Prologue
1)Prologue
Authors note:
Lake of Hero's| A lake created by Daz goddess of hope to show worthy hero's to help worlds in need.
Skills obtained:
|Loved By Mana|
Only gods are born with this ability, Allows you to absorb mana from the atmosphere passively and convert it into an increase in stats.
(Deep within the Dark Lands)
Demon King Xerxes
"Sous, have we received all of the goods and taxes for this month?," I said impatiently as I watched my assistant carefully from my Obsidian throne that was black as night. I displayed a poker face as i could not slip even if i was the strongest one in this world and had wrestled all the other Demon lords into submission that strength paled in comparison to my intellect. One could not have made all of humanity surrender and pay tribute in exchange for me not exterminating the rest of their measly race.
"It seems that Mollandia has paid their share, Heinhelm as well, it looks like the only one that isn't here was supposed to come from Xanlandia," reported Sous as he looked at a piece of parchment he held up to the torchlight.
"Hmm, send in a messenger to discuss what is this meaning behind this, they have 24hrs to come up with the goods and the taxes before we invade," I replied with no hesitation. They must be used as an example to discourage mutiny and rebellion from all the other races who were under my kingdom.
"Also sir it seems that there was a beam of white light reported coming down from the sky within Xanlandias walls," Sous said with a serious tone.
"So the humans have begged the gods to summon another hero to their death it seems," I said chuckling a bit interlocking my fingers like I do when I begin to hatch a plot.
"If seems they have dabbled in magic that I have forbidden. Send in a battalion of goblins to ransack the city and send this hero to his death," i said looking at my assistant.
(Somewhere in the realm of the gods)
Daz: Goddess of Hope
"Ive found him finally," I said looking up from the Lake of heroes where a bunch of humans appeared from a modern world that had latent potential that was sealed away in their home world but could be used to save another world. A world that could use a hero!
I moved to the summoning totem on the island and began drawing in magical chalk on the sandy dunes near the palm trees.
I immediately began the summoning spell around the chalk circle that served as a gateway between worlds. He could Change everything, his stats in his base were immense. He could save the S ranked World overrun by Demon lords that had killed every hero ever sent there. There were only 100,000 or so humans left out of 7 billion in a regular thriving world.
"Come forth my Hero," I whispered as a blinding white light shot down on the floating island and vanished to reveal a 5'10 and easily 150lb brown skinned young male with black curly locks and casual clothes. He was so scrawny and looked like no hero to me but his stats were immense. I should probably take a look at his skills with appraisal to get an idea of where he is.
|Appraisal|
As I said the incantation in my mind his stats & skills slowly appeared.
Xander Lv0
Skills:
Loved by Mana| This is a passive skill that converts the mana in the atmosphere into battle power, is a passive increase in all stats indefinitely when fully unleashed.
—————
Maximum stamina: 10/10
Maximum mana: 10/10
Never have I seen a skill like this before in my decade as a goddess. However as i looked, Xander's stats were still rising by about ten each even now. The realm of the gods was the most mana rich environment in existence. That's when I remembered only one hero ever having it and he died because his body couldn't take the constant influx of power! The skill must have been dormant in his modern world where there was no mana in the atmosphere.
I watched as he started to glow with a rainbow Outline hue as he gained more mass and cracked the ground around me.
(Outside of space and time)
Xander
As I opened my eyes suddenly I wasn't walking home from martial arts practice anymore. I was now in front of an odd glowing woman with a dress on. I looked around to see only clouds despite being on what looked like an island from the palm trees to the sand.
"Who are you and where am I," I asked curiously looking at her. She seemed to be scrutinizing me carefully before pouting. And then speaking finally.
"I am Daz, the goddess of Hope, Xander and I have summoned you here to save a world in need," she replied as she began pinching my arms and sizing me up. She then began filling me in on the state of the S ranked world.
"This sounds highly sucidal, what's in it for me?," I said pushing her off lightly.
"Also isn't there only supposed to be one Demon lord in fantasy worlds like this?," I asked with a serious tone while looking for the exit.
"You would be doing a good thing?," she said looking at me expectantly.
"Wrong answer, I'm no hero lady," I said laughing but then returning to a straight face.
"Fame, Fortune, Power," she said seductively while snapping her fingers and materializing a crystal ball that showed me sitting on a throne with beautiful women as servants with gold and jewls all around me in what looked like glowing armor.
"I don't know, did you say humans are nearly extinct there? Seems like a Veteran difficultly, got any recruit difficulty worlds in there?," I replied as Even though I was surely going to say yes as I loved anime, and manga like this. However I was holding out to see this goddesses hand.
"You have base stats that are immense, with a little more training the Demon Lords and their King would be nothing to you," she said energetically.
"If I'm going to do this I want some good starter gear at least," I remarked casually.
"That will be provided by the country you spawn in," replied Daz as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.
"Nah, that's basic. Can I have some god type gear?," I asked looking around to the nearby Lake and out beyond that to the other floating islands each connected by a rainbow bridge.
"What do you think this is, some fantasy novel?," she said laughing for a bit. She had a really pretty smile despite her somber serious attitude.
"Maybe," I replied sarcastically.
Suddenly a white light appeared and out stepped a buff man in a white toga with wing tipped helmet and sandals.
"Oh lord Wasni it is an honor to be in your presence," said Daz hurriedly.
"Ah yes Daz was it? Zandros left Your hero here a gift, said something about the sooner you give it to him the better," he said taking out some spectacles to use on a scroll he just materialized out of nowhere. They then disappeared and laying on the sandy dunes of the island near the lake appeared an black eyepatch with a gold infinity symbol on it.
"Your probably going to want to put that on immediately," Daz said in a panicked tone.
"Why?," I asked curiously picking up the note attached to the eyepatch.
__________________
Dear Hero,
It seems you were born with the god skill "Loved By Mana," and it is killing you. The universe has recently spat out the strongest demon lord to live in hundreds of years, and so we believe the universe gave you this power to balance it out. I recommend you only take this gift off if you have no other choice, and only in 10 second bursts. Any longer than that will kill you. It is designed to completely nullify your ability until lifted. This magic item seals your ability into 3 releases. The first release only fuels you with enough mana to replenish your stamina reserves infinitely and keep you fighting at your peak. The second release lets in enough mana to multiply your stats by two each and maintain it for 1 minute. The third release fuels you with enough mana for auto regeneration of all wounds and an increase in stats of 10x what the second release is for 30 seconds. Your last resort would be to remove the eyepatch....
Yours truly, Zandros
___________________
I needed no further instructions, I instantly put on the eyepatch to cover my right eye. My left side was my weaker side so this would be fine for now. I instantly felt myself weaken substantially and I went from 6'3 back to my usual 5'10 and lost muscle mass and my rainbow aura.
"Every other hero in fiction gets a cool starter weapon and I get an eyepatch and a nerf!," I said exasperated. The burning from the inside feeling I had felt did go away though.
"You are quite the amusing hero," Hermès replied back.
"Excuse him sir," said Daz worriedly.
"Good luck," sang Hermès as he vanished in a flash of white light. All that was left was scattered glass that got heated from the sandy beach when Hermès exited.
"Are you ready?," Daz asked as she snapped her fingers and materialized the door to a bank vault which went through a couple of clicks and latches before opening up to a beautiful city and an army of is that...goblins marching on it.
"That's some grade A security you got there," I said sarcastically.
"This place is close to a World break, when a world has taken 7 heroes then the demon lord can offer the seven corpses of the hero's to The Chaos God and unlock a skill that will let them navigate to other worlds," she replied sternly.
"Oh, how many have fallen so far?," I asked.
"You are the Seventh hero to try and save this world," she blurted looking down and not meeting my eyes...
In this world the ranks of power are as follows from weakest to strongest...
F Rank
E rank
D rank
C rank
B rank
A rank
S rank
X rank