Veres was the biggest city of the entire Kelen Continent, and the capital of the Kelenian Empire. As the biggest and most prosperous city of the Empire, it was worthy of the saying : "All road lead to Veres".

A few decades ago, the city was housing more then a million inhabitants separated into 2 main districts, the "High city" and the "Low city".

The "High city" was located in the center of city and was truly the political center of the Kelenian Empire. Not only was the Emperor's Palace located at it's center, every significant noble houses owned a villa in the "High City". The entire district was elevated a few meter above the "Low City" and they were separated by the inner fortification wall.

The "Low City" was constitued of the rest of the city. It housed more then 99% of the population and contrary to the "High City", with her spacious villas and vast gardens, space in it was mostly packed with houses. The price were high but still, the district was comfortable and populated.

A few century ago, the Empire had forcefully stifled the city's expansion by building the outer fortification wall. It allowed the Empire to keep a tight control over it and this perfect city became the symbol of the Empire's prosperity.

But with the monster's invasion, the Empire wasn't as prosperous anymore and this was also reflected on the city.

After the fall of the Great Plains, the massive exode of citizens forced the Emperor to allow the settlement of refugees around the city.

This created the infamous third district : the "Suburb". At least this was the official name given by the Empire and was adressed as such in every official documents, but most people prefered the unofficial name who more accuratly represented the situation : the "Slums". The stain of the city. The conditions in it were horrible : no infrastructures, no space, nowhere to gain living. It became the center of the city's underworld. And as everything in Veres, it became the center of the underworld in the entire Empire.

Back in the "High City", in one of the many residence of the Imperial Palace, a group of young men and women were training.

They were the Heroes summoned by Ephrenos. Only their souls had travelled to this world, and Ephrenos had to create their bodies. He gave them relatively youthfull bodies of around the age of 16, so that they could take time to train and wouldn't be past their prime when they were needed the most. But even if from outside they looked like a high school class, most of them were a few time olders.

It made cooperation somewhat akward. They might all look young, and some where, but others could be experienced seniors who might find them immature. This strange awkwardness hadn't entirely vanished yet, but communication within the group became less tense with time as they started knowing and respecting each others.

Elan was one of the "oldest" members of the reincarnators, as his culture didn't put too much enphasis on seniority, he kept a good relationship with pretty much everyone and his set of skill made him a prime candidate to lead the group. He was a talented swordman back in his world, he was acquainted with magic as his younger self had wanted to become a mage, but at the time he had no talent in it. His new body was perfect and opened new doors to him. Even if the magic he knew had some minute difference, his solid bases made it easier for him to learn.

Like in this world, in his world, even simple warrior ended up absorbing raw mana into their bodies during training, it ended up making them stronger and increasing their lifespans. Elan had lived and fought for a bit more then 150 years, he had seen plenty of life and death battles and even fought as a commander in some occasions.

After a lenghty discusion with his trainer, Elan had decided to go down the path of Magic Swordsman so he wouldn't waste all of his precious swordmanship skills and he would use magic to enhance himself and reach an higher level. Magic Swordman were categorized as warrior but they were more versatile then simple Swordsman without developing any weakness except the majors increases in both talent and training time required. Ephrenos had dealt with the first one, and he had plenty of experience and training from his last life.

Breathing roughly and sweating, he was taking a break from the exercices. Even as an experienced swordman, his new body had no muscles memory of all he had gotten throught, he had spent the last few weeks training his body to be able to keep up with his thought.

Of the 56 human Heroes, only 8 of them had fighting experience from their priors lifes, but the rest of them were learning extremely fast. Even the 8 experienced Heroes could feel the difference in their learnings speeds in new subjects like magic. According to the priests who welcomed them at the summoning ceremony, this was the gift of Ephrenos, the God of Justice, the one who summoned them.

On the first day, they had met the Emperor, who explained to them why they were here : destroy the monsters. Obviously, they was limit to their growth and they wouldn't be able to destroy massive tribes of hundreds of thousands of monsters on their own. They were a special strike force whose goal was to take down priority targets, assists the humans armies and boost morale.

They were promised generous rewards for help, but they had the right to refuse the offer. All of them took it, they had all died once, so they couldn't accept the idea to go wait for death in a corner of the world when they had a second chance for everything they might wish ... glory, money, love, ...

They had all sworn fealty to the Emperor and were now being trained in secret. They weren't allowed to quit the residence that was offered to them on the Palace Ground. According to their trainers, they were trying to keep their existence secret until they were strong enought.

Elan and some of the more experienced Heroes had their doubt.

The Empire wasn't expecting such an high number of Heroes, for exemple, if they had a single hero, they could tie him to them by marrying him to one of the Emperor's daugthers, they might be able to extend that to some extend if there was around a dozen heroes.

But they had 56 Heroes. They couldn't marry them of to random noble's daughter as they wouldn't be tied to the Empire but to said nobles.

To summarise, they had their hand full of new problems and for now the heroes had to stay confined into their residence and training ground.

Elan rised his head as someone called for their attention by clapping his hands.

"Alright, as of today, all of you have a solid grasp of the basic. We will start assigning you partners based on your level and start practising in duel to get a bit of true fighting experience."

The young heroes started forming a circle around him as he started to point out people while calling their names.

When Elan turn arrived, he was put in a duo against a young woman called Toda Riko. They sized up each other before going to the side on a delimited zone to start their duel.

As other group engaged each other, Elan tried to remember what he knew of his opponent.

The young girl was wearing a light leather armor and carried a one edged blade called a katana. From his knowledge, she was one of the strongest experienced heroes, and was a warrior called a Samurai. She was extremely prideful and came from a matriarchal society. Some of the heroes original cultures had larger difference than other compared to this world. In her case, it took her some time to adapt and people were used to underestimate her. But just like the instructors, Elan had seen her train and he knew she would be a tought opponent.

She also had a weird oral tic of hading words at the end of her sentences but she quickly dropped the habbit after exchanging with others in this world.

Without a word, they both unsheathed their blade. While Elan didn't move, she dashed toward him while lowering her body, lowering her center of gravity. Just like they were underestimating her because of her gender, she was underestimating them on their gender,"they were only men" in her head.

As soon she got into range she raised her sword and delivered a swift strike, Elan took a step back and started injecting mana in his sword.

The blade emited a few spark before bursting into flames. As she had no experience fighting against any magic, she got on the defensive.

After a few second of fighting, it became obvious that Elan had the advantage and his flame coated blade didn't make it any easier to his opponent. But her pride didn't allow her to accept defeat this easily, she took back the initiative by getting more aggressive and accelerating the speed of her strikes.

After a few second, it became clear to Elan that she wouldn't be able to maintain this speed for long with her new body. He patiently waited for an opportunity to strike.

It didn't take too long : she delivered a powerfull vertical strike, he dodged to the side and she was taken forward by her momentum. As she tried to slow her body, he dashed closer to her and hit her in the stomach with the handle of his sword. The punch was enhanced by magic and she was thrown back a few meters, out of breath. It was his victory.

He looked around and could see a few heroes looking at him. An instructor got close and gave them a few advices before going back to other groups. In his world, this fight would have been impressive coming from young fighter, but here, they were still at the bottom of the food chain.

A few days laters, while they were dining. A old man joined them inside the dining hall.

His body was slumped foward by the weight of his own head and he looked weak, but after crossing eyes with him, Elan knew that this wasn't an ordinary person, probably a mage.

The elder knocked twice on the ground using his cane to get the heroes' attention.

"Congratulation, you are all progressing faster then we expected. The Emperor took the decision to take you all outside the capital, to offer you more opportunities to grow stronger. You will be escorted by the Templar's 12th Division and the captain will be responsible of your training from now on. Hardship are awaiting you, but His Majesty is convinced that you will see them throught."

Against all expectations, the Empire had taken the decision to move them out of the Palace despites the risk of them being found out or even targeted.

Toda Riko who was sitting next to Elan whispered in his hear :

"They must really be desperate to move us out so early, most of us are still beginners."

During the last week, they had the opportunity to fight each other a few time and had new found respect for each other. They could now be considered friends.

While absentmindedly looking at the old man, Elan slowly nodded his head at her words.