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The Arcane Paladin
Chapter 1 - Should've Just Picked the Duck

Chapter 1 - Should've Just Picked the Duck

To the Archbishop of the Sky Arbor Church-

I write to you in the desperate hope of correcting a potentially monumental failure of my making.

I am the highest-ranking representative of the church in the village of Aelder Creek and was therefore tasked with providing vigilance to any divine influences that may occur in the area. I was blinded into thinking that a young boy’s dream of becoming a mage was nothing more than that of a meager child’s fantasy. But now that young man, who I believe is of interest of the church, will soon be traveling to the capital to apply for enrollment at the Mage’s Academy.

In an attempt to correct for my failure, I will provide an account of the strange occurrences surrounding this young lad, that due to hindsight, are now painfully obvious.

The village of Aelder Creek was founded by the great grandfather of the boy according to his father, a humble Farmer. The location was picked due to the presence of an Aelder tree growing near a source of fresh water and because of the belief that the trees naturally repel monsters.

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What’s going on?

Where am I?

Ok, try to think… Last thing I remember I was dying… and then my soul finally, finally, disconnected from my physical body after suffering for what felt like hours while the EMT’s did everything in their power to perform a miracle.

After that… I was just a soul, floating around with my tiny little seed of divinity, having a ball of a time! I met up with a bunch of other souls, sadly couldn’t meet up with grandma since she was currently living as a squirrel, and I was deciding if I should also reincarnate since I died kind of early and would have to wait a while for everyone else I know to pass on.

I was taking my time debating between being a duck or a beaver since the queues for those were shorter for some reason, when I felt a strange tugging sensation and I ended up here…

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Hmm… did I accidentally get reborn? I can’t move… am I still in the womb?... and shouldn’t my memories be sealed already?

I don’t feel anything though… no heat, no pressure, no sense of movement. Ugh, this is frustrating… ok let’s see if I have any senses at all… no smell, can’t hear anything, can’t taste anything…

Oh, I can see something! It’s just a bunch of glowing blobs, but that’s something! Maybe if I try to focus, I can make something out…

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Ok, vision is starting to get better every day, although I have no idea how long it’s been since I came here, or if there even are days where I’m at. I can now see different colors! And have been able to de-pixelate all of the blobs to a small degree. I’m still looking at what I would generously describe as 4-bit resolution though, maybe If I keep practicing…

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And now I’m up to a whopping 8-bit resolution! I’m still confused as to what exactly happened to me… I still have my memories of my previous life which I shouldn’t have if I reincarnated… I don’t think I got summoned as a ghost or spirit since I haven’t moved or felt any pulls on my soul… my vision is omnidirectional, which is weird, and even more so since I can also move a focus around as if I was a floating camera, but there seems to be an invisible anchor that keeps me from seeing too far away. Is that anchor my body?

Also, I’m positive that some of the moving blobs that I see are living things… which means that time must be passing… in fact, a lot, of time is passing…

Ok, keep it together… your vision keeps getting clearer, and I can stretch it out a little bit farther each time that I try. I just need to keep at it, and hopefully not succumb to madness before I figure out what’s going on.

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Ok… mental screaming session over… let’s take stock of what I know…

Vision has improved by a huge leap, still no high def, but maybe on par with an old tube TV from the 90’s. I’m also seeing less blobs with cleaner lines and more empty space between them. Which makes sense since I’m not seeing reflected light… since I don’t have eyes… because… I’m not a living thing.

I… am… a… sword…

I am… a sword.

I’m a god damned sword! Who did I piss off? Why a sword! And maybe even more relevant, why am I stuck in a tree!

None of the humans wandering around seem to know I’m here, and despite how happy I am that I can finally confirm that the blobs walking around are humans, they just keep walking by or sitting underneath the tree I’m in, completely oblivious to my presence since I’m positive no one can even see me up here because I’m way too high up and hidden by multiple branches!

Ok, just try to calm down. Just breathe… in, and out… in, and out… ignore the fact that you don’t have lungs… in, and out.

Well, at least I can people watch now… guess I might as well keep stretching out and sharpening my vision since I’m going to be quite literally stuck here for a while.

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