1 The Orc Collector Pt.1: Death and Reincarnation

I got gutted. Literally. Gutted.

I was working late one night at my antique store, where I have a room in the back where I hold DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) campaigns. Usually, I would have my group come round, and we would sit down to talk before going straight into the campaign. I loved to weave each battle together; each death would create an event; no matter how small the person was, someone more significant or a nobody gangster would come after them. But I kept to the story, making them search for the whereabouts of a missing colonist group which had been wiped out by an unknown creature that both turned people to stone and vaporised people to ash. But before we got halfway through the campaign, we reached the end of that day's campaigning session.

As the others left, I began to close down my store until two men dressed in black walked through my door, each holding a black sports bag. I immediately knew there would be trouble. They walked like they were so full of themselves; this swagger made me curl my lip. I reached under the counter where I had placed a cutlass replica made of Damascus steel that I usually used in my campaigns. I kept my hand there, waiting to see what moves they would make. I made sure my cameras were on in case of any incidents that might come up involving the police.

After both looked around at all my antiques covered by thick glass, they approached me at the counter and pulled out two switchblades.

"Give us all your money and the keys to those cases!" one man shouted, pointing to the cash register and the glass cases that protected my antiques.

At that moment, I was ready to leap over the counter and stab my cutlass at that man as my group's DnD characters did when they fought an evil wizard in an inn. However, I was nothing like them, and I brought out my sword, jumped over the counter, and stabbed at the one who spoke. He ducked under me, stabbed his blade into my exposed stomach, and slashed to the right, opening up the skin, muscle, and fat that protected my organs. The tip of his blade caught my intestines, and they rushed out through the gap and pooled out onto the floor where I lay, blood creating a puddle around me.

It's funny to think that a thirty-year-old man with no training in the art of swords would try this method against two robbers. And my left for got caught when I tried to slide over.

Getting stabbed is a shock at first; sometimes you can feel the pain instantly, sometimes it takes longer as the adrenaline rushes to your brain, and you're so into the moment that you don't recognise the pain. The latter happened to me, and I only found out when I tripped on my intestines which had fallen to the ground beside me. I think that the robbers were so horrified which what had occurred that they fled without taking anything. I tried to crawl to the back room where my phone lay on my gaming table to call 999, but I slipped on my blood and knocked my DnD game to the ground.

I died with one hand on my DnD game, and the remaining blood in my body flowed out of my wound. I felt a lightness in my body before I finally passed away into the darkness.

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I appeared in a white plain.

I thought this is where I would wait to enter heaven or whatever heavenly realm had to control over this earth.

They appeared almost instantly. Six figures, shaped and dressed differently, surrounded me. One I noticed was wearing a white toga. However, his body was obscured by a white light. The rest were covered by a white light but wore different clothes, two wearing clothes of Asian origin, one wearing something similar to that of ancient Egyptians, one wearing something similar to tribes who lived in the Pacific Ocean, and one of Native American origin.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Who do you think we are?" the one in the toga asked back.

"Some Roman who has been here for too long." I stated.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The men laughed at the man in the toga, who began to clench his fists in anger, blue electric sparks erupting around his knuckles.

'Ah shit,' I thought, 'this is Zeus isn't it, I've angered a god.'.

The men stopped laughing and turned their attention back to me.

"We welcome you to the plains of reincarnation, where we choose those who died honourable deaths to reincarnate into your world or into a new world." the man wearing Chinese or Japanese clothes warmly said.

"What do you mean honourable death? I died by being stabbed to death. I didn't even land an attack on those robbers?" I exclaimed loudly.

"But you did try." he replied back.

"Bruv, that makes no sense whatsoever." I retorted.

"Haha, he's just trying to hide the actual reason. We all like your DnD campaign and thought we should give you a rebirth... like Corey." the Pacific man stated.

"What, that's awesome you like my campaign. Did you want to play it now with me as the Dungeon Master?" I asked, completely missing the part of another reincarnated person.

"Hold it right there." Zeus said, holding up his hands in a stopping motion.

"We are not here to play young one, we are here to ask you if you want to be reincarnated into another world, or your same world?" the Egyptian said.

"Does it mean that I will reincarnate back into my body?" I asked hopefully. I wanted to keep my antiques.

"No, it means you will reincarnate into a newborn baby at the same time as you died." the other Asian man said.

"Oh." I said.

I had initially hoped that I would reincarnate back into my body in the hopes of keeping all my antiques, while not as rare as you would find in museums, held special meaning, and I had spent thousands of dollars to obtain them. But I then began to think, what if I reincarnate into a new world and begin to collect these artifacts or bits and bobs of old things I could repair into brand new and sell at higher prices.

"I want to reincarnate into another world." I stated.

"That was quick. Are you sure you don't want to return to your world?" Zeus asked.

"No, if I were to be born at the same time I died, I would not want to live in a world where Trump might start a civil war and the case of world war three breaking out. Can you guys see into the future to determine what will happen to my world?" I asked, slightly worried and determined by my decision.

"Yes, but we will refrain from telling you anything." the Egyptian said.

"Alright." I said.

"We shall begin the process now." the Asian man said, holding his six arms in front of him.

The rest followed, each putting a pair of arms in front of their bodies. A golden circle appeared before me, shining with a brilliant light that could only be described in one sentence.

'Damn, be looking like Ayesha from guardians of the galaxy.'.

I walked towards the light, seeing its warm embrace, and passed through.

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