Welp, At Least I’m Not The Only Trash

[Soul Mirror (Personal Status)

Name: Quarth

Race: Human (Type 6)

Creed: Innate Botanist

Branching Transcendence: Innate (Alchemy, Wood Magic, Earth Magic, Plant Magic, Time Magic)

Parameters:

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Magic: 100%

Agility: F-

Constitution: F-

Dexterity: F-

Strength: F-

Vitality: F-

Aura: F-

Magic Potency: F-

Magic Reserves: F-

Spirit: F-

Willpower: F-

Titles:

Name: Omnilingualist

Effect: You are able to understand, speak, and write in any language.

Languages Integrated: Creole, English, Mandarin-Chinese, Spanish, Welsh, Yyverian

Obtainment Method: Innate to Type 6 "Otherworldly/Summoned" Humans.

Name: Botany Incarnate

Effect: With regards to plants, any Skill you can imagine can be realized.

Skills Created: Null

Obtainment Method: Innate to those with the Creed of the Innate Botanist.

Name: Otherworldly Hero

Effect: Establishes a complex karmic connection between you and the fate of the world you were summoned to.

Obtainment Method: Die, then get revived in another world through a complicated summoning-revival process.]

"How unfortunate," the wizard released my group from whatever spell he had been using to force us to comply with his request as he said. "Emperor Yyor, we have two duds," the wizard said.

I could tell he was talking about Alex and I, yet it didn't really make much sense to me. I couldn't speak for Alex and his Creed, but mine looked like it was ridiculously overpowered. Sure, [Innate Botanist] didn't sound as grand or awe-inspiring as many of the other Creeds, but the Title it gave me: Botany Incarnate…

Surely, that had to count for something, right?

Surely, they wouldn't just discard us or worse…

"Indeed, it is regrettable to have two Primary Class Heroes. However," the king… er, emperor's frown shifted into a smile as he stopped looking at Alex and me, and addressed the others, "these five will more than make up for our losses."

"According to the principle of Class Hierarchy, Tavarius as a Quaternary Class Summoned Hero is worth ten Tertiary Class Heroes alone. He is henceforth awarded the rights to his own home among the courtyards of the royal estate and access to the guidance of all the Phenom-type Magic Practitioners currently available.

"Tertiary Heroes Emma, Octavia, and Arnold are to be escorted to the rearguard of the Western Yyvel Army and stationed with the Hero James Cinnabar, Archer Quintesse, and General Curt respectively.

"As for our sole Secondary Hero, Hongyue..." The Emperor paused in thought for a second before his grin took on a menacing tint and he said, "I want a team to guide her to the Sword King of Junivia."

As several people around us started giving the woman wincing looks of pity and muttered whispers, the emperor addressed her directly, "Since you both have the same kind of— How should I put it? Temperament… I have high hopes that you'll be able to endure his kind of training."

"As for our two Primary Class Heroes..." The Emperor turned from Hongyue to glance once at Alex and me.

The simple act of him looking at me made me wish for death.

His hard gaze softened as he casually voiced his thoughts, "You two both have Creeds that are inherently suited for Support or Auxiliary purposes." Looking at Alex, he said, "Yours lets you cultivate food and livestock, while yours—" he looked at me, "—lets you control and study plants."

I mean, if you reduced Botany Incarnate and [Innate Botanist] to their lowest levels and used the inference of a man not of a magical world, then yeah. I guess you could say that he was right. But, that's literally the most uncreative way to use my abilities that I could think of.

"Hmm..." With closed eyes, he deliberated for a moment, before suddenly his eyes snapped open and he said, "Well, since we can't just kill you and reroll the dice for better Heroes, you two can pay me back for reviving you by dedicating the rest of your lives to supplying my empire with your skills."

He looked like he was going to say something else, but stopped as he gave me a strange look.

"Quarth," He got my attention. "Are you… Amused?" The emperor asked me, his own expression taking on the signs of amusement.

I realized I was smiling like a madman. It seemed the habit to do so in the face of cripplingly bad situations had followed from my previous life.

"No… Your majesty, I just have a question," I said, trying my best to not get myself killed by offending the emperor in his domain.

"What is it?" He humored me.

"Alex and I," I paused as the edges of my mouth twitched upwards, against my desire to stop smiling. "You're saying, we'll be your slaves, correct?"

"For all intents and purposes, yes. However, as the two of you are Otherworldly Heroes, you can not be bound by conventional enslaving methods. You two may be just harmless trash with your Creeds, but you command at least a modicum of respect. So, you will be conferred a piece of land in the countryside to start you on your mission."

Despite being called trash to my face, I couldn't help the smile that refused to leave my face.

I wasn't going to die. Alex and I would probably be subjected to much more discrimination than just having the emperor call us names, but we would come out of this bullshit situation alive.

...

A few hours passed as the Emperor and his advisors got around to sending us Summoned Heroes on our way, before Alex and I were taken to a horse-drawn carriage and sent on a week-long voyage to our new home.

"Hey, Alex," I called out to my fellow slave comrade only after the empire's capital was out of sight.

"Yes, Quarth?"

"Your Titles, what are they?"

"If you mean from the Soul Mirror, they are: Determined, Spiritualizer, and Otherworldly Hero," he said without much emotion. I couldn't blame him for his lack of enthusiasm seeing as we were being taken away to slave away for the rest of our lives.

"Determined? Oh! Right, there are also different types of humans; or rather, humans that come from different worlds. As a "Type 6" Human, I have Omnilinguist which allows me to understand, read, and write in any language… Wait, how were you able to talk to the others back at the emperor's mansion?"

"That was probably due to the magic circles we were standing on, or some other magic from the Council of Summoners. Right around the time we started getting moved around, everyone but you stopped speaking English, which is the only language I can understand," Alex said.

"Well… Look on the bright side. Now that we're going to be slaves, I doubt we'll have many opportunities to socialize." At the sight of Alex cringing, I added, "Anyway, what do your unique Titles do? I already told you about Omnilinguist, the other one I have is Botany Incarnate which basically lets me make any plant-related Skills I can think of."

"The description in my soul mirror for Determined says that if certain conditions that I don't know are met, I can modulate my Willpower Stat to extreme levels. Spiritualizer is supposed to have a more consistent simple effect of letting me amplify the properties of anything I touch," he added.

"Simple effect, huh?" I snorted as it sounded to me that he too had an overpowered ability.

"Sorry… I can't imagine your Creed-given Skill being any of use to you seeing as we're going to be slaves now. Unless you can make plants haul around things and perform manual labor," Alex flashed me a look of pity.

I flashed one right back at him and thought, 'God, he's dumb. Or maybe just unimaginative.'