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Evangeline
"Hey, you, finally awake?" was the first thing I heard when I woke up.
In front of me stood a man in a white toga, his visage reminiscent of the statues portraying Greek gods. He gently patted my head with an air of benevolence. Questions like `How did I end up here? Where the hell am I now? Who is this guy` flooded my mind.
"You are in what Eartheners call Heaven, and before you ask, yes I can read your mind; no I didn't do anything weird to you." the man immediately answered my thoughts.
"Then... How?" I croaked, while massaging my temples. `Wait... Massaging my temples? I have hands now?!`
"Easy, no need to panic. I'm Prometheus, the one responsible for aiding humanity in this realm. By staying in my presence and soaking up the environmental mana from my aura that long, you've regained your human-shaped soul. Since we're sharing the same mana, I can read your thoughts as if they were just another part of me. See it as a temporary state that will be solved if you stay away from me for about a week, and let your body naturally use up my mana and replace it with your own," he assured me in a calming tone.
"What about the demon? He looked like troubles, at this point I won't be surprised if this guy was called Lucif-" I wanted to ask but he immediately interrupted by putting a hand on my mouth.
"Wow, careful there, names have weight in this world, don't say them carelessly. Even if you're far of his reach, he can still know where you were when pronouncing his name”.
"Then do I erm... Get anything from being here? Maybe I can... Meet my grandfather if he passed away?" she tentatively asked.
Looking apologetic, he shrugged and said "Not my domain either. The only thing I can do right now is reincarnation, since your previous life was pretty much cut short by unfortunate events, or send you to Hades so that he deals with your soul, so... fancy a restart?"
I felt mixed emotions, on one side, the opportunity I wanted presented itself, on the other, my last worry was left unanswered. `At Least I tried... Still. Reincarnation! Maybe I can finally have some hero party's journey or be a Saint or something`
Prometheus, after hearing my thoughts, immediately dogeza'd. Shocked of such a outlandish display from a god I asked with a trembling voice, fearing the worse " D-Don't tell me..."
"No gods, at least those on the side of the Creator, are in need of a hero or a Saint as of now I'm deeply sorryy" said the god in an uncharacteristically squeaky voice.
"You will still be reincarnated, but there will be nothing as epic as fighting a Demon King or hordes of monsters. The Demon God you fled from, was in search of a new Demon King or Queen, and you successfully dodged his proposal. All the heroes right now are borderline close to fight each other, since they already pacified most of the demon army and finished their divine quests" he added.
"Wait, you knew that I was about to be poached by some demon god and did nothing?!" I almost screamed.
He recomposed himself and responded to my outrage in a matter-of-fact manner " You were wandering in void, devoid of divine mana or normal mana. No regeneration is possible there for a god, it is like a no man land where the faith of our followers that maintain our power can't reach. You've seen it yourself; he had allies with him."
"But when he took out his contract, he was alone!" I counterargued.
"A good way to judge character by watching how you would react" he stated, another dodge.
"He literally acted like a goofball and the cliché villain who has nothing good in mind. What kind of recruitment requirements is that?!" I said, voice filled with utter astonishment.
Prometheus, wearing an expression akin to a hurt puppy, opted to take the path of garnering sympathy.
"I was scared, okay? This guy had the environmental advantage, and I was not prepared at all, I'm sure he spent some time cumulating mana to travel safely. Have you not wondered why he did not pursue you? It was not worth it."
Noticing that the god wasn't keen on delving further into the topic, Evangeline decided to simply listen to the god's proposal.
Seeing her acceptance of his justification, the deity continued his proposal "So, usually, I would reincarnate you as a human however, since you've been very understanding so far, I will do you another favor: you can choose whatever race you want, limited to the ones whose ancestors has sworn fidelity to the gods that fight for the Creator. I will do my best to convince the deity in charge of the specie of your choice. You even get a small blessing from me. Deal?"
Not wanting to piss another god in the same week, I agreed to his proposal.
"I will now send you to the vessel creation room. Brace for teleportation. Have fun!" was the last thing he said before space warped around me.
***
Before me stood a shining golden sphere. It was uncannily perfect. I looked around me, there was nothing else to see, except an infinite white expanse.
Suddenly, a familiar blue box appeared in the air. `A system prompt! ` I thought excitingly.
I immediately picked yes. Why would they even ask? I'm here for this.
Immediately after contact, an interface reminiscent of those character creation menu in MMORPGs appeared all around me. Contrary to their boring Earthen counterpart, this menu was breathtaking in its complexity. Like shuffling cards, one window immediately moved to the front.
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Evangeline was set as default and even if I could modify it, I decided against it, out of respect for my family's choice.
`So Prometheus still wants me to choose human by making it a safe choice, and there is also a confirmation of everything he told me before. ` I grumbled. `Still, so much to choose from, it just sucks that I can't see their advantages, guess I will have to rely on what the simplified descriptions of each says...`
Looking around all of them, I first checked human, because it was the only one that had an advanced description of everything, including the asterisk that was next to all other races.
`So basically, he is keeping me as a reserve hero or saint. I guess it's still more lenient than the outrageous demands of Lucifer, let's check the other races`
Seeing the lacklustre amount of information available on her first choice outside of human, Evangeline sighed `Whelp, that's all? No other clues? Nothing at all? I feel scammed`.
After minutes perusing the list of choices, she was torn between three choices that seemed to have lengthier descriptions :
I imagined myself going around, playing tricks to unsuspecting people and having a laugh at their expense `I'm not going to be some important individual, so it would make more sense for me to choose a race that is fun to live as... still, the soul and personality part sounds way too ominous`
After a long read, she sat down and started weighting the pros and cons of each choice that attracted her attention.
`First, I will not take High elves, no fucking way I will have to bear with stuffy stuck-up assholes even if it gives me an edge in magic. The Marshland elves would have been fun if I was a muscle maniac, and throwing around dirt will definitely get boring really fast...Diplomacy ain't my forte, and I don't want to be shunned everywhere I go I'm not that kind of masochist, so no half elf... and for dark elves, I have a feeling that they're either Chūnibyōs reincarnators or...`
she blushed just by thinking about it.
`ughhh GET OUT PERVERTED THOUGHTS.`.
After calming herself, she looked back at her list. Only one race remained: Fae touched Elf.
`Has access to space magic and elemental magic or healing magic, has no direct enemies if I hide the stigmata, that sounds like a good choice`. Satisfied with her choice, she validated her pick.
`Whelp, how thoughtful of you to give me one other choice` she thought sarcastically after seeing how little control she had.
`A simple enough approach to base stats huh, Let's put as much as I can in intelligence and agility while upping by one the weaker stats. Would be a nice foundation, and a tried and proved formula after all` She told to herself, remembering some of the LitRPG from Earth and how elf MC or side characters built their stats.
She shrugged and confirmed her selection.
`Finally` was all she could think before blacking out.