ALL NOVEL 02 Time To Learn
It took over a month before the teacher finally noticed Harry's vision problem when she wondered why he wasn't learning his letters and numbers properly. She had to take him to the school nurse for an official reason to have his eyes checked and they easily discovered the problem. Severe nearsightedness.
Harry was given a note to take home and he shook his head and refused. Both the nurse and the teacher sighed, because it meant doing it themselves or sending someone else with the note. When they tried to give it to Dudley, he tore it up and threw it in the trash.
Vernon was not happy when he came home that day to see a school official waiting for him with a notice to get his nephew's eyes checked. “I'll get them checked all right.” He grumbled and sent the man away.
Harry was home for two weeks while his two black eyes healed. On the last day, Petunia bought a second hand pair of glasses from the discount bin at the mall and shoved them onto Harry's face.
“There! You have glasses, you freak! Now you can tell the school to stop bugging us about it!” Petunia spat, angrily.
Harry wasn't sure why she thought he could tell the teachers what to do, even as another blurry blue box appeared in front of him. He mentally thought yes and suddenly everything became clear. He could see! He could also see the box in front of him, even if he couldn't actually read it yet.
Corrective lenses have been successfully applied. Adjust visual parameters to fit current sight restrictions?
Mental acceptance confirmed. Sight settings changed to fix corrective lenses incompatibility. Visual debuff of 'Nearsighted' with a severity of 46% has been cancelled. Will return when corrective lenses are removed. Reading debuff of 75% has been reduced to 50%. Must learn to read to cancel debuff completely. New settings saved.
Harry stared at the thing and mentally dismissed it, then he stared around at everything. It was like a whole new world for him. He had been stumbling around almost completely blind for so long that being able to see was a complete shock.
“Stop acting freakishly!” Petunia hissed and grabbed his arm. She hauled him out of the store and ignored the people whispering about her. She took him home and shoved him into the kitchen. “Get to work cleaning!”
“Yes, Aunt Petunia.” Harry said and did just that for two hours.
Cleaning Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Cleaning Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Cleaning Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
You have gained +1 Strength.
Warning: Malnutrition Debuff in effect. -3 Strength, -3 Vitality, -3 Dexterity.
Warning: Child Debuff in effect. -2 Strength, -2 Vitality, -2 Dexterity.
Harry mentally said yes to them and dismissed them like he always did. He liked that he could tell there were words in the boxes now, even if he couldn't read them yet, and kept working until Petunia kicked him out of the kitchen and started cooking supper for everyone.
*
A week later in school, Harry stared at the blue box in front of him.
Congratulations! You have learned the Alphabet Song. 100% bonus to Reading Skill.
Congratulations! You have learned the Reading Skill! Current level: 2
Your Intelligence has increased by 2!
Harry's little mind started to make sense of what he was looking at. He read it several times before he realized what it meant. He sang the Alphabet Song in his head again and looked at the color pictures above the chalkboard. With the new stat, skills, and bonuses, he started to read the words under each letter. Apple, Bird, Cat, Dog, Eagle...
Reading Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Reading Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Reading Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Reading Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
...Yak, Zebra. Harry finished the whole thing and his eyes widened, because the latest popup appeared.
Reading Skill has reached Level 10! XP reward: 500 x2 = 1,000
You have gained a level! You are now Level 6 and 5 free stat points have been awarded.
Harry wasn't sure what some of those words meant and didn't want to ask anyone else what they were. He didn't want to appear stupid, even though his aunt and uncle had forced him to score badly on any tests he took, just so Dudley could look better by comparison. The teacher didn't try to help him anymore, either.
After the second time Child Services lost the case file and never came back, there was nothing she could do to help. Whatever the Dursleys had done, Harry Potter was not going to get any help from anyone.
The lunch bell rang and Harry dismissed the blue boxes in front of him and stood up. He only had a couple of minutes to get across the parking lot and into the school library before Dudley and his gang hunted him down. They weren't allowed in the school's library, because they were too loud and made a mess wherever they went.
Harry quickly passed the reading exercise book to the teacher as he ran by her desk, because if he left it on his desk, it would be ruined or stolen. He had already lost two of them because of Dudley and he didn't want to lose another. The teacher didn't acknowledge him at all as Harry ran out of the room and down the hallway.
The hall monitor couldn't even open their mouth to shout before Harry was out through the front doors and his sock-covered feet slapped on the pavement. He heard some sneakers slap the pavement behind him and he tried to run faster.
You have gained a new skill! Sprint, Level 1.
Sprint increases Running Skill by 20% temporarily at the cost of 5 Stamina Points per second.
Running Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Sprint Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Warning: Stamina Points nearly depleted. Depletion will cause the Exhaustion Debuff.
Harry immediately slowed down to his normal running speed and then slowed to a walk when he reached the library steps. He was safe!
Evasion Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
The library door was heavy and he struggled with it a little until he managed to get his back on the edge of the door and pushed, then he slid inside and the door closed again.
“Hello, Harry.” The woman behind the desk said in greeting. “Are you here to look at the picture books again?”
Harry knew she knew that he always came here at lunch so he could hide. He also never had a lunch and she never mentioned it or even offered him anything to eat. “Yes.” He said, not sure why he didn't want to reveal that he could actually read now. He could also see her name above her head and it was Emma Johnson.
“You know where they are.” Emma said with a smile and went back to reading her own book.
Harry looked at it and another blue box popped up.
On Bent Knee by Constance Knelt. A paperback book that is dog-eared and well read.
Harry walked by her desk and went down the first aisle. As he walked along, he had to dismiss a deluge of popup boxes that appeared for each book name with a short description. He had seen it several times before and hadn't thought about it at all. He could actually read the names now and even understood a lot of the words.
Reading Skill has gained a level! Child bonus x2 XP!
Harry smiled as he made his way down to the very back of the library to the reading area and the small stack of picture books there. He had seen them a dozen times already and still came back to look at them again. The things they showed were things he had never seen before and he couldn't get enough of them.
He sat down and picked up the big book of trains, now realizing that was what it was actually called, and he started flipping through the pages and stared at the first picture.
You have already seen this picture. You like it. Would you like to save the picture permanently?
Harry blinked his eyes at the popup and thought yes as he dismissed it.
Picture saving... failed. Gamer Mind level insufficient to save memory. Please increase the level before trying to save another picture.
Harry stared at the message. Even though he was only five, he somehow knew that he had seen and done this action a bunch of times. He flipped the page and received the prompt again. It was then he realized that he always said yes and dismissed the blue boxes without even knowing what they meant.
Of course, he had no clue how to increase the Gamer Mind, whatever that was, and kept looking at the pictures. He started thinking no for the first time in his life as the boxes kept appearing. He finished looking at the book and put it back on the small stack. It was then that another book caught his eye.
Numbers and Math Made Easy by Herbert Humperdink. This learning primer teaches a child how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
Harry felt a little excitement, because the teacher had complained before that he didn't know his numbers right and that had led to his new glasses. He picked up the book and stared at a box he had never seen before. At least, he was sure he hadn't, because his penchant for always answering yes would have let him discover it a long time ago.
Skill Book found! Do you wish to learn this skill?
Yes. Harry thought and the book flickered like a bad television signal and then seemed to lose color.
You have learned a new Skill! Basic Mathematics, Level 1! Child Bonus x2 XP!
Your Intelligence has increased by 2!
Your Wisdom has increased by 1!
Harry's mind was suddenly filled with numbers and math problems and he knew things he had never known before. He sat there for several minutes before he started to look through the stack of books for something else. He didn't know what he was looking for, just that he wanted to see if there was anything else he could learn.
Reading Can Be Fun by Samuel Shawshank. This learning primer teaches a child how to read properly and lets them sound out larger words for the best effect.
Harry smiled at finding another book and picked it up.
Skill Book found! Do you wish to learn this skill?
Yes! Harry thought enthusiastically and the book flickered and then dulled in color.
You have already learned the Reading Skill. Level increased by 1 instead. Child Bonus x2 XP!
Harry was very happy with that result, mainly because he was having a much easier time reading the boxes themselves, as well as the names of the various books around him. He had no idea what ones would count as a skill book, though. When he picked up the math book again, nothing happened, so that told him he couldn't keep picking up the same book to get more levels.
His eyes went to the nearby shelf and saw several copies of the same book and they weren't dull like the one he had used. He picked one up and it immediately dulled to match the other one, so he picked each of them up to make them all dull, just so he wouldn't waste time trying them again later. When he grabbed the next book, he received another popup and it asked if he wanted to upgrade his Mathematics Skill.
Harry immediately accepted and gained two levels that doubled with his Child bonus and added two more points to his Intelligence and one to Wisdom. He didn't know what they stood for, only that things seemed a lot easier to think about now. He also had the wild idea to walk around the entire library to level his Reading skill and to pick up each and every book to look for skills.
As he stood to do that, the bell rang and ended lunch. Harry let out a sigh and walked back over to the front of the library and the woman behind the desk gave him a huge smile.
“Don't be sad, Harry. The books aren't going anywhere.” Emma said.
“But, I want to try and read them all.” Harry said and she let out a laugh.
“You have plenty of time to do that. You just started school, after all.”
Harry had to agree with that and nodded before he left. He had plenty of time to go through the library and it would also keep him away from Dudley and his gang. He hated that he was always so tired and weak all the time, though.
*
Six months later, pretending to be stupid was hard for Harry after his Intelligence stat reached double digits. He started to worry about not being able to hide it for long, until he found a new skill book in among the fiction section of the library. He had been reading the books there for fun, thanks to his Reading Skill being maxed out and it upgraded to Speed Reading.
You have learned a new Skill! Acting, Level 1.
Harry almost laughed and managed to cover his mouth in time before it escaped. With that skill, he knew things were going to be better. His Stealing, Stealth, Lying, and Spying skills had been godsends since he had learned them and he used them as much as possible to level them up. With Acting added to those, he was sure that no one would ever discover how much he was actually learning at school.
He was also halfway through the contents of the library, because he had quickly learned that just reading the titles of the books didn't give him any real information. He had to actually read them to gain any knowledge and it also increased his stats when he learned things directly and not through a skill book.
Harry still absorbed skills that he didn't have the time to learn the long way, like Crafting. It started with Paper and making and gluing things together, then it was basic woodworking and using tools. Who knew that do it yourself books counted as skill books? His Crafting Skill was over twenty already and he hadn't folded a single piece of paper or picked up a single tool, because he had used up every craft book in the library's section instead.
Emma the librarian actually let him inside the library in the mornings and let him stay after school for an hour, because he was always respectful and he never damaged the books. She thought he shared her love of books and would never know that Harry only saw them as sources of information and opportunity.
School was both a blessing and boring for someone so intelligent, especially because Harry had to hide his abilities. The class books for different subjects had been absorbed as soon as they had made an appearance. In fact, Harry had even volunteered to help pass the books out and gathered them up, just so he could gain access to the book cabinet without restrictions.
Basic Math had been maxed out, as had Basic English and Basic Science. They wouldn't upgrade until he could get access to the next year's materials, which were in another classroom and he wasn't allowed in there to get them. He also couldn't reach some of the higher shelves in the library and didn't want to bother the librarian more than he already did.
Harry also didn't want her to see how quickly he was going through things. It wasn't until he was at home on the weekend and his aunt had forced him to use a step stool to clean the high shelves in the curio cabinets she owned, that he realized he could use the same thing at the library. He would have to be sneaky about it, though.
He could not get caught carrying a folding step stool all the way to school to use in the library and he wondered how he was going to hide the thing. He had to go to school and put a hand on it with the intention of tucking it behind the garage until later, then a blue box appeared in front of his face.
Gamer Mind is at a sufficient level. Do you wish to store item 'step stool' into your inventory?
Harry stared at the box and then immediately thought vehemently. YES!
The step stool disappeared and Harry felt it was nearby, only it was not really anywhere. He knew it was at hand, though. When he thought he wanted it back, it reappeared in his hand.
Harry let a huge smile appear on his face as his young and impressionable mind was filled with everything he could do with the ability to make things disappear and reappear when he wanted them.