It took a lot of effort, but Iyev finally calmed down long enough to have a conversation. It soon became clear that the bungled hero drop-off wasn’t the only thing the goddess had messed up. It was the cosmic equivalent of being left at the daycare and no one bothering to pick you up, but they had somehow topped that. Apparently, the gods who designed this world were all about symbolism. The acquisition of dark primer was limited to creatures who were conveniently called ‘dark-aligned’ creatures. This included demons and any other creatures you didn’t want to be associated with, while you were with present company . Much the same way, light primer was off-limits for demons. Yes, all very thematic and possibly very racist too.

  As far as Iyev was concerned, my use of the skill shadow mist was irrefutable proof that I was a demon. I countered with the argument that I also used the luminous blast, a light primer based skill, which I pointed out was the undeniable evidence of me not being a demon. He attributed it to my demon trickery, but eventually saw reason. What finally tipped things towards sanity was the fact that I hadn’t yet exhibited any signs of demon bloodlust, which according to Iyev was inconceivable if I was indeed a demon. “Unless, you have cooked up an even more nefarious scheme and are playing the long game”, he suddenly shouted. I sighed. Just when we had made so much progress. He called me a demon temptress who was out for his soul. It took another twenty minutes, during which period I reminded him that I didn’t have a lot going on in my head for such elaborate schemes. This he had a much easier time agreeing with. He was also entirely convinced that my own stupidity wasn’t merely an act. I had finally calmed him down, at a significant cost to my own pride.

  I explained to him that I was a summoned hero and I somehow had both light and dark primers. I had my suspicions why. Most souls came back into the afterlife with life experiences. Blobs of swirling color. The threshold for a high primer was set at 50 percent. I was the unlikeliest outlier that broke the code.

  Iyev was deep in thought. He finally conceded that he probably didn’t know enough about heroes and their primers. He proceeded to climb back to his seat on the cart. I hesitated for a second and then did the same. I just sat there in silence wondering if the incident with the cavalo had cost me my ride. Iyev didn’t object to me being there and the cart trudged on quietly. Uncomfortable silence settled for a while.

  “Have you heard of any of the three neighboring nations summoning any heroes lately”, I broke the silence.

  “Of course. The Great Nation of Tarth has summoned at least a dozen heroes just this year, not to mention all the heroes they already have under their command. Teren has probably gathered five more in the past year. The country of Vret probably has asked for a hero or two and it’s unlikely they have any more blessing stones lying around to summon more. Of course, the other nations are doing the same too.”

  I was resigned to the possibility that there might be other heroes around too, but dozens of heroes summoned just in the last year? There was something else that piqued my interest in what he said. He said the country of Vret didn’t have enough blessing stones to summon more heroes. Blessing stones.

  “You said that the country of Vret didn’t have enough blessing stones to summon more heroes? What are those?”

  “When a country is in dire need of a hero, they can summon one in exchange for a blessing stone.”

  “And how does a country come to possess these stones?”

  “Each nation fills its cup of virtues through noble and heroic acts of its citizens. When the cup is filled to the brim, a stone is granted by the Gods”

  That explanation left me scratching my head. My language comprehension skill might go up a level or two merely by listening to him. My Identify skill told me that Iyev had put four whole points into ‘religious studies’, which made him nothing less than a wordsmith when the topic was broached. I’m not quite sure how it helped him in his job as a vegetable vendor’s assistant. He had clearly not heard about career-oriented skills.

  The perplexed look on my face made him clarify that the cup was metaphorical. He explained that piety, valour, honesty and compassion are the virtues that can fill the cup, with the former two labeled primary virtues and the latter two secondary.

  First the stones have to be gathered with virtues and then the stones have to be paid back to get heroes in return, like redeeming shopping coupons?

  “ A bit overdramatic, don’t you think?”, I asked, “With stones and metaphorical cups and what not? If the stones have to be first collected and then returned back to summon heroes, then surely the Gods could work out a system that didn’t need any stones at all?”

  He looked at me in shock. Apparently, piety was the king of all virtues and by that reasoning, what I said was nothing short of blasphemy. There he was filling the metaphorical cup at one end, while I was nonchalantly poking holes at the other end with my blasphemous speech.

  Translating Iyev’s ramblings, while entirely disregarding the part about metaphorical cups, the hero summoning ritual can be summed up more or less in the following manner: The God(s) who designed this world created a system where prayers and heroic deeds of a country’s citizens add up as points. Honesty and compassion also contributed some points, but not as much. Of course, monotonous chanting and war participation being valued higher than compassion or honesty sounds just about right with my understanding of how the world and religion worked. Once a country accumulates enough points, a blessing stone is granted, which can be exchanged for one otherworldly hero, whenever required! In other words, I’ve been summoned into a superstore with a points based reward system!

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  In short, Gods picked up people from the other worlds, and then dropped them off with strangers here, in exchange for prayers and worshippers. No, I stand corrected. This isn’t a superstore. It’s an elaborate kidnapping racket!

  Perhaps the stones could be redeemed for something better than a hero? I can not imagine how a slightly better knight can be anything more than a consolation prize. Perhaps that’s the whole point of stones? Perhaps more than one stone can be returned at once to summon a fighter plane or something?

  If piety and valour are predominantly what contributed most points, then the larger nations had an unfair advantage. This explained how the nation of Tarth managed to summon over a dozen heroes just this year, while the smaller countries had to be careful when to use their limited supply of blessing stones. I was beginning to understand how the politics in this new world worked. There was no telling how much knowledge a human head could hold and I concluded that the information about metaphorical cups and stone coupons were entirely worth forgetting. Delete, I mentally commanded! Except the human head didn't come equipped with a delete function and there was no telling it what to keep and what to forget. In fact, it seemed rather keen on retaining the most irrelevant bits of information. I was going to be reminded about this conversion with Iyev, time and again - in great detail.

  “The time of the next demon lord isn’t long now. All the nations are making preparations.” Iyev brought me back from my thoughts.

  “How can you tell the next demon lord will be here soon?”

  “There are those at the capital that study about these things. Their estimates are never precise and could be off by years, decades even. I’m not quite sure how they do it exactly, but I suppose it has something to do with how long it takes for a demon general to ascend to the status of a demon lord. The last time that we were in a full-blown war with the demons was almost a century ago. There were several well-known demon generals from that time. Perhaps more who worked behind the scenes. Demons have a long life span. For all we know, one of them has already become a demon lord ”

  I see. Perhaps the calculations relied on how long it took for a demon general to go up a certain number of levels to become a demon lord. Perhaps the calculations relied on how long it took to acquire a higher primer?

  “ How was the last demon lord stopped?”, I was curious.

  “ The last demon lord was powerful enough to summon undead armies in thousands. The line that separates light and shadow, The Twilight line, as it's often called, was last redrawn when the demons came marching south over a hundred years ago. The Great Elven kingdom of Elaria was one of the nations that bordered the demon lands at that time. The heroes and armies of Elaria, along with two other nations, stopped the demon king. But it came at a great cost. The death of the demon lord ended further advance, but the nation of Elaria had already fallen to demon occupation. A once glorious nation was reduced to a handful of wandering tribes. Where once Elaria stood, now demons roam freely. The Twilight line was redrawn. It has stayed more or less unchanged in the past hundred years.”

  I listened to Iyev’s overly dramatized narration of the events. I didn’t understand everything that Iyev said. It was hard to, without knowing the geography of this world. I assumed that the Twilight line perhaps referred to the boundary between the demon kingdom and the nations of non-demonic races.

  Iyev further added that the small nation of Lenore, one of the two nations that assisted Elaria in the last great war, was now the frontier kingdom after the collapse of Elaria. It would be most inconvenient if I was a hero summoned by the nation of Lenore. When the demon army invades, I will be thrown right into the midst of war. Worse, the invasion would be sudden and without warning. But from what Iyev said, Lenore is some way away from the place I first woke up. It was further beyond Teren. I decided I should get a map the moment I got to Palomp. These strange lands and their names.

  As the cart slowly moved ahead, I began to list down my preference order in my mind. Since the abandoned shrine was either in the neutral territory, or somewhere close to it, the three neighbouring nations Tarth, Teren or Vret were most likely the ones who summoned me. It is possible the gateway goddess and her minions got the location wrong by a few miles. From what Iyev said and by my own assumptions, the Great nation of Tarth was the safest choice if I wanted to be not involved in a war with demons. Tarth was a militaristic nation, also with a significant religious presence ; a large and powerful nation with dozens of heroes on their payroll. During the last hundred years, when the demon threat was mostly limited to minor border skirmishes, the human nations like Tarth which were further away from the twilight line engaged in their own internal conflicts. The kingdom of Tarth bullied the kingdoms further in the East to aggressively expand their borders. Having a steady supply of blessing stones meant that they could summon heroes, even during the years of peace. But with dozens of heroes at their disposal, I’ll be merely another forgotten knight in their army. Merely another instrument for their aggressive border expansion plans.

  The country of Vret was too small and irrelevant. The Same could be said of its past heroes. I couldn’t make too many conclusions about Teren from Iyev’s descriptions. The country focused on trade and was neither too big nor too small. Even though it wasn’t right next door to the demon territory, it was still in considerable danger. I was reconsidering my decision to go there. The smaller nations along the way might fall and then Teren will be forced to defend their lands. Yet, by Iyev’s descriptions, Teren was a peace loving nation. Until I could gather more information about which nation summoned me, Teren sounded like a good enough place to set up my base. I wasn’t going to reveal that I was a summoned hero. Who knows what troubles that would bring. I’ll work as an adventurer to become stronger.

  I secretly hoped I wasn’t summoned by Tarth or one of the frontier nations like Lenore. Perhaps the summoned heroes weren’t obliged to fight for anyone or perhaps they were free to switch their allegiance, though such an act might incur the wrath of the nations that summoned them. Did the people who summon heroes have a way to keep track of them? Perhaps misplacing your summoned hero was an entirely common occurrence.

  We reached an intersection, where the dirt path branched off into more paths to either side. Iyev brought his cart to a sudden stop and looked at me.

  “I can not take you to my village. Maybe what you said is true. Maybe you are a summoned hero as you claim. But you also channel the essence of darkness. We must go our separate ways now. Take the worn out path. It will take you to Palomp. ”

  I didn’t protest. Apparently, demon-suspects did not get invited into homes. Demon or not, he certainly had no moral quandaries in pointing me on my way to a town with significantly more residents. Valor and piety, I muttered under my breath.

  I watched the cart pull away. Onwards to Palomp on foot then.

  "One last piece of advice, demon hero", he shouted without looking back, "Find shelter for the night.”