《The Advisor *paused*》 Prologue - The end I thought the premise was interesting, so I decided to write it. Enjoy! ^_^ ''Wise kings generally have wise councilors, and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.'', Diogenes. The kingdom of Asyder on the continent of Hyle has always been the most prosperous kingdom. With a prospering economy and a well trained army to act as a deterrent the kingdom had been in peace for over five centuries. But never had the kingdom of Asyder been in more prosperity than in the reign of the current king, Aaron Basquette. Since just after his rise to power, successing his father, King Basquette has almost never made a mistake in his ruling and has always brought the kingdom to further greatness. The commoners adored him, the nobles respected him and even other kingdoms had to admit that something was going right in the Kingdom of Asyder. Until they came. The Kingdom of Gwenith and the Kingdom of Thandir, jealous at the Kingdom of Asyder''s prosperity and fertile lands, joined forces and started a war that would last four long decades. In that time, although King Basquette made the right military choices at every turn, the overwhelming military might of these two Kingdoms combined could not be fought against and they managed to make Banquettes forces retreat back to the capital Asdoth. The battle for Asdoth went down in history as a noble struggle to defend their homeland against an overpowering force yet eventually the walls could no longer hold and the enemies forces managed to reach the palace itself. --- Inside the great palace of Asdoth sat an aging man on a throne made of polished granite. The golden crown resting on his head could not hide his ghostly pale and worrying face. "I''ve failed.", his voice resounded throughout the high audience hall. "I was hoping to maintain this prosperity in my reign but instead I''ve brought death and destruction to it''s people... What should I do Michael?", An old man with long Grey hair appeared aside the throne. "Your majesty. You have done nothing wrong If anyone is to blame it would be myself.", "Michael?", "I''m sorry your majesty but there''s no time. Once those soldiers break into the palace you and anyone else will be killed. Listen to me. I''ve been by your side since you were born. I advised you and your father and it was a pleasure and privilege to have served by your side. I''ve already taken the liberty to evacuate your family. You''re the only one left... This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Go your majesty I''ll buy you some time." "But Michael I don''t want to see you die too. I''m not leaving you here to do that, you won''t be able to buy any time, not at your age!", "*chuckles* Don''t worry. I''m not going to die. Someone has forgotten who the old high court magician used to be your majesty. I''ll meet up with you in three days, so Aaron, please go.", "... Alright. But three days and if you die I''ll kill you!", "I''ll be sure to keep that in mind your majesty." The king stood up and swiftly walked over to a door off to one side and went through without looking back. "Sorry your highness. I lied.", Michael said with a grin. Michael had not been the high magician for nothing but at his age there''s no way he would buy more than a few hours. --- *Boom!* The heavy wooden latch on the door to the audience hall broke and soldiers flooded into the hall only to come face to face to something they didn''t expect. "I''m sorry. Were you after his majesty? Well, he just left. I''m afraid you have to put up with me instead. Now shall we start?", Without another word two white flames shot up out of Michaels hands and filled the hall with their fiery light. "HE''S A MAGE!", One man managed to scream before the water in his body evaporated. "Ha ha ha. Now time to finish this off. ''To the spirits of fire, I offer the my soul to stand and guard the path to my friend'', and with that Michael suddenly caught ablaze and turned into a flame, brighter and stronger than the two before. This flame guarded the only path to the king for two weeks. Incinerating anyone who was stupid enough to step into the hall. If Michael was still in his youth he could have performed a spell like this with a flick of his wrist however in this case he had to offer his soul, his very essence. And like that Michael, who sacrificed his life for the king, was no more. --- "Where am I.", Michael ''woke up'' in a room of white. There was nothing else to say about it it was just white. A voice came directly into Michael''s mind. "Hello Michael. Nice to meet you. You may call me God." --- Chapter 1 - God ''Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on it''s truth and it proves false?'', Blaise Pascal. Suddenly Michael burst out laughing. He was laughing so hard tears started streaming down his old wrinkled face. "What is so funny Michael?", questioned God. "S-sorry. *chuckles* It''s just that this was quite unexpected.", "I can imagine.", "So. Did his majesty survive?", inquired Michael. Even after he had died he was concerned for Aaron''s safety. "Yes, don''t worry about that... You know, you really shouldn''t be offering your soul to spirits for occasions like that.", "What do you mean? It was the only way to let Aaron get to safety.", Michael was starting to get quite annoyed with this god. "Is that what you thought?! Ga, ha, ha, ha. *coughs* Sorry. But you did know that if you offered all your power and not your soul you could have had much the same result albeit with you not being dead." Michael fell to his knees in shock, "You mean to say I offered my soul, for no reason?!". "Hmmm. Yeah, that''s about the gist of it.", After a long moment of silence Michael stood back up and spoke," Now what. I guess I''m off to heaven or hell now aren''t I? Don''t worry. You can tell me the truth, I haven''t lived all my life just to be scared of the afterlife!", Another long moment of silence later Michael heard God failing to hold back his laughter. "I know I didn''t make the wrong choice... Michael, as God I get very bored with just sending souls off to their rewards or punishments; and just between you and me I''m not going to keep sorting souls for an eternity. So I had an idea. As I was lying in my non-existent bed with my non-existent body I thought,''Why don''t I just reincarnate somebody?'', and so that is the plan. I, as god, will reincarnate you on another world.", "R-right... Why me?", "You just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Any more questions?", "Yes. Will this new world be like my last?", "Some things will be different, but for the most part it will be much the same. Any more?", Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. "Not really.", although in his mind Michael was still confused. "And to answer the questions you''ve been thinking this whole time: Yes you''ll retain your memories, you will have to regain your magic powers, yes you''ll start off as a baby of my choosing... Good, now that the questions are over there are a few more things to do. Number one, as God I''ll be watching what you do on this new world and if it amuses me I might give you some bonuses. Maybe. Number two, as God I''ll be offering you one bonus before heading there. Consider it a gift for being my amusement for your new life. What do you want? It can be close to anything.", God almost seemed eager for Michael to choose something. But putting the thought from his mind Michael began to think. ''What would be of most use to me in a new life on a new planet. Hmmm, enhanced magic? Strength? Hmmm.'' To God, Michael seemed to be deep in thought and as he wanted Michael''s choice to be a surprise God wasn''t reading his thoughts. "I know what I want.", Michael stated clearly. "What is it? Power? Money? *gasp* It''s beauty isn''t it!", "What?! No! What I want is part of your powers. Specifically the ''all knowing'' part.", "*whistles* Well I can''t say I was expecting that... Okay, but it will be quite limited.", "Thank you.", "Now that that''s over there is one final thing.", "What." "What? For you to reincarnate of course!", Michael felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around just in time to see a shadow stood their waving at him. "Goodbye", said the shadow before a whole opened up in the floor and Michael fell into it. "Well I hope it''s entertaining.", God sighed as he walked over to a golden throne over at one side. As soon as he sat down on it an image appeared in front of him of a world. Specifically the world Michael''s soul was headed to. "Oi Gabriel!", God shouted and in a flash a majestic angel with three sets of wings appeared kneeling on one knee. "Yes my lord. I am awaiting your orders.", A long pause then followed. "Get the popcorn.", God said bluntly. "Huh?", Chapter 2 - Rebirth "My Mother groaned, my Father wept, into the dangerous world I kept", William Blake Everything was dark, devoid of all light but oddly warm. Michael was still slightly miffed about the whole mocking tone of God''s words but he soon forgot it as he considered that holding a petty grudge against ''the creator'' and all that was one of the few sure fire ways of dying... Again... Although after following this line of thought for a while Michael considered how God had actually reincarnated him and as stubborn as Michael was he would have hated to go past the pearly gates without having another crack at life. *Sigh*, ''How long is this going to take!'', Michael screamed in his mind. He knew that he was literally being reborn but still couldn''t God do something to cut down the waiting time. It was at this moment that Michael noticed the slivers of light at the edge of his vision, ''Finally!'', he thought loudly in his mind. ''...'' ''...'' ''HOLY SHIT!!!! NO ONE TOLD ME BEING BORN HURT SO MUCH!!!'' --- And after half an hour the pain was over, ''I will never be reborn ever again.'' Michael promised himself darkly. --- It turned out that babies have a really hard time opening their eyes as Michael found out first hand as he wanted to see what his new ''mother'' looked like. On his twentieth attempt, around five minutes later, at opening his eyes... He still failed. But succeeded in managing to hear the talk going on in the room. "I don''t know what to say Miss. I''ve almost never seen a case where the child doesn''t cry.", Came a low calming female voice to his ears. "Is anything wrong!?", Sounded a wildly concerned voice in response. ''I assume this voice is my ''mother''s.'', Michael concluded to himself. "No, not that I can tell... It should be perfectly fine.", "Thank goodness! Can I hold him?", "Yes of course... Here you go... If there isn''t anything else, I''ll be on my way then.", "Thank you.", said ''mother'' sincerely. There was a noise of someone coming in from outside the room and then a rough male voice was heard, " Catlyn! Are you alright? How''s the baby?", "I''m fine, just a little tired. As for him." "Him!", the man''s voice sounded extremely excited. "Yes Honey, it''s a boy.", now the woman sounded happy too. ''What the hell is going on!'', Michael could still not open his eyes. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The man, Michael now presumed to be his father started cheering and jumping around for joy. Some more people could be heard coming into the room, clapping and congratulating the man and his wife. Quickly Michael got bored of his not being able to see and forced himself to reconnect with mana in order to open them manually. Feeling the space around him Michael tried to get a feel for the mana particles in the air touching his bare skin and instead of absorbing them, which would''ve immediately shown due to an awakening (Imagine explosions and bright lights), he just forced the mana particles with his will to open up his eyelids. Two seconds later Michael fainted. "Oh it seems he''s fallen asleep. I will return later Catlyn after I prepare the naming ceremony. You get some well deserved rest.", "Yes dear I think that''s for the best." --- An unknown amount of time later Michael woke up. Apparently his body was now adjusted enough to the air because he could now open his eyes without much trouble. Looking around Michael could see that he had been placed into a well made cot with tall walls to stop Michael from escaping, ''As if I could escape with my current physical strength.'', Michael cursed. After practicing and moving each of his limbs around for a while, Michael figured he could probably stand on his chubby baby legs, however, as he was half way up by lifting himself on the side of the cot the door in the corner of the room began to creak open and a male and female walked into the room. ''DAMN YOU GOD!!!! YOU PROBABLY THINK THIS IS FUNNY!?", Michael could only hear faint chuckling as a response to his thoughts as Michaels new Mother and Father walked into the room. Both suspiciously in the form of big, humanoid, pigs. --- "Ga ha ha ha ha *munch* *munch", God laughed whilst shoveling pop corn into his shadowy mouth. An angel walked up to the side of the throne, as it came closer it could be recognized as Gabriel. "What is so funny? People are trying to finish paperwork you know.", "Sorry, sorry", God managed before he started laughing again. However suddenly he went serious, "Gabriel you need to understand something.", "Yes my lord." "Listen well... Reincarnating an old man as an Orc is fucking hilarious... Ga ha ha ha ha!" ... The laughter resounded throughout heaven for many hours. Chapter 3 - The naming ceremony "All of us are mad. If it weren''t for the fact that each of us are slightly abnormal there would be no point in giving each person a separate name.", Ugo Betti One week later... By now Michael had somehow come to terms with the whole humanoid pig issue, which Michael found out were called Orcs, and tried to put the shock behind him. He also found out why his father was so happy with him. As it turned out his father was the Orc tribe chief and so far had only received daughters, 3 in fact, from his marriage. So when he finally had a son that could succeed himself in becoming chief he was ecstatic. Unfortunately for him, Michael had no plans of becoming chief or even staying as an Orc at all. --- Currently Michael was still in his cot, as he had been all week. Meditating and recovering his mana, which he has used to strengthen his body and increase his mana capacity in equal amounts. Even though his new body was technically only a week old Michael had already regained a tenth of his former magic power and his little body had around the strength of a ten year old. Without magical assistance of course.. Suddenly the door to the room opened and Michael quickly activated BABY MODE!!! ... Basically rolling around in his cot, whilst one of his sisters, walked up to the cot. Surprisingly to Michael, her ugly appearance was considered ''cute'' in the village. Sophie, as his sister was called, was only four years old but she was the only one of the three supposed sisters that Michael had seen so far and she was definitely, to Michael''s memory, one of the most violent little girls he had ever had the unpleasantness to meet. Sophie quickly bounded across the room and reached the cot. Standing on the tip of her tip-toes Sophie clawed around the inside of the cot trying to grab Michael. Luckily over the week Michael had perfected his baby role and could effortlessly evade these amateur attempts to pick him up. --- After another ten minutes of this, Michael was starting to tire. And with one moment of relaxed concentration came the deadly orc-grabby-hand (patent-pending) to catch Michael in his grasp. Unfortunately for Sophie Michael had luck on his side. So as soon as the hand reached his back a group of people walked into the room. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Sophie immediately stopped what she was doing and tried to whistle innocently. Her father, who was a member of this group, looked at her with disdain but the expression was quickly gone as he walked over to the cot and picked up Michael. Michael''s father looked... Like an Orc. An Orc with a cool haircut and dress sense. "Are you ready. It''s time for the naming ceremony.", Michael''s father said as he looked into Michael''s eyes, not really expecting a response. Quickly the father readied himself and walked ahead of the group with the group following quickly behind. Only moments later were the group outside of the chiefs house; one of the larger houses in the village. The village itself were as you''d expect an Orc village to look like. Mud and sticks... That was it. No really. No gardens, proper pathways or trees simply mud and sticks. ''I hope you''re enjoying yourself.'', Michael thought sadly as he looked to the sky. --- His father brought Michael over to the village center where the rest of the village were gathered. Walking to the front of the gathering his father raised Michael high above the crowd. "Bring the deer!", Michael''s father shouted. ''Why do they need a deer'', Michael mused to himself, however he didn''t need to as he soon found the answer himself. Two burly Orcs carried a large dead deer in their arms over to the front. After placing it on the ground they returned to the crowd. Michael''s father began to shout. "From now on, my son. You shall be named... Michael!", everyone in the gathering clapped as Michael was named... Michael. "And now we''ll make it official with the deer ceremony!", For some reason cheers erupted from the crowd. ''I wonder what this blood ceremony is''. Suddenly, Michael''s father cut open the deer and shoved Michael inside the carcass. ''That''s it! I''ve had it! I had to dodge a killer sister for a whole week, I got almost no sleep and now they''ve shoved me in a deer. Tomorrow I''m leaving!'' --- Meanwhile elsewhere in the world... "You c-can''t do this! It''s treason!", "Treason? I''m just reclaiming what''s naturally mine. You should understand this brother. Goodbye.", the blade of a knife gleamed in the shadows and a stifled scream of a once king rose into the air. Chapter 4 - The Escape The same day in the shadows of the night a fully alert Michael woke from his realistic sleeping facade. Quietly he hopped out of his cot and walked over to a chest near the cot where various clothes were. "These won''t do! I need more cloth.", Michael impatiently whispered to himself as he realised the lid to the chest. Currently Michael was reenacting the escape plan that he had thought out oh so carefully the past week he was here. If everything went as planned he would be long gone before his ''family'' even noticed his little disappearing act. Quietly Michael tip toed along the floor trying his hardest not to make any noise. Truth be told, he needn''t be so careful about noise as he could just mask the sound with a quick and simple wind spell to remove the air around his feet. (To stop vibrations in the air. Which is sound... I really don''t like this sciency mumbo jumbo but I think this will work.) But unfortunately Michael needed his meager amounts of mana for a grander spell later on in the plan. As Michael reached the edge of the door to his room he slowly opened it a small sliver in order to check of the coast was clear. Which it was... So using the strength of a ten year old in his weak baby body, Michael easily opened the door just enough for himself to slip through and proceeded to sneak down the corridor. The corridor was a whole ten meters long with a few door on the sides leading to various other rooms and a large front door at the end. If Michael''s plan had perfectly worked out then there would have been a nice pile of laundry just in front of the front door to be hung up outside the next day. Alas there wasn''t and it seemed Michael''s plan was going to get a whole lot more complicated. Michael needed to steal some clothes out of either one of his sister''s rooms or his parents. Not wanting to wear worn female teenage Orc clothes in this period of his new life, he opted for the more difficult option of sneaking into his parent''s room. Creeping up to the door in question and slowly prying it open, Michawl managed to see inside. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. *SNORE* *SNORE* *SNORE* ''Well fuck subtlety.'', Michael shouted in his head as he just up and walked in ton the room and over to the set of drawers where he knew his parents kept their clothes. Michael clambered up and started opening drawers. Not knowing what would happen in the next part of his plan, Michael grabbed a bit of everything before tying it into a ball and dragging it across the room and into the hall. ''Well that turned out alright.'', The pudgy Orc baby thought as he released a breath of air he didn''t know he had held. Slowly, Michael dragged the clothes to the front door and then to the outside of the house, after spending the best part of an hour trying to open the tall front door without magic. After another hour of covertly making his way to the exit of the village whilst avoiding anyone or any light, Michael was finally free. "Okay, now for phase two.", Michael said out loud now that he knew he was out of earshot of anyone in the village. "Right then. How does this ''all knowing'' thingy work?", and as soon as Michael had finished asking the question he already knew the answer. "Oh well I guess that''s one question solved. Then, does body modification work the same as my old world?", "...", "Oh it does.", Michael said rarther depressingly. "Never mind I always knew it was a possibility when I thought of this plan when I had thought it up in the first place.", "Map?", Surprisingly in Michaels field of view a small map type thing appeared in a box and it seemed that if he focused on it would grow larger. After comparing his map to his surroundings he quickly figured out the scale and positioning of the map. Michael then set of to find an area in order to cast his very first spell and summoning since coming to this world! ... Yay! ...