Chapter 50: First Ever Bag of Mimicry

  I looked at the crater again, feeling a deep sense of sorrow at the loss of the magic bag. My shadow seemed to take pity on me, either that or it wanted to inflict more pain on my already ravaged head, because I felt another twinge as a hair was plucked from my scalp, and another dark thread appeared in my shadow.

  I rubbed my sore noggin and bent over to pick it up. “My shadow wants me to try again. I wonder what went wrong.”

  “Have you ever failed an enchantment like that before?” Madam Hurst asked.

  I had to think about it. There’d been times where I didn’t have enough mana, sure, but nothing ever blew up before. Then again, I’d never attempted anything so complex.

  Analysis: Infuse each ritual with mana at the exact same time.

  “Oh,” I mouthed the word more than said it.

  “Did you figure something out?” Barbara asked.

  It was only then that I noticed the soot on her face. In fact, the crowd had thinned quite a bit since I failed the ritual. I wondered just how many people were injured in the blast. Or perhaps they just fled for their safety.

  Realizing everyone was expecting an answer, I replied. “I need 8 people to power each ritual at the same time, or it won’t work.”

  “I see,” Madam Hurst replied. “Do we have any volunteers?”

  To my surprise, quite a few hands shot up, including Barbara’s and John’s. “Well, okay. Let me get set up again, and we’ll give it another try.”

  While I was working on Magic Bag 3.0, Madam Hurst tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a flask with red liquid inside. “This is a healing potion. You should probably get in the habit of carrying some in your bag if you intend to experiment like that. We have a lot of accidents here, but we are well-prepared for them.”

  I accepted the potion and downed it in one gulp. The results were immediate. The pain in my head all but vanished, and my vision became much sharper. So sharp, in fact, that I wondered if it had cured some undiagnosed vision impairment I was previously unaware of. I made a silent vow to stock up on the things and drink one every day with breakfast.

  Madam Hurst brought some older students in to repair the floor. I watched them work for a few minutes before getting an idea.

  “Excuse me,” I cleared my throat, walking up beside them. “There’s something I’d like to try.”

  They stood back and let me do it. I placed a hand in the small crater and spoke the word. “Repair!”

  I probably hadn’t needed to say it, but it triggered the skill, and the rubble filled in the hole and smoothed itself out. Unfortunately, my destroyed bag and skill scroll weren’t so lucky.

  With that out of the way, I prepared another octogram, along with a second skill scroll and a magic bag. I wondered if I should use Mana Link to spread the mana evenly through the rituals so it wouldn’t explode again.

  Analysis: For this ritual, it is recommended that each initiator have a minimum of 4,000 mana.

  Your Research skill has increased: +1 (22)

  That settled it. I didn’t have anywhere near that much mana. I checked my stats to be sure.

  Oliver Evans

  Class: Craftsman

  Level: 6

  Age: 13

  Weight: 117 Lbs

  Height 5’6

  Hitpoints: 600

  Mana: 600

  Stamina: 600

  “I’m going to need a few more volunteers,” I announced. “Every ritual needs to be powered by at least four thousand mana.”

  Most of the students stood back, but I beckoned them to return. “Don’t worry. I have a skill that allows us to share mana for things like this. We’re just going to need more people so we have enough to power all of the rituals.

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  “Four thousand per ritual, right?” Madam Hurst asked as she started positioning kids in a rough circle around the octogram.

  In the end, I wasn’t one of the people to activate a ritual. My job was to provide the link so the mana spread evenly to every ritual.

  “If we had more people with your skill, we could do it individually for every ritual,” Madam Hurst pointed out. “But this way should work, hopefully.”

  Madam Hurst, by herself, had more than enough mana to power one of the rituals by herself. She added as many students as she could to the circle, convinced it would aid in their education. I had a strong feeling she didn’t want to risk it blowing up again.

  Once they were all in place, she called out a countdown. “Three, two, one. Now, everyone, activate your rituals.”

  Almost in perfect tandem, the ritual circles began glowing and fed eight concentrated lines of mana to the two objects sitting in the circle: the bag and the skill scroll. The items flashed with blinding light. When it died down, all that was left was a single bag, etched with a rune I innately knew in my soul to mean Mimic.

  “Success!” one of the students cried out, and everybody started cheering.

  “What is it?” another kid asked, picking the bag up and inspecting it.

  I took it from his hands and Analyzed it.. “Well, if this works the way I hope it will, it will solve world hunger, or at least orphanage hunger.”

  Bag of Mimicry

  Magic Item

  Grade: A

  Condition: 999

  Effect: Duplicates Contents

  Created by: Evans

  Madam Hurst looked closely at the rune. “How will it do that?”

  I grinned, taking a sandwich out of my other bag and placing it in the Bag of Mimicry. Sure enough, after closing it and reopening it, there were two sandwiches in the bag. I closed it and opened it again, hoping to double the effect, but there were still only two. However, when I took the sandwiches out and put one back in, the effect repeated, and another sandwich was born.

  For the next test, I handed the bag and one of the sandwiches to Madam Hurst. “Here, you try it.”

  She opened the bag and placed the sandwich inside, only to frown when she opened it again. “I’m sorry, Oliver.”

  “What?” I asked, looking in the bag in disbelief. There was only one sandwich. “That’s not…”

  I had John try just to be sure. The skill only worked for me. I sat and dejectedly duplicated sandwiches until I’d fed everyone, while pondering what went wrong.

  Analysis: Shadow Hair produced a Soulbound effect. For a universal bag, substitute the essence of a Primordial.

  I looked up at Madam Hurst. “What is a primordial?”

  Her eyes widened ever so slightly. “Those are the gods of nothing. I suppose you can also refer to it as The Void. It’s a realm that exists outside of reality. Some wizards use it to teleport. Not much is known about primordials or The Void, just that they exist.”

  “So getting the essence of one is out of the question, then?” I asked, feeling dejected.

  Madam Hurst laughed. “I dare say you do swing for the fence, don’t you? I suppose you can try the auction house or put out a request, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

  I sighed, looking at the open bag in frustration. It was useless in its current state. I folded it up and placed it in my main bag. At least that worked.

  “What are you going to do now?” Madam Hurst asked.

  Most of the other tinkerers had left at that point, leaving only Barbara and John.

  “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I think I need to do more research. Lavender wouldn’t have given me these books if she didn’t think I could make this.”

  “Or the orangutan,” Barbara stifled a giggle when Madam Hurst glared at her.. “Sorry, Madam.”

  Madam Hurst rubbed her chin and gave me an appraising look. “Please consider allowing me to tag along if you’re going back to the library. I fear I may not be able to access the special section without you.”

  I was unsure if she believed me or just wanted to prove me wrong. Either way, it didn’t matter. If she wanted to accompany me, I’d take her, so I nodded and slung the bag over my shoulder.

  “Can we come too?” Barbara asked.

  Inwardly, I groaned. The last thing I needed was an entourage. Still, I have no reason to decline, so I shrugged and started on my way with a trio of tinkerers in tow.

  When we got to the street, Madam Hurst stopped me. “We won’t be walking.”

  “What…?” I began, but she silenced me with a waggle of her finger and handed the doorman a ticket.

  Moments later, he returned with a rather plain-looking car. It was nothing at all like Mr. Penderblast’s car…on the outside.

  Mana Powered Car

  Magic Item

  Grade: B

  Condition: 462

  Created by: Hurst

  I walked around the car, looking for any special modifications. “Do all tinkerers have cars?”

  Barbara climbed in the front, and Madam Hurst held the rear passenger door open for me and John. “Ah, yes. You’ll have seen Mortimer’s car. His is a bit fancy for my tastes.”

  “That explains it,” I said, smiling. “This one won’t stand out.”

  “Wait till you hear it,” John whispered in my ear. “It actually sounds just like a petrol car.”

  Sure enough, Madam Hurst pulled a lever, and the telltale sound of an engine turning over roared to life. A burst of black smoke belched from the tailpipe to complete the effect. Madam Hurst put it into gear, and we were off.

  I poked my head in the library and was once again disappointed to not see a beautiful woman in a red dress behind the counter. I led my procession of tinkerers through rows of books to the empty shelf. While it was still empty, there was no sign of Lavender or the orangutan.

  “Are you sure you aren’t making this up?” Barbara asked with her arms crossed.

  John, on the other hand, investigated the shelf, walking around to the other side to see if an orangutan was hiding just around the corner. He poked his head back and asked, “How does it work?”

  “I’d like to know that as well,” Madam Hurst said, leaning closer to inspect the blank shelf.

  “Well,” I thought about it. The books had just appeared without me having to do anything. Then I remembered what Lavender said. “You need to write what you want and leave it on the shelf. Then the librarian will get the appropriate books for you.”

  “Do you mean Lavender or the orangutan?” Barbara asked, rolling her eyes.

  Madam Hurst gave Barbara another of her trademark stares. Barbara seemed to earn a lot of those.

  Once she was satisfied with Barbara’s reaction, Madam Hurst took out a small notepad and scribbled something on it before placing it on the shelf.

  We waited for several long moments before Barbara spoke up again, this time a little more timidly. “How long is this supposed to take? Does the orangutan have to find the book?”

  I gaped at the note for a moment, and something came to me. “A library card. You need one to request books.”

  Madam Hurst huffed and produced a card.

  Margarette Hurst

  Member Number: 38211

  Expires on: 6/15/1938

  I took mine out to compare.

  Oliver Evans

  Member Number: 40269

  Membership: Special (Request Only)

  Expires on: 12/7/1941

  Madam Hurst scoffed when she saw my card, showing anger for the first time since I met her. “Well, that’s just preposterous. Where is the administrator?”

  We struggled to keep up as she power walked to the librarian’s station.

  A young woman dressed the way librarians were supposed to be, looked at Madam Hurst like she was an oncoming train. “C-c-can I help you, ma’am?”

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