"What the fuck is going on?"
He shielded his eyes from the sun as he slowly moved around trying to get rid of grogginess. His mind and body were disoriented and it took a couple of minutes to take in his surroundings.
Looking around he found that he was laying on a bed, a luxurious bed. The room was well decorated and quite big. Well it was too big in fact. Why would anyone need so much space?
Well most people could walk and didn't have a crippling illness binding them to a bed, but this room was big by any modern man's standards. The architecture was quite unique and was similar to those photos he saw of old palaces and mansions.
All in all this was not the hospital room he spent his life in.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself.
'Stay calm, everything is alright.'
He then got up and stood up by the bedside. He brought his hands close to his face and closed it into a fist marvelling at the power that flowed through. He felt strong. Such a feeling was foreign to him in real life.
Azeroth Vanaheim
A look of surprise flashed across his face as the name crossed his mind. Memories started flooding and he took a seat on the bed as he once again became disoriented.
He was Azeroth Vanaheim, Third Prince of Verath Empire. The Verath Empire was ruled by The Vanaheim clan, whose territory spanned the entire galaxy.
'A fucking galaxy, what?'
That was too much for him to take and his common sense couldn't comprehend the memories he was seeing right now. He decided to review them as and when he needed. For now this reincarnation of his was clearly similar to those novels he used to read back in earth.
Death was not like how he imagined it would be. To think it was simple as closing your eyes in one life and then opening them in the next. Maybe something did happen in between but he wouldn't know.
"Azeroth Vanaheim, has a nice ring to it. Azeroth it is then".
Having decided to take up the name of this body's previous owner, Azeroth stood up and decided to go outside. Azeroth wasn't at home now, he was very far from it in fact. If the memories in his mind was correct he seemed to be in the city of Hamshil on the planet of Lital.
It was a small planet situated near the borders of the Empire's territory. His Father sent him here in order to govern over this city as a test apparently. Speaking of his father memories rushed into Azeroth's brain as images of a powerful man that looked quite similar to his current body appeared.
'A god'.
This body's… no his father was a mighty god that ruled over this galaxy as the Emperor of Verath. Garen Vanaheim was a powerful man who ruled over the Empire and brought it to new heights. He was talented in both combat and strategy and was good ruler to his people.
Garen expected great things from his sons as well and they didn't disappoint, except for Azeroth. To be fair it was the previous owner who disappointed his father not him. Garen had three sons and while the first and second surpassed his expectations it was the third that was lacklustre to say the least.
His father sent him to this backward planet in hopes of tempering him into a leader of men and making him stronger. As an empire that took pride in its military might it would not be good for even one of its heirs to be weak.
One weak link is all it takes for the downfall of an empire. The task was a simple one taking into consideration of the previous Azeroth's talents. All he had to was, manage this one city and make sure it's a tad bit more powerful and rich in two years.
Azeroth was 18 years old, well past the coming of age of a Verathian man which is 16. His brothers had already accomplished much by this age becoming renowned geniuses across the universe. Many expected the same from the youngest but disappointment was what awaited them.
Many of the other powerful ancient clans and kingdoms delighted in the fact that the Third Prince of Verath was not as monstrous as his brothers. It would truly be unfair for the heavens to give the Verath Empire another heaven defying genius.
It was up to him now to surpass their expectations and prove them wrong.
Along with rebirth came the troubles of the new life. Azeroth had to take on the responsibilities of this body and not die in the process. It would be hard and with this bodies subpar talents he may not make quickly advance in his cultivation as brothers did but he believed he could do it.
It would be a grind but as a pro player from Zenith Online it was something he was well accustomed to.
'At least I'm handsome.'
Standing before the mirror, Azeroth saw a handsome young man with pale white skin, and black hair and eyes which were a common trait among the Verathian royals.
He seemed to be 5'8 which was quite short compared to the standard Verathian male who averaged around 5'11. The men of Verath were all tall compared to humans in other empires being a nation that focussed on its military might.
Thousands of years of training and combat had gradually changed the people of Verath to become much taller and heavier than the average humans. This reminded Azeroth of the kingdom of Sparta from his past life. The practices and customs of Verath were similar to it in some ways.
Luckily they didn't throw 'inferior' babies of cliffs otherwise he wouldn't be here now.
How he alone turned out like this was something that eluded the old Azeroth and his family. Some even questioned if he was really Garen's son but those rumours were disproved and silenced.
He should also look into this whole 'cultivation' thing.
The previous Azeroth never put much effort as he should have in it due to not only 'average' talents but because he knew he could never surpass his brothers.
Looking through some more memories Azeroth could deduce that his talents were considered average only among the nobility and other powerful heritages. If he was a commoner, he would have been considered a genius.
Alas the previous Azeroth was weak willed and easily discouraged resulting in a poor cultivation and physical fitness.
Azeroth didn't mind this though, all he needed was some training and while he wouldn't be the strongest, he could at least make do.
Bwooooom!
The whole room shook as the sound of cannons firing filled the air.
Azeroth felt fear grip for a second as he fell down.
'What's happening? An attack?'
Memories flashed in his mind as he once again saw various images and playbacks.
'Fuck me.'
This was not good for him. Unlike his plan of a slow grind he was straight up facing up against a raid boss. The city of Hamshil was under attack right at this very moment.
After taking a minute to collect himself Azeroth found the situation was not as bad as it looked. The city is currently at a stalemate with the enemy forces so it wasn't in any immediate threat at the moment.
Hamshil may not have been the best city on the planet but it certainly had good defences. Its high walls made it hard for the enemies to cross into the city and destroying its walls was not an option as well due to its mysterious hardness.
The predecessors of this city used a strange metal that came from a meteorite in the construction of its walls. Just infusing a small amount into the materials that were used to build the wall already gave it extreme durability and hardness.
The only way the enemy could get in was breaking the gates or crossing the walls. The gate had a higher concentration of the strange metal so the crossing the walls were the only way.
The city was currently surrounded by the enemy. The soldiers of the Hamshil army were fighting of the invaders who were trying to climb the walls through ladders and siege engines.
It surprised Azeroth that the previous host was irresponsible enough to sleep when the city was under attack. Shouldn't he be out there guiding his people?
It mattered not what the old Azeroth did though, he would take over and do things his way now.
The Hamshil city was in a unique situation where its previous city lord and his family were killed by their opponents from other cities. Normally the victors would have occupied Hamshil but due to his father's commands, he was established as the new city lord of Hamshil.
Thus the other party could only concede to the Emperor and allow Azeroth to take over. They were given compensation by the Verath empire, and were satisfied and wouldn't dare ask for anything more.
'But if it's not them whose attacking the city then who is it?"
Unfortunately he didn't have any more information from his memories.
Sigh
There was no rest for him, a person who just reincarnated. No breathing time, or no tutorial as one would say in the gaming world. Azeroth couldn't take his time in adjusting to his new life.
He had to address the threat outside the walls of the city.
Azeroth decided to go out and do his duties as the lord. Opening the door he took a step outside and surveyed his surroundings.
He spotted a maid standing outside his room and walked to her.
The memories of the previous host gave him knowledge of the common universal language spoken in the star system, so he didn't have to go through the trouble of learning a new language fortunately.
"Hello there, can you tell me where the General is?"
Author Note( I can't fit everything in creator's thoughts):
So I listened to some advice from a reader who commented on rrl. CarrotandStick made some fair points. I already felt like something was 'wrong' with the previous chapter and this comment confirmed what was weird about it. So I shortened it and made it a prologue. I don't know if prologues are supposed to be the same size as normal chapters but my prologues will always be short. :)
1.6k words in this chapter. I'm thinking like around an average of 2.1k words for future chapters. I hope the quality of the novel increases as we go further, so bare with me guys.
Edit: I keep forgetting to add these things beforehand. So THERE WILL BE A SYSTEM but I'm not going to rush it. It will gradually flow into the story and by that i mean within the next 2 chapters lmao.