Abuse of Magic

Chapter 4: The System

After they were done, his father took them upstairs to a very nice room. After he shut the door, he turned to him and smiled.

"Finally, I can talk to you! This room is one of the few rooms that are safe for me to talk to you about a very important topic."

Joseph looked at his father, confused. What could be so important? His father knew so many things, Joseph was grasping at straws on what he might want to talk about. He didn't have a prayer of remembering everything his father had even mentioned that long day to know if he had hinted at anything earlier. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Father, how are you able to remember so much? You knew every person's name that we encountered. And you knew exactly where to go. This place is like a maze!"

"That's what I want to talk about! I have an advantage over other people called photographic memory. I cannot forget anything. It's not all that great sometimes, but has been incredibly useful. The reason I have such a fantastic system set up as a slave merchant, is because of the System."

As his father stopped talking, a strange phenomenon occurred. In his line of vision, Joseph saw a series of words pop up.

(SYSTEM ACTIVATED.)

(ACCEPT OPPORTUNITY?)

(Yes) (No)

The yes and no were blinking, but the other two lines remained. His father chuckled at his startled expression, but said nothing, choosing to sit in a chair.

"Uh, yes? I guess?" said Joseph slowly, still not sure what was happening.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, there was a flash of light in his field of vision and several things happened at once. He felt dizzy as images flashed in his vision and quickly disappeared. He ended up sitting in another chair across from his dad. Then a strange vision appeared, and he was sure only he could see it.

(STATISTICS)

NAME: Joseph Aurum

AGE: 7

(PRIMARY STATS)

STRENGTH: 8

DEXTERITY: 9

INTELLIGENCE: 13

HEALTH: 11

(SECONDARY STATS)

HIT POINTS: 8

WILLPOWER: 17

PERCEPTION: 11

FATIGUE: 13

(ADVANTAGES)

PATRON Father, constantly around, provides all equipment

ATTRACTIVE - +1 reaction due to natural good looks

STATUS - +1 reaction due to being an elite merchant's son

(DISADVANTAGES)

DEAD BROKE No money owned personally

SOCIAL STIGMA Minor

(SKILLS)

-NONE-

"What is this?" his voice was quiet, as if he was afraid of his dad's answer. He honestly wasn't sure what to think.

"When I first headed out to become a merchant, I encountered a man. He was sitting on the side of the road, and looked like he had been beaten up pretty bad. I was going to walk by him, but something made me stop."

Joseph listened to his father's story, wondering what it had to do with this strange phenomenon. He found that if he focused, he could see the room around him perfectly fine, and the print seemed to grow translucent.

"I asked him if he needed anything, and he laughed. He was the one who introduced the System to me. I don't know what ever happened to him, as he didn't stick around to teach me about it, like I intend to do with you. You have no idea how hard it has been to wait until you were old enough for me to give you access."

"Access? To the system?"

"Yes! I've wanted to give it to you every since your mother told me she was pregnant with you. I've been waiting a pretty long time!" he chuckled.

"Why didn't you give it to me in the carriage?" He remembered the long trip they had taken from the house to here.

"See, that's one of the rules of the System, you can't talk about it, where others might hear. It's a secret. I had to have this room specially fortified to keep others from hearing us talk about it. Also, you had to be over 7 years old, and you were born just after lunch time."

Joseph had so many questions, but he wasn't sure where to begin. If it wasn't for the words in his field of vision, he would have thought this was a joke.

"Only you can see your status, and it will change as you grow and learn things. Mine sure has! The System will give you missions and then reward you with things that will help you accomplish whatever your goal is."

"My goal?" asked Joseph.

Immediately his status left his vision and another prompt appeared.

(LIFE GOAL - ???)

"What kind of goal should I get?"

"Well, the System wants you to be powerful, so choose something powerful, and it will be more cooperative."

"The system wants me to be powerful?" he asked his dad.

"Of course! If you're powerful, then the System gets to grow and have more influence on this world."

"How are you powerful then?"

"Well, I can't give specific advanced abilities away. You may never have access to them if you go a different direction than I went, but you know how my slaves are so sought after? It's because they are so well trained, thanks to the System giving me the abilities to do things right. I have slaves all over the three kingdoms. I even have slaves that I've sold to the kings. Now, I'm not going to say that I control the three kingdoms, but I could certainly influence them heavily if I needed to."

Joseph stopped and thought about how his father could influence kings. He would have to be more powerful than just a king. And kings have it pretty tough. From what his mother talked about all the time, kings have to worry about the weather, crops and food for the people, pests, and droughts. It was more than just politics, any king could handle politics, but if a king could guarantee food for his people, they would never be willing to overthrow him. But to control all of that would take magic. A lot of magic.

He would never be able to do magic. A person had to be born with magery in order to cast spells, and he was not. Though, maybe the system could change that?

(MISSION CHOOSE A LIFE GOAL)

(REWARD 10 LIFE POINTS)

"So, once you set your goal, the System makes you do things. You didn't do it all on your own?" he asked, trying to understand everything. It was all happening so fast he felt slow and stupid.

His father laughed and said, "Of course I did it on my own! The System is like a guide. It helps you learn things that may not be possible. I have so many magical abilities that no one can ever know about because the System is a secret. But since you now have access to it, I can talk to you about it. Though I doubt you will take the same route I did, so you probably won't get the same advantages I have. You wouldn't believe some of the crazy things I have had to do to get where I am now."

"So, did you just give me this so you could brag?"

"Not just!" his father joked.

He nodded, deep in thought.

"So, I could be a mage and a king?"

His dad nodded.

"Then my life goal is to be the mage king!"

As soon as he finished his declaration, something peculiar happened.

(LIFE GOAL THE MAGE KING)

(MISSION CHOOSE A LIFE GOAL)

(COMPLETED)

(REWARD 10 LIFE POINTS)