[Master, after inspection there are 130 females and 70 males.](Mia)

“Huh!? Why are there so many girls? Actually nevermind… since it’s Elves we’re talking about, I can understand it since they are leaning towards matriarchy instead of patriarchy. Also, why are we whispering?”

[Because there are 200 Elves looking intently at us, waiting for master to speak.](Mia)

“I must admit I am impressed with the way you grew up Mia! Being able to toss responsibility like that onto me… I am both proud and scared of you.”

Leaving aside the AI that was looking around and ignoring my pleading eyes, I took a deep breath and stared back at the curious elves. There sure are lots of pretty girls and the guys are annoyingly handsome as well.

"What’s up with them? Isn’t it unfair to be this good looking? Even their God is not that handsome! I declare that divine wrath shall descend upon them! The guys of course…"

Leaving aside their looks, their ages are also rather young as well. The girls look at most between 20 and 22 years old, while the guys barely reach 20… I guess that’s set up that way in order to make sure there is no bias start for any of the players.

“Ahem! Nice to meet all of you! My name is Michael and I am the G… I am a resident of this world. Do any of you have any memories?”

Through the sound of whispering and chatting among them, I realized that’s not the case. And since there’s no backstory for them, I should be gracious and just create one.

“You might not remember it, but you were all saved and brought here to this new world by a God. This world’s God! Through his mercy, Midgard will become your new home!”

Compared to before, this time a commotion started among them. Did I force it a bit too much?

“Alright, alright! Quiet down please! Do you guys know what a God is? Hmm? You there… yes you! Tell me, what’s a God?”

[Uh, yes! A God, right? Uh… a creator of the world?]

“Yes! Good answer! You! Yes you, don’t look away! What else?”

[A… a divine being?]

“Good answer, have more confidence!”

What the fuck was I even doing!? However, the ball was already rolling and it looks like the tension relaxed a bit among their ranks. Using this strategy I can also see the level of intelligence they possess.

"Their speech doesn’t seem different from a regular person’s and they have knowledge of divinity. Now, what else?"

“Both of you are right! This God’s creator Michael Corbett, is also known as the God of Chaos. Hmm? You there, the pretty one with the hand in the air, what’s wrong?”

[You said your name is Michael as well. What’s your relationship with the God that brought us here?]

“Very smart and a very good question! Myself and the girl beside me, Mia, have been brought to this world as well by the same God. My first name just happens to be the same.”

[I see..]

It doesn’t look like she bought that, but I doubt that they will believe if I just randomly say that I’m the God in question. Let’s see…

“Like I was saying, after being brought here by the God of Chaos, I was instructed to wait for you guys to arrive and with your help we’ll be building a new home here for everyone.”

I didn’t even finish properly and the same girl from before raised her hand again. I began to sweat profusely as result... Wasn’t she a bit too smart?

“Yes?”

[Is the tree behind us the World Tree?]

“Yes it is. Actually, what’s your name?”

[I am Alexandra.]

“Well then Alexandra, like I already said that’s the World Tree indeed. The God of Chaos planted it on this world, knowing that in the future there will be more people like you and me that will flock to this place for somewhere to live.”

[Do you mean that the God of Chaos will save other people from different worlds and bring them here like it had done with us?](Alexandra)

“Correct for some, while others that worship him will follow willingly to this new place he created.”

What? Is good for this God persona I'm creating to have at least some other followers beside them... Another girl whispered something in Alexandra’s ear and the later nodded in approval.

[Can we be sent back to our own worlds?](Alexandra)

“I already said that the God of Chaos saved everyone he could… I’m sorry but you guys were the only survivors of your world.”

[How can that be? Our families? Friends?](Alexandra)

“Wanting to spare you from the horrible memories, you had your pasts erased and were now given another chance at life. The only message that was left with me from the God of Chaos is the following: live strongly and happily!”

Even I thought that it was a bit of a much too forced setting… There were different reactions, most of which were sadness. Being blank slates didn’t mean that they held no intelligence. Quite on the contrary actually, they were too smart for my own good. So on the pretense of being kind and merciful, the God in question saved them and gave them a chance to start anew.

Would they hate him for that?

Some time passed and I didn’t say anything more, but waited for a reaction on their part. To my surprise, most of them were full of curiosity and were looking forward to the new life they got…

All but one.

[What happened with our previous world?](Alexandra)

This girl… not only is she smart, but she doesn’t seem to like or trust me.

“Your world, just like mine and Mia’s were overrun by monsters and civilizations went extinct…”

[Monsters?](Alexandra)

“You can think of them as animals, only much stronger. In most cases, stronger than any weapons created by what humans managed to come up with…”

[Weapons?](Alexandra)

"EHHH!? She doesn’t know that? What sort of skewered knowledge do they have then? They are capable of proper speech and they can think for themselves from the short interactions we had, but their general knowledge or otherwise are … nonexistent? That can't be the case, right?"

“Do you know what agriculture is?”

[???]

“Rearing animals?”

[???]

“Hunting?”

[Yes…]

"That’s where you draw the line!? Isn’t that the basic Stone Age knowledge?"

“Do you know what a pistol is?”

[???]

“A… spear?”

[???]

“How do you hunt?”

[Throwing stones and using clubs.](Alexandra)

Motherfucker! Why does she look proud when saying that? With the animals on this world that have been enhanced by mana, these Elves will get gored to death by a wild pig when trying to hunt it with throwing stones and twigs…

[I have another question.](Alexandra)

“…sure…”

[Are you supposed to be our leader?](Alexandra)

Ugh… I didn’t think that far. Do I really want to do that? I would rather not to be fair, since the whole purpose of this, is for me to relax and enjoy this Manual Mode. Plus that I doubt that they will trust me so suddenly and go as far as accepting me to be their leader without any further notice and just a random story about a God saving their asses...

“No. You need to select a person among the 200 of you and that person will be blessed by the God of Chaos. Through that blessing the person will become the representative of the whole civilization and will assume the role of the leader. For myself, I will help you from time to time and I will focus on fighting the monsters. You can think of me as your adviser.”

[Monsters?](Alexandra)

Oh shit… That was a bad slip! Looking at their pale faces, one could imagine that they remembered me telling them about their previous world being overrun by monsters. Now that this one has them as well, what sort of new start was this supposed to be?

I wonder if I can use that…

“Don’t worry. While is true that this world holds the same type of monsters, the God of Chaos created a system through which all of you can get stronger and fight against them. In the end if you want to protect the ones close to you, you will have to rely on yourselves more than on anyone else. Alexandra, recite ‘Status Page’ out-loud.”

[Okay… Status Page! Aaaah! What’s this!?](Alexandra)

“Not only her, the rest of you do the same and take a look at the gift the God of Chaos provided you with.”

After some panicking shouts, some gasps that showed surprise and others that had an 'I wonder what the fuck this is' look on their faces showing, they all turned their eyes back to me for clarification.

“Before I start explaining, decide among you who will become your representative.”

It was amusing to see all eyes instantly turn to Alexandra and in turn, the girl herself panicking as a result of all the stares.

"I guess with that is decided. She’s smart so it shouldn’t be a problem. All that’s left is to decide which way I should go with this…"

“Alexandra, it seems like the remaining Elves look up to you for support and command. Will you lead them and fight monsters for them?”

[I will!](Alexandra)

Whoa! Not even a second of hesitation when I mentioned fighting monsters? Even I would do a double-take on that one. Ugh… now the problem is which direction should I have her head to. A LvL 5 Elf in soul refinement will be a strong force to have against monsters, so I guess Adventurer is a given. For the second one… you know what? Screw it! I’ll just go with General and prepare a small team that will join me in dungeon diving. The sooner we get higher levels, the more people I can buy for this new settlement and bolster our forces.

I looked back to Mia and I nodded to her. Soon, a notification appeared.

Hero has been appointed!

Raising soul refinement to level 5!

You can select which class your hero will belong to.

First class: [available to select]

Second class: [available to select]

“Confirm first class selection Genius Adventurer! Confirm second class selection Genius General!”

Whispering that softly so that others won’t hear me, a dark light literally broke through the sky and singled out Alexandra, scaring the shit out of everybody else (me included) and forcing them away from her. She panicked for a second, but calmed down soon and actually looked like she enjoyed the ominous glow engulfing her.

What Divine Revelation would you like to send?

"Right! I almost forgot about this… This should do."

After a couple more minutes, the light subsided and Alexandra looked at me, then at her people, then at the sky. In the end, she turned to the World Tree and with one knee on the ground and her head lowered she said in a loud voice for everyone to hear:

[I will do my best to ensure the happiness of my people! That, I swear upon my life and the World Tree!](Alexandra)

The message I sent? It was just ‘Work hard for yours and your people happiness!’… Who knew this girl was that type of character. This is all good, but I am curious about her status page…

[Alexandra, as the people and Midgard’s representative, show your Status Page to everyone here and have them bear witness to the God of Chaos’s blessing.](Mia)

Oooooh! Well done Mia! Who knew this girl was also just as curious as I was…

[Yes miss Mia!](Alexandra)

Eh!? Why does it look that she respects Mia more than she does me? I’m that you know! Your God and stuff! I could literally erase you just as easy as I made you an overpowered LvL 5 soul! I’m not crying okay! I’m not!!!

[Status Page!](Alexandra)

With a loud shout, a blue window appeared with enough skills to even put the previous elf I met in the demo to shame…

Name

Alexandra Greenwood

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Elf

STR

60

Magic

150

Hero

1

0%

Sex

Female

DEX

80

Charm

80

Age

1 day

AGI

90

Luck

120

World

Midgard

END

70

HP

350/350(+3.9/sec)

INT

100

MP

530/530(+4.9/sec)

WIS

120

Skill List Name Level Proficiency Grand Mage (passive) 1 0% Guardian of the Forest (passive 1 0% Wind arcane magic (passive) MAX MAX Water arcane magic (passive) MAX MAX Under the banner (active) 1 0% Soldiers of the Forest (passive) 1 0% Mana manipulation MAX MAX Probability manipulation (passive) 1 0% Agent of Chaos (passive) 1 0% Blessings granted by the world: Blessing of the World Tree Blessing of the God of Chaos