Sorry that this chapter is a dump of info, I'm uploading the next chapter with it as well.

Avi was the last to fall asleep, that was because he had an unexpected visitor. The Queen herself.

"I noticed you did not seem particularly pleased at being a hero. May I ask why?" Being a hero was most children's and even some adult's dreams. The thought of being someone others looked up to, to be an idol.

Avi sighed, "I'd love to be a hero, but I'd rather go home."

The Queen nodded in understanding, "I'm going to be honest, I don't know how to send you home, but I promise you that I will find a way for you to return."

"If I return, will I go back to the time I left?"

"I don't know, but I don't see why not. I'm sure everything will turn out for the best." Avi didn't believe her even for a second, but he decided that if he was a hero it would make it easier for him to extract information and get stronger faster.

"I will be the hero you require me to be, I will save your people, so please, try to find a way for me to return home." His voice trembled with fake weakness.

'Looks like I'll have to do everything myself. As always.'

Emma did not sleep well that night either, the reason why?

'FUCK-FUCK-FUCK-FUCK, hundreds of people just saw me covered in blood and vomit and the first thing I do is try to be cool!? FUCK-FUCK-FUCK-

Let's just say she didn't feel very motivated the next morning.

15 hours later

"So… what'll you all do first?"

The four of them were sitting in a circle in Emma's room while sipping tea. F.B. was nodding off, but the other three were completely awake and attentive.

"I'll be going to the library first, I want to learn about this world before I step foot in it." This was Avi's decision.

"I'm going to find team members!" and Hoka had a hunch he would find exactly where he could get them.

"That's cool! I'm going to go to the blacksmiths to get a weapon. What about you F.B.?"

F.B. muttered something about going to take a nap.

"Uh… ok then!" Emma really wanted to be friends with everyone here, not party members, but just people she could rely on. After all, they were supposed to be heroes together. Sometimes she got self-conscious and had to remind herself that people weren't constantly thinking bad things about her. She was a shy teenager after all. Emma never really had good friends, she was just too self-conscious and quiet. Acquaintances were a dime a dozen, but nobody she could turn to when she was going through a hard time. It was one of the reasons why she didn't feel ties to her home.

"What do you guys think about our situation?" Avi asked.

"I uh…" Even though he asked the question she felt embarrassed speaking first. "Um… you can go first, Hoka."

"I find it awesome! I just want to explore and see how strong I can get. What about you Avi?" he grinned at Avi with his, by now, patented disturbed smile.

"I also want to test my abilities, but I still want to see if I can go home."

"What'd you leave behind?" Emma blurted out, "oh… sorry." she quickly shrunk into herself, trying to make herself as small as possible.

"You know you can be comfortable with us, after we all were taken away to a strange place that we have no clue operates, I mean, have any of you thought of if slaves are legal in this world?." It seems as if F.B. had woken up, "I'm just going to take a walk through the city. See if the people I'm protecting are worth protecting."

The three heroes paused, watching as F.B. strolled out of the room, leaving a tense silence in his wake.

"He's right, we're all in the same boat here. I left behind my family. Without me they're defenseless." Avi spoke, completely glossing over the slave part.

Emma couldn't relate to both parts, she really wished she did though.

*ding ding ding* The bell that signaled a customer rang throughout the store.

A man walked out from the back of the shop.

"Hey, my name is Erhard. You must be a hero."

"Uh… yeah? Wait how did you know that?"

"Everyone knows, it was announced and your descriptions were released."

"Oh." Emma wasn't sure how she felt about that.

'Well… nothing I can do about it.'

"What can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for a weapon. A whip and a curved blade."

"I have just the thing. What type of curved blade? Scimitar? Khopesh? Falx?"

"What do you recommend?"

"First how about you actually hold them first?"

So Emma went on to hold various whips and curved swords, but nothing felt right to her.

"Do you have anything else?"

Erhard touched his chin and thought, "You're the Earth Hero, which means instead of weapons, you could literally take any piece of metal and mold it in ways us blacksmiths never could." Erhard brightened up, "I'll be right back."

He came back carrying a shiny, disk-shaped metal. The metal was a black with streaks of gold running through it.

"wow, that's fucking beautiful."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

Erhard looked at her with an odd expression, but eventually decided to move on. He pressed the metal into her palm, and stepped back.

"Go on, try to do something with it."

Emma focused, and focused. She stared at the metal intensely. It wasn't that she couldn't feel it, she literally felt the thing vibrating as if it were a part of her. But there were no physical reactions. After five minutes of intense concentration, a tiny bump emerged on its roof. Emma sighed and decided to take a break.

"That's divine ore. It's supposedly unbreakable, which I honestly doubt. But I know that I can't smelt it or hammer it, and I'm one of the best."

'I guess it's a matter of control, back at the castle I just kind of unleashed everything I had. This requires more than just power.'

"Once you manage to change it completely, come back. I'll teach you the basics so it won't be you guessing and checking each different shape, but actually knowing where to start."

Avi was in the palace library. But he didn't really know where to start. There were no receptionists, just colossal rows of bookshelves far and wide.

'Please don't tell me I have to just pick one and just guess…'

Avi sighed, 'should I just leave? No, let me try something first.'

Avi knew his aerokinesis gave himself something like a new set of senses. He didn't know exactly how yet, but it was probably something along the lines of, 'The air is a part of you now,' or some crap like that. So he closed his eyes, and tried to feel.

'I won't know any books by air alone, but maybe I can find it there's another human somewhere in this labyrinth.'

There was, he felt a disturbance in the (force, sorry I had to) air. A human shaped form was in the back coming toward him fast.

'Shit… is that actually a human?'

A massive 9 foot man with a small tail and two large horns on his head was rushing at him like he was going to tackle Avi.

Avi almost attacked, but the minotaur was stopped six feet away from him and glared.

"Who are you and what are you doing here."

"I… uh… I'm the wind hero?"

"What are you talking about!? The heroes aren't to be summoned for another 2 weeks! Look!" The minotaur proceeded to point to a large clock with six hands.

"What am I looking at?" Avi looked at the clock, but didn't get what the minotaur was telling him.

The minotaur sighed, and turned to look at the clock himself. It looked as if he was going to prove a point, but he gasped instead.

"What? No… But I definitely checked!"

"How long have you been in here?"

"Around three months." The minotaur glowered.

'What the fuck.'

F.B. frowned for two reasons, one was the bothersome presence of Hoka as he skipped around F.B., and the other was the poster that described their physical looks, sketches accompanying it.

He decided to walk to the seediest place he could find, Hoka skipping circles around him all the while, the eyes of the poor or criminal watching the two heroes.

"Hey-hey-hey, do you think I can get a fox girl? I would love a fox girl, I wonder if they exist in this world?" Hoka spoke out loud both to himself and F.B., it was at this moment that F.B. remembered that Hoka was from the eastern part of the world, and they had some...odd costumes, then again F.B. would have to be dumb not to realize the influence they have had on the western world F.B., just didn't care.

Finally F.B. couldn't hold it anymore and sighed before turning to the still skipping Hoka, who was still muttering half to himself and half to F.B.

"Hoka, if you're the flame hero, doesn't that mean you have heat vision?" This question apparently was enough to make Hoka's mouth shut before he could say something rhetorical, and made him take a thinking pose.

While Hoka was occupied F.B. slipped away into the side alley, cooling his body off so he could hide if Hoka was successful.

Hoka paused contemplating what F.B. told him, a quick thought brought him back to that flame that rested in his stomach, following his instincts he pulled on it, pulling it upward, but instead of letting it gather into his mouth he pulled until it gathered into his eyes.

Eyes snapping open he looked into a nearby window, seeing glowing orange eyes staring back, but also behind that he saw a blob of red and yellow behind the window, a blink and his left eye was back to its normal color, allowing him to see everything normally as he saw the blobs of red and yellow overlapping his vision.

A quick glance showed that F.B. disappeared, and Hoka couldn't...find him...suddenly Hoka grinned his 'wrong' grin, a thought and he was spewing heat into the air, allowing it spread, and suddenly his eyes were back to normal, but in his mind, in varying red and yellow colors he could see everything around him like a 3D map, but only heat.

Hoka grinned, noticing a giant area packed full of heat, and a little bit of natural tuning allowed him to see it was a carnival place, packed full of human shaped heat blobs, 'heh, lets see if I can find something interesting there, skipping away, people parted at a single look at his grin and the look in his eyes, and quickly made his way to the place he had a hunch was a slave market, but a thought made him pause.

'Did...did F.B. plan this?' Hoka began to skip once more, grin wider than before, wondering exactly how F.B. had known there was a slave market before they had even left the castle. In hindsight there were always slave markets in isekais, a lot of them had the entire premise on having slave party members. But Hoka hadn't thought he'd find them this quickly.

'What a shame, I thought it'd be more exciting. Let's hope when I get there something fun happens.'

F.B. slowly drifted along the maze of alleyways, broken bottles and crates of tipped over trash scattered about as he maneuvered through the maze, a pulse of heat telling him that Hoka had indeed succeeded, with a thought the hydrogen in the air began to cool, moisture in the air becoming heavy and visible as mist rolled through the alleyways.

A mental tug and his hand reached out behind him to grip the throat of the person who was behind him, their body forced into his grip as he pulled the body in their water towards him.

"Who are you" was F.B.'s clipped question. A gasp desperate for air choked out a single word.

"S-Shadow" A frown met her answer, "why were you watching us earlier?" F.B. had noticed that when Emma had invited them to her room, he would have refused, but he had noticed that someone was watching her room. Letting his grip loosen just enough to let the now named Shadow take a breath, the situation forcing Shadow to answer.

"I am but m-merely a shadow of her majesty to make sure no one interfered with the heroes." Shadow choked out. Shadow suddenly collapsed, mind buzzing with adrenaline, she and her sisters were trained in torture and how to resist it, even if it was a hero, but she had felt it, as her body slowly numbed, a instinctual fear forcing her to speak as the numbness slowly reached towards her heart, gulps of air cooling her body off but her body temperature slowly climbing back up.

Coughing, she looked back up only to find the hero of water was gone, the mist lazily swirling out of existence revealing he was not hiding in his mist, shadow sighed, she did not know if he had already known or had gotten lucky but with the amount of magic he had filled the alleys with, it would be impossible for her to track his magical presence. A glance at the orb in her hand telling her even then the amount of magic the hero of flame was releasing overlapped with the hero of waters, overpowering the amount of magic the orb could process.

Some distance away. F.B. appears from the mouth of an alleyway, slowly making his way to the shop in front of him.

Emma sighed, wiping the sweat from her brow as she watched more than listened to Erhard as he pounded away at the steel on the anvil, trying to memorize the feeling as she felt the metal of the hammer bent and shaped the metal, feeling as the metal clashed and one side bent. The ring of the shop's bell rang out, knocking Emma out of her trance, pausing, Erhard put the lump of metal in the kiln, stepping away to see who it was. A moment later Erhard returned, an odd look on his face.

"Hey kid, ya mind?" With his odd choice of words and him motioning her towards him she stood up, following him out of the back, only to be met with the sound of the quickly familiar soft snoring, floating behind the register, huddled up in the corner was F.B. Emma blinked before stifling her laughter, Erhard giving her a hard look saying he was not as amused as she was.

'Instead of molding, how about breaking it and putting it back together? Wait… can I change the metal itself? What if I change the divine metal to normal steel, mold that, and then change it back to divine metal?' Emma was learning a lot today.

Avi sat in his room meditating. There were people following him. He doubted it would be anyone hostile since he hadn't even left the palace yet. So he just let them be for now. The best thing about his abilities was that it wasn't that he could control air, but he was also connected with it. Which meant he felt displacements and had a radar.

Through hours of meticulous research, Avi had discovered this so far.

First there was a system in place, to most it was invisible, and only certain unknown or random items would allow someone to see it, but this system was known as ranking, their being up to 6 ranks that could be reached. People were born with different ranks, but they could also upgrade their rank through various methods. Only about 20% of the population was able to even get to rank 1, and the number became exponentially less as the rankings got higher.

Usually most human beings (other races didn't have the awakening system) born started at rank zero, but this normally quickly changed. Most people trained for a couple years to reach rank 1. Sometimes even getting to rank 1 was impossible, it was actually quite common. But if you did have the capability to increase, usually people who were devoted would hit rank 1 before or during high school. Then for the next rank was rank two, where your natural abilities were doubled. This took people a considerably long time, lucky ones achieved it in their 20s, normal ones took until they were in their mid 30s to late forties.

The reason for this was A. because of the dragon hourglass, a magical hourglass that not only showed how much time was left until a wave, but also what was used to rank someone up from rank one to rank two, but that was only if you were so strong. But the ritual was usually called an official awakening, as it usually meant that someone planned to be an adventurer, sadly getting to rank two was when you really started to get better, with rank one barely having any effect despite the amount of time it took to achieve. Each awakening rank was considerably harder to achieve, both in effort and in time.

Then there was Rank three, or officially called the Re-awakening, this was admittedly rare, only half of the population of adventures being able to Re-awaken as the process took some their whole lives, the reasoning unknown, but in reports it's stated as a whole by adventure's that they feel thrice as strong as they originally were (the awakenings don't stack), this officially being tested by a man that could pick up 300 pounds with some difficulty was able to lift 900 pounds with some difficulty after achieving the re-awakening rank.

Next was rank four, or officially called-Evolution. The reasoning for this was surprising straight forward. After getting to rank four an individual, while still human, practically stopped being that, the individual becoming 5x's stronger on average, with their life spans increasing to live a comfortable 100 years before so much as getting grey hair. These people were only so rare that their total population was half the number of Re-awakened.

Then there was rank five, this rank is officially unnamed, but the world population, nearly as a whole, unofficially called it the Monarch rank, people who reached this rank were practically only kings and people of higher power, usually rulers or councilmen of some kind, these people became come 8x's stronger, completely dominating the rest of their species, it was recorded that there were only a total of 50 people who have reached this level.

Rank six, or the Transcendent. It was recorded that the queen of Melromarc was one of 12 individuals who reached rank six, her husband being rank five, it was said that the reason for the name was spot-on, the person practically hardly aged, 100's of years passing without so much as growing an inch, of course this also made it where their aging was slowed down to the point they were like modern gods. But what made them be called Transcendent was their magic, while yes, each rank increased someone's magical capability, Mirellia's affinity being ice. They were physically 10 times enhanced from their base.

The awakening also affected magic, with rank 1 not affecting it, rank 2 barely affecting it, rank 3 increasing it by two times, rank 4 increasing it by 3, five by 4 and six by five.

A report said that a large rouge group of radicalists, their purpose erased, but they were residing in a large fortress they had built secretly, but when they moved to attack Melromarc for unknown reasons, the queen simply surrounded the castle, and continuously lowered the temperature within this fortress until they died of hypothermia, or ran out and were intercepted.'

'Well… it's nice to know of potential threats. But the books also said that while transcendence was incredibly rare and powerful, it didn't hold a candle to the potential of the elemental heroes. It seems that the 12 current transcendents will only be dangerous to me in the near future, before I completely ourstrip them. It's nice to know that we're out of this world. I should still be careful though.'

'There are several species in the world, the normal humans, and then the stereotypical species you would find in any game or fantasy book, starting with the most iconic were Elves, a species that as a whole were while physically stronger than humans were also magically stronger. Their physicality around a rank one human, with a few varying around two. Their magical affinities pointing towards nature elements, mainly water and air magic being their specialties, but are capable of earth magic as well, mainly plant based, they are said to live in magically grown forests, enchanted to keep other races out, a very seclusive race, but their status quo ran off of magic capability, the more capable you where with magic, the higher up on the food chain you were, but this also made the Elven species as a whole very...snooty, with a few exceptions of course.

Next were the Dwarves, they were practically the opposite of Elves, Dwarves being incredibly physically stronger than both humans and Elves their strength only matched by special born ranked two, and on average can compete with ranked three humans, and only the strongest natural born dwarves could fight a winning battle against a ranked four, their elements were also fire and earth, with only some capability with water in some, the race as whole were known as blacksmiths, using their magic to help them smelt, they were fairly freelance, living where they like, proving themselves better of who can make a better weapon, uncaring of human's unless they offered something new to incorporate into their smithing.

Next are a combo, the demi-humans and beast-kin, demi-humans look like normal humans but have animal like traits, resulting in them having sharper senses than a normal human, and physically strong enough to fight a rank three human no problem if they are at their prime, magically they are just barely above humans at rank two, they are also capable of using predetermined elements at birth, but at least a single demi-human can use at least one of each element, but beast-kin, they are the opposite of demi-humans, they look like animals that have human like traits, more beast in nature than human, they easily could fight a rank five human with their superior physical strength, even outdoing Dwarves, but magically they are stunted, having absolutely no magical capability, but there are some that are both, having forms that are both demi-human, and then beast-kin, it's rare to find a individual that can switch between being demi-human, beast-kin, and then full animal, the only recorded species to be able to do this is the Hakuko a nearly extinct race, but also the strongest among its people.

'Reviewing what I learned. There are elves, humans, dwarves, and demi humans. Basically the standard. Elves live for long periods of time, and have potent magic. They tend to have an affinity for wind and water magic, as well as a bit of affinity for earth. They also have better physicality as well, less so than demi humans and dwarves, but more so than the humans.

Next we have demi-humans. Animal humans are physical combatants, with slightly stronger magic than weaker humans, and a few have animal forms, along with the beast-kin who are physically the strongest of all, but have no magic.'

'After them we have the dwarves. Stronger than a good number of humans, sturdy enough to take a normal blade to the chest and it not penetrate, not very agile though. They tend to have an affinity for fire and earth magic, a little in water magic.'

'Last but not least are the humans. Shortest living, and physically weakest luckily They have an affinity for all elements, a large population, and have the awakening series, as well as the capability to summon heroes that are even more capable than most.' Another advantage that humans had that was often of looked was that our mental states were more desperate. Humans would do anything for what they desired, no matter how gruesome and revolting it was.

'Then there is the magic.' There are multiple types of magic in this world, but humans are extremely limited, only capable of four different magics, the first being elemental, the second being circle, third being ritual, and the fourth being support.

First is elemental magic, it is a fine balance of weak and strong, for those of weaker rank elemental magic in a fight is only used as a distraction, bait, or convenience like lighting firewood, but those of higher rank can actually use it to attack, creating twister's and generating lightning bolts.

Support magic is just as the name says, it's support magic, capable of applying game like buffs to an individual and vice versa with debuffs, it also has the capability to heal someone, or even purify a curse, but only to an extent.

The most commonly used magic to use in magic for weaker rank humans is circle magic, a person can use their affinity imbued mana to create circles of mana, drawing them in certain ways that allow someone to attack with an element, usually strengthened by the corresponding type of affinity that drew the circle. Many people use this magic for traps.

Finally ritual magic, by far it is interesting as it can have different forms, individual and multi cast, ritual magic that is casted alone is said to be a chant magic, but multiple people linking thier mana together and chanting at the same time is called the actual ritual magic this is the most dangerous magic humans can use, as long as it's done correctly, multiple individuals with varying elements can blend their elements together to create the ultimate attack.

But there is something interesting, humans don't actually separate between elemental, circle, or chant magic, most of the time it's fairly common for a spell caster to use all three at the same time to maximize their effectiveness, and it's especially dangerous when done using ritual magic.

'Then there's talent. Apparently there have only been ten in history. All it is is an increase in mana pool, sensitivity/sensing mana, having greater reception to buffs and heals and lesser to debuffs, naturally being physically stronger and having more powerful spells like a stronger shield or a stronger fireball. Having a more efficient mana usage (takes less mana to do things). It even includes mental capacity. Hm… just all in all being enhanced in every way. The only way to get it is to be born with it.'

'Then there's us. We have been physically enhanced, and we're completely immune to any elemental attack that is our element, according to the lore at least.'

'From what I've read it seems like we have better elemental affinity than most, we also are better than those of our own species with all of us starting at rank 1 but being far stronger than any other human.'

'Since physics in this world is similar, I could apply some knowledge and figure out different things to do with my powers.' his head felt like he was beating a drum inside, pulsing in pain after staring at page after page for several hours straight, 'hmm, damn, I need a break.'

Avi laid back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

'This is irritating, I wonder what the others are up to.'