When I died it was dark and I couldn't be more bored, so when something came along I took their offer without any regret. It could be I was just being paranoid, but I didn't think that they would offer me a new chance at life and my choice of magic. Beings of that amount of power were simply above my comprehension. It could be something like they feed off the changes I would affect on the timeline or some part of some grand plan. I would remain skeptical but there wasn't really anything I could do.
In the meantime I looked at my surroundings trying to see if there was any clue for where to go. But it seemed like I was in the middle of some forest, so I just picked a direction and started to walk. While I was walking I not only observed the surroundings around me but tried to get a handle on my magic. I already requested that I would awaken Take Over magic, but I didn't have any forms yet so the only thing I could do was practice my control and increase my capacity.
As I walked I saw many plants that would never have appeared in my previous world. Like a yellow flower that pulled its roots out of the ground and ran away from a mouse with wings and a stinger like a bee. At first I could not stop staring at all the new things I was seeing but as I saw even weirder things I stopped being so surprised every time. I kept walking through the woods for a few more hours before the trees started to thin.
After a few more minutes I came across a dirt road. I looked both ways and saw a city to my left about half a mile away. As I stared at the city a person walked up behind me, "Can I help you, my child?" When I heard the voice I spun around, almost tripping over my own feet in the process. After I got my balance back I saw an old man that was even shorter than my child sized body. When I recognized who had asked me my eyes widened, "Actually yes, I wanted to know if I could join your guild."
He smiled and nodded, "That would not be a problem, would you like to walk back with me?" I jumped up in the air, "YES! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" He laughed at my enthusiasm and I blushed when I noticed a few of the people further down the street were laughing at my display. "I can sense you have magic, my child. Would you like to tell me what type?" I thought of what to say for a moment as I couldn't say that I had Take Over magic as I didn't have any forms I could show him. "I think that I have Take Over magic, at least that was what I was told."
He raised an eyebrow at that, "But you don't have your first form yet?" I shook my head and he smiled. "That is alright, I can tell that you have magic. So you can still join the guild." He smiled at me when I released the breath I had been holding. "However at the guild you can only take F-Rank Jobs until after you get your first form. These will allow you to make enough money but won't be dangerous." I nodded, a little disappointed but I understood that I was only slightly stronger than a normal kid right now. Without a form I would not be able to increase my strength much.
As we walked along my head spun trying to take in all the sights around me. It seemed like there was some sort of festival going on. Stalls lined the street and delicious odors coming from each and every one of them. There were also people performing everything from acrobatics to actual spells. The master seemed to enjoy my reaction, "Despite what it may seem like life in this city is never dull. In a normal city something like this would only be seen during a festival. It is because of this that people flock from around the country to see the fantasia parade, an event that the guild puts on every year."
I stared at the master, astonished that it was like this everyday. "Why are you telling me this?" He smiled, "Incentive, the parade is only a month away and if you have a form by then you can participate." I was bouncing by now, overwhelmed by the desire to find my first form as soon as possible. By this point we had reached the entrance of the guild, the master opened the door and immediately had to duck a flying bottle of booze. When he looked in and saw the massive fight going on inside a vein popped on his forehead and he started to tremble.
"ALRIGHT YOU BRATS, QUIT HORSING AROUND AND GREET THE NEW MEMBER!" When he shouted the entire guild froze at the now forty foot tall master. They didn't move until the master shrank back down, "Ahem. Now then, this is…" The master started to sweat when he realized that he never asked me my name. I raised an eyebrow at him when he turned around and he gave me a weak smile back. I stepped forward and waved, "My name is Alex Hart, nice to meet yah."
The master nodded and jumped up on the bar, "Now, where would you like your guild mark and what color?" I thought for a moment before I gave my answer, "Navy blue and on the outside of my right forearm." The master nodded and held the stamp on my skin, there was a brief glow and when he lifted it my new guild mark was revealed. When I turned around I had to lean back from a flaming head, "Hey!WhoAreYou?AreYouStrong?FightMe!" A fist crashed into Natsu's head stopping the stream of words.
"I am sorry about Natsu, he just gets excited." A white haired little girl bowed in apology. Natsu jumped back on his feet and turned to the girl, "Hey Lisanna, Why'd You Do That?" She turned to him with both fists on her hips, "You can't just attack people Natsu!" I walked away before I would be dragged into the impending lecture. Before I got far another fight started behind me and I rushed behind the bar. By the time I got there I had to dodge a chair, three bottles, Happy, and the bar was just ten feet away.
When I regained my breath behind the bar I noticed that there was another person here. She was reading a book that was half her size, "Hello, my name is Alex." When I reached my hand out she jumped and let out a squeak, her head snapping towards me with a blush on her face. "H-hello. M-my name is L-levy, i-it's nice to meet you." I gave her a smile to try and calm her down but it just seemed to make it worse so I stopped and sat back down. "What are you reading?" She looked surprised at my question and it took her a moment to answer, "I-it's called The World Outside. I-it is a book about all of the major magical objects and locations." As she talked she got more confident as I was actually listening attentively.
We stayed behind the bar for the next hour, only coming out for lunch. When the master saw us eating together while still talking about the book, he smiled and waved us over. "I see that you have made a friend, why don't you go on a job together?" We exchanged a look and walked up to the job board, "What kind of job should we get?" I asked Levy for advice and she thought about it for a second, "Why don't you choose since it's your first job." I nodded and looked for a job.
The board was covered in fliers, each describing a different job. We were looking at the F-Rank board as I could not go on a higher mission without having my first form. So I looked over the board becoming more depressed as time passed, these jobs were so boring! Things like finding lost items, taking care of pets and cleaning jobs covered the board. I heard giggling and turned to find Levy trying to suppress her laughter, I gave her a glare and grabbed one of the cleaning jobs. Then I told the master which job we were taking and we left the guild.
As we walked across town we continued to talk, I would ask a question and she would explain often going on tangents that would cause me to have even more questions. I think that Levy was even more excited by the fact I was following what she was saying than I was to be learning about magic. Right before we arrived at the client's house she mentioned something that I knew I would want to learn. "... and alchemy is kind of like equivalent exchange magic, except if you master the right rituals it doesn't actually need magic to work. The items themselves when sacrificed can generate the necessary power."
I turned and asked, "What kind of things can you make with alchemy?" she stopped when I asked the question and thought for a moment. "I think the term is reagents, but they can be anything from a potion that explodes to a sword being infused with fire." At this point we had reached the front door, we stopped talking and knocked waiting for the client to answer. "Hello children, are you here for the cleaning job?" I fat man wears a horrible lime green and orange suit asked after he opened the door.
Once my eyes stopped burning I gave him the flier and tried to look at anything but him. "Ok, so the room you are going to clean is full of miscellaneous papers. Please organize them and place them in the correct drawers in the next room over, don't worry i will show you where they go. Any questions?" We both shook our heads and he turned around to guide us through the house. When we reached the room we would be cleaning my jaw dropped at how full the room was.
There were so many papers that they formed a labyrinth, he chuckled at our faces. "Yes I know it's a lot, but as the flier said you get 1000 jewels an hour and you can work for as long as you like. However, if you finish all of it you may choose a tier 9 auction item for free as a bonus." He must have seen our confused face because he chuckled again before he explained. "My name is Bartholomew Colifrit and I am an auctioneer at the Realm Auction House. Mages from across the world to buy and sell products at our many auction houses. I tried to make my lazy son do some work for once in his life but this was the result and I don't have time to fix this myself."
After hearing about the bonus we were both motivated to try our best and got to work right after he showed us where to put the papers. For the next few hours we tried to make a dent in the stacks and after too many paper cuts to count we accepted that we were not going to finish this in one go. "Well thank you for your hard work." He gave us our pay and went back into his house before I called out to him, "Can I come back tomorrow to keep cleaning?" He looked back seemingly shocked that I actually wanted to come back.
He immediately rushed back out and tried to shake my hand, but it was more like he was shaking my entire body. Once he noticed he stopped and let me go rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "Sorry about that young man, I would love it if you came back.We have had a hard time getting people to come back." He glanced at Levy but she quickly shook her head and he laughed at her reaction. As we walked back to the guild she asked why I wanted to go back.
"Well, right now I don't have anything but the clothes on my back. And he said that if we finished we could get a Tier 9 item, I plan on picking my first form from that." She nodded and thought for a moment, "Well I know of a book in the guild library that has a self updating catalog for the auction house." I thanked her and we spent the rest of the walk back to the guild discussing the fundamentals of magic. When we walked into the guild there was another fight going on so we made our way around the edges of the hall.
The master was sitting at the bar and we turned in our signed flier, after he looked it over he burst into tears blubbering about destructive brats. Once I snapped out of my shock I noticed that Levy had picked up her book to start reading again. "Do you think you could show me the catalog book?" She nodded and put her book down. "Ok. So, to get to the library we only have to get past Natsu and Gray's fight." Her face was so serious it was like she was talking about going through a war zone instead just across the hall.
I laughed and joined her in planning our excursion, the master smiled and joined in as well. It was fun being a kid again and I was going to enjoy it as much as I could. We spent so much time making elaborate plans that the fight ended before we even noticed. Once we stopped laughing at not noticing the fight was over, Levy and I walked over to the library. One look and I knew I was in love, I don't think I ever want to leave. Once I was able to snap my eyes away from the beautiful view Levy showed me how to navigate the library.
For the next few days I continued with the same schedule, I would read in the library with Levy in the mornings. Then we would eat lunch at the bar together while the master would tell us stories of his younger days. In the evenings I would go back to Mr. Colifrit's house to organize more papers then I would go back to the guild. When I asked the master about repeat jobs, he told me that each day I worked on this job it would count as one of the ten jobs I needed to get promoted to E-rank. After the sixth day I noticed that I was almost done with the papers.
I stayed a little longer to finish up and walked to the office, I knocked on the door and he called me in. "Are you finished?" I nodded, "Thank you so much, have you thought about what you want for your bonus?" I nodded again, "Can you get me a captured Living Wire?" He looked confused at my request so I explained, "I am a Take Over mage and I have a lot of ideas about what I could do with that as my first form." He looked happy at my reasoning, "Well thought out young man, I will get you what you need. Come back tomorrow to pick it up." I nodded and went back to the guild.
When I arrived back at the guild I went to the master and gave him my completed job form. He managed to keep himself from crying, "I am so proud that you had a job finished with no complaints." He barely got that out before he could no longer hold back his tears. When he started to cry I made my way back to the library as I still had some time before I had to go back to the orphanage I'd been staying in since I arrived. It was kind of run down but I didn't have a choice as I couldn't afford to live on my own yet.
In the library I looked for a book on different materials, I knew that once I had my first form I could go on jobs that would be dangerous and I needed some sort of weapon. I choose the Living wire as my first form due to their ability to cover themselves in layers over metal. Using Living Wire as my form I would get the ability to manipulate metal so I would only need to find the perfect material. Then I would be able to shape the metal and turn it into whatever I need, from platforms to step on to grappling hooks or maybe even armor one day.
About half way through my book I found the perfect material. Sponge steel, a metal that can condense or expand when magic is channeled into it. This meant it would not only help me train my magic and physical abilities, but also make me an unpredictable fighter. I could manipulate the metal to practice my magic and wear them as weights to exercise. In fights I could shift from daggers to cables or even platforms to step on mid fight. Once I knew what I wanted to use I went back to the catalog to find how much sponge metal cost. When I found it I was surprised. It wasn't as expensive as I thought, only 10,000 jewels per kilo, a little cheaper than iron.
Once I thought about it for a minute I realized that without the ability to manipulate the metal it wasn't useful as it was even softer than gold. It would cost too much magic to condense it enough for it to be useful, one kilo of natural sponge steel is about 1 meter cubed. But it would work great for my purposes, after my last job I now had 20,000 jewels that I could use to buy the metal. I would buy two kilos for now and that would last me a while before I needed more. After I finished making my plans I went back home and had a hard time falling asleep, I was too excited to take my first step in my magical journey.
Eventually I fell asleep and woke up later than usual the next day. I knew that Mr. Colifrit wouldn't have my bonus yet so instead of rushing to his house I went about my day as normal. I went to the guild library until lunch, but I could barely concentrate on anything other than the Living Wire so I grabbed a book that contained various folktales. I was in a world of magic so any of these could actually be true. By the time lunch came around I was absorbed in a story about a creature that lived at the bottom of the sea. It contained an isolated world within itself that could even support life.
It would be so cool if I had that creature as one of my forms, like an advanced requip space. I noticed that it was already past when I would normally eat lunch so I ate a quick meal and rushed to Mr. Colifrit's house. He opened the door with a smile despite my incessant knocking. "You took longer than I thought you would." I blushed and he laughed, "Alright, your bonus is inside."
I was barely able to contain my excitement, practically vibrating as he led me to his office. As soon as he opened the door I rushed into the room to see my reward. Sitting on the desk there was a bundle of multicolored wires trapped in a cage. I could see that the living wire was trying to get out, but every time one of the wires went between the bars of the cage it was stopped by a shimmering energy field.
When I turned towards Mr. Colifrit smiled and gestured for me to take it. So I lifted the cage, almost dropping it at the unexpected weight. He laughed, "I'm impressed you can even lift it, would you like it delivered to the guild?" I shook my head, "Alright, thank you again for your hard work. I look forward to your future." At that last comment he led me back outside and I started my trek back to the guild.
With the new weight I struggled to make it, I had to take breaks and switch arms often. About half an hour later I finally made it back to the guild, twice the amount of time it usually took. For once there wasn't a fight going on in the guild, so I walked straight to the master. "Master, can you help me absorb my first form?" At my words the master turned towards me and smiled, "Of course my child, why don't we do this in the yard."
He then led me to a little park that was tucked away behind the guild, and once there he had me sit down and close my eyes. "Now, I want you to focus on your magic and reach out until you find a connection with the creature in front of you. Once you stabilize the connection it a battle of wills will start as your two magics fuse, the winner lives and the defeated is absorbed."
I followed his directions as best I could and with all the practice I put in forming and stabilizing the connection was not difficult. However, I almost lost the battle of wills immediately, it felt like a wild animal was scratching at my mind. It was startling, like a jump scare, but once I regained my composure I noticed that it wasn't actually all that strong. After a moment to get over the ease in which I crushed the opposing will. I opened my eyes when I felt a shift in my magic, it did not increase but it was more like something was layered in it.
With a little push I glowed and I felt a change overcome me, my hair turned into the same metal the living wire had been made of. My body was also covered in metallic wave-like tattoo patterns. I looked at myself admiring my new form when the master walked up to me. "Well done, now you just need to get used to your form. I would recommend that you find some spot to train and do so everyday, the more you practice the better you will become."
I nodded and thanked the master for the advice and went back inside, but before I went to the woods to find a spot to train I had to go buy the sponge steel and start making my bands. So I walked to one of the blacksmiths and bought 2 kilos. I had to make two trips to the woods because the chunks were so large and hard to handle. When I got to the woods I immediately changed into my new form. I took a moment to admire my form again before I started to pour my magic into the metal.
I was only able to saturate one of the blocks for about 15 minutes before I had to rest, the block had only shrunk about half the size. After I regained my magic I continued to repeat the cycle switching between the two blocks. About an hour before I had to go back to the orphanage the blocks had become the size of a grapefruit. So before I walked back I manipulated the metal to wrap around my legs, manipulating the metal cost much less of my magic than saturating it.
After I was finished I walked back with my new weights, it wasn't so bad and only took me a little longer than normal. The next day I woke then exercised and practiced my magic for the first half of the morning. Then I went to the guild to read and hang out with Levy until lunch, and got a job in the afternoon. After I finished my job I would practice my magic until I had to go back to the orphanage. Over the next month I continued this schedule and increased both my workouts and magic practice. I ended up buying 20 kilos of sponge metal spread between all four limbs which I wouldn't have been able to if I didn't take higher ranking jobs.
By my second week I ranked up to E-rank jobs and today I am going to take my first D-rank job. When I walked up to the board that listed the jobs I was shocked that there were only about half the amount of jobs I saw on the previous boards. When I took a closer look I found that these jobs were different, they all involved hunting down non-magical beasts. I grabbed a job and marched out of the door, ready for my first real job.