I gaze at the gentleman in front of me. He has short dark black hair and stern green eyes, the same color as Veleda's. On his face is a 5 o'clock shadow covering his well-built jaw. His white shirt appears to constrict tightly around his chest and arms and is tucked into his pants. He's wearing what looks like brown cargo pants and a black belt, and he only has socks on.
He honestly looks like the mixture of a well-built construction worker and a dad, which makes sense given his status...
"Dad, this is Zero. He's a hero who just arrived in the Nexus... Today."
The man gives me a raised eyebrow and says, "A little late, don't you think?"
"Yes, I've been told" I swear, Emani said the exact same thing when he found me.
He inspects me up and down before introducing himself. "My name's Daryl. I run this orphanage here with my two daughters."
The first familiar name I come across, and it's this guy? Not that there is anything wrong with that, just... really?
"Nice to meet you, Daryl. You already heard, but my name is Zero. I guess that I will be in your care for the time being." I'm not sure how long I will be here. They may just send me off to find a place to sleep for the night.
Daryl just grunts in understanding and asks, "A little birdie told me that you two were yelling at each other. Care to explain?"
Both Veleda and I turn to look at each other simultaneously, and she shakes her head at me.
We both say "No, nothing happened." and "It was nothing" in tandem with each other, our voices mixing into one, while I proceed to forget which of the two I even said.
Daryl gives us both the stink eye but seems to accept our words as he says, "Okay then, carry on with what you were doing." before turning to leave.
But before Daryl was able to go, Veleda chimed in with, "Dad, I need the Healing Tome. I think that Zero is a priest, and he lost his ability."
Daryl keeps walking down the hallway to the right while saying, "Go grab it then. I'll see you two for dinner."
That probably confirms the idea that I'm gonna stay around for at least dinner. I have no clue what time it is, but I am getting a little hungry. While the food in the Exalted Kitchen was plentiful in number, I was a little too preoccupied to help myself to a proper meal. The only things I had eaten were what I would consider snacks, even if there was a whole stick of bread in the mix.
Veleda turns to me and says, "Zero, you stay here. I'm gonna go get that ability to see if it matches your class. I'll be right back." She then runs down the hallway to the left.
Once again, alone in the reception room, I sit back down on the sofa and lean back. I spy with my little eye a couple heads peeking around the corner of the right hallway, starring directly at me. Still, I continue to wait around while ignoring them for a bit before they eventually grow brave enough to come and face me.
Five children in total, three girls and two boys, appear from the hall. They walk up to me and surround the sofa I'm sitting on. Two of the girls move behind me; the boy who brought me to the orphanage, to begin with, sits on my left, the final girl sits to my right, and the more mature boy I had seen earlier stands in front of me.
The two standing behind me are the first to speak, asking me, "Hey, are you a hero?" and "What class are you?"
I turn around to look at them. The two girls appear to be twins, both with matching braided blonde hair. The one to my left has a blue dress while the one to my right is wearing pink. They both have blue eyes and look to either be eight or nine maybe.
"Yes, I think I'm a hero, and I don't know what class I am. That's what me and Veleda are trying to figure out."
"That's weird. The other heroes knew what classes they were right away." The pink-wearing twin spoke out.
"There are other heroes here in this orphanage?" I ask in surprise.
This time, it was the boy in front of me to answer, "Yeah, there are seven of them. None as old as you, though."
The boy in front of me has thick red hair and round glasses. I think he looks like the movie version of Harry Potter, but with red hair and no scar on his forehead. He appears to be ten through twelve years old, give or take. His body is decorated in a dark red shirt and brown shorts, with no socks or shoes.
"And you said that they already know their classes?" I ask the children around me.
A new voice speaks up, the boy to my left answers with, "Yup. Even Johnny already knows his class, and he's only four!" It's the other boy with dark brown hair, green eyes, and a blue gown.
"It's unfair because we only get to learn what our classes are when we turn ten." The twin in blue jumped in.
"Ten? Does that mean you already know what class you have?" I ask the boy in front of me.
He gives me a haughty smirk and exclaims, "I'm a paladin!"
"A paladin! Wow, that's wicked cool!" I respond in kind.
A paladin? Like one of those holy fantasy knights? Or maybe more like the realistic french kind? Probably the former, given the nature of everything I have experienced so far.
"What does the paladin do?" I ask the children around me, but more specifically, the red-headed paladin in front of me.
"The paladin can heal people with his ability and cause our friends to deal more damage." The boy in front responded.
"I want to be an astralmancer!" the boy to my left spoke up unprompted.
"And I want to be a druid and use a bow, like Seeda ." The twin in blue barged in, continuing on the new line of thought.
"Well, I want to be a shaman, just like Veleda." The twin in pink claimed to turn.
Well, since we are in the sudden habit of stating what we want to become in the future, I think it's only appropriate we listen to what our last guess wishes to become.
I look to the little girl to my right, who has been quiet this entire time. I ask her, "And what do you want to be?"
She doesn't respond but just keeps looking down at her feet. It's the boy to my left who responds with, "She wants to be a warrior, just like Princess Eristial."
Eristial, The Warrior Princess, an intriguing title indeed.
"So you want to become a warrior? How noble and brave of you. I think you would make for a wonderful warrior, miss..."
"Lilyin, but we just call her Lily. She's not usually this shy." The twin in blue answered for Lily and whispered the last bit rather loudly.
"Miss Lilyin." I complete the sentence.
Lilyin opts to just roll further into a fetal position and scootch closer to me, snuggling up to my side.
Lilyin has straight pitch-black hair and snow-white skin. I didn't get to see her eyes, but she's wearing a light gray dress with blue trims, and she appears to be either five or six.
---
A bit of time passed before Veleda returned with a book in her hand. In that time spent in between, I had learned the names of the other four children. Starting from the twins is Kathlee in pink and Kathree in blue. The boy in the blue gown is named Bittol, and the young paladin with red hair is named Olifiaer. A very... unique set of names. But hey, new world, new culture, I don't judge.
"Okay, let's... Up, up, up." Veleda came back into the room to find me and the kids playing a game I taught them called Chopsticks with our fingers.
"And that's my win," I say as I move my four fingers onto Olifiaer's one.
"Ahh! I lost again!" Olifiaer dramatically raises both arms into the air and falls onto his knees in mock defeat.
"Big brother Zero, how did you get so good?" Bittol asked me.
It's a simple game to teach and play that is more enjoyable with more people. I convinced each of the kids, except Lilyin, to play with me quite readily. Lilyin had declined, quoting, "..." and just watched us play, vehemently.
Kathlee and Kathree had spent the entire two games we played trying to help each other but somehow managed to instead eliminate each other both times. Olifiaer was a decent player, but Bittol was much more dangerous to play against with his ability to plan at least two more moves ahead than Olifiaer. While Bittol is a worthy opponent, he couldn't quite match up to my magnificent intelligence and my sheer skill. I had essentially optimized the excitement out of the game by memorizing different move sets back when my friends and I were still young.
"Practice." I simply respond to Bittol's question with a smile.
Each of the kids takes a stand like Veleda asked of them while still chatting away. Veleda walks closer to me and hands me the book she had grabbed. I seize the book, and I watch it appear in my ability slot. It reads...
[Healing Tome T0
Tome: Is Applicable
Party Effect: Within 2.5 sqrs Healing for 2 seconds
Party Heal: 40 HP within 2.5 sqrs
2.5% less effectiveness (12 HP minimum) per ally healed
MP Cost: 60
A holy tome of healing prayers.
Feed Power: 4]
Sqrs? I don't know what they are, are they squares? What a weird measurement, and these calculations, a whole lot of 2.5s, but all in all, this seems really useful, and I can use this whenever I want as long as I have 60 MP, that's perfect!
I open the book to see that the pages are blank, but it's not too long before I witness blue words start to appear on the pages. The text reads, "Bless thy prayers, holy powers above, and deliver thee from agony and suffrage."
"What do I with this?" I ask Valeda.
"Do you see any words on the page?" Valeda asks me.
"Yes," I respond.
Valeda gives me a look of surprise before exclaiming, "Read them!"
"Okay... Bless thy prayers, holy powers above, and deliver thee from agony and suffrage!" I yell out the words in epic fashion... or at least I hope I did.
I feel energy get sapped from my body, directed through my hands and towards the book. Then, I sense the energy rush back into me, feeling much different than before, and then with a sudden 'push,' I watch a field of glowing white orbs appear around us. Each ball quickly flies towards Veleda and the kids before absorbing into their bodies, followed by each of them shining in bright light for only a second and then dimming back to normal.
The energy I felt push into me is similar to what I experience whenever I drink a health potion, and I still feel a tingling sensation, even though I have max health. I look towards my character icon to see a red plus marker in a yellow plaque, but It doesn't last long and disappears from view.
"Well... It looks like I should call you Father Zero from now on... Or maybe reverend." Veleda laughs at her own joke.
"So that means I'm a priest?" Despite knowing the answer, I still ask.
"Yup, my hunch was correct. You are indeed a priest." She stops laughing and answers with a nod, sounding sure of herself.
I hear, "That's so cool!", "So you're a priest?" and "I want to be a priest now!" all at the same time coming from three of the kids.
Yeah, Yeah. I'm so great!
It's while I am praising myself in my own head that the door to the orphanage opens, and another girl walks in, carrying a giant woven basket. She looks to be my age, maybe younger.
She has wild dark hair that is tied up in a tail and green eyes. Her skin tone is a bit lighter than Valeda's, and she is a little bit taller; she is wearing a tight blue woolen shirt and a pair of black shorts with leather boots that stop right before her knees. Her choice of clothing catches my attention because it showcases her body a lot more than Veleda's, but I force myself to keep my eyes adrift to avoid starring.
"Oh, Seeda, welcome home. Why don't you take the kids outside and play with them? Here, let me grab that." Veleda runs up to the newcomer.
"What? But I just got here! Who's that?" Seeda looks at me and asks Veleda.
"No one, you'll meet him soon." Veleda grabs the basket from Seeda and whispers something in her ear.
I don't hear anything because Veleda is too quiet, but I watch Seeda's eyebrows move up and down all crazy-like for a bit as she listens to whatever it is that is being said.
Veleda stops whispering and turns back to me with the basket while Seeda addresses the children. "Let's go outside and play a game together."
Bittol is the only one who responded with, "But I want to stay inside with Big Brother Zero!" and everyone else nods or voices their agreement, except Lilyin, again, who has been off beside herself in her imagination while standing as close to me as humanly possible without touching.
"Now!" Seeda says sternly.
"Okay," "Fine," "Let's go, Lilyin." A couple of the responses that I hear while Kathree grabs Lilyin's hand to drag her along.
They all start exiting through the front door along with Seeda. Lilyin takes one final look at me before disappearing behind Seeda, who left last, and the door that swung closed.
"Seems like someone has a crush on you," Veleda tells me.
"You don't say," I respond sarcastically, and we both fall into a contemplative silence for a couple of seconds.
"Lilyin has always been fascinated with the tales of heroes, but she never exhibited this kind of behavior with any other heroes. Then again, the oldest here is only thirteen, besides you. Maybe she has something for older boys." Veleda explains with a smirk.
"Where are they all? My people, that is?" I question, trying to deflect onto a different topic. Plus, I'm still not sure if I have seen any other people from Earth yet. If I did, it would have had to be one of the people who appeared lost while I was walking with Emani.
"Most of them are out right now, but the two youngest should be in their rooms playing with some of the other kids. Do you mind helping me out here; I'll show you around the house." She holds out the woven basket for me to grab.
Designated pack mule... Got it. I remark to myself as I reach my arms around the basket. I instantly feel the weight of the basket as my arms drop a bit to carry it, and my back strains. It's heavy.
"Argh! What's in this!" I yell in annoyance.
"Food." Veleda causally answers. I hear a hint of slyness coming from her.
"Food! How did you carry this!" I take a couple steps further before I drop the basket to get some rest.
She doesn't respond and instead asks, "What level are you?"
Why does it matter? "I'm level two," I answer.
"Well, that explains it... come one, keep carrying. We have some distance to go. Here, I'll help you" Veleda walks up to me as I attempt to lift the basket once again.
She helps me raise the basket with ease, and we begin carrying it down the left hallway. "See, look how much easier it is if we work together."
"Yeah... I see... That." I am still doing most of the heavy lifting. I swear this thing has to be many pounds heavier than I am.
Is this her way of getting revenge on me for yelling at her? No, surely not, I thought we were far past that, and she started it anyway. "You just want to brag about how much better you natives are than us newbies."
"That's not my intention at all, plus, you're wrong. You guys have it a lot better than we do. It may not seem that way yet, but there is already something you could be doing to make our lives a lot easier." She is obviously trying to drop a hint, just what is it.
I begin to think about what I can do to make this easier. I look at my menu for a bit, and then it suddenly clicks. "You know what? Fuck you." I move the basket into my inventory.
The basket disappears from our hands and into my personalized space vault. "That's mean. I was only trying to help." She says in a clearly fake offended tone.
"You could have just told me from the get-go," I say what's on my mind.
She takes a breath and says, "But where's the fun in that, and you will learn better if you come to the conclusions yourself." She sounds just like every one of my school teachers.
I ignore her this time as we continue our walk down the hall. It doesn't take long before we reach an open archway that leads into a kitchen. I look around a bit before saying, "Sorry."
"What? I didn't hear you." Veleda looks towards me with visible confusion.
"It's nothing. Where should I place the basket?" I decided to ignore what I said previously and instead ask a question.
"Over there," Veleda points towards a nearby countertop.
I move towards the counter, and I take out the basket from my inventory. The basket plops onto the floor next to it. I open the lid to find an assortment of vegetables like carrots and broccoli. I put the top back onto the basket, and I move back towards Veleda.
She tells me, "Why don't you explore around the orphanage a little bit while I get to cooking. Just make sure you knock first before entering any rooms."
"Do you need any help at all? I know how to cook." That's a lie, and I know it. There are very few things I know how to actually make, but I still would not be helpless in the kitchen.
"No, I'm all good, thanks. You will know when dinner is ready. I'll see you then." She sounds like she's being serious, so I will take her word for it.
I walk out of the kitchen after taking one last look at Veleda. She has already started taking things out of the basket. Now standing in the hall with an L-shaped path, I'm once again at a crossroads in my life...
---
Now on the second floor of the orphanage, I knock on the wooden door in front of me. On the door is a yellow, childish sign spelling "Girls Room 2." I had already searched four dorm rooms up here, and this is the fifth I will have knocked on. The first three were "Boys Room 1-3," while the most recent I searched was "Girls Room 1." I did not get any answers from the rooms, so I just kinda entered without much thought. Luckily, I found each to be empty, save for the furniture.
I wait for a couple seconds before I hear the sound of shuffling coming from the other side of the door. Since doorknobs don't seem to exist, I see a hand show up in the hole for pulling doors open. The door opens up to reveal a young brunette, who can't be older than nine, with pigtails and a yellow dress. She points her brown irises towards my own before looking behind herself with a bewildered expression on her face.
She turns back towards me and tilts her head while asking, "Are you here to adopt us?" with a somewhat hopeful appearance.
"No. I'm sorry, I can't adopt you. Actually, I'm somewhat of a lost child myself." I give a hopeless smile as my feels once again fall into turmoil. I didn't notice at first, but being in this orphanage is kinda depressing.
She stops and thinks for a second before asking, "So you're here to dance with us?"
Dancing?
"Uhh... Sure?" Not like I have a reason to deny her.
The young girl pulls the door further open to reveal the same long dark room with only a single window between the beds like every other dormitory. I see the six beds, three on each side of the wall, with the window at the end. Inside the room are three more children, a boy, a girl, and one very young girl.
I walk further into the room, and the girl closes the door behind me before rushing forward to show off her infamous dance moves that would put arcade dance experts to shame.
---
I spend upwards of three hours in that room, talking about the children and showing off some dance moves of my own. Dance moves, of which I would never show anyone else, but since it's only children who won't judge me based on my 'amazing' skills, I felt more than comfortable showing them. We ended up having a full-blow tournament, in which I won... Won the losers bracket.
In this time, I learn that their names are as follows. First is the brown-haired, brown-eyed youth who let me in. The girl's name is Ruwa, and she was the oldest of the children in this room at eight. Ruwa aspires to be the dancer class which makes sense now looking back at the events which followed my entrance into the room.
The second oldest, a dirty-blonde-haired girl with grey eyes and a purple dress named Alkia. Alkia had some intriguing things to talk about, mainly about the ants she apparently has hidden in one of the plants in the orphanage and a family she knows who owns a pet lion nearby. Alkia isn't like most of the children I met and doesn't have any real aspirations for the future; she just wants to own a pet penguin...
The next youngest, the boy, has light brown hair and dark eyes that I can't make out the color of. His name is Johnny, and he is, as quoted by him himself, a whole "Four and a quarter years old!" This is the same Johnny who came from Earth, just like me, the first other hero I have met. His class is known as a "misdic," or probably mystic. I also discovered that his ability is being kept away from him for the time being.
I determined that despite not being able to pronounce words with the highest efficiency, he is a pretty smart boy and knows that he is from either Tennessee or Pennsylvania of the United States. It's apparent that he knows what state he is from, but there is only so much I can personally glean from "Pencilsee."
Another fascinating thing about Johnny is his name. The fact that he was able to secure the name "Johnny" says something. I know for a fact that if I tried to name myself Johnny, the screen would have just told me that the name was already taken.
Moving on to the final and youngest child is another hero, Mila, which only shows that something is going on with this naming system. Mila has brown hair and brown eyes; honestly, I'm starting to see a pattern, and Ruwa told me that she is only two. No one knows where she comes from other than that she is a hero and that she is not the most talkative, but I did learn from Johnny that her older brother lives at this orphanage as well, but he's out right now.
According to Alkia, Mila is an up-and-coming necromancer, a rare and powerful class. Just like Johnny, her ability has been taken away from her for safety reasons.
Those three hours only come to an end once I hear a loud bell ring out through the building along with the other children. The four children get up off the beds and lead me back down to the first floor towards the dining room. I had previously explored the dining room before I even went up to the second floor, so that's why I know where we are going. I guess that means it's time to eat.