A week had passed in the blink of an eye, and Theo was currently sitting in the cafe portion of his store. His laptop sat in front of him, a word document filled with thousands of words displayed on the screen as he sipped a warm cup of coffee.
He'd easily completed the first installment of Eragon in record time, taking less than three days—time that arguably should have been spent operating his business, but was instead spent hunched over the keyboard during business hours. Fortunately, his job was simple enough, and taking a break to help customers was enough to alleviate the monotony of writing for hours on end.
He'd gone through the work multiple times to ensure everything was accurate to the original, and he had finally confirmed it was complete.
'Sometimes I wonder how people can be this imaginative, creating brand new worlds with their minds. Even reading this 'draft', I want to re-read the series all over again.'
With a sigh, he leaned back into his chair and stretched his arms over his head, eliciting a satisfying yawn.
"Did you finish it?" Alice asked, her bright eyes sparkling from across the table. She had taken to spending her afternoons sitting beside him in the store, completing her homework and getting closer to Bella. Obviously, being the potential partner of her brother, Alice was doing everything in her cheerful power to bridge the gap.
"Yeah, it's done," Theo said with a nod. "I've double-checked it multiple times, and I think it's ready to be sent off. Are you sure that family lawyer has the connections to help me?"
Alice had been intrigued by his idea of writing, and even though he could tell she was apprehensive about his sudden whim to write a fantasy novel, she was completely supportive, even offering to get the book seen by an editor and a publishing company.
'This must be what having a sugar momma is like, right? Well, this one's drop-dead gorgeous and a billionaire, but still.'
"Jenks can help out, don't worry. But can I read it now? You promised I could be your personal editor, and I take my job seriously!" she said with a mock pout, though he saw the genuine joy in her eyes.
Spinning the laptop around, he pushed it towards her and gestured to the screen.
"Go ahead, and be honest about it once you're done."
With a happy hum, she practically threw her textbooks to the side and launched into the document.
Feeling good, Theo decided he'd do something to reward himself. His Gacha draws had pooled once again, and he had enough for an upgrade pull. Maybe the Gacha Gods were pleased with his work ethic; he didn't know, but he was hoping they would shine their light upon him once again.
Seeing that Alice was completely engrossed in the novel, he pulled up the panel and silently began his draw. Hands hidden under the table, he crossed his fingers in a silent prayer.
[Drawing...]
[Congratulations for obtaining The Philosopher's Stone!]
[Item Acquired: The Philosopher's Stone]
Source: Harry Potter Universe (Alchemy)
Type: Infinite Catalyst
Description: A legendary alchemical substance capable of bypassing the Law of Equivalent Exchange. It radiates a faint, rhythmic heat, like a slow heartbeat.
Capabilities:
The Elixir of Life: Produces a golden fluid that halts cellular aging and cures any non-magical disease instantly.
Magnum Opus (Transmutation): The stone acts as a universal bridge for matter manipulation. It allows the user to transmute base metals (Lead, Iron, Steel) directly into pure Gold with zero energy loss.
Looking at the words hovering in front of his eyes, Theo blinked once, then twice, before his eyes flickered to Alice—or more accurately, to the laptop she held in her hands. In rapid succession, his eyes darted back and forth between the System screen and the laptop, before he closed his eyes, a silent tear of exhaustion escaping the corner of his eye.
'Are. You. Kidding. Me?' he screamed in his head. 'I spent a whoooooole fucking week writing and editing that damn book, and then I get this?! Oh, no, I'm happy about the reward—this is brilliant—but are you kidding me?!'
Wiping the stray tear and closing the System panel, Theo stared at the back of the laptop, his eyes hollow. All the work he'd done was essentially rendered redundant with the appearance of the stone.
'I don't need to worry about money anymore,' Theo thought defeatedly. He wasn't ungrateful, no, but he was blindsided, and it threw him for a loop. 'Note to self: do a Gacha pull before you decide to spend a week actually trying to do something productive.'
"I'm going to get another coffee," Theo announced, standing up abruptly.
Alice's eyes moved from the screen to his, and she raised an eyebrow, questioning his sudden mood swing.
"Everything alright?" she asked sweetly, tilting her head.
"Oh, yeah, everything is peachy," he said with a tight smile. "I just think the book is a sign of good things coming."
Turning, he walked towards the coffee machine. 'Fucking Gacha, playing with my emotions like that.'
Grabbing a quick refill, Theo leaned against the counter and thought about what the following week would bring. There had been a news report recently released stating that a security guard a town over had been mauled by some type of animal, but Theo knew it was the nomadic trio: James, Victoria, and Laurent.
They would most likely appear in front of the Cullens at the baseball game, and Theo was prepared to make his move. He planned on killing James and Victoria as soon as the game was over, when Edward and the Cullens were attempting to protect Bella.
He wasn't planning on killing James just because of Bella, but due to Alice. What most people didn't know from the movies is that James was the reason Alice was turned into a vampire. In the 1920s, she had been placed in an institution for the mentally insane by her own father to remove her from his new family.
The institute's groundskeeper was a kind vampire who was doing his best to live like a human, and he had taken Alice under his wing as a silent protector, realizing she was a sane teenager imprisoned there.
Unfortunately, due to the groundskeeper working there, his scent brought another vampire to the facility: James. After seeing how attached the two were, James planned on killing Alice, purely for the satisfaction of causing pain to her protector. Fortunately, the groundskeeper turned her as soon as he realized the danger, saving her from being brutally murdered before escaping himself.
Now, when the Cullens were planning on playing their baseball game, James would finally meet Alice once again. He'd have that drive to finish what he started once he'd dealt with Bella, and Theo wasn't having any of that.
'So many damn complications,' Theo thought, his body tightly wound. 'I've never killed, or even harmed someone before. I need to get over this mental hurdle before the day comes. James and Victoria need to die.'
Even though he was this enhanced existence now, Theo remembered that he was just a normal person with normal aspirations barely a month ago. He didn't have the hunger and drive for violence the vampires had, and he'd need to change the way his mind worked to protect the ones he cared for.
'No point in overthinking it. They want to hurt her, and I need to protect her. It's either kill or be killed in the end.'
Placing his mug down, Theo steeled himself and walked back to Alice, pulling his chair closer before sitting down.
"Thoughts?" he asked, his smile returning as he looked into her amber eyes.
"Theo," Alice said slowly, looking up from the screen. "Why haven't you told me you could write like this before? It's good. No, better than good. It's like you've been writing your whole life." The shock in her voice was obvious, and her eyes shone with unbridled pride.
"It sort of came to me, really. I was hoping I could sell the novel and start making some additional money for myself. You know this bookstore isn't exactly printing cash."
With a whisper, Alice leaned in. "Why are you worrying about money? You know I have more than I could spend in a thousand years."
Boy, did he know. She'd told him about how much her family had utilized her powers for the stock market; they were comfortably above the fifty-billion-dollar mark in net worth.
"I guess it's a pride thing?" he said quietly. "I want to make money on my own, and know that I had a hand in bringing that income into my bank account. It might be a guy thing, but I want to be able to provide, I guess?"
Alice nodded slowly, a small smile on her face as she tenderly held his hand.
"Well, I think you're going to make a name for yourself with this. Have you decided if you're going to use a pen name? It would probably be smart, especially with how... supernatural we all are."
He'd already planned on creating a false identity for the book. Even though he had the Philosopher's Stone now, he still wanted a legal means of income. It was a somewhat genius plan he had concocted, if he was being honest.
One of the first Gacha pulls he'd had was the Clark Kent Glasses, which affected people's brains, making them see him differently than his true appearance. Instead of being a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, he'd be an author, utilizing those glasses to protect himself from the normal world.
"Yeah, if the book inevitably becomes popular, I don't want people flooding this store and ruining our time together. So I'll need to figure out a pen name for myself."
"A secret identity would be good. Even my family has them. Emmett is a savant with technology, and he spends a lot of nights on the internet in some of his 'hacker' groups, breaking into databases for fun," Alice said, giggling at the image of her towering brother hunched over a small computer.
Theo snorted as his eyes flickered toward the register. He saw Bella leaning against it, reading a book that had the name of the local tribe of werewolves on the cover.
"Er, Alice," Theo said, lightly clutching her hand. "Speaking of secret identities, I'm pretty sure Bella is going to crack the secret tonight." Nodding his head in her direction, he watched Alice turn and look.
"Because of a book?"
"Because that book holds the legends of the Quileute tribe from the Reservation. It literally talks about the kinds of supernatural beings they interacted with, and I bet there's more than one chapter about your kind."
"Shit," Alice uttered with a sigh. "Looks like everything is going to come to a head in the next day or two. I should probably tell Edward; he'll need to be prepared for the inevitable confrontation."
"Bet you ten bucks she's going to go somewhere secluded with a blood-sucking vampire to profess her undying love," he said sarcastically.
"That's a sucker's bet and we both know it!" With a light peck on his lips, Alice stood up. "Rain check on our little homework date?"
"Sure. I'll speak to you later."
He watched as her lithe body walked out of the store, and Theo couldn't help but notice the added sway in her hips. Shaking his head, he packed up the laptop and left the table; he had a stone to test.
Up in his apartment, Theo was pacing around the living room, a ruby-red stone in his hand that felt warm to the touch. He was baffled by the fact that something so small held some kind of unlimited energy and could simply bypass the laws of physics to grant eternal youth and convert lead to gold.
Walking to the coffee table, Theo looked at the scrap of metal he'd found outside on the balcony. It was the perfect shape and item to test out the stone's capabilities. It was on the heavier side, weighing around four pounds, and by a quick search on his phone, Theo had estimated that if the transmutation worked, that random metal would net a profit of roughly two hundred thousand dollars.
Gently placing the stone against the brick, Theo focused on the intent of turning it into gold. Somehow—either through magic or willpower—the stone listened. Right in front of his eyes, he watched as the metals structure changed, shifting and melting, and in its place sat a vibrant, solid gold bar in the shape of a warped piece of metal.
Storing the stone back in his inventory, Theo picked up the gold bar and looked at it in wonder. It was heavy.
'I just made 200K in less than ten seconds,' he thought, the magnitude of this revelation completely befuddling him. 'I don't have to worry about money anymore, and I'm sure Alice would direct me to Jenks once again for the sale of this piece. The man literally creates their identities and helps them move their wealth around to offshore accounts every couple of years.'
Unsure of what to do with the golden brick now, Theo placed it on top of a stack of papers, turning it into an incredibly expensive paperweight. He looked on for a minute before snickering at how stupid the sight was.
"Fuck, man. I don't even know what's going on with my life anymore."
**********
Yahallo! Another chapter for today, hope y'all enjoy it. I can see the novel is in the top 1 - 3 spot in most of the fan-fic rankings for the week so far, so thank you all so much for the love and support. Keep up the great support, I've got some action coming up in the next coming chapters!
PS - The Gacha System will start to be used less following this chapter. More story, less system, more power! Check AUX chapter for a new poll!