When I wake up again, I start my day like anyone should. I brush my teeth, wash my face, and get dressed again. When I pick up my phone, I see I missed a call from my best friend. I just missed the call, so I decided to call him back, he didn't call early unless it was something important.
"Hey bro, what's up?"
"Hey man, do you got 20? It's all I need, promise i'l pay you back next payday."
"Sure man, got more than that, started a business recently and I've got plenty of cash, just take it man, I don't care if you pay me back or not."
While this seems shady, this was my only real friend I had, Justin. Justin and me met over novels actually, more specifically, his. It was middle school, and I was reading a novel, but it was trashy cultivation one. Bored, I looked around the class to find Justin, who was typing away. I looked over his shoulders and saw he was writing a novel, and one of favorites at that. After that we started hanging out more, and eventually we became best friends. I was loner, and so was he. We both screwed around and talked about novels and video games. Not long after entering high school though, his family got in a car crash, and his life spiraled down from there. His parents ended up dead and his sister was permanently disabled from the legs down. That left him being the only caregiver for his family, and it showed. He showed up to school less, but when he did, he was bullied for his disheveled appearance and how he always smelt a bit. It went from verbal bullying to full on beatings, and I tried, but two versus six is never going to end up well. One day, he stopped showing up, and I couldn't get in contact with him. He tried cutting ties with me, probably over his pride and trying not to drag me down, but he forgot I had his sisters contact information. I called her a week after Justin disappeared, and we talked. He was trying to cut ties with anything he had, because he was solely focused on work. After his descent to full working, his sister picked up his novel, and started writing it, with me helping her with grammar and editing. The novel was making descent money, and I was discretely giving money to his sister, as my family had plenty. We used the novel as an excuse. With all these factors combined, they were barley making ends meet. Society was tough, and the underworld wasn't an option if you had someone you cared about. The police kept public violence to a minimum, but if you entered the underworld, no one would save you and there was no way out.
Seeing as Justin called me again, I assumed there was a big event coming up for him, so I looked at the calendar. It was March 24th, 6 days away to Amelia's birthday. I knew how much of a sis-con he became after the accident, so I was really surprised he didn't ask sooner.
"Sure man, just pop by new shop with Amelia, I'll treat you to a free meal"
After that we catch up for a bit, when I look at the time, it was 9:20. I was supposed to be at the counter by now. After ending the call, I leave my room and get behind the counter, no one's there, but I see my only customer walking inside again. I silently hand her the purse she left, and she takes it. She rummages through it for a minute or so before looking up.
"Ham sandwich please"
"6 dollars please" She then hands me the money and I start making the sandwich, after a few minutes, I drop it off at her table and return to behind the counter. I then take out my phone and start looking over a gift for Amelia. It was a party, and no one shows up to a party without a gift. While thinking about gifts, I decide to use my gachas, I'm hoping for a birthday gift for Amelia, as I had pity.
[1 Basics of mana, 4 AAA bateries, 4 new gaming systems, 1 professional bakers talents, 4 gift warping, 7 200 USD, 1 Basic Alchemical furnace, 1 extra soft pillow, 1 earring fragment, 7 magic spell fragments, 1 energy sensing, 1 Mana heart advancement pill, 1 Basic grimoire, 3 fighting games]
While I didn't get any gifts, I got the ability to bake a cake, I would go gather the supplies needed for a party later. While looking over my new items, I find the earring, it's a blue circular earring, but the strangest part is the fact it looked complete, a full circle. It wasn't missing anything that I could see, so why did my system say it was broken?
After looking at it for a few more seconds, I take a mirror and put the earring on, I already had my right ear priced because of a lost bet. After putting the earring on, I look over the basics of mana.
After flipping through my new memories, I got the basics. Like Qi, I would build up energy, but this time, instead of the Dantian, it was my heart. This time, to release the built up energy, I would make magic circles, these would shoot spells. I obviously needed a spell book, but the system had given me a grimoire, what was explained to hold all of a magicians know spells. Magicians would usually fight with these in one of their hands, at it was much simpler copying from their book then perfectly memorizing a spell.
After looking over this, I decide to fiddle around with my newest trinket. I take a circle a draw a simple triangle facing up. After putting some mana into it, the circle causes the existence of a fireball. I quickly stop the spell and make another triangle, this time facing the opposite direction. A small ball of water floats in the room, I move in inside a cup and drink it. After drinking the water, I draw a triangle facing right, and it causes a small ball of lighting to appear. After dispersing the lighting, I draw a triangle facing left, and a small ball of dirt appears. I then leave the ball of earth, seeing how long it will stay, while keeping the dirt suspended, I just leave the circle blank this time, and a small gust blows through the room. After messing around with the elements some more, I look at the time, seeing how it's around 7pm, I decide to go out for a run, I could do the rest of the workout while I was sitting around in the shop.