Ch:72 – The summoning – Part 1 -ch41

"Please, bless us, skill summon," the Saintess knelt, whispering as a octagram inside a magical circle shines. Her tremendous aura shook the space. The surrounding priests and knights stood sturdy on their predesigned positions. Few got sick from her overwhelming power.

Once the sudden burst of light faded, she raised her head. "So many?"

"Why are there this many?" The pope Klaus added confused, as the number of summoned was never higher than 3. Or so was written in the church old records.

"What an ordeal it will be if Aria brought this many," he whispered loud enough for the green haired-woman to hear.

"I am the Saintess of this world," her hands grabbed each other into a praying motion. "I welcome thee, oh brave humans who shall save our Lumen kingdom from imminent danger."

A black-haired with dark brown eyes boy spoke, "yo, so you're the Saintess? I have a message for you from the goddess Aria."

"Please, let us hear it."

"The goddess apologizes for not sending you some sort of celestial messages whatever that is." He grinned. "But in compensation, she used that power to summon a lot more helpers."

She breathed deeply in relief, finally understanding why she couldn't connect to Aria for these past three decades. "Understood. Grace us with your introductions otherworldly heroes."

"From the overall idea while I was talking with the goddess, we were summoned from different worlds." He looked around at them. "She told us that we'd keep 20 years of our memories through some summoned title."

"We couldn't be more blessed." The saintess smiled gently.

"These 19, are my colleagues from university." The group was divided into two groups: one made of 20 and the other 10.

"University?" She wondered about the term.

He rushed to clarify. "An advanced school of sorts."

"Thank you for explaining." She smiled once more causing him to turn a bit red.

"Ah and these 10," he pointed at the smaller group. "They are people that the goddess picked from other worlds. Specifically, humans, who contributed greatly in some way, to save their own worlds."

"That's fantastic!"

"Lastly, my name is Ken, I'm the class representative of this group."

"For now, we'll want all of you to place your hand in this stone book over here. I believe the goddess Aria explained the procedure."

A pink-haired young woman with pink starry eyes spoke from the smaller group. "Yes, that goddess was really beautiful with her black long hair and golden eyes. Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Sophie." 

"It's a pleasure to meet you all, I'm pope Klaus, and I'd like each of you to come put your hands in these stone books. They will give you the initial idea of your information and aptitudes."

One by one, their names, ages, elements, and classes started to appear inside the white book. It had a divine appearance to it. Shining ever so bright whenever a hand was placed on top. There was even a golden glow falling from the sky whenever someone a bit more special was verified.

"Seems like we got our hero, Ken," a priest said with a smile making the pope rub his hands excited.

Upon hearing the name, Ken stepped forward, "I was the chosen for the hero role? Really?" He questioned feeling an immense bliss from that, thanking the goddess in his mind.

"Yes. Like many past generations, a hero is usually one with your appearance."

"Because I look like the goddess?"

"That is so."

"How cool," he looked at his colleagues who didn't seem that excited about it. Perhaps, even a bit jealous.

"As a hero, you get to choose which faction you get to join. Though we advise the church, as it has been the home for most of the past heroes."

"I'll go to the faction that is willing to host the 19 members behind me," he said while pointing backward over his shoulder without looking behind, ending up appearing kind of cool.

"We can house that many," the pope said without hesitation as he wanted the hero no matter what.

"I can tell you really want me the hero to be part of the church. If that's so then you better treat them good, in exchange I'll be sure to do a great job," he said with an arrogant tone, possessing the knowledge of computer and console games.

"We'll do our best to make you all happy," Klaus added with a faint smile.

A priest stepped forward, holding the book in his hands. "Sir hero, you've been blessed with the unique light element, and the blessed skill holy smite, capable of inflicting great damage to a single enemy. It has no impact against humans, animals, or objects though. In exchange, it will deal critical damage to demons and monsters." 

Ken gasped for some air, his mouth visibly wide open. "That sounds like an amazing skill. From the conversation we had with the goddess I expected less, but this is the best start."

The priest upon checking, passed two more pages, adding, "there seems to be another hero, your eminence."

"Another one?" He asked confused as not many received the blessed hero class, and two at the same time had never happened before.

"Apparently, it's the one called Sophie."

"What other factions are there?" Sophie who felt her group ignored hastily asked, wanting to pick someone other than this ridiculous pope.

However, with a kind smile he replied, in an attempt to mask his greed.

"There exists the royal family faction and the 8 rose-colored noble families, who each represent their own power with their extensive territories in the kingdom."

"They sound pretty amazing too, but I'll stick to this pope," Ken added as the goddess told him the Saintess had incredible powers without specifying which ones.

"Very well, priests take them to their rooms and start teaching them about this world once they feel ready."

A group of priests started leading the university students out.

"I'd like the royal family," Sophie stated then she looked behind and asked, "how about you 8, whom I don't know?"

They looked at each other thinking and ended up going along with her.

The priest, approached them, stopping in front of them.

"Do allow us to register you at least."

"Of course," the young lad next to Sophie approached him, winking at her.

"Your eminence." The priest turned to the pope, grabbing his attention along with the Saintess' one. "This person has a blessed class called sage. However, such is unknown. It is not even listed in our records."

"A Sage?" The pope questioned confused as he never heard of such a class. It was quite the dilemma, for blessed classes were truly important in this world. They were the highest rank possible for any human to achieve. 

Romeo stepped side to side to Sophie and spoke," I'm Romeo and that's what people used to call me. There it was more like a honorific title due to possessing a lot of knowledge."

Upon hearing that Sophie nodded in agreement, adding her own opinion. "Thanks to the versatility of this... class. He was able to come up with new spells."

"A power to create..." the Saintess added in a lowly tone. There was no happiness in her face. It sounded heretic like some of the banned disgraced classes and skills she unfortunately knew and even had a past with. Yet, this time around, it had come from the goddess herself, so she couldn't do anything about it, but to accept, despite despising the idea.

"Sir sage, the skill the goddess has provided you, is called blessed blueprint. Sadly, we do not have any information regarding it, so we cannot help you."

"That is fine. I'll figure out a way to make use of it, to aid humanity."

"Thank you," the mere priest added, valuing such power, knowing that it would be useful as it was provided by the great Aria.

"Check the other eight, so we can move onto the next phase."

The priest nodded at the Sage's words. It seemed he was in a bit of a rush.

"Sophia. I don't feel the familiar."

At those words, her smile widened. "The curse has finally killed her."

"Yes, at last." He added, a single drop of sweat running down his forehead.

Sophie turned her face away from the Saintess, unable to hold her wicked laugher. "That explains why the god of light sent us to aid his sister, Aria."

"Yes. Our oath with him is finished." His sharp gaze looked at the white ceiling. "Though a new ordeal, a much harder one starts today." 

"Back then humans were the biggest race."

He sighed. "Even then, we barely won. And now, we're the smallest."

Across the room, the Saintess laughed happily in her mind, amused for the mistake of Klaus. "Gentlemen, kindly follow me. I'll guide the 10 of you to the royal family, to the castle close by."

As soon as they left Klaus, the pope, shouted in frustration. 

"Damn it. I should've treated them better." His elderly hands with blue veins popping stretched. "Wait. It's not that big of a loss. We own the hero and 19 other talents."

He grinned, "the summoned grow faster than normal humans and have a better affinity to mana. I'll focus our resources on them as our army has grown big enough for now."

The average soul tier of a summoned, was around 4 to 6.

A hero usually between 8 to 10.

Iris had a soul tier of 3.