SWNOVELXO Chapter 1: Prologue
Prologue
"Gah!?" I quickly opened my eyes and looked around.
My vision was quite blurry. I was able to understand that I was in a building though. And I could smell very familiar smell of oil, metal and rubber.
Blinking couple more times I was able to get hold of myself. I was in a very familiar garage.
"Is this dad's garage?" I said with wide eyes as I saw the familiar racks of tools, boxes of screws of all shapes and sizes.
More importantly, most of the garage was taken by a car. The totalled BMW M3 my father got for me for pennies when he was drunk.
Yeah… when you want something from your parents always try to get it when they are drunk.
My father was drinking with my uncle back in the countryside, over there I saw brand new but very much totalled BMW M3. The car was going for parts and then into a junkyard. But, by that point, I was in the phase where I was head over heel for anything mechanical.
And so my dad bought this for pennies.
The point for me reminiscing this is that… I already should have fixed this car and it should be fully tuned up and in my LA mansion!
So… why the fuck my hands are this small?
"Oh shit… my voice… why I am sounding like a kid?"
For a moment panic settled in as I rushed toward the car's doors and checked in the mirror and saw myself there.
"Oh god! I am back in my boy self? Wait! this doesn't make any sense!" My brain that moment tried to come up with variables to this situation! I don't remember working with time travelling related stuff!
The last thing I remember was working on an energy source for my house. I means I got tired of paying large electrical bills.
And decided to build a reactor from some experimental data.
"Right… that white burst of energy… I should have done that in a research lab instead of my garage." I said that while trying to remember more.
It turns out I miscalculated how much energy it will produce. I suppose my house couldn't handle it and it went boom.
"But, this doesn't make sense. The energy should have at least turned me into dust. There was no quantum physics in it. Unless the large amount of energy started affecting it.
"Right...and did I see a white-dressed person...strange… Still, through… if I am in my young self again like this… I could… do alot of stuff… lots of stuff before anyone else!" Thinking about all the discoveries through my life…
I nearly started salivating at the chance of profiting on that and having some fun in tinkering along the way!
"Marcus! You up? What did I tell you about sleeping in the garage!?"
'Oh shit, and the bad stuff of being a kid!'
"Sorry, mom! I got carried away!" I quickly got my puppy eye technique. I should use it until it works!!!
*Sigh*
"I know you are gifted when it comes to machines son, but you can't spend the night in the garage! What if you going to catch a cold?" My mother walked over to me. There was that scrutinising gaze of hers which I have seen for over 20 years…
"Sorry…"
"Just go and take a shower. You smell of oil!" She motioned for me to get into the house and fix myself up.
Sheesh...
As if she never saw a guy working his craft! If only I had my…
Right… all my stuff!!! It's gone!!!
"Marcus, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" My mother asked with a concerned tone, as she saw me.
'Take a deep breath, it's only Tesla, Microsoft, Lexus, all the Italian supercars companies...nothing much! I can always buy them back!'
"Nothing… I think some dust got into my eyes. *Sniff*" I quickly said as I rushed into the house. And quickly upstairs to get as cold as possible shower. I need a reality check A.S.A.P can't cry like a baby each time remembering what I lost…
~~~
And so, my trip to the past has begun. Me Marcus Goldman. The guy who spend his life tinkering from the basement and getting rich from that.
As weird as it sounds working from house is quite lucrative stuff. It started when my dad first time took me to his garage and fell in love with that.
From then out and spend more time in the garage than he ever did I pretty much took it over from him.
Working from wood to metal, then going higher and higher to the point… well… one can guess what level it is where you build a self-sustaining energy reactor in ones basement garage.
Exploding or not...
Still though. I found it weird… how easily I could pick up things, one called me one in lifetime genius and whatever there other things there are. But, I found it weird. I mean things just come together. Maybe it's what genius is?
Anyway… after waking up in my younger self's body, I found…that things are ever easier than it was before…
After getting an extremely cold shower to which I turned nearly pale blue, thankfully it was the summer holidays… and the weather was hot.
I returned to my garage and saw my first car there. My desire to forget drove me to start fixing it with things I had in the garage.
That moment I realised that I knew the vehicle from inside to out… it reached the point that I could… improve on the already existing design of this German car.
It was that at that moment I realised that I might not be in my past self but maybe I have possessed or fused more like another version of Marcus Goldman.
The way I was thinking like that was because certain… things were different… for example, some companies which I used to work with and used to own a portion of stocks don't exist… and most importantly, the dates don't make sense… I remember getting my car in 2004 but this time I have it in 2003.
It's either I missing something or that blast has sent me to alternate reality, like in those light novels I used to read in my free time.
Nonetheless, this didn't mean anything in the big scale of things. After double-checking the technology level…
Well…
I cried again…
And then I decided to work on the most essential things the smartphones, touch screens, the fibre optics… the list is quite long.
I mean I started crying when I saw the fat tv which can barely show 480p...
While I had never worked on them before, as it was basics among basics. By the time I moved on technology from machinery everyone had smartphones and fast internet. I didn't need to improve any of it since It was already there. Instead, I used my time on app creation…
That's why I need to change my thought process as by this point it's like knowing how to build the building but, not knowing how to build the foundations of the building.
In other words back to basics… but… then it happened… the event which changed my perception of the world…
~~~
"This is totally... not strange, when a posh white book with golden letters appears on my table first thing in the morning," I said with a deadpan look as I saw a book just appear on my table.
By this point, I am no longer surprised that supernatural of some sort exist… my crafting and creation skills by this point can be considered supernatural and my existence in a body of my former self in alternative reality is another clue of sort that it can exist.
Nonetheless, the book appearance was like icing on a cake.
Slowly I walked over, not touching it instead inspecting from distance.
After getting a good angle I was able to read the cover.
"The…magic arts of Solomon the Great." I read it out loud as my eyebrow went slightly up.
"Ok...this is out of contest but why Solomon? I mean I would take Tony Starks journal or something… or Reed Richards… but this… well... magical sounding?" I thought for a second before deciding to satisfy my curiosity and check it out.
Slowly… one of my hands touched it…
That moment searing pain washed my whole body, starting from my hand, then like a tidal wave spreading through the whole body.
*Sharp gasp*
"Fuckkkk!" I felt like my nerves got fried that moment, nearly dropping on my ass right there.
But, like this pain has appeared it has disappeared like it never was there before in the first place.
As weird it sounded now I can tell where this book is all the time. Not only that…
Just by thinking…
*Flash*
With a golden white flash, the book has appeared in my hand.
"Right… totally magical it is then…" I said that like it was...totally... normal in my life.
Since it has proved to me that it's truly magical I opened the first pages.
"This book is written by the Great Solomon who ruled the greatest Kingdom mankind has ever seen and was known as King of Magic and the man who was able to mess with Lucifer himself and walk away victorious by taking away 72 devils for himself!
Since you reading this that means my greatest secrets are yours now!" Once I finished reading the intro I realised that yeah… this was The Solomon the dude with 72 demons… devils, the very same one who had a massive harem and ruled Israel.
'But, seriously? Lucifer is real? This shit is serious, and I need to fortify my garage and get some magic stuff done.'
"Right… but first… this dude is quite arrogant… I mean I was the one who sold the license to shackled A. I, but even then I was not that arrogant…" I thought with an eye roll, before continuing reading.
"Before anything, a mage needs to build up his magic reserves, casting human-based magic normally requires magical calculation but to bypass that is quite simple. At my peak, I had 10 rings which allowed me to cast spells as easily as any Devil or Angel…"
'Right so…Angels are real too… let's assume the most of myths are real too… less surprises that way…'
"Magic is like a muscle to access it several meditations are for that… let me mention some so that you wouldn't need to check other books since my one is the best anyway."
'Right…'
With another eye roll, I skipped to the part where the meditations are described.
'So, chunni stuff does… work, in this reality that is… so, how on earth no one developed chunni magic powers?' I thought for a second.
Anyway, I checked most of them and decided on the easiest one. The one where you have to stare at the candle sounds far too weird.
So mental image, breathing…
'I suppose I could do this when I am resting… until then reading this is then…'
'Once you have basics done, you should know that humans are the most fragile of species, so you either get some magic armour crafted or get your hands on one of those.'
'But, if you want, you can follow my footsteps which is much better! and that is learning how to channel your magic to reinforce your body! If you can do this successfully then you can achieve a body even stronger than devils or angels!'
'Right so both it is then, I suppose magic enchanted items exist? Since he mentioned those…' I hummed internally remembering some of the metallurgy I did earlier in the past. I mean did I craft some of the car parts myself.
I suppose I could invest some time in weaponsmithing… magical weaponsmithing…
'Once you have basics done let me tell you about the best part of my magics! And that is summoning and binding devils permanently to yourself! Devils are quite special beings who look like humans but very much are beings of sin, they have bat-like wings that they can summon or retract! And their magic are based on imagination! But the best part is that they have unique magic depending on the pillar they are from!'
'These devils do sound similar to that silly anime I used to watch back when I was a teen… what was it again? Something school? All I remember are those nice armours through…'
As I thought about it. I checked the next page and saw a bunch of summoning circles and just damn… I will be truly able to bind them just like that! Regardless of their power to mine!
"The power of Ars Goetia… designed by Solomon and the Big G…nice…"
"So Gods are real too...nice…" I thought with some sweat running down my back...