haughty air once again and introduced himself.

"Is that so? Well, you can either release me now, or I shall burn this place into cinders. Make your choice."

I was even surprised at myself for instantly replying. I might have added a threat in there somewhere too. This is bad..

"*Fu-fuhahahaha! You are an amusing human, to think you could threaten one such as I, surely you are at the end of your rope. It is a shame that you will die tomorrow but it is inevitable, since you might be a spy sent here by one of the 'Seven Seraphim'. Well, you had best think about what your last words while you have time. Until tomorrow then.."

I couldn't retort to the fact that he had seen through my lie. Or was it because he was just naturally condescending. In any case, I couldn't stop him from leaving behind those words when he went out of the building.

As the sense of tension left the room, replaced with just the murderous gazes of the devil guards, all the stress went to my head in the next moment. My thoughts were filled with so many questions..

Such as, why was I here, what should I do now, and how should I escape. How did I even end up here? The last thing I remembered was sleeping after playing the new game I bought. Was this perhaps one of those? A dream?

To make sure, I pinch my skin, hard..

"Ah, it hurts..."

It didn't work. This was without a doubt, not a dream. Though I can't be completely sure since the only way I knew how to confirm it was inflicting a self-injury. After establishing the fact, my head started to hurt. The pressure of my impending death that I suppressed a few moments ago, all came back crashing down like a hammer crushing a nail.

There was nothing that I could do. I didn't even have my smartphone that I could've used to contact someone. It was hopeless. All I could do was wait for my execution tomorrow..

Maybe being a sacrifice wasn't too bad? No, no, I'm starting to run away from reality. I mean, what else could I do? There was nothing here except me, the clothes on my back, and this giant cage that trapped me inside it..

While holding my head with both hands, writhing and wriggling to think of a way out of my predicament, I noticed something in the corner of my vision. I didn't notice it before, but maybe that was because I was in a panic.

"Eh?"

When I picked it up from the cold, metallic ground, what was in front of my eyes, that I could barely make out in the darkness, was a piece of paper with words written on it..

From what I could see, it wasn't written in Japanese, but it wasn't in a foreign language either. I had a bit of knowledge of this since game development had a language studies course after all. The letters used were completely alien to me.

But for some reason, the words suddenly changed in front of my eyes, a moment after I glanced at it. The next thing I knew, all the words had become Japanese characters. It was strange no matter how you looked at it..

Still, this was no time to nitpick on the details. This piece of paper might be a clue. As I resolved myself to read its contents, a voice interrupted my concentration.

"Hey human, what are you doing there? Staring at the ground like that.."

I was considerably surprised from the voice but I knew I couldn't let my true feelings out, or else it would be troublesome. They might rat me out to their boss or something. 

"Are you blind? Can't you see that I'm reading this piece of paper?"

So I continued to appear calm and collected while admonishing the devil guard.

"Why you little!? I could ask you the same question. Are you going crazy already? All that's there is the metal ground. This is why humans are.."

Eh, can he really not see the paper? I tried holding it in my hand, then proceeded to wave it around like a flag of surrender in front of the devil's eyes, but he had shown no reaction except tilting his head with a confused expression.

Though I don't know why I could tell devil's expressions, it was really true that he couldn't see it. I slightly entertained the thought that I might have gone crazy due to stress but this wasn't the time, so I ignored the guard, and started reading the words on the piece of paper.

To the one who could read this, the chosen one born to rule over everything 

Welcome to the world of 'Aragnor'

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

You have been summoned here for you have your destiny to fulfill

I do not know where you will end up, but this letter will always be present right after you regain consciousness

If you want to know who I am, do not fret

For we shall meet without fail in the future

It is preordained by fate

You might have a lot of questions, but for now I shall let you know the basics

In this world, various races roam the land and seas

The overseers are called the 'Seven Seraphim'

These beings keep the balance of this domain, and everything that resides within it

Compared to the world where thou has come from, this one has a large density of 'Mana'

Which means that the use of magic is commonplace no matter where you go

Although the average level of the populace are small....

I got bored right there, so I stopped reading with great fervor, and began to skim through the letter. I was interested in the setting of this world, but I had no time to read history and common knowledge. I was going to be executed tomorrow, so naturally I wanted to find a way out of this, fast.

I could always read this stuff later. With irresponsible thoughts like that, I dismissed the problem and started finding a solution. Specifically on what kind of powers I had or had been given, to which I prayed that there was even one that was remotely useful for the current situation.

I found it!

It says that to find out my current status and the skills I need to get out of a sticky situation, I had to say the word 'Show Status' inside my own thoughts. It was worth a try, so I did exactly that.

Name: Sairenji KyouyaRace: HumanLevel: 1Equipped Title: The StrongestClass: RulerJob: NoneHealth: 30/30Mana: 5/5Currency: 0G 0S 0CStrength: 3Agility: 7Intellect: 5Endurance: 5Experience Needed: 0/10Luck: 13Active SkillsUnique SkillsPassive SkillsNoneRandomAutomatic Language Translation

It was exactly like a game. The one being shown to me right now was the nostalgic 'Status Screen' that was present in every role-playing game. It showed the various strengths, growth, and skills of a player.

Though I was worried about my despairingly low stats, I was intrigued by the strange title, class and skills..

I had no way of knowing how or why I gained the title 'The Strongest' but isn't that just teasing me? The class 'Ruler' was strangely familiar with the game character bug from before. I tried pressing it, but I guess it was impossible to change it, even here.

The 'Automatic Language Translation' explained the strange phenomenon of letters changing into Japanese from earlier so I'm glad that got solved. It seemed that it was a passive skill that would activate whenever I speak, write, or read a different language from my own. Finally, there was one unique skill that made me excited.

Though when I read its description, my head suddenly hurt..

RandomUnique SkillLevel 1Every 50 Levels, a random permanent skill is gained in accordance to the user.A strange skill that was given to one being every millenia.  

Created as a joke at first, this skill can either be terrifyingly strong, or horribly weak. 

The range of choices depend on every skill that was ever created.  Upon activation, a skill will be chosen completely at random and invoked in the next moment.

Mana Cost: 0

Current Number of Skills Worldwide: 9,173,452,133

Can only be used once per day

Why? Are you telling me that my only chance of getting out of this mess is a joke skill!? Don't mess with me!

I might not be that smart when it came to probability, but I could tell that this skill was really useless in this situation. If by chance, I invoked it now, and a light ball would just float around me as a result, wouldn't that be too sad? 

The current number of choices is an astronomical number of over nine billion, and this skill could only be used once per day. Tomorrow I get executed, and I don't even know if it's going to be late in the afternoon, or the moment the clock strikes midnight. Which probably meant that I only had one chance to get a skill like teleport, out of all the other useless bunch. 

There was literally a number '13' to my luck stat you know? I know it was higher than all of my other stats but still, it sounds so ominous! If the skill was somehow based on luck, I might as well kill myself now.

I thought about all of the negative things that could happen, which were too many to count for what might have been hours on end. It was then I decided that I didn't care anymore. There was no other way except to do it.

So, after psyching myself up, I stood at the far end of the cage. I recited the skill in my head and waited..

Notification'Random' has been invokedBeginning to randomize skillsCurrent Number of Choices: 9,173,452,133 SkillsWating for result..

Ah, this is it. It's do or die. Even though I told myself just a moment ago, that I didn't care, I was still anxious..

"Come, my hidden power! Purge everything!"

Since this may be the last time that I could say anything cool, I involuntarily raised my palm in the air and put on the facade of me, using a strong spell. Naturally, this caught the attention of the devil guards..

"Magic? Impossible, the cage seals all magic. This human has finally lost it."

"I don't know Gral, I can sense that he is doing something. Quickly inform the Master!"

Ah, these reactions would be priceless if the skill resulted in some kind of party trick skill. Who knows, I might even get a chuckle out of them before I die.

With thoughts resigned to my impending death, since the probability of landing a helpful skill was close to nil, I released a sigh from my lips. When suddenly..

Notification'Random' skill has chosen!Congratulations!An [Origin Skill] was chosen out of over nine billion skills!Solar FlareOrigin SkillHarnesses the power of the Giant Star itself. Targets the area around user for one minute.Activating Skill..

What the heck is this?