A new beginning [2]

[Selene's Pov]

"I welcome you, champions of Terros, to the capital of the nation of the elves, Laowh."

As the blinding light disappeared, me and my classmates were met by the sight of an elderly man wearing a green robe and holding a wooden staff standing in front of several armed men, all clad in green armor. Despite his age, his skin had still not yet wrinkled, and although his hair was gray, his skin was still glowing with luster. This along with his pointy ears made it quite obvious that he wasn't human.

Now standing on some sort of religious platform in the middle of the room, while seeing what could only be the inside of a tree around us, it wasn't hard to figure out that we had gotten sent to the elven land, the nation the goddess had referred to as Luprad.

But something was wrong. Very wrong.

Because although there should have been 19 students that had gotten sent here, I could only see five, with me being the sixth one.

'Where is Aldric?!'

Seemingly noticing us being confused as to where our friends had gone, the elderly man spoke sternly, making sure to keep things as concise as possible to not confuse us even more.

"You don't have to worry about your friends. Just like you, they have been sent to one of the other two nations, either to Creria or Esna. Also, just like you, they will have been reborn into forms fitting their destination."

"Huh?"

Somehow, in sync with him talking about us getting reborn, I felt like something was different about my ears. Lifting my hand up to my right one, I was surprised to feel it being pointy instead of round.

Opening up my status, unsure of what else to do, I got the confirmation I sought after.

===Status===

Name: Selene Laowh

Race: Elf

Level: 1

Strength: 2

Agility: 3

Stamina: 2

Intelligence: 4

Mana: 100/100

Trait: [One from another World]

Skills: [Ice Bolt]

==========

Everything was exactly the same as when the goddess showed it to us, except for the fact that my race had been changed from human to elf. After all that had happened, I couldn't say that I was massively surprised by this, but it was also not something that I had expected.

"Now, please do come with me. We have much to talk about. There are after all many things you need to know about this world, things that could possibly save your lives in the future."

Without much choice but to follow the elderly man and his troops to the outside of the gigantic tree we were in, trying to convince myself that Aldric would be alright, we ventured out to the wooden lands of Luprad for the first time.

****

[Aldric's Pov]

"Gob! Gob!"

Sitting on the throne yet again, trying to repress the anemic sensation in my body as a result of emptying all the energy inside it, I wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh when looking at the green creature in front of me.

With the size of an elementary school kid, I doubted that Gob, which was the name I decided for him, would be able to save me when the heroes came. It didn't help that he was currently dancing a bit to celebrate his own birth, happy to have been brought into this world.

'At least he is a bit cute...'

So far, I had gotten a pretty good idea about just how fucked I truly was, as my guide was currently explaining more about the world to me, while Gob kept swinging his hips in joy on the stone floor.

"Your dungeon is located in the deepest parts of the Dark Lands, which is the main reason why it should take a while for the heroes to grow strong enough to come here. In fact, you will likely be the one to instigate their aggression when you start to conquer the lands around you."

"This dungeon that is in reality a tower?"

"Correct."

It was but one of the many things that I had a hard time wrapping my head around, the fact that even though she referred to it as a dungeon, we were actually currently on the highest floor of a very tall tower.

A tower that, according to the map that Tatiana had showed me, was fully equipped with both living quarters, meeting rooms and all kinds of different spaces for varying activities.

And that was all well and good. It was actually more than good that I had a place where everything I needed was present. However...

"But Tatiana, if we are surrounded by really strong monsters, what am I supposed to fight against?"

After a second of looking at me, still not quite realizing that I truly knew nothing about anything, she simply waved her hand.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Around the dungeon there are only small fries hanging around. The stronger monsters are closer to the border of the Dark Lands, put there by the goddess to make sure the three nations doesn't randomly start thinking about occupying this land."

'There are so many plot holes here that I don't even know where to begin...'

Yet, I digressed, and simply accepted the fact that I would be fortunate enough to have quite a lot of time to prepare myself for the future. Which promptly forced me to ask the next question on my mind.

"But what happens if I decide not to fight the heroes and instead just tell them the truth?"

"You would die! Instantly, in fact. That's one of the countermeasures the goddess put up to make sure everything runs smoothly. However, other than telling them the truth, you are allowed to do whatever you want. Do know, however, that if your core gets destroyed, you will also die."

"Then..."

"Also, even if you decide to try and hide here, there will come a time when the goddess will send an oracle to her believers, which would result in the nations invading anyway. With that in mind, the most realistic way for you to survive is to become strong enough to conquer the world. In fact, I am quite certain that is the only way."

"I have no choice but to fight, it is? Guess I don't have a choice then. What should I do first then?"

Cupping her chin with her hand, thinking for a bit, I couldn't say that I was all too overly confident in the advice that I was about to get from the white-haired lady. At the same time, it wasn't as if I could make any plans for myself either as I still didn't know anything about anything.

After a couple of seconds of pondering, she told me what she thought.

"I think you should start by trying to level up. Because right now, you should still be an imp, right?"

'How did she know?!'

Scratching the back of my head, a bit embarrassed that she already knew the secret I was trying to hide, I answered her, "Yeah. Or at least that's what my status says, I'm not actually sure. But how did you know?"

Out of nowhere, she brought out a handheld mirror with a black frame and walked up to me, showing me the reason as to how she assumed me to be an imp.

"Oh..."

In the mirror, I could see the face that I had seen so many times before, a pretty handsome face, if I may say it myself, adorner with pitch-black hair. The one things that had changed, however, was that on the upper part of my forehead, there were now two small bumps, kind of looking like horns that hadn't gotten released into the world yet, as well as my brown eyes now being blood red.

'Cool...'

What she said next however made me a bit less impressed by her detective work.

"Only imps have those kinds of horns. Not only that, but the goddess also told me that you would be reborn as one."

'Of course...'

"Okay, I get it. But what does that have to do with anything?"

Taking a few steps back, while putting away the mirror somewhere, which still blew my mind how it could simply just appear and disappear, she explained herself.

"Because that means that you will get to choose your evolution strain when you reach level 10. More or less, you will choose what kind of demon you will become. Which will not only allow you to become a lot stronger, but it will also decide what kinds of monsters and demons you will be able to create through your demon core."

'Why didn't you just tell me that before?!'

Trying my best to suppress the frustration within me, as I now got information that I should have gotten when I used my demonic core, I kept my cool and stood up, feeling a bit less shaky as some of my demonic energy had been replenished during my rest.

"Doesn't that settle it then? Gob, Tatiana, let's go! We are going to hunt some monsters!"

Unfortunately, I instantly lost the ace in my sleeve as Tatiana looked at me apologetically, making me lose a lot of the confidence that I pretended to have.

"About that, I am not allowed to leave the dungeon. So, you and Gob will have to go by yourselves."