The Novel's Sidekick

Q: Why can there be only twelve heroes? Why not more or less?

A: I have a hypothesis, but I am not certain about this. It’s most likely because there were 12 powers so strong that others could barely challenge them. Moreover, even if the holder of one of the 12 ancient powers dies, a new one will take his/her place when the necessity arrives.

- - -

I left the inn when the sun rose in between the mountain ranges in the south, after getting my head around a lot of thoughts.

The sun rose in the land of Starlight City, painting a clumsy canvas in gold and yellow. The vendors on the sidewalk had just opened their stalls and were preparing for the customers. A few waggons strode down the path. Horses—so massive and magnificent that they could compete with any champion stallion from the earth that—carried them.

A faint gust of wind blew, and my red hair swayed a little along with it. Technically, the red hair was not mine, nor was the body. It belonged to the sidekick of my favourite web novel, Forbidden Realm, Scar, or Oscar Emberheart, should I say.

I still could not believe what had transpired, but I could not deny it, either. After Yasmine left, I thought through the premise of the novel and recalled that in the beginning, Scar was a demotivated piece of shit whose only commitment was on how to waste his life.

In an accident, Scar got his mother killed, and blamed everything on himself. I don't know if I could blame him for being this way. Anyone would feel extreme guilt if they caused someone else's death, much less their mother.

Even though Scar was already better than most average knights, he never bothered to advance from squire to a proper knight. The reason being, to advance to knighthood, one had to sell his loyalty to a lordship, and Scar was not even ready to put his shit together, much less put anyone else's. Well, in the end, he did sell his loyalty to the protagonist, Edward Eastwood, after going through another heartbreak.

Shaking my head, I walked down the path towards the best academy in the realm, the Starlight Academy. The protagonist had not arrived at the academy yet, and to my knowledge, the story did not start from here.

I had already checked the calendar, and found it was the 17th day of the month of Juliann, the year 1521.The year and month distribution in this realm was nearly identical to that on Earth, although I have a faint hypothesis that one second of this realm was a little longer than the earth, there’s nothing concrete yet. The month of Juliann was the last of the year.

As for the names of the months, they were named after the 12 heroes who fought against the demon invasion at the end of the second epoch. But that's another story, one I am not entirely aware of.

The story starts in some small town, from where Edward made his way into the Starlight Academy after overcoming quite a few ordeals, and even when he arrived at the academy, he had to go through a lot to get his admission. I had not decided what to do about it, and before I even help the protagonist, I have to help myself.

After moving for about half an hour, I reached the area of the academy. And to add, I was not walking just for working out or as a morning jog, but because I found no money in Scar's belongings to travel in a waggon. Considering the early Scar, that was quite convincing. His family had stopped sending expenses, and whatever he got from Yasmine, he wasted on drinking, mostly.

The academy was not in full swing, yet boys and girls in different attires were running around in the field, mostly training with swords or other weapons. I did not linger in the field anymore and made my way towards the large gate. Before it stood a couple of two-metre-tall guards, but it appeared they were not having a pleasant time.

"We already told you, we can't let you inside without a consent letter," the guard on the right said.

They appeared to be arguing with some kid. I walked towards them and noticed it was a kid of fifteen or sixteen, and a female at that. fair-skinned with a tint of brownness, though it looked as if it had never been taken care of. Her hair was silvery and not in good condition, like her face. Her clothes were as good as any peasant, and as for belongings, she only had a purse made of clothing.

"Please, will you call Professor Ranyan?" the girl said resolutely. Her tone was pleading, biting her lips. "He knows me. I have come a long way. I don't know—."

"They all say the same thing," the other guard scoffed, "and Professor Ranyan is not around in the academy."

I walked my way towards the gate, ignoring them when the two guards greeted me, bowing a little.

"Why are you guys so loud in the morning?" I said, imitating what Scar would do.

"You know, Master Oscar, so many kids come to this place thinking they have talent and could become a mage or knight," the one on the right said. "We usually have tens of them during the day, but this little one came even before the gate was opened."

That was quite true. The academy was technically open to everyone, though you would need talent as well as capital to get an education here.

Many peasants came around this time of the year in the hope of being admitted to the academy and turning their lives around, despite the fact that the majority of them were not even allowed to enter the gate.

"Why are you wasting time, then?" I said. "Send her to take the test, and be done with it."

I left the gate and walked into the academy. A couple of tall buildings greeted my sight at once. I do not have to mention that I come from the twenty-first century and have seen many magnificent buildings and monuments. Despite that, this was something else. It was like the grand set you see in historical or fantasy movies.

The twin-buildings were made out of white marble, which was luminescent in the rising sun. One could not help but feel a little overwhelmed looking at these magnificent pieces. You literally have to look up to see the whole thing.

The Starlight Academy had two departments, and both the majestic buildings were for them: the Knight or Mage department. Scar was a full-fledged pupil of the knight department in his first year, though counting the new year that was yet to arrive, it would be his third year in the first-year division.

A grand fountain stood between the two grand buildings, and surrounding the fountain were a few stone statues armed with breastplates and all sorts of weapons, from the sword, spear, and hammer to staff and wand. Among them were the twelve old heroes and a few other personas who were added later.

'No, I can not waste my time on what's already gone,' I thought, and opened the status window again. Originally, something like this was not in the book, and I had to look at it twice to understand everything. The understanding came to me like how I could understand the language and many other things in this world.

Blue and white light expanded before my eyes, turning into a transparent window representing my attributes.

_____________

Name: Oscar Emberheart

Bloodline: Unawakened.

Rank: Knight Squire.

Private attributes:

-Strength: D+ (Progress: 92/100)

-Agility: C (Progress: 87/500)

-Perception: C (Progress: 11/500)

-Spirit: B- (Progress: 112/2000)

Trait:

-Purgatory (Unawakened)

Destiny points: 10000

______________

All the information I needed to know about those things poured into my head. Now I can fundamentally comprehend it. But thinking about how your involvement affects you and the world, I could not help but agree with the system.

Even though this system only applies to me, the others get similar privileges without the stat window as well. They get Destiny points according to their work, but they are allocated unconsciously to the attribute they want to cultivate. A knight would improve physically, and a spirit Magi would improve mentally.

The advantage I got was that I could allocate exactly where I wanted the numbers. This might not sound very efficient, but it really is. The privilege was not something small. Moreover, I could stack the points and wait until my body became saturated from all the training and ingredients that could raise the stat.

Other than the destiny points, physical and mental training of sorts could raise one's stats, though it needs an accumulation of many days of rigorous training. There was also the shortcut way of consuming some rare ingredients or potions that could raise the stat to some degree.

The creator gave me 10,000 destiny points as a beginner bonus, which was quite a lot, considering that the tale had just begun. Destiny points are extremely important in this book, or should I say world.They can be used for the four private attributes, abilities, or your bloodline. Other than the skills that you had to work for, destiny points could help cultivate other attributes.

The progress showed how many destiny points I needed to advance in each of the four attributes. Strength only needed 8 points to reach grade-C, while the others needed a little more. The higher the grade, the more points will be needed to advance. And so on. From, E+ to D- only took 10 points, D+ to C 100 points, C+ to B- 1000 points, and so on.

It went down to ten multiples for one grade to the next grade, while for the progress in the same grade, it was quite less.

Looking at my status window, I could not help but again think, I was better than the average Knight. Well, that was,implying I could fight like Scar, but I very much doubt that.

With 10,000 points, I could get better attributes than most knights and be in the league of elite knights—those who are one or two steps away from Grand Knight. But all that did not matter, as my skill level was close to zero. Scar might be a prodigy in swordsmanship, but I'm not. I had never actually wielded a sword before today.

I frowned and winced for a couple of minutes before finally being able to assuage the urge to invest all the points in the four attributes. In the current situation, it might make me an overpowered student, but in the long run, it was a terrible decision. Seriously, I would have done that if this body was someone else's—other than Scar’s—with less potential.

There are better options for Scar.

More importantly, the attributes were more than what I could bring out even now, and there was still a lot of room for growth through physical training. Considering how Scar wasted his body on alcohol, I could actually raise strength and the other attributes at least one level higher in a few days of training.

There were only two options for me to choose from now.The Emberheart Bloodline, or the Ability Purgatory, are both equally overpowered abilities with extreme demands. I am not sure if 10,000 destiny points will be able to awaken one of them. Let's give it a try.

[Purgatory: (Awakening: 1751/10000)]

[Emberheart Bloodline: (Awakening: 5548/10000)]

Quite some progress there. That means I will need 8249 or 4452 destiny points respectively to awaken Purgatory or the bloodline. Both were tempting options, and are related somehow. I thought for a couple of minutes more and decided to awaken Purgatory. Without a doubt, this will be my biggest hope in this cruel world. Moreover, Purgatory can catalyse the awakening of the bloodline.

Another thing was that the book did not mention where these powers came from, but it did mention that two people could not hold the same power at the same time.

[Please confirm your decision to invest 8249 destiny points in the awakening of Purgatory]

As I confirmed, few notifications came by.

[You have invested 8249 destiny points in the awakening of the Ability Purgatory.]

[It would take time to awaken the ability, as the host's state of mind and physical body are not in sync. Please wait . . .]

Well, I guess I can wait. I gazed at the room I was in. The room was quite broad and had two more rooms adjacent to it, each with a personal washroom. All were made of fine stones and plastered in white. The ground used to be crystal clear, but dust and dirt dominated all over. Loose clothes, papers, and notebooks rested all over the place.

To call it not in a fair state would be a serious understatement. Scar never had his stuff well-placed. The usual kinds of stuff were tossed all around the room. There was a fireplace that was devoid of fire and only had burned charcoal in it. I probably used the hitter more often than I bought a few blocks of wood to run the fireplace.

Then my eyes stuck towards the sword decorated just above the fireplace. Is that the sword? I wondered and found myself drawn to it. I pulled down the sheathed sword and found the fire symbol in it—the insignia of the House Emberheart.

Goosebumps crept up my arms as I unsheathed the sword slowly. Another similar flame sign greeted my sight just below the hilt. There was no mistake now. This really is that sword.

Abruptly, my stomach growled, and I remembered that this body, or the old body of mine, had eaten nothing last night. Considering Scar, he would never cook anything himself. I left the sword where it was decorated and searched the room for money. Even though I was in the best academy in the realm, I could not get anything without money. Even the daily food and other expenses were carried by the students.

I searched all over the place where Scar might have left some money. From hiding places to the general location, after all that, I found a few glass bottles that once held wine or other alcoholic drinks, and as for money, I did find some. 43 dynes and 70 tills in total.

I thought it should be enough to buy me food for a couple of weeks, or a month, if I used it restively. The names of the currency in this world were dyne and tills. 100 tills made 1 dyne, and a couple of dynes were enough for a lower-class house to spend an entire month.

After some consideration, I did not go to check out the bedroom adjacent to it. I made a mental note to clean it up after I figured out a few things.

Taking a couple of dynes and tills with me, I left the dorm room and made my way towards the cafeteria, searching for the location through my brain.

First, I need to savour some food to think about my next steps.

_________________

Edited by Mysteries.

Proofread by kqwxz.