1 The Rebirth

There were only 6 more days, six more days before graduation day for Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a jack of all trades but master of none. He has average grades in everything that was academic, he had an average grade for his fitness test but had some pretty good connections. He didn't have to worry about not getting into a big corporation because of his contacts. The sun was yellow, the birds were chirping, and the wind was singing. Ezekiel was taking the same path he takes every day to get back to his apartment. Ezekiel suddenly stopped and sighed.

"Will I be content with my life in the future?" Ezekiel thought to himself.

As a child Ezekiel has always aspired to be someone that could influence others, he didn't want to work for big corporations, He wanted to be the CEO of the big corporations. He also wanted to be someone with political power, the power to change the course of history. Ezekiel has been working his ass off for the entirety of middle school, high school, and college yet he still placed average in all his classes. He remembered the quote he heard as a child where "Hard work always beats talent when talent fails to work hard." This is the philosophy that Ezekiel adopted into one of his traits. But he thought to himself, "Sometimes someone's talent is too good for simply hard work to catch up to." The struggle to succeed started in middle school. When he needed to read an essay thrice to understand a story others would only need to read it once. This difference just grew more and more apparent as he grew up. In high school when it would take him days to finish writing a lab report it would only take an hour for others to complete and yet, get the same grades as them. Just to have a good grade in High school, Ezekiel limited himself to 5 hours of sleep and eventually 4 hours of sleep during his 3rd semester. Because of limited sleep, his body was constantly strained so he couldn't perform his best during physical exams and also stunted his growth. Ezekiel ended up only growing up to 1.68 meters before stopping. However, he was cool with this. If this was eventually going to lead him to his dreams, he was willing to pay the price. By doing this, he was able to get above average grades. Ezekiel got into a decent college, and that was when he realized that no matter how hard he worked on his assignments he couldn't surpass any of his classmates. He couldn't limit himself to only 1 hour of sleep cause that would have been suicide. At the beginning of the year his grades were still above average, but as time past he became average. He became average not because he didn't work hard enough but because the people around him were learning too fast for him.

As Ezekiel kept walking down the path into the street where he kept asking himself whether or not he was still going to pursue his dream. At the corner of his eyes, he noticed a young girl with a pair of blond ponytails running onto the road and bending down attempting to pick up a very old teddy bear with cotton sticking out of the right side of its stomach and missing one of its eyes. There was a truck going at high speed approaching the young girl. Because the young girl was so small and bending down the driver of the truck did not see her, so he was still driving at high speeds. Without knowing why Ezekiel's legs sprung into actions like springs and dashing towards the young girl. He managed to push the girl out of the truck's way at the last second before the truck crashed into him.

At the last second before his sad death, Ezekiel said to himself, "I don't want to die! I have things I want to do, to accomplish!"

With his burning desire to succeed Ezekiel was enveloped by the cold hands of death.

"AAAAHHHH!" Ezekiel screamed as he awoke from the comfort of a bed.

As Ezekiel observed his surroundings to be a small wooden hut just enough to fit ten grown men. There was a window to his left let the ray of the sun invade into the hut. Hills of green rested beneath the orange sun. There was a workbench beneath the window upon it resting a book covered in dust. Besides the book was a quill next to a plate of solid ink yet to be liquified. There was a bookshelf to the right with only a handful of books spread across each rack. Each and every one of them was covered in a thick layer of dust with webbing attached to multiple. The house had a triangular roof with the vertex having a spider around the size of a palm quietly staring at Ezekiel.

"Is this the afterlife?"Ezekiel wondered to himself.

After composing himself, Ezekiel crawled out of bed slowly and stood there with a stupid face. He simply had no idea what was going on. Ezekiel headed towards the bookshelf and randomly grabbed a book off the bookshelf. The title of the book was "How to become an Iron level". After wiping off the dust on the book and reading the first few pages, he immediately put the book down with only more questions bombarding his mind. Terms he has never seen in his entire life were riddled across the book. Ezekiel only became more and more confused as he grabbed more books off the bookshelf. "Hundred Ways to Cook a Stone Rooster," "Monsters Behavior and Abilities," and "A Guide to becoming a Knight" encouraged Ezekiel to believe these books were all fiction. However, when he got to books like "History of King Zadd" and "Story of the Three Peaks" he started to doubt whether or not the previous book was fiction or nonfiction. The details on these two books were just too complicated for someone to come up with. Only a writing prodigy would be able to create such a detailed world with their minds. The rustling sound of the wind outside encouraged Ezekiel to go outside and see what sort of situation he has gotten himself in.

Creak! The door was also old constantly scraping the ground creating creaking noises. Ezekiel was overwhelmed by what he saw outside. He was on one of the many green hills surrounding a small village in the valley below. Flocks of birds were flying above creating a beautiful scene companied by the distant trees covering the lands. Ezekiel was memorized by the fantastic scene. Ezekiel headed walked down a stone path leading into the village. An hour has passed, and Ezekiel has finally arrived at the village. However, as soon as he got there, he noticed something strange about his surroundings. People around him were decked with armor and weapons, not that that was weird but simply the number of people. It seemed as if everyone in the village was prepared for mass genocide with blades on their sides, plates all over their bodies, and bows strapped to their backs. Ezekiel also saw a few buff man carrying greatswords almost the size of their entire body. "RRREEEEAAAAHHHH" A scream echoed from the corner. Ezekiel was spooked by the noise because that was not a noise a human or animal he has witnessed could produce. However, it seemed as if no one around him cared with only a few selected individuals who glanced at the direction of the noise before continuing with their business. With his curiosity at its peak, Ezekiel body started moving towards the source of the sound without himself knowing. The scream happened again a few seconds later causing beads of cold sweat to climb down the cheeks of Ezekiel. After turning around the corner of one of the house, he witnessed the source of the screams. It was a small green creature that heavily resembled the cartoon goblins he has seen as a tiny kid on TV. Except instead of the goblin looking funny in the cartoons the goblin in front of Ezekiel had saggy skin on its face, with visible pimples scattered all around its face. There was one pimple the size of a thumb on the left side of the goblin's forehead looking as if it could explode at any second. The goblin had two-point ears with a long nose. Sharp teeth almost resembling fangs could be seen in the goblin's mouth. The goblin's face was covered in mud and dirt and a few drops of what appears to be dried blood. The goblin wore a loose loincloth with two holes on each side so that the arms of the goblin could fit through. The goblin was so skinny Ezekiel could see the structure of its bones. With its sharp claws, it was trying to escape its small confinement which looked like an oversized birdcage. There were two men surrounding the cage clad in iron armor. Whenever they attempted to touch the goblin, it would hiss at them. Ezekiel was terrified by this scene; he was not in the slightest prepared for what he has just seen. The goblin suddenly looked at him with its beady green eyes and screamed at him. That broke the last straw. Ezekiel ran away from the cage of the goblin as fast as he could. He ran out of the village all the way back to the wooden hut he woke up in. Ezekiel was drenched in sweat when he arrived at the wooden hut, not from the running but the pure fear Ezekiel had towards the goblin. Seeing the goblin was too much for Ezekiel's brain to handle. Eventually, Ezekiel just sat down on the bed and tried to recollect his thoughts.