Transcendental Misappropriation (Book One of the Pentacle Series)

by Roharp17

  He decided to learn some fighting skills. Based on Barb's profession and how much business they did, he knew this world wasn't a safe place. He considered his options. He had taken karate for all of six months in elementary school. His mother, from his previous life, was worried for his safety and wanted him to be able to defend himself. She eventually had to start looking after her ailing father and didn't have time to take Danny to practices anymore.

  Danny began punching and kicking the air. He really hoped this counted toward some skill as he felt silly just attacking the air. He tried to remember how he was trained. Turning his body with his punches, not sticking his thumb into his fist, and making a loud noise tooo... He wasn't sure what the noise was for but he got in trouble with his sensei if he didn't. He guessed it had to do with showing commitment to the action or maybe throwing off your opponent. Maybe he should have paid more attention in class.

  A few months later Danny got to go to the market with his mother, Sarah, and his sisters. It was a holiday so the academy was closed. The family decided to close the store and enjoy the day, as well. On the way to the market, Danny listened to his sisters excitedly talk about the girls academy. At one point he overheard his sister mention a word he hadn't heard before.

  "I didn't think many of the classes were that hard except the first one," Jane said.

  "Uhhhh, it took me forever to learn [unknown], and I was almost the only one left in my group," April complained.

  Sarah must have been listening to her daughters conversation too because she turned to them and made a sharp noise. April and Jane looked up to their mother who shifted her eyes my way. Both girls’ eyes grew big and quickly switched topics. Danny didn't hear the strange word used again, but he had an idea about what they had been discussing.

  The market was near the river and wall that separated the inner and outer sections of the city. The marketplace was bustling with activity and vendors were hawking their wares. Besides the regular goods, there were food stalls, entertainers, and musicians. Danny's mother held tight to his hand and pointed out the things she thought he would find interesting. Danny started to notice that the majority of vendors were women, and they were all very attractive.

  In his past life that would have been cause for celebration but this level of attractiveness was unnaturally so. Looking over at Sarah, Danny realized she handled the majority of trade negotiations for their family. The vendors on the street and Sarah would all have high levels of the mercantile skills. So that would mean that they all had high intelligence. Barbs skills had given her bonuses to strength and she looked like a body builder. Barb was cute, but not beautiful like Sarah. Danny could only guess his mother must have a mix of everything. She was pretty, but had some muscle definition and could move quickly when needed. He remembered how Sarah seemed to move gracefully wherever she went. Maybe, Sarah had acquired skills for both intelligence and agility. So intelligence increased attractiveness, strength increased muscle mass, and agility increased... gracefulness or maybe height?

  Danny’s mother looked down at him, “Now Danny, don’t wander far from us, alright?”

  Danny smiled while internally rolling his eyes, “Yes, mom.”

  Danny’s mother stopped and squatted down next to him, “Danny, I am serious. Bad people will love to snatch up a kid as cute as you.”

  Danny was touched by his mother’s overprotectiveness and decided the best solution was to give her a hug, “Yes, mommy. I will stay next to you or mommy Sarah.”

  “Danny, you are such a good boy! Is there anything you would like to get from the market?”

  Danny thought about this for a moment and did his best to turn up the cuteness factor, “I wanna a new book!”

  His mother frowned down at him, “Danny, wouldn’t you like some candy or a small toy. Mommy didn’t bring much money.”

  Danny smiled, “Candy please!”

  His mother seemed happy with this response and turned back to speak with Sarah some more.

  Danny waited a few more moments and tugged on April’s shirt, “April?”

  April turned back to him, “What is it Danny?”

  “I wanna go to a place wit a whole lotta books to read to me?”

  April shook her head, “Not out here, but at the girls’ academy we have a huge library where we can read all the books we want.”

  Danny’s eyes lit up, “Take me! Take me!”

  April shook her head, “No, but when you are old enough to go to an academy they should have a library for you to use.”

  Danny was dejected by this, but smiled and thanked his older sister, *What is wrong with this society that they would not have a library?* He figured they would have reached that level of sophistication by now.

  At every stall they stopped at the vendors would comment on how cute Danny was. If they had some food, they would offer Danny a free sample. He noted that they didn't offer the same to his sisters, who seemed to expect this. After a while he was full and started sneaking the free samples to his sisters. His mothers didn't notice and the girls would giggle while eating.

  It was getting late and they were heading through the far side of the market nearest the river. His mother had made him stop accepting free samples because she was afraid he would explode. They had just turned from a stall when they came face to face with an older woman in expensive looking clothing. There was another woman standing next to her, who was also finely dressed, and a man in an impressive looking long grey duster. His mother and Sarah seemed to recognize them and paused. The woman seemed to regard them with disdain.

  Sarah spoke up while inclining her head, "Ladies and Lord Blossom, it is good to see you."

  The woman looked around subtly, as if for a way to escape, before replying coolly, "Oh, hello, we decided to enjoy the festivities over here in the outer wall. The selection here is… interesting. How is your family?"

  Sarah's smile seemed forced and said, "We are well. Stan… is doing great. Jane, April, say hello to your grandmothers and grandfather Blossom."

  Both girls bowed and greeted their grandparents politely, "Good evening, grandmothers and grandfather."

  Danny didn't need to be a detective to read between these lines. This was his father's parents. They appeared to not be pleased with who he ended up with.

  Danny's mother interrupted his thoughts and said, "You haven't met your grandson, Danny. Go say high to your grandparents."

  Danny walked forward and bowed as he had seen men do before, "Good evening grandmothers and grandfather."

  The three bowed to the children as they were greeted, but made no attempt at small talk.

  Sarah spoke up again, "Barb is pregnant again, her son Gary..."

  The first Lady Blossom interrupted her, "Yes, well we need to be going. Not safe to stay out here on this side past dark."

  They watched as Danny's grandparents walked swiftly across the river to the inner walls of the city. Sarah turned around and said, "Come on, let's get back home." They went home in silence.

  A note from Roharp17

  Edited

  Thanks Soneka and Skoonting

  Chapter 10

  By the time Danny was four he finally gained level five in "Air Affinity," He also gained a new bookshelf in his sanctuary called "Martial Arts." At first he thought this was from training what he remembered from karate, but he instead received a skill for "Unarmed." Since then, under martial arts he had gained two levels in unarmed. His last skill he gained was level five in “Diadem (written)” under languages. He didn't have access to any more books and he wasn't about to ask his mom for them when she had barely started to teach him to read. Pretending to be bad at reading was harder than he thought. Since he was pretty sure now you didn't receive photographic memory until after you accessed the sanctuary, Danny had to play dumb. This did give him a chance to ask questions about some of the pictures he saw. Not all the pictures he could place names to.

  "Mama, why do these people have pointy ears," ask
ed Danny.

  His mother looked over to where he was pointing and said, "Those are the people of the forest, or elves. Anywhere you come across a forest filled of trees with white bark, you will more than likely find elves."

  Pausing for a moment, Danny asked, "Are elves real?"

  "Yes, elves are real...," his mother continued but Danny was already lost in thought.

  Danny couldn't believe it, they are real! It was like a dream come true. Unless his mother was pulling his leg...

  "Have you ever met an elf, mother," Danny interrupted his mother.

  His mother looked down perturbed at her son, "If you had just been LISTENING to what I just said, you would have heard me talking about the time my parents took me to the main street, to watch the foreign... group of people, called a delegation, visit. Every 25 years the four races gather to hold talks to keep the peace, share information, and make deals. I saw the elves, the [unknown].”

  "The who?" Danny interrupted.

  Looking over at her son, she turned in his book to another page. It was a picture of a dwarf with a pickaxe, mining stones in the ground.

  "That is a dwarf. They live in the mountains. Like the elves, if you find a mountain you are bound to find some dwarves," his mother explained.

  Turning to another page depicting various individuals with animal like ears or noses. Fur covered various percentages of their bodies. Some pictured showed tails.

  "Before you ask, these are the beastmen," she continued. "They live in all the places humans, elves, and dwarves tend to not enjoy. Places like jungles, swamps, and deserts."

  Danny was too busy calming his inner nerd down to reply or ask another question.

  "So I was with my parents when I saw the elven delegation go by. The women were so beautiful and the men were...," Danny's mother got quiet as a blush crept over her face. She seemed to suddenly forget Danny was there.

  Danny was looking up worriedly at his mother. He wasn't sure but he definitely wanted to see a female elf now. Just to see if he would have the same reaction. Danny looked around to make sure his father wasn't here to see his mother mooning after the memory of another man. Danny decided to find more information on the different races as soon as he could get access to more books than the ones found in his house.

  A while later Danny was in his backyard practicing, as had become the norm. Since he had leveled air affinity he got the courage to try out water magic. Poor Sarah's garden, it did not survive the flood that happened on that sunny day. Fortunately it was isolated to just his families’ backyard. Danny promised himself it had nothing to do with the fact that Sarah had just planted these green vegetables that tasted eerily like brussel sprouts. Fortunately his newest sister, Mary, spent her days in a crib behind the counter at the store with Gary. So they were both safely out of the way, that day.

  Danny's mother did become very suspicious, but it was at the aqueduct above the garden and not him. He had been training with water magic and he came to understand that the water used was drawn from the nearest available source in range. Danny could feel the humidity in the air drop as a small stream of water shot out from his hand. He watched the stream and wondered if he could stop the water from shooting out and shape it into a ball. Right after that thought was when he figured out what happens when you sneeze while casting magic. From that point on Danny would immediately stop casting if he felt a sneeze coming on.

  Later, Danny was thinking about the sneezing incident and wondered how the water or wind he created didn't ever push him away. So while creating a stream of wind one day he focused on having the wind push against his hand when it left his body. It was tricky but he managed to figure out how to get the result he wanted. He would push mana out and wind would then push against his hand. The two didn't affect each other in a physical sense, air kept returning to him as mana went out. Then Danny had an even better idea, he started practicing pushing mana out of the soles of his feet. That ended up coming out a lot quicker than he thought. Controlling the flow of mana inside his body was infinitely easier than the mana leaving his body. It was a few moments later, after “flying” at least four meters in the air, that he landed on his mom's workshop. He realized he hadn't practiced regulating the flow of mana through his feet, at all. His intention was not to fly but to gain a few extra centimeters or even a meter when jumping. Instead the effort he put into his jump translated to the effort he put into the flow of mana going through his feet.

  Of course his mother's voice came out of the workshop, "Danny, did you just throw something on top the roof of the workshop?"

  Danny slowly inched his body towards the side of the roof furthest from the door and said, "I saw two birds fighting and one fell on the roof."

  A thought suddenly came to Danny and with wide eyes he looked around at the houses nearby. Fortunately for him the wall was high enough where the second floor windows of the other houses couldn't see the top of the workshop, or him. Whether he got high enough during his "flight" for someone to possibly see him, Danny wasn't so sure.

  "Don't get near them if they fall on the ground," his mother yelled.

  Danny quickly replied, "Yes mama."

  Danny looked at the drop from the top of the workshop and started sweating. He was too scared to try falling feet first while casting air magic through them. He might inadvertently go over the wall. So instead he chose to try falling and then rolling. He did fall, and he did roll, but there was an audible snap from his left leg. He covered his mouth to smother the scream.

  His mother had heard and called to him, "Are you alright out there, Danny?"

  Danny writhed in pain while trying to keep his leg still. He took some deep breaths and replied in as calm a voice as he could manage, "I'm playing monsters, grooowl!"

  "Oh, ok my little monster," his mother laughed.

  Danny was glad his mother was so dedicated to her craft. Danny was also certain that his artificially increased intelligence was to thank for his quick thinking, even through the pain coming from his leg. He kept breathing regularly, but every now and then extreme pain would lance up through his leg. Using his previous excuse he would growl instead of moaning like he wanted too. Finally, he was able to get through the pain enough to open one of the hands supporting his injured leg. He knew it was risky but he couldn't find a way to explain the break in his leg to his mother without her getting suspicious. Fortunately the leg looked straight, maybe it was just a fracture.

  Holding out his hand, he pictured a symbol he hadn't tried yet and his whole body began to glow. All the mana in his body was consumed at once, but it was used to heal his entire body. Danny was confused why he couldn’t just target his leg. The pain did began to subside and Danny had to wait for his mana to regenerate. He was grateful that using all his mana like this did not seem to cause the nausea or fainting that it had before. Since the pain was subsiding, he tried to stand up, but a quick stab of fresh pain had him sitting down again. He healed himself again until the pain went away and repeated the process.

  After about an hour of this, he determined that his leg was well enough, so he started meditating and entered his sanctuary. Checking the attributes triangle, he noticed his intelligence had recently increased. He quickly went to the mana room to pleasantly discover he had advanced to level four of life affinity.

  A note from Roharp17

  Edited

  Thanks Skoonting

  Chapter 11

  At the age of five, Danny could curve the water coming from his hand and he reached level five in water Affinity. He didn't know if it was even possible, but he was determined to create a ball of water using his mana manipulation. Hiding his training from his family was not always easy. Fortunately his mother would tell him on which days they would be going to the store with his father. Danny had been caught practicing his unarmed skills by his mother. She didn't know where he had picked that up and didn't think he should be displaying such violent behavior at a young age. Danny decided it best to hold off hi
s physical skills till he was older and it seem more justifiable. He really wanted to level up skills with strength and agility...

  One time Barb came by around lunchtime with Gary and Mary, and walked up to Danny while he was sitting in the circle, practicing water affinity. He always made sure to practice water with a very small stream. After a couple of close calls with his father, Danny had taken to practicing magic with his back towards the house and his mother’s workshop. He had a backup plan and put it into action. He always kept a cup of water, his mother gave him when he played outside, and a few of his toys nearby. Picking up the toys he pretended to play with them in the mud created by his water magic.

  Laughing at his antics Barb said, "Danny, I don't think you have enough mud on you. You missed a spot on your head!" Danny looked up at Barb with a big smile on his face.

  His mother came out hearing Barbs voice, "Is it lunch time already, Bar... Danny Creek, you get yourself over to the backdoor spigot right this instance, so I can wash you off!"

  Barb only laugh louder as Danny's mother dragged him over to the wall and washed him off.

  "Once you get that son of yours cleaned off, lunch is ready at the table," Barb chuckled as she went inside.

  "What am I going to do with you, you dirty boy," chuckled his mother. She couldn't stay mad at him with Barb enjoying it so much. He was relieved, but he really needed to figure out a way to train without being noticed. He thought he might try using his mana to sense others approaching.

  Later that afternoon, Barb had gone back to the shop with her kids and his mother was back in her workshop. Danny sat down by the garden this time, trying to solve his training problem. "Sensing others coming...," he grumbled to himself. A smile came to his face as stood up and focused on his body. He had released mana from his hands and feet, why not his whole body. He could have magic sonar! His first attempts resulted in him just uselessly releasing mana from different parts of his body. Frustrated he sat down again. What was he doing wrong? Maybe, he was trying too hard. Finding the mana in his body, he took a deep breath and released his mana without focus. It worked! Mana escaped his body in all directions... doing absolutely nothing. Danny jumped up and tried again, this time releasing all his mana at once. He waited, and waited, but depressingly nothing came back to him.