I woke up around nine. I had hoped that I would have a dream again. I convinced myself that it wasn’t because I was craving sex. I also wanted to get clues and see if that robotic voice would speak again. Maybe even gain a few new spells. That didn’t happen and I was a bit regretful. It wasn’t that I was looking to have sex with men. Really! It was just that without magic, you were basically unemployable in this world. The stronger the magic you had the better your options were for jobs and pay. If I couldn’t go back, I needed to learn magic to live a good life. It had nothing to do with sleeping with men. It was about survival… Or so I told myself.

I got up, stretched, and tossed on a t-shirt before going to the bathroom. After wiping, I realized that I was a little sore down there even though I was confident I didn’t do anything last night. It wasn’t a deep pain but more like a slight bruise. I wondered what caused it and wondered if this body’s period was coming. Girls get achy before it, right? It was just another thing to worry about.

I looked around the bathroom for more pads since her purse held only one. I found a box, grabbed a few and then had another idea. I was sure that the mechanical voice mentioned something about acquiring DNA. Getting samples of that wasn’t that hard. For example, my mother’s hair or toothbrush would have her DNA on it. I was willing to give it a try because it beat the alternative. I quickly found what I was looking for. What I didn’t expect to see was a used condom in the trash can. I replaced my mom’s toothbrush with a new one, took some hair from her brush and looked at the rubber that was knotted at the end. Its contents were sealed inside. I looked at it. Should I use it to test to see if it really was just a dream. To see if men’s semen would the missing link to this body’s casting issue. With a lot of hesitation, I took the used rubber and ran back to my room. I quickly closed my door and ran to my bed.

I sat there psyching myself up. I kept telling myself that it was a horrible game show challenge and there was a million-dollar prize waiting for me. Sighing, I did the easiest one first. My mom’s toothbrush. I put it into my mouth and waited… and waited but nothing happened. Next, I took out the clump of hair and with a pair of scissors, cut off the follicles and ate them. It was as disgusting as it sounded and there weren’t any voices in my head saying congrats. I finally swallowed the hair before looking at the shriveled rubber. It was easy to see that Roy’s deposit was still inside it. I kept telling myself, ‘All I had to do was cut it open and chug it like a shot.’ I repeated that over and over.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Gritting my teeth, I cut it open, and a strong ammonia smell came out. My first thought was how can people willingly swallow such rancid stuff? I thought about it. I was just once and before I could talk myself out of it, I put it to my lips and upended the contents into my mouth. I was expecting it to be vile, but it was just weird. It was something I had never tasted before so I found it hard to describe. I didn’t get much time to think before I heard, “High Level Holy Magician DNA Acquired. Absorbing, Analyzing, Adapting... Extracting, Randomizing Highest Level Spell... Congratulations Level Ten Dynamic Neogenesis Learnt." As the voice stopped, any residue of the cum in my mouth was gone. Did I swallow? I hadn’t planned on it, but the taste was gone, and I got a high-level spell, so perhaps swallowing wasn’t so bad.

I was left with a few questions, but one thing was for sure, that notification confirmed what happened the night before was real and not a dream. Male sperm allowed me to learn spells and become more powerful. I should be upset but from what I could remember, I hadn’t disliked that “dream” experience or what just happened. And because I enjoyed it, I felt confused and lost in my sexual beliefs.

I didn’t realize that Mom and Roy had left before I got up and that I had the place to myself, until I went to the kitchen and found her note. It was posted on the refrigerator and let me know that she’d be gone for most of the day and there was some money on the counter so I could buy dinner. This was the first time I saw my mom with a man but wasn’t upset. It was nice that she found somebody that made her happy. I just hoped he wasn’t an ass. I decided to clean up the mess I made and took out the garbage even though it wasn’t completely full. The last thing I wanted was for my mom to come home and ask where the condom went or why it was empty. How could I explain? The ‘I was experimenting with your boyfriend's cum’ probably wouldn’t fly. It was better to be a good daughter and do some chores.

I felt a little more at ease, I ate a bowl of cereal and took a shower. While I was still naked, I decided to test the ‘Dynamic Neogenesis’ spell. I wanted to see if it could heal the bruises on my waist and thighs. I say test because, it wasn’t in any of the books I had, and I wasn’t sure how it worked, the words to say, or the true effect of the spell. It was just that most Holy spells were healing based. I shouldn’t have worried because as soon as I had the intent, the knowledge on how to cast came easily. The spell chant was the longest I have seen in this world so far. That generally meant the spell was stronger, but it could also be that a spell was poorly made and needed to be reinforced by the chant. The information on what the spell did flooded my mind, but it was so complex that I didn't understand most of it.

A melodious song soon filled the tiny bathroom, and I could tell the spell was top notch as the energy within me began to move violently. The song I sang called on the heavens to renew the life of those in need and a few minutes later a tiny mini beam of intense light formed on my right pointer finger. It looked like a small needle in laser form. It was thin, sharp, and looked like it'd be painful to use. I tentatively touched a dark bruise, and a soothing warmth ebbed in that location. The dark blemish moved away from the tip like the tide receding, and it was slowly replaced by white skin.

It wasn't quick but wherever I pierced the needle that area would slowly begin to look better than the skin around it. Because my body was young, there wasn't a huge difference, but there was a difference. Did this spell have a rejuvenating effect?! I did all the other locations, and while it took a lot of time the results were worth the wait. The bruises and a few forming pimples were magicked away as if they never existed. My body was once again unblemished and the areas around my waist and thighs seemed to be a bit more flexible.

Today was Sunday and I had a lot of things to remember and research. I wasn’t as bad off as I first thought. That was because I “remembered” every book I glanced at yesterday which would cover most of the school courses. There was also the fact that this body seemed to have retained muscle memories. I say muscle memories, but it was a bit more than that. It was hard to explain. The simplest explanation I could give would be was that when I went to do something Stephanie had done before, like putting my hair up, I just seemed to know how to.

My biggest problem was personal information like her three friends, my mom, and teachers was completely blank. From her pictures and conversations, I had her friends’ names and what they looked like but if they were close, I didn't think I was going to be able pass as Stephanie for long.

Then there was this world. It had a lot of similarities to mine but judging from the history book and what I knew, that was just on the surface. This one was a little more dangerous due to people being able to cast. Seventy percent of the people in this world could only cast low level spells called cantrips and usually only from one of the eight options: Mind, Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Biological Alteration although most people called it Bio Magic, Light which was also known as Holy, and Darkness. For example, from a text complaining to her friend, I knew from my texts that my mom was in the first category and was a low-level Bio mage that could only cast speed type spells. Basically, she could make herself a little faster. She used it to become a secretary but with her figure, most of her bosses wanted her to do some late-night “dick-tation”. Because she was unwilling to have sex with her bosses, she was constantly looking for a new job. It was only when she started working for a female manager that things began to improve. They had confided to her three friends that my mom’s refusal to sleep around was the cause of most of her struggles. It was also something I knew from overhearing her talking on her phone in my last life and why I did my best to support her and not add to her worries.

The next level was only around twenty percent of the population. They had the ability to use second and third rank spells and normally had two or three elements to choose from. They could also learn easier and cast more often. The next ten percent was broken up into several levels. The main differences were how quickly they learned spells and how long they could cast for, but because there wasn’t a big difference, they tended to be lumped into one group except for the last one percent. That was because that last one percent could learn any spell, cast all elements, learned spells easily and never got tired. They were extremely powerful from casting. Stephanie was tested to be one of those few people. Her joy of being powerful faded quickly because Stephanie couldn’t cast any spells.

The school and a few “concerned” government workers wanted her to volunteer to be tested on. But history was fraught with examples of people misusing that excuse and caused most of most of today’s issues from experimenting on humans. Those doctors insisted that were just “studying” or “helping” others but from the gruesome pictures in the book, that was far from the truth. Humans combined their limited abilities with technology to do horrible things. Scientists created monsters by splicing genes of animals, and sometimes humans, together and then promptly lost control of the subjects. So, magic casting monsters now roamed the land. Others tried making cures for known diseases (or so they claimed) but ended up making mutating magic viruses. Now a case of chickenpox might not have little red dots but tiny little hands growing out of your body. There were dozens of examples of how humans misused their powers in the book and those that rose up to fix the problems. So, her declining to be a test subject mase sense to me. But her being tested as a 1% but not casting put her in an awkward position in school. The principle didn’t want to stop giving her the top resources but without being able to cast he couldn’t approve it. She dropped out of the “honor” courses and settled into the “normal” classes.

This and her strong refusal to date made her the butt of every joke but judging from the school’s notices that were sent to her and her mom, she decided to deal with it with her fists. Most of the issues with other students passed but she was still limited in magical resources. For her, it was a blow to her dream of getting better and having a career. I just couldn't find what her dream job was. Like me, did she want to go pro in her sports field? I didn't want to be a professional cheerleader. But in this world and in this body, I didn't know what else I could be.

For now, I have time. I just needed to figure out more about this world and wondered if Stephanie had been in honors, would I still have to have spent several hours on the internet looking for things her books didn’t say. Most of my time was devoted to reading chat forums and news articles.

The articles I read mostly focused on day-to-day life events. But there were a few that read as if you were a walking dead man if you didn't have powers. They were in the minority and there were no signs of panic or dangers, so I wondered if I clicked into some shady tabloids instead of the real news for those articles. I thought about it and zoomed in on the cars. They didn’t have cages to protect the windows. The people in the interviews seemed relaxed, those behind the people being interviewed walked on the street without a care. The world looked perfectly normal, so I wasn't sure what to believe.

Time passed quickly. It wasn’t until around six that I read something that sounded too familiar for my liking. It was just a small news article titled “Another Girl Caught in the Void”. It took a moment, but the void was mentioned in my “dream”. I clicked on the article. It was about a new drug called Phaseout. The drug came in the form of pills and were made in batches. A host pill was linked up to six other pills and whoever took the main pill would find themselves in a dark space unable to move freely. Those that took the other pills could do anything to the person. The police had multiple murder and rape cases that they were having difficulty solving because there was no physical evidence left behind. It was only a couple of paragraphs, but it sounded like what I experienced, other than the unnatural burning desire I felt during it.

But I didn’t find it hard to imagine drug makers altering drug formulas, by adding an aphrodisiac or more addictive chemicals to boost sales or get repeat customers. But getting such drugs shouldn’t be easy, right? I had so many questions. Like, how did I get such a drug? Did Janet give her the pill or was that not the cure she found? If not, where did I get such a drug. From everything I read through, Stephanie didn’t go to parties or have such desires. Instead, she worked out, studied, and practiced magic even though she never succeeded in casting anything. Other than cheerleading practice and games she didn’t seem to not have much of a social life. Which is probably why her phone hadn’t gone off once this weekend.

Another question was, did Stephanie die that night and I somehow took over her body or did we just switch places? I hoped it was the last one because otherwise my original body was probably dead, but the former was more likely. Several articles had mentioned people dying without any signs of foul play. But, clinging to the hope we switched only brought more questions like could I return?

And then there was burning desire. My body seemed to anticipate and desire whatever those two men did to me. I even climaxed… a lot. It was unnatural. Was it a compulsion spell or a chemical reaction from the drug? There wasn’t much information inside my schoolbooks because compulsion spells were mostly illegal. You needed special clearances to use them on people. But criminals rarely care about laws. If it was a spell, could people use it against me again? Could I learn to fight it? I didn’t want to lose myself and be at somebody’s beck and call. If it required me taking that drug, it wasn’t very likely I’d experience it again. But guarding against a knife in the dark was a difficult thing. If it was that drug and not Janet, who gave it to me and what if they gave me more? Was this somebody’s elaborate trap?

Not knowing nagged at me. Made me doubt myself. One thing was for sure, I lacked answers and not having them might lead to a fatal mistake. I decided to make dinner to take my mind off of my uncertainty. I know my mom left me money, but I needed knowledge more than fast food. It was Sunday so the city Library was already closed, and I wasn’t sure if they’d have what I was looking for. I pocketed the money in case I needed to buy a book that specialized in defensive magic.

With instant noodles and a glass of water, I went back to my room to continue researching. I focused on enchantment magic since other option was drug reaction. The first option was the most likely thing that was causing the strange heat inside me. I had to ignore the pop-up ads trying to get me to click into their sites. They sounded gimmicky and I wasn’t that desperate. The discussion forum most suggested building up your willpower because everybody could do it. They all agreed that it would work but disagreed on how to obtain a better resistance. There were multiple different ways. The one thing they all had in common was that they all took time, which I had. I felt pretty secure as long as I didn’t go to any shady places or eat anything strange. I ignored the other options because they required either specialized help from professionals which required money or to have magic stronger than whoever enchanted you. Neither of which I had at the moment, so I switched my search to “how to build up magic resistance” and came up with a few choices.

There was a study done called the marshmallow experiment by a mage named Walter Mischel. It focused on delaying gratification. While the experiment was about giving two marshmallows instead of one if they could wait, the theory that a person’s willpower would increase as they delayed the rewards proved to be successful, at least in children. Then there was the white bear experiment. It focused on thought suppression and not thinking about the white bear. That one’s results seemed more dubious. Other sites had lists of what to do. They ranged from six or nine things and not every suggestion made sense to me. In the end, I didn’t even know if I was under a spell but wrote down a few things that I thought would be helpful for building up my willpower. It wouldn’t hurt to have a strong willpower to resist magic in a world with magic.