“Again,” Aiden said, voice barely audible through his panting.
He raised his wooden sword once more, sweat dripping down his face, and readied himself for what was to come.
Valdan’s helmeted head tilted slightly to the side in what looked like intrigue. The sun had dipped into the horizon, blanketing the rest of the world in a deep orange with tints of red. Night would crawl up on them from out of the blue soon and they would be forced to go in.
After a moment, Valdan shrugged, raised his sword, and attacked.
He came in with an under-hand slash, from bottom to top, and Aiden evaded it, escaping the attack only barely. Valdan doubled on the attack almost immediately, bringing the sword down in a downward slash.
Aiden didn’t evade this time, instead, he brought his wooden sword to bear. Wood met wood, and despite using both hands against Valdan’s one-handed attack, the force of the blow almost brought Aiden down to his knee.
Rather than fall under the knight’s strength, Aiden let the end of his sword tilt downwards. The blade of Valdan’s sword skid down Aiden’s until it slipped free and he staggered away.
Valdan watched him go without following.
You have learnt [Resilience (Mastery 2.12%)]
Aiden staggered once, then dropped to his knee. He raised his hand to halt Valdan, in case the knight chose now to attack once more.
“Again?” Sir Valdan asked.
Aiden shook his head. “I think that’s enough testing for today.”
He looked in the direction of the sun and couldn’t find it. Evening had taken its turn. Now night was beginning to fall.
“I must say I’m impressed, Lord Lacheart,” Valdan said.
“Me too,” Aiden replied. “It is impressive that a Knight of your stature can display such level of control in combat against a learner such as myself.”
“You give me too much credit, Lord Lacheart. Everything that has happened today is all you.” Valdan placed his sword on the ground. “However, while that impresses me, I was speaking to something else.”
Aiden sat in the sand and let his wooden sword clatter in the dirt. “And what do you speak of?”
“Your composure and control,” Valdan said.
Aiden cocked a quizzical brow, waiting for the knight to expand on his words.
“I mean to say, during our session, I’m certain you had countless words appear in front of you, yet you did not once stumble or stagger. You did not allow them distract you.”
“Oh, those?” Aiden didn’t miss a beat. In fact, he already had a response prepared for such a question. “After the noise I made when I woke up, some of them were just there, waiting for me, so they weren’t that difficult to get accustomed to.”
“You also got them during your fight with the king's advisor?” Valdan asked, surprised.
Aiden waved his words aside with a tired gesture. “You can barely call that a fight. All I did was flail around in his presence. But that’s not what I meant. What I was saying is that after the encounter, they all started appearing.”
“Interesting.” Valdan placed an armored hand to his helmeted cheek. “Would you be willing to show me what you have gotten so far?”
“I don’t see why not.”
Aiden almost called up his personal information before stopping himself. That was a close one, he thought with a finger held up in front of him. How would he explain just casually using the system?
If he had simply opened his status and shown the Knight, there would be no explaining his way out of it.
Valdan just stood in front of him, waiting. “Lord Lacheart?”
“Apologies.” Aiden gave him an embarrassed smile. “I thought they would be somewhere there and I would just point them out. But they are not.”
“Understandable. If anything, I am the one at fault for not giving you proper instructions on what to do.”
Aiden nodded, accepting the unspoken apology. “Would you show me? Or are there protocols surrounding it?”
“Protocols?” Valdan snorted in amusement. “Not at all. In this world we are all taught things that we do not know. It is all about willingness to learn. If you wish to see what you’ve learnt, you only need to think about it. Ask yourself what you are capable of and you will show it to yourself.”
“Certainly more complicated than just saying ‘status’,” Aiden joked.
“My apologies, Lord Lacheart, but I did not catch that.”
“Don’t worry about it, Sir Valdan. It is merely a joke from my world about video games.”
Valdan paused, then shrugged. “If you say so.”
Aiden simply thought of himself and his personal information sprang to life.
[Name – Aiden Lacheart]
[Species – Human]
[Age - 19]
[Class – None Lvl 0]
[Affiliation]
None.
[Title]
None.
[Skill]
[Tongue of the Visitor (Mastery 100%)], [Kick (Mastery 42.21%)], [Palm attack (Mastery 51.22%)], [Evade (Mastery 68%)], [Shoulder Thrust (Mastery 9.02%)], [Dash (Mastery 48.20%)], [Resilience (Mastery 2.12%)] [Sword Strike (Mastery 11.12%)], [Parry (Mastery 18.00%)].
Stats
None.
Aiden read through the list. Being nineteen years old again wasn’t the best thing, but that was an unnecessary note. His eyes skimmed through the rest of the list until he got to his skills.
They were a lot, and he hadn’t even been here for eight hours. At this rate I’ll end up with pure combat skills.
He didn’t want that, he needed to mix in combat and magical skills if he wanted to be strong. Luckily, the criteria for what kind of class a person could awaken weren’t fixed until level 10. And he wasn’t even level one yet.
“I’m sure you must be displaying a lot of skills right now,” Valdan said, waiting patiently. “But you do not have to worry about having too many skills. May I know one of the skills you have?”
“It would be easier for us if you just took a look,” Aiden said. “How do I make that happen?”
“Simply wish for me to see it, Lord Lacheart.”
Aiden complied and Valdan walked around to stand behind him. The Knight made a thoughtful sound.
“Those are quite the array of skills,” he mused. “And your mastery, Lord. In just a few hours of sparring? This is an amazing growth rate. By tomorrow you should have all at 100%.”
Aiden shook his head. “I don’t see [Sword Strike] and [Resilience] reaching a hundred by tomorrow. Maybe in a week.”
Valdan looked at him, then nodded. “Perhaps. However, I would like you to understand that these skills are merely what we like to call foundational skills. In a matter of time, they will be gone, fused together to create a basic skill.”
Aiden knew about that. Foundational skills were as countless as the stars in the sky, but once you’ve learnt one, it applies to all basic skills. For instance, if a person required [Kick] for two different basic skills, they only needed to learn it once.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“From what I can see, my Lord, you are likely to get the [Unarmed combat] basic skill first. Congratulations should be in order.”
Aiden got up, dismissing his personal information. “How about we keep the congratulations until when they are necessary, Sir Valdan.”
Aiden didn’t know much about Valdan apart from the fact that the Knight was strong and had played important roles in the war against Ted. In his past life, the few people from the summoned who’d learned the most basic swordsmanship enough to allow them at least wield a blade without poking their eyes out, had been taught by a Knight named Denid.
Aiden was already walking back to the palace when Valdan spoke again.
“May I show you to your room, Lord Lacheart?”
Aiden waved him down without even looking back. “You are a Knight, Sir Valdan. I’m pretty sure the palace has people with the duty of showing me to my room.”
“Then may I show you to them?”
Aiden was already at the door that would lead him back into the palace, leaving a significant distance between him and the knight, yet he heard the Knight’s voice as if they stood side by side.
Instead of giving any precise answer, he opened the door and walked back into the palace. “Good night, Sir Valdan.”
……………
While most of the things that had happened to Aiden so far were different from what he remembered, which he was clearly aware was entirely his fault, the dinner the king held for everyone remained unchanged.
He had found his room with the help of a maid he’d picked up after ‘accidentally’ finding his way to the dining area. Her face had been familiar but the name she’d given him wasn’t anyone he remembered. She called him ‘Lord’ a lot and was prone to bowing with every response she gave.
With her, he had spoken with the kingdom’s language, intentionally stumbling all over it like the worst kind of learner to ever speak the language. Suffice to say, it had been enough to get his point across.
In a manner of minutes, he had been shown to his room.
The same lady had been the one to call him for dinner two hours after.
All fifteen of the summoned sat in different chairs around the large dining table. Ted, just as Aiden remembered, sat next to a rambunctious girl with black hair and green highlights. Aiden remembered her being one of the friendly ones from his past life.
Ted was busy flirting with her for the fun of it. And by her reaction, Aiden could tell that she was enjoying the attention, while garnering as much of the others' as she could.
Aiden watched her enjoy her exciting innocence, knowing that the loud and exuberant girl on the other side of the table, flirting with his brother, would be a shadow of herself in the next four years.
This world really did a number on us, he thought as he took stock of those around the table.
They were young, simple, vibrant, and innocent. They were bright-eyed and clean. But the memories Aiden had of them differed greatly. As at Ted’s capture only five of fifteen remained, and they had weathered eyes and scarred bodies.
He hadn’t spent much time with them in the later days, but he doubted any of them had still remembered how to laugh so easily.
“I’m not the only one that thinks this is freaky, right?” a boy, Max, was saying. “This is straight out of an anime.”
“True enough,” Jenna said. She was the oldest of all of them, though Aiden couldn’t remember her age. “We’ve been transported to another world.”
The girl with the green highlights pumped her fist in the air. “Isekai’d!”
Ted shook his head with a smile. “I don’t remember getting hit by a bus, though.”
“A truck,” another boy corrected. He was on the chubby side with a spoon of what was supposed to be rice in his mouth. “People get isekai’d by truck-kun.”
Aiden held back a smile at that. This was another thing all of them had in common and it was something he had a feeling whatever spell had brought them here had been seeking out. They were all fans of the same anime genre were the main characters were transported to another world to relative degrees. The fact that their minds already entertained the idea to some point before being summoned was probably why they'd adapted so quickly.
The gods had been very specific and smart about the criteria the spell used to bring people over to Nastild. There was a higher chance of people cooperating if they weren’t averse the idea of what had happened to them.
“Trains, too,” somebody else said, replying to the chubby boy. “But you’re right, I wasn’t run over by anything. I didn’t die.” He patted his body as if checking for invisible injuries, then returned his attention to everyone else. “Did any of you die?”
Green highlights shook her head. “Was actually getting all hot and bothered with…”
Her words trailed off and her cheeks reddened slightly. Whatever she was going to say was never concluded. But there was no one who didn’t know what she was saying.
Yet she was summoned with the clothes on her back, Aiden noted.
“And I was playing video games in an arcade,” Ted said, opting to speak next. “Then my brother interrupted me and here I am.”
Ted paused as another person took up the conversation. Beside him, green highlights was saying something but he was no longer listening. Instead, he had a confused look on his face as if he just remembered something and was now staring at Aiden.
Well, I guess us having a conversation is inevitable at this point, Aiden thought, remembering their exchange as they were transported from Earth.
He had told Ted to be calm and listen to everything he was told. He had sounded like he knew what was going on.
At the time Aiden had meant it. But now, he wasn’t so sure. How did he convince Ted to listen to him and nothing else? The Ted from his past life would’ve listened to him and worked with him. Unfortunately, Aiden’s relationship with his brother on Earth was not as strong as the one they’d developed on Nastild.
Before being summoned, Ted would fight for Aiden but after first asking questions so that he knew why he was fighting and who was right or wrong. If Aiden was wrong, then there would be no fight.
In Nastild, however, they’d grown closer, close enough that they would fight for each other, no questions asked.
The Ted staring at Aiden now would rather try and fail and try again than actually put everything down and listen to Aiden.
This is going to be harder than I thought.
“Whatever happens,” Derrick said, “I think we can all agree that we should cooperate until they find us a way back home.”
“You’re joking, right?” a gangly boy asked.
Aiden remembered him very clearly. He had been the last of those who had died before the final five, and Aiden had—for reasons he would rather not think about—been present at his death.
Derrick turned to the boy. “What do you mean?”
The boy, Sam, pointed a spoon at him, then at everyone at the table.
“You heard everything the king said, didn’t you?” he said. “In this world we can learn magic. Create fire with nothing but words. Shake mountains with the most powerful spells. Maybe even ride dragons. And you want to go back?”
Aiden wasn’t going to be the one to tell Sam that an attempt to ride a dragon usually led to one ending. Death.
“Did you also forget the part about a great evil?” Derrick retorted. “In case you didn’t understand it, it means bad things will happen to us. We will go to war. If we have powerful magic, then so will our enemies.”
Sam shrugged, unconcerned. “Then we only have to be stronger than them. We are in a fucking palace, guests of the king and destined to save this world. I’m guessing we all know how these stories go. We’ll be given the best teachers and the strongest magic. If there are levels, we’ll raise them as if playing on easy mode. If it’s more cultivation than system apocalypse, then we’ll channel our qi or whatnot and become powerful. What’s to complain about?”
This conversation was going exactly as it had gone last time. Sam thought he was making a lot of sense while the others slowly began to think of him as very delusional.
It only took Sam a moment to notice the looks they were giving him around the table.
“What?” he protested. “How do you not see that this is a great thing?”
“Because some of us have families to go back to,” Drax answered, voice calm. “I have my parents who’ll be worried out of their mind not knowing what has happened to me. I have brothers and sisters who’ll worry. I’m sure it’s the same for everyone around this table.”
Most of the others had stopped eating to listen to Drax. Aiden couldn’t be bothered. This conversation ended the same way, and now that he knew what he knew, it was unnecessary. The power to return to their world didn’t lie in their hands. It never had.
Because from everything the king had told them, he and the priests were the ones working towards getting them back home.
And they never found a way.
“I just want to go back home,” another girl said, her feature that stood out were how grey her eyes were, almost white. “I enjoy the transported to another world stories as much as the next person, but I don’t want to be stuck here. I can’t… I can’t be sent off to war.”
She sobbed and Sam rolled his eyes.
“Why are we even arguing about this?” he asked. “The solution seems simple enough.”
“And what’s that?” Letto asked, speaking for the first time.
“I say we speak to the king and tell him what we want. Some of us want to go home, and some of us don’t want to go home.”
The table fell into an uncomfortable silence as everyone mulled over his words.
“So,” Sam continued, happy that they now understood him. “All we have to do is tell the king which of us want out and which ones would love to stay. And since I get the feeling they won’t be figuring out how to send us back anytime soon, everybody gets enough time to think about it and change their minds before the time comes. Good?”
There was a muttering of agreements that went around the table. It brought an amicable end to the argument of going home.
The rest of the meal was eaten in simple conversations. Everyone introduced themselves, gave their names, their age, and what they were doing before getting here. Just for the fun of it, each person added what kind of magic they would like to learn.
Aiden wasn’t sure if he should be glad that they all gave the same answer as his past life from the little he could remember. By his own fault, his own life here had deviated significantly, but the others had yet to experience the butterfly effect. And he was beginning to think that some of them would not.
But was he okay with it? Did he want to leave everyone to face their own fates when he wanted to save Ted from his own?
Aiden didn’t know specifically how those who died had died, but he knew when they died, and where.
Do I want to save them? He asked himself. Would there be any point to it?
He had a single goal in mind, which wasn’t even saving Ted from being captured but preventing him from being the Demon King in the first place. And that was already more than enough stress for him since he didn’t even know how Ted had become the Demon King.
From what Aiden knew, the Demon King wasn’t a class but an exclusive title. The only one of its kind. It meant Ted had done something at some point in time that had unlocked an achievement that gave him the title. The problem was that Aiden didn’t know what it had been.
“Aiden,” someone said. “What about you?”
Aiden was pulled from his thoughts and found Sam looking at him.
How does he know my name? he wondered, running through his memory. He found no instance where his name had been said in front of Sam.
“Aiden,” Sam repeated. “You’re holding up the—what the hell’s that look for?”
Drax looked at Aiden from across the room. “Aiden, are you alright?”
“Fuck if he’s alright,” Sam spat. “He’s looking at me like I’m somehow less than him. Does he think he’s the main character or something just because he had a talk with the old man and a knight?”
Aiden didn’t blame Sam for his reaction. There was a very high chance that he’d been looking at him like he was nothing but human garbage. But that was because that was the memory Aiden had of him.
Towards the end of Sam’s life, he had become a person who believed strongly that the end justified the means. And because of that, the means he used to get stronger to bring down the Demon King’s army had slowly lost all forms of humanity.
“Aiden, what’s wrong?” This time it was Ted who’d spoken.
Aiden had an answer, he had it right there on the tip of his tongue. But he didn’t give it, he wouldn’t give it.
After all, how did you tell people that you were looking at a man you’d killed in a manner so brutal that people continued to tell stories about it even after two years.
How did you tell people you’d killed two out of the fourteen of them in cold blood?