Welcome home.

How very curious...

The mark she'd put on the boy to track him momentarily vanished. He wasn't in a barrier, or beyond, her magic could follow that. No, for roughly thirty seconds John Newman simply didn't exist.

She stared at the map of Springfield that laid out on her desk and waited... There.

Mrs. Wentworth watched as the tracer popped back into existence several miles off campus and smiled.

Like a rubber band, John snapped back into existence a foot and a half above his bed, landing on it as the teleport spell's energy unleashed in a whirlwind that knocked the books off his shelves. The landing knocked the air out of his lungs and John gasped for breath until he could swear loudly. He had just teleported over thirty miles in as many seconds. Even among his outlandish experiences, there was something overwhelming awesome about that fact, and John pumped one fist in the air.

"Yes! Ow!" He'd accidentally punched the headboard of his bed.

Despite the loud noise his entrance had made, there was no cry of concern from anywhere else in the house, and John breathed an internal sigh of relief. His mom wasn't home. Explaining why he was home so early would be... difficult.

John looked up from his bed to take in the mess. One bookshelf was nearly empty, with every volume of manga it had once contained piled haphazardly below it. His closet had been blown open, and most of his clothes hung precariously from their hangers or had been visibly ruffled. Fortunately his gaming PC, and most of his desk had been spared the blow, but the trading card piles that he'd meant to sort had been scattered over his floor. Yesterday, something like this would have required a quiet moment and an hour of frustrated gaming, but now John had more important things than some expensive cardboard or Japanese comics.

I really have to figure out how to make that landing smoother. Maybe...

After disentangling himself from the mess of his sheets and mentally noting to start making his bed, John closed his eyes and activated Astral Observe. Unlike the school, his room lacked any leylines, but it wasn't empty of magic. Three objects shone with color: a pinpoint of light that hovered in the exact center of his room above his bed, an old iron-bound chest that sat at the foot of his bed and a journal resting on the clean area of his desk.

John examined the first. Based on the ball of light's location, and the fact it wasn't actually attached to anything in the room, he guessed that it had to be the hearth point. He tried touching it, and a window popped up.

Hearth Point: Home
~ Move
~ Delete
~ Mute Animations

Clicking on the first button caused six arrows to sprout out of the object, exactly like some of the level building tools that John was familiar with. Pulling on the downward pointing one, he dragged the hearth point towards the surface of the bed. As he was about to leave it there, another window popped up.

Combine Hearth Point with Bed?
Yes / No

Well I guess that is what I'm trying to do. I really hope this doesn't teleport me inside the bed.

Clicking yes, John watched as the orb merged into the bed, colors spreading across its surface and fading to a duller hue. The menu re-positioned itself above the tangled sheets and the Move option became greyed out. Curious, John tried to click on it.

Insufficient Strength!

Fusing the hearth point with the bed had made it impossible to move. It made sense, John couldn't lift his bed more than an inch by himself let alone pick it up and put it somewhere else. He looked back at the menu to inspect his other options: Delete and Mute. The former seemed like a bad idea. Aside from the fact he had no idea how to create more hearth points, it might also remove his bed, and John didn't want to explain to his mom how he'd managed that. Which only left Mute. Pressing the button conjured yet another window.

Disables animations, audio and particle effects for hearthing to this location.
Yes / No

It was everything John could hope for, if his interpretation was correct. He couldn't afford to clean up a miniature hurricane every time he teleported home, and the display of magic would be hard to explain to his mom or anyone else that happened to see it. That said, he'd still need to work out an excuse for his mom if he used Hearth while she was home. Maybe he could say he climbed in through the window...

Warning: Mana Low! Disabling active sustained spells.

The prompt wasn't entirely surprising. Between casting Hearth and the last few minutes of tweaking with the hearth point, he'd managed to deplete his entire mana pool. John's Observe blinked out, returning him fully to the normal world and he opened his eyes. The prompts for his hearth point had vanished with the enhanced vision and he had to set aside changing it any more for the time being. There were still other magical items to inspect.

The chest at the foot of his bed was next on John's list. At one point in time, it'd belonged to his grandfather, and John had always used it to store his extra cards. Examining it didn't produce any popups, but when he opened it a much larger version of his inventory screen appeared. In the very first slot was a picture of one of his trading cards, with a number after it. Sorcery Card (Mundane) x 20000. Aside from that, row after row of empty spaces stared back at him, and he noted the total capacity listed at the top of the screen. 1/1,000 slots full. Compared to his limited inventory, the chest offered virtually limitless storage and that was without clicking on the large Upgrade button that stuck out in the lower right. There was even a search bar.

John moved the loot from his earlier encounters into the chest, taking up 12/1,000 storage spaces. He couldn't exactly use them at the moment, until he figured out how to use Forge or sell items. Maybe there were vendors somewhere? The Lovecraft book remained in his inventory, along with the rest of his school supplies.

Instead he deposited both on his desk, piling them to one side and picking up the journal he'd noticed earlier. The surface of the book shimmered with silver letters that read, 'Basics of The Game'. He grinned, this was exactly what he needed, a tutorial or guidebook. With this he might be able to avoid another Barrier or at least not have to guess at how all his abilities worked. Even better, a prompt floated in front of him.

Learn Contents?
Yes / No

Could there be any question? John reached towards the 'yes' button...

Error: Access Violation - user.?
Paradigm Break Fault!
Interference Quarantine Failure - Stack Overflow/Underflow/Inversion Error
Administrator Access - Locked Out
Access Violation - Access Violation - Access Violation - AccessViolationAccessViolationAccessViolationaccessviolationaccessviolation-

Rebooting Reality, Please Wait...

Cosmic Integrity Verified
Administrator Access - Restored
Restoring Previous Game State - 37% Restored

Error: Item Not Found (obj.IntroGuide)
Replacing With Local Item...
Object Replacement Complete - 81% Restored

Restoration Complete - Saving Backup
Error: Systemic Corruption Detected
Save Data Cannot Be Created - Insufficient Capacity

Reinitializing in 10... 9... 8...

John blinked. What was he doing? The prompt remained sitting an inch from his finger, 'yes' still waiting for his confirmation. Right. He pressed it and looked at The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft that he was holding in his other hand.

Wait... was that...

Past the Mountains of Madness lies Kadath, land of sleeping gods where **** and madness dream.

Skill Tome Learned - Dimensional Anomalies
Wisdom too low to access conceptual knowledge.
(Limit Reached [2] - Wisdom: 15)

New Aspect: Insight ~ 1
The stars whisper, do not listen closely.
(Enhancement - Wisdom)

Spell Learned: Call to Void ~ 1
The blind idiot god dreams many dreams, let them in.
Cost: ??? mana
(Domain - ??????)

New Skill: Shroud of Stars
Hides your nature in the Abyss from those higher level than you.
(Passive)

Spell Learned: Starfall ~ 1
Deal 15 ~ (100% Wisdom) damage to enemies within 5 ~ (16% Intellect) meters.
Cost: 39 Mana
(Domain - Astrology)

John stared in a mixture of confusion and growing terror at the list of skills and spells that he knew had been permanently added to his spell list, but it was the hovering achievement that worried him the most.

Achievement Unlocked! - "Watcher in the Wings"
Hey kiddo, see you soon.
+1 Wisdom