It was the summer of my junior year of university. I was a studying Philosophy and had a strong personal interest in mysticism and magic (honestly, I think this originated from all the tabletop RPGs I played as a teen and all the PC fantasy RPGs I played in my free time). I was doing some research for a paper at the campus library when I came across a book entitled “Spells from the Nether Worlds, Vol. 1.” I was about to continue looking for the books I needed when I noticed the author’s name.
Faust?
“How is this possible?” I wondered. “All of his books should have been destroyed in the 15th or 16th century.” Out of curiosity, I pulled the tome down and went to an out-of-the-way study room to skim through it. As I sat down, I noticed something weird about the book; nowhere on its exterior were the usual markings of the library (you know how, usually, there are stamps on the closed pages or a bar code on the back or spine to identify which library it belongs to). Also, when I opened the book, the first page initially appeared to be written in an archaic language. As I stared at the page, the letters started squirming and twisting and slowly morphed into modern English. My curiosity wasimmediately piqued, and I turned to the second page.
The first chapter, if that is truly what it could be called, appeared to be in Faust’s own handwriting but was, again, translated into contemporary English. It told of how Faust first learned of magic by finding a set of scrolls that he claimed were written in Sumerian. He asserts to have no knowledge of the language and yet he could understand it easily. He described how, through practice and luck, he became a fair (in his own words, a “marvelously masterful”) practitioner of the arts of magic.
> (I say he was only fair because of how he describes every spell that he attempted which failed. It was never his fault. Either his mana, whatever the hell that is, changed his spell or his test subject moved or a myriad of other excuses. I also say this because of the way he wrote, especially when referring to himself. His ego shone through in the way he talked about anything to do with his life and his conduct. You know the type. They can’t do any wrong and always know better than everyone else.)
This chapter also outlined how his first spells worked or failed and his opinions of why failure occurred. As I later learned, he was attempting advanced magic without bothering to learn the basics. Gee, I wonder why he had so many failures.
His first spells were changing one animal into another (such as changing a frog into a sparrow) or changing one object into another. He noted that both animals or objects must be of approximately the same size and mass. One of his first experiments, which, as he described it, “failed horrendously,” was to change a mouse into a bull. He says he wound up with a miniature cross between a dead mouse and a live cow. After this failure with a living creature, Faust said that he started experimenting on inanimate objects until he got the spell correct. The chapter went on to describe all his experiments and, as I was to soon discover, all of the failures, in graphic detail. As I read more, I realized why Faust had so many failures. He allowed his ego to get the better of him and decided he was too “good” to learn the basics first. How he got the knowledge isn’t clear but he moved straight into advanced spells that he should have waited to learn. The types of spells seemed endless: arcane, elemental, transformation, creation, summoning and controlling demons, transmutation, were some of the types listed.
About this time, I noticed that it was getting late so, regrettably, I put the book in my backpack and finished gathering the books I needed for my research before the library closed. Oh yes, one more unusual thing. As I was leaving, it dawned on me that I hadn’t checked out the book, but the detectors didn’t go off. I then assumed that the library had no knowledge of this particular work and decided to keep it a secret until I’d explored a few possibilities for myself.
Later that evening, I did some work on my paper, but I couldn’t get Faust’s book out of my mind. In fact, the more I tried to concentrate on anything else, the more my mind wandered back to it (I soon learned why this happened and you will too). After about two hours of fighting to work on my assignment, I picked up Faust’s manual again and began reading where I left off. Faust went on to note some of the demons he summoned (more like attempted to) and some of the more powerful and dangerous spells he attempted to cast. It was during this section that, abruptly, the chapter ended. This was very strange, as he stopped in mid idea about three quarters down a page. At the time, I assumed that this was when he was caught by the Inquisition and burned at the stake.
After rereading the chapter, I decided to attempt some of the spells that were included in the book. To my great delight, most of the book turned out to be spells that Faust ignored. Greatly exhilarated, I immediately began preparations for casting my first spell, Arcane Missile.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times I read over the spell, nothing made sense. The instructions spoke of focusing your Will and directing your mana but I never saw any descriptions of what mana is or how to use it. I have a basic grasp of what Will is but beyond that, all I got was frustrated. I decided to give up for the night and get some sleep. Maybe, after resting my overtired brain, I would work out new angles to try attacking this problem.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Later that night, as I slept, I had some wild dreams, a couple of which I woke from drenched in sweat and panting, as if I had just run a marathon. I only remember bits and pieces from any of the dreams, but I clearly remember Faust standing before me cackling and saying, “Careful, foolish one.” Also, I remember seeing something appear to rise from Faust’s tome and stalk menacingly toward me. I considered these two apparitions and came to the (foolish) conclusion that my imagination was working overtime since my discovery of this incredible book.
The next day was a filled by a couple of classes and lunch with a couple friends. I was reminded of my promise to go to the campus bar the next night. I completely forgot that a local cover band was playing, and I really enjoyed their music. I took the weekend off from work to study, so I didn’t have to worry about my job until next week. I’m just glad I finished the general education credits and am able to focus on my major. While we were eating lunch, I attempted to talk about the tome I found. Something weird happened when I tried to bring it up, something flashed in my head and I saw that same image of Faust shaking his finger at me and saying “Ah ah ah”. I must have had a weird look on my face because Ken asked if I was ok.
I said, “Yeah, just had a rough night last night. I was working on my paper too late.”
He nodded and said, “Yeah, you study way too much. You need to lighten up a little.”
I started to reply but Tom jumped in before I could and said, “Yeah, Col, lighten up. That’s why Ken and I are taking coast courses this summer. So we can have a little fun.”
I started laughing my ass off and said, “You two idiots are only taking classes this summer because you had to either do that or get real jobs. Nice try.”
You see, Tom and Ken had their parents paying for school as long as they kept their grades up, which was tough for both of the party fools. On the other hand, I had to keep up my grades or lose my scholarship, which would soon become the least of my problems. None of us were rich, which was why Tom settled for my university as opposed to one of the more prestigious universities in the area. Ken could have probably gone to any school he wanted to but decided friends were more important than location or school. Now they were both trying to coast as much as possible and just graduate.
After lunch, I went to my last class and then back to my apartment. I have no idea what the class was about. All my focus was on the Faust tome and the spell I tried to cast. It was frustrating that I had no idea what I was doing.
I put my phone on silent and picked up Faust’s tome to start reading again. As I lifted it from my bedside table, I noticed a weird new characteristic. It appears that the tome had gained thickness since I put it down last night, but it still weighed the same. Intrigued, I decided to start paging through from the beginning. For the first time, I came across sections that weren’t legible. It was almost as if a haze had settled on these sections and blurred everything within. But what weirded me out more was that, when I got to the arcane section, I found new paragraphs describing what Will and mana are. Apparently, mana is both generated by a body naturally and also generated by the environment. A person capable of using mana takes advantage of both by generating their own mana as well as absorbing the mana around them. I spent another couple hours attempting to “feel” the mana around me or within my body but, since I had no clue what I was doing, I only frustrated myself. I decided I needed a break from all of this, so I loaded up Doom and figured killing demons for a bit before sleep would be therapeutic.
Once I finished a couple of levels, I decided I needed sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. The band usually doesn’t finish playing before 1AM and I know Tom and Ken are going to want to stay until we get kicked out again. Once I shut down my PC, I finished my beer, brushed my teeth, and got ready for bed. I turned on Octane, which reminded me I needed to make sure my subscription was paid up. Then I settled in bed and tried to fall asleep.
Just as I was settling in to finally sleep, I started to hear static and a few tapping noises. I was about to sit up when this bright green box appeared in front of me. At first I thought I was either dreaming or had more beer than I realized. Then I heard the voice and, on the screen, words began to appear.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Is this thing fucking working or did another normie pick me up?
I almost fell out of bed as I jumped. “Oh shit!” I said. “What the fuck is that?”
Oh good. You can hear me. I assume you can also see the System Box?
I shouted “What the fuck? Shit! I can’t be drunk. Did Ken spike my beer somehow? Who or what the fuck are you?”
Oh don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m just glad you aren’t a normie. They’re so fucking boring.
Just as I was getting ready to respond, I hear a pounding on my door and “Mr. Porter? Is everything okay in there?”
“Shit,” I thought, “it’s my next door neighbor, Ms. Kravitz. I guess I was louder than I realized.”
I jump out of bed and pull on some sweatpants as she pounded again. I rushed to the door and opened it. “Evening, Ms. Kravitz.” I said. “Is something wrong?”
She quickly looked me up and down and said, “I heard yelling and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Kravitz. I got a new game and got pissed off when it crashed on me. I’m sorry I disturbed your sleep.” I said.
“Oh, it’s okay, Cal. I know how much stress you’re under with your studies. I was just worried about you.” She said. “Good night.”
I wished her a good night and closed and locked my door. As I turned to go back to bed, that fucking window popped up again and I almost freaked out again.
Cool your jets, gamer boy. You aren’t drunk, this isn’t a dream, and you need to get your shit together so I can properly inform you about what’s going on.
I nodded and thought, “Well, if I am going nuts, the least I can do is have fun with it before I end up in the padded room with the funny white coat.” I said, “Okay, inform me.”
Greetings, Inductee. I am your personalized System AI, Rodderick. You are Precursor 1376 from universe 725 and you are the 17th active Precursor of your current timeline. Before you start with your questions, would you allow me to introduce the System?