The world of Hera

The message of Hero Tatsumaki gives Astroth some insight into his future goals and enemies. Astroth already had suspicions about humans in this world, but the previous hero cleared some of his doubts.

Humans have committed many atrocities in this world, and even a fellow human from the parallel world had to stand against them. However, these thoughts raise some new questions in Astroth's mind.

"Why are humans so cruel here? Are they under some kind of mind control?

Is this a problem of world domination or some big scheme that I don't know about?"

With these unsettling thoughts, Astroth visits the elders in the Elf family to gain more knowledge about this world, from its history to the present.

The Elders were a little surprised by his sudden question and curiosity. The same Astroth who can name any monster in front of him, the Astroth who can defeat a basilisk alone and form a pact with an exceptional spirit, was asking them a question.

There was a confused look on everyone's face because this was the first time Astroth behaved like a newly born kid with curiosity and excitement. It was unknown, however, what or who motivated Astroth to learn more about this world after reincarnation.

There is a stare between the elderly as they contemplate where the era of this world should begin.

"This world is known as "HERA." Its foundation is thousands of years old, so we don't even know about its beginning. The continent we live on is known as "Draconian."

No one knows what this word means, but it appears in every history book on the continent.

Now we should tell you how kingdoms emerged on this vast continent. Many long-lived races like elves and dwarves lived in their preferred habitats like forests or mineral mines, but the situation changed when a new race called humans with a low life expectancy arose on the fields of the continent.

In those days, humans were less intelligent and too animal-like, so other races ignored them as if they were animals. Despite this, humans evolved significantly during an elf's lifetime.

Slowly, they became more intelligent and a lot more curious. Their curiosity drives them to new heights, and they establish a kingdom named Grandioz for themselves. That was the first kingdom on this continent because other races never gave a specific name to their group.

At reaching certain heights, humans become arrogant and proud. Their arrogance leads them to think of themselves as the masters of these lands, and they send letters to each race's leader to include humans in their high society gatherings.

The long-lived races find the human race amusing; they live a little but keep growing. The human king was invited to their society after they accepted the human's proposal.

Humans thought these races were weak and got scared of a little letter. Human King Aldrin prepares to leave for the banquet in the elf and dwarf countries. He arrives at the forest where elves live and start acting smug while watching the elves living with simplicity.

He hands over lavish gifts to the elf king, which he prepared beforehand in the hopes of astonishing them. However, Aldrin finds the elf king unfazed even after receiving such presents.

Aldrin was dying to know why there was no sign of jealousy or envy on the face of the elf king. He received his answer earlier than he thought.

Aldrin was amazed to see the inexpressible beauty of elf society. He was shocked to see some elves performing strange art.

He asked the elf king about those mysterious arts. The Elf King explains with a soft smile that this phenomenon is called magic, and we can perform these arts with the help of natural mana.

The longer Aldrin lived with elves, the more he felt staggered. After a lengthy stay, he concludes that elves are higher life forms than humans and that their most precious thing is magic.

Aldrin perceives magic as the elves' precious commodity, but for the elves, magic is just another tool.

Aldrin leaves after giving his regards to the elf king. He was disappointed with his inability to judge elves. However, he was confident that dwarves don't have magic or beauty; they are just short and ugly creatures.

He greets the dwarf king the same way he greets the elven king. Despite all the efforts, the dwarf king was unfazed by the precious gifts. He again realized his mistake the moment he stepped into the dwarf district.

His mouth was wide open, watching buildings as long as mountains, technology far surpassing other races, and even mineral mines of precious metals in their area.

Aldrin was disappointed and disgusted with himself, but he still had the ambition to surpass these races.

Aldrin prepared a banquet in his palace and invited the elf and dwarf kings. He tries to show them as much hospitality as he can. After roping them into his scheme, he suggests they declare their society a kingdom.

By this time, both were favorable toward Aldrin and were already in his clutches. They announced the establishment of the elf kingdom of ELVANIA and the dwarf kingdom of TERRUM.

Aldrin also said that elves and dwarves are great races, and they should help humans by sharing their knowledge and technology.

The elf king and the dwarf king positively took this suggestion and agreed with Aldrin. No one knew at that time how their response could change the world.

Following this, the rapid rise of humans began, and many more small human kingdoms, such as SETAN, PISIK, and KARAMI, were established.

Everyone was contented, and many peaceful decades passed, but not for very long. Leaving the previous generation of kings, a new generation of powerful and greedy kings rose to the throne of human kingdoms. They were greedy for the whole world and started preparing for it.

Suddenly, a new power rises in the human kingdoms simultaneously. A new religion named Marthian starts spreading in the name of the Goddess Martha.

In a decade, it became so enormous that it developed into their kingdom, the Holy Empire. This empire proved to be the strongest of all human kingdoms. Moreover, this empire is the one that started everything.

While hiding in the shadows, the Holy Empire starts the doctrine of human supremacy and reveals their interest in the Death Forest.

They even encouraged other kingdoms to wage wars. The Holy Empire summoned a hero for the task of human supremacy. Other races gradually realized human intentions and prepared for the impending war.

Now here is a part of history that no one knows perfectly. Some say before the Holy Empire could start the war, a new strong enemy emerged, and for defeating this enemy, these races united. This historical war is known as the "Holy War."

However, we don't know which enemy could make other races unite to face him. This war results in the victory of all races. The hero and Holy Empire had the most contributions and the minimum casualties.

Every kingdom was exhausted by the ongoing war and had forgotten about the holy empire's plan. Before anyone could realize something, the holy empire started its conquest of the Dragonian continent.

This time, the hero didn't participate with them and established his own country for beastmen. Beastmen were a race that was highly oppressed in those times. Watching the behavior of others toward beastmen, the hero built a kingdom, especially for them, named VADALLAT.

After another series of long wars, the Holy Empire became the strongest empire on this continent. However, looking at their aggression against elves three hundred years ago, they must not have found whatever they desired.

Before falling off the elf kingdom three hundred years ago, the world map looked something like this:

The death forest is in the middle of the continent while stretching its reach to other kingdoms. Elves used to live in the Death Forest. In the north, you may find the kingdom of Vadallat, because only beastmen can survive in that chilling winter.

In the west, barren lands were occupied by dwarves, who established the kingdom of Terrum.

Humans took the rest of the fertile fields. The Grandioz kingdom, which used to be the largest, faced some rebellions and some small kingdoms emerged from there, to be known as BIDOCH and DROBONY.

Together with other small nations, they formed a treaty to keep themselves safe from large kingdoms. The treaty named these countries the "Klein United Nations."

The Holy Empire occupied the largest area under the leadership of their pope and goddess."

Astroth could point out many loopholes in this story; he knew that the story must be altered by the time it reached the elder's ears.

From the message he received from the hero Tatsumaki, the Holy Empire must have been planning something big for a long time. Astroth was also amazed by the name Dragonian and asked the elder with excitement,

"Elders, are there dragons in this world?"

The Elders stayed still for a moment with shocked eyes and replied to him,

"What is this dragon you talk about?" We have never heard of this thing. If you're talking about the Dragonian continent, then this name has been used for a long time. Even elves don't know who gave the name Dragonian. "

Astroth was bewildered that in a fantasy world, there were no dragons. A dragon should be in any fantasy world, but here they are using this word for a continent. Astroth sighs after thinking.

----

Now Astroth gains information about this world and asks a new question to the elder.

"Elder, what is inside the death forest?"

Astroth could tell from their looks that they were hesitating to tell him anything about this forest. Maybe after the fight with Basilisk, they don't want him to enter the forest. Astroth asks them many times, and as a result, they bend after watching his unyielding will.

"Death forest is the largest area on this continent and mostly all the area is unexplored. This forest is divided into two zones: inner and outer.

The outer zone is where the elf kingdom of Elvania was situated and many small monsters roam. However, the inner zone is home to strong beasts, but it is also divided into parts.

In the past, many tried to explore this forest and were only able to send some bits of information. The Elf Kingdom used this information to make a map of the Death Forest.

The Death Forest is distributed into many small territories, but we classified them mainly into four categories: swamp, tribal, dark, and legendary.

These four parts represent the types of monsters found in them, and collectively we call them the Deep Forest.

The swamp area has poisonous plants and is ideal for creatures like the basilisk you've already met.

The dark area is home to creatures like banshees who prefer to live in the dark. Humanoid monsters mostly occupy tribal areas and live while forming colonies.

There are also minor monsters; they are very few and roam alone in these areas. The legendary area has the greatest mana density, so we concluded that monsters beyond our imagination live there. "

Now Astroth could see a clear path ahead of him. He knows about this world and this mysterious forest. This forest piqued his interest more than the kingdoms.

He was eager to explore a land that no one had seen. However, he is aware that he needs to gain more control over his new body and magic.

Astroth was set to become strong for a new journey ahead of him.

-----

Somewhere in the dark room,

"We have the solution to your problems; it's hidden in your dark history." A man in a black robe with a mysterious voice speaks to someone great before him.

"Is that so? "You were hidden beside me all the time."

"Hahahahahaha..."

A sinister laughter echoes in the mysterious dark room.