Trying to Cheat the System

In total, I had spent a little over an hour driving to, and going through Walmart to get the things I thought I'd need, and then back. I had 3 dollars and twenty cents to my name after the trip, but once I was able to sell the things from Efra, I hoped to at least make that money back in a month. When I got home, I made my mother her TV dinner and took it, and the rest of her things to her. She sat on her bed and watched some show or another on Netflix. I placed her soda by the foot of her bed, and set the cookies on the table

"You forgot my chocolate…"

"Sorry."

"Just get out of here, I knew you weren't listening to me, you never do."

"Sorry."

"I bet you didn't even go by the pharmacy like I asked."

"You didn't ask."

"Are you calling me a liar? Why are you calling me a liar? Why are you mad at me?"

"Sorry."

"Just get out."

I hurried out of her room, making sure not to make any noise to upset her anymore. Should I get my hearing checked somehow? No. I can't afford something like that.

You're not deaf. My Patron spoke through the Shard. She was simply lying.

"I don't believe that I must have done something wrong."

My Patron didn't respond. I put my things into my room, and pack the bag to be ready to go as soon as possible. I filled up the water bottle with cold water, set it in the net meshing along the side, and adjusted the straps so that it sat on my shoulders as well as it could. I still had about 10 hours before the doors would open and the war would begin. I had two options: resting until the allotted time or cleaning the house. Once more, shame swam through me like a fish through a pond, and stirred me to action. What other spirits were keeping an eye on me? A thousand eyes judging my every action. I should work to impress those invisible beings, shouldn't I? So I don't have to live with this shame continuously whenever I enter my own home.

I start in the kitchen; gathering the dirty dishes all over the house, including my room; leaving the ones in my mother's room untouched, as she'd snap at me for going in there. After the dishes, I do the countertops; clearing the trash built up on them, and using a sponge to clean off the gunk built up on the faux marble. Next, was the living room; I put the bottles of vodka into the blue bin, swept up the trash on the floor, and knocked down the spiderwebs built up on the corners of the walls. The restroom was last; I picked up the discarded cardboard tubes I had long neglected to throw out, the old toothpaste tubes, and the empty soap bottles. Once that was done, I figured it was good enough for today, and I laid down to rest.

I tossed and turned in my sheets, as my heart and mind raced in equal measure. How was I going to fight with the magic I had been given? What kind of things would I have to fight? Goblins? Orcs? I had read certain Korean comics that had similar premises. Was I going to find myself face to face with a giant statue that'd blow apart my body at the slightest wrong movement? Was this all the delirium of a man driven insane through isolation and desperation longing for something drastic to change his life? Anything was possible. Scrolling through YouTube and Twitter did nothing to calm my worry, so the best thing I could do was strategize on what I would be doing with my building in the future with the assumption that I wasn't going crazy. I scroll through my stats. What good would creativity do? Should I pour all my points into magic and intelligence?

Trying to get more information from the stats and what exactly they did, only gave quick messages back like: "Strength – how strong you are," or, "Intelligence – how smart you are," I suppose I need to figure out how exactly they helped myself. I could ascertain the obvious things; Strength would mean I would probably be able to carry more things and hit harder, Endurance would probably mean I'd be able to go for longer, and Speed and Reflexes are probably the most obvious of the two...but what exactly was the difference between Intelligence and Creativity? Does not one flow from the other? Ah well. I decided to put it out of my mind and look through my quests to formulate a plan there. Obviously, I was going to work on completing all of these. Out of them all, the easiest would be Looter and Merchant of Death, right...I scrolled through the lines of 0/100 until I came across Novice Mage I with the numbers 2/100. Had it counted the spells I had cast that morning? I sat up. Then…

I pulled my phone out from under my pillow. 4 PM it read. This is a normal day, near a holiday, so my father won't be home to see me doing anything too weird. I grab my wand, my Shard, and my coat and head outside. The skies rumbled ominously as the rains that had been building in the heavens all day began to batter the tin roof of the awning hung over the cement patio. I grab one of the chairs there, and point my wand toward the lawn, currently being filled with water.

"I allow the blood of the Salamanders to flow through me."

A whopping three pieces of ash fell from my wand and died on the cold cement patio.

"Gnomes, servants of Gob the Magnanimous, I beseech thee to bombard my enemies."

The rock that had been thrown earlier from the spell lifts off the ground, and makes it about halfway across the yard. I exploded into a massive migraine as soon as the stone rolled to a stop. I clutched it and hissed loudly as the pounding headache spread through my entire face. My vision whitened for the brief second it took me to close my eyes. I tried to push myself up off the chair but ended up fumbling backward and onto the ground. Upon seeing this, Clio rushed off her perch, and out the door and began whining at me as I writhed in pain on the ground. She peppered my face with licks and nestled on my chest. Her presence was calming as the blinding pain burned through my head for another hour.

Once it had vanished, there was a new sensation; a burning in my core as if I had just swallowed boiling water.

"Hey, Patron, what the hell was that?" I asked as I put my arm over my sweat-stained forehead and caught my breath.

Mana locking. If you use too much magic in a short period, then that will happen.

"You couldn't tell me that before? Was that strange burning sensation from mana locking as well?"

No. That was your Magic stat increasing. Whenever you experience mana locking, it increases your Magic stat by half a point.

"Wait, really? Then that headache I had this morning…"

Was also mana-locking. The more often it happens in 24 hours, the more intense the sensation.

"So I'm able to only use 2 spells before going through that again?"

No no. You're able to use 3 spells for now. Though if you wait an hour that number resets.

"How is that number even determined?"

By your Magic Stat + your Magic Affinity level. Once your Affinity level reaches level 20 it will be multiplicative instead of additive.

Then I'd practically never run out of spells to be able to use.

"How do I raise Magic Affinity?"

..using magic? Of course? Every ten spells, it will increase by 1.

"That's kind of stingy."

It is what it is. Call it stingy however you like, but humans are not naturally meant to be tampering with these forces. Certain humans have the natural capability of doing so, but not you.

I pet Clio mindlessly as I wait for the last throbs to fade. Let's see...I've already used four spells today for one increase in magic...if I go through two more cycles of this, my magic would increase again, and I'd gain a point in Magic Affinity, increasing my use of magic up to five, meaning I would only need two cycles of mana lock to further increase Magic Affinity, which would give me eight casts…

"Can I die from mana-lock?"

No, but you could be made catatonic if you're not careful.

I lifted Clio off of my chest, propped up the chair, and pointed the wand toward me.

"You that bind the all, protect me from those that would bring me harm."

The circle on the wand lit up with a brilliant white momentarily before a flash of light surrounded me. It glimmered slightly, as I prodded it with my fingers. It was as if a thin layer of glass surrounded my entire body. Huh. It could be useful.

"Gnomes, servants of Gob the Magnanimous, I beseech thee to bombard my enemies."

Another stone; sat in a small pit of gravel near the fence line near me, flew forward. As my wand was still pointed at my head, it smacked against the Repel and shattered it. Never mind. I should have known.

I pointed the wand out toward the rain-soaked yard this time and began the incantation to Ember. The triangle glowed a bright orange, and four ashes trickled from the tip of the wand. A jolt of electricity shot through my brain and down my spine as if I had been struck with lightning. I went slack in my chair and convulsed. I wasn't aware of the passing of time, just the soul-searing pain. I suppose it wouldn't be that easy, huh?