Magic

[Basic mana pool awakened.]

Nick wakes up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. He ignores the sound of the system. He's lying on the cold floor in a daze. He suddenly sits up fast as lightning.

(I forgot the milk! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!)

He checks the time. 12:48. Too late to get milk. He begins panicking running down to the refrigerator. He opens the door slowly in anticipation. To find... No milk! Maybe it will be alright, maybe he wouldn't have changed!

Bang!

The sound of pots clashing rings out from behind Nick. Nick twists around, praying that it wouldn't be. A crunching sound tickles into Nicks ear. He creeps up to the cupboard and opens it. To see an all too familiar fat, ugly boggart with a big nose. Mr. Botl is sitting down with a pan lying on his head gnawing on a still twitching cockroach. He turns to stare at Nick slowly with his beady eyes glaring down his long nose.

"Oh well, well, well if it isn't Mr. 'I have good eyesight back again!'"

"Hi, Mr. Botl. I apologize about the milk..."

"Do ya! Well apologies don't mean shit! Come here you bastard, I'm gonna beat some sense into you!"

Mr. Botl slurps down the rest of the cockroach and hops out of the cupboard. Nick starts creeping away so as to not incite the beast into charging. He's slowly making his way to the stairs. The boggart grins at him then quickly begins waddling in his direction.

Nick gets spooked and makes a break for it, dashing up the stairs two at a time. He looks back as he's halfway up, only to see Mr. Botl chasing him, going up the stairs on all fours. Nick starts and begins rushing up again not daring to look back. He dashes inside his room and slams the door shut. Curses and scratching at the door sound out as Nick barricades himself in.

"Nick what are you doing? Why are you arranging furniture at this time of night?"

The sleepy voice of Madeline sounds out from the end of the hallway. Mr Botl snaps his fingers turning invisible and slowly begins creeping towards Madeline.

(Damn she just had to wake up right now!)

"Madeline stay in your room! There's a boggart in the hallway! He can turn invisible!"

"What nonsense! Come out so I teach you the common decency of staying quiet at night.

Nick despairs. His cowardly nature inclines him to hide from the boggart. But Madeline is in the hallway with that monster all alone! He steels himself and moves the desk away from his door. He enters the hallway and sees Madeline ten feet away from a creeping boggart. Mr Botl turns, grins at Nick, then starts waddling quickly towards Madeline. Nick has a rush of courage as he dashes towards Mr Botl.

"W'What are you doing Nick?"

Madeline steps back with fear in her face. Nick pays her no heed. Just as the waddling boggart was about to reach Madeline, Nick catches up. He emulates a move he saw on television, the German Suplex! He grabs Mr. Botl by the waist and lifts up and over himself. Nick contorts into an upside down U shape and slams the boggart on the ground, head up. As he collides with the floor Mr. Botl falls unconscious and his invisibility turns off.

"Eeeeeeeee! What is that!"

Nick guesses Madeline can see the boggart at this point and hurriedly tells her to be quiet.

"This is Mr. Botl. He's a boggart. Remember the brownie I told you about? Well this is him."

"So it's real. I heard on the radio people were reporting magical creatures but who knew it was actually true."

Nick brings Mr. Botl in boggart form into his room. He heads to supply closet and ties Mr. Botl up. Madeline just stares at the creature in amazement. Mr. Botl wakes up after a short period of time, realizing he's tied up he begins throwing curses and slander at the two teenagers.

"What a vulgar creature, why is he a boggart now when he was a brownie earlier?"

Nick grimaces sheepishly.

"Well... I kinda forgot to get him milk when I said I would and I guess he got angry."

"Why did you forget?"

"I kinda fell asleep."

Madeline stares at him agape. She bops him on the head and says,

"Don't forget to feed your pet Nick!"

"Oi, who are you calling pet! Me and this young fella are in a mutually beneficial relationship!"

"Since when?"

"Since you fed me milk!"

"No, I just fed you so you'd stop making a mess of things!"

As Madeline stares on, the two go back and forth arguing over whether they made a deal or not. Madeline slowly gets pissed. She admonishes the two of them like they are children being scolded by an older sister.

"Listen here you two! Nick man up to the fact that you fed him milk. Even if you didn't know it was a sort of contract. Mr. Botl, just don't be an ass. Now make up!"

The two of them pause looking warily looking at each other. They reluctantly apologize. Thankfully, after that Mr. Botl shrinks back down to his brownie form looking ashamed. Nick is indignant but secretly relieved. He thinks he'll have nightmares of that waddling figure someday soon in the future.

"Mr Botl I promise I'll get you milk in the morning and leave it out."

"Hmph! You better!"

Madeline starts interrogating Mr. Botl about the other creatures that were a part of his world and why he's in ours now. She doesn't get much out of him despite the culprit behind all this being right next to her. She goes off to bed after an hour so. Mr. Botl goes back to clean the cupboard he made a mess in. Leaving nick in his room alone. At this point Nick remembers why this mess all started. He drank the potion and passed out.

(But why don't I feel any different?)

[Host doesn't feel different because mana was always a part of you. Every human has it, just very few are lucky enough to trigger events that activate it. The things you steal are all from the world that Mr. Botl is from. That book thinned the veil allowing them to cross over to yours.]

(Thanks for the explanation Wikipedia. Let's get to the cool stuff, how do I do magic?)

[Magic requires corresponding hand signals, kind of like a bunch of gang signs in a row. Except each one has to be extremely precise. In addition to that you need to chant the spell words in a certain rhythm and intonation for each corresponding gang sign.]

(Was that supposed to be humor? Anyways, that sounds ridiculously hard. I noticed Mr. Botl just needs to snap his fingers to turn invisible how can he do that?)

[After you reach a certain proficiency with magic you can chant inside your mind and don't need hand signals. For most creatures the basic spells of their race are already ingrained in their mind so deeply since birth they never have to practice, hence Mr. Botl. You can ask him to teach you his races basic spells.]

(Okay I'll do just that!)

Nick heads down to the kitchen. Mr Botl is just finishing cleaning. Nick heads over offering to help. They sort the pans quietly and Nick closes the fridge door, which he left open earlier. Nick looks like a little kid wanting to ask something but is afraid to.

"Out with it, what do you want! Do you think I don't know you came down here for something?"

Nick stammers

"C'Could you teach me magic?"

"You can't do magic, you haven't awoken your mana pool."

"I have!"

"Oh really? Let's test that."

Mr. Botl does a complicated hand gesture.

"Replicate this hand sign, and say 'ignis' while leaving your other palm open."

Nick struggles to get this right. He tries to replicate the hand gesture giving it minute changes each time he fails after saying ignis. Finally he gets it right! After he finishes the word, he feels something stir up inside him. A ball of flame then appears in his open left hand. Mr. Botl's eyes widen and his brows shoot up.

"Not bad kid, you weren't lying. But how did you awaken your mana?"

"I found a potion on the ground and drank it. It was labeled mana awakening potion..."

"Don't lie to me! Did you sign any papers? Make any deals with shady looking people?!?"

"No, no, okay I'll be honest. I stole it from someone."

The brownie blows his cheeks out. Looking worried for Nick

"You better hope they don't find you, those potions are worth a lot. Usually humans have to inherit mana pools or awaken them in strange events."

"Don't worry they won't find me!"

"Okay, your problem not mine. We'll start magic lessons tomorrow. Go get some rest, it's late."

Nick heads up to his bedroom giddily looking forward to the next day.