I approached the table and began to gaze at all of the vials on display before me. There were more vials on the table, and the other tables in the room than I could keep track of. But even beyond all of that I could feel my mind being altered, changed, mutated even, by the drink I had just imbibed. 

"Don't worry about the changes to your body. These are the least dramatic changes you're going to undergo, assuming you do decide to drink every vial here." Uttered the one responsible for all of this; a Mr. Ben E. Factor. He had a confident smirk on his face as he spoke to me, as if assured that I wouldn't be able to do it. 

I ignored him, for now, and instead looked at the table curiously. The table was massive and lined with assorted vials, each of which contained variously colored liquids. I spent a second studying the liquids from afar, though afar was a bit relative, and then realized that no matter how long I stared at the liquids just looking at them would do me no good. I reached out and grabbed the note for the closest vial, and began to silently read it. 

"Essence of the Archmage" The top of the thing read, which made my eyes widen in surprise and delight. If I was going to go on some whirlwind tour of the... multiverse, I figured having the ability to use magic would be a great benefit. 

"By drinking this essence you gain several boons. The first boon you will gain is perfect, retroactive memory with infinite storage. This is in addition to beyond genius-level intellect, an organ that generates universal supernatural energy that allows you to cast spells and perform other supernatural actions, an innate capacity to learn and even combine any sort of magical or otherwise supernatural technique or system, enhanced learning speed when it comes to supernatural techniques, and one final potent boon." The note read. 

"By imbibing this essence you gain the power to awaken the ability to use supernatural techniques and systems in others. This means that you can bestow other people with the ability to use anything from the magic of the world of Harry Potter to the powers of the magic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even if they are totally normal people." The scrap of paper revealed. I paused for a second after reading the note and thought about what I was about to do. 

If I operated under the assumption that I had not lost my mind and that what I was seeing was... just real and was reality, that meant that if I drank the vial in front of me I'd gain the ability to awaken supernatural powers in other people. That was the sort of power that boggled the mind and kept me still for a moment longer before I spoke to the "store owner", Mr. Ben E. Factor. 

"Hey... If I drink this essence, could you show me some magic?" I asked, without ever taking my eye off of the vial. I felt rather than heard the man beside me nod, and I could easily sense him smiling at me. Upon sensing him nodding I didn't hesitate, I unstopped the vial and chugged the weirdly tasteless drink. As I did I could physically feel my body beginning to react to the drink I had just imbibed. 

Deep inside of my body, I could feel a sudden and... not quite but almost painful sensation as an organ grew within me. I felt my body filling with some sort of energy that I had never felt before. I turned to face the old man who was responsible for giving me this incredible gift, and I saw that he was positively beaming at me. 

"I see that you imbibed a magical essence vial. Those are some of my favorites." He explained, before opening one of his hands and surprising me by conjuring a tiny orb of floating fire that hovered in the air above his open hand. As I saw it I felt a sudden burst of understanding fill my mind. The knowledge was of the spell that the man was activating, a spell from the multiverse which housed realms like Faerun, Eberron, and Krynn; the basic spell known as Firebolt. 

"Firebolt..." I uttered as I watched the orb, and I realized with a start that if I wanted to I could cast the spell myself. I stared at the orb for a second, before opening my own hand and pulling my gaze away from him. 

"It's time to see if this is real..." I muttered as I focused on the new energy flowing through my body. I gazed at the air above my hand and took a deep breath even as the fire called into being by my benefactor dissipated into the air around me.

"Firebolt!" I roared, projecting my voice outward and attempting to turn the energy flowing through me into a powerful arrow-like projectile of flames. I shivered as I felt the energy suddenly seep out of my pores and into the air above my hand.

Ben smiled savagely as we watched the air directly over my hands spontaneously morph into an arrow-shaped burning projectile. My eyes widened as I watched the projectile float in the air, simply consuming the oxygen that surrounded it. 

"Magic..." I uttered, my eyes turning almost into saucers as I studied the powerful weapon I had just created. Ben began to laugh at my childish utterance. 

"Oh, Andrew... If you think that's magic, just wait till you see REAL magic. Here, I'll give you a hint for free... When this is over, head to a Barnes and Noble and buy yourself some like Player's Handbooks from Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. Those aren't even the strongest magical systems in existence, but trust me it's a start." The old man uttered, an extremely cocky smirk on his face. As he said that he paused and actually considered what he said before audibly correcting himself. 

"Actually, neither system is not half bad. With them, you can perform resurrections, under certain controlled circumstances, at a fairly low level of skill." He said, causing me to very audibly gasp. I was not very into things like Dungeons and Dragons growing up, though I had heard of Critical Role and other shows like it so I had a basic level of awareness of what D&D was at least.

"Oh, I see that that is of interest to you... Good, magic is one of the more fascinating routes to power." Ben said to me, his grin refusing to lessen in size. 

"And now... I think it's time that you continue your little feast." Ben tells me, his eyes glowing with some sort of intense inner excitement as he began to surely imagine whatever wacky scenarios I'd get up to.

The unlikely pair walked over to the next vial. Andrew grabbed both the tiny potion and the note and began to unceremoniously read it, before smirking and chugging the potion without any hesitation. As he did that Ben looked at him shocked before he began to guffaw.

"You know something? Maybe picking you was the right choice!" The old man proclaimed as he glanced at the note of the paper. The top of the note read "Essence of the Thief", and was one of the greater essences that he could craft. He had always been a rather poor essence-crafter, which was why he couldn't make some of the more exact essences, particularly the ones that messed with other essences or the infamous "Essence of Perfection". 

Andrew began to gaze at the other vials, his eyes filling with excitement and something like adrenaline. He silently smiled and pointed his hands in the direction of the closest note and after gazing at it for a second the piece of paper disappeared from in front of the vial and silently appeared in the man's open hand. He silently began to read the note, and when he was done he quaffed another of the potions. This time the potion he drank was identified as an "Essence of the King". 

A second after he imbibed the strange substance he became much... more. As the substance poured down his throat and made its way into his stomach he began to grow in charisma and in force of personality. He gained a much more statesman-like presence, a sort of regality that he and indeed most of humanity had come to lack in the modern era. The potent liquid, the distilled essence of a true royal, was permanently changing the man from the inside out.

Ben watched him curiously now, watching as the liquid he drank filled his soul with a sort of radiant charisma that he had lacked for his whole life. The strange, immensely eldritch entity had a bemused look on his face as he watched the once-ordinary human flex his muscles and take in the power of the liquid that was now settling within his core. 

Andrew did not know this, but time was frozen outside of the tent. He would spend several minutes, from his perspective, exploring the tent's interior and imbibing the contents of countless bottles filled with variously colored and wonderfully powerful liquids. It would take the young, ambitious fellow several minutes to fully explore and digest the contents of the little shop and when he walked out of the narrow tent he was a wholly different person than he had been before. 

He stood over a foot taller than he had previously, and he had the strange charisma of a well-trained warrior despite the fact that he had never thrown a serious punch in his life. He had well-trained and highly toned muscles, and he even smelled unbelievable. Andrew had the comic book good looks of a Superman-level superhero, and as he stepped out of the tent he immediately noticed that time had stopped around him. 

"How... weird." The young man uttered, as he studied his surroundings with a cool gaze.

I examined my surroundings with a wary gaze as I felt the cool air touch my warm skin. Essences like "The Essence of the Phoenix" and "The Essence of the Dragon" now filled me with cosmic power over fire, heat, and temperature, and so the cool, autumn air touching my warm skin didn't bother me in the slightest. 

Hundreds of essences filled me, causing me to come alive in ways I had never imagined possible. I could see motes of dust in the air around m, and I could hear distant conversations as well as the sounds of beating hearts. I could taste the scents that surrounded me, and my mind was hyper-charged with psionic power that gave me a potent array of psychic abilities. 

"So... This is what the world is really like?" I asked myself as I paused outside of the tent where my benefactor lived and reflected on his advice to me. 

I pulled out my phone and dialed my place of employment even as I stood still outside of the old man's tent. I heard the phone ring once, and then twice, before someone answered it. 

"Hello you've reached Sullivan's Retail, this is Sullivan. How may I help you?" The voice on the other end of the line told me, and when I heard my manager's voice I began to smile. Just by hearing his voice, I felt the effects of several different essences beginning to work within me, though the one I wanted the most at this moment was the "Essence of the Manipulator", a charisma-focused essence that allowed me to expertly manage my own charisma and best it to whatever ends I had opted to pursue. 

"Hey there Sullivan, it's Andrew. I was calling in to let you know that I wouldn't be able to make it today." I began, and I hardened myself for the tirade I was certain I would be opening myself to. No such monologue ever came though, instead, Sullivan just sighed over the phone. 

"Alright Andrew, you can't make it today? That's fine I guess dude. Others have been calling out all day, I may just have to take this L." Sullivan complained, causing me to pause and feel the effects of one of my essences take hold; "The Essence of Unlimited Intellect". This powerful essence completely and utterly reshaped my mind and also fully supercharged my brain's power even beyond the "Genius-level intellect" bestowed by many of the other, lesser, essences.

"I guess I didn't know my manager all that well..." I realized, coldly, as I began to scrap the sort of psychological profile I had built in my mind, based on my interpretations of my boss's behavior. This wasn't hard to do, or even particularly annoying, it was just a necessary action for me to best understand the conditions I found myself living in.

That action was necessary if I wanted to improve my life and if I wanted to grow. I did not complain about this, instead, I merely accepted it and allowed my mind to do what was necessary for me to grow as an employee and as an adult. My newfound maturity owed its existence to the essence as well, since drinking the thing transformed my mind and the metaphorical concept of my heart, allowing me to do whatever was necessary to grow without any fear or hesitation.

More than anything else I needed some time to figure out the capabilities of my new body and my new mind. Going to work today felt like a weird waste of my abilities, even though I could have easily made clones who had all of my abilities. Instead of doing that I wanted to take today and truly master my new superpowers since my abilities had the potential to allow me to more than get by without working a normal job. I had my priorities set in a logical order, and I readied myself to act upon them. 

"Hey, listen Sullivan... I'm sorry dude, some stuff came up with my family and I didn't want to just not show up you know?" I asked him, lying as I tried to level with him and present some sort of plausible but vague excuse for not making it to work. Sullivan hissed and fell silent for a second. We both stayed on the phone, just in a strange silent state, before he spoke up again. 

"Oh damn, family huh? I... I know how that is. Just take care Andrew, will you? I may have to have someone from the weekend crew cover your shift. Keep your weekend free, I may have to switch you around." The man told me, causing me to smile as I felt the phone growing warmer in my hands from use. 

"Of course. Thank you for understanding." I told the man, a smirk on my face as I uttered that. I heard him grunt, somewhat sympathetically, and then the welcome sound of the call dying was audible in my ear. As he hung up on me I felt myself creating and updating a new psychological profile for the man, for future use. When that was done I put my phone away and glanced in the direction of the city's local Barnes and Noble. 

"I... can't believe I need to study to best figure out how to use these powers." I uttered, even as I began to walk towards the store, my eyes open and scanning my surroundings for chances to cause mischief. Now that I had temporarily freed myself from the worst part of mostly gainful employment it was time for me to study and learn even more fun stuff about magic!