Speaker 1: He hello friends from across the nation, around the world,
and possibly throughout the universe. I'm Martin, and you are
listening to Dad's bedtime stories. Last week I did an
episode called The Mage, the Dragon, and the Level Up,
which was a magic Library episode and sort of a
lit RPG adventure that I felt like I didn't really
get to finish, so I did another episode and I
still don't feel like it's finished. So if you want
more episodes of this, just be sure to leave me
a message on speak pipe or the Google form. I
had quite a few asking me to do the next
one from this series, and for those of you long
awaiting some of my other things, don't worry. I just
have so many ideas that it's hard to decide which
one to do. We'll continue with an app from the
Spaceship series next, and then yeah, I got to get
on with like the Dragon Knights series, Cards of Power.
We've got some cool quantum ideas, so there are lots
more stories to be told. I don't think I'm ever
going to run out here. If you like the podcast,
don't forget to rate it and review it for whatever reason.
Ratings five star ratings on iTunes or Apple podcasts make
the biggest difference to other people finding the thing. It's
just one of the biggest platforms I guess, so those
are hugely, hugely helpful. Otherwise, just you know, tell friends
about it. I'd love to make this a full time
gig someday, but I probably need quite a few more listeners.
I'm very happy for the listeners I have. It blows
my mind how many there are, but I think we'd
have to go close to five times as many for
this to be my full time kick. So you can
all cross your fingers on that one for me. Maybe
we'll get five times the audience somehow at some point
in the future. Here last, I just want to remind
you that I am looking for your story submissions and
your artwork submissions over the next month, let's say now
until about April thirteenth, We're doing another contest, a writing
contest and an artwork contest. I had my first story
submission from Oliver from Sydney, Australia, not my son Oliver,
and I had my first artwork, which was a really
good reproduction of my Cards of Power novel cover sent
to me from a moon. So in the next few
days i'll get those, I'll get the artwork posted anyways,
and i'll read over the chapter. My favorite story, which
I'm sure it'll be really hard to choose, by the way,
will be turned into an episode of the podcast as
long as the artist wants to work with me on that.
And my favorite artwork submitter, we'll also get a guaranteed
story idea. So that's two guaranteed story ideas. And I
get to see your cool artwork and read your cool stories.
So get drawing, get writing hand to send them to
me if you want to. Now it's that time again.
Time to get as comfy as you can in that bed,
close your eyes and imagine yourself doing what the kid
in the story does. Imagine yourself opening your eyes, only
this time you don't find yourself in your bed, not
exactly anyways. You blink a few times and look up
at the ceiling above you. It's so high that it
almost disappears into the shadows. Then you notice the shelves,
the endless shelves of books, books stacked higher than houses,
The winding staircases, the cozy reading couches, the uh little
magical books flying around the room as if their covers
were wings. Oh right, you mutter to yourself. I'm in
the Magic Library. You must have fallen asleep here after
your last adventure, the one in that wizarding world. A
blanket has tucked itself neatly around you, and a pillow
has somehow positioned itself perfectly under your head, which is well, honestly,
pretty comfortable and much appreciated. Good morning, says a familiar
voice from all around you, the librarian. You sit up
slowly and rub your eyes. Morning. Is it morning? Well
somewhere certainly, says the librarian. That's not as helpful as
you probably think it is. I disagree. It's accurate. This
library is connected to all sorts of different places, both
places in different times, different spaces, different time zones. Eh,
it's sort of timeless if you think about it. Ah, Okay,
you stretch your arms and look down beside you, and
there it is the book world system, the Mage of Emberfall.
The cover still shows the glowing portal, the village, the mountains,
and the small dragonling flying beside the boy from Earth.
You know, says the librarian. You seemed rather interested in
that particular story. I was, you say, I mean, I
got to be a wizard with a dragon, a dragon
lying anyways, the librarian corrects. At least for now, now
it still counts fair enough. Ill, nah, would you like
to continue the story? You look at the book for
a moment. Part of you knows you should probably go
back home and like eat breakfast or do something sensible.
But then again, there is a wizarding world inside that book,
and you left off as a level two mage with
magic robes, a dragonling familiar, and a brand new firebolt spell,
so being sensible didn't really stand much of a chance. Yes,
you say, I definitely would like to go back into
that book. You flip the book open on your lap,
and a portal glows bright blue. You take a breath,
lean forward, and feel the familiar pull as the book
draws you in. Light swirls around you, wind rushes past
your years, and then everything settles. When you open your
eyes again, you're lying in a small but comfortable room
above Marlowe's General Goods. You are JD once again, the
level two mage. Your robes of magica hang perfectly around
your body, deep blue, with silver stitching around the sleeves.
Outside the window, Ember falls start village is just waking up,
smoke curling from chimneys, chickens wandering down the road somewhere
someone hammering metal, probably a blacksmith or something like that. Zeke,
your dragonling familiar, is curled up on the windowsill. The
tiny red dragonling opens a golden eye. Now you're back,
he says, of course, I'm back.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Good, You've got a lot to learn. And then the
librarian begins to narrate all around you. J D spent
the next few weeks living above Marlowe's General Goods, and
to put it simply, he became extremely busy. The room
begins to shimmer around you, not in a scary way,
more like the world world, turning pages quickly kind of way.
Morning light flashes through the window, then evening, then morning again.
You see yourself running down the stairs of the general store,
with Zeke flying beside your shoulder. The scene changes. You're
standing in front of the entrance to a dark mine,
holding one hand out in front of you, while glowing
crystals shine along the stone walls. First, says the librarian,
j D cleared out the nearby glow stone mine so
the miners could return to work. The images flash in
front of you, cave. Spiders dropping from the ceiling, you
blasting them back with flames and firebolts. Goblins scattering, a
crystal golum stomping forward. You raise both hands, fire, frost, lightning.
The crystal golum collapses into glowing energy, and miners cheer
as your body pulls the energy in in the form
of crystals. The page turns again. Next says the librarian
j D. Recovered lost books from an ancient dungeon near
the forest for the local librarian, Michelle. Now you see
yourself stepping through dusty stone halls. Skeletons rise from the floor,
swords rattling in their hands, but they're no match for
your magical powers. You blast them with fire. Skeletons shoot arrows,
but your protective aura, the one created by your robes
of magica, cause the arrow to bounce right off armor increased.
You grab a stack of old books from a stone chest,
just as the dungeon begins to rumble. The page turns again.
He E fought elemental rodents of all different kinds for
the local baker. You find yourself in a bakery. Now
fire rodents or everywhere, frost rodents and even lightning rodents
surround you. You stare at the mass, Then frost shoots
from your hand, followed by lightning, followed by careful bursts
of fire that only burn one of the tables a
little bit. The baker didn't seem thrilled about that one,
but he did get over it. The page turns again.
He eve fought wolves. You see yourself beneath moonlight trees,
lightning cloak crackling around your body as a pack of
wolves circle you, growling low, they leap, Lightning flashes from
your fingers and well all around your body, and the
scene changes again. He fought one very large bear. You
find yourself in a forest clearing now standing in front
of a really, really big bear. The bear roars, You
look up at it, and you fire ice spikes a
new spell you recently acquired. The whole scene disappears in
a burst of white frost, and the page turns again,
and of course, the librarian continues. J D also accepted
some of the less exciting missions, because even magical worlds
require basic errns. Now you see yourself collecting berries for
the baker, and then gathering mushrooms, and then hauling or
for the blacksmith. Carrying bundles of firewood, and then standing
beside the blacksmith hammering heated metal again and again while
sparks jump through the air. You help make swords, you
help repair armor, you help shape horseshoes, and you even
help make a frying pan, which is not particularly heroic
but apparently very important for people to be able to
eat and that sort of thing. Not every mission was glamorous,
says the librarian, but every mission taught him something. The
images begin to layer over each other, fire bursting from
your hands, ice spreading across the ground, Lightning flashing through
the air. As enemies dissolve into light and you absorb
their experience in the form of energy crystals. You see
healing light glowing around your fingers, a hammer striking hot metal,
gold coins pouring into your inventory, and energy crystals spinning
in the air before being absorbed by your body. And
again and again. The mysterious voice of the world speaks
inside your mind. Congratulations, your destruction magic has increased. Congratulations,
your healing has increased. Congratulations, your smithing level has increased. Congratulations,
light armor increased. Destruction magic has increased to level twenty. Congratulations,
you are now adept at destruction magic. Healing has increased
to level twenty. Congratulations, you are now adept at healing magic. Congratulations,
your smithing has increased to level twenty. You are now
an adept at smithing. The world pauses. A glowing message
appears in front of you. You have reached level ten mage.
The librarian's voice grows a little quieter, almost proud. J
D did his best to be balanced. He puts some
points into health, psalm into stamina, but most of all,
he increased his magic because nothing felt better to him
than a huge pool of magic waiting inside him, ready
to become frost, lightning, fire, healing, or whatever else he
might learn. Next, you see menus floating in front of you,
the menu trees where you pick various different perks. You
watch as you select different ones. In your destruction magic tree,
you pick the perks that allow spells to cost less
and less. You pick one that allows flames to grow
brighter and hotter, one that makes frost spread quicker, one
that makes lightning strikes harder. Then, in your healing tree,
you select a few that go into better and quicker healing.
You put a few points into light armor, but mostly
you become very, very very good at blasting things with magic.
The pages keep turning. You see yourself buying spell books
for marlow Explosive, fire bolt, lightning, cloak, ice, spike, some
of which you remember using in your other memories. The
spell books open in your hand, pages flipping wildly as
knowledge floods into your mind, and then each book turns
to dust. You practice behind the village until targets are burned, frozen,
or shattered, and at last, the fast moving images begin
to slow. You find yourself standing outside Marlowe's General Goods.
The town feels familiar now, and you feel powerful and safe.
Zeke your dragonling familiars on your shoulder, well jd He says,
I think it's time time for what you ask, still
trying to process the flash of memories that you just
went through, all of that experience, all of that learning,
it's sort of over overwhelming. It's that time to go.
Zeke says, oh, what do you mean? I mean that
this place was meant to get you off to a
good start, and you clearly have. You're a level ten
mage now. Your destruction, magic and healing and smithing are
all at level twenty, and you have more gold than
most beginner adventurers could carry if you had to keep
it in your pockets instead of the whole inventory system thing.
But if you want to grow more, we're going to
need to leave this place in search of new adventures.
You look down the road leading out of town. What
else is there? You ask, Ah, Well, there's all sorts
of things, Zeke says. There's armies to join if you want,
battles and banners and people shouting and that sort of thing. Yeah,
I'm so sure about that one. You respond. There's the
Adventurers Guild in the nearby town of Halliburton. They offer
quests and ranks and you know, monster contracts, treasure hunts,
that sort of nonsense. That does sound pretty cool, you respond,
or Zeke says, knowing that this particular suggestion is probably
the one you're most likely to pick. If you love magic,
we could travel to the north and join the Major's
Guild at the Wizarding Academy. You don't even have to
think about it. Wizarding Academy. That's what I want to do.
You respond. I thought you might say that, Zeke says.
You turn towards the shop. Then I guess it's time
to pack. Ah. Yeah, but before that, I was kind
of thinking you may as well put some of the
stuff you've gained into making better gear and chanting at
or whatever. You pause for a second in chanting it. Yeah,
you do know you can infuse gear with bonuses using
the energy you gathered from defeating creatures. Right, you remembered
learning something like that, and it is something you've seen
happen in video games before. So I can make things
more magical. You respond, exactly, And the better you get
it enchanting, the stronger the effects can become. You can
learn most enchantments by simply studying magical items that well
already have enchantments, like my robes. You say, looking down
at your robes, Exactly, how do I do it? Well,
you look into them. You just do it in a
way that you haven't done it before. You don't only
look into them with your eyes, You look into them
with your mind. You close your eyes and focus. Then
you stare at your clothing. At first you just see cloth,
and well more cloth. Then something deeper opens in your mind,
as if it's seeing a pattern beneath the pattern, threads
of light, threads of crystallized energy woven deep into the
robe itself. A voice rings in your head. Congratulations, enchantment unlocked,
enchantments learned, increase magica and protective aura. You open your eyes.
What cool? Yeah, really cool. But now you're gonna need
something to enchant. Of course, Zeke says, I'd go in
there and buy some gloves, boots, jewelry, eh, whatever else
you think you can throw on your body. You've got
the gold, now spend it. So you head inside Marlowe's
General Goods once more. Marlowe looks up from behind the counter. Oh,
j D need more spell books? Do you actually I
need some more basic things? Gloves, boots, silver ring and necklace,
something like that. Marlow smiles for enchant and all trying
to learn you respond good, better than collecting rat meat forever.
Marlowe shows you a number of different things, and in
the end you buy some basic leather gloves, some sturdy
leather boots, a plain silver ring, and a plain silver necklace.
Then you head back upstairs to the room you're renting.
Zeke sits on the bed while you lay the items
out on the floor. All right, now, a first thing
you need to do is focus on the item then
focus on the energy and then the enchantment. Your goal
is to press them together inside your mind to weave
the energy from as many crystals as you possibly can
into the threads, or well the essence of the item.
You start with the gloves. You hold them in both
hands and focus on the energy crystals stored in your inventory.
Glowing crystals appear on the ground beside the items. You
imagine them floating into the gloves, weaving in the same
pattern you saw inside your robes Increase Magica, Protectivora. The
gloves begin to glow blue as the crystals sort of
merge with them. Then the enchantment locks in. Enchantmen level
one achieved. A voice says inside your head. You grin.
Then you pick up the boots and try the same thing.
It's easier this time. Enchantment increase to level two. Then
you pick up the necklace and the ring. It gets
easier every single time you do it, though it takes
the last two items to reach enchantment level three. You
put on the gloves, the boots, the ring, and the necklace.
Power rushes through your body. You feel your magic pool
growing larger, somehow connecting to the items, and you see
the faint outline of a protective area a grow around
your whole body and thicken, shimmering faintly around your robes.
It suddenly feels like you're standing inside a powerful, magical
bubble made of warm light, one that's even more powerful
than your robes alone could do. Oh, I think I
like enchanting, you say, eh, most mages do. Just wait
until you increase your level even more. You can be
uh well, more powerful than you can probably imagine. You
and Zeke buy some food, water, and a mobile camp
set for Marlow. They all absorb into your inventory. The
camp set absorbs into your inventory as a small folded bundle,
even though Marlowe insists it actually contains a tad ped
fire pit, cooking bench, storage chest, and a few other comforts.
You let Marlow know that you'll no longer need the room,
at least not for a while. He shakes his head. Good,
lookout there, j D. Try not to explode anything to
impose into anything like that. I'll try. No promises, though,
you say, as you step outside and then on to
the road north. The librarian's voice begins again, and the
world starts moving. In that page, Turney sort of way
it did before. J D and Zeke traveled for many days,
leaving the comfort of Ember fall behind. The road wound
through forests, across hills, past rivers, and under skies, filled
with unfamiliar stars. Images flash around you. You walk along
a dusty road with Zeke flying beside. You cross a
wooden bridge above a rushing river. You climb a hill
and see mountains far away. At night, wolves come out
of the trees. You cast lightning cloak, and crackling electricity
surrounds your body. A wolf lunges, hits the lightning and
yelps backward before well falling over and dissolving into energy.
The page turns and another bear appears here. There's so
many bears in this world. You ask, Ah, it's a
healthy ecosystem. Zeke responds. You blast the bear with an
ice spike, absorb the glowing energy, and move on. The
page turns each evening. You summon the camp set. The
first time you activate it, the little bundle pops out
of your inventory, unfolds and instantly builds an entire camp.
A fire appears and a stone ring benches snap into place.
A cooking station unfolds, A tent rises all by itself,
and inside it isn't just a sleeping role. It's a huge,
comfortable room with a king sized bed, soft blankets, warm lanterns,
and even a place for Zeke to curl up beside
the bed, right across from a magical heater of some kind.
Marlow really understold this, You say, yeah, that's the opposite
of what shopkeepers normally do. The librarian continues. Four days,
Jane d and Zeke traveled, fought, camped, rested, and continued
north towards the Wisiting Academy. The pages turned faster, roads, forest,
campfire stars, that sort of thing, more wolves, more bears,
some creepy magical spiders. But none of them are really
a problem for you. That is until one after noon
you come across a village. You see smoke rising from it,
and it's pretty clearly not campfire smoke. It's the kind
of smoke that would be created from a whole building,
or possibly whole village, being on fire. You run up
a hill and stop. You look down below to see
a small village beside a river and circling above it
is a dragon, not a little dragonling like Zeke, a
real full sized dragon, Its scales are dark red, its
wings stretch wider than rooftops. It opens its mouth and
breathes fire across the village square. Villagers scatter. Oh, this
is a problem, you say. The dragon dives and you
sprint down the hill, throwing one hand forward. I spike.
You yell as cold energy passes through your body into
your hand, and a spear of ice shoots from your
palm and slams into the dragon's side. It roars and
turns toward you. Great, you say, it noticed me. The
dragon beats its wings and charges. You cast your lightning cloak,
then raise both hands as fire pours from the dragon's mouth.
The flame slam into your protective aura. A glowing number
appears in front of you shield eighty two percent. That
head took eighteen percent. You say out loud, yeah, Zeke
says quickly, I would avoid getting hit by the dragon
fire entirely. That's probably the best plan here. You roll
sideways as the dragon land, shaking the ground beneath you.
You cast an explosive fire bolt. A ball of fire
blasts from your hand and bursts against the dragon's chest.
The dragon stumbles back, smoke curling up from its scales.
Then you cast lightning. A bolt strikes its neck, then
ice spike again. The spike hits one of its legs,
and ice crawls upward, freezing part of it in place.
The dragon roars, flapping its wings hard enough to knock
over mark its stalls and well do a little damage
to a nearby building. You hit it again with frost,
trying to slow it down, but the dragon shakes the
ice loose and breathes fire again. The shield flashes, shield
fifty four percent. You grit your teeth bolts, A huge
explosion of fire hits the dragon. Lightning, crackling energy strikes
the dragon's wing, ice spike. The spike hits its shoulder,
freezing the scales for just a moment. You continue to
hit the dragon with all of the spells you can
possibly muster. You watch your magic decrease as you hit
it with spikes of ice, bolts of fire, and now,
of course, a little bit of lightning. He hits you back.
Your shield decreases to thirty one percent magic low, Oh no,
you mutter. The dragon lifts its head, fire glowing in
its throat. Zeke leans close to your ear. Ah, you
only have enough magic for one more spell. You better
make it count. You stand and breathing hard, your magic
pool nearly empty, your shield or protective aura flickering around you.
You watch as the dragon's fire builds in its throat.
You gather every bit of cold you can find, and
well you blast one more ice spike straight at the dragon.
The huge spike of ice shoots from both of your hands,
larger than anyone you've made before. It streaks across the
village square and strikes the dragon directly in the chest.
The dragon roars and begins to glow with energy. The
ice spreads, and then, with a heavy crash, the dragon collapses.
For a moment, everything is still. Villagers peek out from
behind barrels, doors, overturned carts, or well wherever else they
could find a hide. You walk toward the dragon slowly, Zeke,
landing on your shoulder. The dragon's body begins to glow,
like defeated creatures often do in this world. It starts
to dissolve into shimmering energy, but this time something different
happens as well. A strange blue light rises from the
dragon's chest. It swirls once in the air and shoots
straight into Zeke Zeke gasps. Zeke, you say, He lifts
off of your shoulder, Glowing brighter and brighter. His little
body begins to stretch, his wings expand, his legs grow stronger,
and his tail lengthens. When the glow fades, Zeke is
no longer the size of a cat. He's no longer
a dragon ling at all. In fact, he stands closer
to the size of a small horse, with powerful red wings,
golden eyes, and smoke curling from his nostrils. You stare
at him. What happened? Zeke looks down at himself, then
spreads his wings proudly. I seem to have absorbed the
dragon's essence and added it to my own. You can
do that, ah, apparently I can. He takes a deep
breath and blasts a powerful plume of fire into the sky.
The villager's cheer. Seemingly knowing that this dragon isn't someone
to worry about. You just grin. This is gonna be
very useful, very useful, Zeke says. That night, you set
up camp one last time on a hill, overlooking the
road to the north. In the distance, you can just
barely see tall towers rising against the stars. The wizarding Academy.
We should be able to reach it by tomorrow, Zeke says,
curling beside the fire. You, on the other hand, are
feeling well exhausted. H librarian, you say, The familiar voice
answers at once. Yes, I think I need a break. Ah.
That is understandable, and this is a perfect chance. Dragon
battles do tend to be quite tiring. A glowing poor
appears beside the camp. You look at Zeke. I'll be
back in a bit I now, he says, And next
time we go to school. You step through the bortle
and tumble gently back onto the couch inside the magic library.
You close the book, just to be safe. It's not
a good idea to leave books open in the magic library,
after all. Then you lay down on the couch once again.
You pull the blanket up to your chin, close your eyes,
and the lights in the entire library dim. With each breath,
you allow your body to sink down into the very
comfortable couch. You let go of the tension in your arms,
your legs, your shoulders, your neck, your head. The more
you breathe, the deeper you sink, and the deeper you sink,
the better you feel, until slowly you begin to drift
off to thoughts of new dreams, new adventures, and new
chapters to come. Good Night, everyone, more.
Speaker 2: Union, no no a thing, no more in Nick No Never,
U