1 System?!?
Nick was your common ne'er do well. Just an orphan pickpocket that spent his time looking for the next big catch. At the age of fifteen he played hooky often and spent his ill gotten money on cheap cigarettes. A teen going no where in life. Little did he know the heavens had a different plan for him.
Nick was in a marketplace doing his everyday hobby. Stealing! He reached into a wealthy looking mans pocket and a pulled out a rectangular object. It was at that moment something changed.
[Stealing System activated]
A sound rang out in Nicks ear. Flustered he looked back at the man stammering.
"I didn't do anything!"
The man looks back at him like he's crazy and then continues walking. Nick looks down at what he grabbed. It's an elaborately decorated card. He turns it over and sees a well dressed man walking towards an abyss with a bindle over his back and a dog following him. On the bottom of the card are exquisite letters spelling out 'The Fool'.
(A tarot card? How strange?)
[Successful pickpocket: 10 exp]
"What the hell! Am I going insane?"
[The system assures you, you are not going insane. The system also recommends you keep our conversations inside your head.]
"I'm definitely losing it!"
Nick walks out of the marketplace and heads towards his orphanage. He goes inside and heads to his room. He starts hyperventilating coming to terms with the fact that he's losing his marbles at the ripe age of fifteen.
[Host please relax. Allow me to demonstrate the reality of the system.]
Before Nicks eyes blue text materializes.
[Stealing System]
[Host: Nick]
[Vitality: 0.8]
[Skills: N/A]
[Items: N/A]
[Heavens Steal: 1]
[Exp: 10/100]
"What the hell!"
[Host please attempt to perform a Heavens Steal and you will see]
"Alright uhh, start stealing?"
In front of nick a swirling portal appears. It looks like a vortex.
"Am I supposed to stick my hand in this?"
[Yes]
"Uh, ok"
Nick places his hand into the portal.
—————
In a run down house in the middle of the woods a young boy is walking inside a fantastical study of his great great uncle. There are bottles holding creatures and all sorts of strange tools, the young boys eyes land on a chest. He takes the key in his hands and begins to open it... only to find nothing inside.
Moments before
A hand appears out of a swirling vortex and fumbles about. It stumbles upon a thick book with red lace covering it. The hand grabs onto the book retracting back into the portal.
Soon the lid to the chest opens and a young boy looks in, only to be disappointed by the lack of anything in it.
—————
[Successful steal: 10 exp]
Nick retracts his hand to see a leather bound book. He's astonished. He feels the book verifying its authenticity.
"Holy shizzle! It's real! I'm not crazy!"
He sits on his bed and studies the book. There is a note stuck in between the red ribbons that are sealing the book with wax. He pulls it out. 'Dear reader, please whatever you do, do not open this book.' Nick looks at it puzzled. What to do?
"Whatever, I have a system like those novel characters! I'm invincible!"
He rips the wax seal off, discarding the ribbons into his waste bin.
[System has detected essence to absorb, do you wish the absorb it?]
"Yes please, I guess."
A white mist pulls itself out of the book. It flows into Nicks body through his nose and mouth. It causes a warmth to spread from his lungs. As the warm feeling reaches his eyes, something astonishing happens. It seems as if Nick has truly never seen before. Colors grow brighter and he can see every detail of the grains of wood in the floor. He focuses and his sight zooms in.
[Congratulations on obtaining the skill: All Seeing Eyes]
"Woah. this is amazing! I feel like I've had a curtain ripped off from my eyes! System show me my panel."
[Vitality: 0.8]
[Skills: All Seeing Eyes]
[Items: Arthur Spiderwick's field book]
[Heavens Steal: 0]
[Exp: 20/100]
"System, how do I get more steals?"
[The host gets a new steal everyday]
"Wonderful!"
Nick turns back to the book. He slowly opens it to the first page. The second it's opened a formless ripple spreads across the whole earth breaking apart a veil that was never meant to be broken. A second world merged with earth seamlessly.
Countless invisible and visible entities appeared in earth. The Sidhe had merged with reality. From brownies to mountain giants, countless mythological creatures appeared in Nicks world. Of course humans had no clue until reports about leprechauns in Ireland and dragons in England began popping up. But that's all at a later date.
Nick looks at the first page of the book. It says 'Arthur Spiderwick's Field Book'. He flips the page again and a lifelike drawing of a small man holding a birdie as a duster appears. On the top of the page it says 'Common Household Brownie'.
"What a crackpot everyone knows brownies don't exist... well I guess if I'm stealing from another world they might..."
He flips through a few more pages and sees many interesting mythological creatures such as swamp trolls and bugbears. All sorts of creatures appear in the book. As he's going through the pages of the book he hears scratching at the door.
He pauses and so does the scratching. He looks at the door and continues turning the pages as he stares at it. The scratching starts again. Nick puts down the book, heads over, and turns the knob on the door slowly. As he opens it he looks around only to see nothing. As he closes the door he turns around only to see a short ugly thing with a long nose, wearing tattered clothes staring at him.
"What the hell are you?
The ugly things eyes widen
"You can see me? Without an adder?"
"Yeah you're right in front of me."
The short goblin like creature turns around muttering curses and snapping its fingers intermittently. It turns around and asks him
"Can you still see me ugly?"
"Yeah.. Wait I'm the ugly one?!?"
"Damn, damn, damn!!!"
The ugly creature starts raging around his room scratching the floors and overall making a mess of things.
(Wait! I think I remember something like this in that weird book!)
Nick rushes to the book and turns the pages rapidly. He stops on a page titled 'Household Boggart'. On it there is a very familiar looking ugly thing.
(So its a boggart!)
Nick revels in this. He looks through the page on boggarts. Notes like 'bad tempered', 'cruel', and 'makes a general mess of things' are scribbled in tiny letters. He looks at a certain excerpt and sees, 'transformed from an unappreciated brownie. Leave milk in a bowl out at night and it will change back.'
Nick looks back to his room only to see his door cracked open and no boggart in sight. As it's just about bedtime he heads over to the communal kitchen, grabs a bowl of milk and leaves it under his bed as he turns over to go to sleep.
(This day has been insane, I need some rest.)
