Xaren got an extra pair of enchanted clothes, and they even gave him boots too, ending his barefoot days.
He did gain a few injuries from stepping on broken blades during the earlier fight, but those were all healed when the High-Rank demon in charge of Xaren's division waved his hand and cast AOE healing Black Magic.
It wasn't full body armour; A piece to cover his torso, shoulder pads, forearm and shin guards, and partial armour covering his joints.
The sword they gave him, was clearly of much better quality than the previous standard issue blade.
"Elven runes…Crazy!"
Indeed, they had given him a Runeblade.
The sword originated from a high-profile elf from this world who had been killed before Xaren had come out of his cocoon. But although it was a Runeblade, the weapon was crafted for an elf whose level was below 200.
As such, the Mid-Rank demon who acquired the sword couldn't use it since Mid-Rank demons were all Levels 700-899.
The sword was useless to him so it was just lying around gathering dust, literally. Xaren had to use a rag to clean the dust off the blade.
When the Mid-Rank demons were issuing rewards, the one who had the blade remembered it and tossed it to Xaren. "Take this as part of your reward," he said dismissively.
It was useless to him, but to Xaren, it might as well be gold.
After gaining his weapon and armour, Xaren didn't hesitate to put them on, and when he glanced at his reflection created by a silver shield lying around, he felt he really looked like a soldier.
'A child soldier, that is.'
This was the first time Xaren was properly looking at his new appearance, as he had been busy trying to survive and learning his Skills to bother in the past 2 weeks.
His skin was as grey as he remembered, and his body was short yet well-proportioned. Two small horns protruded from his forehead, curving slightly backward. His facial features carried a hint of childishness, and his dark red eyes gleamed with a mixture of curiosity and determination.
'Oh, it looks like someone just changed my skin colour to grey.'
His face didn't look much different from his previous self. If he had to say, his looks were even more refined than he remembered himself having as a child.
Just as he was checking himself out in the mirror, a voice rang out from behind him.
"Oh, looks like you survived."
A large shadow was cast over him and Xaren turned to see the fire demon Floch standing behind him, holding a giant ball of black light that made Xaren's stomach rumble.
Floch put the ball of light into a magic pouch hanging from his waist, before leaning in to observe Xaren closely.
"Since you survived, it means you've passed the first selection."
"…selection?" Xaren asked cautiously.
"You're a smart one, so you should have realised what's going on here," Floch replied, crossing his arms. "Tossing you all into this battle was to see how ready you are to fight at any given moment. It was also to pit you against the opponents you'd be facing off in the future, and to weed out the useless ones amongst you lot."
Xaren had the question of them considering that not everyone was born to be a fighter, and there could be some promising supports or many other useful occupations that had died since they were considered 'useless', but he kept his thoughts to himself.
The demons had their way of doing things, and one unranked demon's words weren't gonna change them.
He was more concerned with himself. From the words of the High-Rank angels earlier, this world was a Lower World.
Worlds/Planets had rankings. There were Lower ones and Higher ones, which were sometimes called Secondary and Primary planets.
Higher Worlds were worlds with higher quality ambient energies, and stronger gravity and the existences living on those worlds were also stronger than average.
These worlds existed to accommodate powerful beings like the Demon King from earlier.
It was the Universe's way of saying 'Hey, I made this world strong enough for you to go wild on, so don't go to Lower Worlds you could destroy on accident and cause trouble there.'
Lower Worlds had lower power limits, meaning beings above a certain level of power couldn't enter lower worlds without either sealing their powers or being kicked out by the world's defensive laws, and Causality.
One of those defensive laws was the 'Repulsion Law', which created what was known as the 'World Repulsion Force'. It was what had tried to keep Gazer out earlier, and though the Demon King was able to destroy it, he had limited his strength greatly so he could enter the atmosphere.
In a higher world, he wouldn't need to go through all that stress.
The ambient energy pressure on higher worlds was strong enough that if one wasn't born there and tried to enter from outside, they wouldn't be able to withstand it unless their level was high.
As far as Xaren knew, the World ranks were: Lower>Middle>High and he'd heard a General mention the existence of a 'Prime' world before.
'But anyway, this Lower World doesn't seem to be the kind of place where the demons would train their promising forces…'
Xaren's skill level in his past life was certainly above average, which was impressive considering he was self-taught. But if he wanted to become a Demon King, he needed more than that.
'I also need to learn proper magic too.'
If the demons saw him as promising and decided to invest in him, he would most likely be taught proper magic and more advanced fighting skills which would be greatly beneficial.
Returning his focus to Floch, he asked hesitantly.
"…um, how do I address you…Sir?"
"?"
Floch looked at Xaren in confusion for a moment, before understanding dawned on him and he burst out laughing.
"Pfft…this kid. I couldn't be bothered about that. I'm just a Mid-Rank.
But if you encounter a High-Rank demon, you gotta be VERY respectful. Every High-Rank demon you see is a 'Sir'.
Repeat after me; Sir!!"
"Sir!!" Xaren echoed quickly.
"That's the spirit!"
Floch nodded approvingly. He then leaned closer, carefully scanning Xaren's energy to estimate his level.
"You're…level 60? 70?"
"65."
"Oh, right in the middle. How many angels did you kill to go up nearly 15 levels? I know they give us more EXP, but it must have been a lot to increase that much in one jump."
Floch's words revealed something that Xaren wasn't aware of before, that demons got more EXP from killing angels. The reverse was also the case, and this was one of the many reasons behind the eternal enmity between the two races.
Demons saw angels as feathered EXP packs, and the angels saw the demons as malevolent EXP packs.
"What are you doing, Floch?"
Another Mid-Rank demoness approached after seeing Floch, and Xaren recognized her as the one who had given him the enchanted clothes earlier.
"Oh, isn't this that one from before? He's Level 65 now," she observed.
"Yeah, I was just asking how many kills he racked up," Floch responded, grabbing Xaren by the arm and effortlessly lifting him as he continued.
"He seems like he has promise so I'd pick him up and keep him around."
*KPAK!
The demoness slapped the back of Floch's head as she reprimanded him. "He's not a pok*mon you idiot, put him down."
Floch, startled, released Xaren, who landed back on the ground with a slight stumble. She then shifted her focus to the more important task.
"The High-Ranks are calling us. Let's go."
"Oh, okay."
Floch responded and then flapped his wings to prepare for flight, only to remember he didn't know what Xaren's name was.
Turning back, he asked.
"What's your name, kid?
Don't be an idiot and tell me everything, just pick a segment to use."
The fire demon remembered some unranked demons beginning to call out their full true names when he asked them this before and sighed as he warned Xaren.
Naturally, Xaren already knew not to tell his full true name and just gave the five-letter name he had retained from his past life.
"Xaren."
"Xaren, huh? I'm Floch. Hopefully, you don't die in the coming battles and successfully become a low rank."
With that response, Floch flew away with the demoness.
As the fire demon vanished beyond his field of vision, Xaren silently pondered his words.
'He said coming battles. Plural. That means this is just the beginning.'
Sure, they were trying to weed out the newborn demons without potential, but even if one showed promise, there was another requirement to be taken out of this Lower-Level battlefront world.
He had to reach Level 100 and become a 'Low-Rank' demon.