Mr. Botl

Late in the night Nick is roused from his slumber to the loud sounds of slurping milk under his bed.

"Ohhhh, that's the good stuff!"

Nick looks under his bed to see the fat boggart finishing the bowl of milk he placed there. As it licks the last drop off the bottom of the bowl, a magical change takes place. The boggart shrinks from halfway to knee height to about the size of a middle finger. Miraculously the rags it's wearing shrink with it, and the creature gets decidedly less ugly.

It turns to look at nick with saucer like eyes.

"Thank you very much for the milk. I apologize for my earlier tantrum in your room. My name is Mr. Botl."

Nick blinks sleepily. Numb to strange occurrences by now he heads back to his bed.

"Okay Mr. Botl. I'm Nick and I'm going back to bed."

Nick harrumphes and grabs the covers tight, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep again. The brownie looks sheepishly at the mess of a room and soundlessly begins cleaning up. Mr. Botl titters at the scratches he left all over the place sheepishly shaking his head.

Early in the morning the legendary chicken fairy crows outside Nicks window waking him up with its crows that scare darkness away. Tired he heads to the communal bathroom to brush his teeth. Inside he blinks away the night to a strange sight. Mr Botl is inside scrubbing between the tiles with what looks like Nicks toothbrush.

"Hey what the H E double hockey sticks are you doing!"

"I'm cleaning, who takes care of this place it seems as if it wasn't cleaned in years."

"Well yeah our caretaker just takes the money she gets from the government and gives us a roof to live under. It's not the worst getup."

"Shameful! You better appreciate this, you better!"

Nick shakes his head remembering that an unappreciated brownie will turn into a boggart or leave the house.

(Better to have a free housekeeper and buy a new toothbrush than to deal with that grouchy guy. What a bipolar creature!)

He heads to the nearest convenience store 8-12. There he buys a new toothbrush. Happily interacting with the only store owner he's never stolen from. Why? Because the man has a sick daughter in the hospital and Nick has a semblance of a moral compass. Stealing from a man you know has hospital bills is just unethical.

He heads back and has a bowl of healthy cereal. The main source of nutrition for the kids at the orphanage. As he's eating, a girl that generally does housekeeping heads to the utilities closet and grabs a broom. Nick calls out.

"Oh you don't have to clean anymore."

The girl named Madeline gives him a despising look.

"Why, are you going to do it?

"No, we have a brownie to do our chores now. All we need to do is leave milk out at night and he'll be happy."

"You must've turned into a loon after skipping school. There's no such thing as brownies!"

She pauses giving it some thought.

"Besides even if there were, that's just some help. It'd be rude to make it do everything."

Nicks eyes widen as he has an epiphany. He finishes his cereal and heads up to his room. He pauses, its completely clean. He goes over to the bathroom and sees the brownie still working on the tiles.

"Mr. Botl its okaym take a break, I'll take over from here."

The brownie looks at him strangely.

"Why can you see me? Three people have been in here since you left and none of them noticed me. My invisibility spell is clearly working yet you see through it!"

"Uhh. I have really good eyes?" (I can't let anyone or anything know about the system! They might try to extract it from me... I can only imagine what that entails.)

"Sure you do. Well we all have our secrets. Thanks for the offer here's the brush you can keep scrubbing."

Mr Botl hands him the brush and heads out the door whistling as he goes. Seeming as carefree as can be. Nick wipes off his brow and kneels down to start scrubbing. Mr Botl speaks again causing Nick to freeze up.

"By the way where's the milk?"

"I kinda had the last of it for breakfast."

The brownies eyes narrow. Causing Nick to break out in a cold sweat.

"D'dont worry I'll get some more for you!"

Mr Botl smiles widely and thanks him for the trouble.

"I don't need milk every night but it would surely ease my stomach! I'm not a fan of eating cockroaches they give me a tummy ache."

He turns around and resumes whistling as he leaves the bathroom. Nick sighs deeply and begins scrubbing. Although half of the bathroom is already done there's still half to go. In a few hours he finishes scrubbing the tiles and quickly jumps in a shower wiping off the grime.

As he walks back towards his room preparing the steal for the day he hears in Melanie's room a radio news station playing.

"All around the world starting since last night there have been reports of mythological creatures being spotted. From east to west all sorts of people have reported seeing these creatures. Maybe it's a massive world wide prank but some expert scientists are swearing they've seen them too."

He continues walking.

(This must have something to do with that book!)

Nick arrives at his room. He peers about, checking under his bed and in the closet to make sure Mr. Botl isn't around before he calls out.

"System begin stealing!"

A portal once again appears before Nicks eyes. He sticks his hand in quickly.

—————

In a hidden hut in England a witch just finished brewing a mana awakening potion. It is for her new apprentice that stumbled across her abode as they were hiking in the wilderness. She bottles it up and prepares to hand it over saying.

"This is a premium potion that very few can brew. I used the last of my dragons eye to make this for you. In exchange for this you must give me knowledge about this world."

"Of course Ms. Greenteeth!"

A young woman stares at the potion hungrily. As she reaches out to grab it a hand appears out of a portal and fumbles about. It brushes by the potion and the women hurries her hand. Alerted by the slight contact, the hand in the air latches on to the potion and withdraws back into the portal. Ms. Greenteeth looks at the empty space in the air calmly.

"Pity, but since I made the potion you have to tell me about this world."

"No way, there's no free lunches in this world! Make another one!"

Ms. Greenteeth smiles wickedly at the stubborn woman. She cackles and says.

"I guess I'll just have to make you talk!"

She snaps her fingers and the woman is bound in the air. The woman struggles but can't move an inch.

—————

[Successful steal: 20 exp]

Nick withdraws his hand from the portal looking at the blue potion in his hands.

[System has detected essence to absorb. Do you wish to absorb?]

"Yes please!"

The white mist again flows into Nicks body. This time however tons of knowledge about brewing mystical potions floods his mind. All the way from basic to master level knowledge is embedded in his brain like it was there from the very beginning.

[Skill Acquired: Master Brewer]

"Awesome! I don't have a cauldron but I'm sure I could get one somewhere."

Nick looks at the potion in his hands curiously.

(From the color and bits of yellow floating about, according to my knowledge this is an advanced mana awakening potion! Extremely rare even in whatever world I stole it from due to the lack of ingredients.)

He unstops it and guzzles down the potion. As it hits his stomach and begins getting digested an unbearable pain splits inside his brain. It feels as if each neuron in his brain is deconstructing and reconstructing. Nick soon passes out.