28 Dreams and Advancements

A/N: gimme your power stones, I need to eat. Stones are an important part of my diet.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Do you remember that our brains never truly stop working, even during sleep? The human brain is an incredibly complex biological structure that even in the modern world there was no one who could say with certainty exactly how it works. So, to the question "what happens if we add magic to the mix?" no one could answer for sure.

What happens when wixen go to sleep? Dan had no idea, but he doubted they found themselves sitting in the topmost cabin in a Ferris wheel.

The strange thing was that his body became human again, but even so, his form underwent changes. His weak human skin was now full of black patches. It looked as if black waves were starting in his heart and trying to cover his entire body, like some kind of cannibalistic alien moss.

Dan lifted his shirt to get a better look at the black spots and was almost surprised when he saw that the veins under them were gently pulsating. If someone had told him that some kind of unholy infection was now flowing through his blood, then he would have believed it without any problems.

He ran his hand over the skin and winced when his palm hit the black spots. If his human skin felt cold to touch, then Enderman's skin was worse. The problem wasn't that it didn't seem real or was stretched too far, no. It felt like-

{"It's not your skin."} An old and withered voice finished his thought.

Dan abruptly raised his head and froze in place, his body locking up in shock.

Sitting in the next seat was a tall monster, its body was twisted to fit into the cabin. Long black limbs, purple eyes and a mouth long enough to stretch across its the entire jaw. The torn robe covered its body and sank to the floor, hiding the scars behind it, but for Dan this part meant little.

All he could think about was the cruel God who had returned to tear his soul apart. Was he not interesting enough to continue his existence?

But this doubt lasted only a moment. It was undoubtedly an Enderman and an old one, if the gray parts of the skin on his body meant the same as the gray hair of people.

{"This is the skin of my people, but not your, not yet."} He continued, looking at Dan from head to toe, his face full of dissatisfaction. {"You don't deserve to wear this curse, just like you don't deserve to be part of our race."}

Dan blinked, only now registering what the old man was saying.

{"But I have to say, for a pathetic human, you pretend to be one of us well enough. Maybe with my help, you can become the key to our freedom; that, at least, deserves attention."} The Enderman's hand shot out faster than the eye could see and he grabbed Dan's face without even getting up from his seat. {"That doesn't mean you'll get it."}

Dan screamed in pain and grabbed the old man's wrist, trying to hit him with a lightning bolt, but his magic didn't respond to his call.

{"What you will get, is a list of instructions that you will have to follow if you want to get at least a chance to fight it in the future."}

The Enderman's hand didn't even twitch, but Dan still felt as a stream of information started pouring into his mind. His mouth opened in a soundless scream; his hands fell limp to his sides. But even when new neural connections were being forcibly created in his brain, he heard the old man's voice loud and clear.

{"To fulfill them or not, in the end, it is your choice. But know this: sooner or later, the Corrupt one shall try to overtake you. And then you will wish to be stronger, but it will be far too late."} Dan felt his head being released and fell into the seat, barely feeling his body. New concepts and words were jumping around in his mind, trying to find a place for themselves.

{"We will meet again, human, and then you'll say your piece."}

Saying the last words, the Enderman disappeared, leaving Dan alone. Who could only breathe heavily and try to pull himself together.

After a while, the Ferris wheel finished its turn, stopping Dan's cab at the bottom so he could get out. The boy could see nothing but the endless gray floor around the attraction, so he was in no hurry to get up. When else will he have a chance to rest?

"Huff… Huff… Haa… Next time we meet… I'm kicking him in the balls."

-=-=-=-=-=-

Considering everything that had happened over the past day, Dan woke up feeling surprisingly good. His room was filled with sunlight and soft humming.

He didn't need to open his eyes to see who was in his room. Luna may not know how to pronounce the password to enter his room, but she knew how to convince Sir Graham to let her inside.

"Morning." Dan muttered and her humming stopped.

"You're awake!" Luna exclaimed and rushed to hug her friend.

"Miss Lovegood! His body may be in good condition, but that doesn't mean he's not hurting!" Madam Pomfrey's voice finally made Dan open his eyes and look around.

There were three people in his room: Luna, Madam Pomfrey, and Flitwick. And the last two looked extremely disappointed. Dan assumed that the short professor was the only one who could monitor him. His schedule for today must be pretty free.

"Erm… In my defense, if I had teleported away with Luna, the spiders would've most likely attacked other students."

Judging by Flitwick's blank stare, his attempt at persuasion was unsuccessful.

While the professor was expressing his dissatisfaction with Dan's condition, the boy got lost in his thoughts and started looking at the list that the old Enderman had left in his head.

'Stone Age, Suit Up, Enchanter… Are these Minecraft Advancements?' He blinked, mentally categorizing them in different parts.

'We Need To Go Deeper? The End…?'

Seeing the familiar words, Dan decided to postpone the list for later. He didn't want to know how many things from Minecraft were in this world.

'Wanderer, if you have also stuffed content from mods here, I will commit war crimes,' he sent a prayer to the God and finally started listening to Flitwick.

"–the colony will either be relocated or destroyed." Dan blinked again, this time in surprise.

"Relocated? What for? What good can Acromantulas bring to any ecosystem?"

The Moon gave him the answer to this. "They're scavengers, Dan, forest cleaners. They very rarely attack people and stay inside their territories more, especially if they are not provoked. Naturally, it would be best if they were moved, but…" She stopped, her face set in a frown.

Dan didn't say anything, he didn't like spiders either, especially these ones. But knowing Luna, she was most likely torn between pity for the spiders and a desire to get them as far away as possible.

"That said, the Acromantulas carcasses that you… killed in the attack, legally belong to you, Mr. Khromov. The school has taken responsibility for harvesting and preserving their bodies, but so far nothing has been done with them."

One name immediately popped up in Dan's head: Local Brewery.

"I might have an idea…"

-=-=-=-=-=-

After about a couple of long conversations with Luna, Pomfrey and Flitwick – where they scolded him on his life choices – Dan began to understand something about the world of magic. If at first it seemed to him that he had fallen into a fairy tale (the fact that he already knew about this world from his sister's rants didn't matter), now he knew for sure that he wasn't.

The worlds of fairy tales were filled with fantastic events, divine conduct and metaphors for sex and death. Or just death, if you read the books of the Brothers Grimm.

If he was in a fairy tale, he wouldn't have been caught building a giant cock out of stone.

"Mr. Khromov..." Minerva said disappointedly, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Why?"

To be honest, this stone penis made from the wall in the Main Hall has been standing in the corridor for about a month. The fact that it was found just now was a mathematical wonder.

Or was it another one? Dan wasn't sure.

"... It's hard to explain," he admitted. "Consider this one of my things in the bucket list."

"The bucket list." Minerva repeated slowly.

"It's a list of things that a person wants to do before death- well, before dying." Dan clarified, slipping into his native language for a moment.

"I'm familiar with the concept," she interrupted, "obviously, you will put the pieces of the wall back in place as soon as curfew begins. But first tell me, how did you do it?"

Even if his actions and – ahem – art were considered very crude, his actions were still amazing. No one before could just take and move a part of the castle wall to another place. Wards were supposed to prevent this and more. To change something in this castle, you needed direct access to its protections and a huge amount of knowledge at the very least.

"I did that." Dan turned and brought his hands to the top of the sculpture, only to have a part of it abruptly collapse into itself, forming a stone cube floating between his hands. "I can say for sure; this isn't something that just anyone can do."

He glanced at Minerva, but staggered when he saw her unimpressed stare.

"Mr. Khromov, explain as simply as possible what is going on with the stone in your hands?"

Dan blinked, returning his gaze to the cube floating between his palms. "It shrunk? Changed its shape? I suspect the weight is still the same, considering..." Dan stopped and slowly sighed. "I'm doing wandless Transfiguration, aren't I?"

Minerva nodded. "Or at least something similar to Transfiguration. Changing the size of matter fits the description of this branch of magic, but we cannot say for sure that what you are doing is Transfiguration. We will need more time and tests to determine this. Follow me, we will count this as your detention for that…" She glanced at the now chub. "Thing."

He'll need to come back later, that's for sure. He probably had enough time, considering that it took the professors ten days just to find the cock.

"Funny thing, actually, I'm not sure if I built this one."

Minerva's head whipped in his direction with such speed that he was afraid she would break her neck.

"There's another one?!"