When she came to her senses, the first thing that she noticed was how blindingly light everything was. The bottom of the river had been cold and dark, so the sudden change was even more distinct. The second thing she noticed, was the sound of the others also waking up around her. The shuffling of clothes, the groaning, and the questions.
"Where are we?"
"Are we dead?"
"Is this heaven?"
Fair questions, Lyra mused, as she too started to get up to her feet. She surprised herself, by how easy it was. Usually, she would need help sitting up, and needed to lean on something to rise to stand. But right now... she just... stood up. Just like that. But she did not have time to waste marveling over such relatively trivial matters. She looked around, and discovered she and her classmates were all within a grand hall of sorts. White marble floors, and large columns that rose tall, eventually becoming translucent as they and the walls of this hall faded into a crystal clear blue sky above. This should not be possible, but she could also not deny what she was seeing.
She gasped and covered her mouth, and instinctively she and the others moved a bit closer to each other. Safety in numbers. And that is when a voice seemed to echo through this ethereal hall.
"Do not be alarmed, my children."
Lyra looked around, searching for the source of this voice, but she could not find it. She did not have to wait long however, for moments later, there was a bright flash of light within the hall, and from the light emerged an ethereal being with four white-feathered wings. She was a tall, beautiful woman with slightly tanned skin, wearing an elegant white robe. Long flowing blonde hair fell neatly past her shoulders, and despite her imposing size and, well, the wings, she gave off an aura that seemed to immediately put everyone at ease. When next she spoke, her words seemed to echo not just through the hall, but within the hearts of the students as well.
"I am Goddess Hylia, the one in charge of governing Reincarnation and Transmigration. You find yourself here in my company because you are recently deceased souls slated for transmigration into a new world."
Her words sparked a few hushed conversations amongst the students, but Lyra remained quiet, thinking deeply. Transmigration? Would she really be able to start anew in another world? Unlike the rest of her class, she held no real ties to her old world, or her old self. But.. everything depended on what kind of transmigration this was. One of her classmates stepped up, raising his voice. Charlie, ever the bold and forward.
"So we are dead, then? There is no way for us to go back?"
The Goddes Hylia smiled and inclined her head, before speaking:
"That is correct, child. Your souls have already left the cycle, and your bodies are deceased. The only path forward was either to go to the afterlife, or to rejoin the cycle of another world. And as fate would have it, your souls are being called upon to join another cycle."
"What does that mean? Our souls are being called upon?" Charlie retorted, curious.
"It means, you are being summoned to another world. Within the world to which you are now being summoned, there exists magic to summon beings from other worlds. One such magic is now summoning you all to that world." The Goddess responded politely.
There was a moment of silence, before another classmate, Jennifer, took the chance to ask questions.
"What can you tell us about the place and world we are going to?"
"The world itself does not have a name, at least not one meant for mortals. However, you are going to the center continent, called Atlas. On the continent of Atlas exists many different kingdoms and factions. There are about twelve human kingdoms, for example. Now I say "About" because the number changes quite often, as kingdoms are conquered, vassalized and splinter and fraction occasionally." The Goddess responded. She then continued:
"Now, there are more than just humans on the continent of Atlas. There are four tribes of dwarves, and three elven nation hidden deep within the great forests. There are also a multitude of demi-human races, like the Wolf-kin, Cat-kin, Bear-kin, but also Mermaids, Centaurs, Orcs and Goblins. Beyond humanoids like these, there are also various creatures you might consider monsters, like Dragons, Ogres, Trolls, Undead, Dryads, Fae-creatures, and many many more."
"How exactly do you expect us to survive against all of that? We'll just die! We are just human!" Jennifer expressed loudly, clearly taken aback by this new revelation. This only incurred a chuckle from the Goddess, who waved with her hand dismissively, before she spoke again.
"You are being summoned as Heroes to the Holy Kingdom of Demuria. In this world, every being has stats and levels. From the lowest of mice to the mightiest of Dragons, everything has its own status window. Every creature starts at level 1, and then work their way up to level 100, which is the max level. The rules and benefits for leveling up varies a bit depending on race, however as heroes, you will grow faster and become stronger than most. Working together, you could even take down a dragon."
Finally, this caught Lyra's attention. This was the nitty-gritty thing she needed to know. Having read far too much manga, she wanted to be clear on the rules. And so, she did something she has seldom done in her whole life. She raised her voice, and asked a question.
"How do you gain experience to level up? By how much does the experience needed to level up increase each level? What are the stats like, and what do they affect?"
The rest of the class seemed surprised not only by the fact that Lyra had just spoken, but also with how detailed and specific a question this had been. A few others in the group nodded approvingly, seeing the value to her question, while most just looked surprised in general. The Goddess seemed thoughtful for a moment, likely choosing how to respond. Then, her words rung out once more.
"You gain experience by killing creatures, but also from completing quests and missions, or from crafting and creating items. The experience necessary to level up increases by about two hundred percent each new level. So from 1 to 2 may take 100 exp, and from 2 to 3 may be 200 exp, and 3 to 4 would then be 400 exp, and so forth. But this is generalizing. It will be easier to level up in the beginning, and harder towards the end. Each new level up, you are given 5 points to allocate on your status window. The stats you can place points into are:"
Stamina: 1 Stamina increases your Health Points by 10.
Strength: 1 Strength increases your Attack Power by 10.
Agility: 1 Agility increases your chance to dodge by 0.2 % and increases your attack Power by 5.
Spirit: 1 Spirit increases your Health and Mana regeneration by 0.5 % in combat and 1.5% out of combat.
Intellect: 1 Intellect increases your Mana Points by 10 and your spell power by 5.
"Beyond these obvious effects, the stats also have some hidden effects that are not outright stated, like Higher Spirit being more helpful to classes like Priest or Saint who use Faith-based magics, or Stamina increasing how far you can sprint, or Agility playing a part in stealth-based mechanics. But these are things you will have to figure out on your own." The Goddess said with an almost playful smirk. She then added:
"I should also add that it is very rare for a human to ever reach level 100. A human has perhaps 40-50 years maximum where they can be leveling actively, and for most that is simply not enough time to reach level 100. The same rule applies to most creatures. The longer its lifespan, the more likely they are to be able to reach level 100. But the races with longer lifespans also have a far slower rate of reproduction, meaning their numbers are generally far lower, and thus balance in the world is maintained."
"You being heroes, however, enjoy certain perks to make your adaptation to the new world easier. Let me showyou."
She waved with her hand, and a window with some text appeared in front of everyone. The window read:
"Summoned Hero:A being summoned from another world via the Highest Tier Holy Summoning Magic. Requires half the ordinary amount of exp to level up. Gains twice the attribute points from leveling up. Instantly learns the languages of all races and nations friendly to the summoner."
"Whoa, isn't that extremely Overpowered?" one of the classmates, named Andrew, said out loud, as they all checked out the description.
"A little bit. But that is not even all of it. Before I send you all on your way, you will each get to pick a class, a skill, and gain 20 free attribute points. That means you will start as level 1 but with stats similar to a level 5, and with an extremely strong skill to boot!" The Goddess remarked, clasping her hands together excitedly.
This just opened up the flood gate, and all at once, everyone began swarming the Goddess, picking their classes and browsing skills. The Goddess explained that every humanoid creature was born with an innate skill, and these came in differing rarity based on how useful they were, often ranked from E (Very common) to A (Very rare) and then S and SS for skills that were generally immeasurable.
Monsters could also have skills, but they were extremely limited, and depended entirely on the race and environment which had spawned the monster, whereas the skills of the Humanoids offered far more variety and randomness. And while monsters can evolve once they reach a certain level threshold, that was not the case for humanoids. Instead, they had professions and classes, known as jobs. Once they reached a certain level, the "Job" could evolve and give the humanoid access to new spells and abilities.
The example the Goddess gave was a comparison between a simple Monster Lizard and a Human Mage.
A "Monster-Lizard" may evolve into a "Striking Lizard" after it gets a killing blow on 100 creatures and reaches level 30. The recently evolved "Striking Lizard" is now back at level 1 but keeps all its current stats. If it wishes to evolve again, it will have to fulfill a new set of conditions. For example, if the "Striking Lizard" reaches level 50 and has a habitat in a swamp, it will evolve into a "Swamp Fiend". If it reaches level 50 and has a habitat in a volcano, it will evolve into a "Pyrosaurous". If it killed 10,000 creatures before reaching level 50, it can evolve into a "Death Lizard". If a "Death Lizard" consumes Dragon Meat and gets to level 90, it can then evolve into a Black Drake, which is the stage before becoming a Black Dragon.
As you can tell, the more possible evolutions a creature has, the stronger its end-point. But getting to evolve to begin with is difficult, which is why higher-evolution creatures are very rare, but also very dangerous. A fully grown Dragon for example has likely gone through at least 6 evolutions, and thus had their level reset to 1 at least 6 times while retaining their stats, meaning a level 100 dragon is far stronger than any level 100 humanoid.
On the humanoid side, however, there are no evolutions and stat carry-overs. Instead, a human will pick a job, or profession. And that job can upgrade and evolve. An apprentice mage, will become a full mage at level 20, unlocking more powerful spells. If you have cast 1000 fire spells and reach level 40, you have the option to become a Pyromancer. On the other hand, if you have cast 1000 Arcane spells, you can become a Wizard. A Pyromancer may later become a "Mage of the Inferno" capable of casting spells like "Meteor Storm" or "Flamestrike", while a Wizard may become an "Archmage" who can cast spells like "Polymorph", "Invisibility" and "Mass Teleport".
Even to this day, there are still unknowns. And not everything is shared. The elves for example has long protected the requirements necessary for how those who pick the job "Gardener" may become a "Druid", while the dwarves know a few "Blacksmith" job-promotions that allows a blacksmith to work with Mithril, which they naturally do not share with anyone outside the dwarven clans. The Holy Kingdom of Demuria, to where the class is being summoned, appears to be the only ones who know how to promote a "Battle-Saint" to a "Holy Summoner", which is the job required to summon heroes from another world.
With all of this explained, the young students before the Goddess quickly got to work, picking their starter jobs and skills, as well as assigning their points. Another perk of being hero were a few unique jobs only heroes could pick at level 1. Other, ordinary people would have to work hard to level up and meeting the requirements, but not the summoned heroes. However, these jobs were finite and so it was first come, first serve, and as such, Lyra had no shot at getting her hands on any of those. Here are a few examples of her classmates new status windows:
Name: Charlie Jacobsson
Level: 1
Race: Human (Otherworlder)
Age: 17
Job: Hero (Deals double dmg against anyone you consider an enemy, so long as you believe you are doing good)
Skill: Flash Strike (SS) (Instantly teleport to the enemy and strike them for 3x your Attack Power)
HP: 120
MP: 80
AP: 145
SP: 40
Stamina: 12
Strength: 12
Agility: 5
Spirit: 8
Intellect: 8
Name: Jennifer Nordqvist
Level: 1
Race: Human (Otherworlder)
Age: 17
Job: Saintess (Capable of the strongest holy-tier spells, like Resurrection and Area-Heal)
Skill: Condemn (SS) (Deals instant Holy-dmg to the enemy based on your Spellpower x 1/5 of your spirit)
HP: 100
MP: 120
AP: 75
SP: 60
Stamina: 10
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Spirit: 13
Intellect: 12
Name: Tomas Kirk
Level: 1
Race: Human (Otherworlder)
Age: 17
Job: Warrior (Can specialize further into more defense heavy or dmg heavy jobs down the line)
Skill: Spirit Link (S) (Link yourself and your vitality to a friendly target. 75% of any dmg they receive you will receive in their stead, with a 50% dmg reduction.)
HP: 150
MP: 50
AP: 125
SP: 25
Stamina: 15
Strength: 10
Agility: 5
Spirit: 5
Intellect: 5
Looking at all of this, Lyra could assume any ordinary level 1 human would be born with about 5 points in each stats, yielding an HP and MP of 50 each. Also, the jobs and skills available to the summoned heroes were insanely OP. Charlie, the lucky one who got the job "Hero", can just outright do double the dmg to anyone he considers an enemy. That's just cheating!
Not to mention, a normal human would get +5 points each level up, while the heroes would get +10. While the other classmates were picking their jobs and skills, Lyra was doing math in her head. She was thinking, what if Charlie got to level 100, what might his stats look like? He'd have 10 x 100 points to distribute, so 1000 points.
Name: Charlie Jacobsson
Level: 100
Race: Human (Otherworlder)
Age: 17
Job: Hero (Deals 10x dmg against anyone you consider an enemy, so long as you believe you are doing good)
Skill: Flash Strike (SS) (Instantly teleport to the enemy and strike them for 3x your Attack Power)
HP: 120 +2500
MP: 80 +2000
AP: 120 + 2500 + 500
SP: 40 +1000
Stamina: 12 (+250)
Strength: 12 (+250)
Agility: 5 (+100)
Spirit: 8 (+200)
Intellect: 8 (+200)
So a max-level hero would, if they spread their points out somewhat evenly, sit at around 2500 HP, 2000 MP, 3000 AP and 1000 SP. It can then be deduced a normal, non-hero human at level 100 would be half that. But it is said to be extremely rare for a normal human to be able to reach level 100. So the elite of the elite in human terms would likely sit with stats hoovering around a thousand, or so Lyra mused.
By the time she was done with her calculations, everyone else had already picked their jobs and skills. She felt the eyes of the Goddess bore into her, expectantly. However... Lyra had no real desire to be a hero. What she wanted, was freedom. Free from obligations. So it was time to take a gamble...