It was in the middle of a forest, covered by the lightless veil of the night, when a small encampment could be seen, comprising several small tents and a bigger royal tent.
A few meters away from the encampment, a small group of men wearing medieval costumes could be seen encircling Alister, who was dressed in a modern school uniform that made him remarkably distinct.
"Welcome to our world, hero."
The old wizard greeted Alister with a calm, knowing smile after he had finished casting the spell on him.
Alister simply stood and stared at the wizard for an unknown amount of time, his puzzled expression reflecting his inner turmoil as his mind attempted to process what had just occurred.
'Magic exists in this world? Who would've thought that I would have the opportunity to experience true spell casting once in my miserable life.'
Alister was naturally thrilled — as someone from a world where magic was regarded as nothing more than mere wishes, experiencing it was entirely unexplainable. He even began to imagine himself casting spells, wondering how incredibly cool it would be.
"Do you understand what I am saying?"
The wizard asked kindly, noting that Alister had not yet responded to his greeting.
"Yeah, I understand."
Alister replied casually with a composed expression on his face. But then, he suddenly realized something, and his face froze — he was able to speak and understand their language!
Just a few minutes ago, he had been unable to comprehend a single word uttered by the soldiers as they spoke in undecipherable languages that he had never heard in his life. Yet, shockingly, not only did he understand what the wizard said, but he was also able to respond in their language, moreover, his reply flowed so fluidly that it felt as though he had been speaking it since childhood!
'Just how???'
Noticing the visible confusion on Alister's face, the old wizard smiled softly and then explained the spell he had just cast upon him.
"The spell I cast on you is called Glossa Arcanum. With this spell in effect, for as long as you remain in our world, you will be able to understand and speak every language with ease."
Once the wizard finished explaining, Alister nodded his head casually in understanding, maintaining his nonchalant appearance.
The soldiers around him stopped discussing after realizing that he could now understand everything they said. They simply stared at him, the wizard, and the king, waiting for their next lines of action.
The king, who had been standing silently behind the old wizard, finally smiled and stepped closer to both of them.
He stretched out his hand with a welcoming smile on his face.
Alister stared at the outstretched hand for a few seconds before accepting the handshake.
"My name is King Julian Muzez, the seventh King of Muzez Kingdom. It is with great honor and pleasure that I welcome you to our world, great hero, the one who would end the misery consuming our world."
'Great hero? The one who would end the misery of the world?'
Alister was pretty taken aback by his title and the weight of the task resting on his shoulders, but he kept his cool and responded calmly.
"It is my pleasure too."
King Julian smiled brightly.
"You might still be confused about everything? The sudden arrival in our world and what I just said, when we get inside my tent, I would explain everything to you."
Alister nodded, he could not deny that he was confused — not only had he been sent into a new world where magic exists, but the system that sent him here now appeared to be unavailable.
Thankfully, he wasn't in a dire situation where the system would be his only means of survival, so he quietly accepted the king's invitation. Maybe after the king personally briefed him about the situation, the system would arrive.
The gathering scattered after the king's order.
Alister was able to see the encampment not too far away from where they were gathered, thanks to the illumination from the full moon solely hanging in the dark sky. He could tell which tent was the king's from the tent sizes alone.
Inside the royal tent, a big round glowing crystal orb hung in the ceiling, providing light and warmth. King Julian's tent was pretty spacious, there was a makeshift wooden bed at a corner and, at the middle, a set of makeshift wooden chairs surrounding a rugged wooden table.
King Julian and the wizard could be seen sitting opposite Alister, briefing him while he listened attentively with a calm expression on his face.
"It all began two years ago. Every week, one person vanished without a trace. At first, I paid little heed to the reports—they seemed insignificant compared to the chaos of war, so you can understand my indifference.
However, the number of missing persons soon climbed to three per week, and that immediately caught my attention. Back then, I even suspected that the culprit might be the kingdom with whom we had just ended a war. I dispatched my elite spy masters to investigate, yet my suspicions proved unfounded.
Then, about two months later, the disappearances surged to five per week—a devastating blow. My people began living in fear, and every day my palace was crowded with voices demanding that I act to stop the kidnappings. And act I did.
I enlisted the services of the True Light Wizards. With their help, we dug deeper into the mystery and eventually uncovered the grim truth: an evil cult of dark wizards was behind the abductions.
Sadly, even after we learned who was orchestrating the chaos, we found ourselves powerless to intervene.
We bolstered security and called on more wizards to probe the case, yet despite our combined efforts, nothing turned out well.
Worse still, those scoundrels grew more audacious. They roamed bustling public spaces in broad daylight, ruthlessly slaying anyone who attempted to stop them, and then disappearing with even more victims.
Even with the wizards on our side, capturing them seemed impossible.
And then it happened — those bastards attacked my palace in broad daylight, slaughtered my guards, and abducted my only son!"
King Julian gritted his teeth furiously and clenched his fist.
"With the hard work of the True Light Wizards, we were able to find their hideout — The Grim Island, an infamous landmark known around the world for how cursed and dangerous it is. No one has ever entered and exited that place.
But we had no choice, if we didn't act, those evil people would continue reducing our population till there was no one left.
So we set out three days ago.."
King Julian's narration was pretty lengthy for Alister, who wasn't used to such extended conversations. But he bore with it, for he needed to gather as much information as he could from the king in order to complete his mission.
King Julian talked about how they had completed three days of the journey and how disastrously it had ended. Many of the soldiers were killed, reducing the population of his army to a few dozens from the original hundred he brought along.
He also spoke about how they could not turn back and needed to complete the journey.
He spoke about how they had lost hope.
How everyone almost gave up.
"At that point, we needed a light in our dark path, we needed a hero to turn our impending doom into a miraculous victory and that is when the sacred hero summoning spell came in.
The hero summoning spell is a sacred and complex spell among the wizards. One mistake in its activation would open the gate of hell and success would summon a being capable of bringing our victory."
The expression on the king's face turned serious, and he spoke in an even more emotional tone.
"Please help us conquer the dark island!"
As though his final words served as an activation.
The familiar beep sound resounded in Alister's head, and several holographic windows popped up.
[ Summarizing mission — Completed ]
[ Loading rewards — Completed ]
[ WELCOME TO YOUR FIRST MISSION ]
[ REVEALING DETAILS ]