“Before we begin, would you like to see your starting stats?” said an ambient voice

What… the fuck, was this? I was laying flat on top of a black circle in the middle of a grey abyss and some hollow manufactured voice was speaking to me. The last thing I remembered was passing out in an alleyway. We had been out drinking all night and it had gotten a bit chilly. Did I fucking freeze to death?

“Yes, you froze to death.” Listed an unconcerned machine voice.

Well shit, it can hear my thoughts too, whatever it is. Am I going crazy or am I, yeah, I think I’m dead. I still had so much left to do. I was going too… Ok not that much but still. What can you tell me about this place strange voice.

This is a realm between the living and the dead, here you may choose to enter the afterlife or restart your existence somewhere new.

“What’s this afterlife like?” I asked non-committally.

“You will have to see it for yourself.” The artificial voice gyrated at me.

“Is that trip one way?” I hedged

“Most definitely.” The creepy ass alien voice rang out too me.

“I’d like to restart my existence, what are my options?” I asked growing in courage.

“Since you only lived to be nineteen years of age you are eligible to keep your consciousness intact with many of your memories on a select number of worlds.” The voice arbitrated

“I’d like to do that.” I said casually, as if I comprehended the magnitude of what I was agreeing too.

“Would you like a world resembling the world of your past life or a world of fantasy and magic.” Said an indifferent robot.

“What did you mean when you said I had stats?” I suddenly recalled the first thing this voice spoke to me.

“Your starting stats are Strength: One, Dexterity: One, Constitution: Four, Memory: Five, Intuition: Four, Acumen: Eight, Luck: Four.” The voice offered without further explanation.

“Strength and Dex both one, that seems kind of low.” I stated not really understanding anything.

“It is very low, three is the average of any human on earth. You were pathetically weak and clumsy even by earth standards.” The shrew voice stated whimsically.

“Can I reallocate my stat points, or do I have any unspent stat points?” I asked hurriedly ignoring the voices earlier jibe.

“To both questions the answer is, no.” The voice so sinister sounding to me before, seemed to be happy to tell me off.

“Can I change my race?” I asked hoping maybe that would fix my severe deficit in Strength and Dexterity.

“You do not meet the correct heroic deed requirements to qualify for race change.” The Robotic voice replied

“Fine I want a world of Magic and Fantasy.” I decided, and before I could utter another syllable I was flying through the stars in a vast ocean of moving lights. I was moving fast too as the stars themselves flew by me. Before I knew it, I arrived above a blue ball with stripes of red white and green and a big ball of black near one of its poles, with smoke and smog bellowing up visible even from space.

A Crystal Palace formed of clear red glass as I came to a halt at the main gates. The heavy iron doors rumbled open and I was greeted by a three meters tall woman clad in only her long green hair.

“Greetings realm walker, I am the goddess Lyddya.”

“Greetings goddess.” I said bowing my head.

“Enough of that we only have a few moments before your life on my world begins.” Lyddya said melodically.

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“Why did you bring me here?” I asked motioning around to the red transparent crystal palace.

“To let you reselect your appearance before sending you off, you look rather dismal.” The goddess pointed to a chair in-front of a mirror. Once I sat in-front of the mirror I was able to change my appearance like in a videogame. I settled on a chiseled jaw, deep green eyes, black hair this time. I decided to be taller so perhaps I could get better leverage out of my measly strength.

“Thank you, goddess, is there anything similar that can be done about my stats.”

“Well, my my, don’t you clean up nicely.” Her hair Moved suggestively as she said this.

I felt blush coming up and broke to interrupt whatever the goddess had planned for what little time I might have remaining here, I asked again “Great goddess can you not offer me a small boon. My strength is so paltry.”

“Worry not my little champion, all you need to do to raise them is the same as in a past life, run, lift, carry, stretch.” She said brushing my back with one hand. As I looked up I encountered a devious smile on the goddess’s face.

“You called me your champion, does that mean something?” I asked quizzically

“I have blessed you to be able to use divine magic.” She smiled wider.

“Thank you, goddess.” I had hardly stammered when I felt myself fading from the red crystal palace.

The next thing I knew I was coddled in a white cloth looking up at two humans. Neither if which had black hair. Neither of which had green eyes, no chiseled jawlines either. They did coo to me in adorable fashion and I could feel like they didn’t believe I was the milkman’s so all’s well that ends well.

I could understand my parents speaking, and it wasn’t my native tongue of English. In fact, they both snorted adorably when they said no or shook their heads. As if, in every time they were in disagreement they scoffed at each other.

We lived in the boarder mountains near a village but on lands quite remote granted to my father for his work in the royal army. Our single room log cabin featured a bed for me and a bed for my parents, from what I could see mother slept more than I did. I was newly minted and barely able to turn my own head. My father could read and write, and promised to teach me when I was older. I figured that would be a solid part of my learn magic strategy.

I hadn’t seen any fantasy elements yet. No magical storage devices. No heat stones or magic storage bins. The smell was probably mostly my fault, but god was it awful. I couldn’t help but cry sometimes. And as always when a baby cries, mother feeds me. Its hard to eat dutifully when you can smell your own craps. Mostly being a baby was tiresome.

Leading up to my fourth birthday.

I found out my name, Andrew. My Parents names, Garrick and Lisandra. The kingdoms name, Valorium. It comes from a dense mineral found deep under the kingdom. My father is teaching me to use wooden sticks for sword fighting. I already took up reading quickly. My mother taught me how to care for chickens, pigs, cows, and our frightening new additions to Ei-Ei-O…

Spherdall – Like a fat plated creature that molts its valuable chitin seasonally. They make a hissing sound.

Sprug – Like an Ox but they eat meat and are reptiles. They make the same noises you’d expect from a croc. Loud grunts and not much else. Not great for Ei-Ei-O…

Nenk – large salamanders that eat bugs and small rodents. Also kept like cats. Sometimes eaten by Sprug. I cackled when the Sprug caught the Nenk but my father was quite upset, he was fond of the ten pound blue critter. Nenk purr and make a staccato rumbling sound that sounds like rica tic tic tic.

The town nearby has an adventures guild hall that houses three different adventuring parties. All three parties have reached out to my dad and all three have been refused. Dad might have been a soldier, but he didn’t want to risk his life for less at stake than his country.

Our town is called Rolesville and has something like four hundred people in it. I’ll have to go farther afield than that to learn magic, no one in Rolesville knows magic as far as my parents have explained. My general understanding that magic exists honestly baffles their every expectation of things you’d expect your three-year old to be passionately interested in.

My father told me a story about the kingdom’s mages and how they wielded tremendous elemental powers. Making fire out of nothing, raining icicles and even thunderbolts. I was entranced. The age to sign up for apprenticeships was ten, and that was the earliest I could expect to learn magic. I tried anyways a few times with no success. Wielding magic without training didn’t seem like a viable option. I was bored and stuck in this crummy child body. I could do pushups with limited success and remembering the goddess’s words I devoted myself to physical training.

On my fourth birthday I was given a wooden training sword by my father. I could barely lift it. It had a metal weight running the length of it to make it more like a real sword. Most of my fourth birthday was my father teaching my martial forms while I struggled to hold the sword in awkward poses.

The next few years were some rote version of that where I generally grew to love my family and my family grew. I learned our last name when my baby sister was born. We were the Headguard family. My baby sisters name is Sarah, and the next one is Sophie, then a little brother, Ryan, and then another sister Nessa. By now I’m Nine.

This year I’ll search for an apprenticeship. My father has written a request that I be taken as apprentice in the royal capital to a mage he knew from his soldiering days. If all goes well I should have someone to train me in the mystical arts of sorcery and magic in no time. Unfortunately I have to venture to the capital by wagon caravan and I’ll be doing that by myself.

My father has introduced me to the caravan master and his family, and I have seen them around the village on market days but I still hadn’t left the proximity of the town in my whole little life. In my last life I had traveled a bit, to some beaches and for school trips, but this time I hadn’t the faintest idea what the world held or even what that worlds name was.