In the human town Istaria, in the Great Temple of Istus, surrounded by several cloaked figures, laid five unmoving bodies. The bodies wore a simple robe, grey in color. Advanced magic circles covered the stone floor.
“It worked!” A voice shouted out.
“It’s still too early to celebrate, acolyte.” A man said. He wore a dark blue golden embroidered robe. Several beads of sweat dripped into his eyes, from his forehead, but he didn’t avert his gaze from the five bodies on the floor.
“Yes, Master Riest.” The acolyte answered. The acolyte wore their standard dark green robe.
Peter Riest had after many years of hard work, finally risen to the rank 'Head Priest' in the Great Temple of Istus. The number of people higher ranked them him, could now be counted on one hand. The night before, he suddenly received a vision in a dream. In it, he met the patron god of his temple, Istus, who told him to prepare a summoning circle. Istus also told him exactly how to write it and when to active it. The technique of the circle weaving was beyond anything he, or anyone else he consulted, had ever seen before, but he didn’t doubt his god and did as told.
It was not the first time he met Istus in a dream. Istus appeared once before, when he was younger and lost in life. In that dream, Istus suggested that he became a priest. Apparently, his natural talent for the job was off the scale, like he was born for it.
Now, all we can do is wait. We have done our part of the job.
Suddenly, the bodies started hovering in the air, about thirty centimeters off the ground. Their mouths and eyes flung open, and started glowing, like a miniature sun suddenly appeared inside their heads.
“What! Master, what is happening?!” An acolyte shouted out in panic.
“Calm down, this is what we waited for all along. Lord Istus have completed his work and now is the time to celebrate.” Peter said, and finally wiped his brow, to get rid of the sweat.
The glowing stopped and the bodies instantly fell down on the ground.
“Carry them, carefully, to the beds we have prepared in the main hall. Prepare some soup for them when they wake up. It shouldn’t take long.” Peter commanded the acolytes, who immediately got to work.
Peter wore a rare smile on his face. They just did the impossible, something unique. Successfully summon a being from another world. Sure, others tried before, but they lacked one crucial thing. The help from a god. The summoning spell could easily summon the flesh, however, it couldn’t transfer the soul. Every attempt before, simply resulted in a dead husk. The glowing part, something that never happened for any other summoning, was when Istus transferred their souls back into their bodies.
***
Five hours later, they all started to wake up.
Andrew regained his consciousness first. “Ugh, where am I? What happened?” He tried to get up, but only managed a few centimeters, before falling back down. His hand covered his mouth, as he almost threw up, but he thankfully managed to suppress it. Would not be much of a hero's awakening if the first thing they did was to throw up.
“Welcome to Istaria, hero. We will answer your questions after the others wake up. No point in repeating the same things several times.” A strange middle-aged man said, wearing a dark blue robe, embroidered with circular patterns with gold thread.
Andrew made another attempt to get up. “But I-”
The middle-aged man pressed Andrew back down to his bed. “Have patience. For now, rest.”
All the newly summoned heroes woke up about ten minutes later.
“Now that you are all awake. Welcome to Istaria, heroes. My name is Peter Riest and I’m the head priest at this temple. We summoned you to fight against a great evil and-”
“Heroes? What? Fight against evil?! Hold on, I don’t know about Sten, but I sure as hell can’t fight.” Simon interrupted.
The others waited for the priest to continue.
“Well, you are no heroes yet, I guess, and please calm down. There will be plenty of time to prepare yourself, and you are most likely different from before. I will skip the explanation for now, and just show you what you need to know. Say ‘STATUS’ out loud.”
They looked at each other and then quietly said status to themselves.
“Wow! Is this a game? VRMMO? Though that doesn’t exist yet. Aha, maybe that mysterious company was developing it.” Andrew said.
“Hmm yes, I have read a lot of books with that theme.” Anne said.
Simon’s mind was in chaos. Mixed feelings. To be forcefully placed here and never see his old world, or the joy of having a status window. Those two thoughts fought in his head. However, it didn’t take long for a winner to emerge. This is...amazing. How long haven’t I wished for something like this?
“Hmph, a game? Don’t really play any games. But, this seems different from the games I have seen. Can still move my body.” Sten said and flexed his biceps.
Continuing his explanation, Peter said: “As you can see, this displays your personal information, so you can track how your progress is going. It’s also a way to identify yourselves, since it can’t be faked. Everyone that’s blessed by the gods gets one. Which pretty much means everyone, except the mindless monsters, and some other exceptions...”
“It was given to us by the gods around sixty years ago, to help in the fight against the Swarm. While it gave us no power on its own, it gave our warriors bigger motivation to train. You would be surprised what some people would do for just one more point in a stat. However, the most important benefit this has given us, is an easy way to see the personal skills and talents, like magical talent, of every person. The amount of poor people slaving away on the farms with magical talent was shocking. We quickly gained thousands of new mages and could turn the war to our favor.” Peter stopped and pondered for a moment.
“It also gave us many benefits away from the battlefield. Any injuries and diseases would be recorded, so treating people got a lot easier. Any serious crimes you did would be recorded on it, so certain crimes quickly plummeted in popularity. We even caught many of the most wanted criminals, some even hiding in plain sight. It also revealed a lot of corruption amongst the nobility. Overall, the cities are a lot safer than before. Anyway, enough about that… since you are clearly not listening anymore.”
Peter clapped his hands to get their attention again and said: “Tell me, what is on yours. I’m very curious what kind of stats, an off-worlder like you, would have. Ah, before that, I should probably explain to you what they mean.”
“Actually, we use the same ones where we come from…” Sten said.
“What? Really? I know the terms are translated, no matter what language you speak, but some of these have a very specific meaning that you should not know about.”
“Yep.” Sten got up and demonstrated many of the movements. He didn’t have any bar or something like that, so he simply did them in the air.
“Wow, you got the same as us? What are the odds of that… actually, since we are both humans, probably quite high. Only so many moves a human can do, after all.” Peter nodded. It made sense when he thought about it.
“What is the average person's stats like?” Simon asked.
“Even the average, untrained human got varied stats, because everyone is born with different strengths and weaknesses, you know. The work you do will affect it a lot. A farmer will be more fit than the librarian, but the librarian is probably smarter. But the average person have no titles or special skills.” Peter replied.
Simon guessed as much. Looking over his status screen, Simon noticed that his stats were almost all the same, even in things that made no sense. However, something special caught his eye. Three skills and one title. He touched the blue transparent window that floated in front of him. It was actually solid, like a piece of paper, until he applied more pressure, and his finger went through. It seemed unharmed by his actions though. Are these buttons…?
IdentityName:Simon LimeAge:24yearsGender:MaleRace:HumanStrengthSquat:10kilogramsDeadlift:10kilogramsBenchpress:10kilogramsPullup:10timesEnduranceRun 100meters:
10secondsRun 10kilometers:
10minutesSwim 100meters:
10secondsSwim 10kilometers:
10minutesMindRead 1000words:
10minutesWrite 1000 words:
10minutesIQ:10pointsHealthDiseases:NoneInjury:NoneHeight:10centimetersWeight:10kilogramsFlexibilityJumping length:
10metersJumping height:
10centimetersDo a split:NoWeapon AbilityNoneMagic TalentNoneTitlesSummoned from another worldSkillsBlessing of IstusUnknown Body PotentialTransformation
He pressed his finger on the title and skills, to gain more information.
Title: Summoned from another world.
Hero class. Language comprehension. Other effects might unlock later.
Blessing of Istus. Passive.
100% faster learning progress of skills and spells. All stats increase 100% faster. Advanced version.
Unknown Body Potential. Passive.
Due to being new to this world, your body potential is unknown and it will take time for your status card to adapt. Until then, accuracy is not guaranteed.
Transformation. Active.
The skill to transform your body into something else. It’s unknown what you transform into, until first use.
“Well, I got some very odd stats, but I got three skills. Blessing of Istus, Unknown Body Potential, Transformation. And a title. What about you others?”
Andrew started: “Yep, I got the same as you.”
“Same.” Sten said.
Helena said: “I don’t have transformation but I have Light Magic Blessing. Gives 100% effect on all light magic spells.”
“I got neither of those two. I have summon weapon. Summons a suitable weapon for the caster. What type is unknown until first use.” Anne said.
“Humm, that’s... quite good.” Peter said while trying to keep a neutral face.
Peter made a throat clearing sound to focus himself. “Transformation magic is rare, especially with humans. What kind is impossible to know until you use it and then you can only transform into that type. 100% effect on all light magic is amazing. Your healing spells will be twice as effective. Light magic is also rare. Outside of the temples, almost nobody have any talent for it. It's a shame really. It's the most useful one, in my opinion. Summoning a weapon is an interesting spell. It’s a magic weapon and usually an extremely good one. I have never heard of the other skills, can you let me see them more closely? Ah, just click that share button on the status and other people can see it. You can also turn off irrelevant info such as gender, age or things you want to hide.”
Several blue windows popped in front of Peter. “Hmm, interesting. You also got a language skill. My worrying was for nothing, it seems. Before you arrived, I prepared some teachers, the ones that teach our kids, to teach you our spoken language. But can you read? The translated words in the status are easy to understand for you, but I’m talking about our actual written language. We can teach you that later, if you want. Hero class is an extremely rare class. It’s usually given by the gods as reward for doing a great deed. The Blessing of Istus will make many people jealous so don’t spread that around.” After Peter had read the information, he closed the windows, one by one.
“For now, let me take you to your rooms. We will bring you some soup incase you are hungry. Even if not, you should still eat something. It’s getting late now, even though you just woke up, try to sleep some.” Peter thought about the things he told them. Was there something else?
Peter eyes flashed as he remembered a very important thing. “Ah yes, don’t under any circumstances try out your new abilities. Especially you three, with transformation. You might turn into a fly and get smacked, or turn into a giant creature and destroy the temple. Don’t summon any weapons either. Tomorrow, we will start to slowly teach you what you need to know.”
The group of five followed Peter to their rooms. They walked through hallways lined with paintings and sculptures. The temple was very rich, and they clearly liked to show it.
“Wow, so many decorations… Even the statues are wearing gold armor… Wow, a crystal chandelier!” Simon, who never lived with much luxury, could not help himself from praising the temple out loud.
“Of course, this is the Great Temple of Istus, after all. Our motto is, don’t hide it, show it. It refers to both our military might and wealth. We will treat you well here, and later, you shall receive a royal welcoming from the kingdom, as you rightfully deserve. Ah, here we are. Your own corridor.” Peter stopped and turned to face them. He made a slight bow, while clasping his hands.
“Well, I said we would treat you well here, but for tonight, please accept my humble apology for your quarters. Your arrival was quite sudden and we only have this area clear from people who might disturb you. This is where the acolytes sleep. Tomorrow, we will arrange a better place to live.”
The group had felt the tiredness creeping into their bodies as they walked, and only wanted to lay down on a bed, so no one argued about the rooms.
All rooms looked the same. A basic room with a wooden desk, chair and a bed. Thankfully, the mattress was decent. Simon was afraid it would be made of straw or something like that.
Simon sat down on the bed. It was quite comfy, and the temptation to lay down was too much to resist. He pulled up the cover to his neck and started thinking about his situation. What is going on? Is this truly a game? Feels too real… way too real.
Ow.. yep, even pain is the same.
Simon pinched himself, but it felt just like it always did. He tried to find a way to get access to the menu or logout.
“Menu!”
…
“Logout!”
…
That didn’t work. Maybe it’s real? They did those weird things in real life. Simon sighed. No point thinking about it. Best just to treat it like real life.
*knock knock*
“Some soup for you, sir.” A female voice came from the other side of the door.
“Um, come in.” Simon quickly got up from the bed, and stood up beside it. He adjusted his clothing. Ah, where did these clothes come from? I’m naked underneath this robe? Wait, my old clothes, where did they go?
While Simon was deep in thought, the door suddenly opened and one of the acolytes came in, carrying a tray with a bowl of steaming hot soup on. After putting it down on the desk, she said goodbye and left again. While Simon inspected the soup, she quietly walked back out, and closed the door. Only the click the door made as it closed, alerted Simon that she had already left. Damn, wanted to ask her what kind of soup it is...
The soup smelled amazing. Maybe the roaring hunger in his stomach made the soup look and smell a lot better than normal, or maybe it was just a really good soup. Hot steam rose up from the soup, making it clear that they just finished cooking it, pouring it straight from the pot. Or maybe they just reheated it.
Simon's unexpected hunger allowed him to eat all of it, in record speed. Though, he had to blow cool air on the wooden spoon for a few seconds every time. The bowl was some kind of porcelain. Similar to modern bowls, but with gold lined edges. Actual gold, not just gold color. The soup contained both meat and vegetables.
They got summoned to a different planet, different world, perhaps even different universe, since there are actual gods in this place, logic dictates that the ingredients couldn't be what grew back on Earth, but Simon still thought they tasted like normal. He couldn't tell exactly what kind, because of the finely chopped ingredients, but they were just as colorful as the vegetables he knew from back home. And the meat tasted just like chicken, both in taste and texture. In the end, it filled him up quite nicely.
Now what? Sleep? Exercise some first? I’m kinda curious about the stat gains. If they work like our world, then it will take a long time to get even +1 in any of the Strength stats, but since I got a 100% bonus to it, there might be some magic involved.
He decided to try it. Not like working out have any real downsides anyway.
Thirty minutes later, after several set of push ups and bodyweight squats and a few other things he could come up with, something happened.
Squat +1
“Hey, it worked!” The blue box, that suddenly popped up, startled Simon at first, but joy quickly overtook him. After he calmed down, he started to think more deeply about it. An old habit of his kicked in, talking with himself when he was alone. Thankfully, he could control it well enough, so he only did it when he knew no one could hear him.
Simon did some slow squats, to try to see if he noticed anything different. “Did I actually gain some strength? Feels the same. If someone like Sten did this workout, would he even gain anything? Since he pretty much reached his natural body limits already. Or did I just catch up to my current body? Did the status simply adjust itself after learning more about my body?”
“So many questions, but no answers. For now, I’m just gonna sleep. No point over thinking it.” Simon went back to bed. He was a bit sweaty from the exercise, but he didn’t see any way to wash himself, and he didn’t want to leave the room, and ask someone for such a small matter. The world turned into darkness...
*Knock Knock*
Simon woke up from the sound of knocking. It took him a moment to remember yesterday's events.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Are you awake? Master Riest asked me to wake you up. He wishes to see all of you in the training hall in one hour. I brought some food for you and some water if you wish to clean up a bit. I also brought a change of clothes that will be easier to train in.” A male voice from the other side of the door said.
“Thank you. Please come in.” Simon jumped out of the bed. Any traces of tiredness disappeared when he heard the voice. He would soon train, perhaps even see magic. Who would want to miss that?
The simple meal consisted of bread, a bowl of grapes, a tomato and two apples. A jug of water to drink. At least, that’s what Simon called them. He could only go by what they looked like and how they tasted, but Simon was no expert.
After he ate, he washed his face and changed his clothes to the new pants and shirt. Brown leather pants, with a white cotton shirt. No underwear… slightly disturbing, but he could manage without them. For now. A pair of sandal shoes, similar to the type that the romans used, made of leather and strings. Again, Simon made up the type of materials in his head.
The guide waited outside the room, and when Simon came out, he told Simon to follow him to the training hall. The guide led Simon to a large dirt field. Wooden dummies, straw dummies and archery targets lined the sides. They stored the hundreds of practise weapons in shelves, barrels and crates. The real surprise came from the fact that such a luxurious temple had such large open areas. How big was the temple in the first place?
When the group of five finally gathered, Peter started his explanation.
“Okay, now that you are all here, let me continue my explanation from yesterday. The god Istus contacted me to prepare a summoning circle and you are what came out. I don’t know for what purpose he brought you here, but I can only assume it’s because evil is up to something again.” Peter explained.
“Istus? Hey, isn’t that the name of the old guy from the company?? He made himself a god? Well, I guess the devs are gods here.” Andrew said.
“You shouldn’t be so quick to assume it’s a game, Andrew. A lot of weird things happened yesterday.” Simon said, causing everyone to stare at him.
“Hmm, I don’t know what kind of game you are talking about, but I can assure you that Istus is a god. You are, after all, currently in the Great Temple of Istus. In the human capital of Istaria.” Peter said.
Helena stared blankly for a moment. “Wait, so you don’t know why we are here? You summoned us for no reason? How irresponsible.” Helena said.
“Ah, don’t be like that. We just don't know the reason yet. In time, it will reveal it self.” Peter quickly said, holding his hands up, trying to disarm some of the aggressive behavior.
Trying to change the subject, Simon said: “By the way, I worked out some yesterday and managed to get plus one in my Squat.”
“Yep, did the same. Got plus five though.” Sten replied.
“…”
“…”
“As expected of the chosen ones. Already making great progress.” Peter said in earnest praise. “Well, now that I think about it, your status was very odd, so perhaps it is just adjusting itself.”
Trying to get back on topic, Peter continued.
“Yes, anyway, today you will try different weapons and techniques. Then later, we will try your special abilities. As the one with the highest talent in Light magic in the temple, I will personally teach Helena some spells. The others will receive training depending on your results. There is a weapon rack over there. Spend at least ten minutes on each weapon type.”
Five acolytes arrived. One for each. “These will help you with the fighting techniques, unless, of course, you already know how to fight?” Peter observed the group, and they all looked down to the ground. So, our heroes have never fought before? Odd choice for a group of heroes.
“Hello, my name is Urt Rainer. Call me Urt. Please be at ease hero, I will teach you everything I know.” The one assigned to Simon introduced himself.
“Ah, you are the one from this morning? My guide?”
“Correct, you remembered me.” He blushed slightly, and scratched his cheek. “Anyway, go on, pick a weapon. We will go through all, so just take one.”
Simon started with a simple dagger. Light, easy to handle, and most importantly, the only thing he had any experience with. When Simon saw it, he thought it had a slight resemblance to kitchen knives.
“Good choice. Let's go to the straw dummy first, and train stabbing.”
The straw dummy looked like a cross. A large vertical bundle and smaller horizontal bundle.
Urt showed Simon several stabbing moves. Some direct, facing the target in single combat, while others, more assassin like, relying on stabbing quickly and unseen.
“Like this?”
“No! Like this!”
“Like this?”
“No! Like this!”
Simon did not have much talent with that one. Next was the war hammer.
Urt showed Simon an overhead blow. “Now, you try.”
Simon raised the war hammer with a grunt. The solid wood hammer weighed quite a bit. “Hmmmrg!” Swish! The war hammer slipped out from his grip, and flew off, landing ten meters away.
“...”
“...”
Next was the spear. It went fairly well, but Simon thought it was boring, because Urt kept reminding him it was not a staff to swing around with, but a spear to stab the enemy.
The bo staff, well, Simon liked it. Urt only facepalmed. Simon did the moves he saw from TV and games, at least, he thought he did.
“Haha, this one is good. C’mon, try to defeat me!” Simon challenged Urt to a duel.
“Fine, I will use this dagger. You may attack at will.” Urt picked up, in comparison to the bo staff, a tiny dagger and took a fighting stance.
“Dagger? Your loss…”
Simon swung wildly, each blow making him stagger. He used pure force, and little technique. Urt deflected the staff with ease, with the minimum amount of force needed. Three swings. Urt could not endure any more than that, before he felt the need to end the battle. It was too unsightly to watch a hero fight like that. He let his blade run down the staff, and with an explosive force from his legs, he shot forward and reached Simon in an instant. The dagger placed at Simon’s throat.
“I win.” Urt grabbed the bo staff and ripped it from Simon’s hands. “Let’s pick another weapon. How about a simple sword and shield?”
“Sure…” Simon didn’t know what had happened. One moment he was on the brink of victory, the next moment, a dagger to his throat.
On his right, a sword. A cross guard protected his hand and fingers, and the handle felt good in his hand. On his left, a triangular, black painted shield with no decorations, but with rounded edges. Both made of solid wood. Simon compared it to the old medieval europe. Now he just needed some armor, and he would be ready to go. Well, almost.
“This feels quite good.” Simon did a few test swings, and hid behind his shield, as he fought his imaginary enemy.
“Yes, it’s easy to learn, but hard to master. A good fit for you. Now watch me…”
Urt showed Simon how to fight. First was the wilder, block one direction, while fighting in another, mainly used in big chaotic fights. It was quite hard to use, more for the experienced fighter, so they focused more on the defensive formation. The fighting style the kingdom’s shield warriors trained in for the most part.
They formed a two-man formation. “Use your imagination. Imagine we are five hundred here. Shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield, and the swords ready to stab at anything that shows an opening.” Urt and Simon pretended the straw dummy was the incoming enemy, and stabbed it to pieces.
“You can also bash with your shield, like this.” Urt showed a shield bash on a dummy. The straw dummy shook violently. “Now, let's try to block my shield bash. Hold your shield up, and get ready.” Urt bashed his shield into Simon’s, several times, until Simon’s defense crumpled and Urt could swoop in with the sword.
“Let’s do some real sparring. I will use a two-handed sword, while you use shield and sword.” Urt suggested.
Simon, feeling good about himself from behind his shield, agreed without hesitation. “Ready when you are.”
“Huaaa!” Urt shouted and swung his two-handed sword overhead, and smashed it against Simon’s raised shield. “How does that feel? That is the power of a real attack!”
Simon felt his arm go numb, and shook it to wake it up. “Oh, I’m fine…” While the power was a surprise, he endured it, which made him even more excited. “Again!” He said as he smacked his sword against the shield.
“Very well.” Urt attacked from below, scraping against the shield, and then swung down hard from above.
The sound of wood striking wood hurt Simon’s ears, but he gritted his teeth and endured.
The sword bounced up in recoil, and now Urt took a step forward, and twisted his body to attack from the side. The swing towards his sword side was too fast for Simon to block with the shield, forcing him to react by pure instinct. In this case, it meant holding up the hand. The hand that clutched the handle. Bony knuckle met the two-handed wooden sword head on. The end result was as expected.
“AAAAAH!!” Simon rolled on the dirt floor, his hand bleeding profoundly. In his panic, he threw his shield and sword to the ground.
“Ah! Are you hurt?” Urt rushed over to Simon. He planned to stop his sword before it hit Simon’s waist, but Simon unexpectedly punched the sword with his naked fist.
“What the hell does it look like!” Simon shouted back, as blood pulsed from his hand. The screams caught everyone's attention.
“Oh, we got an injury. Helena, your first patient have arrived. Just do as I taught you.” Peter brought Helena with him as they walked over. While Helena participated in the weapon training, she spent most of the time memorizing a few spells. Simple tier one healing spells, but still effective for most non lethal injuries.
Helena crouched down to take a look at the hand. “Simon, what did you do? Your hand is all messed up. You are lucky we got magic, because back home, that hand would be damaged for life. Probably.”
“Just do something!!” Simon said with clenched teeth.
Helena took a deep breath. “Chase the ouchie away, and turn that frown upside down. Healing Touch!” Helena tapped the injured hand with her fingers, and a golden light spread out over Simon’s hand. The broken bones got back into place and the torn skin closed up. It only took about ten seconds.
“Aaa… that feels so good. Holy shit, my hand is fine again!” Simon clenched his hand a few times to test it. “Feels just like before, maybe a bit better. My index finger doesn’t hurt when clenching anymore. Maybe I can actually play some of those MOBAs now. I always avoided them because of their massive amount of clicking. Wait, what the hell was that chant?”
“Sure, that feels like something you should say after getting your hand fixed up.” Helena’s face flushed red, and she looked away. Apparently, she felt embarrassed about the chant too. “If you must know, it’s a spell usually used on children when they injure themselves.”
“Ah, thank you, Helena. Really. Wonder if I can get some magic too?” Simon slowly got up. He held out his hand in front of him, still having a hard time to believe what just happened.
“Well, your status had no talent for it, but it’s possible your transformation is a magic creature.” Peter said. “Well, maybe this should wrap it up. Everyone got a weapon of choice?”
Everyone nodded or grunted in reply.
They trained for a total of three hours, before deciding on their weapons.
Simon picked the sword and shield combo. A safe choice, and allowed for both offensive and defensive positions in the party. Easy to use, hard to master, it fit a hero with increased learning capabilities.
Sten picked a two-handed war hammer. He used his great strength to smash his targets. As they gathered up, Simon saw the smashed and cracked wooden dummies on the field, and briefly wondered what destroyed them. Turns out, it was Sten.
Andrew picked the same as Simon, but mainly because he wanted to become a protector. The knight in shining armor. Another reason was that he didn’t want to get hit by some random arrow, so he picked heavy armor and a shield to hide behind. As Simon listened to Andrews reasons, Simon felt even more that he made the right choice. Less chance of dying was a good bonus.
Helena picked a staff. Not a bo staff, but a mage staff. It looked like a walking staff or something like that. A real staff would make her magic better, but the simple wooden practise types had no such function. She didn't have much choice in the matter, since her main weapon would be a staff later anyway. More importantly, Peter told her, that she would receive a spellbook with several light magic spells recorded inside later. One that could be transformed into a smaller object, like a bracelet, to make it easier to carry around.
Anne didn’t pick any, except the extra dagger they all took, because she was going to summon a weapon later.
“Good work all, now let’s summon that weapon. We have some mages ready to assist, if something happens. Anne, please stand inside the magic circle and the others stay back a bit. It has a shield function, in case something goes wrong, but you never know.” Peter said and directed her towards a large magic circle in the corner of the field.
Anne got in position and said: “Summon weapon!”
A bright light enveloped her, blinding everyone and when they could see again, they all saw that she held a bow in her hands. A black bow with green lines crawling all over it. A large crystal sat in the center of the bow. The edges of the bow had a whirlwind of mana being sucked in, and it created a thin bowstring of mana to release the arrows with.
“A bow, huh. I didn’t expect that. What does the skill say now?” Peter said.
Anne opened the status panel and read what it said. “Summon Weapon. Summons a bow that converts the mana in the air into arrows. Can supply it with your own personal mana supply if needed. Cannot use regular arrows. ”
She drew the bowstring, and released it, aiming at a nearby target. As she released the string, it sent a small shard of mana into the crystal, and the small mana, only a few centimeters in size, turned into a long and sharp arrow, as it passed through the crystal. She missed her target, but the arrow kept going much farther than any normal arrow, and sunk deeply into a stone wall.
“I like it, especially that I don’t have to carry around a bunch of arrows. I have never used a bow before, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.” Anne said happily. She looked fondly on her new bow.
Peter had a pale face, and forcefully swallowed down his outburst of emotions, but managed to return to the topic. “...A good weapon. Should we continue with the transformations?” Peter asked the three men in the group.
“I’ll go first.” Andrew said as he walked towards the circle.
“Transformation!” He shouted.
A bright light enveloped Andrew, sticking to his body and changing his form. What they saw shocked everyone. Surprisingly, he transformed into a griffin. White feathers on the head and neck. As they moved down the body, they turned brown, and at about half the body, they stopped, turning into brown, short hair fur. Strong bird legs, with big claws, as front legs. Thick, muscular legs of a lion as back legs. White feathers covered the upper part of the otherwise brown fur tail. The two feather wings on his back folded out, as Andrew tested his new body. However, he was small. Only a meter long, and about half a meter high.
“This is… a baby?” Was all Peter could manage to say.
“Haha, this is amazing! Will take a while to get used to it, but I can’t wait to try out my wings.” Andrew said in a completely different voice. Much darker than his usual. Surprisingly, the baby had an adult voice, but no one questioned it, it was not a human after all. No point in using human logic.
“Impressive, I guess.” Simon said with a hint of jealousy in his voice.
“So cool! Can you take me for a... ride later?” Helena said with a suggestive smile.
“A griffin? Mix of eagle and lion? I feel like that’s slightly better than my bow...” Anne muttered.
“My turn now!” Sten said, as he walked towards the circle.
“Transformation!”
Like before, the light came out and stuck to the body. He began to rapidly grow in size and he surprisingly turned into a stone monster. No, a stone golem. Golems are brain-dead normally, and only follows the simple commands given by their masters.
Sten towered over everyone, with an impressive height of around four meters, and at least twice the usual size everywhere else. A normal person could sit on his large shoulders. In fact, the disproportionate size of the upper body, made him look like the poster boy for the 'Don't skip leg days meme'. He had white, glowing eyes and a white magic circle under his neck. Smaller white runes and symbols on his fists and joints. The stone was smooth on some places, showing human like muscles, while rough on others, showing jagged rocks.
Sten picked up his war hammer and smashed himself in the head with it. The war hammer shattered while leaving Sten relatively unharmed. Only half his head shattered. The shattered head revealed the insides of the stone. Tunnels and holes in varied sizes, but nothing wider than a finger. Apparently, it was a porous type of stone.
“Hoho, only some damage.” Sten, whose head had lost everything above the nose, laughed. His voice was even darker than griffin Andrew, and resounded deep inside everyone’s heads. His mouth didn’t move, no in fact, he had no mouth. He lost his eyes, the only visible human organ he retained, but for some reason, he could still see.
Sten's actions shocked everyone present. Normally, that would completely crush a person. Meat paste, to put it simply.
“I’m not healing you, you stupid muscle head.” Helena said.
“T-try not to smash yourself with any more weapons, okay?” Peter said, still trying to gather himself.
The others could only shake their heads.
“Watch this!” Sten shouted and slammed his hand into the ground. The various runes and magic circles on his body glowed, and slowly, but surely, his body repaired itself. However, dirt, taken from the ground, made up the composition of the new head shape, instead of stone, like the rest of his body. “I can repair myself now!”
“Wow, how did you know? What does your skill say now?” Peter said.
Sten opened up the status to check. Apparently, he didn’t know about it until now. “Transformation. Transform into a Golem, a being of the earth. If taken damage, you can absorb the materials from the earth and repair yourself. Absorb different materials and change your composition.”
“Okay, if the muscle head is finally done, it’s my turn.” Simon said with confidence.
Wonder what I will get. The others got such high-class transformations, surely I won’t be any worse. A dragon perhaps? Serpent? Ogre? Skeleton? Unicorn? Who knows, any of those would be nice. Ah, scratch that, don’t wanna be a unicorn when I think about it...
“Transformation!” Simon shouted.