PROLOGUE 01: An ability called Vrin

Growing up, I would hear a recurring plot in novels I would read. Some guy would be attending school when suddenly their entire classroom would be teleported to another world. The main character's power would appear to be weak, but they're secretly the strongest. Eventually, the main character would split up from their class and come back after discovering their power.

These cliche novels would be like a dream for a 12-year-old, and when I was that age I absolutely ate these stories up. So surprisingly to me, I was put in this exact situation 3 years later. The difference is, I am weak. No, I don't have any secret power or strength, I'm just straight-up weak.

May 23rd, 2017

My name is Calder Whitetree. I'm a 5 foot 9 male with black dyed hair. Today was supposed to be an ordinary day.

I woke up and got ready for school. I ate breakfast, took a shower, brushed my teeth, chose my clothes, and farewelled to my brothers, sister, and parents. I got to my class and sat down. My friends arrive at class and we all sit in a group.

"Are y'all ready for the science test last period?" Deion said. 

Deion has been my best friend since elementary school. 6 foot 3 with twist locs, he's always been the popular one in our group.

"Nah I'm too lazy to study, I was on the game all night," I say with a tired look on my face.

Alice sighs. "Well as for me, I did study. Calder, you might fail this class at this point. You'll end up a super senior! Super senior Calder." 

Alice is a beautiful girl with golden hair. She joined the group to try and hook up with Deion but that failed and now she's just our friend. She's the responsible one in our group who's always serious. 

I fold my hands. "Please help me study during lunch."

"You're too lazy, maybe you should learn the consequences of your actions."

"Don't worry, I'll help you study. Plus I need to review some material." Timothy said.

I've just met Timothy at the start of this year. He's very average and speaks almost robotic at times. Outside of him being on the soccer team, I don't know much more about him. 

"Thank you, at least you're a real one. What about you Deion, you coming?"

"Nah imma hang out with some other people."

Suddenly, a milk carton gets thrown in our direction. Luckily we quickly dodge it. I look around and I see Ryker, Jamar, and Hunter throwing different school supplies at each other.

"Hey, pass that milk carton to us." Ryker rushed his words whilst aggressively waving at me. 

Ryker is part of our football team. I take the milk carton and pass it back when out of nowhere, our teacher Mr Kingston screams at us.

"You four, go outside to the hall!"

"I have nothing to do with this," I say with a worried look on my face.

"I saw you throw that carton to Ryker, now get out NOW!"

After getting a lecture from the teacher, my day goes as usual. The school year is almost ending soon, so we are wrapping up our classes and preparing for our exams. I was starting to make plans for the summer.

"We are going to be outside EVERY SINGLE DAY, let's go to the park, the pool, and even an arcade."

"Nah, I'm not going. I have a trip to Europe with my family." Timothy says with an apologetic look.

"I also have summer school. Sorry." Alice says with the same facial expression.

Deion exhaled deeply. "It's gonna be like last year, we were just sitting and playing all day."

"The fuck, why is everyone busy. I should go find new friends." I angrily announced.

Suddenly, I remember seeing a bright white light flashing violently in my face. The next thing I knew, I was in a room with what looked like a medieval setting. It wasn't just me but my entire class.

I observed my surroundings and quickly realized that I was in a throne room, surrounded by guards wearing knight armor, and women with staffs. Looking up, I saw men and women gazing at us in suits and dresses, they undoubtedly fit the description of a medieval noble family.

On the throne was a man with a crown. Standing beside him was yet another man wearing a nice black suit as well as a woman with a beautiful yellow dress. I'm assuming this is the King and Queen of whatever kingdom I'm in. The man wearing the suit might be a servant of some kind.

"Welcome. Do not panic, you aren't in any danger here. I know you may be confused and have many questions, but they will all be answered in time." said the man sitting on the throne, which I'm assuming is the king. 

Mr Kingston walked forward. Being the oldest folk in our class and kind of in charge of our safety, he would be the first to step up and ask questions.

"Where are we? What did you do to us?"

My face was covered in sweat and my heart was beating fast after the adrenaline wore off. I was panicking and the same applied to our entire class. 

The king gazed at our teacher. "Well, we've summoned you using a spell to our world. There is a great danger coming to our world and kingdom, and we needed to summon you to help us."

"Why should we be entangled in your country's struggles? What obligation do I have to help your people? We aren't even from this world and how the hell do you expect a group of 15-year-olds to defend your kingdom, you don't seem to have a shortage of guards." Our teacher says while progressively changing his tone to a much louder, angrier one.

The king faces the man standing beside him. "Cassian, if you may explain to our guests our circumstances."

Cassian, the man wearing a black suit steps forward.

"Some thousands of years ago, a mysterious force suddenly granted each human a unique ability called a "Vrin". It is estimated that the population was over 100,000, so that's how many Vrins are present throughout our world history. Every human could use magic and had a unique Vrin. However, when one is born, they only receive the Vrin of their mother or father, not both. Due to this, many abilities were lost. As recent as 1000 years ago, there have been incidents when a newborn was not granted any Vrin. Whenever new summons are brought, they get a unique Vrin different from anything in history. We also have "Zyth". Zyth both amplifies your body and manifests or modifies objects. For example, you could manifest water or fire if your intelligence is high enough using Zyth. Each summon gets a unique Zyth rating, so everyone here can naturally use Zyth."

Our teacher's tone changes from anger to more underlying fear. "That still doesn't mean you could rip us out of our world. You're saying that we should send out CHILDREN to fight in a war with magic spells and abilities?!" 

"We didn't choose for you to be sent out here, specifically. You cannot return to your original world, because you're all dead. The summoning only works on humans who died."

That's a massive bombshell to drop on a bunch of high schoolers. It's been about 5 minutes since we've been casually lounging in our classroom, as normal as a day could get, to discover that supernatural magic is real and we've been conscripted to a war.

What I'm most confused about is how often this summon spell could be cast and if there are other people from our world here. Also, despite it being a medieval setting, how could they speak modern English? Or even speak English at all.

"Now everyone, quiet down." The king waits until the room goes silent. "We will send out a mage to gauge your abilities one by one including your Vrin."

One of the mages steps forward and places her hand on a classmate's chest.

"Strength, good. Speed, great. Intelligence, average. Perception, average. Endurance: Great. Luck, average. Vrin: You can teleport to any area within 6 meters as long as it's not blocked by an obstacle." The mage says in a flat, emotionless tone. 

I think it should be straightforward on what these different terms mean. Strength is how strong you are, Speed is how fast you are, intelligence is how smart you are, perception is your ability to locate, distinguish, and maintain visual connection between targets, endurance means how much damage you can take, or how long you could fight. Finally, luck is... Luck?

One by one, the mages slowly evaluate all of our classmate's abilities. 

Timothy has insane perception, with his skill being able to concentrate on a single target even when they're moving at crazy speeds. Alice can summon a blue flame that only extinguishes when she commands it to or if she dies. Deion could control plant roots and command them at will. All of our classmates got stronger. Now it's finally my turn.

"Strength, horrible. Speed, below average. Intelligence, average. Perception, below average. Endurance, horrible. Luck, unscalable."

A wave of confusion and fear rushes to my face. "The fuck? By unscalable, you mean it's really high or-" 

"Dumbass, clearly by your stats you can tell it's so low that I couldn't determine it," she explains in a mix of laughter and anger.

"What about my Vrin? Will I at least be somewhat powerful?"

"Your Vrin is... You can detect whether someone is happy or not. Yeah, I'm not even gonna lie this is complete shit."

I look around and see everyone smirking, some can't even hold their laughter. My face is in complete horror.

The mage's face switches to a confused look. "Your Vrin doesn't even make sense. At this point, you're no different from an average human." 

"Doesn't intelligence correspond to how well you can wield magic? It's my highest stat, couldn't I be a mage?"

The mage's face lights up. "You're right! As in that, it's your highest skill, but it's only AVERAGE. To be a mage, you must have decent intelligence to even wield the most basic of spells, and excellent to wield higher level spells. You couldn't even create a drop of water. Now stop wasting my time and go back to your classmates!"

It was a slow walk back, I didn't even look at my classmates fearing how much it would hurt my confidence, the little that I still have. I didn't need to look to understand everyone was judging me, and talking about my shit Vrin.

"Ryker, you're up next." the mage calls out.

As Ryker is walking by he says in a loud voice.

"Out of literally any Vrin you could've gotten, all you could do is check if someone's feelings are hurt."

Suddenly the entire room burst into laughter. This wasn't in any way a funny joke, or even a joke itself, but everyone had been trying to hold in their laughter out of respect. The second a classmate showed disrespect towards me, that gave validation and confirmation that everyone feels the same way about me. They think I'm a joke.

I continue walking, wishing I could just run away and forget about this entire thing. But I knew that I couldn't survive out there on my own.

My entire life, I was spoon-fed. I was born into a somewhat high-class family. I already had my life carved out for me. Even though I don't show the characteristics of a generic spoiled kid, I lacked many basic skills. I couldn't cook or clean my clothes and I was incredibly lazy.

Ryker has been given his evaluation. All stats were excellent except intelligence, which was below average, and luck which was average. Clearly, they got his luck wrongly evaluated. His Vrin was speed. Right now he couldn't control it at all, but eventually, he could probably move faster than a modern plane.

The king stands up. "With that, I will order my servants to show you to your new homes. Additional information will be given tomorrow and training will be started in 2 days. Farewell."

My life in this medieval world started. I was pathetic, but I heard you could grow with training. Maybe eventually I could reach the strength of my peers or even surpass them. My confidence was in the drain, but the thought of growing one's strength is the small flame that still keeps it up.