3 The "First" Day Of Neverwinter

Just as Roland reached the door, he could hear many muffled voices from outside his room. While thinking about what he heard earlier, he got a general idea about what those people were talking with each other.

Walking out of his bedroom, Roland could see many witches along the corridor have absentminded looks on their faces, while some weren't even properly dressed and seem to have come outside to look for each other to discuss what had happened.

While he saw some witches whispering to each other some distance away from him, he could also see the guards and maids forming a circle and sharing their thoughts with each other.

One particular thing that he noticed, was that the guards that were supposed to change shifts early in the morning with the ones from the late night shift weren't here yet, while the night shift guards were still present.

Hearing the creaking of the door, their attention was soon fixed on Roland.

"Your majesty."

"Your majesty."

"Be at ease. I know what you may want to ask, but first I have some questions for you, to get a better understanding of the situation."

"Please feel free to ask."

"I am just curious about something that transpired last night. Did any of you feel anything unusual? Or maybe some sort of voice early this morning?"

"That is true," Wendy replies from the side, her hair still messy, and still wearing pajamas, " I was sleeping last night when I could feel some sort of calling from deep inside me. Shortly after I was able to hear a voice stating something about a new era. After that, I think I lost consciousness and woke up not too long ago when a different voice sounded in my head, which was... explaining some strange stuff."

"Was it something like Status and Skills?"

"Yes, that is true."

After digesting that information for a bit and asking the others about it, it seemed that everyone, including the witches and the normal people, shared the same story.

"I think I got the gist of it. I will announce the results later, but first, let's head to my office. I need to work out the details of this... system, so we can have a general idea about it. If I am not mistaken, there will be many others as well who will come to ask for more information later on as well... Now that I think about it again, prepare the meeting room, we are going to head out there. Wendy, get dressed and come there as soon as possible, we need to find out the real situation and plan out what we are going to do from now on."

It was only now that Wendy realized that she still had her pajamas on her, and she had hurried over on the corridor too quickly she forgot to get dressed. Blushing a bit, she left quickly without responding for her room.

Meanwhile, Roland, Anna, and Nightingale headed out to the meeting room where they would wait for the rest of the representatives of Neverwinter and its allies.

*****

"Your majesty, about what happened last night and the voices in our head this morning... It can't be that all of us have gone crazy and started hearing voices, you do have some ideas about what this truly means, right?" While Barov knew that he wasn't young anymore, he also didn't feel like he became old so fast that he starting hearing voices in his head. "Your majesty, please tell me I haven't gone crazy!"

Feeling the old minister like a girl who needed a hug running directly for me, I felt a bit creeped out from his appearance. While I feel sorry for the old man, it just feels strange to see him coming at me crying like a little girl.

Holding my hands out and grabbing him by the shoulders, I shake him a little bit and explain to him, "You are not alone, everyone else has heard the voices as well. Calm down and take a seat. When everyone is present, we will talk things thoroughly and plan out for the future."

Hearing Roland that the rest has heard those voices as well he relaxes a bit, while he thought he may have lied to him just then, thinking about it a bit more, there really is no need to lie to him about this. Roland needs a competent man in charge of Neverwinter, he wouldn't let him keep his position if he really had lost it.

Seeing the old minister walk over to an empty chair and sit down, he grabs his glass of water and drinks it, hoping to calm his nerves down a bit.

While the people present were conversing with each other about last night, the last people Roland was waiting just came.

In the meeting room, Roland, and Anna were sitting at the head of the table, while Nightingale was currently hidden in the mist behind him. Tilly and Wendy were on either side of him, with the rest taken by Scroll and Camilla, followed by Edith, Karl van Bate, Sirius Daly and Kyle Sichi. The last to come was Petrov which had to come from the Longsong Stronghold.

Additionally, in the meeting room was also Phyllis and Iron Axe present as well.

He would have invited Thunder as well, but he was currently on the seas exploring so he could just put that thought down and worry about him later, meanwhile his biggest concern was that Lightning, Maggie, and Lorgar were still scouting outside his territory the previous night, and they hadn't returned yet. He just hopes that the little girls were sleeping at that time, and not flying when they probably lost consciousness.

"I suppose everyone can guess about the reason for this meeting today."

Edith is the first to speak out, "The voices, right?"

Looking around at all the people present it is easy to understand that everyone has heard them as well. "That is true. While I don't know what may have provoked such a thing, everyone can now request to see a Status screen if they ask it in their mind, right? Currently, I would like to know more about this and the Skills option as well, and the part about how we can influence and change them. Later, we should seek out answers from the other people if they have heard it as well."

This time it is Petrov Hull who speaks out, "Your majesty, for this matter, I have seen people discussing since early morning and even inquiring in the city hall of Longsong Stronghold about it. While I was coming to the castle, I was able to see many civilians on the streets in front of the city hall here, so it is quite likely that everyone is affected." A claim which was met with nods by Karl van Bate and the others.

"Then let's talk about them a bit more in detail. While the first voice stated a new era was starting, it is quite likely that it was referring to this 'system' that everyone has and can use. Now what I am more interested is about the Energy and Exp attributes. Mana is as you can guess the power which enables the witches to use their abilities, and having 0/0 for you, I suppose it is normal. We will have to check the method for raising Energy and Exp and see what benefits it may bring to us, or our enemies."

"Your Majesty, you mean... the demons?"

"Yes. It is quite likely. That voice said that almost all living beings benefited form this 'upgrade' and the user could use Energy to strengthen himself or herself while using Exp by absorbing it from killing lifeforms who are being controlled by wild Mana, it never said that it was only limited to humans. The only thing I am glad about is that it doesn't allow the same species killing each other to gain Exp, which at least saves us from bandits and mass killing between ourselves."

"That is true," replies Edith from the side.

"As you said previously, the fact that you have Skills available but no Mana, it is possible that with the increase in Energy it may give some Skills to that person. The system will probably give us hints later or help us progress further."

"You seem... quite familiar, with this 'system'."

"Ahh... well I may have seen something similar in the Dream World, so it isn't a completely foreign thing to me," well, what can I say, it really seems like being in a game world. But how did this change come? Did that voice start everything? If so, how did he do it, was it the same person or thing that made me cross over to this world?

...

I guess there really is someone up there watching us, huh. Now it is a race against time. We need to figure things out quickly, otherwise, if the demons or the sea demons are faster and come back to attack us stronger than before, who knows if our weapons will still work then...