(Author note: Before you read this I want to be clear, this is a slow burn at first. There is a lot of set up that needs to be done before anything really actiony happens. It will be a lot of time skips and observations, be patient please.)
I'd like to say I was some grand adventurer who went and braved the world and made a name for myself on Earth.
That would be a lie.
I was decidedly average in all regards. Neither handsome or ugly, not tall or short and definitely not possessing any sort of stand out features. I was just a normal background character of the world who worked as a cook at Ruby Tuesdays. I played video games or read web novels to unwind in my spare time as was pretty usual but otherwise that was it.-
I suppose that's why when I died in a decidedly average fashion I wasn't all that surprised.
Truck hit me crossing the road, go figure.
"I kinda regret not making the most of my life." I thought idly as I floated in the great black void I found myself in after I died.
"You definitely should regret that. Don't get me wrong I totally get not being motivated to try with how that world is but your life being summed up with the word "boring" is just sad." a casual male voice said from behind me.
I panned my vision backwards(soul perception is weird) and saw a glowing white ,I want to say person, with a long swishing tail and two feathered wings just sitting on nothing.
"Are you god?" I asked surprised at how calm I was.
"Eh, something like that. For you I'm what is known in the biz as a "ROB" or random omnipotent being for long. You've read enough web novels to get the meaning here." the ROB said relaxed.
"Are you here to reincarnate me or something like that?" I asked feeling a bit of eagerness at the idea.
"You catch on quick. Fast summarization of things here but the multiverse is real, there are a bunch of you's, infinite really, and I get dibs on your souls when you lot die. Most of you I let the get recycled by the multiverse but a few I pluck out of the cycle to send to alternate reality versions of various worlds for my own entertainment. You are one such lucky or unlucky duck." The ROB said with a chuckle.
"Thats... a lot to process all at once." I said genuinely having trouble wrapping my head around the sheer amount of implications there.
"Oh trust me, I know. Now then as per the rules that I won't be explaining it's time to tell you where you are going and what gifts you get as a consolation prize for not getting a choice in the matter." The ROB said cheerfully.
"Wait what!? I don't get a say!?" I exclaimed in horror.
"Nope~ Don't worry though I firmly believe in giving all of my reincarnaters a fighting chance so it's not like I'm sending you to a death world or anything like that. Besides you'll like this one. Nirn is your destination. Specifically twenty years before the dragons return, plenty of time to prepare." The ROB said with a grin.
"Am I at least the Dragonborn?" I asked dreading the idea of being just an NPC.
"Maybe? Honestly that's for Akatosh to decide. I can't ACTUALLY choose how you reincarnate in that reality due to it having plenty of beings that are on my own level of power. I'm not talking about those daedric douches either. Anyways point is I have no fucking idea and that's what makes it so fun." The ROB said with a grin.
"Do I get to choose my race at least?" I asked uncomfortable with the idea of being a cat or lizard person.
"No but you can rest assure that your own souls nature will probably keep you from the beastly races. It's a thing, can't be bothered to explain. Now then on to your gifts! First I have for you a status screen!" The ROB said grandly as a beam of golden energy shot out of it's finger and struck me.
"So a system?" I asked eagerly.
"NOPE! Just a status screen for you to keep track of your growth. Don't give me that disappointed look. You are seriously underestimating how useful just being able to definitively know where you sit is. Anywho on to the last gift! Really proud of myself for this one but an artifact bound to your soul so it can't be lost, stolen or permanently destroyed. It's also an evolving weapon to boot! You gotta feed it other weapons to evolve it but in theory you can load it up with as many enchantments as you want. For materials it's the same starting at shit tier iron." The ROB said eagerly as it held out a palm that had the ugliest sword I have ever seen manifest above it.
The blade was warped in various ways, rust covered it like a sheath and the wrap around the handle was in tatters. I almost felt dirty when the blade shot across the void and vanished within my strange glowing form.
Is that...?" I started when the ROB interrupted me.
"Bye now~" It said and I felt a massive suction force pulling me in a direction I couldn't name and lost consciousness.
It was the chill of wind pushing against me that woke my mind again. My eyes opened and I stared at the two massive moons hanging in the sky behind the partial cloud coverage. I tried to get up but frowned as i felt something tightly wrapped around me preventing me from doing so.
"BAAAAW!" I tried the call for help only for a scream of infantile nonsense to come out.
'Oh you mother fucker!' I thought hatefully as I realized the situation I was in.
I was a baby.
I felt humiliated as I screamed and screamed for close to five minutes before the door of the wooden building I was apparently dropped off at opened it's door and a not very kind looking aging woman peered down at me with narrowed eyes.
"xhwpsy gdoehasmn teo st bey gruy." the woman muttered as she scowled.
I blanked out mentally as I had no damned idea what she said as I couldn't even recognize the language. It dawned on me that of course a totally different world would naturally also have totally different languages. Expecting it to have people speaking english like the games was ridiculous. I hoped that being reborn as a baby also meant I got that nice mental learning buff all kids have that allows them to pick up language and motor skills really fast compared to adults. Neuroplasticity I think it was called?
If I didn't have that buff things were going to be rough as I now had to learn a whole new language, no wait TWO languages. I nearly forgot that dragon language was a thing, a powerful thing at that. No way I wasn't going to try and learn it as early as possible. Maybe not attempting to shout until my body was mostly developed since that seemed like a good way to fuck up your body from the strain but at least knowing how to read and understand the language shouldn't be too unreasonable. There was even a whole book on it in the game I could try and get my hands on.