[2] The Laws of Prowess

1 (Shana's Perspective)

When I first thought of the term 'Hero', I did not think of the library as a first step in the journey. Yet, here we were.

It was just after the afternoon and almost night, yet Merlin stood before us with a book titled 'The Laws of Prowess'.

"I'm going to teach you the basic contents of this book, I would teach you more but the Dark Forces are ever approaching," He spoke as his beard quivered, "Some things will have to be left for when you enter the academy."

Dark forces? That sounds so. . .interesting. It was a bit, um, odd for my taste, but interesting nonetheless.

I couldn't say I wasn't nervous as he shook the book before us. I looked to my left and saw Alice sitting without a change of expression.

"However, first, you two must learn to unsummon your weapons," He said, pointing out the fact that we still held the swords, "Simply wish for them to disappear, please."

I clutched Gram in my hands, staring down at it as I did as I was told. In a moment, it disappear as if it had never existed in the first place.

Oooh. How neat. How heroic like. Wow.

Merlin smiled when he saw my amazement and I couldn't help but shift my eyes a bit as I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

"Now, first steps. Please wish for or say 'Sacred Text' as you do so."

I tilted my head.

"Sacred Text?"

[Name: Shana Fraught

Race: High Human

Gender: Female

Fate: Gram

Level: 1]

Oooh.

A slew of information poured into my mind.

But huh.

Umm.

I did not understand some things. . .

"Umm," I looked up, managing my words.

It wouldn't be funny if a hero was thought of as stupid but I couldn't help my curiosity, Okay?

"What does High Human mean...?" I asked the mage.

He stroked his long beard. Really befitting like that of Gandalf or Dumbledore. Mhmm mhmm, old man mages with long beards are always really, really, cool. Really fitting of the 'hero' setting if I do say so myself!

"Descended from a higher ranked world, your growth rate is also higher based on just how high the rank of your world was before you were summoned here."

Ah. That makes so much sense. Maybe? Probably? Either way, it certainly sounded fantasy-like. I nodded with understanding.

At that moment, Alice stopped staring so intensely into thin air and turned to Merlin. I imagined she had been looking over her Sacred Text as well? Hmm?

"What rank is this world and mine?" She asked.

Oh right that's an interesting question. Is Earth some superstar?

"Many world's share the same ranks, but yours is ranked twenty first while ours is ranked thirtieth...leading to a growth rate of about 9 times more than the inhabitants of this world."

"I see," She merely stated

Wow so cool. Alice really was the cool beauty type. Moe, even. She always had a slew of boys that would confess to her and she always turned them down no problem. Yet, no matter what, she maintained her popularity. That's the star of the baseball team for you.

Yeah yeah I have to try and be like her more. I have to ask my own interesting question, hmm.

"Huh what about the weapons?" I asked.

"You mean the Holy Relics? It's said that once each hero's fate is unlocked, they summon a holy weapon linked to the very history and origin of their original world. As if a memory, it's usually a weapon they have somewhat heard of."

That would explain a thing or two, after all, who hadn't heard of Excalibur before?...though Gram is another story...I have zero to none of a Recollection of such a weapon. Yet it was the one I wielded.

I looked over at a calm Alice and envied her just a little bit. Excalibur was soo cool. Then again, it fitted someone as cool as her.

2 (Alice's Perspective)

It's the middle of the night and I'm up.

Shana is soundly asleep at the other side of the room and I'm cross-legged upon my bed as I feel my body.

Thankfully I have my full strength once more. The power I had amassed from 5 other worlds. If I were to return to earth, it would be sealed once more, but here. . .

I folded my hand into a fist and released, controlling my mana as golden lightning sparked and danced upon my palm before disappearing just as quickly.

Mhmm, good, I still have the ability to change the nature of my mana. It was one I had picked up from another world where mana could be molded to fit whatever element you wished. However, I was most proficient in Lightning.

A held up my index finger and poked out.

A slice of gold pushed into the wall and I drew it back, looking at the hole that had been cleanly made. It was shaped like a blade, as if a highly precise laser had cut into it. Which, it had.

This was a skill from another world, the ability to compress mana until it becomes deadly in its own right. That world was the best in terms of the applications of mana in its purest form. They had things from compression to strengthening to 'feeling'. They could even heal by working with mana at the cellular level and using it as an energy source for the body! Of course, I learned everything I could. More so out of necessity than will.

Though, thanks to that, I could probably forgo food and sleep through the use of mana alone.

Most worlds are quite similar in basic nature so there isn't always a whole lot to learn from one world to another.

Yet, anyone from any one world might not be able to learn the applications of another as they ran on fundamentally different laws and rules and mana. However, being someone from a higher ranked world than all 5, I was able to eat everything up, helped also by the mana I gained from 'Excalibur'.

In a sense, I lucked out in worlds and mana.

I hopped off the bed.

"A new world again huh," I muttered, staring at the silver moon outside of the open window.

Looking to my left, I saw that soundly sleeping face and couldn't help but smile. At least I wasn't alone this time.

At that moment, however, my eyes sharpened and my body moved on instinct as my hand shot out.

An arrow was easily caught in my grasp and I shattered it.

I looked forward.

A figure appeared at the other side of the courtyard, dressed in a full cloak of black and standing upon a roof, it released its bow and threw it aside.

When my eyes met with the assassin, its body shook once and the figure leaped off the roof, crossing over the courtyard of the castle as twin daggers twirled in their hand.

I laughed.

The person did not make it even halfway.

"Wha—what—."

I heard their final words just a few feet away from me.

A line of blood traced their figure and one became two as their torso and legs separated.

The man died.

He had not been able to even see my movement, much less react. A simple chop of my hand, a simple compression and extension of mana into a fine blade that sliced him into two—he saw nothing until the very end and died effortlessly.

I shook my head and watched as gold light danced into the air, sweeping the bisected remains of the man before he could even fall from the sky.

A second later and there was neither a body nor the stain of blood. Everything was 'devoured' and I felt my mana capacity increase ever so slightly. So slight that it made no difference to the bottomless ocean of mana within me. Like a drop of water.

'Mana Devouring' was a trait I had picked up from the third of the five worlds I visited prior. A trait acquired from a world where people killed each other for the smallest increase in power. In that world, a hero had to be the strongest and having a mana quality such as mine was beneficial.

You see, I was a person who ate everything from whatever world I was summoned to. I was a person who's natural mana and body took on the attributes of whatever world I resided in, adding to the already existing.

Returning back to my bed, I contemplated silently.

To think someone dared to try and assassinate me and Shana. That was interesting.

I would have very much liked to interrogate him.

Yet.

I had no idea he would die so easily.

I called up my Sacred Text again.

[Name: Alice Strong

Race: High Human

Gender: Female

Fate: Excalibur

Level: —]

The problem was. . .

"I'm too powerful for this world?"

We had spent the whole of the afternoon learning about the power system in this world. As Merlin had explained early on; people had levels. It was a measure of their battle power, skill with the weapon they held at the time, and mana. As they increase in might, their levels climb up in conjunction and there had yet to be a finite limit to that ascent.

Yet, my level appeared as null. Nothing. Not one or zero, but exactly nothing. There was not a display. I knew I was far from weak so my only conclusion was that this world could not gauge my power at all. Not one single bit.

Maybe I was not all powerful, but I was definitely outside its system of measurement.