Editing items turned out to be a form of magic. During my detention, I experimented with the items in my bag. I transformed a pencil into a pen. The paperclip that I managed to turn into chewing gum made me nervous. What would happen if I put it in my mouth? Would it taste like aluminum? For the sake of science, I tried it. I wasn’t disappointed with the flavor. I decided not to change it back into a paperclip when I was done because I swallowed some of it.

This line of research led to wondering about what would happen if I ate something that was edited. Would I leave edited stuff in the toilet? Did the simple act of tasting this gum already set that in motion?

I sat back in my chair, scanning the library for inspiration. I needed something to test this newfound ability on. Mrs. Hodgins had watched the first couple of tests, but she had left some time ago to man her post at the front desk.

The library had more books than anything else. I took a few off of the shelf and examined them. None of the books by my hidden spot were very interesting. I picked up a bound volume titled, The long and industrious history of logging in Canada.

It had always caught my eye because it was yellow. I had also often wondered how someone managed to get enough information about logging to fill that entire book. Rather than finding out, I held the book in my hand trying to decide what to transform it into. The book sat silently on the table as I debated what to choose that wouldn’t be conspicuous.

What do I really need?, I thought, pulling open the book’s description.

The answer to the question was money. If I had one wish, it would have been to help my mother. She worked two jobs so that she could support me. The obvious solution would be to turn a sheet of paper into a hundred-dollar bill. If it wasn’t for that (Edited) tag, I would have already done it.

Getting creative, I removed a sheet of paper from my binder.

Item:

Lined Paper

Components

Paper

Item Rank:

F

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

I needed something that I could use to get money. It also needed to be something that I could destroy, eliminating any evidence of my crime.

Item:

Winning Lottery Numbers (Edited)

Components

Paper

Item Rank:

F

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

I looked down at the paper as writing magically appeared in bright red ink.

Date: 2-20-21

11, 22, 7, 43, 27, 2

After a moment of excitement, I groaned in the realization that I had summoned the previous weekend’s winning numbers. I needed to be more specific.

Item:

Winning Lottery Numbers for 2-25-21 (Edited)

Components

Paper

Item Rank:

F

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

The numbers disappeared and were replaced by a single word: Unknown. I sighed and put my frustration into words, “So the magic can’t predict the future.”

Giving up on get-rich-quick schemes, I returned my attention to the big yellow book. Books were special to me. They were magical devices that helped me escape the nightmare that I lived in most of the time. If only there was a book that could tell me more about this new world I found myself in.

Could it be so simple?

I looked over the book with new eyes, trying to decide on what best to call it.

Item:

Magical Instruction Book (Edited)

Components

Paper, Leather, Cardboard

Item Rank:

C

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

The Library

The binding of the book aged and runes appeared on the cover where a plaid-clad lumberjack used to be. I eagerly pulled it open.

To use magic properly, one must know the ancient spells. They cannot be translated. The magical language of the ancients must be spoken. Each spell requires a specific amount of mana which is determined by the complexity of the spell. Additional mana may be applied to the spell which will increase the potency of the magic being performed.

I flipped through the pages trying to find any actual spells, but the book appeared to be etiquette rather than actual instructions. So I tried again.

Magical Spellbook (Edited)

I couldn’t read a single word in the book. It was written in glyphs in a language that didn’t even look familiar to me. I surmised that it must have been the ancient magical language that the first book referenced. I tried many other types of books.

How to read ancient magic (Edited)

Magic for Dummies (Edited)

Even you can do magic (Edited)

Magic in 10 easy steps (Edited)

Teach me you stupid book (Edited)

None of them did what I asked. It felt like I was missing something. The books appeared to try to do what I wanted. The dummies book even took on the yellow cover of other books in the series. They provided me with instructions on how to properly do magic without actually teaching me how to do magic. I knew the motions. I was just missing the actual spells.

Something was missing. Could it be that I wasn’t a magic-user? I looked over my character sheet.

Name

Melvin Murphy

Class

Manipulator (Unlocked)

Level

1

Hitpoints

100

Mana

100

Stamina

100

Strength

25

Dexterity

25

Agility

25

Constitution

50

Intelligence

85

Wisdom

30

Charisma

10

Luck

20

I considered changing my class to something else, but the fear that I would lose my ability to edit things worried me. Then it dawned on me. Rather than trying to give myself a book to learn a new class, I needed something to better explain my current class. Then there was the question of the world. Why did this whole system exist? Why did only a few people have access to it? Why did nobody else know it existed? I would have to think about that later. For now, I had an idea.

Item:

Manipulator Instruction Manual (Edited)

Components

Paper, Leather, Cardboard

Item Rank:

C

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

The Library

A tiny black book sat before me after the transformation completed. The title altered itself to A History of Manipulation. The Abomination Class.

I flipped through the book trying to get a general idea of how the class worked.

There have been few mentions of Manipulators throughout history. Usually no more than one exists in any given world at a time. Nearly all of them have turned out to be villains. Whether they were corrupted to begin with or tainted by the power can only be left to speculation. According to experts, the emergence of a Manipulator is often followed by a great calamity in the world in which they spawn.

I stared silently at the passage for a few moments before quickly changing the book back to its original form. I looked around anxiously to make sure Mrs. Hodgins didn’t see. The last thing I needed was people looking at me like I was insane just for being a Manipulator.

“Other worlds huh?”

I rubbed my chin as I thought out loud. I idly wondered if the book was referring to other planets somewhere out there in the void. Of course, it could be talking about different nations. Before travel was convenient, a different country could be seen as another world. What I hoped was that the book was referring to other versions of Earth complete with magic and everything that went along with it.

“If I consider magic to be dead in this world, then I just need to seek it from another.”

The question was how. I was stumped. Mountains of books around me and I just knew I wasn’t about to find anything on inter-dimensional travel. Not in the non-fiction section at least.

“What are you reading over there?”, Mrs. Hodgins asked, as she flipped through the stack of books on my desk, “This is different from your usual selection. Did your new class come with a vivid imagination? Also, what does the Manipulator class give you?”

I looked up at the librarian, losing my place in the portal fantasy I was skimming. The books weren’t very useful. What it boiled down to was the art of summoning took a lot of power. Entire kingdoms would get together for months sometimes to pray for a hero to save their world. The combined effort resulted in some poor fool being plucked from his home against his will and plopped in front of a king he had never met.

On the other side of the portal coin, I could open a gate to another world. That would end up with me exploring a new world that I knew next to nothing about. There was also a good chance that the rules of that world would be different so I might wind up completely powerless.

“Ahem”, Mrs. Hodgins coughed to get my attention, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I set the book down and glanced up, “Sorry about that. I was just thinking about something.”

She smiled, reading the back of one of the books, “I never really understood these kinds of books. Call me an old-fashioned fantasy girl any day.”

I laughed nervously, not sure how to explain the books.I asked her, “Have you ever read or heard anything about other worlds?I want to learn how to use magic and it doesn’t seem to exist in ours.”

She set the book down in front of me and took a seat, rubbing her chin. The librarian frowned, “I’m sure life exists somewhere out there, but I’m not sure we possess the technology to go there. Anything we know about other worlds is just hypothetical. I could find you some books about other planets that might support life if you like.”

I shook my head, trying to find a better way to explain my theory, “I don’t mean other planets or alien life forms. What about other worlds in other dimensions. Like the places in these fantasy novels come to life. Do you think they could exist?”

I wanted to ask her if I could summon someone from one of those worlds, but I didn’t want to give that away because she would realize I actually meant to try it. She was going through my selection of books again and laughed, “Perhaps. It could be true. How about you just enjoy the story and read a couple of these for now. You know what they say about a good book after all.”

I gave her a perplexed look. Here I was in a world that turned out to be a fantasy, and Mrs. Hodgins was suggesting that I go read a book. I didn’t want to read. I wanted to play with my newfound powers.

We made small talk after that, but I didn’t have any more questions for the old lady. What I needed was privacy so I could change some more books into useful references.

How to Summon a Hero (Edited)

The knowledge of how to summon a hero to save the kingdom is a forbidden art passed along through the royal lineage for many generations. The summons is only to be used as a last resort in times of great peril.

Properly summoning a hero takes a approximately one million ampoules of mana. The ritual used to summon the hero can be created by an individual monarch as the frame for the spell. Donors form a bond to the contract entering the designated space inside of the summoning circle to initiate the mana transfer.

Once the minimum cost is met, the summoning will begin after the donors vacate the circle. The ritual will seek the hero most qualified for the specific task required by the spell.

The Book of Heroes as I took to calling it contained a lot of fine print which included numerous warnings. There were restrictions about attempting to summon a hero without the full support of the kingdom, but I just chalked that up as the legendary ‘Don’t try this at home kids’ warning that often came up on television.

I was forced to unedit the book so that I was able to check out the Long and Industrious History of Logging in Canada. Mrs. Hodgins gave me a very suspicious look when I presented it to her, “What happened to all of those glorious fantasy books you were reading earlier? I don’t think anybody has ever checked this book out?”

I laughed and suggested, “This book might help me figure out more about the world.”

She turned the book over with newfound respect, “Okay then. Be sure to tell me if you find anything useful.”

“Will do”, I promised, holding up two fingers in a scout’s version of a promise.

I needed time to think on the way home, so I missed the bus on purpose. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to try to summon a hero right away. The words in the book danced in my head, memories that I couldn’t erase if I wanted to. I daydreamed about becoming a legendary wizard, conjuring fire and ice with a snap of my finger. Figuring that out was as simple as learning the spells after all.

My plan was to gun for Merlin or Gandalf or maybe even Dumbledore. Any of the big ones would be fine teachers. I could even see Dumbledore taking over as the principal of my high school and putting that Tim Sumpter in permanent detention. That would be so awesome. Of course, then we would have to move detention away from the library. That was my domain.

Mother still wasn’t home when I finally arrived. I microwaved a burrito and set up camp in my bedroom. It took me a while to clear some space for the summoning. I had to make markings on the floor to do the ritual. This required a new book.

How to Summon a Hero (With Pictures) (Edited)

With diagrams of how the ritual was supposed to look, I was able to use duct tape to form a rough pentagram. It was a bit different than your typical dark symbols, with hand-drawn crowns and a goblet that I had to substitute an old sippy cup for.

There was writing that I didn’t recognize that was supposed to go inside of the circle. I did my best to copy the inscriptions by hand and place them inside of the circle as well. By the time I had finished, there was only room for a single person to kneel inside of the circle.

I recalled that the donor had to take their place there and pray to offer the ritual mana. Not knowing how much it would take, I knelt and offered a prayer, “Please summon me a hero to show me how to do magic.”

The effect was immediate. I felt winded as something was pulled from my gut. The feeling was impossible to describe as I was not aware I even had it in me until it was suddenly being drained. It didn’t take long for my tank to be empty.

Mana 0/100

I sighed as I felt myself bottom out. All I wanted to do was sleep. I staggered to my feet and hobbled over to my bed, collapsing hard into my mattress. An angry red notice obscured my vision, causing my heart to race.

Mana connection lost. The ritual will end in 60 seconds if the connection is not re-established.

Did the book say I have to keep a continuous connection?

I started to panic as I rolled out of the bed and made my way back over to the circle. I had been planning to slowly supply my minuscule supply of mana to the ritual and take breaks while it regenerated. It turned out that I was going to have to stay in the circle or risk failure.

Mana 23/100

Soon as my knees hit the floor inside of the ritual, it began to pull from my mana once again. It was all I could do to stop myself from adding regurgitated burrito to the summoning circle. I tried to focus on breathing as the seconds ticked away.

Once I got down to zero mana, the ritual would let up for a moment. The problem was that it never completely stopped siphoning my mana. Just as soon as a single point would regenerate, it was taken by the summoning circle. This left me on the verge of passing out.

What happens if I fail? Does the ritual blow up? Am I about to die?

I must have skimmed that part of the book. I tried my best to ignore the pain and stand my ground inside of the circle. After around half an hour, I did end up puking, though I managed to get most of it outside of the circle.

The ritual felt like it went on for an eternity. I knew this wasn’t the case though because my mother was off work at midnight. I bit my tongue, hoping the pain would keep me in the game just a little bit longer.

What was the minimum mana needed to make this work again? Why didn't I take my time to learn how to do this properly?

The pressure was getting to me. It felt like someone was drilling a hole in my stomach. I didn’t know what to do. I knew I couldn’t do this again, so I had to make this one count. I wished I could go back in time to read the rest of the fine print in that book. It probably warned me about this.

I don't know when it was that I passed out, but I dreamed I was sitting in a courtroom, waiting for a judge to give his verdict. He was banging his gavel over and over against the desk. It sounded sort of like a woodpecker when I thought about it.

No Donor Detected. Ritual Finalized. Total Mana Absorbed: 10,383.

“How dare you summon me”, a female voice woke me from my slumber.