7 Chapter 7 Dreams (2/2)

”I can have Stu try to teach you magic, but without magery to help you along, it's going to be impossible to learn. Though I suppose a miracle isn't unheard of. Perhaps you could unlock some lost talent or something in our bloodline,” his father mused in amus.e.m.e.nt.

”Can you do magic?”

William laughed and shook his head.

”There's a lot of things I can do, but casting spells is not one of them.”

Joseph nodded in understanding. It was frustrating to talk to him about things when they had to keep the system a secret. Though he doubted any one was listening to them, he didn't know if there wasn't magic being used to listen in.

With a sigh he turned back to the window for the rest of the trip that day.

x.x.xx.x.x

Joseph woke with a jerk and looked around. With a sigh, he sat up. This had been happening every morning since the system was activated and he got all his memories unlocked. He dreamt of his past lives mostly. It was like his brain wasn't big enough to fit all of the information in at once. His own life was viewed with crystal clarity after receiving photographic memory, but the previous lives still came in bits and fragments. Mostly, they were in dreams, but sometimes during the day something would trigger one.

He had been dreaming about going to school in life 1 and being on the Kvetz team. The closest thing life 2 had to it was a game he didn't like at all called chess. Nothing he had seen in this current life was much like either. After the dream, he felt a lingering fondness for Kvetz and a general dislike of chess.

His dad had explained a bit about his past life, as being more of a general impression, rather than as actual memories.

The first time he woke up like this, he had thought he was possessed. He finally decided that maybe he felt the past life stronger than his dad did, because he was younger or because he had two past lives instead of just one. After a whole week, it was getting harder and harder to act his age.

With a sigh, he climbed out of bed. The system may be forcing information into his head, but it was his decision to be the mage king. As a future king he had to make use of everything he could. Most of last night's dreams, aside from the games, had included techniques on cooking, construction equipment, and bits of chemistry.

He pulled out a journal where he was placing some of his ideas and began to sketch. He was almost certain life 2 was of a dentist who never got married. He had worked a lot of odd jobs through college and cooked alone a lot. There were no pleasant childhood memories and none of his memories had clear images of other people. He thought he had been an orphan or some term called foster. He wasn't sure what that meant, but it seemed lonely.

Excitedly, he started drawing the construction equipment and added notes. There had been a large harvest in his dream. He didn't know how to make the engines he drew, or the gasoline that powered it but he did know the basic physics for a steam generator he had learned about and showed at a fair in high school. The memory was still sketchy but he was able to draw the picture. He figured golems made more sense and seemed far simpler. The reason he hadn't used them in the memory was probably because of the lack of magic in the other world.

The last thing he added was a recipe for gunpowder and soap that wasn't hard on your hands. Apparently in life 2, he had washed his hands so many times, that he had developed reactions to normal soap, so he had developed a better one. Just like the recipe for pizza that he had written down earlier, he had no idea how to get the basic ingredients. Some were incredibly expensive and others, like ammonia producing salt peter, were foreign to him. Though he did know that pota.s.sium chloride was used to chemically strengthen gla.s.s and used in toothpaste for sensitive teeth.

As he wrote that last bit down, his mind wandered. Toothpaste and brushes would probably help his dad's slaves. n.o.body likes to buy expensive slaves that are missing teeth. He would have to mention it to him.

Stepping out of his small tent, he waved at his dad to let him know he was ready to get going. They should arrive at town 4 today and he would finally get to meet Stu, his future magic instructor.

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