"So… What now?” asked one of Sebastian’s fellow summonees as they all still stood in the magic circle. His hair was unkempt, not long enough to be intentional but more likely a sign that he simply couldn’t be bothered to get it cut as often as he should have. Grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt completed the look. If not for the fact that he clearly kept in shape, Sebastian would have thought he was your average lazy gamer.

  “Now, Blessed ones, we should get out of this dingy room,” Lyra said. “I’m sure that all of you are both concerned and curious about this whole thing.” She smiled. “Let me show you Lumeria.” The archmage snapped her fingers and her red robe transformed into an elegant blue dress. Her lips curled upward at the awed gazes for just a moment before she turned her back and made for the exit. She beckoned the group with a finger over her shoulder and said, “Come along now.”

  Everyone shared some confused and uncertain looks before the same man, the most enthusiastic of the group, flashed an excited grin and jogged out the door after her. That convinced the rest of them to do the same, leaving the other mages to recover on the floor.

  Outside the ritual chamber was a long, dark, and creepy corridor, mostly unadorned by any decorations or furniture. A few wall sconces with lit candles at regular intervals was about all there was. Although it was the middle of the day, and the bright sunlight made its way into the corridor at a few spots, there were so few windows that those candles weren’t just for ambiance, without them Sebastian would have struggled to see where he stepped.

  “While we walk, perhaps introductions are in order,” Lyra said. “I would very much like to know the names of our blessed heroes.”

  The man who was practically oozing with excitement hopped a step ahead of the rest and turned around, walking backward as he cheerfully waved and said, “I’m Martin, good to meet you all!”

  Another, the youngest of them, raised his hand as Martin turned back around, like he was in a classroom. “Hi, Uh… I’m Kevin. Econ major.”

  “Mike,” said the oldest of the group, raising a single hand in a half-assed wave. Looked to be in his early fifties, with a potbelly.

  “Sebastian.” He offered a simple nod as eyes turned to him.

  “And I’m Josh,” said the last of the group, a tall and lanky fellow with dark hair, somewhat reminiscent of a crows nest, tangled and seemingly defying gravity at times.

  Soon after introductions were made, they reached a large wooden door which led to yet another corridor, only this one looked more… normal. It was like something taken out of a fantasy movie. Also made of stone but with thick carpets along the floor and various decorations both on the walls and on pedestals standing against the wall.

  While the first corridor was completely devoid of life, this new hallway had a number of people walking around. Most were likely servants or other workers, others some sort of nobility, and there were some with swords hanging from their waists. All of them stopped and offered friendly greetings to both Lyra and the group of earthlings. The group awkwardly returned their greetings each time—casually with the servants, awkwardly with the nobles, and with a sense of awe for the guards and warriors. A couple of the earthlings, Martin and Mike to be specific, even turned and stared at the warriors, and their swords, after they parted ways.

  At the end of the hallway was a door to a rooftop balcony. One by one, they stepped out and each of them drew an audible breath at the sight.

  They were three or four stories up, overlooking the castle grounds. Although there were hints of the greater city beyond, the walls surrounding the grounds prevented them from seeing much more than the spires of some cathedral in the distance. The castle grounds, however, was more than enough to evoke a sense of wonder in the group. Castles back on earth were usually in a state of some disrepair, even the big tourist attractions were usually only seen through the lens of time. Walls eroded, bricks and stone exposed. This castle was exquisite—and not just the main building but all the surrounding buildings, and the wall around the entire grounds as well. Bright colors adored the smooth, rough-cast finish. Beautiful murals told stories of the glory of the kingdom. In the far corner of the castle grounds was a grand royal garden. Although the beauty of the flowers couldn’t be seen at this distance, a gentle breeze carried a fresh flowery fragrance reminiscent of roses, lavender, and jasmine throughout the entire grounds. Separating the royal garden from the buildings was an open field of grass, shaded from the bright sunny skies by a lofty copse of maple-like trees with colorful leaves. Life bustled on the field. A small festival was being held with food, music, and dancing. Heartwarming laughter could be heard, albeit only faintly through the magical tunes.

  “Woah,” Martin exclaimed, overwhelmed by the majesty of it all. A childlike grin emerged on his face.

  All of them walked up to the edge, and admired Lumeria in all its glory.

  “They look like they’re having fun,” said Kevin, looking out over the festival.

  Nobody responded, they all focused on their own points of interest.

  Josh stared at the murals on the various buildings and walls with a spellbound fascination.

  Mike, on the other hand, was more focused on the craftsmanship of the parapet. “How did they do all this without modern tools?” he muttered under his breath. He shook his head as he realized the answer. “Magic, huh?”

  Then there was Martin. He simply leaned on the parapet and took it all in, no one thing stood out to him. He welcomed the entirety of this world, and the adventure of it all, with an open heart.

  A few steps back stood Sebastian. His attention wasn’t so much on the stunning view but on the people he now found himself with. Although the group of earthlings summoned here alongside him seemed genuine and decent, the woman who brought them all here, Lyra, felt… off. He could have sworn he saw a brief, smug grin on her face as she looked at the group from behind, which softened in an instant when she noticed him looking.

  “Let’s get a closer look, shall we?” she said. “Perhaps a quick visit to the training grounds where some of our mages are training their Spells?”

  The group reluctantly tore themselves away from the view to follow her when she left.

  The mages trained in, and behind a nearby building within the castle grounds. Lyra led the group to the courtyard where they looked down on the training mages from the arcade gallery on the second level.

  A dozen mages, all fairly young—about early twenties at the most, stood in a line under the gallery. Each of their faces were scrunched in concentration, eyes closed as they murmured quiet words. One by one, in no distinct order, their wands and staffs—or at least the crystals embedded at their tops—began to glow. Weakly at first but with a growing intensity.

  Then one of them opened their eyes and pushed the tip of their staff forward. A fireball the size of a beach ball erupted and shot toward the target at the far end of the courtyard. Upon contact with the target, a simple dummy made of straw, the fireball exploded. It wasn’t an explosion like that of a hand grenade, where a swirl of fire flared with a kinetic force that could bring down walls, if not whole houses. This explosion was pure, elemental fire. The straw dummy swayed ever so slightly from the impact, and it turned charcoal black as it burned. Even so, it remained structurally intact, clearly magically enchanted to withstand an extraordinary amount of damage. Once the blast subsided, and the flames extinguished, it even regrew the straw that had burned up.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  That was just the first of many, each of the mages sent their own fireballs hurtling toward their respective dummies as they completed the Spell. Heat from the dozen explosions wafted up to the gallery where Sebastian and the others were watching.

  “Holy shit!” Martin exclaimed.

  Josh peered his eyes at Lyra. “They can just create fireballs like that? Out of thin air? There has to be limits, something, or else just a dozen of them could destroy a town like it was nothing.”

  Lyra looked almost disappointed as she looked out over the mages. “I must apologize for our trainees’ poor display. They have only just passed level twenty, you see. Their magic is still weak.” She shook her head but turned to face Josh. “But yes, you’re right. There are limits, as you’ll come to find out later.”

  “Please, you can’t show us this and not explain,” Josh pleaded. “At least give us something.”

  Taking a breath, and then releasing it as if making a show of relenting, Lyra said, “Very well, if you insist. First, you must understand that this world is governed by an all-powerful [System]. The [System] is the will of the gods made manifest, it oversees all things.” Her eyes turned upward, to the heavens, as if making a silent prayer. After a brief moment, she returned her focus on the group. “As for how it works, such questions are beyond us, although there has been some research done into the various mechanics through which the [System] operates. The basics are these—every creature that is touched by the [System], human or monster, has a spirit. When you fight a monster your spirit collides with theirs. Then, when you kill them, their spirit is released into the world and you absorb a part of it due to that connection formed through those collisions.

  “This is why, even when you fight as part of a team for example, everyone in that team will grow according to their own contributions; this is important to know as hunting monsters is going to be your primary means of leveling. That bit of spirit you absorb becomes experience, or Exp for short. According to legend, all Blessed Ones have an Inherent Title that allows them to absorb even more spirit than most, and with more spirit comes more experience!”

  Martin’s head turned away from the courtyard with the mages training to stare at the archmage so fast that one might think he’d hurt himself. “Wait? We gain experience and level up, like in a game?”

  A chuckle escaped Lyra’s lips. “I wouldn’t know about any of the games you might be familiar with from your world, naturally. This is just how it works here. These fireballs are the result of a Magical Skill, or Spell. This world is one where levels and Skills reign supreme. Every individual possesses levels, Skills, Titles, and sometimes Talents, all of which determine their place in society.”

  “So how do we access this ‘System’?” Josh asked. “Do we need to say some word, or how does it work?”

  Lyra looked at Josh, and the others, with pride in her eyes. “That is what makes you all so special. None of you are touched by the [System] yet, and thus you can not access it, for now. Your connection will be made upon your inspection later tonight. But first, there’s something else I feel the need to show you,” she said in a sullen and serious tone.

  A few minutes later, they arrived at a neighboring building. Even before they entered, pained moans could be heard from the inside. The door opened, and a foul odor escaped from within.

  Lyra stopped, right before they entered, to address the group. “I ask that you steel your minds, Blessed Ones. What you witness inside these walls will not be pleasant.”

  Inside was a large open hall, longer than it was wide, with beds, or cots, along the sides. Countless men and women lay on the cots, most of them moaning or even screaming in pain and discomfort. Few lay still, many more thrashed under the covers. Doctors and nurses moved with purpose around the hall, tending to patients with a combination of medical tools, salves and medicines, and magic.

  The group stayed to the side, so as to not get in the doctors’ way. Faces which had just minutes ago been filled with glee and awe now displayed horror. When one of the closer patients kicked off his covers, revealing serious wounds oozing with a black filth, Kevin had to move aside, unable to keep the contents of his stomach from rushing up his throat.

  “This, Blessed Ones, is what the demons do. Fallen warriors from the front lines are taken here—at least as many as we can hold—for treatment of the demonic toxins they’ve been exposed to as they fought against evil itself.” She turned to face the earthlings, looked at each of their faces riddled with disgust. “We need your help. Our war with the demons has raged for centuries. Only you can save us.” After giving them a moment to recover, and process, Lyra escorted them outside again. The scent of flowers ever-present on the castle grounds helped them in their recovery after the ordeal. “I’m sorry I had to show you that. It’s foul, I know, but it’s important that you understand what is at stake here, why we had to resort to using the ancient ritual which brought you here to us.” A loud clap of her hands startled them out of their daze. “Enough of this horrendous business. It’s been a long day, and I’m sure you’re all hungry. Come, we’ve prepared a private feast for you before we move on to the inspection, where your connection to the [System] will finally be established.”

  They were escorted back to the main castle, through the maze of corridors and grand hallways, and finally to a fairly small dining room with a large table in the center, filled with all kinds of foods. There was everything from pots filled to the brim with stews to a full roast pig with some sort of fruit in its mouth. Equidistant from the roast pig in the center of the table stood two five-tiered dessert towers with baked goods of every variety.

  “Please, sit. I couldn’t possibly finish all this by myself,” Lyra said as she gestured toward the seats around the table.

  After the sight they all just witnessed, none of them had much of an appetite. That only caused a brief hesitation, however. The food smelled so divine that all of them quickly put the horrors they just experienced aside and devoured the meal.

  The food was just too good. Not good like the kind of food you might get at a top Michelin starred restaurant but supernaturally good. Each dish not only tasted wonderfully but evoked the most positive of emotions. Waves of contentment spread throughout their bodies with every bite.

  As they ate, they asked questions. Lyra offered very few actual answers, she deferred most to a default, “You’ll see, in time.”

  Sebastian knew from reading all kinds of stories about hero-summonings and System-based worlds that the devil is usually in the details. While the others were asking their questions, he was focused on watching and listening. It was a habit he picked up even before his parents died, but it was only ever reinforced after that.

  Stay quiet and stay in the background. If you take up room you become a target, you become vulnerable. It was a rather passive approach to life but he had found great success with it. By people-watching, he had learned to read the people around him, to pick up on things that most were too distracted to notice.

  At work, it kept him at a position he loved, before the lay-offs, at least. Even when he wasn’t the most qualified at any given task, he knew what management was looking for. He knew what they wanted, and he made sure to provide exactly that.

  Unfortunately, that was his only real thing in life. Sebastian never took up any hobby for real, although he did try many over the years. None of them stuck, though. What he did do was mostly just watch Youtube, TV, and movies, as well as read.

  Because he spent so much of his free time at home, he made sure to keep a tidy space. The same applied to his style, if it could be called that. He usually wore simple jeans with some t-shirt. Since he had gotten dressed up a little for his interview, he now had on nice looking, but equally comfortable, beige slacks and a teal button-up shirt. His face was kept cleanly shaved and his dark hair fairly short and simple.

  Toward the end of the dinner, when everyone was full and content, a guest arrived. A pudgy old man, dressed in the finest silks and with jewelery adorning every finger as well as his neck.

  Lyra jumped to her feet and curtsied. “Your Majesty, we did not expect you. Apologies for my lack of decorum.”

  Sebastian and the others hurried to their feet as well, uncertain as to how to act at the sudden appearance of the king himself.

  “Ease yourself, Auditor Florís. The ceremony is still a few days away, but I could not stop myself from seeing the fated heroes of Lumeria.” He placed a hand on his heart and gave a slight nod. “I am King Seldon Lumiere, and I welcome you most graciously. Know that you have our kingdom’s unwavering support. No price is too steep for the vanquishing of these demonic foes.” He took a lingering look at each of the five Blessed Ones, before he smiled and said, “Well, I’ve said what I wanted to say, and seen our fated heroes in the flesh. I leave you in the capable hands of our archmage, Auditor Florís, and we shall meet again in a few days during the initiation ceremony.”

  With that, King Lumiere left. Everyone fell back to their seats. Without even knowing it, they had all held their breaths, as if the king’s mere presence demanded their full attention.

  Lyra turned to them. “How exciting, it’s rare to meet with His Majesty. A good omen. Let us move on then, to your inspections, where the [System] shall touch your spirits and reveal your talents for the first time.”