Feeling like I had the best sleep of my life I lazily stretched myself out on the bed before abruptly sitting up. If I managed to get a good sleep, something definitely went wrong.
I went to bed 4 hours before I was supposed to get up for work thanks to playing around with an interesting website. There was no way I could feel this rested with just 4 hours of sleep.
Oddly enough it was still dark outside, which calmed me down a bit. Maybe I was lucky and had one of those nights where I slept like a baby instead of tossing and turning for hours. The only source of light in my room was my smartphone next to my pillow which I probably forgot to put on the night table before falling asleep.
Reaching for the phone to check the time I noticed that my bed and pillow felt oddly oversized but before I could think any more on it I saw a text message show up on the screen of my phone as soon as my hand touched it.
Welcome to The Company, Contractor.
Before I could even blink I was hit with 13 years of memories of my alternate self from this world, the Harry Potter world that I selected on the website. It was not painful but disorienting enough that I had to lie back down to process it all.
The website I had visited was a "CYOA" website, which was short for "Create Your Own Adventure". It could be understood as a singleplayer version of a tabletop rpg. Or rather just the character creation part of it. The rest would have been up to my own fantasy, or so I thought.
In my case the website had let me choose a world and based on a couple of factors I received credits to purchase my starting build to reincarnate in that world with.
I had picked the Harry Potter world, thinking it would be fun to go to a magic school and learn magic. Due to the relatively low danger rating of the Harry Potter world I received only a relatively small amount of credits.
Because of that I picked the "Extra" Origin, which would just create a character with no relation to the plot and reincarnate me into it once the character reached the age of 13, which apparently just happened.
The Extra Origin was priced at only 1 credit and my alternate self would be just a mundane 13 year old human. Naturally I would not be able to attend Hogwarts without magic, so I purchased "Added Potential - Wizard" for 5 credits, a rather cheap way of buying powers that come without any training.
Apparently the website was not just a game but some sort of application form instead, I found it funny that I was always addressed as a "Contractor" and thought it was just to make it feel realistic, but it turned out that it was all real and I was now a contractor working for "The Company" under the terms I selected during my "Character Creation".
Going through the extra set of memories in my head confirmed that my plan really checked out and even the details of my character that I did not specifically write down or mention on the website were taken into consideration.
I was a "muggleborn" orphan in this life because I really didn't want to deal with pretending to be a kid more than I needed to. For the same reason I was also quite a loner and only superficially interacted with people, so there was nobody who would really notice any drastic changes in personality.
The "Added Potential" purchase also worked as intended and a letter for Hogwarts really arrived when my alternate self reached 11 years of age and he had been attending Hogwarts for the past 2 years.
An excited grin formed on my face as I went through the memories of the past 2 years. Being able to do magic was one of my biggest dreams and now it has become my reality, likely for the amusement of the people running the company, but that's a fair trade in my opinion.
Reaching for my wand on the night table I was about to give it a try but thankfully remembered that there was a trace on either me or the wand that would detect the use of magic here in the orphanage.
Today was the 31st July 1991 and my 13th birthday, which meant I had another 31 days before my 3rd year at Hogwarts began and it was the same year as Harry Potter started his Hogwarts education too.
My character shared the same birthday as Harry Potter, but because of the rules from the "Extra" Origin I was 2 years older.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I realised that I won't be too closely involved in all the madness that was about to go down soon thanks to being two years above Harry and sorted into Ravenclaw, a house which the main cast of Harry Potter rarely interacted with.
Putting the wand away and focusing back on the phone, I swiped away the welcome message and checked out the apps on the "Company Phone" that let me access the company store, which offered various power ups for credits, similar to a system in some webnovels or animes.
Other than various options to enhance myself through purchasing "Talents" and "Defenses", a big part of this company was about "Companions" and the capture of "waifus".
Thankfully I was really starved for credits during character creation so I didn't even look at those options twice.
Now that it's no longer just an entertaining mind-game to me I was glad that I didn't "purchase" someone who would have been essentially a mind bent slave forced to love me.
If I ever have to use a capture option on someone "innocent" I would have to make sure they know exactly what they signed up for in terms of having a form of mind control applied to them that makes them love me and be loyal to me.
I had the "Stamp" that the Company gave everyone for "capturing" and I was not above forcefully using it on people. But it would be reserved for selling off assholes like the Death Eaters and maybe some magical beasts.
It was one of the best ways to get credits after all, which would allow me to grow stronger.
After briefly going over the purchase options I noted that they were still the same as I had during my character creation and I was all out of credits, so I simply closed the shop and went to the mission section.
I was able to select an initial mission and I accepted one I hoped would count as completed through the actions of my alternate self before I even reincarnated into this body. After all, the mission was really simple, I just had to get accepted into Hogwarts and get sorted into a house.
Thankfully I was not left disappointed.
Mission : Schooltime
Condition : Become a Hogwarts student yourself and learn about magic.
Progress : Complete
Reward : 7 Credits or 1 "Creature Defense"
Optional : Get assigned to Ravenclaw by the Sorting Hat.
Reward : 7 credits or the "Aesthetic Talent"
Picking the "Creature Defense" for the main Reward and 7 credits for the optional reward I claimed both.
While I lost 3 credits in value from not picking the Aesthetic Talent that usually costs 10 credits, I really didn't need it for now. The Creature Defense on the other hand would become invaluable for me in this world as it had many deadly creatures.
Creature Defense (Cost: 10)
Non-sapient living things - beasts, flora, or fungi - will not attack you without provocation, i.e. coming too close to it, its family, its food, or its territory, or appearing too threatening, such as by making sudden moves or loud noises. Wildlife will always attempt to obviously scare you off before attacking. Extremely hungry wildlife may still approach or stalk you to size you up, but will not ambush you, and you can scare them off with some effort.
I was not certain if it would help me with the Basilisk next year, since it was controlled into attacking students through parseltongue but it should be effective on the majority of creatures in this world.
While thinking about the future events I realised that I made no real plans beyond the character creation and initial mission.
I might have thought about it the next day at work and played through some options in my mind, but now I was right in the middle of it and the mindgame was my new reality.
Thankfully I made sure to avoid any debts and obligations during character creation such as loans or accepting patrons and restrictive missions so I was free to do whatever I wanted.
That choice limited my options of earning credits to random missions and selling beings captured with the stamp to the company however.
Capturing someone with the Company Stamp was not instant either and it required me to literally stamp someone with it and maintain a contact between skin and stamp for 3 seconds.
Something most people would not respond kindly to, especially in a world like Harry Potter where cursed objects were rather common. Additionally it would take another 72 hours after the stamp was applied before the capture was successful and only at that point could I sell the captured being.
Until I got to a point where I could incapacitate someone for those 3 seconds without being noticed, I was left with missions being the only viable source of credits.
Going back to the mission menu I started scrolling through the 9 random daily missions and almost burst out laughing when I saw one about impregnating Morgana le Fay. That mission was certainly not possible without using a perk called "Universal Calibration" which would allow me to mess with timelines and I was not interested in that sort of missions anyway.
Not finding any suitable missions I hit refresh once more before I found something interesting.
Bloody Palace - Multiversal Edition
Finding a chance to improve your skills and test your mettle without risking your life in the process is something that many of our Contractors seem to have trouble doing.
As such, we have created the [Bloody Palace], or at least, a version based on the original from the Devil May Cry world, where you can experience all of the hardships of a real fight to the death without having to worry about receiving permanent damage or losing your life. All while providing you with a nearly endless supply of targets and enemies to release your wrath on.
You can enter alone, or with your retinue, but be warned that the challenge will adapt itself to your number and your Tier. Also, unlike the world this instance of the Bloody Palace is based on, this version is not limited to just demons.
Conditions:
This mission can be taken as many times as you want, unless you are currently completing another mission.
All of the damage received during your stay at the Bloody Palace will be undone by the completion of the mission, including but not limited to the destruction of your body, mind and soul.
The mission will be considered completed when all of the combatants in the Contractor's side (Including the contractor) are no longer able to fight or decide to leave after completing a floor.
The fights are divided by "floors". Once you defeat every foe on a floor, you will be given the chance to either proceed to a different floor, or to leave the Palace.
Every ten floors you will face a "Boss", so while you may not be able to predict or anticipate your next foe, you can - up to a certain extent - prepare yourself for the challenge.
For fairness sake, you WON'T BE ABLE TO CAPTURE any of the foes in the Palace, and the effects of your Talents and Defenses will be reduced to their lower capacity until the completion of the mission.
Reward :
Objective 1: Defeat a foe for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 5
Objective 2: Defeat every foe in a Floor for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 5
Objective 3: Reach Floor 10.
Reward [ Credits ] : 10
Objective 4: Defeat a Boss for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 10
Objective 5: Reach Floor 20 without losing a Companion for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 25
Objective 6: Reach Floor 20 alone for the first time.
Reward [ Companions ] : Tier 3 Ticket x1
I didn't continue reading about the rewards after floor 20, as it would be a tough challenge just to survive the boss battle on floor 10 with only the first 2 years worth of spells learned at Hogwarts.
Thankfully I would be facing at most Tier 4 enemies, since that was what I qualified as with my current abilities.
Only after I graduated Hogwarts or learned an equivalent amount of knowledge along with having the same amount of practice as a Hogwarts graduate would I qualify as Tier 5.
Going through my memories of learned spells I realised that I might not be as helpless as I assumed initially, but I had absolutely no practice in using some of those spells in a combat situation.
I knew Depulso , Expelliarmus and Diffindo and only the latter had the potential to be lethal, which I assumed was the condition for progressing floors in the Bloody Palace mission.
Immobulus, Wingardium Leviosa and Tarantallegra - the dancing feet charm - could be used to immobilise my enemies to set up kills but none of them were directly lethal and the last one was a pain to pronounce.
Incendio could work but while being burned was certainly painful, it was not instantly lethal either. The fire charm was mostly used for lighting candles, torches and campfires, not incinerating enemies to death.
I would have to prepare an alternative weapon for this, just in case the severing charm was not enough.
A hammer maybe for armored enemies or robots and golems. Combined with the immobilising, enlarging and levitating charms it could become a decent combo.
After some thinking about it I decided to give this mission a try later today after some preparation.
Worst case I die and "respawn". It would be somewhere between unpleasant and horrible, but I had 7 credits right now and "Stress Defense" only costs 5.
It should be enough to deal with the trauma of dying if the mission condition about undoing damage to body, mind and soul does not already take care of that. Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst as the saying went.
Light started to leak through a small window as a new morning began while I was coming to terms with my reincarnation and I could make out the details of my room more clearly.
The dimly lit room looked old and small, but not quite on the same level as Harry's cupboard below the stairs. I had just enough room for a bed, a desk and a dresser with some space to move in between.
The dresser and desk had a couple of books stacked on top, mostly school books from my time at the regular school and there were a few plain child sized clothes lying on the chair next to the desk.
Everything magical was safely tucked away inside a larger-on-the-inside suitcase under my bed.
On the wall next to the dresser was an old dirty mirror and despite already knowing how I would look, I still decided to see for myself.
Short brown hair, green eyes and a face that had a masculine look despite my apparent age but this body was just 13 years old in the end so I looked like a kid anyway. I had an expression that was a mix of bored and tired, but it was just my "resting bitch face".
I was actually quite excited and well rested, but I never liked showing emotions around people I was not familiar with and that just became my default expression over time, something I apparently carried over from my old life.
Strangely enough despite looking somewhat different from what my old body looked like, I was comfortable with this new look and calm about the whole situation.
I decided it was time to get dressed and have breakfast and not dwell on these things, I still had some preparations to do for the mission and I could not change my situation anymore.
Before going down however I still threw a quick look at my complete build with all my purchased perks and talents.
Name : Darick Night
Origin : Extra
World : Harry Potter , Danger Rating : 3
Intensity : 4
Bindings : Company Stamp
Lures : None
Heritage : Disabled
Home : None
Talents : Body Tune-Up, Soul Talent, Covert Talent
Added Potential : Wizard
Defense : Creature Defense
Misc : Time Savers, Sexual Calibration
I just rolled my eyes at the name, I sometimes picked silly or edgy names for my characters, but I never expected to have to live with it. "Darick Night" just sounds like either "Dark Knight" or "Dark Night" and I felt slightly embarrassed being stuck with that.
Having seen the descriptions for Creature Defense already, I called up the description of the 3 Talents.
Body Tune-Up (Cost: 5)
You lift. Your body is now in perfect fitness and health, with significant muscle growth, within healthy standards for your species. For most humanoids, if your natural height was less, you are now between 170 and 210 cm tall - or will be, if you aren't yet fully grown. Your clothes are all resized and your muscle memory adjusted to fit. (You may opt out of this height boost.)
In the event of a mismatch, your body will change to match your gender identity, reflecting what you might have looked like if you'd been born as such, unless you created or maintained a mismatch with your choice of targets for Substitute or Possess. You knew what you were getting into when you did that.
All unwanted pre-existing medical conditions, from skin blemishes and unwanted body hair to chronic disease, missing limbs, detrimental genetic irregularities, and physical transformations are erased. (Cyborgs will find their reproductive system restored and augmentations optimized within their technological base.) This full heal will automatically trigger only once for each member of your retinue, including yourself: when you first purchase this perk or when the person joins your retinue, whichever happens second. You are immune to further minor illnesses, but not diseases or injuries. All healing or medical operations performed on you will complete without complications, residual pain, or unwanted scars.
The individual benefits of this Talent may also apply, at your discretion, to any/all of your purchased and captured subjects. Unwanted conditions are erased according to your wants, not theirs. If you purchased Extra, Substitute, or Possess, this perk will be retroactively applied to your new body, with the exception noted above.
Absolutely essential and only 5 credits to get a body in perfect fitness and immunity to minor illnesses and a full heal if necessary, not only for myself but even my future companions.
Soul Talent (Cost: 10)
You feel. You have prodigious talent for ki arts (aura, chi, Hamon, Phonic Gain, Spiral Power, etc.) and magic, and will rapidly learn any such personal mystical arts you encounter and are capable of using. This does not apply to purely scientific forms of magic.
Many magical styles benefit from both Soul and Science Talents. In these cases, Soul Talent improves your improvisation ability and raw power.
Another essential talent for the Harry Potter world, or any world with ki or magic. With this I could hopefully take full advantage of Hogwarts's libraries and learn as much about this world's magic as possible.
Covert Talent (Cost: 10)
You lie, cheat, and steal. You have a prodigious talent for larceny, trespassing, theft, espionage, counterintelligence, and other forms of covert activity, whether it's performed on a government's dime or not. You can disappear into any crowd, no matter how sparse.
This synergizes with many other Talents. For example, with Engineering Talent, you can learn to hack any device. With Communication or Performance Talents, you can grift the best con artists out of their money. With Aesthetic Talent, you can make perfect forgeries of any artist's style. Body Tune-Up's boost to athleticism also synergizes with this perk.
This one might not be as obvious of a choice as the others were, but I did not like to stand out and draw attention to myself if I didn't have to. I did not like to lie so it might not see much use in that aspect but other than lying I had no moral compunctions about the rest.
So this would be a big help with sneaking around and keeping a low profile. Maybe it would even come in handy when I got to a point where I could begin capturing Death Eaters too.
The last two -Time Savers and Sexual Calibration - were quality of life improvements. Both were priced at 2 credits each and since I only had 4 credits left by the end of character creation I got them both to empty out my balance.
Time Savers (Cost: 2)
You humans have to do so much useless stuff that just wastes the day away in order to simply function. No more! Your body is now self cleaning, meaning you'll almost always stay sparkly, well groomed, and smelling great. All of your hair and nails will eternally be at your desired length. You'll be able to fall asleep within a few minutes of trying to, and you'll only need six hours to feel completely rested and rejuvenated. Finally you'll never have to excrete any sort of waste ever again. It says here that all of these can be turned down or off whenever you like, but come on? What possible reason would someone want to be able to, let's say, go to the bathroom if you never need to again? ...It's a fetish thing, isn't it?
For 10 credits you will get the version that is applied to a whole retinue, with the ability to turn it off for individuals or entire groups, such as familiars.
Sexual Calibration (Cost: 2)
The little inconveniences that can make sex less fun no longer apply to you. Your partners will always be as clean as needed and smell just as you like. If you have a refractory period, it is removed. Any unintentional or incidental damage that your sexual sessions might cause simply doesn't take place. This includes unwanted pregnancy and any complications of pregnancy; note that this perk cannot guarantee a desired pregnancy. Exhaustion will not be an issue for any participant in your sexual sessions until at least you are satisfied. You can extend all of this to your partners as well.
No regrets there even if the last one would likely go unused for a while, after all I was stuck in a 13 year old body.
Since I won't need to take showers anymore thanks to Time Savers I headed straight for breakfast as soon as I was dressed. After that I could finally start the first day of my new life.