NOVEL NEXT Home, Sweet Home
Ivory’s eyes fluttered open, realised it was still dark then closed his eyes again. He’d had the strangest dream—oh yes, it was a dream after all! No shopping, no concussion, no magic, nothing. “Must have been pretty realistic,” he thought, as his body still had a faint memory of that weird vertigo. He’d sometimes experienced that sensation where you were so close to sleep, but then suddenly you felt like you were falling and you jolt upright wide awake. Definitely a super-charged episode of that. Ah, his bed was so comfy!
He turned over and put out a feeling arm, trying to locate his phone from the bedside table. He pressed the home button: 5.45am. Ergh. Usually, Ivory rose at 7am when the sun had started her day, but you could still kind of tell that it’s damn early. As if forcing himself to wake up faster, he spoke aloud to himself.
“...Gotta get gifts… Gottagetup…”
With a mere suggestion of light coming in through the window, Ivory sat upright and went to turn on his bedside lamp.
“Whut?”
Odd. iPhone in hand, he turned on its torch function to reveal a bare bedside table, with only a… pamphlet? The Woolen Pillow?
The Woolen Pillow.
At that moment, Ivory’s eyes went wide and he let loose a mighty scream. Composing himself slightly, he aimed his phone around the room — yep, exactly what he had seen in his ‘dream’. If it wasn’t even 6am, then he must have slept for close to 15 hours!
Wait just one moment. He read that pamphlet. How was that possible? If he simply slept for 15 hours without dreaming, then that means…
[Basic Literacy]. [Basic Mana Control]. [Sorcerer]. This is what he saw when he looked deep inside of himself. No, that wasn’t right. He had no idea how to even explain how he knew, but he knew.
“I got a Class! I’m a [Sorcerer]! And I can read!”
With the vigour of one who had been awake for more than five minutes, he shot out of bed and fistpumped the air. The thought of someone hearing that he had so triumphantly shouted “I can read!” brought him back to his senses. He turned around to look out the window to see that the sun was slowly starting to creep in. It was… probably too early to go down to breakfast, but now that he could read, having a look at that pamphlet was the sensible thing to do.
“Bathing services and amenities available in your room… heating rune…? Breakfast from sun’s rise, lunch at noon…”
Ivory skimmed through the pamphlet and found exactly what he was looking for; after he woke up a bit more he’d give it a thorough read. He decided first to investigate these ‘bathing services’. There was only one other door, so he got up and opened it—
“Christ!” Ivory covered his eyes as the room instantly lit up with light. It wasn’t obnoxiously bright; it was the same intensity as any bog-standard light from Earth. Generally, however, you opt in to a light being turned on when you’ve just woken up!
After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and beheld the room. There was a symbol on the ceiling that shone a pale yellow; he figured this was some kind of [Light] rune that automatically activates. On one side was what could only be described as a square, wooden hot tub that already had water in it. On the other, there was a lovely drape. Wait, probably a curtain.
“That’s the toilet, then. Where is this heating rune…?” Ivory peered in the hot tub and saw a marking at the bottom. He went back into the bedroom and got one of the towels out of his bag and put it around his neck and went back into the bathroom. He delicately stuck one leg into the cold water and ever so lightly bopped the marking with his big toe. It lit up non-threateningly.
“Guess I have [Sorcerer] senses. Any sane person back wouldn’t have touched that! Maybe that’s my [Basic Mana Control]? No, can’t be, not everyone has a magical Class. [Sorcerer] senses!”
Ivory’s [Sorcerer] senses, or the fact that the water began to visibly heat up? It was, in fact, a combination of both. He hurled his clothes off and popped himself into the bath. Damn, that heating rune worked fast! Now that he was more or less fully awake, he could fully take stock of the situation.
“This is either real, or it’s an extended dream sequence. I’ll go with real. I received the [Sorcerer] Class, not [Mage]. Wizards, witches, warlocks… Wait, surely [Wizards], [Witches] and [Warlocks]! They were sometimes used interchangeably back home, but in this world, there’s probably a huge distinction between them. What did I do differently, that I didn’t get the [Mage] class? I’ll have to go ask Mannus when I see him. After breakfast.”
Ivory nodded sagely. [Sage]. Definitely a class. Wonder what that was?
“[Basic Mana Control]. I don’t know any spells, does that mean I can just use magic items? In Harry Potter you more or less needed to actually know a spell in order to use it… but sometimes they made sparks and stuff!”
He thought he was onto something. He thought back to his Mannus’ magical catalyst thing. Maybe that’s why he got [Basic Mana Control]? A curious thought, but a thought for later. He didn’t need that device now, he should just be able to… make magic.
Ivory blinked in succession. Bloody easier said than done! That said, the fact that he could just read that weird script as easily as he would English probably means that controlling his mana was just… another skill that he had. An instinct.
Why not some water magic? Rivers, running taps, rain, waves at the beach, waterfalls, Sydney Harbour… Now that he wasn’t stressed to perform, it was quite nice to think of home. Earth. Ivory raised his arms out of the water and assumed a spellcasting position, thinking it might help. He didn’t know how he was doing it, but he called upon a force inside of him that was there, obviously. How hadn’t he known this was there before?
Ivory concentrated, even wiggled his fingers like some cartoon magician. The silliness of the finger wiggling gave him a realisation.
“Wait. I actually need to want something to happen.”
Thinking of the ripple of the water at the beach just before it turns into a wave, Ivory willed the bath water to move whilst swaying his arms from side to side. And move it did: the bathwater began to gently sway to the rhythm of Ivory’s movements.
“Woah. Cool.”
Ivory kept at it, moving his arms in other patterns. He wanted to try and create a whirlpool, but that was probably both a little beyond him, and he did not want to violently thrash around. Instead, he settled on swirling a section of the water in a clockwise pattern. Not bad for five minutes of trying.
Looking to the side of the bath, he saw two bottles of liquid. “Please, God, let this be shampoo and conditioner,” he prayed. And…
It kinda was? The first bottle contained a slightly transparent blue liquid. It read “Hair Cleanser”: Okay, sure. The second bottle contained a similarly transparent liquid, but this time yellow. It read “Body Exfoliator”. He noticed a small piece of writing near the cork that read “Courtesy of Golden Tonics”. An otherworldly Chemist Warehouse? Not bad!
Shampoo and body wash. Decent. Time for a wash, then. It wasn’t as dramatic as he had thought it would have been, if he was being honest. He expected the process of washing in the bath to be a bit more cathartic… but he wasn’t exactly ‘roughing it’, since he’d arrived in this world. Nevertheless, an excellent time. Ivory wondered how he’d drain the water, or turn that heating rune off: well, better to leave it and just ask Rex or Jeth later..
All dried and feeling nice—with the exception of the day-worn clothes he put back on—he went back into the now sun-lit bedroom. He picked up his phone. 6.44am. Time for breakfast then… he just hoped that it was included!
After giving his hair another dry, he put the wet towel back over one of the chairs in the bedroom and prepared to head downstairs. He gave his pockets a tap to see if he had everything: phone, wallet, door key. Excellent.
“Actually, no real need for a wallet now,” Ivory mused, and put his wallet back on his bedside table. Maybe once he somehow managed to get some money. Time to head down.
Locking his door, he made his way downstairs. He wanted to have a stickybeak at those animal reliefs on the VIP rooms, but decided against it in the case that someone presumed to leave their room.
The atmosphere was completely different from when he first stepped inside yesterday afternoon: no longer was the inn empty. The majority of the tables were filled with patrons eating, chatting and generally just having a nice time. Well, he assumed as much. No one was throwing chairs, slinging beer across the room… yeah, not at this time in the morning anyway.
Ivory spotted a bleary eyed Jeth coming out of the kitchen area with a patron’s breakfast order. It looked to be some kind of meat with some… black squares next to it. In his other hand held an austere glass of water. Jeth visibly perked himself up before getting to the customer and placed their order down on the table. Ivory power walked over to Jeth before he went and disappeared back into the kitchen.
“Good morning, Jeth! Sorry to bother you, but is breakfast included for me?” Jeth beamed at the familiar face.
“Oh, hey! We got a bit worried that you didn’t come down yesterday! Yeah, breakfast is included, have a seat and I’ll be with you in a sec.”
“Thanks, mate.”
There were… four tables free. Ivory chose the table next to the window and sat down. What a cozy vibe the place gave off. Absorbed in the atmosphere, he didn’t notice Jeth come up to his table.
“Ivory! What can I get you?”
“Oh! Can I get a menu please?”
“Just up there,” Jeth pointed up above the kitchen area to a big board. “I’ll come back in a few minutes once you’ve had a look.” He went off to serve another table.
Ivory looked at the breakfast menu. Oh yeah, it’s all day, nice. There were your pretty standard items: various meats, bread, eggs, pancakes, fruits that he’d never heard of… yep, that’s a breakfast menu. Before he knew it, Jeth was back.
“Had a look? What can I get you?”
“Can I get pancakes with some sweet fruit? Whichever the [Cooks] recommend.”
“No problem. Anything to drink?”
“Just some water, thank you.”
“Won’t be long!” and with that, he was off.
While he waited, he decided to survey the room and check out the other people in here. Much to his immense disappointment, he saw no one in dazzling plate armour or puffy spellcaster robes. “Guess you don’t eat breakfast in that stuff…” he thought. Yeah, that’s reasonable.
Ivory decided against practising his magic. He was barely a novice; Level one! He didn’t want to ruin his reputation with this establishment by putting a tiny burn mark on the table or something. What he could do, though, was think about some other magic he could practise back upstairs. He’d done water, he theoretically could do fire, why not air and earth? Those are the four elements, after all! [Avatar] Ivory in training!
Before he knew it, his food had arrived. A [Waitress] placed his order down on his table. Actually, probably a [Server] since this world was… American-esque?
“Pancakes with sliced pears for you, and a jug of water. Enjoy.”
“Thank you!”
Ivory almost felt disappointed. Pears were one of the few fruits he actually recognised on that list. At the very least, the [Farmer] that grew them probably has some Skill that makes them extremely tasty. He picked up a delicately sliced piece of pear and ate it. He was starting to get a hang of this world, after all.
“Bloody hell,” he mumbled, as he ate another slice. Divine.
The pancakes were similarly tasty. The blueberry syrup that was provided was exceptional, as well. “Skills,” Ivory thought, “truly revolutionise every single aspect of this world.”
Despite his start, Ivory took his time with his meal. He did a healthy amount of people watching, both inside and outside of The Woolen Pillow. Ivory felt that this was probably actually a good use of his time; he was still young, and if he was going to be in this world for a while, he may as well start becoming accustomed to its inhabitants.
9.40am, and the inn still received considerable traffic. People sure did love their breakfast. Satiated, Ivory took a glug of water before heading back to his room, making sure to shout out a “thank you” to the waitstaff as he left.
Ivory still had two hours to kill until he’d go across the road to watch Mannus’ scrying mirror. He hoped that with [Basic Mana Control] he could follow along if Verdane taught another spell akin to how he taught [Light].
Actually, there’s no reason why he couldn’t try casting [Light] now. Yes, it was an established “spell” and all Ivory had done so far was manipulate bathwater, which probably wasn’t a spell but just… basic control over water?
So, he began thinking of light. Specifically, he thought of Sydney’s Vivid festival, which was an actual light festival. Ivory bothered not with confining himself to a little orb of light like Verdane taught, that was boring. Okay, not boring, but why limit oneself? This is magic. Go big or go home!
Just as he’d done with the bathwater, he called upon that strange but instinctive force within himself. He remembered the, well, vivid light show that he remembered seeing as a child. Buildings lighting up to show animations, trippy patterns projected onto the Sydney Opera House…
Ivory felt like he needed to assume a position before he could cast the spell. Not for some magical, arcane reason, but because he felt that just making light appear would be a bit anticlimactic; unimaginative.
He felt he was ready. He strained that magical ‘organ’ inside of him and opened his arms, as if welcoming home a long lost friend. As he did so, four orbs—two from each hand—floated in front of him, each a different colour: purple, gold, green and blue. Ivory strained his magic further, willing each orb to shine, and shine they did. Each orb flared, and emitted a glorious glow that created a kaleidoscope of colours all around him.
“Woah. I made this,” he thought as he circled around each orb, taking in each orbs’ magnificence.
Suddenly, however, he began to feel sick. Light headed.
“Whuh—”
Ivory backpedalled clumsily and collapsed on his bed. Flickering in and out of consciousness, he heard an unknown yet familiar voice.
[Sorcerer level 3!]
[Spell - Light obtained!]
[Spell - Lightshow obtained!]
[Skill - Elemental Control (Lesser)] obtained!
Ivory eventually came to, feeling incredibly fatigued and hungover. He’d created those lights, and then he passed out…? Wait, didn’t Mannus say something about a small mana pool?
Ivory lay in his bed for another 10 minutes, then forced himself up. He wobbled over to his bathroom and dunked his head in the cold water and swirled it around in an attempt to sober up. Feeling marginally better, he dried his hair and checked the time. 10.57am.
He’d be paying Mannus an early visit.