It took around 20 minutes for ministry to react. It is pretty fast, huh. I waited not far from the alley it happened in and saw some people appear near the alley and start snooping around. I knew they were wizards, because before entering the alley they took out the wands.
Interesting. It proves that I have the 'Trace' on me and now I know approximate time of ministry reaction to spontaneous magic. I saw how they entered and started asking questions to people, before obliviating them. Thanks to my bracelet still on, they didn't pay attention to a small kid standing in shadows across the road.
Moreover, they weren't looking for 11-year-old kid. 3 adults have been thrown around like toys, plus smokescreen with a good area of effect. So, ministry people should have thought it was 15 or at the very least 14-year-old.
When they stopped paying attention to the area I was in, I moved out and continued my run.
Honestly though, I expected wizards to apparate directly into the alley, but now I think it makes sense that they came by foot. Apparition will only attract more attention, while they are coming to make sure that new wizard or witch won't disclose magic to muggles.
At some point, I started running back and when I reached home, I understood, that I could have taken money from those men I beat. I've let free money escape my hands. Shame, but not a big loss. I need either a stable income or big but singular one.
Robbing a bank came to my mind, but I would feel bad about stealing somebody's money. Innocent people may suffer if bank won't restore stolen money to original owners.
However, I can rob some bad guys and by bad, I mean some big gang leaders or cartel big wigs. Although, I have no knowledge of how it all works and where do they keep their valuables. And apparently in the real world it is not that easy to find those guys.
As for stable income, I can cook, clean, program and probably do crimes(using magic).
Because I can only cast spells for short period of time after which I need to leave the place where I casted that magic. So, only bad stuff fits or maybe I am missing something…
Anyway, programming I know of is something from far future and is not applicable currently. It is like using a gun in medieval ages. Strong? Yes, but where will I find bullets? So, that is out of question unless I find some books to upgrade my knowledge. After all, with my studying abilities I can practically learn anything.
As for cooking, my cooking is varied but not that high level. In other words, I know how to cook a lot of different things, but I am not very professional in cooking them.
Cleaning won't raise me enough money, unless I clean crime scenes.
'I have no good ideas for this. Might as well go into gambling in this situation' I smiled and laughed internally, until thought came to me.
'Gambling! Currency exchange! Lotteries! Saves!'
But even those brilliant ideas were stumped out of existence, because in this age lotteries most probably have strong risk controls, while currency exchange needs big initial capital to quickly make more money and I don't know much about it anyway.
In the end, the only thing I can come up with is stealing. Am I really missing something?
I've reached the house and taken a shower. Changed clothes. While in school, I learned a spell to clean clothes, but here I can't use spells, so I need to quickly learn how to deal with my dirty clothes.
I discussed the problem with miss Granger, and she explained me what to do.
Next, I asked what they wanted for a dinner and if they need me to buy anything for them.
*25 minutes later*
We were returning from a shop after buying products from a list given by miss Granger. Mister Granger provided the money and went with me to provide directions.
At that moment, I saw an advertisement about how a restaurant was in a need of some cooking staff. I got instantly interested in it, because I could both make money and collect information about neighborhood from people inside.
'I mean, information should have a good circulation in the places, like this… right?'
*5 days later*
Summer is truly good time to get into good shape and grind, especially with 2 new skills I got. One of them was 'Training' and the other one was 'Cooking'. Thanks to my continuous training outside and cooking both for Grangers and at my new job, I was getting a lot of experience every day.
Both skills, thankfully started at 15, so I decided to check them out and see if they have abilities that can be helpful in any way or speed up my leveling like studying does.
『 Cooking 』
〖Agile cook 0/3〗
〖Wield cooking tools with more agility and higher speed.〗
It was an interesting ability, but I thought it was unneeded and too flashy. It can be suspicious if I suddenly start wielding cooking knife like chef with years of experience. Both Grangers and staff in restaurant saw my skills and are already awed by my performance.
I am only 11 years old after all. Well technically I will get 12 soon. Also, that got me thinking if my birthday is on same day I appeared here or the day I was originally born. Not that it matters.
Anyway, I digress, next ability:
『 Training 』
〖Good Metabolism 0/4〗
〖Speed up your metabolism without damaging your body. Makes all restorative, digestive, growing and reproductive processes work better.〗
Training ability was indeed incredible, because it can increase efficiency of the training, I do every morning, thus making me get twice the effects for half the time. I had one skill point left to spend so I decided to invest it into this ability.
I also deleted 2 saves I did before picking abilities, so now I have 2 free slots.
Other than these two skills I had no time to improve other skills. I literally have no time. Wake up cook breakfast for the whole family, even if they say I don't need to, I kind of feel obliged to do so. Then training. Then shower and going to work. Break for launch, I go home to cook dinner(or help with it) and we eat, then I go back to work. Work till 6pm and then without going home I start running once more for 30 minutes or so.
Thanks to upgraded metabolism, my body restores faster, though it doesn't cancel all the pain I have to go through with these training. My muscles cry in agony every morning.
Anyway, I get home around 7 dead tired, get shower, help with supper, have no energy to eat, so I crush in bed, to sleep.
Thanks to money I get from the restaurant, I got myself some cheap clothes. Not much, but better than nothing.
I want to find and visit local library to maybe get some new skills, however with such a tight schedule I have no time. Plus, I asked the owner if I can work every day and he wasn't against it, so I also don't have weekends. I need money and I need a lot of them.
I was on the verge, working and training every day, especially with child level of stamina. The only thing that was keeping me up was new training ability, I just got. What's worse, after finding out exchange rate from Mister Granger and calculating expenses, I found out that money I will make in these full 3 months won't be enough to buy even half of the necessary items.
'Couldn't Potter story begin somewhere in 2012, like with YouTube and Google, but no you need to start in some damn forgotten 1992.'
What's more apparently this world's technology was even a bit behind my original world's.
'Their internet coverage and availability are appalling. I know it's 1992 but I am not on some forgotten island in Bermuda. I am in capital of Great Britain, damn it.'
I was desperate to find a way to make some money and finally, today I heard an interesting rumor during work about a shop making a fortune. I think its good chance to make fast and easy money. But I'm afraid after this my alignment will definitely fall to evil. *Sigh*
To hell with conscience. I need money and I am out of options or patience.
*Next day*
'Crap. Crap! CRAP! Now is one of those situations, where I want a second pair of legs just to run faster.'
People were running after me, with clubs while crying profanities in my address.
'I just stole some cash. No big deal. Are they gangsters or some petty bastards, damn them, damn their sisters, damn their whole freaking families!'
Should have prepared better and waited more, before following onto that rumor. Did, Mister Miller sold a ton of jewelries? Well, yes! But nobody told me these jewelries belonged to gangsters and shop was just an intermediary, damn it all!
From the other perspective, tomorrow he could have transferred that cash to people for who he sold that jewelry, so getting it now, might have been my only chance. Well, whatever.
I've used up a ton of spells already while breaking into the store and cracking open the safe with jewelries. Now I have concentration for 1, max 2 spells. Thanks to my 'good' luck, I'm running through a very wide street. Therefore, using Smokescreen Spell is practically useless, because it won't be strong enough. I need a narrow alley that goes to another street or something like this.
While in it I can quickly put mask off and change clothes' color back to black. That will give me some space to escape.
I've cast first spell around 15 minutes ago, plus I ran from original place where I cast it, so ministry should be on its way there. I still have a few minutes. However, the moment I will cast Smokescreen, they will move to my recent location, so I will need to run with double the speed.
'Hate running!'
*Hour later*
I was sitting in a dark narrow alley, trying to calm myself.
'It was dangerous, scary and… fun!'
I thought that ability to Save&Load really makes you forget fear and feel only happiness in the most dangerous situations. I had the widest grin I was capable of, because this activity brought me so much fun. Casting spells, running, cursing internally, feeling of adrenaline cursing through my veins and heart pumping blood with insane speed.
I can understand now, how some people may like life-threatening types of sport.
In any case, I've rested enough to continue. After casting cleaning spell on myself and all my clothes, I was on my way to cloths shop. Finally, I can buy some normal clothes.
*Hour later*
I was going back in brand new clothes of good quality. I also bought multiple sets of clothes, to not be a complete beggar.
I happily breathed in and thought:
'Steal…*Cough* I mean returning money from bad guys is the best, don't you agree?'
But apparently, my monolog was picked by system as a question to it.
[But initially you didn't know they belonged to bad guys.]
'Well… I was just taking a look. Plus I took only money from the safe. I did not take anything else from.'
[You did so because, you have no channels to sell other stuff from that safe.]
'*Sigh*Why are you so all-knowing only when it concerns me'
[Because I am your system and I am built into your very being.]
'…'
*After reaching home*
Before entering the house, I quickly switched my clothes to the cheap set I bought on my salary. I made sure to put all my clothes on before putting them into inventory, so that I can quickly put them on or off, using the system.
This time I didn't help with supper, because I came much later. I decided to eat a little and go to sleep as soon as possible. Even if I skipped my evening training I was actually even more tired because I was mentally exhausted after non-stop casting and physically exhausted after running for a few blocks. Then I had to find road back home, cause with all that running I completely lost my way.
Also, I only have one free save slot, because I saved before breaking into that shop. I need to be conscious about remaining save slots and maybe delete some more saves later.
While lying in bed I was thinking if by returning to that save I could do anything better. However, nothing really came to mind.
Safe had alarm installed on it, while I am not a professional thief who knows how to disable those. Even if I can sneak in perfectly, I won't be able to quietly get away with money after opening it.
Moreover, opening the safe took me nearly 10 minutes. I had to literally burn the lock bit by bit with concentrated Incendio. Alohomora didn't help with it for some reason. That plus sneaking in via back door, that I unlocked with magic, and ministry that was going to my location, I will still have around 5-6 minutes to escape. And after alarm ringing, gangsters will still be on my tail trying to catch me.
No matter how I was contemplating, I couldn't come up with a better plan of how to get money out without a fuss. There were some benefits in redoing the whole day, but they were just too miniscule to do so. If ministry will start to suspect me, then I will redo it. Otherwise just not worth it.
Anyway, time to sleep.
*Progress*
『 Alchemy 27 | Sneak 23 | Speech 23 』
『 Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 』
『 Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 』
『 Magic Chanting 22 | Magic Gesturing 22 』
『 Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 』
『 Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 』
『 Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 』
『 ❃Cooking 19 | ❃Training 18 』