Just after I saw off the fracox and turned around to retrieve my swords, a stranger was standing there looking at me. Despite his good looks and gentle smile, I was getting chills down my spine. Partly because my weapons were right at his feet and I had no way of judging whether he was an enemy or not. I studied him silently. The tall, slim man had long blond hair reaching his shoulders, slightly pointed ears and pale golden eyes. His outfit looked vaguely Asian, like a Chinese hanfu, in fact. He was unarmed, but this world had magic, and elves were renowned for their magical prowess, (at least in stories and manga!) so I couldn't let my guard down.

"Greetings, young maiden," he addressed me in a soft tenor. "Please don't panic, I mean you no harm. My name is Feyril and I am here as your guide to welcome you to Shyi'eld."

"..."

There was plenty I wanted to say, but I decided to hear him out first and nodded quietly. He smiled that creepily gentle smile again and continued, "I'm sure you must be wondering why I hadn't shown up earlier when you were threatened by the first goblin, but all your experiences were part of a test to see if you were worthy."

"Worthy for what?" I couldn't help blurting.

"Worthy of joining our cause to save this world," he said casually as if he was used to making the same explanation. "You may think of this as a 'game' like those in your world. You will be trained in fighting by killing monsters and levelling up, and in doing so, gain skills and proficiency in magic. Does that not sound fun? Ah, but if you're not a 'gamer', maybe you'll be more familiar with the 'Isekai' genre of literature? Think of yourself as a chosen 'hero' to fight the villains and save the populace."

"This is all too sudden...I..."

Feyril nodded in understanding. "Of course, of course. I must say, though, that you handled that second goblin admirably. You certainly have great potential and it would be a pity for us to lose you should you decide to go home permanently."

"I can go home?" I perked up at this.

"Naturally. We wouldn't keep you against your will," he said with a shake of his head. "As I mentioned, you may feel free to treat this like a game. Time passes here six times more quickly than in your world. You may go home any time you like and come back again. Your position will be 'saved' and time will not pass here until you return. However, there are only a few points that connect this world to yours, so you will have to return to that spot if you want to go back to your world. If you exit from a different point, you may end up in a different country."

I contemplated for a while and asked, "What if I get injured and die here?"

The elf's brows furrowed and he shook his head. "I'm sorry to say that this is all real, not some 'VR' game, so there is a risk you may actually be wounded and perish. However! There are benefits to levelling up here," he added, sounding like a salesman making a sales pitch. "You have a chance to gain skills that can aid you in your life in the other world, and although you cannot use magic there, your physical training will carry over, which means you will be able to defend yourself and react quickly to danger."

I wanted to retort that my world wasn't so dangerous, but stifled the urge and settled for nodding stiffly. "Will there be any other physical changes, like having my body remodelled on a genetic level or something?" I asked.

Feyril tilted his head. "If that would benefit you, we could probably try to do that with magic as a reward, but your appearance is acceptable to my eyes. Do you wish to be more beautiful? That could draw too much attention and inconvenience you in future."

"Ah, um, that's true, I guess," I said, blushing a little. It wasn't often that a handsome man complimented my appearance, even if it was in an indirect manner! "So then, how will I know if I have levelled up and gained Skills?"

"Excellent question," said the elf with a snap of his fingers. "I was just coming to that. The way to view your own status and the statuses of others is to say 'inspect' in your mind. You can go ahead and try it. You should be able to see your own status as well as mine when you look at me."

Intrigued, I did as he suggested. A screen appeared to the right side of my vision and showed my status as follows:

Rynn Tan

Race: Human | Age: 16

Level: 2 | Condition: Normal

Attack: Normal

Endurance: Normal

Agility: High

Speed: Normal

Intelligence: Normal

Mana: High

Skills:

[Swordsmanship 1] [Evasion] [Inspect 1] [Map 1] [Language 1]

Magic:

Light, Class 1 - Healing, [Blessings] [Shield] [Dispel] [Immunity]

[Conjuration, Class 1 - Creation, Multiplication, Conjuring, Storage, Uncreation]

Hmm, more or less what I expected. Some of the skills and magic were in brackets though, so I asked my guide about that.

"Ah, that's because you haven't actually learnt them yet," was his reply. "The brackets will disappear once you've learnt them. We have given you a slight boost towards earning proficiency for those five skills, but you have to put in the effort yourself to learn them. If you don't use the skills at all, they will eventually disappear. Of course, you could try out various things and earn skills on your own as well."

While listening to his explanation, I was checking out his status as well. It was...surprisingly normal?

Feyril Krescai

Race: Elf | Age: 135

Level: 42 | Condition: Normal

Attack: Normal

Endurance: Normal

Agility: High

Speed: High

Intelligence: High

Mana: High

Skills:

Archery, Language, Negotiation, Far Sight, Detection, Crafting

Magic:

Illusionism, Class 7

Transportation, Class 6

Well, apart from looking surprisingly young for his age, which I assumed was par for the course for elves, his Level wasn't particularly high, nor did he have a crazy amount of skills. That was somewhat surprising for a game master, I mean, a guide to the game. I noticed that most of my skills had "1" behind the name, but none of his had any numbers. What was the difference? There was also no HP or MP amount stated anywhere.

Before I had the chance to ask him about that, however, he gave me a proposition I couldn't refuse.

"Well then, staying out here in the open could be dangerous, so why don't we go back to the old mansion where I can give you some pointers on magic?"