July 5, 493 U.C.
My eyes squinted as I looked at the bubbling fluid in front of me a few days later. “It’s alive!” I proclaimed.
Adding a drop of water, I let out a long cackle. “Mwahaha hah ha ha hee hee!” It seemed silly and just made me laugh. My evil laugh turned into giggles.
Dad groaned. “Terrible. Try again.”
“That wasn’t so bad.”
“You laughed at your own laugh!”
I waved him off. “Details, Dad, details.”
“The details matter.”
“Indeed!” I adjusted my goggles and added three milligrams of powder to the red liquid. Then I stirred it slowly, humming guardian pop.
Dad sighed. “You make a dreadful villain.”
“I’m trying, Dad. I’m trying!”
“Try harder.”
Ever the critic, I ignored him to focus on the healing potion, carefully stirring it together.
Dad leaned in. “It looks done.”
“It almost is. I need to seal it. They’ll last roughly a month.” I began forming a spell with my mana. It surged and bound it all together. “There is enough for a dozen healing potions. Don’t let them waste them, please. I can’t keep making hundreds of these things.”
“I’ll try. Advancing is slow for us. How’s that coming?” Dad asked.
I shook my head. The brown hair brushed my shoulders. “It isn’t. I had the stolen notes for everything else. If you can find the fae manual for it, then I could do it.”
Dad sighed. “Practice your villain laugh.”
“Mwahahaheh he he he he-” I burst into giggles.
“Stop giggling! It ruins the whole thing. Think evil!”
“Sorry.”
“Let’s see the monologue.” Dad grabbed the paper from my desk.
Foolish guardians! You’ve fallen right into my trap! Now you will feel the wrath of the Viper. “Seriously?” Dad said; his voice was laced with pure exasperation. It dripped out onto my floor, nearly wilting one of my plants. I grinned at him. “I got distracted. Monologues are boring.” “This is going to be a huge mistake.” “Nonsense. I’ll do great.” I grinned at him. “I need a break. Study or something.” Dad turned and walked from the room in defeat. Putting the paper in a drawer, I filled vials and called the interaction a win. At least that had gotten me out of writing a monologue. Can you imagine? What exactly am I supposed to tell them? I guess I should have embraced my angst. That’s the heart of a good monologue. Sadly, I lacked the patience or desire to tell them the intimate details of my life. So, I just filibustered Dad instead. Placing the potions on a shelf, I grabbed my gear and teleported, appearing next to my excavation project. After dispatching the hungry fauna nearby, I liberated machinery and let the machines do the work. Peering past them, I studied the room that had emerged. There appeared to be a door which made me excited. The disappearance of the sentient on Vuln was quite a mystery. I think magic was involved because almost everything noteworthy went with them. After guarding my liberated drone army for a few hours, I headed inside and found the source of the mana. It was some glowing gem set into the door. I studied it and tried to figure out what it did. My frustration grew. There was an enchantment in it. That was all that I knew. I then used Time Stop and saw a glowing wall. With a sigh, I returned the machinery and put in my ocular computer. Then I appeared back at the spot. “Ela! How do I get in?” I asked. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. This work was stolen from Magical Girl Platinum on Royal Road. Please message me there. I studied the room again while Ela did the same. It was small and unnoteworthy. There was just the door and magic gem. The walls were cement of some sort. I knocked on the door. It felt the same. “Where is this?” Ela asked. “Ruins. How do I get in?” Spinning, I chopped some large lizard who’d come to investigate. It unhelpfully just added blood to the place. I sent it to a warehouse for harvesting. Then I resumed my quest. “Ela!” Ela, unhelpfully, just stared at it. With increased frustration and boredom, I did something foolish. I slapped my hand on the gem. The enchantment inside seemed to probe me and react positively. The door swung open. Giddily, I walked inside. “Casey? Where is this place?” Ela asked as she flitted around a room. “Summon me!” “No way.” “Summon me!” To my surprise, I saw shelves of books. There were rows of them. I spun around and shut the door. Turning back, I turned on my mask. Text popped up on my ocular computer. Oxygen Remaining: 4.5 hours. I went over and plucked a book from the shelf. I flipped it open and didn’t recognize the language at all. I carefully peered into it. Then I recognized a squiggle. I’d seen it on a paper for awakening potions. My eyes widened. Fae! What are they up to? “Where are you?” Ela asked again. Quest: Report to the fae. – Aid them in recovering the books. Rewards: 50,000 Reputation. “Nice try, Ela.” “Please, Casey. This is so important!” Ela said, floating up towards my face. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “You need to report it.” “Nice try. It opened for me. Ergo, it’s mine!” I giggled and placed the book back on the shelf. “Why would it open for you?” “Why wouldn’t it? They turned me into one of them!” I grabbed another book and ran into the same problem. Sudden understanding did not come. That was extremely disappointing. It seemed that I would need to learn the language. Luckily, life had prepared me for this. I walked down the stone room in search of the children’s section. It would get me somewhere. I scanned a shelf and moved to the next. This act was repeated over and over in the most mind-numbing way possible. Ela was not at all helpful. She just kept spamming me with quests to turn it all in. That made me regret our prior arrangement. “ELA! STOP! Or else I’m taking it out!” “Please, Casey. Please!” Ela shouted. “No! Stop! You’re slowing me down.” “Casey, please.” She pouted. I didn’t fall for her tricks. “No. Stop.” That got her to quiet down a little. Though there was now a replacement for my prior permanent quest. It sat firmly in the corner of my vision while she pouted and frowned at me. I continued spending an eternity trying to find the children’s books. Eventually, I made it all the way through the shelves, finding a gem in the middle. However, I did not find the books. It seemed that preserving children’s books was not a priority. That was a real buzzkill. Feeling frustrated, I went over to the gem and used that. Some fae lady hologram appeared in front of me. The woman spoke in some language that I didn’t understand. I blinked at her. She continued her lecture on something while I just stared at her. Is that what they sound like? Secretive fae. “Help!” I announced. “I don’t understand you!” The hologram stopped talking, frowned, and magic flooded through my mind. It was like reading thousands of books all at once. My stomach churned while my head throbbed; I felt an urge to vomit. She vanished; I teleported home. Since I had a throbbing headache and horrible nausea, I took off my mask and took a nap, slowly drifting off to sleep. As I went still, some fae lady appeared and began trying to teach me the language. Current Level 10 Current XP 87.65% Current Max Mana 7677.97 Regen per minute 12.80 Reputation 1000 Tier Skill Cost Tier 10 User Time Dilation (Haste) - User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second. - Force transference limited to 12.5%. 2 mana per earth second. Tier 6 Pocket Dimension - 128 cubic meters of pocket space. - Rapid stash and rapid draw. - You may tether objects to your pocket space. - Your pocket space preserves items inside. 32 mana Tier 6 Time Stop - Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime. - You may control the flow of time in the demiplane. - You may summon in willing living creatures. - This automatically triggers if you take significant damage. 200 mana to cast. Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 6 Teleport. - Teleports the caster or a willing creature. - You may cast this on an unwilling creature if they are within ten meters. - You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward. 200 mana for the caster. 400 mana for a willing creature. 1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance. - Short range casts cost less mana. Tier 3 Attire Swap - Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform. - Attire cleaned on swap. - Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body -Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting. - Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions. - Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 1 Free casting - Cast any spell you can replicate. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana. Tier 1 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast. 1 mana for each additional minute.