Perry examined the ingredients, unloading the van one box at a time and checking each one to make sure every part of Dave’s delivery had been correct

Trust, but verify.

As usual, Dave’s customer service went above and beyond, despite being a creep.

Dave had packed everything by what spells they went in, guessing at their function with startling accuracy. It wasn’t surprising, though. The unicorn was ancient, and had been in the business for centuries, dating back to before Earth.

Perry hauled open one of the chests and glanced into it. Slip-beast Ichor, cloud giant cornea chunks, and Mind-taker ichor.

Dragol’s Kinesis (expert Difficulty)

Slip-beast Ichor, Mind-taker ichor, cloud giant lens.

Cut the cloud giant lens into a perfects sphere, coat the sphere in slip-beast ichor and allow to dry. Print the tale of Johanas The Voyager in mind-taker ichor on the user’s body, then upon the coated sphere. Upon finishing the inscription, everything within a twenty brindle range will be under the user’s mental control.

The difficulty rating of this spell is not triggering the spell, but not harming oneself with it. One stray thought of tearing your own limbs off will cause it to happen.

See, you just thought about it.

Perry closed the chest and moved on to the next one.

Zenith Amber, strips of Kint hide, and Maiard stingers.

Static shock (Difficulty: neophyte)

In one hand, hold the Zenith Amber and kint hide together, so that the kint fur glides across the surface of the amber. Hold the Maiard stinger between two fingers so that it remains in contact with the amber from the other side.

Rub the kint fur against the Zenith Amber and a Small bolt of electricity will leap out of the Maiard stinger, striking whatever the stinger is pointing at.

Proper hand position illustrated below.

The output is limited and nonlethal, producing a mild tingling contraction in the target’s muscles. Can be used as a self-defence measure for noncombatants to escape, as it is quick and easy to use, but ultimately, it is not suitable as an offensive spell.

I mean, before it’s Paradox’ed. Perry thought, closing the chest and moving on to the next one.

Diamonds, Morpheus Moth scales, Power stones.

Daxer’s Faux teleportation (Difficulty: Apprentice)

Ingredients: flawless diamond, Morpheus moth scales, power stone, blood of caster.

Ensure the diamond is flawless with two large facets perfectly opposed to each other that the spell can travel through. Occlusions, cracks, split or unaligned facets will result in warped or inaccurate results.

Mix the blood of the caster with finely powdered moth scales, 1:2 ratio, blood to scales, into a thick paste.

Apply a dab of the paste to one side of the diamond.

To trigger the spell, strike the dab of paste firmly with the power-stone. The user will appear to have teleported, the destination being the line of sight of the diamond’s two facets.

The user’s real body is imperceptible for about five seconds, while the decoy appears in the distance, copying the caster’s movements and voice for the duration.

Useful in confusing an enemy, but the duration leaves something to be desired, and against an experienced wizard, it most likely will not achieve the desired effect.

Below is a diagram of a handle the diamond and power stone can be affixed in to make the striking process more accurate and reliable.

It looked a bit like a pair of inverted tongs. Squeeze the handle and a spring slipped past a ratcheting lock until it went too far, then the two sides of the tongs would smash into each other.

I could do better, Perry thought, closing the mini-chest and moving on.

The next one…

There was an ornate wooden box inside covered in large labels…

Do not open unless asleep!

Ah yes, rope woven in a dream and brought out to the real world. It couldn’t be interacted with while awake. You couldn’t even see it, and if you opened the box, it would evaporate into nothingness, but if you were capable of lucid dreaming (or on DMT) you could open the box and use it as an ingredient in your spells.

Along with that was more Morpheus moth scales, a tiny figurine made of giant bone with a gaping mouth, a giant cornea, a lodestone, and a fishhook made of Lurker tooth.

Agorant’s Bridge of Dreams (Master)

Assemble Dream rope, Morpheus moth scales, giant bone doll, giant cornea, lodestone, and a lurker fishhook together in a place they can be reached easily from your bed.

Use Perol’s Sleep Puppetry to make your physical movements copy those of your sleeping body at will (You’re going to want to stop acting out your dreams once you enter the target’s dream)

While dreaming, Attach the lurker fishhook to the dream rope, then hold in your off-hand. If released, the two will cease to be connected.

With your off had, hold the lodestone, then stuff a strand of hair or other small piece of the target into the figurine’s mouth before packing it in with the moth scales.

Hold the Lodestone and bone figurine close together, then draw them apart as if drawing a bow.

The target’s dream (if they are asleep) will be drawn towards you, and should become visible in the distance as it abuts your own.

In order to close the distance, use the dream rope with the Lurker fishhook to snag the dream.

If done properly, the rope will become a symbol of traversal. Usually a bridge or hallway.

At this point, dismiss Perol’s Sleep Puppetry, lest you walk off the balcony of your tower, like Barghest the Foolish.

Cross the bridge, and you will appear as a visitor or invader in the dream of the subject, depending on your relationship with them.

Should you not have a piece of the target, you can use the giant cornea. While asleep, you will be able to pierce the barrier of your own dream and see others, allowing you to stuff the figurine with your own hair, and move your own dream closer to the target’s manually. It is not recommended, as it is far slower, less accurate, and time consuming, but can be done if necessary.

Once close enough to the target’s dream, hook it with the fishhook, as before.

With enough control over one’s mental state, one can appear as a different person, and avoid notice in the target’s dream long enough to gather critical information or implant suggestions.

Naturally, the stumbling block of this spell is the sheer amount of mental control required in a state where mental control is at a premium.

Thousands have tried this spell on a lark, and thousands have failed. Some never woke up, as they became lost outside the safety of their own dreams.

Do not attempt without the greatest of caution and mental discipline. Your mind CAN take damage if overwhelmed by a mind with greater discipline, or sheer unadulterated rage. Goroth the Unwary was rendered a vegetable by a poor orphan girl.

…

If there was ever a spell that screamed ‘MAGIC’ it was the ability to visit other’s minds. Perry most likely couldn’t automate it, because he doubted his Terry-brain microchips were capable of dreaming, and even if they could, the microchips would be the ones visiting other’s dreams, and not Perry.

What Perry wanted to do was distill the essence into filters in his soul, so he could use the spell personally.

I can revisit Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation now.

The ability to create buildings and machines from nothing but his imagination would be…legit.

Perry opened the next one, saw it had a resupply for Kolath’s Floating Armory, then set it aside.

He spotted a chest filled with supplies to cast Gretchen’s idyllic Manifestation, catalogued it, and set it aside.

There was Perry’s frozen lunar essence.

Once he was done with the lunar essence, he could use the water of life to gain an extra decade of life for himself or someone else.

Although…I might wanna wait until after I have kids…

Life extention magic had a tendency to render oneself infertile. Karmic balance, maybe?

Plus Perry really didn’t need to worry about life-extention at his current age. It’d probably be better to just resell the water.

Not to mention my Body stat probably has that under control anyway.

Assuming Perry’s natural remaining lifespan was about sixty years, and his Body was currently 6…

1.34*60

Maybe 80 years? Give or take, if he never gained another level.

Yeah, I’m fine with that.

Perry unpacked ingredients for the Blur spell, along with Gilmore’s Stable Form, and then started sorting through the ingredients he would need for his interpretations of Gadrevan’s techniques.

It was all there.

Perry felt like he was vibrating from excitement as he packaged everything back up, setting aside the things he would need to begin preparing immediately

It was time to get started. He would go grab a cart and bring all the stuff he needed up to the vibration-proof room he’d arranged specifically to house the experiment.

Standard levels of ‘accurate’ were unacceptable when the background vibration from the city itself could cause microscopic tremors in the robotic arms. This was Perry’s soul, after all. Perry wanted a room that could go through a 10.0 earthquake without a single tremor.

What if he had a machine cutting up his soul and a super-brawl broke out two blocks over and caused a tiny deviation that allowed Abun’zaul to squeeze past the filter and destroy the delicate essence infrastructure Perry was designing?

Everything had to be perfect…or as close to it as superhumanly possible.

Perry set up the Still-room, unpacked the rented robotic arms from Stable Greg, not to be confused with Formerly Employed by Big Brain Energy Greg, and calibrated them, drawing some doodles on a handful of molecules for the fun of it.

Perry connected the arms to his soul-tracking rig, and laid on the operating table for at least an hour while the algorithm taught itself to track his soul as accurately as possible.

Once that was done to Perry’s satisfaction, he installed the soul-cutting prototype, along with the pressurizer that would inject solidified essences in afterward.

Perry re-checked the robotic arms a third time, to make sure nothing had been changed by the installation of the heavy prototype.

Naturally, Perry wasn’t running the experiment on the public power grid. Not because it was particularly demanding, but to ward against that one-in a thousand chance that the power grid shut down unexpectedly.

Power outages from supers getting slammed into the local infrastructure were more common than they should’ve been.

Perry wasn’t taking any chances.

Perry checked everything again, Then made a list, and checked that, twice. He couldn’t allow himself to miss a thing.

Ho ho ho, merry Christmas to me.

Perry pulled out his cell phone and dialed up his grandma.

“Good morning, this is Marigold Zauberer, to whom am I speaking?”

“You know who you’re speaking to, you’ve got caller I.D.” Perry said.

“Such disrespectful tone… perhaps you don’t need someone to safeguard your little experiment?”

“Grandmother, matriarch mine!” Perry said, turning on a dime. “But I hold such fondness for you!”

Gramma scoffed quietly. “It’s time, then?”

“Yeah,” Perry said. “It’s time to give it a shot.”

“Alright, walk me through the process,” Gramma said, stepping through a shimmering mirage as she hung up her phone.

I need to get some anti-teleporter base defenses, Perry thought sourly as he ended the call.

Perry did so, he outlined the entire process, what it was supposed to look like, and what it might look like if something went wrong. Gramma followed along, being quite possibly the only person on the planet more technically versed in high magic theory than Perry was.

He had to slow down a bit when it came to the robotic arms, but she absorbed the information with a curt nod, casting a quick spell on them, a glowing white symbol that looked vaguely familiar. Perry cocked his head as he searched his memory from Mom’s spellbook.

Marchia’s blessing. (Neophyte)

Ingredients: Forked Tongue of a Venglesh Fate-Stealer, Symbol of Marchia made from crude iron, glue made from the bones of Tiran Gremlins, vivant root incense.

Glue the tip of the tongue of the Venglesh Fate-Stealer to the object to be blessed, glue the symbol of Marchia to the other end. Waft vivant root over the assembled items.

If done correctly, the crude iron symbol of Marchia will rust in place of any damage or malfunction the blessed item might have suffered.

“Oooh, Dave didn’t have Fate-stealer tongue,” Perry said.

“Yes, they’re quite rare,” Gramma said without elaborating. “But with this blessing I shouldn’t have to worry about dealing with your contraptions while you are unconscious.

“Fair enough,” Perry said with a shrug before loading up the soul-cutter with fuel, along with the infuser with the spell he’d chosen.

Perry took a deep breath. It was the real deal this time.

Gramma raised a brow as Perry balked at the operating table. The big robotic arms pointing at the table seemed a lot more…menacing now that his Stability was higher. Now that it was loaded and pointing right at him.

Perry took a deep breath.

“If I die, tell Heather she sucks and I got the last word in. Tell mom and dad I forgive them for being so freakin’ weird, tell Nat I wish we could’ve gotten more time… And give Brendon a fist bump.” Perry said as he stripped down to his underwear and climbed up onto the cold steel table.

“Is that all?” Gramma asked.

“Yeah, hit me.” Perry said, his heart racing. He needed to be unconscious for the operation to slow down the speed of his soul and avoid any thrashing because of soul-searing pain.

The machine was pre-programmed to cut a tiny sliver out of the foreign piece of soul responsible for his penchant for horseback riding, and replace that tiny sliver with infrastructure that would allow him to cast a spell.

Perry had also included a failsafe to blackmail his System that he hadn’t told Gramma about. Should I tell her about it?

Gramma put a thumb to his forehead and-

***Chemestro***

Chemestro watched, arms crossed as Paradox’s grandmother knocked him unconscious before pressing the big red button.

In utter silence, the robotic arms began to track something, waving around above Paradox’s limp form.

According to what he’d heard, the robotic arms were performing some kind of soul-surgery. Very experimental, and very dangerous. A perfect opportunity to complete his mission.

Chemestro was a ghost. Completely invisible, with sound waves passing straight through him, along with heat, allowing only the bare minimum to avoid freezing to death. Only the faintest amount of light was allowed to reach his pupils in order to see. If Paradox’s heightened senses couldn’t detect him, the old woman was unlikely to detect him as well.

So all I need do is give one of these robotic arms a good jolt, and Paradox has killed himself in an unfortunate accident, then I can get back to my actual work. Even if he doesn’t die, It’ll do some damage that may make it easier to kill him in the future.

Chemestro unfolded his arms and drifted silently towards the robotic arms.

“Young man, if you value your testicles, you’ll keep your hands to yourself.” The old crone said.

Damn, Chemestro thought with a sigh, allowing himself to become visible.

“Oh, you’re actually here?” The wrinkled old woman asked, glancing over her shoulder at Chemestro in surprise.

Chemestro’s eye twitched.

“I jest, I knew you were here the entire time. I can see your soul.”

“Strange that you would stop me from fulfilling your request now.” Chemestro said, wondering how fast the old woman’s reflexes were. “This reinforces my belief that you had ulterior motives besides the death of your grandson. The fact you’re willing to protect him now, means this surgery accomplishes your goals.”

Chemestro tilted his head as he worked through the problem, based on what he knew of the family.

“Your grandson is a magical cripple, and he’s obsessed with fixing it…Did you plant that obsession in him? And if I tried to kill him…you seem to have reason to believe it would unlock his magic. But you don’t want me to do it now, because you believe this has a chance of working…”

Interesting.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The crone said with a wolfish grin. “Guards, remove the young man. Gently, he has many more challenges to provide my heir.”

The literal shadows in the room came alive, and wrapped themselves around Chemestro.

He tried to slip through them, but when he began slipping out of their clutches, he felt a tearing sensation that travelled through his entire being. It froze him in place, forgetting to breathe.

In his momentary paralysis, the shadows dragged him into the floor, emerging a heartbeat later from shadows in an alleyway over nine blocks away, jettisoning him tumbling into the dirty scum of the abandoned street.

“Well, that was informative,” Chemestro said, brushing off his hyperweave as he rose to his feet. Marigold Zauberer was going to make accomplishing Father’s mission difficult.

In order to separate Paradox from the powerful mage and kill him, he would need to get creative.

Paradox did not seem to be the type to tolerate being manipulated. Lu’ann seemed to believe that most people found it to be a violation. Chemestro trusted her assessment of the ‘average’ individual’s emotional response.

Perhaps if Paradox knew the depth of his grandmother’s machinations…

Chemestro cocked his head as his comms triggered, bringing him Dazzle’s voice.

“Ummm, boss, Solaris would like to talk to you In Nexus. He didn’t say why.”

“Take me to him,” Chemestro said. A moment later the world burst into a riot of confetti.

***Paradox***

“Ugh, I feel like ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag,” Perry said, using one of his grampa’s favorite phrases. It felt appropriate.

Perry’s head throbbed, his mouth was dry, his soul felt like someone had crammed a brick up it’s ass.

Not that souls had asses, that’s just how it felt.

“Paradox.” Grandmother’s face appeared above him, peering down into his eyes. “Good to see you awake. It seems the surgery was a success. And with minimal damage to your soul. I’m impressed.”

“It doesn’t feel like it,” Perry muttered, a moment before his eyes went wide.

New hardware detected, running diagnostics.

Software integration patching….

Error, New hardware runs counter to secondary directive…attempting to remove… New hardware has attached to Claudette’s Hippie Bullshit and booby-trapped itself. Further attempts to remove or disable will result in damage to User.

Error: Damage to User runs counter to prime directive.

Finding workaround.

Software integration patch applied.

Designing User Interface…

Complete.

Paradox Zauberer (Perry Z.)

Class: Garage Tinker

Level 6

HP: 7

Body: 6

Stability: 13

Nerve: 9

Attunement: 29

Free Points: 0

Spells: light (1/5)

XP to next level: 3814

Perry held out his hand and gave a mental command.

Light.

(0/5)

A cold sensation traveled down his arm with mechanical precision, nothing like the torrent of energy he’d experienced when he was eight.

All the same, a ball of light appeared above his palm, its glow perfectly controlled by Perry’s thoughts.

Light was among the simplest spells in existence. It was also the first and only magic he’d ever done. If there was any magic he was going to claw back first, it would be light.

Grandma watched with an intense stare.

“I’m finally back to the starting point,” Perry whispered.

“Well done, young man.” Grandma said, the closest thing Perry had seen her to happy in his entire life.

“Now about that favor you owe me…”