Alexander moved hastily to his blanket closet to grab his backup aquarium. He used it to hold his fish when deep cleaning his main tank. Also, one never knew when a tank might spring a leak. Fifty-five gallons was a lot of water and could damage the property if not cleaned quickly. Looking at the aquarium—and remembering the warping heat the lizard was able to emit—made him realize that this would likely not hold the pagona. There might be a solution to that, however.

  As much as Alexander did not want to admit it, he felt a slight tinge of excitement as he opened up his status menu and looked at his Job Skills list. As he selected Arcana, he looked at the top of the page and saw the available skill points. He subconsciously let out a gleeful chuckle. He had noted that Arcana gave 2 points per level as it was an intermediate skill. Maybe on Level Five it would give him an extra 6 points instead of 3 like cooking had. He had already planned a use for those next 6 skill points. He scrolled past some of the options to the skill branch he had in mind.

  ^

  Path of the Enchanter:

  Enchant Item

  Using the arcane knowledge of your available spells you are able to make modifications to various items.

  Under the branch was a skill, spell, whatever, specifically for enchanting. Just like glyphs. Also like the cooking skill there were percentages for increased effects.

  ^

  +5% increased success to all arcane creations

  +5% increased effect to arcane creations.

  He placed one point into the enchant item skill, three into the increased success rate for the compounded percentages. Success he thought was a bit more pressing right now. As for increased spell effect, he had already been awarded an increased 10% from discovering the shape of magic. All of the arcane creation benefits compounded together to make a 40.07% increased success rate. Not too shabby to have before his first attempt. Alexander pulled the aquarium over to his desk and began to experiment. As he selected the subject of the enchantment he regrettably had to select individual panes of glass that made up the aquarium. The glass panels glowed a soft blue as he looked over them. Once he selected the panel he then had a list of available spells to enchant it with.

  It seemed he would also be able to use enchant in concert with glyph so that when a panel was damaged or touched an effect would trigger. Unfortunately this would increase the complexity and lower the chances for success. So he bypassed that for now in favor of the general reinforcement of the base material. With his advanced shield spell selected he confirmed the enchantment and a new type of window popped up.

  ^

  You are attempting to enchant an item.

  Base: Glass Panel

  Spell: Advanced Shield

  Effect: ???

  Would you like to continue?

  The question marks put some nervous butterflies in Alexander's stomach. This seemed very elementary to him. A shield and a glass panel should make a stronger glass panel, should it not? He was tampering with the unknown here, something trained out of him in childhood. He would just have to mentally categorize this as research. He ran to his toolbox and grabbed some safety glasses that fit over his prescription glasses and some leather gloves. If this worked maybe he should reinforce his glasses.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Alexander resumed his work feeling slightly more prepared and hit the confirm button. The screen disappeared and one of the glass sides of the aquarium began to glow with a light golden light. As he watched it slowly increased in intensity. Alexander also felt that warm feeling in his chest being pulled out towards the glass.

  “Status.”

  Alexander watched as his magic points were steadily decreasing. They stopped as a window popped up.

  ^

  Glass panel has successfully been enchanted.

  You have created Glass+

  An opaque glass panel that has been reinforced to have greater strength

  and increased resistance to magic.

  Success! He was able to reinforce the glass with… magic. Alexander realized he was giggling again. He stopped himself then covered his face with his hands and groaned as he realized that he was coming to accept this nonsense as a part of his life. It was basically his primary hobby now. The sound of scratching in his kitchen sink snapped him out of his musings.

  Alexander cracked his neck and looked at his stats. He seemed to have more than adequate magic points to continue the process. So he proceeded to enchant each panel over the next ten minutes. The simplicity of the enchantment seemed to allow him to get through it with only one failure. Fortunately, the glass did not shatter or disappear. Finally he stood up and admired the next screen that popped up.

  ^

  You have created the unique item Aquarium+

  An aquarium that has been reinforced with magic that is capable of containing small magical wildlife.

  Rarity: Rare

  “Rarity rare? A bit cliche for a categorization I think.”

  As Alexander stood from his experiments his legs gave out for a second. It felt as if he was coming out of a trance, something that often happens when he concentrated on his work for to long. He reached up to wipe his head and realized that he was sweating and exhausted. Also he could feel a migraine coming on. On the other hand, he was quite satisfied with what he had just managed to accomplish. As a curiosity he looked at his leftover magic points. A red sliver was symbolized in a bar showing less than 10% of his original capacity.

  Looking up at the clock he realized just how much of the day he had spent on wizarding activities, due to necessity of course.

  “As punishment, no Wizarding tomorrow.” He chastised himself.

  He lifted the aquarium and carried it—as well as some extra sand substrate—to his room and set it on his desk. He poured a shallow layer of the sand in the aquarium, which was now effectively a terrarium. He opened up his status and withdrew the rest of his silver and placed it in a pile in the corner. A small dragon would likely protect his holdings far better than a sock drawer. It was effectively hidden in plain sight now as well. He supposed he could cross off his trip to the bank safety deposit box for now.

  Moving to the sink Alexander lifted the cookie sheet to check on the pagona. He had not really moved from where he was told to stay. A good sign Alexander supposed. He decided to test the beasts intelligence, “I am going to move the pile of gold and silver into a new home. Would you like me to carry you or do you want to follow me?”

  It puffed a tiny wisp of smoke from its nose. Not sure what to make of that Alexander collected the scattered coins from under his burned wet socks and underwear. While he moved them to his room he looked back to see the lizard jump out of the sink and launch himself down to the floor. He landed rather gracefully for a pudgy lizard. Then he scurried up next to Alexander. He was able to climb on the desk as Alexander dropped the gold and silver onto the existing pile. The ting of the metal made the pagona wiggle back and forth with excitement. It seemed he was not able to jump or climb the glass sides of the magic terrarium to get in however. That was fortunate.

  So Alexander picked him up and set him on his treasure horde. The little dragon adjusted and consolidated his pile for a minute or two before making a circle and curling around his treasure. It looked more like the motions of a cat than a lizard.

  This was going to be a bit of a quandary. It seemed he had effectively stolen his neighbor's pet. Even if he tried to give it back he did not think she would believe it was hers. Finally, Alexander went to his bathroom and pulled out a heating pad from a cabinet. He lifted the terrarium and set the pad under the corner with the treasure pile and setting the temperature to a low setting. He would need to make an unscheduled visit to the pet store, as well as purchase some new undergarments… and he still had to clean his bathroom.

  “I guess you are my responsibility now.” He told the… new species of lizard. “Do I get to name your species?”

  Alexander decided to snap an image and load it to some reddit forums to see what some of the species experts had to say. As he reached into his pocket for his phone, his hand grabbed something he didn’t recognize by touch. Pulling it out of his pocket he recognized the fancy chess piece he had found in the shadowy library. Alexander realized he was never able to apologize to that scary person for breaking it. As he recalled how he was almost kidnapped for unknown reasons by the demonic-looking gentleman, he didn’t feel too bad about it.

  Yawning he stretched after what was the most hectic day in his memory. Had he really started the day at the petstore? That seemed so long ago already. He got ready for some much needed sleep. He turned the lights off in his room and Alexander observed that the chess piece had continued to emit a soft glow.

  “I guess you can be a night light for now.” He said, as he set it down on his desk next to the terrarium. He stared at the glowing toy for a second.

  “…add a Geiger Counter to my shopping list.” Alexander muttered into his phone.