The dust had settled in the Summoning Chamber, the mages that spent the last few hours performing the spell had collapsed to the floor, one by one being carried away for treatment somewhere deeper in the palace. A small collection of people from various walks of life were stumbling to their feet.

"Welcome, esteemed heroes!" boomed a man sitting on a throne. The summoned people looked at him and the rest of the room's occupants with a combination of surprise and horror; the reason was simple.

None of them were human.

There were orcs, with the bulky figures, greenish skin, and prominent fangs, Kobolds that looked like dog-people, Ogres with their tall figures and alert piercing eyes, Minotaurs with her bovine heads and impressive horns. The collection of summoned people huddled together in confusion; some were thinking they were the victim of some kind of prank, others thinking they're having some kind of bad lucid dream, and there were the sensible ones who saw they were now living in an actual Isekai cliche.

A hooded man in the Summoning Chamber pushed his way forward as he saw the girl.

She had materialized on the room lying on her stomach, she was dressed similar clothing to the newcomers, but her actions caught his attention. She calmly assessed the situation around her before slowly sitting up as if trying not to agitate anyone while everyone else flailed their arms and shouted or cowered in fear.

She was exactly who he was looking for.

"This way please" the hooded man approached the girl, he turned to address the rest of the room "My apologies, it seems that during the ceremony, sometimes those who aren't heroes have been taken, we will see to it she's taken care of well."

With that, the hooded man escorted the girl away from the room, while the king on the throne began his spiel one would expect from an Isekai plot; where the summoners would brief the summoned on what was needed from them and hopefully, a way back.

***

"You seem quite calm and have quickly accepted your situation unlike the others." The hooded man said as they walked along the opulent corridors of the palace. More fantastical demi-human-like creatures were conversing or going about their business, many of them giving the hooded man a deferential bow as they passed.

The girl answered, "The last thing I was doing before I ended up here was jumping onto a grenade to protect my men."

The man made a curious croaking sound which was probably his way of saying "huh?"

"It's a thrown weapon, it explodes. I shielded my men with my body, and there's no way I could have survived that. Now I find myself alive and whole, there is no need to question my circumstances."

"You are as sharp as you look." the hooded man said "What can you tell me about the others?"

"Those young people there are high-school kids. The old ones are middle-aged out of shape businessmen, The healthiest adults there are at most office workers who sit all day and their greatest physical exercise is climbing two or three flights of stairs. None of them are fit for combat." The girl said.

The man made a gentle guttural sound of assent. "It seems our opinions of them match. I did not know of their occupation however."

"If you're looking for someone who has killed before, that would be me. I was a mercenary by trade." she added after a pause.

"Would you disapprove if we were to train them in combat?" The hooded man said, His voice had a low resonance that oddly reminded her of a bull alligator's growl. The girl shook her head.

"They're of no concern. That king said you guys were summoning heroes, assuming this summoning spell required some kind of criteria to be met, then they probably do have their merits to be these heroes you want."

The hooded man lowered his hood to reveal a reptilian face. A lizardman, the girl thought. His features looked crocodilian alright although he possessed some kind of crest running along his head. She didn't know why. but she was sure that in lizard people standards he was probably high on the handsomeness spectrum.

"You are right, among the conditions are that we can only summon those who were recently slain, it had to be a violent death, not a natural conclusion of one's lifespan, not a succumbing to disease."

"I'm not sure what constitutes 'slain' in your criteria" the girl began. "But those could have been victims of an armed robbery, or a victim of a criminal's random act of cruelty... they could've also experienced an accident, like imagine a bunch of wagons ramming into each other or being run over by one."

The lizardman made a throaty chuckling sound, making the girl think his voice was probably the Barry White of the crocodilian men. "You are correct, unfortunately, there's no way we could get our arch-mages to make that condition any more specific, fortunately we can make do with other conditions; such as aptitude and latent talent. They may have in them those attributes to become the heroes we need them to be. I'm sure most will rise to the occasion." The lizard man replied.

"Most." the girl said

"I would be foolish to assume all of them would."

"What about me?" the girl said. She now found herself sitting in a comfortable parlor, richly decorated as expected of any room in a palace. "If those people according to your summoning spell's criteria mean they'd make great heroes, why then am I being excluded?"

"I have another job for you." The man said. "First, I should introduce myself, how rude of me. I'm Radomix of House Olrezed, I'm the King here."

The girl made a gesture of touching her fingers to her temple. "Sarah Jones, Formerly a private contractor for ODIN Security Services, you could say I was a mercenary or assassin. As a child I grew up in a violent war-torn country, I was a freedom fighter ever since I was old enough to hold a gun and run around, then I became soldier of the army, afterwards I joined ODIN."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Radomix smiled and nodded, he liked what he heard from her. So she wasn't some perfumed aristocrat's child learning pretend fight with brown-nosing knights, nor some countryside peasant swinging sticks with other kids in her hamlet but someone who grew up in a real battlefield. Even her posture despite looking relaxed seemed to him a trap. He was sure that if someone had  pounced on her, she could spring into action and subdue the assassin just as readily as anyone else if they were forewarned. Her eyes were watchful but not overly suspicious or glazed over like one who has been affected by prolonged carnage. These were the eyes of a warrior who had someone to protect, not a hot-headed fledgling looking for glory.

"A pleasure to meet you Sarah. Let me give you a summary of why we brought you here. In this world of ours we live under the constant threat of monsters, they come from Great Rifts, gates to another world. We don't know exactly why the Rifts exist or why it brings such malevolent creatures to harry us. For the longest time we have relied on Demon Lords, warlords of exceptional strength and leadership to guard our frontiers."

Sarah raised an intrigued eyebrow. She's heard of those pop-culture stories, and was surprised that in this world  it was the "demon lords" who were the defenders of... well, people.

"...for a few years now, the Demon Lords have been asking for more and more reinforcements, more adventurers, more warriors, more heroes. The Sages are of the consensus that we're looking at a Great Flood, a stampede of monsters beyond reckoning and that's why this summoning ceremony was enacted.."

"Sounds like that's my job." Sarah said "...but I doubt my experience would be of any value. My world hasn't fought with swords and spears for centuries, and we have no magic, so all of those resources you've spent summoning a group of what....  ten people? You could have gotten that on your own."

"That is a sensible evaluation Sarah, There was one detail I've yet to mention. You see, I am aware that if you're going to bring someone from another world, you must assume the possibility of them having abilities you have not dreamed of; of fighting with magic and weapons nobody in this world has ever conceived."

Radomix stood, straightening his robes.

"Come along, I think it's best I show you what we have... in your own words, really spent our resources on.... I believe those resources went mostly onto you. Let me show you."

***

Radomix and Sarah walked out into the courtyard. While the two of them had been conversing, some servants had brought over a large crystal mounted on a pedestal. The crystal was actually floating above it, the multi-colored wisps emanating from the glowing gem seemed to be what held in mid-air.

"This wouldn't be the first time we've summoned people from other worlds, nor would it involve those who've never been able to make use of their Mana." Radomix explained.

"Sounds like you're talking about a magic force that's inside us." Sarah cut in.

"Exactly" Radomix continued "the best analogy is that it's like a muscle. Touching this crystal stimulates your Mana, allowing you to recognize that feeling. If you've ever performed any feats in your previous life that seemed beyond the limits of your body, or times when you've seemingly achieved a level of skill that you have difficulty performing again if at all, then it's likely you've tapped into your Mana."

"I could name a few instances." Sarah shrugged. "If Mana is this internal force, what's the other one?"

"That would be Ether. It's everywhere around us. It's the disassociated force of magic, it can be used in place of Mana to do these feats. Of course, anyone with the proper training can use these two sources of magic, just like anyone can be taught to use a sword or bow." Radomix said. "But I took you aside not because I wanted to make you a higher grade hero..." he paused, considering his words. "...for now, my head sorceress Richel will assist you."

A fluffy sheep-like wizard in equally fluffy robes stepped forward and introduced herself to Sarah. After running through some basic ideas regarding the use of Mana and Ether, Sarah began to put her hand on the Crystal and began concentrating as Richel coached her.

"Richel?" Sarah said as she gazed at her reflection "I was not this young when I died. I'm a good thirty years younger, what happened?"

"The summoning spell brings back the valiant slain at their prime, it wouldn't do if they weren't." The chief sorceress said, her voice  having a slight vibrato when she spoke consonants. Well, that does make her more sheep-like, Sarah thought, and it's quite ironic I'm getting a lecture from her and not feeling sleepy.

"That doesn't make sense! There were middle-aged men that were summoned. Why were they not restored?"

The sorceress thought for a bit "Two theories; first is that the summoning spell prioritizes the most fitting candidate to be the Hero, that would appear to be you and thus brought you to your prime. Second is that while those men you mentioned may not appear to be at their physical peak, perhaps their aptitude or latent talent in the field of magic is their true value."

"Alright, that make more sense." Sarah said. "Some of those well-dressed gentlemen look like stockbrokers; they make difficult decisions, decisions that cost lots of money by studying current events and comparing them to hundreds of similar situations in the past. And the others ones look like programmers, I guess they're the closest you have to wizards, unless they write their programs correctly the 'spell' in a manner of speaking, will not work."

"So that's why they were chosen." Radomix said in revelation.

"As for the others, they're young and I guess they just want a good adventure. I could imagine some of them being involved in a gang, but I doubt any of them belong to one that commits anything more violent than fist-fighting." Sarah explained. The magical energies were now howling around them and Sarah pulled her arm back.

An hour passed, as Richel coached Sarah regarding the use of her Mana as well as how to safely and efficiently use the Ether around her. While they practiced Radomix had gotten his servants to put some training dummies.

"She's quite a hard worker, this Sarah." Radomix's minister remarked as he saw Sarah repeatedly generate a sigil of light front of her and try to put her hand through it, occasionally it budged and other times her hand grasped nothing.  "Why didn't you tell her it was time for the welcoming banquet?"

"I have a feeling she'd care less about such things”' Radomix said, he did have some maids lay out food, which they occasionally walked over to refresh themselves with. "She's a real soldier, and she's eagerly trying to grasp the concept for magic which her world didn't have."

"Still, how does that make her special besides being perhaps a little stronger than the ones we summoned?" the minister queried. Radomix pointed at Sarah who was now holding a foreign object in her hands. Now she was the one explaining to Richel what she had summoned out of the Ether.  With a nod and a word to Richel, the mage covered her ears as Sarah knelt to one knee and pointed the long object towards the training dummies.

A series of loud bangs echoed through the courtyard while the training dummies shattered in quick succession.

"Ahhh crap." Sarah called out "I can't tell if I hit it dead center and oh..." she had a mild look of disappointment as she saw her .50 cal BMG rifle disintegrate into blue particles of Ether. "Back in the wild you go, buddy." she said.

Radomix looked at his minister "I think we found our true hero."

***

A table had been laid out in the courtyard for the four of them, a belated welcoming dinner for Sarah. Aside from Richel, she was also introduced to Louther, one of the king's minsters. Louther resembled an horned owl and Sarah wondered if he was going to be her handler.

Over dinner Sarah inquired about the other job that the King had mentioned earlier.

"That's right...about that" Radomix began slowly "...if I'm going to be honest when and not if, that Great Flood happens, I'm sure that we'll win in the end. When possible, I will ask you to join us in the extermination of these monsters, but your primary purpose however, is not to hunt monsters but..."

"Hunt people, especially heroes that step out of line. Got it." Sarah replied before taking another bite. Noticing everyone looking at her she says "No objections, I'll do it. Anyway, regarding the gun I just used, Richel told me that I summoned it from my world? I felt quite tired just keeping it's existence here, I think I'll need some kind of training facility to build up my strength... do you have any obstacle courses or..."