Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
Unstoppable
The first thing Joshua felt as he woke up was something wet and rough against his cheek.
The young man blinked groggily and then heard a now familiar sound from next to him.
"Meow."
"Cheshire?" He mumbled almost unintelligible. "What-?" Joshua paused, as his eyes took in the paper under his head that had a magical circle drawn onto it. 'Magical… Magical circle! The spell!'
A second later, the man was sitting ramrod straight on the chair and looking at the paper. Then he turned to Cheshire. Then back at the circle.
"It worked?" He asked, disbelieving.
[Quest Complete: Cast your first spell.
Rewards:
+ 1 Magic Level
+ 3 Spatial Magic Levels
+ 3 Storage Spell Levels]
"It worked," He repeated, this time resolutely and with a grin threatening to split his face. A second later, the smile was wiped off his face as his eyes widened and his hand snapped to his phone that had until now been lying on the table. After thoroughly checking the time and date, he concluded that he had been out for the whole night and a good deal of the Saturday.
"Well… at least I wasn't unconscious for days, I guess," Joshua muttered with a weak chuckle. "But, it worked," He said, once again, as if he was still working on believing what he had done. "Thank you, girl," His hand went to Cheshire's head and started petting her, much to the feline's delight. "If not for you, I might have pushed it for later. This is as much your achievement as it was mine."
[Bond: Cheshire has gone up a level.]
'Nice,' Joshua thought with a smile before turning to the still floating Quest screen. 'Definitely gives an Achievement feeling instead of Quest, but whatever… let's check those rewards.'
Magic was the first one he checked, and while it didn't add anything to his Status screen but the changed 1 into a 2, it still made him feel very proud. 'Now I just need to find a way to increase it some more,' He thought to himself.
[Spatial Magic – Lvl 4/100
Determines the user's ability to utilize Spatial Magic.
Increases magic efficiency while utilizing Spatial Magic by 4%.
Increases magic potency while utilizing Spatial Magic by 2%.
Spatial Spells: 1]
'No surprises here either,' He noted as he finally relaxed a bit and stretched his hurting back. Fainting on the table was definitely not a comfortable way to do so, that was for sure.
[Storage Spell – Lvl 4/50
A Spatial Spell which the user can use to create a pocket dimension to store inanimate objects.
The user can create a storage space of up to 4 squares.
Consumption with circle – F
Consumption without circle – D]
'More squares, huh?' Joshua noted thoughtfully. It still sounded weird, but after thinking back to how his first bout of magic had gone… 'Yeah, I can see how those squares would work...'
Standing up, he grimaced as his body protested mightily, his everything feeling as if it was made of lead and with his energy reserves in the negatives. Dragging his feet, he made his way to the kitchen to prepare himself something to eat, he was positively starving after sleeping through dinner, breakfast and lunch, let alone whatever exhausting his magic had done to him.
"Are you hungry, Cheshire?" He asked distractedly, getting an eager mew in return. He shook his head with a small smile and set something for the cat too.
All this was done almost out of routine though. As he worked on his meal, Joshua couldn't keep his mind from working as hard as it could to come up with theories and experiments regarding the Storage Spell.
How did the squares work? They were obviously somewhat adapted into the game into an inventory of sorts. But what type was it? Did items of the same kind stack or where they were sent into a different square? Were all items put into squares or did bigger objects need more squares? Was weight an issue?
How would it be best to use? He obviously needed the circles in order not to put himself into a coma or outright die, but the physically drawn circles could pose a hindrance. Maybe drawing them on a book? Keep it on him as an inventory. Was there a more practical option? He would have to think about it.
There was also the fact that now that he had an example, he could try to add what he knew about the magic system into his searches for which world he was in now. Sadly, lots of them used circles for their spells, and he didn't think there was anything else to take into account. He had half-given up on it, if he was honest with himself, but he clung to it more out of habit than anything else, at that point.
"Enough thinking, more eating," He told himself. If Cheshire's mew was anything to go by, it was likely she agreed with at least that.
[}-o-{]
"Ok, this is ridiculous," Joshua grumbled as his shoulder slumped down. His body just refused to cooperate with him. It felt tired to the extreme, and no amount of resting or napping seemed to affect it. On the night after his first use of magic, he realized that something else must have been going on.
'Wait...' He paused, an idea forming in his mind. There was one thing he hadn't checked after waking up. 'Altered Status.'
[Magical Exhaustion
Decreases the rate at which the user regenerates stamina, health and magic.]
'That explains it,' Joshua thought before grimacing. 'The question now is, how do I get rid of this?' Although, he wasn't as worried now. He was pretty sure that an status such as this one would just disappear with time. But he wanted to try and get rid of it quickly. The first thing that came to mind was to continue as he was, resting, eating, sleeping. The second though, sounded much better in his mind.
[Meditation – Lvl 7/100
Determines the user's ability to connect with his inner energies.
Increases stamina, health and magic regeneration by 7% while actively meditating.
Increases stamina, health and magic regeneration by 0.7% passively.]
With a slight smirk, he sat on the floor, legs crossed and hands on his knees. Joshua closed his eyes and set his mind free, doing his best to calm it down, ignore his weary body and just vanish any thoughts that appeared. Meditation's effects basically countered Magical Exhaustion's, which had to mean something. And thus, Joshua set himself to meditate until either it became time to just give up and go to sleep, or he got rid of the altered status.
As time passed though, he felt the sweet taste of victory as energy seemed to come back to his body. It was slow, very slow, so much so that he almost didn't notice. But it eventually became evident that the change was happening. No longer did his body feel like deadweight, instead it felt merely tired. Then it became barely an annoyance. And then it completely disappeared.
Opening his eyes with a smile, he was greeted by several screens. The first of which, made his smile widen. It being the empty screen for Altered Status.
The second made him laugh out loud in pure joy.
[Magic has gone up a level.]
Tripling his Magic stat in one weekend was definitely a win in his book. That was for sure. Grated, it wasn't that big a change really, since it had been a measly 1 at the start. But now he knew a way to increase it. Joshua just had to continue using magic and recovering from it, or that was the conclusion he arrived with what had happened so far.
The third and fourth screens were identical.
[Meditation has gone up a level.]
[Meditation has gone up a level.]
'Seems like it grows faster when I'm actually using it for something,' He noted. 'Now the question is, does this happen with magic only or do stamina and health count too?' And that question was easily solvable, really. He just had to test using the skill after coming back from his exercises.
'If this doesn't count as a productive weekend, I don't know what does,' He thought to himself with a grin as he stood up, picked up Cheshire that had been next to him as usual and hugged her, needing a way to express how happy he was. The cat fought back futilely, and the man couldn't help but wonder if she was actually fighting and the Curse didn't let her do much or if it was a fake struggle. Once he let her go, he got his answer as the cat let out something that sounded like an annoyed mew before rubbing her head against his chest and licking his chin.
'Definitely a fake struggle,' He decided as he settled on petting the felines head instead.
[}-o-{]
'Experiment Number One,' Joshua noted down on a notebook, his back resting against a tree in a park that was relatively near his apartment. He would have stayed inside, but it was Sunday, it was sunny, there were slightly cold winds that he quite liked and Cheshire had looked a little cooped up, so he had chosen to go out for a bit. 'Test for an object size limit and weight,' He wrote down.
He had checked the notes of the spell he had found, but considering that the Game had adapted it to itself, Joshua wasn't hundred percent sure they would be accurate. Also, if he was honest with himself, he wanted an excuse to toy with the magic he now had available to himself. Also, the notes had said that the spell didn't require much magic, but considering what had happened to him, Joshua didn't much trust the accuracy of it regarding normal people such as himself. 'For a definition of the world normal,' He thought wryly as flashes of blue screens appeared in his mind.
'Experiment Number Two,' He continued. 'See if similar items can be stacked together in squares. Experiment Number Three, check if container type objects can be stored, i.e. boxes, bags, pouches, etc.'
Joshua paused as he saw the black and white shape of Cheshire walk up to him from the side. When he looked up, he noticed that she was carrying something in her mouth. That something became very clear when she stopped and dropped it next to him. He smiled wryly at the dead bird.
"Good job, girl," He said, not entirely sure that was the right thing to say but also without any better ideas. The cat seemed to preen at his words so he counted that as a hit. A second later, she got closer and rubbed herself against his arm. "Feeling better? Maybe you can accompany me when I go exercising… although I think that's more of a dog thing."
She let out a mew that sounded a lot like she agreed with him on that last part. Joshua shook his head, he had been doing that a lot. Interpreting her sounds and movements almost like they were sentences. 'Is that something related to Bond or am I just too lonely?' He decided, for the sake of his sanity, to choose the former answer.
Out of curiosity, he cast Appraisal on Cheshire.
[Cheshire
Title: None
Race: Cat
Gender: Female
Strength: F
Speed: F+
Dexterity: F
Vitality: F
Perception: F+
Magic: -
Perks: 2
Skills: 3
Altered Status: 1]
'New skill, huh?' Joshua thought, slightly surprised as he mentally pressed to see the new information. Expecting one, his surprise grew when he saw two changes.
[Bite – Lvl 2
Defines the damage the user can do with their jaws.]
[Hunt - Lvl 1
Defines the user's ability to pursue a target.]
'Guess it was so low level that it went up at the slightest use… Or she did so much of that and Scratch when I was healing her that she left it almost there… No clue, really. Especially since I don't know what she's done before I found her.' Joshua mused. 'She got a new skill though, and… I guess it might come in handy someday… maybe… I would really prefer not to need it though.'
"Hmmm, what else to note?" Joshua mumbled, his focus going back to the notebook on his lap. 'Idea Number One, notebook full of Storage Circles,' He scribbled down on another page before he started scratching his head. Maybe he should visit some stores and see if something else that he could use caught his eye. He also needed to finish browsing through the magic store. Who knows, maybe he would find something else there.
'I can't use the spell again until next weekend though, that's for sure,' He told himself. 'No way I'm risking passing out like that on a weekday. Even if my magic went up to three.'
"Girl," He spoke this time, getting a tilt of Cheshire's head. "Would you mind taking that away from here?" He asked signaling to the bird. His eyes went to a woman that walked by and sent a disgusted look at the bird and a disturbed one to him a second later. It didn't make a pretty picture, he was sure.
To his surprise, the cat actually did as he asked. He had tried, yes, but Joshua hadn't really expected the cat to do so. He hadn't even expected her to understand what he was saying at all. It had been more of a habit of talking to Cheshire. He had been a second away from taking the thing and throwing it on the trash.
[Bond: Cheshire has gone up a level.]
Looking in the direction his cat had gone, Joshua paused and blinked. 'Bond?'
[Bond
Cheshire - Lvl 4/10
Determines the user's bond closeness with Cheshire.]
'What is this thing, really?' Joshua wondered, not for the first time. And yet again, he was left without answers. In the end, he simply sighed, pushing those questions aside for the moment.
'Anyway, Experiment Number Four, check if liquids can be stored without containers,' He noted down on the previous page as he went back to his magic testing ideas.
[}-o-{]
A week quickly flew by and it was Friday once more. Joshua set on to test his Storage Spell again, this time with much more confidence since he knew he wouldn't… well, die from using it. Still, he made sure to double check everything. After all, he didn't want to be too confident.
This time around though, he didn't use the spell to store a pensil. No, instead, he took the sheet of paper and, once the dull grey light appeared and showed the now four squares of storage space, he pushed the sheet upside down over one of his chairs.
This was to test two things, one if he could push the circle on something instead of the other way around and also if something bigger needed more squares.
A second later, Joshua fell on his butt and panted heavily. 'Didn't pass out this time,' He mused tiredly. 'Ok, so, pushing the circle instead of the object works,' He nodded, his head doing the movement exaggeratedly due to how heavy it felt. A headache made him decide not to move much. 'Gonna have to see about the spaces… but later. Good to see I didn't need to do anything differently for the extra squares though. Now new circle design or anything.'
Taking a deep breath in, he settled in his now usual meditation pose and started working on it. 'Tomorrow, I check how it looks with the objects there,' He mused, as he hadn't been able to see the squares since the sheet was upside down. It wasn't a huge loss, since he could check as soon as the next day. 'Or maybe Sunday… Don't want to test my magic limits overly much.'
[Meditation has gone up a level.]
'Definitely works better when actually using it for something,' Joshua thought then as he looked over the screen in front of him once he felt better. He wasn't hundred percent recovered, but he was feeling hungry, so he put a pause on his meditation. 'Makes me wish I had used it more when I was recovering from the scratches Cheshire gave me.'
Once he was done with his meal, Joshua pulled out a leather covered blank book and a set of cards. The first he had bought in a random store, the second he had gotten in one of the visits he paid to the magic shop. Why there? Because they weren't normal cards, they were blank cards. Their backs looked exactly like normal Poker cards, but the other side was completely white.
He had seen them on display during one of his appraisal visits and an idea had come to him. It would help with two things. It would help test if a smaller circle affected the spell at all and it would come in handy to transport things in a more inconspicuous manner. He had also started making some plans for the Spell if he ever got his hand in some magic theory books, but those were plans for the future that weren't assured to ever happen.
Focusing back to the task at hand, Joshua started drawing circles in the book's pages and the cards'. He could meditate some more in the morning if he didn't feel completely recovered by the next day. The hope was that he could test both things during the weekend, get some more levels in Magic and Meditation and maybe even in Spatial Magic and the Storage Spell… But he would be happy with just the first and one level in any of the previously mentioned options.
[}-o-{]
Saturday came and Joshua found himself eyeing the array of items on his table. A sheet of paper that held a pen inside, another sheet that held a chair, a book half-full of circles, and a few cards with smaller circles drawn on them. It took a considerable amount of time to draw the circles, so he hadn't been able to finish either the notebook or the cards, but he had enough to start testing. That was enough for him, he could finish both while he recovered from the experimentation or through the week.
Besides the magically affected things were two bottles of water. One to check if containers could be placed inside the circle. Joshua was fairly sure that that one would work. He also had a box and a bag with random things inside to further test that. The second bottle was to check if he could store just the water, as he planned to uncap it and pour the water on the active circle. He also had another pen, just like the one he had inside the storage seal he tested last week. This one to test if similar objects stacked or not.
"Ok, first of all," Joshua said to himself, letting a long breath out to relax his tense shoulders. He could have waited some more to recover from the previous day's magic using, but he was fairly sure that he was fine with the meditation he had done and a night's sleep. If not, then the most he expected to happen was to pass out for a night just like the week before. "let's see how this looks."
Taking the already used circles, he activated the one with the pen. He was somewhat surprised to see it with four squares now instead of one, but it was also expected. With his breath growing weary, he took the new pen and pushed it in. He blinked for a second as he saw it appear in the square next to the other pen picture. 'No stacking then,' He noted mentally before touching the picture again and feeling how the pen appeared on his fingers, and as he pulled it came back out. After placing it on the table, he pulled the other one, leaving the circle empty.
With that done, he leaned back and let out a sigh. Joshua then looked down at his hands, trembling from exhaustion.
"Ok," He said with a tired smirk. "Maybe I was a bit over excited preparing all these when I obviously can't do the spell repeatedly yet," He explained as he pet Cheshire's head, the cat having approached him once he was done. She let out a mew, pressing her head against his palm. "Guess I'll see if I can do the next one in the afternoon."
And that's exactly what he did. After recovering his magic with Meditation and having lunch. He felt ready to go right back to his experimentation. Joshua paused as he heard Cheshire let out a long mew. Turning his blue eyes towards her, he noticed that the cat had her amber ones locked on him.
"Em… something wrong, girl?" He asked, getting the uncomfortable impression that he was being scolded. "I'll, er, be careful. Don't worry. This'll probably be the last one today," He explained, feeling more than a little silly for speaking with his cat as if she could- He blinked. Had Cheshire just nodded at him?
'This is getting really weird,' He thought, slightly unnerved. 'Is this Bond's thing? Is this… something else?'
"Just tell me you are not a person in disguise," Joshua said shakily, getting a tilted head from his cat. "Not like you would tell me, right?" A simple mew was the response he got. At that he slumped and let out a sigh. "Let's just pretend none of that happened, ok Joshua? Let's just blame magic and the system, ok?" He told himself before chuckling. "I'm getting crazier by the second."
Shaking his head, and scary thoughts regarding his cat away, he took the paper that held inside the chair and activated it.
'Huh? Would you look at that? It occupies two squares,' He noticed before pulling out the chair. After leaving the chair on the floor, he felt the now familiar tiredness cover his body.
"Ok, not passed out yet, but I'm definitely worse than before," He noted to himself. He almost jumped when Cheshire came up to him and started rubbing her body against his leg. 'Really hope it's just Bond's thing,' He prayed.
"Gotta test the rest tomorrow, I guess."
His cat responded with a mew and he got the impression that she was glad.
'Really hoping it's Bond...'
[}-o-{]
Unknown Third Person PoV
It hadn't been a one time thing. Someone was really doing magic close by.
He had felt it, but had quickly dismissed it as little more than a magician traveling through the city. There was little point in getting ahead of himself. It had happened before, after all.
The person had done magic again though.
There were few magicians living in the city, and for good reason too. After all, there was only one group… And everyone else had… mysteriously disappeared.
He grinned.
'Maybe I'll be lucky,' He thought to himself.
He would have to find exactly who this new magic user was. And then, maybe, just maybe, Lady Luck would smile upon him. 'Maybe I'll get to have fun again.'
Hunting was always fun, after all.
[} Chapter End {]