After they decided to participate in the war, Hajime and the rest must learn the arts of battle. Regardless of how much hidden potential they possessed, they were originally regular high school students from the peaceful Japan. It would be impossible to fight Magic Beasts and Demons all of a sudden.

However, this kind of situation was within expectation, Ishtar said Hajime and the rest would receive a drill at 【Hairihi Kingdom】 ⌈¹⌋ located at the foot of this 【Sacred Mountain】. The kingdom had a very close relationship with the Saint’s Church. According to rumor, the founder of this country, Sharm Byrne, was the descendant of the God of Creation, Ehit, the only god they worshiped. The country was backed by the Church, so their strong relationship was understandable.

In order to descend the mountain and go to Hairihi Kingdom, Hajime and the rest left from the main gate of the Saint’s Church. The Saint’s Church seems to be located at the summit of the 【Sacred Mountain】. In short, after they passed through the majestic church gates, the sea of clouds stretched as far as the eyes could see. They did not feel any difficulty in breathing that was often associated with high altitude. As a result, they also didn’t notice that they were on a high mountain until a moment ago. Perhaps they had already adjusted the living environment with magic. The brilliant reflection of the sun, the glorious sea of clouds, and the clear blue sky, in the face of these magnificent scene, Hajime and the rest were bewitched.

Ishtar who carried himself with pride urged them to proceed. Eventually a white circular pedestal surrounded by fences came into their view. Passing through the beautiful corridor that was made of the same material as seen in the cathedral, they were being urged like this until they got onto the pedestal.

There was a huge magic circle carved on the pedestal. On the other side of the fence was a sea of clouds, so the majority of the students gathered in the center while looking around timidly. Ishtar seemed to be chanting something.

「The path of guidance, opens for the faithful. ‘Heavenly Path’」

At the same time, the magic circle under their foot began to glint with a resplendent light. After that, the pedestal started to move like a cable car, it moved diagonally towards the ground. Clearly, the ‘chant’ just now activated the magic circle that was engraved on the pedestal. This was precisely a pedestal-shaped cable car. In a sense, seeing ‘magic’ for the first time made the students excited. They also caused an uproar when the pedestal entered the sea of clouds.

Not long later, they passed through the sea of clouds and could finally see the ground. Underneath them was a big town, no, what they saw was a nation. The building that was standing on the hillside seemed to be a huge castle and radially spreading downwards was the castle town. This was the Hairihi Kingdom’s capital city. The tower and imperial palace were connected by a corridor in the sky, it seemed like the pedestal will keep going until it reach the tower.

Hajime laughed at the sarcastic and superb performance they were putting on. The ‘Apostle of God’ descended from the heavens by passing through the sea of clouds, it was precisely that kind of image. From the look of it, the church’s believer will view anyone like them who had a relationship with the church as divine existences, it wasn’t without reason.

Hajime couldn’t help but think of the pre-war Japan; During the time when religion and politics were closely tied together. As well as how this kind of thing would bring about all sorts of tragedy later on. All in all, a supernatural power that could influence another world truly existed in this world, and as the name implied, this world was centered around the “Will of God”.

The possibility of them returning home, and the fate of this world was all in the hands of god. While overlooking the capital city that gradually became clearer, Hajime suppressed the uneasiness he felt in his heart. In any case, he will do anything he can do. Hajime clenched his fist, and held his breath, then he took a step down from the pedestal.

～～～～～～～～～

After arriving at the Imperial Palace, Hajime and the rest were guided to the throne room on a straight path. They walked through a corridor with decorations not inferior to the church. Along the way, they had a brief encounter with people who dressed up like knights, or government officials, they also passed by some maids, but all of them looked over here with the same admiring or respecting expression. It must be because they already had a certain degree of understanding regarding the identity of Hajime and the rest.

Hajime felt uncomfortable, so he sneakily walked behind the back of the group.

Finally, they arrived in front of a huge and beautiful double door with exquisite craftsmanship. On both sides of the door, two soldiers stood at attention. They loudly declared the arrival of Ishtar and the Hero’s party. Without even waiting for a reply, they opened the door.

Ishtar just leisurely entered like it was the most natural thing to do. Apart from Kouki and a few others, most of the students passed through the door while trembling with fear.

After entering the doorway, there was a red carpet that extended all the way to the luxurious throne. A middle aged man with dignified and domineering aura stood in front of the throne and waited for them. The woman beside him was believed to be the queen. Next to her was a 10 year old youngster with blonde hair and blue eyes. Another 14 to 15 year old beautiful young lady was next to him. After that, there were approximately thirty people lined up on both sides of the red carpet. On the left side were people adorned with military armor. On the right side were people who looked like government officials.

Ishtar made Hajime’s group stop in front of the throne, while he himself proceeded next to the King. After that, the King respectfully received the hand that was extended, and lightly kissed it. Apparently, the Pope had a higher position here. At this moment, Hajime was convinced; The whole country was centered around the ‘God’. He sighed inwardly at that.

After that, it was the self-introduction. The King’s name was Eric S. B. Hairihi, the Queen was probably ⌈²⌋ called Luaria. The blond haired youngster was Prince Randell, and the princess was called Liliana. ⌈³⌋ After that, the prime minister, knight commander, and other people with high status also introduced themselves. The youngster’s gaze seemed to be drawn towards Kaori. Apparently, Kaori’s charm was also effective in another world.

After this, they were called together for an evening meal, and were able to enjoy this world’s cuisine. The outer appearance seemed like that of the Earth’s Western-style food. They would occasionally be served food with pink dressing and drinks that radiated with seven colors, it was very delicious.

Prince Randell kept finding an opportunity to speak with Kaori, the boys in the class looked at this situation anxiously. As for Hajime, he couldn’t help but possess a very small expectation that they would point the spearhead at His Highness ⌈⁴⌋, though, it might be out of question for a 10-year-old boy……

In the imperial palace, they would be provided with shelter, food, and clothing, they were also introduced to the military instructors. The instructors were handpicked from the Knights, and Imperial Court Mages. This would allow them to develop friendships for the forthcoming war.

They were disbanded after the evening meal, each person was led to their own room. Hajime was not the only one amazed by the bed that had a canopy over it. Staying in such a luxurious room, Hajime was unable to calm down. It had been such a tiring day, he felt as if his entire body was melting. After he leapt onto the bed like a fish, his consciousness slowly drifted off.

～～～～～～～～～

The next day; Training and lectures started immediately.

First, each of the students were given a 12 cm x 7 cm silver plate. The students looked at the plates curiously. Knight Commander Meld Loggins personally started to explain.

He once thought, “Would we be training together with the Knight Commander” kind of thing. From the look of things, entrusting the “Hero’s Party” to some half-baked instructor was out of question, or so it seems. Commander Meld just laughed heartily, he was saved since he could push all the responsibility to the Vice Commander! So it should be fine. However, it was impossible for Vice Commander-san to be fine with it……

“Alright, did everyone get one? These plates are called the Status Plates. As the name implies, these plates will show your status in numerical value. It is the most reliable identity card. As long as you have this, it doesn’t matter even if you become a lost child. Any questions regarding the aforementioned?”

Meld spoke in a very carefree manner. He had an unconstrained and big-hearted nature, “We will be comrade-in-arms from now on, what’s the point of using honorific! Just talk with the other knights as you normally would.” And so they were given a word of advice like this.

It was better for Hajime and the rest if the atmosphere was more relaxed, being addressed politely by an elder would only make them feel uncomfortable.

“There is a magic circle carved on one side of the plate. Use a needle to pierce your finger, and drip a drop of your blood there. Then the owner of that plate will be registered. Once the word “Display Status” shows up, you will be able to view your own status. Ahh, you want to hear the theory? I don’t know that kind of thing. This is some kind of divine artifact from the age of God. ”

“Divine Artifact?”

Hearing an unfamiliar word such as the divine artifact, Kouki raised a question.

“Divine artifacts are powerful tools that cannot be recreated with modern means. Legend says they were created by the God and his kin during the age of God. The status plate is the only divine artifacts that can be reproduced, it is the only divine artifact that has been spread worldwide since the ancient times. In normal circumstances, a divine artifact would be treated as a national treasure, but this one was also distributed to the generally public. Because it is such a convenient identity card.”

So that is the case, the students nodded in understanding and frowned as they pierced their fingers with the needle. Then they smeared their blood on the magic circle. As a result, the magic circle flickered with a faint radiance for a split second. Hajime did the same and smeared his blood on the plate. When he looked at the surface, as a result……

The stats were displayed. Looking at his own status, he felt as if he had become a character in a game. The other students were also unable to take their eyes off the Status Plates. Commander Meld continued to explain about the Status Plate.

“Did everyone see it? May I start the explanation now? First, let us go over the “level”, shall we? The level will increase when your other stats increased. The max level for a human is 100. In other words, you can think of level as a way to judge a person’s potential. Level 100, that signify one has reached the pinnacle of mankind’s full potential. No such person really exist though.” ⌈⁵⌋

It seems like the stats does not increase after leveling up like in the games. ⌈⁶⌋

“Training everyday will naturally increase your stats, the use of magic and magic tools can also make the stats increase. In addition, the other stats of those with high magic power will naturally be above average too. Although we don’t know the whole detail, it is believed that magic power would subconsciously improve the body’s performance. One last thing, you all can look forward to the equipment you will be using in the future. After all, the national treasury will open its door for the heroes who are going to save the nation!”

From what Commander Meld had said, their stats can increase by many folds without having to fight Magic Beasts. Nevertheless, they still need to steadily polish their skills.

“Next, shall we go over the “Class”? Simply put, that is your “talent”, it is interlinked with the “skills” displayed at the bottom of your Status Plate. Within the domain of the classes, the skills can exhibit unparallelled talent. It is very rare for people to possess a class.

The classes can be divided into two category: combatant and noncombatant. A combatant only shows up in one out of thousand people with classes. In some circumstances, there might only be one out of ten thousand. Noncombatant only shows up in one out of hundred people. Out of those noncombatant, there might be one out of ten with a rare class. Most of the noncombatant are production staff.”

Hajime took a look at his stats, and indeed, “Synergist” was written in the Class column. Apparently, his talent seemed to be “Transmutation”. Well, according to what they heard from Ishtar, Hajime and the rest came from a higher ranked world, so their specs should be much higher than the people of Tortus. This kind of situation should only be natural. While thinking like this, Hajime couldn’t help but lift the corners of his mouth. If people were to say he has a talent, of course he will be very happy. However, after hearing Commander Meld’s following words, his joyful feeling was blown away, the annoying sweats started to break out.

“After that is… everyone’s stats is as you have seen. Normally the stats are around 10 when you are at level 1. Well, you guys should have several times higher than that! So enviable! Ah, please report the contents on your status plate to me. This is so we can develop a training regimen that fits each of you.”

In this world, the average stats of a level 1 is around 10. Hajime’s stats is a beautiful series of 10s. He wiped off the annoying sweat and was in a totally confused state.

(Ehh~? No matter how you look at it, the values are so average…… aren’t they so beautifully average? Aren’t I supposed to be a cheat? I’m n-n-n-not? ……Other than me, is everyone the same? As expected, it probably has no significant meaning in the beginning……)

Clinging to that hope, Hajime timidly looked at his surrounding. Everyone’s face was gleaming with radiance, none of them were breaking out in cold sweat like Hajime.

After Commander Meld stopped talking, Kouki was the first to step forward to report his status. His status was……

He was practically the incarnation of cheat.

“Hou~ Truly worthy of Hero-sama. Level 1 already has three digits value…… I’m a little shocked. Even the skills are not the common two or three…… this guy is out of the norm! Seems very reliable!”

“No way~ Ahaha……”

After receiving the commander’s words of praise, Kouki scratches his head bashfully. By the way, the commander was level 62. His average stats was around 300, and his strength was considered top-notch in this world. However, Kouki was only level 1 and already had close to one-third of his stats. With this growth rate, surpassing him with ease was only a matter of time.

By the way, the skills seemed to be an innate talent, there was no means to improve them. The only exception was “Derivation Skill.” This was the outcome from polishing one’s skill for many years, this was the skill one could acquire after “stepping over” the so-called wall. In simple terms, it was a skill that you never had before, but one day, you suddenly grasped the essence of the skill and improved your proficiency.

In the eye of the others, Kouki was special, not only did he has a cheat-like stats, for some reason this guy also had a combatant class…… Hajime gazed at the “Synergist” written in the status column, even after racking his brain, he couldn’t associate it with a combatant class. He only had two skills, and moreover, one of them was the default “language comprehension” skill. In other words, he only had one skill in reality. Hajime gradually revealed a dry smile. According to the sequence, it was finally his turn to reveal the Status Plate to Commander Meld.

Until now, Commander Meld was smiling ear to ear from seeing all those out of norm stats. He was happy to have received so many super powerful comrade-in-arms. “Eh?” The commander’s smiling expression froze as he groaned. Meanwhile, he muttered, “Did I see wrongly?” and tapped the Status Plate a few times. Following that, he held it up to the light, and after staring at it for a while, he returned the plate to Hajime with a very subtle expression.

“Ah… um… How to say this, you see… this Synergist is a crafting profession. It’s very convenient for forging ironware……”

Commander Meld was tongue-tied when describing the class to Hajime. The boys who viewed Hajime as a thorn in their side would certainly jump at this opportunity to make fun of him. The crafting profession was clearly a non-combatant class. All his classmates had combat classes, the possibility of Hajime being useless in the future battles was very high.

While grinning, Hiyama Daisuke screamed out.

“Hey hey, Nagumo. Could it be, you got a non-combatant class? How can a crafting profession fight? Meld-san, is this class rare?”

“…… No, one person would have this class out of every 10 blacksmith. All the craftsmen employed by the country had this class.”

“Hey hey, Nagumo~ How are you going to fight like this?”

Hiyama threw his arm around Hajime’s shoulder, it felt very irritating. If you look around at the students, the boys in particular were laughing at his misfortune.

“Sa~a, How would I know if I don’t give it a try.”

“Oh my! Let us see your stats then. Even if the class is trash, you still have great stats, right~?”

Hajime could already guess the result was not very reassuring from Meld’s expression just now, but Hiyama still wanted to hear it no matter what, he really had a rotten personality. His three lackeys also joined the fray. They were the kind of lowlifes that would curry the favor of the strong and bully the weak. In fact, Kaori, Shizuku, and many others exposed an unhappy expression at this kind of behavior.

(He’s clearly in love with Kaori, why didn’t he notice anything?)

While thinking that kind of thing, Hajime casually handed the Status Plate to him.

After looking at the content of Hajime’s Status Plate, Hiyama bursted out in laughter. Following that, Saito and the others also jeered at Hajime after seeing the content of the Status Plate that was passed to them.

“Puhahahahahahaha~ What is this! This is completely the standard of an ordinary person!”

“Kyahahahahahahaha~ more precisely speaking, his average stats is 10, he might be even weaker than a children in this region~”

Hih~hihihihi~ No way! This guy will immediately die! Maybe he can be a bit useful as meat shield!”

Kaori angrily approached the students that were mocking Hajime. However, before she got there, someone else let out a voice filled with anger. It was Aiko-sensei.

“Kora-! What are you guys laughing at? Laughing at your fellow classmate is something teacher will never allow! En, teacher will absolutely not allow it! Quickly return Nagumo-kun’s Status Plate!”

Aiko-sensei tried to express her anger as well as she could with her tiny body. Perhaps they were overpowered by this hardly complacent aura, they returned the Status Plate to Hajime unwillingly.

Aiko-sensei turned around to face Hajime and tried to cheer him up by patting his shoulders.

“Nagumo-kun, don’t mind it at all. Teacher is also a non-combatant. (Her voice wavered for a moment) Just like my class, my stats are also average. So Nagumo-kun, you don’t need to worry about being the only one in this kind of situation!”

While saying “Look!”, Aiko-sensei showed Hajime her Status Plate.

Hajime looked at the distant with dead-fish eyes.

“Ehh~? What’s the matter? Nagumo-kun!” Aiko-sensei asked as she exerted her strength to shake Hajime. Indeed, her overall stats was on the low side, and it was obvious at a glance that her class was noncombatant, but…… her Magic Power was already comparable to the Hero. She also had quite a number of skills. Food supply is a big problem in wars. Unlike Hajime, she possessed an extremely outstanding class as replacement. In other words, Aiko-sensei was good enough to be considered a cheat.

Hajime who was a little expectant that he was not the only one, received a much deeper wound.

“Ara Ara, Ai-chan delivered the final blow……”

“Na-Nagumo-kun! Are you okay?”

Seeing Hajime’s reaction, Shizuku smiled bitterly. Kaori ran in front of him and asked anxiously. “Ehh~?” Aiko-sensei just tilted her head in confusion, but the students just used a warm gaze to look at the clueless her.

Anyway, her goal to stop the bullying had been achieved, but this kind of concern also caused his confidence to drop to rock bottom. It seemed like Hajime’s future prospect was not that bright, his face was painted with a dry smile.