Chapter 1
Mikail Anderson woke up with a start. Looking around him he could see that he had passed out in the middle of the street and there were already some people around him trying to help him to his feet.
Dazed and confused he was helped to a sitting position and was quickly overwhelmed. They must have been cosplayers or something because of how serious they used terms like magic exhaustion and heat stroke, Mikey even almost believed them. Facepalming at the fact that he was somehow of the same species as these guys, who obviously took the Renaissance Fair way too far, then he caught sight of his hands. He was shocked to see that they looked calloused, way too calloused to belong to a teenager from this century. All the while the crowd of observers watched him stare at his hand like a newborn child would.
Just as he began to panic he felt a comforting heat rise in his chest and he was bombarded by a new set of senses that were completely different from what he was used to. Grabbing at his head he tried to alleviate the blinding headache, he felt as if someone had given up on shoving a knife in his brain and decided a rusty spoon was the best way to surgically remove his eyeballs.
"Hey kid, are you okay?" said a younger man with red lines of heat streaking through his skin.
"Anyone see what happened?" asked an old woman with a calm blue aura.
"Quick! Give him some space!" shouted a middle aged lady whose voice echoed a visible green.
Mikey could only look at them again in astonishment, his eyes clearing up from the barrage of new senses. What he had previously thought was paint makeup was reality, and reality for some reason now has professional quality CGI effects. Mikey let them drag him to a nearby donut shop. Once they were sure he was okay they left him there but not before buying him a few glazed rings (aka the best donut).
Looking at his hands while he munched on fluffy fried perfection he was confused again. Mikey could see multiple veins of piercingly warm yellow energy running through them.
Mikey looked over his old memories, trying to figure out what happened before he collapsed but could only remember he was walking through the streets of Cahokia, Illinois to his dorm after school. After being orphaned at a young age Micheal felt lost diving into media to escape the world around him. One of the first of the things he read was his school books which combined with his intelligence led him to being offered a full-ride scholarship at a private school for potential military assets(aka military school) but it wasn’t so bad, it had a few benefits including an individual dorm nearby the school.
He ended up accepting the offer, if only to have his own space to fill with his hobbies.
However, currently in the place of the busy school road was a place that looked like a real life version of the alley from that one series. What was the name of that Alley? Mikey couldn’t help but think it rhymed vertically and horizontally.
Anyway, people raced down the streets in floating carriages and flying brooms. While it seemed like road rage was a constant across universes, if the screaming was something to go by, but the sheer range of colors he could now see was very different. Mikey could only look at this supposed magic and think maybe this was something that would be worth looking forward to.
Taking everything in at once any person would assume they were in some sort of theme park but his eyes told him otherwise. As he looked around the shop, he saw a number of these color-filled wizards in a mix of modern clothes and robes talking and eating their meals, he couldn't deny the fact that they were real. At least they were real enough that when he threw a balled up napkin at them and they glared at him in response.
So in the end he had come to a conclusion, he had somehow ended up in a magic-ified version of his world. Mikey tried to wrap his head around how he got here but decided to give it up, he was here now and his old world was long gone, having been absorbed into this new reality.
He ate the last of his donut trying to take in everything he knew about this new world he was in. Looking at the napkin in his hand he tried to see the streaks that brightly contrasted peoples skin and something amazing happened, slowly but surely an image appeared in his mind.
"Huh?"
He could see the veins of magic running through the napkin. Their color, having been long faded, showed itself as a dull gray.
The overweight young man looked on in wonder, he didn’t know what to think as this was something completely new to him, although it was almost reminiscent of some kind of tv show he had watched before.
Mikey stood up and began to walk away from the donut shop toward his old dorm all the while staring at the small paper napkin.
In no time at all he arrived at his worn-down dorm building. Looking at it curiously he wanted to see if there were any major changes similar to the roads but if there were then he couldn’t see them from the steps where he stood. All the orphans that chose to take up a military scholarship like he’d been offered had been given a room in one of these renovated barracks and would receive a monthly allowance, until they either graduated or failed. Mikey could only hope this new world’s school would have the same policy.
Taking out a key from his pocket, he went to his room which was on the first floor, behind the door with the sign that said 1-B. Stepping inside, the first thing that he noticed was the empty walls, all of his valuable collectibles from his first edition collectible cards to the signed movie poster he treasured, they were all gone. The young transmigrator could only see barren walls with only a single bed, neatly made, and a few miscellaneous items on the floor. The police would receive a report not long after about a womanly scream coming from that building not too much later. Mikey would deny this until the day he died.
The dorm layout was simple, with it only having a living room/bedroom, a kitchen with a counter, and a bathroom. Even the kitchen was uncomfortably clean, similar to how his old wards would force him to clean his room before he got out of that nightmare they called an orphanage. Taking a finger, he slid it on the counter and saw a lack of dust. Whatever version of himself that lived here before even passed the legendary white glove test.
At a loss for what to do, Mikey was determined to bring some sort of familiarity to the room he had lovingly filled with memorabilia.
"I must decorate," the boy stated as he rolled up his sleeves and began to go about the room trying to make it look as if someone had lived here before. Borrowing some arts and crafts supplies from his Residential Advisor, a nice old lady that seemed shocked to see him ask for anything, he went about making a few posters of his favorite entertainment pieces. Legendary names soon filled the walls like Dr*g*n **ll, Na***o, and even Er***n. Despite all the work he was doing, he did it with a smile. Having the chance to experience this once again was like a new start in this new world.
Once he was done with the living room, he finally stopped to inspect himself in the mirror.
Mikey was glad to see that he looked the same as always, maybe a little rounder if that was possible, he was short, standing at about 5' 4” and if you saw him on the street you’d be amazed at how a bowling ball could grow legs. Looking down at his stomach he noticed that he was actually quite fat and even his face was also very round on account of his chubby cheeks. Quickly looking elsewhere before the trauma of having his cheeks pinched as a kid returned, he noticed he had slanted fox eyes that looked like they were closed all the time. His hair was a greasy looking blond and looked like a cow mistook him for its favorite salt block with its curls. Looking at his clothes he saw that he was wearing the same dirty green sweater he left with but it no longer had his favorite characters on the front. Lifting one of his sleeves, Mikey's nose crinkled with how bad he smelled.
Giving himself one last look in the mirror he turned to the bathroom, "This will not go on any longer. I must shower."
MIkey spent twenty minutes scrubbing himself raw using the hottest water possible in order to make sure he was clean. The shower handle was a little different now with weird inscriptions on the knobs but thankfully it operated pretty similarly. Getting out of the shower he went to the closet and found the only pair of clothes that were remotely clean, a pair of green shorts and a white shirt.
"Now what?" Mikey said out loud to himself. Now that he was here, he didn't know what he should do.
Sitting on the foot of a small twin sized bed that was placed against the farthest wall of the room, he spread the few belongings he had on the sheets writing down on a separate piece of paper what he had.
Fifteen weird stone tiles used for runes, Seven dull knives, School books, 7,147 Dollars, Two ‘bulletproof’ shirts, sandals, and a Red Bandana.
As he familiarized himself with the room some memories of this new reality started filtering into his head and after reviewing them he was left with only one conclusion. He was in some sort of crappy story. Fortunately Mikey was an avid connoisseur of fiction and media so, he had knowledge of the tropes that would fill this story and was not afraid to use it.
Closing his eyes completely, not that anyone would notice on account of the fact that they always looked closed, he tried to organize his thoughts.
From what he could remember of this new world, Mikey had joined his current school back when he was six like the rest of the orphans. He was was in his last year before graduation.
He was in class 4-G, a class that was mostly made up of orphans that didn't come from a Niblian Family and as a result, received less attention than those from classrooms like 4-A that filled with all the current Niblian heirs.
That was another thing that assured him that this was a poorly made story, some people gained special abilities through various rituals, accidents, techniques, and all other sorts of stuff that were then bound to their bloodline creating a Nibilian family line. So of course there were many famous bloodlines that had somehow died out but were prophesied to return to enrich the Cahokian City-state.
To make things worse instead of Cahokia is no longer a part of the United States despite being smack dab in the middle of the country. Cahokia is instead independently run by its Chieftain, who works alongside the U.S. President. Which sounds stupid but due to some weird politics about being founded first on top of being the magical capital city of the continent where the entire Mage Corp was based out of to defend the United States from other countries copies of Cahokia.
What that means for Mikey is the entire city-state is essentially run by an elected dictator who is also his new boss since he is a part of the Mage Corps School.
The Chieftain tends to be elected from the strongest mages in the force with the current being Chieftain Bearden having ruled for the last 40 years through his ability to master concepts relating to fire, earth, wind, water, and lightning despite his lack of Nibillian heritage. His skill in magic is so great that he gained the moniker ‘Father of the Elements’ in the city and ‘Father of Disaster’ in other countries from what was left of the battlefeild after he had passed through.
At least the amount of money left behind was a welcomed sight since it meant that he had at least some sort of resources. Apparently the Magical version of himself was a very practical businessman, and only used the bare minimum of his money whenever possible. Case in point was the pantry that was full of cheap and unhealthy foods, like instant ramen and chips. It was a wonder that he had grown fat living off so little for the past five years.
He got 200 dollars every month for spending money. He was expected to shop for his own groceries since the utilities were already taken care of. His small savings was a result of four and a half years of careful budgeting(penny-pinching).
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Looking at the equipment spread out on his bed he picked up a dulled knife and examined it carefully. Just like before, a visual popped into his head of the dark gray almost dried up veins of magic. Putting down the knife he thought about this strange sight.
"Empty? Doesn’t that mean I should just fill it," he said pensively, Mikey could only guess because his magical versions' memories had never seen these kinds of magical veins.
As a lover of all fiction he could already guess how to channel his mana into the object, although now that he thought about it his own magical circulatory system didn't seem to have as much mystical make magic worky juice(mana) compared to the people he saw outside but maybe he was normal and they were all just ridiculously strong.
Every single person he saw.
Mikey knew it wasn’t likely but at least let him hope you dream crushers.
Grabbing the knife he decided to test this theory by channeling the magic into the dull knife with the intention of 'Strengthening it'. Once he started to feed it his mana, the knife started to absorb the energy before releasing it letting it flow away, and he felt his reserves plummet to fifth of what they were.
Huffing as he sat there Mikey once again dove into his knowledge of fiction specifically of a very specific visual novel where the main character would imagine filling up all the imperceptible cracks in the object. Once more he tried pushing his magic into the knife while keeping in mind the idea of strengthening through filling the cracks in the gray veins and the blade itself. Suddenly he could feel the strengthening take hold.
Getting another knife to compare, he could see the difference in their veins with how the strengthened one would have a little more glimmer of color to it. On the outside they looked identical, the only noticeable difference was that the strengthened version seemed sturdier in his hands.
Mikey fed the knife more magic, hoping to see more of what it would do. He was able to strengthen it three more times before he felt his reserves drop dangerously low.
The best way he could describe how the effect felt would be something like just holding it and knowing it had triple its original attack power at least that’s what he’d say if he was a gamer caught lacking which he is not. Never has, never will be, stay true peeps. As a test he took the normal knife and threw it at the wall, closely followed by the strengthened version. The first one bounced off the stone wall harmlessly like he expected, but the new strengthened version managed to lodge itself about two centimeters in before falling to the floor too.
A little woozy from the rapid expenditure of mana Mikey giggled and wondered if he could do it again.
Taking out the napkin from before, he observed it again taking in the smaller gray veins it held.
Mikey’s curiosity peaked, and he wanted to see what it would do if he strengthened it.
That was his last thought before he felt a headache and passed out.
Opening his eyes again, or at least as wide as they let him, he noticed that the sun had fallen. He felt his body ache, almost as if he had run the mobility training course five times without any breaks. He then noticed that his magical reserves were already back to full capacity, even more curiously it felt like it had grown by a small bit while he was asleep. From his extensive knowledge of mass media, he had assumed it would take much longer to recover after emptying his reserves of mana. Mikey could only add that to the list of things to look into in this new world.
Looking over at the strengthened napkin, he let out a snort of pride. It still weighed the same, but he noticed that the paper was much stronger than before after six strengthenings. He tried to bend it as far as he could between his fingers, but even with his impressive(slightly below average) strength he only managed to bend it a little before it snapped back into place.
Gathering more magic in his hands he fed it some more energy in hopes to see just how far he could strengthen it to. Only to feel the Magic slip through it and become weaker.
"It seems that it can fail too. It also degraded a bit," he said as he contemplated his next choice of action. "I might as well see how far I can push it."
Mikey strengthened it again, and this time it was a success, bringing it back to sixth level of strengthening. He continued to level it until it reached the ninth, but when he tried to push mana in the tenth time he failed again, only this time instead of it degrading a little it disintegrated.
A frown crossed his face when he thought of the time spent on that napkin.
After cleaning the dust from his bed, he retrieved more napkins that he had taken from the trash, feeling they could be useful later on, which just so happened to be true. Always nice to remember he’s resourceful and definitely not a hoarder.
Mikey was determined to figure out what went wrong with that tenth strengthening, no matter how many tries it took.
It took some time, but he finally pulled it off 20 minutes later. At some point he had moved to the bathroom so as to not make a mess but with each failure he would learn something new. For example, once something has degraded too many times it will just disintegrate instead of degrading. Also there was an increasing level of difficulty for every strengthening he would stack upon an object on top of stronger items being more complex by themselves. Finally, the tenth strengthening would always fail unless he could fill one of the gray veins completely making it hold mana similar to a living object. His reserves were almost empty again, but the fruit of his labors were finally in his hands, and what a fruit it was.
One of the veins on the item had lit up with a murky color of its own and with it came an ability Mikey was instinctively able to use. This one could allow it to clean up 10% more of a spill.
"So it seems to gain a buff after it fills a vein. Would it become alive if I filled all of them? This reminds me of those crafting RPGs that I used to play back in the other world," the small round boy said to himself. Looking through the memory of the young man in question, he could see that they indeed looked very similar. He was curious to see what else this ability gave him. "Could this be an ability similar to those the Nibilian Families typically have? Still, this is one weird ability, even when accounting for magic."
'Now what?' he thought. That was the question he had been avoiding all day. This magic filled existence was new to him, and he didn't know what he should do.
He was the current Mikey or, maybe a better way to put it was he wanted to be different from the person he was in the past world and not just a fake copy of the Mikey who used to exist here.
If possible, he wanted to stay as a normal person since that meant that he wouldn't need to be in any possible danger. He could even open up a store and make his living through blacksmithing, but his magical version had entered a contract to serve as a war mage for his local government after graduation in exchange for free education.
Looking at the napkin in his hand, he began to get an idea. "Maybe if I open up a shop earlier, I can earn enough money to buy my way to retire early and then move to a far away island. Leave all the inevitable conflict in this cliche magic world to someone else, all I have to worry about is if this is going to be like Ha*** ****er where the conflict happens at the school but I’ll get out if that’s the case maybe I’ll join the Magical French Foreign Legion or something."
It was decided, he would try to avoid fighting as much as possible and open a shop to help in his goals of being a normal person. Still that did raise some problems, "Where should I get the materials from? I can strengthen stuff so maybe I can pull stuff from the junkyard to use as materials like when I tried to replicate those guys on that forging competition show."
He decided to make a plan of all the things he needed to accomplish if he hoped to live a long and prosperous life as a storekeeper, and once he was finished he went to sleep. It was Friday, so he had two days off before he needed to attend classes again.
After some much needed rest, Mikey started his day with some morning stretches. His goal was to be able to touch his toes by the end of the month, a difficult task for even the most flexible of people(or maybe just him).
After eating whatever he could scrounge up from the fridge he took half of his savings and decided to go out on the town, plus he wanted to check out any potential competition for his shop.
He bid the old lady taking care of the building a goodbye before leaving.
Walking down the street into the crowded market street he tried to keep track of where he was but the many colors flashing through the many super tall giants (people of average height) Mikey was left with little choice but to escape to the side streets. You might think to yourself, isn't it dangerous for a young child to walk by himself in the dark alleyways of a big city like Cahokia but that was another one of the differences between mikey’s old world and this one is the lack of petty crime. Whether it be due to truth-telling magic or how any two-bit earth mage can raise a house in a few minutes, there were less people performing crimes out of desperation. Finally, after some introspective walking Mikey was able to make it to an equipment shop that Mikey had heard of in passing..
It was an old shop with aged wooden walls, owned by a retired mage. The man was simply called Old Jack by the customers and he doubted anyone knew his real name, not even Jack.
Jack was hunched over as he stocked some of the shelves with more equipment. His frame was almost skeletal with how tall and thin he was, the large number of scars cutting through his wrinkle lines told him that the old man used to be a fierce mage before becoming a shop owner. He was wearing a simple blue kimono with his white hair tied in a traditional top bun, making him look like one of those old samurais that Mikey used to see in movies.
Jack nodded in his direction before going back to stacking the shelves.
Mages were a suspicious bunch especially those who have survived long enough to retire. Mikey had taken note of the tiny laser engraved runic sequences on all the shelves that lit up with his new sight and even the smaller ones that looked like smudges and stains without his sight. Old Jack didn’t take chances with his merchandise..
The shop was small, but it had a large variety of equipment ranging from swords to gem embedded staves, explosives to smoke pellets, even those ration bars.
He browsed through the aisle scanning the weapons and armor. Picking up an unadorned wooden staff from the stack in the corner he looked at it and the illusionary image poured into his head.
He saw the well detailed gray veins that ran through the length of the wood. He could see the craftsmanship that it had been put into the piece and yet there was no mana running through enhancing it like his technique did. Mikey felty a flutter of giddiness at the idea that his ability may be truly unique.
Placing the staff back on the rack he began to look at more of the weapons and some of the armor.
It was then that he stopped and stared at a display case on the wall that had a giant Claymore, easily nine feet long. This beautiful piece had a filled vein but not like how Mikey had done so in the past with the napkin but rather it looked like the vein was crafted from the outside instead of it filling and strengthening it from the inside.
So it was possible to bring an item to the same level as Mikey’s through sheer craftsmanship.
Behind the counter were more weapons being displayed by hooks, as well as scrolls that looked like they might be used for some written form of magic.
Jack, who had seated himself in a chair behind the glass display counter, reading a book that seemed quite popular with the old men in the city, didn't pay him any mind as he looked at all of the things behind the glass counter. There were small smoke pellets, magic replenishing potions, stamina potions, some type of food bar, and explosive talismans.
Now that he thought about it, there was something that he had yet to see.
"Jack, can you give me one of those ration bars?" he asked as he began to take out the money from his dumpling shaped wallet.
Jack looked at him with an incredulous look, "You actually want one? Those things taste like well oiled cardboard. I've never seen anyone eating one that wasn't starving and delirious."
He shook his head up and down, "Yep."
Still looking skeptical Jack got off his chair and reached behind the counter and took out a ration bar and placed it on the counter, "Fine kid. It'll be five dollars ."
Putting the appropriate amount on the counter, he grabbed the bar that was wrapped similar to toaster pastry. He ripped one end open and the first thing to hit him was the strong smell of vitamins and minerals. Taking it fully out of the wrapper he saw that it was the same shape as a granola bar, but it looked and felt more like a piece of white chalk.
Jack had yet to take the money from the counter instead waiting for the boy's reaction from taking his first bite.
The pudgy teenager took his time and thought as he brought the bar closer to his mouth, curious to see if it was as bad as it was made out to be. Slowly he took a small bite, taking a fourth of the entire thing in his mouth.
He let it dissolve for a bit before moving it around in his mouth to get a clear flavor. That was his first mistake. Mikey's face scrunched up as he found that it tasted exactly how it looked, like chalk. "What an interesting taste and texture," he said as he threw the rest of the bar into his mouth. This was his second mistake as it became very bitter and tasted like someone had chopped up an onion and slathered it with fish oil before claiming it was a five star meal celebrities would be lucky to eat.
Once he was done eating, he turned to the aged mage that was staring into space probably remembering a much happier time from his younger years. Then Mikey looked behind Jack, this was his third mistake. On the wall behind Jack was a flier holding a challenge with the winner receiving an advanced Magicians kit and one equipment of Your Choice (500 Dollars or lower).
The challenge was to eat twenty ration bars in under thirty minutes.
23 minutes and 58 seconds later Mikey stepped outside the shop with one advanced Magician’s kit, a wooden sword, and a box full of ration bars as a gift. His stomach may be rebelling against his body but he had won, and his picture was being hung up on the wall by Jack. The pudgy teen was happy, he got to try something and got a bunch of new equipment without having to pay for it.
Now he just needed to shop for groceries and he could go home but, as he was making his way to the supermarket, he saw something that caught his attention. A traveling monk had set up a small stand outside of a convenience store. People passing by would drop money at his feet where a small cup was at. He would thank them and offer them a written blessing.
Mikey was never the religious kind, but maybe it was worth it to give it a try. He was proof that there really was something to this whole reincarnation thing after all. With that he made up his mind and headed to the direction of the seated monk.