A Web Of Magic

Magnus was confused. He rubbed his eyes for a moment to make sure he wasn't seeing things. When he looked again, it was still displayed in the left corner of his vision. 'So, it's real then? Is this some kind of a spell someone cast on me? But this is a muggle area. There are no wizards around and even if there are, what's the point of doing this? Impact points? What's that?' he thought confused. Whatever it was, he decided to move to his Devon residence before checking it out. It wouldn't do to cast spells here.

Once he was back in Devon, he again looked at the display in his vision. 'Ok, now what?' he concentrated on the words Impact Points. That seemed to be the correct thing to do as they disappeared replaced by a new display:

[Magnus Webb

Title: Seer Descendant]

It was followed by rows of question marks. 'How does it know my name and that I'm a seer descendant? No one alive is supposed to know that! Is someone spying on me?' he panicked. He quickly checked outside and the inside of his house to check for any wizards playing tricks on him. There were none. He didn't give up but used a diagnostic charm on himself he learned for the purpose of healing. The charm returned that he was healthy and everything was normal. But the next moment, the display changed.

[Magnus Webb

Title: Seer Descendant

Body: 2

Mind: 4

Magic: 5

Impact Points: 5]

'What's this now? It expanded? Did the charm cause that?' Magnus went into contemplation at the suspiciously game-like interface. He's no stranger to games of course and had seen similar interfaces in video games. But they are far removed from magic! How did something like that happen to him? 'There should be a reason for this. Hmm, maybe I should try checking with divination,' he came to a conclusion.

Most people might think that divination is only useful for discerning the future. But being a true seer family, the Webbs know that it can do much more. Divination is all about collecting information of the past, present and the future through various means. Divining the future accurately is the hardest of them all and requires one to be a True Seer possessing the Inner Eye. While Magnus doesn't possess any of that, he's still a seer descendant and can make use of other forms of divination to a good extent.

He sat at his aunt's desk and pulled out various items from its cabinets. Soon the table was had a chalk, a bottle of silver powder and various other drawing implements. Magnus wasn't yet skilled enough to draw free-hand so he needs the help of these implements. He picked up the magically made chalk and started drawing a simple divination circle on the desk's surface. Soon, a circle enclosing a five-pointed star with symbols denoting the sun and the moon decorated the desk. He wrote the words 'Yes' and 'No' on either side of the star. Divination is heavily intent based, so the language and the incantations used aren't very important. He uncorked the bottle with silver powder and closed his eyes as he went into a meditative trance.

'Is it harmful?' he chanted seven times in his head while thinking about the game-interface. He poured the silver powder on the circle with his eyes still closed. When the whole bottle was emptied, he opened his eyes and looked at the results. All of the silver powder was in a small mound on the option 'No'. He repeated the process another three times to make sure of its authenticity. Divination is imprecise after all. It's an art and not a science. Seeing that all three of the divinations gave the same result, he put his mind to rest for now. He would have to observe more in the future to make any further conclusions. Just as he was clearing the table, the interface appeared once again, this time with another change.

[Magnus Webb

Title: Seer Descendant

Body: 2

Mind: 4

Magic: 5

Impact Points: 5

School: Divination Lv1]

'So, it changed again. Did it detect that I was using divination? Is that level my proficiency? Interesting,' Magnus's curiosity was piqued. He tested his hypothesis by casting some of the spells that he knew. And just as he expected, there were new changes to the interface in the school; section.

[School: Divination Lv1, Healing Lv1, Charms Lv1, Transfiguration Lv1, Defense Against the Dark Arts Lv1]

'Will it detect only when I cast the spell? What if I do it this way?' he had another idea. Instead of casting other spells, this time he thought of all the subjects he had learned till now. He already read the curriculum books for the first year and practiced wherever he could. Can the interface detect his knowledge directly from his mind? He wanted to test it out. After a few minutes, there were changes once again.

[School: Divination Lv1 (80%), Healing Lv1 (80%), Charms Lv1 (90%), Transfiguration Lv1 (90%), DADA Lv1 (60%), Potions Lv1 (90%), Herbology Lv1 (70%), Astronomy Lv1 (50%), Magical Theory Lv1 (70%), Mind Arts Lv1 (20%)

Skills: Wand Magic Lv1 (70%), Wandless Magic Lv1 (10%)]

'So Lv1 corresponds to first year level of knowledge? And the percentage next to the school is the proficiency to the next level? Where is History of Magic? Is it not considered a school of magic? Then why is Magical theory in there? Mind arts? When did I learn that? Hmm, still very nice,' Magnus was excited at the possibilities. His drive to improve was given a boost as he could track his progress in a tangible way. That was the feature that attracted him to video games in the first place. The Skills panel also had the different spells he knew apart from the wand and wandless magic sections.

Once his excitement levels went back to normal, he went into thinking mode once again. 'Hmm, all that's left now is to understand what those attributes mean and what the points are for?' He tried to add the points to the attributes like you would in a game, but nothing happened. 'So, they are not stat points.' He then tried to add the points to the schools and skills. While it didn't work for the skills, he did feel something with the school. It felt like he could add to the schools, but the points weren't sufficient. 'How do I gain more points and what happens if a school levels up?' he wondered.

He then remembered about the glow he saw around some of the objects occasionally. He decided to see if it would detect that. He picked an ingredient from his stash and concentrated on it and soon he picked up the glow around it. He shifted his attention away from the ingredient and concentrated on the interface. It appeared once again in his vision and this time with another section.

[Traits: Insight]

'Ok. So, it picked up something, but I still don't know what this Insight does. Can divination at higher levels help me find what all of these do? I can only experiment in the meantime then.' He tried different methods and experimented with his new "ability". When he understood that there was nothing more he could learn for now, he stopped and went back to what he originally set out to do- Wandless magic training.