by D. Levesque
So that’s when we thought of another way we could partner with Mike’s parents. Transportation. I wave to the sofas, and Leo and Linda nod and waves us all forward. We all grab seats, with me on one sofa, and Marrisa on one side, and Carmen on the other. Linda and Leo look at each other and then back at me, and Linda is the one to ask.
“So, is one of these your girlfriend?”
“Mom!” Mike says, horrified for me.
I laugh and say, “It’s OK, Mike. Marrisa here,” I say, waving to her, “is my wife. I will explain later.”
Wife blurts out Linda in shock.
“Later,” I promise her again.
“And the other girl?” Leo says, pointing to Carmen.
“Not yet,” Carmen says.
“Not yet what?” Linda asks her, with her head tilted sideways in confusion.
“Not yet his wife,” Carmen says with a grin.
I hear a choking sound, and I look over and Mike is looking at me in shock. But when I look at Marrisa, I see she has the same look on her face. I can’t help but grin.
“Anyhow,” I say with a laugh. “That’s not why we are here. I wanted to talk to you about something that we have that you are going to want and something that you have that we want.”
“That we are going to want?” Leo says, confused.
I nod. “Correct. Leo, Linda, Mike, and Jim. What would you say if I told you that Magic is real, and that there are multiple races out there that can do Magic?”
Leo snorts before anyone else can answer. “I would call you daft and have you committed. Magic isn’t real, Kevin,” he says with a sigh. “If that is what these people have convinced you and if they are asking you to ask us for money to pay for them to teach you Magic, I am sorry to disappoint you, and I will say no now.” He finishes and sits back, his arms crossed, glaring at everyone around the room.
I nod to Marrisa, who I had decided should be the showgirl for this. She nods and stands up, and Jim, Mike, and his parents look at her warily.
Suddenly, Marrisa is standing in front of us in her Changeling form, complete with ears, tail, and fur. I have to admit, with her glasses, she looks fucking hot. Did I mention that I love having sex with her in this form? Call me odd.
“Holy shit!” Leo yells out in surprise. I look at everyone else. Mike has his mouth wide open in astonishment. Jim is staring, and his mouth is opening and closing. Linda, on the other hand, has passed out.
“Shit,” I say quickly, rushing to her. I place my hand on her and cast heal. While heal can work to heal injuries, it also does quite well in easing mind trauma. Linda moans and suddenly comes back to us.
“Are you all right?” I ask her softly, with concern in my voice.
Linda looks back at Marrisa and slowly nods. “What is she?”
“I’m a Changeling,” Marrisa tells her softly. “Sorry for scaring you. It was Kevin’s idea.”
Linda looks up at me and glares. She suddenly reaches out and slaps me on the cheek. Not hard, but hard enough to let me know she is upset with me.
“And these other people?” Leo asks around warily.
I point to Marrisa’s dad. “He is her father and a Changeling as well. That’s Tallen and William. They are Vampires. Carmen is a Changeling too.”
“And then there is me!” Mavin suddenly shouts, appearing in front of me.
Linda takes it better with Mavin. She doesn’t pass out but instead cries, “It’s a Fairy!”
“Hi!” Mavin waves to her.
“Fairies are real?” Leo says in wonder. “Wait! Did you say Vampires?” he suddenly says, sounding worried.
“All good,” Tallen says, getting up and bowing to him. “I am under guest rules, so you need not worry. Besides, as you will find out, we do not go after humans. We have our needs looked after in other ways. I am sure I can say the same for William?”
“Of course,” William says, getting up as well and bowing to Linda and Leo.
“Hmm. OK. Good to know,” Leo replies slowly. He looks at me. “So, you mentioned a deal? What is this deal? You are asking a lot of faith from us. I mean that’s a lot of faith on our end to believe you.”
I nod and wave at everyone to sit back down.
And, for the next hour I tell them all the stuff I have been through for the last two weeks, or is it three? Damn it’s been a whirlwind of shit. I can tell you the looks of disbelief and incredulousness from them were enough to make me laugh and almost agree with them that yes, it was all a script from some movie. But, once show them some Magic, and even having Marissa and Carmen change over to their Changeling forms, which I can see Leo, Mike and Jim drooling over. I even had the help of William who turned into a Vampire, with his teeth showing. He had to apologize to Linda since he made her faint when he did that. To say that Leo turned white was an understatement.
Look over, both Mike and Jim are taking it stride.
I lean forward excitedly. “How would you like access to people doing Magic for you in exchange for material?”
“What can these magical people do?” he asks me, but I can see that he is interested.
“Well. Imagine being able to purify metals quicker and with better quality than you can with machines? Being able to put magical protection in, say, that limo outside? Or have a race of people work for you that are stronger than any human bodyguard could possibly be?”
I go on to explain to them all about the other races. How the Beast race would make excellent guards. How Fairies can work as the best alarm system anywhere. Or how Vampires can purify blood, thanks to their own Magic. Then I throw in the big one. How Magic can heal. To show them, I call up my Foci and bring out one of my daggers, and with a wince, I cut my arm, and then Carmen heals me in front of everyone.
By the end, Leo, Linda, Mike, and Jim are stunned beyond belief. I don’t think their eyes can get any bigger.
Mike is the first one to answer. “Dad, if you don’t take that deal, I will renounce you as my parents, take my inheritance and take the deal with Kevin myself.”
Leo looks at his son and grunts. “I would be a dumb ass not to take this. But what kind of material are you asking for?”
I look at Marrisa’s dad for support.
“We would love to have technology—items such as what you would see in an everyday home. Back in my world, we do not have things like this. And we also don’t have the ability to use it. We do not have these large power sources to run them.”
Leo looks at Linda, and she nods to him. He reaches his hand out to me and says, “You have yourself a deal. On one condition.”
“What’s that?” I ask him, not taking his hand.
“We are exclusive,” he says, looking me straight in the eye.
“Deal,” I tell him, taking the offered hand this time.
“Woohoo!” Mavin cries, doing a fist pump into the air. “We are going to get tons of Oreo cookies on Lotri!”
I put a hand over my face. “Just ignore him. But make sure to hide your Oreo cookies.”
The End
Book 1 of M.A.G.I. Hunters
Scroll down for a preview of Elemental Summoner 1
About the Author
I am an older-than-dirt gamer. I started gaming when old school BBS' were a thing, playing Pit Fighter and Trade Wars. I remember buying my first PC when I was 14 years old; it was a RadioShack Tandy PC. Paid a ton for it.
When the internet became available, I was on the early (well, not THAT early) bandwagon.
My venture into online games started with Ultima Online. Then I got into the beta for Everquest. THAT was my addiction. I eventually convinced my partner at the time, to try the game since it seemed to be "taking you away from me almost every evening". And that is how my now wife became a gamer girl. We raided for years, and made some fantastic friends, who we still talk to on Facebook. Then came Everquest 2. Yet more addiction. I have tried WoW, many times. While the game was good, I just never got into it. Sorry WoW Players.
Since the
n, I have played tons of games that have come out, from online games to stand-alone ones. I have so many titles on Steam that one would think I would not run out of stuff to play, right? Yeah. If you look at my most played games in Steam, it would have to be in order: Elder Scrolls Online (over 900 hours), Ark Survival Evolved (over 500 hours), and Everquest 2 on Steam. But that doesn't take into account before I had it on Steam, so add another 2000 hours to that!
My love and passion for reading started at a young age. The first book I read for the sheer pleasure of it as a child was Lord of the Rings at the age of 12. From then on, it became an expensive habit. I have been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy ever since.
I am also a fan of Anime and Manga. Yeah, I know. How much more geek can I add to this? Oh, oh, you just wait. I was more into ichii and harem there. But also, more fantasy-based ones. I never did watch Yu-Gi-Oh or such. I did love comedy ones. Years ago, I remember introducing my older kids to Ranma ½. Yeah, I wasn't a good dad.
About three years ago, I was introduced to LitRPG and GameLit, and well, HaremLit. And I have not gone back. I have bought and read so many books on Kindle. I won't mention the numbers. I have wanted to write a book from a pretty young age, since I had lots of imagination and ideas. But I was always under the impression you needed a large publisher. I was wrong. Instead, I decided to put my thoughts to paper, as it were, and this started my new career as an author.
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Chapter 1- Elemental Summoner
“Alexander, I need you to go back there and fix that leak in the bathroom,” yells my manager from behind the counter as I walk into the store.
Fuck, I hate it when he calls me by my full name. While my given name might be Alexander, I prefer Alex. And why the Hell am I fixing a leak? I’m a clerk. Ever since I told him my father was a renovation expert before he passed away from cancer, he’s decided that somehow his skills had been passed down to me.
“Joshua,” I tell him patiently. “You know that I tried to fix it last week, and it didn’t work. Man, you need to call a plumber.”
“I don’t have that kind of money!” Joshua says with a grimace as I walk up to him. “Can you look at it please?” he begs me.
Technically, I don’t start for another hour. I came in early to get away from the quiet at home, and the empty fridge. My mother, bless her soul, works 70-hour weeks at the hospital as a nurse. I barely get to see her. But this week has been worse than usual. She never even got a chance to do her weekly grocery run, and I’m not allowed to do it for her since I only pick up junk food.
I had come into work early to grab a drink and a pre-made sandwich and start reading one of the new fantasy books that one of the authors I follow had put out.
I say with a sigh, “Sure. But the sandwich is free.”
“Deal!” he shouts to my retreating back. “But only if you can fix it.” I stop, turn around and simply look at him. “Fine! It’s free,” he says gloomily.
I grab a drink and one of the pre-made egg salad sandwiches out of the cooler and head to the back of the store through a door that says ‘staff only’ on it.
Once on the other side, I open the drink, take a sip, and put it on the staff table. Beside the table are a couple of old torn up leather chairs that are a weird shade of putrid green but are comfortable as fuck, even with the duct tape that’s there to keep the tears from getting bigger. I open the package for the sandwich and I devour the first half and set it next to the drink.
I place my bag on the chair and taking my sweatshirt off, sigh, and head to the bathroom in the back. The leak in question is coming from the water pipe, thank God, and not the sewer pipe.
Once I get to the bathroom, I pause to look at myself in the mirror that’s above the sink, next to the toilet. God, I look like shit. I’m only 26, but I am already starting to let myself go and I look much older. The tire around my waist has gotten bigger, and my work shirt has gotten visibly tighter.
The goatee I started growing two years ago is still there, but you would think I only started it last month. It looks so pathetic. I am sure a 12-year-old could grow a better one. But I keep it there, hoping it will somehow miraculously explode in growth one day miraculously. My receding hairline isn’t helping either. Nor do my eyes that are puffy from lack of sleep. I was up all night playing my addiction; the online game I had been playing for the last three years. To me, it was an escape from my shitty life. In it, I could pretend to be Juxar, the wizard.
I give myself a wan smile in the mirror and bend down and look at the pipe. There is a bucket underneath it to catch the dripping water that is leaking from the joint. Last time I had tried to use some kind of plumbing tape, but it didn’t help, I guess. I look around, and I see Joshua’s store toolbox sitting next to the wall.
I open it and look to see if the monkey wrench is there. Yep. I turn off the main water to the sink, I remove the offending cable pipe and look at it. The white plumber’s tape is still there, but it’s useful as shit. Fuck, why the Hell Joshua doesn’t simply call a plumber is beyond me. The guy keeps saying he doesn’t have money, but he does. He owns fourteen of these stores. This one so happens to be the one closest to his house, which is why he comes to work here.
Using my nail, I remove the white tape and grab a fresh roll of it from the toolbox. Maybe I had put it on wrong? I mean, is there a wrong way? I slowly wrap more tape around the pipe and then look at my handy work when I’m done. It looks like it’s on differently. Maybe the angle you use when you do it makes a difference? Shrugging, I put the pipe back together and use the monkey wrench to make sure it’s on tightly, but not enough to crack the breakable plastic ring surrounding it.
I turn on the main water slowly, and watch to see if there are any drips. Although, last time there weren’t any either, so I might not find out ’til next week that yet again, the pipe is leaking.
I watch it for five minutes, with my mind admittedly going back to the Quest I did last night, which is the reason I am so tired today, and I don’t see any leaking.
I had found a Questline that no one else had found. I even checked the wiki to make sure—nothing on the site about it. So I ended up staying up late to finish it before anyone else could, taking down details about it, so I could write up a walkthrough about it later for the wiki and stamp my name on the page.
I wash my hands clean from the germs I am sure are all over the place in here, using liberal amounts of soap and hot water until they are red and almost raw from the scrubbing. At least I know this bathroom gets cleaned weekly, as I am the one who does it. Once I’m done, I head back to my food that’s waiting for me at the staff table. I sit down and finish the other half of my sandwich and my drink, and take my book out of my bag.
Ah, come to me, oh words of wisdom. I glance at my watch, I have forty minutes before I need to start my shift. Sweet, I think to myself. I open the book to my bookmark, which is a hot Elf girl that is mostly naked, other than the bikini she is wearing. Yeah, I know. What would a fantasy Elf girl be
doing wearing a bikini? Who cares!
To make sure I don’t get too engrossed in my book and lose time, I take my smartphone out and set the alarm for five minutes before my shift starts. Joshua hates leaving late to go home to supper with his kids and wife.
I get pulled out of my book with a shock and stare at my phone like it is something evil. Fuck, I had just gotten to a good part of the story. As much as I want to stay and read it, I know Joshua. He docks me an hour’s pay if I am even a minute late. I learned that the hard way when I started working for him five years ago after dropping out of college. That’s right, five years. That’s part of the reason I am able to work the evening shift instead of the night shift. I have the seniority, and also Joshua likes me, even though he keeps saying I could do so much better with my life than work for him. I just shake my head and tell him I am doing exactly what I want to be doing.
The day staff hate working with Joshua. The night staff, well, Joshua’s older brother has dibs on that shift. I put my garbage in the waste container next to the table, throwing my bottle into the blue recycle bin that I knew Joshua’s brother will end up dumping into the wastebasket anyhow. I get up and stretch, stiff from sitting down without moving for so long, and place my bookmark into my book, before putting the book inside my bag. I walk over to the set of four lockers, I set my bag in one of them and close the door, placing my thumbprint on it to lock it.
One thing that Joshua was willing to splurge on was these lockers. He said he got them at a discount, but the staff didn’t care since they were so damn cool. No keys, no combination to remember. Just your thumbprint, I think with a grin.