Violet and Fred were pretty concerned about their children lately. Alex and Laura spent too much time together. Their electric bill was also slightly raised but they didnt care much about that compared to how close their children have gotten. They supported their relationship but considering they were young they did not wish to see them make mistakes such as considering admiration or curiosity as 'love'
"This can not go on. We need to separate them for their future benefits"
Fred said as a highly concerned parent.
"Now dear. Lets not meddle with the children, More importantly did you find a job yet?"
"Leave it to me! I found a job as an accountant in XX firm. The salary is pretty great too even if less than our previous one."
"It cant be helped, on paper we got fired after all but dear are you sure its not a shady place?"
"Dont worry Violet, I can learn from my past mistakes. More importantly what about you?"
Sighing deeply Violet surprisingly was the one who couldnt find a job. Its not that she was lacking, even in her old company she handled the administrative work brilliantly while her husband managed the finance but thats precisely the problem, no company worth their salt would hire an unknown person as an admin especially when they got fired.
"Well, I am sure it will work out. I am thinking of staying at home for a while, we owe these children after all"
"Indeed, Lets be better parents this time. I really dont want to be mistook for a 'its us' scammer again."
After a short giggle. The family had lunch together made by Alex of course but despite having done this for a few days now, the family members would feel warm inside every time. Maybe being fired turned out to be a blessing because atleast now they were a normal family.
"So Laura, what do you think of your brother"
Well almost normal?
She figured out the misunderstanding her parents had and bashfully tried denying it. Humans are lovely creatures in such regard they come to their own conclusions but still ask simply to affirm what they have already decided to be true, her denial only made Violet tease her more for it while Fred just commented.
"Getting fired wasn't that bad after all. We could never eat food this delicious at our jobs"
After some family banter and jokes, night came quickly and Laura bought the pills then gave one to Alex. They ate the pills and went to sleep. Probably one of the best decisions they could make. The pain of having their body remodelled simply knocked them unconscious and thankfully they were already sleeping making the initial pain not affect them. They slept like a log for a long while. Alex missed college and Laura well, Laura never bothered with school anyway, perhaps her name isnt even on their list anymore.
Alex woke up and like any good teen checked his phone. He had a few messages from an unknown number and one from Ray. The one from Ray simply said sorry with a promise to let him borrow his notes for the day while the unknown ones started off as normal messages but got more and more threatening towards the end. In the end all he could ask was who in their right mind are they.
He got up after sending the message and felt a little tight around his chest and arms. Considering he couldnt grow fatter in a day he decided to check in the mirror and sure enough his chest grew broader and his arm had more muscles, as well as a few muscles on his stomach but it wasnt too noticable with clothes on. It might be shrugged off in novels but any human changing so much overnight would garner attention and be sent off to some hospital to get tested regardless of excuses. Alex always had a normal build but who wouldnt want better muscles right? His face too seemed to have gotten a bit more symmetric but one could just shrug it off as a good day look.
He went to Lauras room and when he opened the door the most cliche sight imaginable greeted him. Laura was completely naked pressing her own boobs and making comments on how they shrunk. She had a pretty defined line along her abdomen perhaps due to the drug but her focus was more on her slightly shrunken chest. Noticing her brother she quickly pulled on her bedsheet and just stood there awkwardly. While Alex got out of his stun and turned around as if it was some sort of military drill.
"Sorry"
"Its fine. Please knock next time"
The siblings had pretty similar reactions to their changes. The difference was because of the muscles Alex slightly grew while Laura because of the muscles as well felt her bra was slightly looser than before. Awkwardly walking down together they had breakfast and to avoid the awkward mood Alex brought out his phone. He got a message from the unknown sender and it turned out to be Amelia.
She called him a cheat because the manual didnt work, this surprised him after all it should have done something then he realized the problem the realms or whatever did not exist here so maybe the energy required for them did not exist either after all you cant gain energy from nothing. Einstein was universal no matter what.
He told her to visit him at home and she quickly agreed, perhaps the tricks before had woken her inner child and she wished to become a wizard too, who wouldnt right? So the part about visiting an unknown boy wasnt even considered.
The doorbell rang. Violet went to open it and saw Amelia. Amelia could be considered beautiful even if her personality was not so the first thought that came to Violet's head was
"Umm wrong house?"
I mean her shut in daughter and near loner son could never have a friend or girlfriend over, they couldnt have changed that much in the time they werent here a lot, right? They still acted like a proper shut in and loner, albeit a bit too close to each other but perhaps such is the loner way they ironically attract each other.
"Is Alex home?"
What is this miracle? Alex had a girlfriend? He wasnt a loner who was only into his sister? Is he two timing? Well such questions are dumb so instead Violet simply said, while being as calm as ever.
"Yes, I am sorry for whatever he has done to you but our finances are tight so we can not compensate you"
I mean if he didnt make trouble with her then why would a cute girl visit a loner boy? Is this some sort of webnovel?
"Umm I think you are misunderstanding, I am here because he missed a day of college so I decided to come help with the studies"
What else could she say? The old study session excuse never failed, besides if Amelia said magic she'd be escorted to a mental home not inside their home.
"Oh if thats the case please wait in the living room"
Inviting her in, trying not to ruin her sons chances or perhaps wishing to cheer her own daughter by ruining them, depending on her decision after finding out exactly how did a loner like him get such a pretty girl to come over to his house. He isnt even rich or anything!
Well leaving that aside she called Alex down who completely not used to having his mother actually inside his home, didnt expect her to run into Amelia. He acted naturally of course and went to Amelia. Violet decided to give the two privacy and went shopping. Amelia got to the point
"So was it a fake?"
"That even I dont really know, sorry but I expected it to work so I have no clue why it doesnt. I know let me ask the person I got it from"
He messaged the immortal who as quick as always replied
"What do you mean? All you need to do is absorb the heavenly energy once you can sense it. It feels something similar to floating rain but lighter and all around you, not as light as air mind you"
"What if there is no heavenly energy?"
"Well that explains why there are no demons and monsters. Hmm sorry I cant really think of anything perhaps your app has something for it"
Laura and Alex had a few points remaining between them but he doubted any sort of energy generator would be that cheap. He looked it up and surprisingly it came free with any sort of manual purchase but individually it cost 10 points, pretty cheap but then again the expensive martial manuals would be useless without them. He placed it infront of him and asked Amelia to practice it.
Amelia herself was dumbfounded by the weird box that literally came out of thin air. Then again she knew Alex was a magician so perhaps it was magic that materialized the box. She did as she was asked suppressing her curiosity but found that this time she could feel some kind of thin aura around her almost as if coming from the box. Realizing she had to absorb it as the manual stated she did and pretty soon the box stopped giving off aura as if it ran out. She wasnt dumb so she knew what the box was for and that she emptied it
"I am sorry, I made your thing run out of energy"
Not knowing what else to call it apart from 'thing' she said something like that and of course such a cliche development wouldnt be complete without Laura who came to discuss the future plans with her brother but heard something about her brothers 'thing' running out of energy.
"Brother who is this?"
"Oh Laura. This is Amelia the one I told you about. Amelia meet my sister Laura. She is not really good with strangers so pardon her manners"
"So this is the test dummy. I see. So whats this about energy"
Alex seeing nothing wrong apart from the slight boldness in his sister explained about the box. Laura was still slightly upset that he had brought home a girl, Alex thought
'she perhaps considers the house as her territory and didnt want some strang- As if! What is she an animal, she isnt even very shy with Amelia or rather is she jealous? Your brother wont get stolen you know.'
Seeing the tension he asked Amelia whether something changed when she practiced the manual and she replied that she feels a bit stronger. She tried doing a light jump to show it but she jumped high enough to nearly reach the ceiling, around 2ft of distance between her feet and the floor and if she raised her hand she could easily touch the ceiling. This was a light jump.
"Wow I feel like superman"
Alex and Laura just had their mouths left wide open. This even tempted them to really save up points for a manual or even forget about caution and practice the dragon eating tiger manual. Alex asked Amelia
"How much of it do you remember?"
Only then did she remember that she forgot most of it. Just the starting few points because she didnt know what any of the later half even meant. She had written it down but the memory was already jumbled back then after all no one can fully remember a movie after only seeing it once.
"You see, I kind of forgot most of it."
Alex told her to come again tomorrow to practice what she did remember and tried sending her off but she asked him.
"Wont you atleast escort me back?"
She had been pretty rude to him but he had shown her his secret and even taught her. Still believing it to be a kind act despite Laura calling her a test dummy earlier she decided to atleast be nicer to him and maybe get to know him. She had her own circumstances at home and this power would help her deal with them.
"Alright"
On their way they talked about their lives, how Alex was always annoyed by her harassment and her apologizing or how she was often hurt by his sharp tongue. In the end both of them grew slightly closer and even laughed. Nothing else happened so he escorted her to her house which was surprisingly just 2 blocks away and headed home. It was around 4PM and the sun was about to set, so it was no time for the muggers and crooks to be outside but contrary to that here we had a masked man with a knife.
"Put everything you have on you worth anythin down. I'll stab your bitch ass if you try to be smart. I only want your goods, you can keep your life if you put that shit down and walk away."
This was pretty amusing to Alex, he wasnt sure whether the shield would consider a knife stab as an attack but considering it was always on and always solid it probably would. He rushed to the man and the knife hit his stomach but bounced off, tackling him down he took off his mask and punched him. The pill showed its wonders when the man just got knocked out by it. He searched the man because clearly mugging when there was still light is either a mental patients work or targeted and sure enough he found a note with his name on it. It said to mug him completely and take everything but Alex being a normal guy shouldnt normally have something worth targeting. Perhaps it was trouble brought by Amelia visiting him and the real letter sender hiring this thug, or maybe its one of the classmates after his phone, either way they will try again and they will slip up soon enough. He headed home after dumping the mugger in the dumpster, he rather not have the police involved incase the mugger was targeting his phone.