Replacement Boy That Lived Part 2

Myst watched his health bar as he finished his burger, wondering if it would actually change now that he'd finished his burger and fries. He waited a couple of seconds then sighed in annoyance when it was obvious that his health wasn't regenerating any faster. 'So much for a cheap way to restore health.' He pulled the two leatherbound books he'd gotten from the chest out of his inventory and opened the first one.

"New skill acquired: Lightning, spray unlocked." a female voice announced.

'Nice,' Myst thought as he opened the second book.

"New skill acquired: Ritual Magic." a female voice announced.

"Huh." He selected the skill from his list, hoping for a description. He smiled when a translucent popup window appeared that looked like a crafting interface from an RPG. "Fun," he muttered sarcastically when he saw that his only ritual was a zombie ritual. "Zombies, yeah, that's less than useful considering using the ritual gives me one to four points of Corruption.”

He tossed the napkin into the trash bin then worked on finishing the last of his milkshake while he looked at the description of the boots. 'Boots of Comfort, keep your feet warm or cool depending on the outside temperature. No duration or durability rating which means they probably won't fall apart through normal use.'

Myst pulled up the alchemy page and looked at his options. 'Okay, I can try to reverse engineer potions or alchemy components and I can make a weak mana restoration elixir using blackberries and mushrooms.'

He pulled his potion book out of his inventory and flipped to the first potion and started reading, curious if he could pick up new recipes by reading about them or if he'd have to make them first.

"New recipe acquired: Cure for Boils." a female voice announced.

'That should make Potions easier, though I should probably look into getting a pensieve so I can properly document Snape's harassment,' he mused as he flipped to the table of contents and looked for anything that might help restore his health. He was a bit annoyed but not particularly surprised when he didn't find anything. 'Okay, the best way to restore my health is probably going to be a dungeon spell or potion, assuming I don't heal quicker when I level up or rest.'

Myst stuck the Potions book in his inventory and set the empty glass on the table then headed towards the stall he'd passed earlier that sold vegetables, figuring he'd see how far he could grind his alchemy skill before he headed back into the dungeon, on the off chance that he discovered any new recipes.

0o0o0

Myst tossed another handful of blackberries into the ingredient box on his alchemy window then tossed mushrooms in until the numbers on the display evened out. 'At least I stocked up on vials,' he mused as he dropped ten test tubes from his potions kit into the box and hit the accept button. He stared at the popup window when part of it changed. 'Please select the finished look for this type of potion?'

He glanced over the small collection of vials and bottles in various shapes before selecting a small crystal vial and hitting accept. He smiled as the part of the display where he'd selected the vials changed into an animated scene of a mad scientist mixing various potions together with a progress bar over it. 'Someone spent way too much time designing the crafting interface, at least they didn't include elevator music or a laugh track.'

He watched the progress bar as it filled over the span of half a minute, a new vial appearing in his inventory every three seconds. 'At least it's quick.' He waited for the process to finish then grabbed one of the crystal vials from his inventory. He studied the strange crystal vial filled with a dark purple liquid for a couple of seconds then twisted it back and forth a bit, noting that the liquid moved like a watery syrup and had more than a couple of light purple lumps.

"Yum," Myst muttered sarcastically as he stuck the potion back in his inventory and checked the tag. 'Potion of Lesser Mana Regeneration, regenerates 10% of your mana over ten minutes.' He glanced at his mana. 'That's 50 points over ten minutes, could be worse.'

He pulled the twisted goblin staff out of his inventory then jumped into the hole. He blinked a couple of times to try to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness, trying to make sure he could see well enough to fight. 'One guard at the end of the tunnel and flickering torchlight, same as before.'

He raised his staff and tapped the activation icon on his HUD, sending a firebolt at the goblin. He stared in disbelief as the ball of fire struck the goblin with the force of a sledgehammer, tossing him backwards and off the edge. "Ahh!" he blurted when a glowing blue arrow flew past his head, nearly hitting his ear. He frantically shot another firebolt down the hallway then stepped sideways, trying to make sure the goblin had to readjust.

'Spray and pray!' Myst thought as he started unleashing firebolts as fast as he could, trying to keep the shaman dodging or at least on the backfoot so he couldn't skewer him. He caught a glimpse of a goblin with a weird hat holding a faintly glowing bow when a firebolt crashed into the wall behind the goblin and quickly readjusted his aim.

He grinned when he hit the goblin archer and sent him crashing into the wall. He tossed a couple more bolts at the archer to make sure he was dead then redirected his attention towards the goblins flowing into the hallway, hitting the icon as fast as he could. "Die!"

"New skill acquired: Fire, bolt unlocked." a female voice announced.

Myst took a couple of ragged breaths and leaned against the wall as he tried to calm down after the last goblin dropped and he couldn't hear more goblins. He relaxed his grip on his staff so that his knuckles weren't white then glanced at his character sheet. 'Level 2… and my health didn't change. So much for healing when I level or getting more health when I level.'

He teleported across the pit and looted the goblin archer's corpse, more than a little annoyed that he didn't have a bow or quiver. 'One pirate hat and a key, no fucking glowing bow, bastards,' he complained as he headed down the hallway towards the chambers where he'd found the chest the last time. He frowned when he checked the room that 'should have' been an alchemy lab and found a bunch of empty stone coffins and a treasure chest on the platform against the wall where the other chest had been.

Myst teleported over to the chest then shoved it in his inventory and teleported back to the hallway. He listened to the sounds of screaming goblins then rushed back to the room with the large pit and teleported back to the starting hallway. 'I'm not fighting the entire dungeon.'

He quickly looted the various rusty blades, scraps of armor and bags the goblins had dropped then left the dungeon, not seeing a point in trying to kill the rest of the goblins when he only had a third of his health. He examined the tag for the chest on the off chance that it gave him useful information then pulled it out of his inventory and dropped it on the ground. He knelt down and examined the lock, trying to make sure there wasn't anything weird about the chest.

Myst pulled the silver key out of his inventory, stepped off to the side of the 'innocent' looking chest then stuck it in the keyhole and twisted, ready to toss himself out of the way or try to toss the chest back in his inventory if it proved to be trapped. He sighed in relief when nothing exploded then screamed when he opened the chest and it shocked the hell out of him, burning his fingers and causing him to stumble backwards.

"Warning, your health is low, you should get a good night's sleep or drink a health potion," the female voice announced.

"No shit," Myst muttered as he leveraged himself up to a sitting position with his good hand, wishing he'd had the shopkeeper check the chest. He glanced at his health bar. 'Could be worse, I've got thirty health left and the chest is open,' he thought as he pushed himself back up to his feet without using his burned fingers, not noticing that his fingers were no longer burned.

"This would be so much easier with a save feature," Myst muttered as he looked through his inventory for the wooden club he'd looted. He grabbed the club and dropped it on the chest so that it was touching the ground. 'It's not arcing but I'm stuck in a world with magic so I'm not sure how much that actually matters.'

He poked at the club with his foot then his finger to make sure it wasn't electrically charged. He carefully picked up the club by his thumb and index finger then pushed on the side of the chest, hoping it didn't shock the hell out of him. 'Okay, I didn't feel anything.' He carefully poked the side of the chest then put the end of the club against the lid and tilted the chest off the ground until the crystal potion bottle, scroll, two books and cloth bag tumbled out.

He tapped the chest with the club then reached down and stuffed the open chest in his inventory, figuring he could sell it to the shopkeeper or get him to run some tests on it which might let him use it. He reached down and grabbed the closest book then opened it.

"New skill acquired: Conjuration: Bound Bow." a female voice announced.

"That's almost worth getting electrocuted," Myst complained sarcastically as he stuck the book in his inventory. He picked up the second book and opened it.`

"New skill acquired: Telekinesis, push unlocked." a female voice announced.

Myst concentrated on a stone on the ground and tapped the skill icon, causing the stone to lurch. 'Silent, wandless and invisible, I'm going to have to work on that,' he mused as he picked up the scroll and read it after sticking the book in his inventory.

"New ritual acquired: Shock Trap unlocked." a female voice announced.

"Nice." He pulled his Ritual Magic skill up and looked at his new ritual. "It lets the caster permanently trap things with lightning and adjust the damage and activation methods. That sounds perfect for dealing with Luna's bullies provided I can talk her into letting me upgrade her trunk." He frowned as he tried to remember when her mother died in the series. 'Has that already happened or is it going to? I should probably check when I'm not mostly dead myself.'

He picked up the potion and stuck it in his inventory then looked at the tag. "Potion of Health, restores 10% of max health instantly and another 20% over a minute, nice."

He picked up the bag of coins and dropped it in his coin box then pulled up his alchemy window and looked at the brief description on the reverse engineering box. 'Drop things in and reverse engineer them so you can duplicate them. Might as well see if it has a failure chance before I risk the healing potion.'

He pulled the sample of strange goo out of his inventory and dropped it into the box then tapped the button and watched the animated mad scientist mix two potions while the progress bar quickly filled up. 'New cosmetic effect: Glowing unlocked,' he read the notice in the alchemy window's text field. 'I wonder if I can crank the glow up and use them for a light source,' he mused as he checked the cost of the cosmetic quality. 'One extra point of mana, in other words, it's basically free.'

'Let's see what else I can get.' He tossed the rest of the alchemy bits and pieces he'd picked up in the dungeon into the box and hit the button, causing the animated scientist to reappear along with a progress bar. 'Is staying at the Dursleys worth it?' He considered the question as he watched the progress bar slowly fill. 'Maybe? It depends on the status of the blood wards and their willingness to ignore me.'

Myst frowned as he thought about the various events Harry had to put up with over the next couple of years. 'Screw it, I'd rather have security through obscurity than put up with the Dursleys for the rest of my time at Hogwarts, I'd end up killing Marge and her dog.'

'Okay, if I can't last six years, can I last the rest of the summer so I have more protection against Quirrelmort?' He thought about the bits and pieces he could remember of Harry's last summer before Hogwarts. 'I'm not a child and I don't particularly care about random snakes so I doubt we'll have any trouble at the zoo and if I snag the Hogwarts letter before the Dursleys read it, I can slip to the alley and send an owl which should keep Hogwarts from sending a bunch of letters and freaking out the Dursleys.'

'That gives me an entire year to learn spells and work on increasing my magic skills to the point where I can defend myself. If I'm tossing the blood protection after a year, I'm going to want the scar dealt with and Riddle dust in the wind. Which means, I need to figure out how to get access to Bellatrix's vault and deal with the curses on the ring,' Myst mused as he looked over the results of his testing. 'Potion of gentle repose to keep corpses from rotting? Not sure why I'd want a potion to smell like rot but the dusty potion quality should sell the whole found in an ancient crypt look that I'm going for.'

He went back to picking blackberries, eating the occasional delicious looking berry and tossing the rest into his ingredients box so he could make a bunch of mana potions in an attempt to boost his skill before he tried to reverse engineer the potion. 'I should have enough mushrooms to make another couple of dozen potions then I can try to reverse engineer the health potion.'

0o0o0

Myst stumbled and fell to the ground when someone shoved him away from the drinking fountain, causing the glass bottle he'd been washing out to hit the grass and roll. He felt a flash of rage as he twisted around and pushed himself to his feet, annoyed at the cheap shot and himself for not expecting problems in the park. He glared at 'his' cousin and the three smaller thugs behind him, his earlier plans of ignoring the shit flying out the window now that Dudley had started shit. "Dudley, if you're planning on beating me up for my lunch money, I don't have any."

"I know but I'll do it for free," Dudley sneered.

Myst briefly considered trying to do the responsible thing and talk him out of being a spoiled shit then realized that there wasn't a point, he wasn't going to listen. 'Screw it, Riddle should be too busy trying to get the stone to harass me and I'd end up killing the Dursleys when Vernon took a swing at me because I wasn't showing enough fear.' He shifted his stance and brought his hands up, ready to block or grab the idiots when they attacked him. "I'd ask why but you're a mean spirited whale."

"What did you call me?" Dudley demanded, staring at his cousin in disbelief.

"A whale," Myst dodged to the side and slammed his fist into Dudley's temple before he could react, dropping him like a sack of concrete. He smirked at Dudley's shocked friends. "I've got a question for Piers before we start fighting, are you shagging him?"

"What!" the skinniest kid that looked a bit like a rat blurted.

Myst gestured at Dudley with his left hand. "I've seen some of the mags he keeps under his bed, there are a lot of unhappy looking skinny guys taking it up the ass. I figured you'd want to know about his issues on the off chance that you weren't into that particular scene," he explained then promptly kicked Piers in the nuts when he charged him with a look of rage on his face. He stepped back then front kicked the hunched over kid in the chin, knocking him unconscious.

"I suggest running," Myst taunted the last two kids, causing them to turn and run, figuring if he could beat Dudley with one punch they didn't stand a chance. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching then tried to shove Dudley into his inventory.

"I'm sorry, you can't store living creatures in your inventory," the female said with a hint of amusement.

"You're lucky you weigh too much to drag to the dungeon," Myst muttered as he walked over and picked up the bottle he'd been washing out so he could use it for a potion bottle. 'Screw it, you're welcome to your perfect life without magic.'

He used his teleport spell and scanned the globe filled with dungeons, looking for a place to crash for a couple of hours. 'Ottery St Catchpole? Gnome Wars and Wonderland dungeons? Yeah, that explains a lot.' He teleported to the Wonderland entrance and blinked when he found himself staring at a rune covered stone arch set into a stone tower that looked like a giant chess piece.

Luna looked up from pouring Ginny a cup of tea. "You're not the rabbit, are you here for tea?"

Myst pulled the pirate hat out of his inventory that he'd picked up from the goblin and put it on so that it would cover his scar then spun around and smiled at the two young witches sitting at a wooden table drinking tea, a touch surprised that Luna actually looked presentable and almost normal if you ignored the bright yellow of her dress. "It would be impolite to pass up the chance to have tea with two princesses of the mystic arts."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a name?"

"Many but you can call me Myst, Pirate Lord of the Seven Seas," Myst replied cheerfully as he took a bow, keeping one hand on his hat so that it wouldn't fall off.

"Pirate lord of the seven seas?" Ginny asked suspiciously.

"Of course," Myst replied with a grin.

"If you're a pirate lord, where's your boat?" Ginny asked as Luna picked up the tea kettle off the table and started filling the empty tea cup sitting in front of the spot next to her.

Myst sighed dramatically. "Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies but if you must know, it was eaten by a fearsome beast."

Ginny shook her head. "How did you get here?"

"Magic, have a seat." Luna smiled as she gestured towards the cup of tea she'd just finished filling.

"Don't mind if I do and exactly," Myst replied as he walked over and sat down next to Luna and across from Ginny, giving the redhead a smile.

Myst took a sip of the tea, half expecting it to taste interesting or horrible considering Luna's family was a bit on the interesting side of things but it actually tasted remarkably normal as such things went. "Delicious. Mint with a hint of lemon?"

Luna glanced at Ginny. "Ginny doesn't like it when I get creative."

"Gnome hair makes horrible tea," Ginny stated firmly.

"If you don't check, how are you supposed to know if you like it?" Luna asked, not seeing a point in admitting that the gnome hair had been entirely accidental.

"So, have you been on any interesting adventures?" Ginny asked.

"I'm working on it," Myst admitted. "What about you?"

"Now and then, Daddy likes traveling to find strange and unusual creatures," Luna said cheerfully.

"Anything interesting?" Myst asked, then got to work on drinking his tea, finding it surprisingly good and Luna's various stories about her trips interesting.