~ Side Story: The journey of a random hero ~

[Rezia Dellan's point of view]

 Hear me now, mortals of this world! In thirty years from now, a warmongering species shall surround your planet and lay waste to your entire civilization!

That was the message of the self-proclaimed God-like entity when it first revealed itself to the population of Earth. The second time was when it literally kidnapped 10 million of us and brought us to some unknown place. I so screamed like a little girl when this happened, but I was fortunate for the fact that I couldn't temporarily control my body. Maybe this was a precaution installed by the God-like to avoid mass panic among us.

After a short explanation I understood the general idea. We were supposed to be sent to a new world and begin a new life as Heroes or whatever else we wanted to do. It sounded simple in theory, but I knew there was a catch or something. There always was one...

The biggest surprise for me wasn't the whole Hero thing but the game-like skill management system the God-like introduced us to. The idea of a status menu and skill points existed only in games, so for those of us who had no idea what they were, we received quite a bit of a shock.

Fortunately, I wasn't one of them.

Back on Earth, I was a 24 years-old manager at a nearby fish market. Not the most delightful of jobs, but it paid the bills and allowed me to indulge in past time activities such as gaming.

The problem was that I was more of a FPS player than a RPG one... Thus, when the status menu appeared before me for the first time, I recognized the general layout and understood what a Stat and Skill point was respectively, but I was at a complete loss of what was best to pick.

Then the God-like gave us the 10 seconds ultimatum, and I started to add points where I thought mattered the most. When I was done, this was my status window:

[Name]: <Unknown>

[Species]: Human

[Level]: 1

[Strength]: 31

[Speed]: 24

[Dexterity]: 22

[Magic]: 50

[Luck]: 30

[Magic Excellence]: 5%

[Skills]: <None>

[Skill Points]: 1

[Stat Points]: 0

Since it had Magic, I wanted something related to it, maybe cast an awesome [Fireball], but I also didn't want my Luck to be so bad that I would end up praying at a temple all day long to get it higher. Of course, I had no idea at that time that my Luck stat was unchangeable. If I did, maybe I would have raised it past 50.

That being said, with that one single skill point, I picked up the skill: [Fuzzy bolt]

The name was ridiculous, but it granted me access to Lightning Magic. I received two spells with it: [Lightning Bolt] and [Electrocute].

After we picked them up, a strange light enveloped us and then the God-like spoke to us one last time:

“Well, the first group was sent off. They are those among you who either ended up with a RIDICULOUSLY powerful skill or have very high Luck stat! The next group will be those who will be RANDOMLY placed around the planet, an lastly those who will be sent as result of Hero Summoning Rituals! Have fun my little guinea pigs... Ahem, I mean Heroes! Yes, heroes... hehe.”

You let that one slip on purpose, didn't you! me and probably half of the people here screamed in our minds.

That being said, I was part of the Random group...

The God-like transported me together with 200 other humans on a vast plains near a small human village. Despite the differences between our ages, nationalities, and political views, we managed to get along pretty well. The most important thing we noticed was the fact that we could understand each other, but we spoke a different language than our mother tongue. Apparently, this was our little gift from the God-like so we could properly communicate with the natives.

Afterwards, a group of men from the village arrived. They were dressed in strange armors and wielding dangerous sharp weapons such as spears and swords. We were all Level 1 at that time, so we didn't try to make a fuss or pose a danger towards them. Thus, we were invited into the village and presented to the chief as unknown individuals.

We told him the truth. Thanks to that, we were helped to register ourselves as citizens and members of the village, then we were trained by the men who first greeted us, a group of retired adventurers. From my point of view, all of this was something like a tutorial.

During the first week, we managed to adapt to our situation and by hunting around the village, we raised our levels, but then the problems appeared...

Being so different and with such strange abilities, not all of us were cut out for the adventurer lifestyle. There were those among us who had abilities more useful towards simple jobs, such as working the field or being a waitress at the inn. As such, after the first week, we decided to spread out. A group of twenty aimed for the city, another group decided to work in the village and then there were those like me who struggled to raise their levels before going to register at the Adventurers Guild in a city.

This was the Human Kingdom Ten Swords, a small one from what I heard, but rather peaceful as long as the Akutan Empire didn't request a battle force against the Dragon Continent. To be honest, we all feared at first that once our prowess in combat was shown, we would end up recruited either as mercenaries or soldiers. Reality proved otherwise. Being transported from Earth didn't automatically grant us unknown knowledge of martial arts and nerves of steel. Weak-minded we were back there, weak-minded we were here as well.

At the very least we would have ended up fighting dragons as simple soldiers... Even so, the reputation of those monsters wasn't a pleasant one. Each individual dragon was several times stronger than a typical human soldier, while their generals were monsters who could raze a country to the ground.

Another big difference between Earth and this world was the existence of Slaves. Humans here saw it as their right and duty to be seen as the best of all species. In other words, non-humans were treated as something akin to... items. Unlike human slaves, they could never be set free. The same went for half-breeds.

Of course, some of us didn't enjoy this sort of behavior and mentality, but we couldn't do anything against it. Those who tried ended up labeled as... 'problematic'. After the first month, I began hearing rumors of how some of us, earthlings, ended up being either locked up as prisoners or sold off as slaves for disturbing the local laws. Others... were killed.

I heard that initially, the nobles saw us as some sort of invaders, but because we were all technically humans, we were pardoned by the kings and emperors of the human species. Inside their kingdoms and empires, we were their loyal subjects governed by the laws they dictated, but outside of them, we were told that we would be nothing... that we would be killed immediately.

There was some truth to that... A lot of the creatures we found around the small village I arrived in were incredibly weak. The typical goblins and wolves who ran around the forests were between levels 1 and 20 at most. During the first month, I managed to raise myself up to level 16, but I heard rumors of some of us reaching past level 100.

Of course, those were just rumors. Whenever we talked about the prowess achieved by some of us on the front-lines, the older adventurers tended to make fun of us or laugh out loud.

Speaking of which, it would be good to mention that only earthlings could easily check their own levels, everyone else had to go to a Temple and find out. Even so, they called it Power Number or simply Power. As for the other stats, they didn't have a clear notion of them or measured them in numbers. We, earthlings, were the only ones capable of this.

Two months after we arrived in this world, I finally reached level 24, and I was able to leave the village. Not long after that, I became an Intermediary Rank Adventurer at the guild. This meant I could pick up more dangerous missions.

But was I among the strongest?

No...

There were many others far stronger than me, even some who reached level 50.

[Name]: Rezia Dellan

[Species]: Human

[Level]: 24

[Strength]: 82

[Speed]: 65

[Dexterity]: 70

[Magic]: 110

[Luck]: 30

[Magic Excellence]: 6%

[Skills]: [Fuzzy Bolt] [Level 4]; [Windy Wind Windigo] [Not the skill I want]

[Skill Points]: 0

[Stat Points]: 0

I spent ALL of my points in those three skills, but I gained a few others as well, such as cooking, mercantile skills, gardening, toilet scrubbing, and other stuff like that.

Despite the impressive [Level 4] skill, my abilities didn't grow in strength, I just gained a few more spell that consumed more than I desired. Nevertheless, I could take out a Wolf with one [Lightning Bolt]. As for the second skill, it was an ability that turned me into a walking Air Conditioner. The last one was a skill that granted me a 30% Evasion bonus for EVERY attack even if it was a random curse that was tossed my way. Unfortunately, it reflected my Luck. The higher the Luck, the higher the Evasion bonus. Even so, it was mighty useful in combat because it was a passive skill. I was planning on leveling it up later.

Oh, the name?

That one was the will of the God-like. None of us could keep our old names, but at the very least, they weren't as bad as our skill names. Windy Wind Windigo? Seriously?

Well, as far as adventures went... it didn't work like it did in games or web novels. Problems and heroic events never popped out of nowhere, and even when they did, the knights took care of them... rather swiftly.

Saving the damsel in distress, buying a sexy slave, or anything like that was the stuff of dreams. Most of the slaves I saw were either grumpy men or old, ugly women. Cat girls, elves, or pretty princesses... there was no such thing for us.

In other words... we left an ordinary world, came to a fantasy world, and ended up living ordinary lives.

To make things worse, once we were strong enough, we had a high chance of being recruited and sent to the front-lines to fight against the monstrous dragons.

That was basically the life of each and every one of us who acted within the confines of the human laws... And as always, after a hard day of hunting outside of the city, I stopped by my favorite inn and ordered a mug of beer.

“I said it once, and I'll say it again! May the one who remembered how to make beer be praised in all the Heavens!...” I smirked as I looked at the cold golden liquid.

“Yup! Although, I heard she was able to make it only thanks to her skill.” my adventurer friend and fellow earthling, Kyle Rohangis said this.

He was younger than me with three years, but looked like a chiseled statue of Adonis. Apparently, he was a former model, but his skills in this world were those of a vanguard. This handsome man saved my life more times than I wanted to admit.

“Yup! It was a woman too! But I heard that in order to spread the recipe, she had to get engaged to some noble in the capital. Poor girl.” Zeya Paraleya let out a sigh.

That name of hers always made me giggle. She was a redhead with freckles and native of the place.

“Aye!” said Bruthus Balavay, the big guy to my right.

Wearing thick armor and sporting a two-handed sword on his back, this fellow was once a pro basketball player on the road to success, but a knee injury stopped him from achieving his dream one year ago. Coming to this world allowed him to fully recover. He was also our healer... It was a weird combination.

“Have you heard anything of our friends across the border?” I asked as I carefully looked around us to see if there was anyone listening in on us.

“Yes.” Zeya replied with a quick nod.

“Well?” I asked as I awaited her reply.

“Apparently you were right, not all of you earthlings are on this continent. I heard that many of you landed over on the Elf Continent. Others landed on the Dwarf Mountains, and quite a few in the Relliar Forests. But I heard another strange rumor...” she said and nodded again.

“What is it?” asked Bruthus curiously.

“Well... It's said that some of you appeared on the battlefields... on the Dragon Continent. They are making quite the performance there. They are said to be as strong as Knights of Power Number 100, but the strongest among your people are said to be the Heroes, who are over level 50 now!” she told us with a smile.

“Oh? Interesting...” I said as I rubbed my beard.

“Indeed. I'm barely level 20, level 50 is... a lot.” nodded Kyle in agreement.

“Leaving the levels aside, I wonder if maybe we were sent here to unite the species and fight against the dragons?” I wondered.

“Could be... You know, all the tales back on our world were the same. Everyone gathered to fight against monsters.” Kyle said and shrugged.

“It could explain why none of us were summoned on the Dragon Continent.” I said.

“Isn't it more because that place represents the ultimate difficulty? Besides... there are also rumors of the Demon King's awakening.” said Bruthus.

“Well, we're not going to eliminate any possibility, but so far... I have yet to encounter a dragon, friendly or otherwise. Besides, you need to be at least Level 100 to be sent to the front-line.” I nodded.

“True... Let's take it easy then! I'm sure there are others who strive to be the strongest! As for me, living the peaceful life of an adventurer is all I want! Cheers!” I raised my mug up high.

“Cheers!” the others joined the toast.

Level 100 wasn't impossible, but it was insane for us right now. Even with rigorous training and the potential possibility of power leveling, it would take us at least a year to reach this level of strength. At our current pace, maybe a lot more...