Jonathan sat up feeling queasy and unwell, the book resting in his lap and shimmering in all its mystical, mysterious, glory. He could feel the recesses of his mind itching, memories that weren’t his gnawing at his thought, flickering In and out of his immediate attention. “Well that book is here, so that couldn’t have possibly been a dream. That asshole sent me here because some stupid character I made as a teen is running amuck, causing fiction and non fiction to merge? This is stupid…so bullcrap…” He grumbled, clutching The Author’s gift in both hands.

Jonathan really debated on throwing the thing, he really did, but if this thing held the answers he would need to survive, then he was goanna have to suck it up. ‘Well, better now than never…’ Bracing himself he would open the book to the first page and…blank. He raised a brow inquisitively, flipping through more pages. Each one was blank, completely and totally blank, and with each page the human’s patience grew more and more lacking. With a frustrated growl he reached the final page, getting ready to chuck it in the lake, but something made him pause.

With squinted eyes he leaned in close, taking note of the two words in the bottom corner of the page. “Pwinx…start?” He murmured. Without warning the book’s pages blasted Jona in the eyes with vibrant rays of blue light, forcing him to drop the book with a loud scream. “JESUS FUCK! MY EYES!” He stood up, backing away from his book that had pretty much flash banged him point blank. The pain was immense, searing hot daggers of pain resonating through his eye nerves, traveling straight into his brain.

Tears ran down his cheeks while both hands rubbed at his now bloodshot eyes. When his vision cleared and everything came into focus…the book was gone…but something, or more specifically some-ONE had taken its place. Floating inches from his face was a glowing pink…imp? It had the curves of a woman, yet had a few masculine features around it'd draconic face, and muscles, along with long pink tail with stripes. Sprouted from its head was a head of messy white hair. Its yellow eyes with blue pupils stared back into Jonathan’s watery gaze. From the creature's back a pair of triangular wings floated detached from its form, yet somehow it continued to float.

“Howdy ho Jonathan, or should I say Overlord Dezmond~ It is I, your noble companion, conscious, and guide Pwinx Neferio! I was the tome of knowledge, but I’ve decided that this form would be much more…thematic, considering the circumstances. Hmm~” Pwinx looks himself over, raising a brow before snapping his fingers causing a tiny full body mirror to appear floating in front of him. “Damn, I look good, I never knew you had a thing for femboy's big guy~”

Jonathan’s expression cycled through waves of emotions, from pain, to dumbstruck, back to pain, and finally settling on good old fashioned ANNOYANCE. “Was the fucking flashbang to my face really nessisary?! What the hell do you mean you "were The Tome of Knowledge
...? He used his palms to wipe the last of the dampness from under his eyes, much to the impish amusement of his new travel partner.

“Hmmnn, how can I put this in a way your human brain can comprehend without it melting…well…you see Dezzy baby, The Tome of Knowledge is a powerful relic, one that was sought after by many scholars and magic users across the multiverse. This book’s potential scales to that of its owner, allowing them to bend the rules of reality to their will, and achieve their wildest dreams through the guidance of the book's very pages...” Pwinx snapped his fingers causing the manifestation of the mirror to turn into a folding chair and umbrella.

Sitting back on it he would snap his fingers again, this time with a tiny martini clutched in his pink claws. “For you I had to get a full analysis of your mind, your hopes, your memories old and new, your dreams, and your darkest, most personal desires~ Gotta say, you have some pretty kinky shit in that brain of yours, I mean…seriously dude, you could probably start and run your own pornhub account-”

“AHEM…” Jonathan glared daggers at the tiny imp creature who gave a sheepish giggle, blushing as he sipped away at his martini. Pwinx clearly enjoyed toying with Jonathan, spinning around his head like a gravitating moon.

“Anyways, back on track, that flash you witnessed was me getting all the data I needed to adjust the book’s functionality to your liking. Apparently you had a thing for fat assed femboys, pretty gay bro-” Dezmond swatted the imp however his hand seemed to faze through the being as if it were made of air, much to the entity’s sha-grin.

“My existence isn’t material unfortunately, however I am able to give you your own special form of guidance…I call it…’Eyes of The Seeker’ think of it as the hud for a videogame, Cliché I know. You now have the innate ability to analyze materials you either touch or have prolonged eye contact with, and I display its properties to you, which are immediately memorized and cataloged. Try it out with that pile of blue flowers over there!”

Pwinx who had by this point conjured a blue floral shirt and khaki pants pointed over to the plants in question, causing Jonathan to direct his fiery gaze towards them. His gaze softened when he noticed the glowing purple and blue shapes manifesting in the form of various displays before his very eyes. The "loading circle" for analyzing his target finished, finely listing the plant and its properties.

____________________

Poison joke

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The plant has large leaves with a bulb with several petals sticking out of the center, each bulb sporting a few stamen. The entire plant is blue, including leaves and stalks, with dark streaks running over it in a design.

Like its namesake, Poison Joke, it affects the individuals after they merely come into contact with it, but as described by Zebrican shaman Kalek Patoi, the plant does not poison its victims; rather, it plays practical jokes, which manifest as physical afflictions. Jokes magically appear according to the personality traits of an individual, with no two cases ever being the same.

Note: poison joke effects can be deliberately triggered in a controlled manner by the use of a potion using the blossoms as an ingredient, therefore it is hypothetical to replicate certain jokes in the form of alchemical hexes. These alchemical means of cursing have been used by Zebrican shaman as a deterrent trap for intruders.

Level of Lethality:This herbal plant categorizes under a MEDIUM threat lethality due to its unpredictable nature and extent the jokes will go. It is recommended that those afflicted should seek treatment as soon as possible .

Cure: The cure for poison Joke was discovered by Zebrican shaman Kalek Patoi as a herbal bath which requires the dilution of poison joke essence through various alchemical herbs. Herbs required consist of; Frostvine shavings, Mint Herbs, Jumping Lillypads, and sprinkles of mana mushrooms.

___________________________

Jonathan rested his thumb on his chin, thinking while reading the informative text over with curious eyes. Along with the information on Poison Joke came various formulas using the Poison Joke blossoms as a base component. Such formulas came up as: Vial of Joke Juice Poison, Herbal Joke Cure, and Killing Joke Juice Poison.

“This is incredible…but what about these formulas that keep appearing in my vision? Do I just collect them and craft them…? Just like that? No effort?” He asked Pwinx, looking up towards the Imp creature who was now wearing a pair of...incredibly...tight jean shorts and a snug crop top, chugging away at a small can of beer.

“Well you can do that, it's called the “Author’s Arcane Crafting” It allows the user to pour their flow of magic into the materials collected and morph them into the desired item without the use of a crafting station or forge. However such actions can be heavily taxing on one’s mana reserves. The more complex the item, the more mana is taken up to craft it, so don't go trying to make any gundam mecha yet. Oh, and the more materials you have, the less your mana will have to fill in for the lack of components.” He winked, poking his tongue out playfully causing Jonathan to roll his eyes.

“But what if I decide to craft the item by hand…? Could you provide detailed instructions on how to make it?” Jonathan asked inquisitively, looking over the collected formula he had acquired from observing the plant. It was just like a videogame, only now it was made reality to him. Pwinx yawned and crushed the can against his head before tossing it into the air. Giving it the finger guns caused a pink bolt of energy to shoot out and vaporized the can in an instant.

“You betcha…this book has all kinds of neat tricks. No matter what the item you're trying to make is, as long as you have observed and cataloged proper materials in this book, a recipe can be fabricated. The more times you use magical crafting on a particular formula or schematic, you gain innate familiarity with crafting that formula, reducing the initial mana cost for making it. Other methods of reducing mana consumption include splitting the work down the middle, working on a portion of the item by hand, then the rest by magic.” Pwink explained while cheekily mock crafting himself a straw brimmed hat seemingly from nothing.

“Hmm…” Jonathan rubbed his chin, looking down at the ground while deep in thought...this power was strong, the possibilities limitless if he can just simply obtain more information about the world, and all the potential fantasy elements it has to offer. His thinking was cut short by Pwinx who called out with a taunting smirk.

“As much as I enjoy watching that BWC swinging around, I think it's about time you crafted yourself some pants yea?” Pwinx looked over at Jonathan with a predatory gaze, licking his lips hungrily while tilting down his newly fabricated sunglasses. Jonathan jumped, crossing his legs together with his face glowing a beat red. This caused Pwinx to let out a giggle, snapping his fingers in order to conjure a screen in his charge’s face.

“Thanks…” He muttered, looking over the recipe with a low grumble, checking the component list while trying to avoid the uncomfortable gaze Pwinx was giving him. His fingers enlarged the box, touching and pulling out a model of the pants before his very eyes. It wasn't anything fancy, far from it in fact, they were nothing more than pants made from plant fiber.

____________________

Humanoid Fiber Pants

____________________

Fiber pants, a simplistic design made from the collected fibers of stripped plant materials, intricately woven together in order to formulate garments for common use when typical manufacturing tools are unavailable.

Material Requirements: Fiber Bundles (x8), Vine Rope (x2), Everfree Palms (x2)

Familiarity: 1 / 10

Mana Requirements: Low

Track Materials: Inactive

____________________

Jonathan looked over the materials before slowly reaching out to the “Track Materials” option that appeared as a small box towards the right side of the word “Inactive”. Upon doing so a wide rippling wave of blue light shot from where he stood, like a sonar ping the waves rippled out, returning to him in quick succession. In his eyes he could see a directional arrow overhead, pointing towards the lake. When his eyes scanned the waters he could see various fish coming up in his sight, each one cataloged and filed away in his mind like a desktop folder.

What really caught his attention however was the flowing, lengthy, hairlike growths of “Lake Weed” coming up to about 15 inches long. Taking cautious steps into the cool water gradually boosted his confidence, allowing him to dive down with eyes open to begin picking handfuls of the weeds. Oddly enough the materials once grasped in his hands began to vanish, disappearing in flashes of blue or purple depending on the palms he grasped with.

For a second Jonathan considered the possibility that Pwinx was messing with him again, only to have that shot down by the sudden notifications that popped up in his vision. Despite the water appearing blurry the text boxes were clear as day. The first was showing his progress on the material collection, depicting that he had collected enough water weeds to consider them as 6 bundles of plant fiber. The second showed that his time under water was progressing into something called the “Aqua Gaze skill”. The longer he remained under water the more the small bar beneath the skill boosted.

Unfortunately his time underwater was limited, as could be told through the hot pain in his lungs from holding his breath so long. Kicking his feet he would surface from the lake, having completed the acquisition of the required fibers. Kicking and swimming back to shore he climbed out, wiping water from his face. Pwinx was waiting for him, this time with a folding chair, a bikini, and a half opened coconut as a drink.

“Huh, thought you had drowned yourself for a minute there, stud.” He said casually while taking a long, obnoxious slurp of his drink. Jonathan gave Pwinx an irate frown, raising a brow while crossing his arms.

“Is that outfit REALLY necessary…ugh, can you tell me what progressing into “Skills” means for me? More specifically this “Aqua Gaze”...skill?” The human asked while marching into the forest to find these Everfree Palms. The arrow over his head worked wonders, pointing to what appeared to be oversized Monstera leaves. He would see in the forests on TV, it was rather surreal to see something so normal be named something like Everfree Palms.

“Simple, the more you do certain passive activities, the more you put familiarity progress into them. “Aqua Gaze” is a skill that allows the user to passively clear the murky fog, and adapt your eyes to see clearly when under water without all that blur.” Pwinx said smoothly while floating on his chair over Jonathan’s shoulder. The small creature watched in boredom as his charge plucked the needed materials from the bush, sucking them up into either palm.

“And what about the-” Jonathan was about to speak before he was rudely interrupted by the knowledgeable entity, who responded swiftly.

“Items you collect are stored within the tome’s inventory, the amount varies, but it directly ties to your strength as you are. Currently that beefcake of a body has enough strength to carry up to 1010 pounds before the weight of your tome inventory starts to spill onto your physical body. It is a good way to boost your strength while exercising I must admit, though I can't stress enough how bad it would be if you were to become over encumbered during a fight.” Pwinx picked at his teeth with a claw while watching his capable ward climb a tree to tug down some vine ropes.
When Jonathan attempted to dislodge the plant rope, it caused a rather large cluster of what looked to be pastel colored cotton balls, with tiny insect wings to come flying out in his face. Reasonably he let out a shriek of terror before falling down a good 20 feet onto the forest floor with a comically loud TWUMP. Pwinx tried to stifle his laughter only for it to come out in high pitched giggles, with him rolling out of his chair belly laughing while floating a few feet from Jonathan’s prone form.

“Mmmnnn…rather than laughing like a lunatic…could you maybe tell me what the hell that was…?” He wheezed, slowly picking himself back up to brush the dirt off his body. Jonathan had managed to get a good look at the cluster of creatures before they got away after swarming him. Pwinx snapped his fingers in between gasps of air, his face oddly glowing blue as the strange Imp creature’s blood rushed to his cheeks.

___________________

Parasprites

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Parasprites are insect-like creatures that primarily appear in swarms from 20-1000. The name "Parasprite" is a portmanteau of parasite and sprite, a mythical forest creature from folklore. Their voracious appetites and rapid multiplication turn them from pets to pests, making them rather dangerous if left unchecked.

Due to their low lifespan they developed a biological quirk that allows them to reproduce asexually through rapid cellular division. Despite their appearance these creatures do not contain organs or even stomachs, which rumors that their mouth is a portal to an extra dimensional space where they store their pilfered food.

Note: It has been documented that these parasitic pests have a low tolerance to mental based attacks, single mindedly following and being attracted to things such as catchy music, or low grade manipulation magic.

Level of Lethality: In low numbers the Parasprites are considered non lethal, however in swarms they upgrade their lethality to high levels, with their uncontrollable numbers being able to decimate towns or cities by the rapid consumption of organic materials, excluding living entities. Even in large numbers however, these insectoid creatures do not have the physical capabilities to harm sentient creatures.

Known Weaknesses: ???

Habitat: Parasprites are commonly known to dwell in the Everfree forest due to the environment’s abnormal growth rate of edible materials.

_________________________

“Woof…that sounds like an annoying pest problem to deal with, I’d hate to be the unfortunate shmuck to be the one bringing those into town…” Jonathan snorted, looking over the information collected.

Far, far, far away in the town of Ponyville, Fluttershy who had at this point made it home to feed her animals felt a sudden urge leading her to sneeze. “Oh dear…somepony must be talking about me…”

Back with Jonathan he double, then triple checked his materials list, noting the various checked boxes indicating that he had acquired all materials. Hovering inches from the image of his jungle themed pants a big red button labeled “Fabricate” was lit up, begging him to push it. ‘Pants and common decency…here I come!’ The naked man pressed the fabricate button and almost instantly the numbers for the materials shot down to zero all across the board. Deep down Jonathan felt a pang of exhaustion, presumably his 'mana' being drawn from his body to fabricate his item.

Space before him rippled as a circle of vibrant blue light formed before its creator, arcane runes circling its insides. Flipping horizontally the spell circles would split apart slowly, with a pair of Fiber Pants being intricately woven before Jonathan’s very eyes. This was the first time Jonathan was seeing magic, it was beautiful, it was exciting, and made his heart pound like a jackhammer in his chest.

These pants, despite their simplicity and seemingly mundaneness, these leafy slacks were his first steps to a potentially limitless source of creative freedom. It was in the form of crafting through this powerful, if not slightly annoying tome. The process was steady yet quick, with his pants floating in between the two spell circles.

You Have Crafted

Humanoid Fiber Pants

+3 Crafting Familiarity Gained

“You know…maybe this won’t be as bad if I have you to help me Pwinx…” Jonathan smiled softly, reaching out to take his long awaited pants as if they were the holy grail. Before Jonathan could grasp them, a cluster of multicolored, pastel, and big eyed insects swarmed around him and his newly crafted pants. The unbearable buzzing of their wings echoed in his mind, their fuzzy bodies brushing up against his bare skin.

Before the man could have a chance to scream out…it happened.

Item Humanoid Fiber Pants has been destroyed.

Pwinx slowly floated on his folding chair beside Jonathan, whose mouth was still locked into a smile of excitement. His fingers were still outstretched reaching for his now non existent pants. Pwinx could see the human’s eye twitching, pupils dilated to pin pricks, and for a moment he thought he saw a tear roll down one of the man’s cheeks. Pwinx flew closer and closer, stopping inches from Jonathan’s ear with the biggest, shit eating grin imaginable plastered on his face while whispering.

“Did I forget to mention that Parasprites LOVE Everfree palms?~”

…….

Jonathan’s voice echoed through the forest, his voice coming out in an echoing roar loud enough to shake the birds from trees, and into the blue skies.

I JUST WANTED SOME FUCKING PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTS!!!

Author's Note

Hey everypony, sorry this chapter doesn't have any new art! To make up for it the next chapter will contain both an image of our NEW character Pwinx, as well as the regularly scheduled chapter picture! Im so glad you all managed to raise the likes to over 50 so quickly! I can't tell you enough how happy and inspired it makes me to see so many who enjoy this work I'm doing!

On 100 likes I plan to, just like before do an OC insert or cameo! Feel free to shoot me DMS of a detailed writing of your OC! More detailed the better!

Anyways, have a good morning or evening, and as always STAY TUNED for the next chapter of My Little Overlord X3 (Cringe I know lol)