Chapter 2

𝚆𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝙰𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎

"I'm in." Max spoke into his phone after the dial clicked.

"Oh? That was quick, GodSpawn. I'm at the Attack Site right now, but I'll swing by in the morning to get you for training. For now, I suggest you read the book." Proctor spoke into his own phone, the sounds of the afternoon forest also making their way into the phone, "You're a Watcher Apprentice now, GodSpawn."

The line went dead when Proctor stopped talking, causing Max to look at his phone screen, "He hung up? Does he do that a lot?"

Max grabbed the book he had set on his nightstand and opened it back up. He read what he already had to get it fresh in his mind and continued. At parts, he read out loud, "Though it is not necessarily 'evil' magic, Dark Arts tend to focus on destruction, harming, cursing and otherwise complicating the lives of other people while advancing the user's state. Users often reject social convention and the status quo, which some suggest is in a search for spiritual freedom. As a part of this, they embrace magical techniques and practices that would traditionally be viewed as taboo and are generally willing to go farther than most would even consider if it serves their ends."

He was at the part where it described the Pillars of Existence. There were four of them: Light, Dark, Space, and Time.

He had already covered Pure Magic, which is basically just the manipulation of Mana Particles to achieve different effects. The only way it differed from Elemental Magic was that it had no defined attribute, and could change between multiple different effects in quick succession.

Elemental Magic was strange to him. According to the book, Elemental Mages usually chose two or three elements to specialize in. This confused him, why not just use Pure Magic, it seems easier than being restricted to only certain elements.

He continued to read the book, finally getting Advanced Elemental Magic. He couldn't actually use Magic yet, but theory is still useful.

He also found the answer to his question. Pure Magic was stronger than Elemental Magic, at least in the beginning. Once they got to Advanced Stages, Elemental Mages could infuse their bodies with their elements, giving them a significant boost.

Master Elemental Mages could even embody their elements, becoming something similar to an actual, honest to god elemental.

Max still wanted to learn Pure Magic, however. If you could become one with your element, who's to say you couldn't do the same with Mana? His thoughts drifted, "Man, I wonder how long Proctor's been learning Magic. To be able to freeze time on the other side of the world, he must be insanely powerful."

The Advanced Elements were interesting, but they were basically just combinations or extensions of the four base Elements.

The Advanced Elements consisted of Lightning, Ice, Crystal, Life, Poison, Lava, Psychic, Metal, Vibration, and Blood.

"Wait." Max counted out all of the magic he had read about in the book, "20 Elements and Pure Magic."

He flipped back through the book, not finding what he was looking for, "That's only 18 Elements. Is something missing? Is-Do I not have the full book?"

He went to the end of the book, but there didn't seem to be any pages missing. He went to reach for his phone to call Proctor, but a knock came to his door.

"Who is it?" He questioned loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear.

"It's dad." His father, James, said from the other side of the closed door.

Max placed the book onto his shelf and opened the door, "What's up, dad?"

His father scratched his nose with a tattooed right hand. The tattoo was mostly identical to one his mother had, Max just assumed it was their form of a wedding ring, as neither wore one.

"Your mother told me about what happened to your friend." James was obviously uncomfortable, he had never had a conversation like this with Max. They never explained sex to Max, and they never explained death to him either. Of course, Max wasn't stupid. He knew of death and sex, and he knew his parents were like rabbits every night.

"It's alright, dad." Max stepped out of his room, closing the door as he and James walked towards the stairs, "I'm doing fine."

"I'm not dumb, Max. I can see that you're hurting. It's okay to let it out." James patted Max's shoulder, then took the first step down the stairs. He was followed closely by Max.

"I know, dad. But, really, I'm fine. I already talked to J, he's gonna come get me in the morning and we're gonna go hang out." James stopped and turned, his shoulder perpendicular to Max.

"Good. That's good. You should talk with someone, even if it's not your mother or I." He smiled at Max, then turned and headed the rest of the way downstairs.

Max's phone chimed in his pocket. He pulled it out and typed his passcode on the cracked and broken screen. It was a message from Jake, "Jake just texted me. Give me a second."

James nodded and walked into the kitchen. Max clicked on Jake's contact and waited with his phone pressed to his ear.

"Max, thank god. I thought you did something stupid." Jake spoke worriedly, heavily confusing Max.

"What? What are you talking about? I haven't left my house since you called me." Max petted his dog who came and sat next to him.

"Wait, you haven't? I thought for sure you went to the Crime Scene. My dad said that they saw someone running away from it a short time ago." Max's hand froze as Jake's words sunk in.

"What did the man look like? The one they saw fleeing?" Max questioned.

"Dad said they didn't get a good look, but he ran into the woods. They're searching for him now." Max breathed a sigh of relief. If it really was Proctor that they saw, at least they didn't get a good look at him.

That raised new questions, though. Why didn't Proctor freeze time to take a look at the scene?

"Max. Max, are you listening?" Max shook his head free of his thoughts.

"Yeah, J. Sorry. What were you saying?"

"Don't go looking for trouble, Max. Especially not at night, okay. Don't do anything stupid."

"How could I? You're taking it with you." With a chuckle, Jake hung up the phone.

Max looked at his dog, "Duke, who's a good boy?"

With a pat on the white dog's head, Max walked into the kitchen.

James was cutting a cooked brisket and Helen was reading a newspaper at the counter. James looked up at Max, "The brisket's done. Come sit down."

Max did as told and grabbed three plates from the dish cupboard. He set one at each of the two empty seats next to the counter and the last one in front of his mother who nodded her thanks. James set pieces of brisket on each plate, "So, Max. What are you and Jake doing tomorrow?"

"Uh, we aren't sure yet." Max cut his piece of brisket into smaller pieces and took a bite, "We were thinking of seeing a movie. Maybe go bowling tomorrow night."

"Don't talk with food in your mouth." His mother warned without looking away from her magazine.

"Well, if you need some spending money let me know. I think I've got a couple hundred somewhere around here." Helen gave a pointed look to James, who just shrugged. Confused, Max ignored it and took a bite of his food.

"I might need a bit of money, but I've still got around $50 from the last date I went on with…" He froze for a second, "With… Theodosia."

Helen glared at James, he shivered slightly, "Well, uh, how about we, you and I, go do something together on Sunday? Would you like that? Maybe we could go fishing?"

"Sure, dad." Max took a deep breath and finished his food, "I'm gonna head to bed early. I'll see you tomorrow."

Max got up and put his plate in the sink, rinsing it off. As he walked out of the kitchen he heard his mother, "I'll take you to get a new phone when I get home tomorrow night."

"Okay. Thank you." He said over his shoulder, then headed upstairs.

He opened his door, closing it as he walked into his room. He put on a pair of basketball shorts and climbed into bed.

Turning off his lamp, Max closed his eyes and did his best to sleep.

The next morning, Max woke up to the sound of his phone ringing. He accepted the call groggily, "Hello?"

"GodSpawn, wake up. I'm waiting outside." The line went dead, signaling the end of the conversation and the refusal to take Max's bargain of letting him sleep past 5 in the morning.

Max sighed. With a groan, he rolled over and laid on his back. With a heave and a ho, Max got up and put on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt that read 'This House is Bitchin' and was red in color.

He put on his tennis shoes and grabbed his phone. He took a quick look into the six foot mirror on his wall, then combed back his blonde hair, "Let's hope it's a good day."

With a thump, Max fell to the ground. He groaned, "It's not gonna be a good day."

"Well, if you put up a shield it would be." Proctor said as he breathed out a smoky breath.

The two were in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, with Max lying painfully in the snow. Proctor had fired a blast of magic that Max was supposed to have blocked.

"This ain't fair. You're a Master Wizard or some bullshit." Max said as he crawled out of the ankle-deep snow. He stood back up, stretching his aching arms.

Proctor chuckled, flicking away his cigarette butt, "You have to picture the shield between you and my spell. Oh, also make sure it's facing the right way."

"What?"

"Impetu." Proctor shouted as a marble-sized ball of blue Mana shot at Max.

"Fuck. Tego." His shield formed but was shattered by the blue marble which then struck his bare arm. He fell over again, this time with a new hole in the arm of his shirt.

"Damn you, Proctor. Give me some warning." Max groaned again, rubbing his bruised arm.

"Will your enemies give you a warning, GodSpawn?" Proctor lit another cigarette, puffing out some smoke.

"Can you stop calling me that? It's discomforting."

"What should I call you then? Max? That's a stupid name." Proctor retorted.

"Thanks. I was born with it." Max laughed dryly, "Call me Redford. It's my middle name."

"Do your parents have something against you? Maximilian Redford Drake? They must have had a vendetta against you in your past life or something." Proctor let out a loud, British laugh, "I'll just call you Red."

"I don't see what's wrong with Max." Max muttered as he got ready to set up another shield.

"Impetu."

"Tego." The shield was almost enough to stop the weak Impetu, almost. It cracked and shattered, with the spell fizzling on Max's chest. It had enough power to knock out his breath, but not enough to knock him down.

He brought in a cold breath, trying desperately to breathe normally. Proctor turned around and snuffed his cigarette, "You're getting better, Kid. Slowly."

"Mhmm." For the nth time, Max groaned painfully.

"Max is too generic. Maximilian is too long. Redford is just stupid. I figured Red was good enough to pass." Proctor walked past Max and grabbed something from his car.

It was a black Camaro, definitely not made to be driven in the snowy woods. Proctor opened the door and reached into his glove box, pulling out a copper ring.

He closed the door and tossed the ring to Max, "Take this. It'll boost your magic a little. It also signifies you as my apprentice and a newbie Watcher. Drop some blood on it and it'll only come off when you want it to."

Max caught the ring. It was a simple ring, he was expecting the Watchers to have something more ornate. It was a thin copper ring with a glowing blue infinity symbol on the top.

The ring was a bit bigger than his index finger, but fit snugly on his right thumb. He looked at Proctor's hand and saw a shiny black ring on his right ring finger.

"Why are they different?" Max asked his new teacher and apparent superior officer.