Magnus' quest (Patreon)

The crowd inside the tavern cheered as Magnus entered, victorious. He had slain yet another dragon threatening to burn the entire village. The beast was a gigantic beast, but the townspeople were not afraid; Magnus has been protecting them for several decades. Master of the blades, he could swing his heavy weapons at a surprising speed, displaying the strength of his muscled-up body. He was also a powerful mage, capable of casting an array of spells, exploiting the weakness of every enemy he faced.

After each victory, the villagers would pay him countless beers, that he would drink until sunrise. Magnus’s inflated beer belly became a symbol of peace and joy.

Despite the joyful atmosphere, Magnus was brewing some dark thoughts.

“Hey, why the long face?”, said the barman, “That dragon was the last of the flock, we will be at peace for several months! You should celebrate!”

“I may have won”, the mage responded, “but I barely made it. At one point, I ran out of mana. It’s like it’s taking me more and more energy to cast my spells. I’m turning 60 years old and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to protect you, folks, for much longer.”

“Nonsense. Look how strong you are!” He poked Magnus’s huge bicep. “Maybe you only need more mana, that’s all, no big deal! Here, take another beer! I want to contribute to this celebratory beer belly! It’s quite big today!”

Magnus patted his belly which has blow up to the size of a beach ball and was still growing.

“Thanks, hopefully, all those calories will convert to energy by tomorrow. I have a lot of wood to chop…”

“Converting energy, eh? If you could store as much mana as you can store beer, your problem would be solved! Hahaha!”

That simple joke snapped Magnus out of his sadness. He was right. Instead of having to carry mana in bottles, he could find a way to create it himself, wherever he was! Fully motivated, he got up and chugged the beer under the cheering of the crowd. His belly reached record size that night.

                                                                                            ***

The next morning, the mage scrolled through his spells frantically. After hours of searching, all the shelves of the library were emptied. Piles of books were lying on the floor. He was lucky to find what he was looking for in the last few untouched tomes he possessed: a spell to allow him to absorb any matter, and convert it into mana. The more life the item would contain, the more mana it would produce.

He started with some fruits. A pile of apples, easily found in the forest. He cast the spell and made the apples levitate one by one to his mouth. Instead of chewing them, he was forcing them, whole, down his throat, like a snake swallowing his prey. Luckily, the magic made the whole process painless. His belly was taking a weird shape: instead of a smooth sphere, it was covered in bumps, formed by the intact fruits inside him.

After ten apples, he was bloated as big as was the night before, after he drank the townsfolk's pints of beer. Then, the moment of truth. He put his hands on each side of his swelled body and cast the second part of the spell. His hands glowed in a light blue, a color that would slowly envelop his entire round belly. You could see the apple melting inside him, emitting a powerful light, that died down soon after. He instantly felt reinvigorated, with a powerful force.

It was a success. The apples had transformed into a pool of mana inside him. He was so happy that he ran outside to cast the biggest fireball he could, using the mana reserve he was containing. His belly deflated to his original size, a small beer belly with an outie belly button, the result of years of beer drinking. The fireball he cast was of reasonable size, but wouldn’t be enough to vanquish the creatures he was often facing. Maybe the apple didn’t contain that much energy, it would take more to generate a decent mana pool.

So he went back inside and tried to swallow more apples to see the result. He did the spell again, sucked 10 apples inside him like the last time, and pushed for more. 12…13… The magic only affected his mouth and throat, so his belly was struggling to contain that much. 14…15… He was in pain, stuffed more than he ever was. 16…17… “ARRRGGGGHHH” He was about to pop. He needed to turn them into mana right now, or else his stomach would tear. He put his hands on his belly, and did the spell, screaming and sweating.

“Bwooopswoooch” The fruits were liquified, and he instantly used the mana to create gold, to empty his flooded belly as soon as possible. In seconds, he deflated back to his original shape, panting and tired. A single bar of gold. He was disappointed. The bottleneck wasn’t the spell or the energy contained in the items he absorbed: it was his belly capacity, too small to make the spell useful.

What if he could gain the power of growing bigger to absorb more energy? No, that couldn’t be it: he would need mana to produce more mana, that’s absurd. What if he could enchant the entire land to allow him to grow bigger, anywhere he would be without spending energy? A linking of spells, granting him the power of growth when he would swallow large amounts of items. He only had to WISH to get bigger for the spell to work.

He assembled barrels and barrels of mana at the top of his tall tower.

An energy beam lighted up the sky. Then, a dome covering the entire land, as far as the eyes could see, flickered and slowly disappeared. It was done.

The town folks wondered what it was about, but the wizard reassured them, saying it was a protection spell. Then, he ran into the forest. From afar, you see a hairy pink dome growing taller than the trees, and then slowly deflate. The wizard came back from the forest, visibly tired, but with a smile on his face, with a mountain of gold on a wheelbarrow. The spell was working.

                                                                                             ***

His joy dissipated when a messenger ran toward him with a panicked look on his face.

“It’s Fromir, sir! He’s trying to open the portal!”

Magnus had wished to never hear this name again. His childhood friend, the one he learned his first spells with, took the path of anger and destruction and became a tyrant king of a village on the opposite side of the land.

When they were young, they found an ancient portal leading to another world. That world was full of riches, resources, and endless amounts of food, but also full of danger. Magnus preferred to keep it close to keep everyone safe, but Fromir wanted to let it open to extract resources from it no matter the cost. They fought to determine the action they would take. Magnus won (he always was the best warrior of the two), so they sealed the portal with a special key, which they divided into pieces scattered everywhere on the land.

If Fromir had found a way to open the portal, it would endanger everybody. There was only one solution. Magnus has to travel the land and reassemble every piece of the key to re-seal the portal.

                                                                                            ***

Having found a new source of power, Magnus knew he could face any danger on his path. So he embarked on a long journey, not knowing how much he will push his growing capabilities, and what exciting sizes he would reach.

(to be continued…)

(Hi, ls6y06cl6a0n here! Do you like this new character? Please let me know what you think and what you would like to see him do! I'm sure you understood that his special power and the fantasy backdrop are a way to allow me to write all sorts of crazy, over-the-top transformation stories. No size limit! Each chapter would read like a short standalone story and would use a different type of transformation. He'll deflate after each chapter, so we will be able to make him huge each time. Also, I wanted to do something with this character: he will be “open source”, meaning that if you want to write an adventure for him, you could! Just contact me on Grommr, I’m ls6y06cl6a0n. )