Date: October 14, 2011
Location: Queens, New York
The subway system of New York City was a marvel of engineering, filth, and bloody torture. To Lloyd Nipple, it was a fascinating study in how Muggles...No-Majs, as the locals called them, though Lloyd refused to adopt such a clumsy term, chose to transport themselves like cattle in a tin can.
He sat squeezed between a man reading a newspaper about "Stark Industries Stock plummeting" and a woman who smelled strongly of cabbage.
Lloyd adjusted his coat, feeling the envelope of cash press against his ribs. Five hundred dollars, In the Wizarding World, this would be a handful of Galleons, barely enough for a decent cauldron but here, it was survival.
He glanced at the newspaper over the man's shoulder.
TONY STARK: GENIUS OR LIABILITY?
The headline screamed, accompanied by a picture of a man with a goatee wearing a glowing blue circle in his chest.
Lloyd studied the image, not with awe, but with professional curiosity. He didn't know who Tony Stark was and he didn't care about the politics of this world's military-industrial complex but that blue circle...
"Condensed energy," Lloyd murmured, barely audible over the screech of the train wheels. "Self-sustaining. Runes? No... geometric containment."
The man with the newspaper shifted, glaring at Lloyd. "You mind, pal?"
"Just admiring the photography mate," Lloyd said smoothly, his British accent cutting through the noise.
He looked away, he didn't know what an "Iron Man" was, but he knew magic when he saw it, even if these people called it technology.
That blue light felt like the heart of a golem. If he could get his hands on one, maybe he could stop Subject 42 from trying to eat the electrical outlets.
The train rattled to a halt at his stop and Lloyd exited, stepping out into the grey afternoon light of his neighborhood.
He didn't go home immediately. A Magizoologist required supplies, and unfortunately, there was no Magical Menagerie on 31st Avenue so he stopped first at a butcher shop called Sal's Meats.
The bell jingled as he entered. Sal, a burly man with forearms the size of cured hams, looked up from a carcass he was deboning.
" Mr. Lloyd," Sal grunted. "You here for the usual?"
"The usual, Salvatore and perhaps something..... denser today. Do you have any beef hearts? Preferably with the ventricles intact."
Sal raised a bushy eyebrow. "You got a weird dog, you know that? Hearts are extra."
"He is a growing boy," Lloyd said, placing a crisp twenty-dollar bill on the counter.
"And he requires iron."
He walked out five minutes later with a brown paper bag heavy with organ meat.
His next stop was a hardware store, where he purchased a roll of copper wire, a bag of charcoal, and a bottle of ammonia.
To the average observer, he looked like a man planning a very confusing barbecue.
To Lloyd, these were base components for alchemy. Without access to dragon liver or powdered moonstone, he had to improvise. Copper for conductivity, charcoal for carbon binding, ammonia for... well, the smell mostly, to cover up the brimstone.
He finally reached his building, a crumbling brick tenement that looked like it was held together by layers of peeling paint. He unlocked the heavy steel door of the basement unit, the tumblers clicking with a satisfying thunk.
"I have returned," Lloyd announced to the gloom. "And I bring offerings."
The apartment was exactly as he had left it, dark, damp but now, there was a new sound.
A frantic scratching coming from inside the wardrobe. Lloyd sighed and placed the groceries on the table and walked over to the wardrobe and tapped the wood with his knuckle.
"Subject 42. If you have shredded my only tie, I will turn you into a tea cozy."
He opened the door.
Subject 42, the Niffler, tumbled out in a shower of sawdust. He was clutching a shiny brass hinge he had managed to unscrew from the inside of the door.
The creature looked up at Lloyd, froze, and then slowly tried to hide the hinge behind his back.
"Unbelievable," Lloyd muttered. He reached down, snatched the hinge, and tossed the Niffler onto the bed.
"You are a menace. A furry, kleptomaniac menace."
The Niffler squeaked indignantly, pointing at his empty stomach.
"Yes, yes. Dinner." Lloyd opened the butcher's bag and pulled out a raw beef heart. He tossed it onto a metal tray he kept on the floor.
The Niffler pounced on the meat with a ferocity that would have disturbed a normal pet owner. Lloyd watched him eat, his eyes narrowing.
"System," he commanded softly.
The blue window shimmered into existence.
> [ creature Status ]
> Designation: Subject 42 (Niffler - Mutated Variant)
> Level: 2
> Loyalty: 45% (Increases with gold/food)
> Hunger: Satiated
> Mutations Detected:
> * Void Pouch (Rank F): Can store 5kg of non-living matter.
> * Metal Sense (Rank F): Can detect precious metals within 10 meters.
> Evolution Progress: 12%
> Requirement for Next Stage: Consumption of High-Density Energy Source.
"High-density energy source," Lloyd read aloud, he thought back to the newspaper on the subway. The blue glowing circle in the man's chest.
"You have expensive taste," Lloyd told the Niffler. "We are currently eating organ meat in a basement, Let's not aim for expensive dining just yet."
He sat down at his desk, pushing aside a stack of rejection letters from various mundane jobs he had applied for before realizing scamming teenagers was more profitable.
He pulled out the roll of copper wire and the charcoal. He needed to secure the perimeter. The magical Aura kept the rats away, but it wouldn't stop a determined burglar or, heaven forbid, a landlord looking for late rent so he began to twist the copper wire into crude runes.
Protego, Cave Inimicum
Without a wand, the magic was exhausting. He had to pour his own mana into the wire, charging it like a battery.
He felt the drain immediately, a headache forming behind his eyes, a coldness in his fingertips.
He placed the wire loops at the four corners of the room and crushed the charcoal over them, whispering the incantations.
"Fiu... Protego... Repello"
A faint hum filled the room, the air shimmered for a second, then settled.
It wouldn't stop a Killing Curse but if a Muggle tried to break in, they would suddenly remember they had left the oven on and feel an overwhelming urge to go home.
"Better than nothing," Lloyd wiped the sweat from his brow.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the Niffler, who was now napping on top of the laundry pile, belly full of beef heart.
Lloyd's mind drifted to the boy he had seen earlier, the one with the unstable genetic structure.
This world was strange, In England, magical creatures hid in forests. Here, they seemed to walk the streets disguised as humans.
The System called them "Mutations." Lloyd called them Specimens.
If he wanted to survive here, if he wanted to thrive and not just rot in a basement he needed to understand the predators of this ecosystem.
He picked up the newspaper he had pilfered from the train. He stared at the man with the glowing chest again then he turned the page.
There was another article, a blurry photo of a large, green humanoid creature that had reportedly destroyed a neighborhood in Harlem a few years ago. The headline read:
WHERE IS THE HULK?
"Trolls?" Lloyd mused. "No... too muscular. Giants? Too small."
He tore the picture of the Green Beast out of the paper and pinned it to the corkboard on his wall.
Next to it, he pinned the picture of the Glowing Man.
"Dragons and Goblins," Lloyd whispered. "Just with better PR agents."
He looked at the Niffler.
"We need to expand the collection, 42. One Niffler does not make an empire. We need something with teeth. Something that can protect us while I regain my strength."
The System window pinged softly.
> [Daily Quest Complete: Survival]
> Reward: 10 XP.
> CurrentXP: 40/100 to Level 2.
> Shop Status:Locked. (Unlock requires Level 2).
Lloyd closed his eyes, Sixty more XP. He needed to cast more spells, brew more potions, or... find more creatures.
He fingered the wand-less holster on his arm.
"Tomorrow," Lloyd decided. "We go to the library. If I am to hunt in this jungle, I need to know the names of the beasts."
He turned off the single light bulb swinging from the ceiling. In the darkness, the faint, residual magic of his copper wire wards glowed a dull, comforting orange.
It wasn't Hogwarts, It wasn't the Ministry but for the first time in a week, Lloyd Nipple felt a spark of ambition.
He didn't just want to survive this world, he wanted to catalog it, cage it, and sell tickets.
Authors Note:-
Lloyd Nipple is not here to joke around guys.
Help him with power stones and add to library, you all will get new chapters