Chapter 1

Class 1X, a class filled with elite students, each and every one of them was smart, talented, and physically adept. In total, this class only had eight students.

The most popular of these students was Kai, he was 6'0 with a lean yet muscular body. He had brown hair and brown eyes, with an attractive face that attracted a significant portion of the girls in the school. 

Two of the other male students in the class followed him around like a leader, these were Seb and Jasper. They were twins, both with blonde hair and blue eyes, but Sebastian was taller and more muscular at 6'1, and Jasper was slightly shorter at 5'11 with a slimmer build.

The only other person who contended with Kai's level of popularity was Freya, a 5'7 brunette girl with an athletic, yet curvy body. She excelled in sporting activities and was also the smartest in the class.

Much like how Kai had his two 'henchmen' in the twins, Freya had hers in the triplets. Luna, Aurora, and Isla were identical triplets, an incredible rarity, and all three of them seemed to have a one-track mind on following Freya. The three sisters were identical in every sense of the word, with greyish-white hair, blue eyes, and they each stood at 5'4. 

However, these seven were not the only ones in the class, it just so happened that the last member was not even close to as popular as the rest of the students within the confines of class 1X. With an incredibly muscular body, wider than anyone else in the school, and an impressive height of 6'7, Bear had managed to get into the class solely off of his physical ability alone. Bear had tanned skin, with buzzed brown hair and blue eyes. He had a large scar on his right eye that he had received from an attacker's knife when he was a young boy. This same attacker had murdered his parents in hopes of stealing anything valuable they had, only to find that they were empty-handed. 

Bear had lived a lonely life due to this, living alone for years. However, he did have one area of popularity. It wasn't with women, and it definitely wasn't with the other members of his class. Instead, he found great popularity by posting his physique online and making videos. This was also his main source of income, as surviving alone as an eighteen-year-old was not cheap, especially with how much he had to eat to maintain himself.

The class was taking a break, as they had just finished their lesson a few minutes before. There were three distinct groups who were talking amongst themselves, with Kai, Sebastian and Jasper on one side, and Freya, Luna, Aurora, and Isla on the other. In the middle of the two groups, sitting at the back of the room was Bear.

He wasn't talking to anybody, in fact, he was doing nothing. It was due to this lack of attention on anything that allowed him to notice something odd. On the floor, a faint white glow was emerging, he couldn't properly make out the shape due to its complexities, but a sort of runic language was definitely engraved in it. 

The strange shape became clearer and clearer and eventually began to glow at its maximum capacity, before flashing between bright and dark. At this point, everyone had noticed, but what they had also noticed was that they were unable to move. 

In a final flash of light, the students disappeared from the classroom. 

"Welcome Heroes, the eight of you have been summoned by the Goddess to save our world from the Demon King who is prophesied to return. As the King of the Holy Kingdom, I will support you in your endeavours to save our world. Each of you will have been assigned to the Hero Class that suits you best, if you will simply shout out your name and your class, which you can access by thinking of your status, then I will further explain what will be happening from now on and how to unlock the Boon of the Goddess."

Somewhat understanding the fantasy-like situation, and with no other choice than to speak, Kai took the lead, "My name is Kai, it says here that I am the Sword Hero."

The others soon followed individually, "I am Freya, the Healing Hero."

"Sebastian, the Spear Hero."

"Jasper, the Bow Hero."

"Luna, the Control Hero."

"Isla, the Summoning Hero."

"Aurora, the Offensive Magic Hero."

However, despite there being eight heroes, there was no response from Bear. 

"What are you waiting for, where is the Barrier Hero?" The King asked, sounding genuinely confused.

The seven Heroes looked around, yet nobody was able to find him.

"Well, it seems an error has been made with the summoning, we will have to make do. Each of you, follow me and we will familiarise you with this world before we start your training."

While the Heroes went off to be trained, Bear was even more confused than any of the others. 

'What the Hell is going on, what sort of sick joke is this.' Bear looked around and noticed that he was in a cave all alone. He could tell he wasn't in his body, mostly because of how low down he was on the ground. It felt strange to walk, as his body was forcing him to walk on four legs, but it felt natural and he let it happen.

He looked down at his body in the darkness, and despite his vision being shrouded he could tell that his body was not human.

He kept walking towards the exit of the cave and, in the sunny space outside, he could make out his body more clearly. White fur covered his body, and he had paws with sharp claws on each of them.

'No, don't tell me... That's such bullshit, I bet everyone else gets to be Heroes with cool statuses and stuff, and I'm stuck here as a bear all alone.'

Unbeknownst to anyone else, Bear was a huge fan of anime and manga alike and had dreamt of a situation such as this for a long time, but now that it was real he was stuck in a body that wasn't even his own.

After his mental rant, he noticed that something had popped up in front of him upon the thought of his status. It was a screen, just like the ones he had seen in mangas that he had read on Earth.

Name: Bear

Species: Juvenile Cave Bear [F+]

Class: Barrier Hero

Level: 1

Hero Skills: Barrier Creation

Species Skills: Claws, Bite, Roar

Learnt Skills:

Stats:

Vitality: 20

Strength: 20

Speed: 15

Defence: 25

Mana: 10

'Cave Bear, seems I was right. God damn it, well, at least I'm still a Hero, and barriers are probably pretty decent. I wonder what stupid God did this to me.' He thought to himself.

A screen appeared once more, which confused Bear as he had not willed for his status to open, but he read it nonetheless. 

[The Goddess Is Apologetic For Her Mishap. The Goddess Is Allowing You Access To Her Boon Early, Will You Accept?]

'Sure.' He thought to himself.

[Goddess' Boon Is Being Generated]

[Goddess' Boon Has Been Finalised]

[Goddess' Boon Has Been Received By Bear, The Barrier Hero]

The screens disappeared, and a small crack in space appeared in front of him. The crack got slightly wider, before something shot out of it in a blur, circling Bear.

"Well aren't you a strange Hero, never thought I would be serving a bear, albeit I was created a minute ago so I wasn't sure what to expect." Floating in front of Bear, there was a skull with blue lights behind its eye sockets. It had a comically large wizard hat on, but that was it. 

'What in God's name are you?' Bear thought, hoping that he could telepathically communicate, with no way to talk as a bear.

"The name's Griswald, I'll be helping you out from now on. Whether it be giving you quests of my own from the Goddess, or giving you reminders on quests from other people, and maybe even giving you some extra goodies for completing them, I can help guide you to becoming the best Hero possible. Here, I'll give you a little help straight away from the Goddess, as a little helping hand for her mistake. Try talking."

Bear understood more or less what the role of Griswald was, as he seemed like a helpful companion who would act as a quest system. Excited that he might be able to talk again, he didn't dwell on it too much, and attempted human speech, "Hello, wow, it works. This is awesome, at least I can reason with someone if I happen to come into contact with them."

"Glad you like it, but there's no time to slack off, the Demon King is set to revive soon, and you'll need to get strong enough to help take him down. if you ask nicely, I could even issue you your first quest, what do you say?" Griswald floated around a bit, clearly trying to show off.

"I thought you said there was no time to waste, are you going to give me a quest or not?" Bear asked, only now noticing that his voice was deeper and more scratchy than as a human. 

"Tch, you're no fun. Fine then, I'll stop messing around and give it to you."

A screen popped up in front of Bear's face.

[As A Young Cub It Will Be Hard To Survive. Find A Way To Safely Level Up And Reach Your Next Evolution As A Bear. Reward: Higher Grade Evolution]

"That sounds like something I can do. Best get going then."