Magic was something I was very interested in. Who didn't love magic or dream about waving a wand and turning their enemies into toads? As a young teen, I read all the HP books, and as a young adult, I read all the HP Fanfics. I can't say that my time was well spent, but it did help me when I dipped my toe in the magic of the first world.

There were two forms of magic in this world. Runes and mantras, runes were symbols that could be applied to objects for a predictable effect. Mantras were beliefs forged together until magic took notice. Fireball was one example of a mantra. Adding adjectives could alter a spell until it no longer resembled the original concept. Mantras required a certain level of faith to truly master them. On the other hand, Runes were predictable and, once learned, would never fail their wielder.

While fireball would always be my go-to spell when I'm in a bind, I pulled away from mantra and turned to runes soon after I began my actual study of magic.

…

I awoke to a pounding headache. My dick felt like someone had jabbed a hot poker into it, and my balls felt like raisins. Ito Rin rested on my left shoulder while my eyes began to crack open. The sounds outside were intense; the entire city was in a rush to fortify for a siege. Something besides alcohol must have been in my drink, and it wasn't poison, probably. Or it wasn't most poisons.

Ito Rin woke up and looked me in the eyes. She screamed and rolled away from me. "What did you do to me?" The bitch demanded.

"I think the real question is, what did the council of four put in our drinks? Last night wasn't normal." The Japanese woman looked at me, then down at my crotch, and shivered. "If only I could sell that stuff as a pill, I'd never have to work again," I said and cracked a smile at the shaking woman.

She looked up at me with accusing brown eyes. "You raped me." Ito Rin said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Don’t flatter yourself. This was business, and now it's concluded. I hope you enjoy the siege.” I said.

Her eyes glowed a dangerous green. I moved faster than she could perceive, stepped behind her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. Then, with a light push, she landed on the bed ass up in the air.

I stared at her well-shaven crotch and toned thighs. Her ass, while small, was firm and very slapable. But without the drug in my system, the feeling of betrayal by her Reddit posts reared its ugly head.

A burst of speed took me back to my discarded clothes. After putting them back on, I found a heavily enchanted tablet with my gold on it and a reservation to homestead affairs.

Ito Rin rolled over on her back, and I saw her phone flash. “What are you doing now?” I asked.

“Reporting the rape.” My spectral arm snatched the phone away from her. Instead of Reddit, she had turned my picture into her background. With a sigh, I tossed her phone back to her.

“Why did you do it?” I asked.

“Birth control doesn’t exist in this world, and neither does child support. If my future child asks what her father looks like, I’ll at least have this. If I demanded that you marry me now for the sake of our child, what would you say?” Ito Rin said.

“I’m going out for cigarettes,” I said and shook my head. “Is there really no potion to prevent childbirth in this world?”

“To terminate a child in Acura is a crime against the state. New lives have too much potential, especially if the parents are talented. If I tried, they might not find out, but if they did, it would be my life.” Ito Rin said.

I shrugged and took a picture of her. “I meant, why did you post that crap on Reddit.”

She bared her teeth. “For the donations, of course. People, especially thirsty men, will believe whatever I tell them to. All I had to do was give them a convincing sob story, and all their coins were mine. Soon I’ll be able to purchase any skills I need.” Ito Rin said.

If she hadn’t doxed me, maybe I might have felt bad and even entertained marrying her. But she betrayed me, and that couldn’t be forgiven. I’m sure she would be able to profit from her betrayal; our world was full of paypigs. There would be plenty of white nights ready to hunt me down too. If any were close, maybe I could use them to distract the golems.

“That was what I thought, but confirmation is always good. So enjoy the siege while I bust my ass to save yours.” I said.

Ito Rin placed a hand over her womb. And dared to smile at me. “Don’t let me down.”

I pulled the brim of my hat down and walked out of the room. For once, I had time to breathe and plan for this trip. The second the door closed behind me, I took out my phone and found the introduction to magic PDF.

Servants, advisors, and specialists rushed around the floor while I quickly read through Blue’s PDF. My introduction into magic was a hundred-page PDF in the smallest found I’d ever seen. There were runes on the pages, their meaning, and how they worked. But, something closer to a reaction table began to form in my mind than a list of runes. There were some metals and woods that these symbols worked better with than others.

As intriguing as that was, it was only a toe dip. From there, I found my brother’s step-by-step instructions, complete with diagrams to short circuit the collar. Depending on what metal the collar was made from determined the rune used. These symbols had to be turned a certain way to work and maintain a specific distance apart. The more I studied these runes, the more I had to learn.

By the time the elevator opened on the bottom floor, I had finished the pdf twice. Finally, magic was at hand, and I had all the money I needed to learn about it. But, for once, I had everything I needed to start a new hobby.

Finding a place to buy the supplies I needed was easy enough. There were hundreds of shops catering to dabblers, aspiring magic engineers, war mage types, and even those who specialized. I, of course, fell into the first category, and so there was only one place for me.

Kale tracked me down in one of the magic malls. That is a series of stores dedicated to selling magical equipment rather than a mall that is itself magic. My centaur girl friend had found a few books in a discount bin and helped herself. She had spent the silver she’d made from whoring me out well enough.

“Did the meeting go well?” Kale asked.

“As well as can be expected, I think I asked too little and got less than even that. How much is 250,000 gold coins worth of goods from flank town? I’m restricted from buy stocks in foreign cities, but I can buy real estate here.” I said.

Kale’s eyes practically turned into dollar signs. She looked at her bargain bin books with distaste. “You could start yourself on the track to being an archmage with that kind of money. If we had the room, we could set ourselves up with some real magical knowledge. I’m talking hidden runes dug up from ancient tombs, stolen from gods' weapons, and even those discovered by archmages. With that kind of money, we could do anything.” Kale cheered.

Well, she was sticking her neck out too. So she deserved at least half for the trouble.

“I’m just a beginner; where should I go first?” I asked.

She looked at me strangely. “But everyone says you can use fireball like an archmage. I thought you were a mantra type and an angel blessed with a hero’s blood. That’s the only thing that makes sense. Most mantra types stick with the mantras they know. It's fast, easy, and powerful; why would you use runes if you didn’t have to?” Kale asked.

I thought about it, and the reason became crystal clear. “When I use a mantra, all I can think about is the mantra.” To put it bluntly, it was like the mantra used up all the ram I had. Adding Heavy and Bullet to the mix made that problem even worse. If I could outsource that, then I’d be better off.

“So, you want to make a wand that does the same thing as your mantra spell,” Kale said.

I nodded. “That would make things much easier,” I said.

She sighed, grabbed my hand, and led me in a different direction. “We’re going to need reference books, multiple tomes of wand lore, a rune carving kit, and lots of different materials,” Kale said.

“Is that all we’ll need?” I asked.

Kale snorted. “Not even close. But it should be enough to get started. We should get you a standard lexicon of Audi, BMW, and Ferrari runes.” Kale said.

I counted 25 books stacked up as we walked through the bookstore. I probably wouldn’t use half of them.

The shopkeep looked bored as hell and took my council-supplied card with the dead eyes of a man unhappy with his job. Once my books were purchased and safely in my inventory, we made our way to our next stop.

Despite being a part of a magical store outlet, a lumber yard was still a lumber yard. As we moved through collecting log after log of expensive imported wand material, I began to plan out my wand. A stick wasn’t going to be my approach. After thinking about it carefully, I decided to make the equivalent of a gun.

No, I didn’t know if it was possible or not. My AR15 had proven useless against King’s clones, but if I could carve something similar with my Heavy Fireball Bullets, that could be a game-changer.

“Sir, I see you’re interested in wand lore; well, no one should make their first wand from scratch. So why don’t you buy one of my wands? They're perfect for defense and great templates for first-time wand crafters?” A hype man said.

Kale led me into the man’s store without missing a beat.

I didn’t like most wands I saw with their uncomfortable handles or the occasional dick design. However, after seeing various different dicks from various sentients, including a massive horse dong wand, I realized that wand-making might be a little boring. That is until Kale lifted the largest horse dong wand and marveled at it sparked with barely restrained electrical power.

“Look at this one; it even has a little pouch for two rather large rune gem attachments,” Kale said. I nodded my head if she wanted to spend her half on a giant wooden dildo that was her business.

I picked up a black wand that to have the rune set for adding fire spells. The wand was runed up until a certain point which was left blank. This was precisely what I needed to get started.

After purchasing the wands, we made our way to a clothing outlet and purchased some self-cooling robes packed with defensive wards. Everything magical was expensive but rarely did something go over a few gold coins. Kale dressed in a cream-colored blouse complete with a blue robe built for centaurs. She even purchased a hemp chastity belt.

We purchased battlefield tents, chunks of uncut ghost rock that went for hundreds of gold coins, a 6ft-by-6ft block, and gems of all kinds. Unfortunately, by the time we finished purchasing everything we’d need, our gold had gone from 250,000 to only 20,000.