Magic Student's Sentient Mistake

<I hadn't noticed that it was so close to Halloween and I am glad that the vote swung away from attempted murder since I struggled to figure out how to make a death match between goop that can fit in a shoe box who can at most dribble water and a practitioner of mystic arts with a tendency to get stoned anything more than a farce.>

Winning vote:
[X] The tall one is teaching me. I have learnt so much and I get treats when I am good. I like this.
[X] Now that Jack has some tricks to show off it is time to take it to the professor. Extra credit here we come.

Virginia Smith was the senior emeritus professor in magibiology and was sitting at her desk bemoaning the existence of paperwork when there was a knock at her door.

"Come". Her tone was strict but she was relieved to have a break from the monotony.

The door opened and a shaggy head poked through it. "Do you have a moment Prof? I have need of your wisdom." Dougie asked.

Virginia was not expecting Dougie. She had only taught him once but his answers in class were quirky enough that she remembered him. She had also typecast him as one of the druggie clique. She was personally against the option to allow students such free reign with pharmacology since most of them lost control and washed out. Her objections were overruled since the minority who managed to balance the conflicting needs of life even while stoned or worse had a tendency to blossom into greatness. That said she wasn't sure into which group Dougie was going to end up in.

"Of course. Come in. Sit down. What can I help you with?" She asked with a smile and a hand wave as she put down her pen and turned over the papers that she had been working on.

Dougie sat and she noticed that he was carrying a box. He pulled the lid off and offered it to her. "Well you see, I have gone and done something unexpected. While I was blackout drunk after a breakup, don't ask, I managed to create life. This is Jack". He said sheepishly.

She examined the contents of the box. "Well done. Creation of magical life forms is usually post-grad level work. But what does this have to do with me?"

He shrugged "As you said, this is work far in advance of what I would be called to perform. Any chance of extra credit?"

Virginia casually cast a spell that layered her flesh in mana made solid yet malleable and reached in to pat the slime. It's texture was not right for a standard acid slime. Intrigued she pulled it out of the box and into the light.

"What have to done to this poor slime? It looks terrible!" she exclaimed.

"I just taught it a few tricks. I was rather impressed at how quickly it was able to learn, and I thought that this might mean that it was a special variant, you know, a smarter one." he responded.

"That well might be but even so Jack here is severely undersized for all of the additions that you have forced on it. A slime needs to be mostly slime, I thought that that would have been obvious. This much deviation from standard must be causing a lot of stress on the poor dear. We need to fix this at once. Come with me." she said as she put Jack back in the box.

The left the office and went down to her personal experimental area. With an ease of countless hours of experience she poured the slime into an enchanted glass cauldron before mixing up an appropriate meal for the creature.

Various powders with all of the trace minerals that the slime would need along with sugars, fats and proteins that would allow it to grow big and strong were mixed with mana infused waters into a slurry of the exact consistency so that the slime would hardly have to digest it at all. She kept up a running commentary of her actions for Dougie's sake since she would certainly not be taking responsibility for Jack, she had enough things on her plate already. With his help they poured the over sized mixture down onto the tiny slime who was immediately in food heaven.

With that task completed she turned back to Dougie. "To recap: you made a slime while on a bender; don't remember how; mistreated it for the months required to have it grow all of those additions and now you want a pat on the head?" she asked scathingly.

Dougie grinned "That sounds almost right. One thing that you might have missed in your initial examination is that Jack here managed to grow itself a mana core on its very first day of existence. Today, in fact, is day two. I didn't want to bother you until I knew more about what I had on my hands." as he talked he handed over the recordings that he had made in the imaging chamber of Jack showing the mana core. He also handed over another pair of images showing the before and after shots from the training session.

Virginia examined the sheets closely. "You didn't do anything intentional to provoke a mana core?"

Dougie winced. "This is my first slime, okay. There is a learning curve. I fed it some rations, but I forgot to give it liquids to match. Jack grew a mana core and started to transmute mana into water so that it could eat. It didn't take it long either. I only left it alone briefly."

"I have to admit that you have something special here. It would have been easier to sign off on a project if you knew what you had done and could replicate it, but never mind. To get extra credit I will have to enroll you in a independent study class. You need a goal and will have to both write a paper and present it at the end of semester. What exactly do you want to do the project on?"

[] catalog a new variant of the slime species, with all of its strengths and limitations (biology focused; ends in dissection)

[] To teach the slime true intelligence (psychology focused)

[] A safe source of low quality mana cores (farming focused, will attempt to repeat circumstances that made Jack to breed them)

[] A renewable source of low quality mana cores (training focused, try to teach Jack to extrude a mana core on its surface as payment for food that can be removed without trauma.)

[] Something else? Write in.

There was enough interest that I am going to go with both of the top 2 options

[X] To teach the slime true intelligence (psychology focused)
[X] A renewable source of low quality mana cores (training focused, try to teach Jack to extrude a mana core on its surface as payment for food that can be removed without trauma.)

Student and teacher discussed the various options and came to a conclusion as Jack ate and ate growing ever larger.

"I still think that figuring out exactly what you have done and replicating it would be the most impressive project that you could undertake" said the professor.

"True, but I really don't have any idea what happened. I would have no advantage over trying to develop a new slime species from scratch. No, I will stick with the hand that I have been granted through the whims of fate. I will take Jack to the greatest heights possible and that will have to be enough." Dougie was adamant.

Dr Smith sighed then nodded. "Very well. This is what you will need to do." With a complete lack of theatrics she conjured a ream of paperwork. "Normally you would have a month to fill this out but due to timing and the unorthodox nature of your request I will need it done before the end of the week. Have fun."

Dougie grinned "I am not afraid of a little paperwork. To show how very grateful I am for this opportunity I will get on this immediately. Don't worry, I won't forget about all of my other responsibilities."

"See that you don't. I will be keeping an eye on what you manage to accomplish with Jack here. It is something special." With those parting words she left for her office, the call of her own paperwork calling.

Dougie pulled a pen from his pocket and twirling in his fingers he looked through the papers that he had to complete. It was straight forward if lengthy and he had already discussed the vast majority of it. Everything that he would need to detail about his project, his methodology and goals had to be defined within.

After making sure that the Professor was gone and was unlikely to return and that Jack was going to be busy for the foreseeable future Dougie reached far further into an inner pocket than seemed possible from the outside. Sowing a portable hole into clothes was a difficult and expensive operation but worth it for sheer utility. He pulled out box, long and thin that was burnished wood banded in metal. The lock required blood to pass and within was a variety of vials, pills, powders and a syringe.

Despite the blind eye that the administration took to drug use for the purpose of expanding ones magical potential, they would be most unhappy if he was discovered with several of these reagents. Nootropics were frowned on by academics but Dougie was certain that this was just because they were jealous. Besides he was certain that he would eventually be able to accomplish the same mind altering effects without the assistance of drugs once he had sufficient experience but they would work as a crutch for the moment.

He started his procedure of mnemonics and spells as he imbibed and injected his chemical assistants. He was getting faster but it still took him five minutes to get the intense focus that he was aiming for. All of his fears and doubts faded away. His attention for anything unrelated to his current task was put aside. He stopped noticing the various aches and pains that come from having a corporeal presence. Nothing mattered but completing his personally assigned goal of completing his project proposal as efficiently and eloquently as possible.

With this mono-focus he memorized the wording of the entire stack of papers and pulling from all his studies he constructed a perfectly mental document that met the requirements or each section. In this state it was impossible to measure the passing of time but he knew from experience that he was far more articulate in much less time than he would normally manage. He reviewed and edited his mental creation time and again, polishing it until he was happy with it.

Finally he was ready for the boring part. With a burst of mental effort the rest of his pens levitated out of his pockets and met with the now floating papers that were arrayed around him. Each He ran on several layers of split thought, one for each pen and another to direct them like a conductor and without pause he started writing with a pen in each hand and another four besides. Instead of moving the pens around he moved the paper which required less power but more control. Control was dependent on focus and that was something that he had in excess for the duration of his spell.

The pages filled with clean, neat and easy to read calligraphy six at a time at an amazing rate. Of course Dougie was unable to feel wonder for the moment. Each word laid down matched exactly the mental document and he was still able to hold the mental structures of the spell in place as the last of his 50 pages were filled in, although the protective measures that he had designed to prevent permanent damage were starting to warn him that he would be unable to continue much longer without bursting a blood vessel in his Broca's area. Since he didn't want to lose his ability to talk he disassembled the magical structures and allowed his thoughts free from their cage.

Dougie checked his timepiece. Two hours had passed. He started some exercises to shake out his muscles and relieve the tension that had accumulated as he had hardly moved for the entire time. As he worked through his set he cast an eye over Jack. It had eaten its way to the top of the food and had grown visibly but it was far from being done. Dougie noticed happily that it had kept all of the modifications that it had been convinced to grow. Being bigger they sat a lot more comfortably on its form. It looked happy enough and had plenty to do so Dougie wandered off back to his room for some much needed sleep with a passing goodbye wave.

~~~

Dr Virginia Smith made sure that she was back in her office with the door locked and her sign indicated that she was unavailable before she released control over her body. It was a useful spell that had served her well in all social engagements but holding it for too long left her with a psychosomatic itch that only grew over time. She had felt compelled to engage it to hide the full extent of her shock at Jack's capabilities at such a young age. Dougie was too immature to realize but this was a game changer. Even if he was unable to accomplish either of his stated goals the mere existence of such a pliant and teachable monster would cause a resurgence in the art of creating custom life forms.

This was too big for just her. She needed to tell someone.

<Note that this vote is specifically for world building. Options not chosen imply that the option don't exist in the world. You can pick as many as you want and I will adjust as needed to make it work. Please vote by plan>


[] institution lawyers to get most acclaim and honor (and legal rights) from results. (This implies a Capitalist society with all of the pros and cons that come with it)

[] The workers society should get a head's up since this could well affect their livelihood in the future (A socialist society)

[] As requested she will tell her holy father at confession (A Theocratic society)

[] rebellion connections to overthrow the evil despot (A corrupt and evil government)

[] Big brother already knows (an efficient an evil government)

[] Even if she told little sister the message wouldn't get to those to needed to know about it until it was too late anyway. (a well meaning but inefficient government)

[-] There was a form for just this sort of situation available at the local council office. (a well meaning and well run government) [haha, yeah right. Pull the other one]

[] Although she risked breaking cover the homeland needed to know (There is a cold war that threatens to turn hot with the neighbor)

[] anyone who would listen since it might be the turning of the tide (Hello death world)

[] no-one, things are fine as they are (mystery box option) (Can only be taken alone)

[] write in (you can propose any world building dependent on my sign off)