Part One: The Journal 

In regard to: the beginning

   I hope the poor soul who finds this does not make the same mistakes that I have.

The text was stamped on by an old fashioned typewriter, the ink faded. Attached to it, there was a small spherical package, wrapped in burlap and tied with twine. The package itself was hidden, but not in a way where it was never meant to be found. It was in a banyan tree, only just sticking out because the tree overlapped it. I had to rip it out of the tree, leaving a small cavity. The package looked suspicious, and my friends were wondering where I ran off, so I stuck it in my bag and decided to investigate it at home. 

   It's odd, I was so antsy to get home and look at it, but the message was a warning. I’ll just have to be careful from now on, and definitely not make the same “mistakes,” whatever that means. Inside the sack, there was another folded up note, and a ball. The only way to physically describe it was that it looked like a “20 Questions” ball, however it was solid white, had one button on it, and a counter right above that button, which read “2.” I also felt some sort of strange aura radiating off of it, almost like it was reaching out to me, whispering my name. Handling everything very carefully, I lined everything up, and reached for the note next. It was the same font and faded lettering from before.

To my successor:

You have just come in contact with the most powerful piece of machinery this world has ever seen. Be warned, it may bring the rise to your life, but eventually be the downfall, as it was for me. To say it simply, this device allows you to make 100 “wishes.” Bending reality as you so choose. There are some minor catches, but even these rules can be bent. 

“Yes or No” questions can also be asked. However it acts as a wish and will be deducted from the counter.

You cannot wish for more wishes, however that seems given. 

You cannot wish for someone to directly die, but can wish for something that will in turn, make them die.

Conversely, you cannot extend a person's life directly, but wish for things that prevent death temporarily.   

You cannot directly obscure the free will of others.

If at any point someone else takes this device and tries to use it, the counter will reset to 100 and ownership will be passed to them.

If you die in possession of this, or the counter falls to 0, this device will disappear. 

All this information was passed down from my predecessor, who I still don't know to this day. The nature of this device is unknown to me. How can it bend reality as the user pleases? Who was the first user? Why was I the one to find it of all people? These are questions the device itself cannot answer, strangely. 

The following steps will help you get started, a “tutorial,” if you will. At the time of writing this, I am 31. If you are reading this, hopefully I have not died yet, since the device would be gone if I was. 

There are 2 wishes left, one for you to take ownership from me, and the other to make sure the counter resets to 100, not hit the 0. Your first wish should be something simple, possibly to get the hang of things, while passing the ownership simultaneously.

To make a wish, hold the button down and focus on your thoughts. Say your wish aloud, and depending on the wish, it should take effect between 1-60 seconds later. For questions, the answer will appear where the counter was briefly, then flash back to the number.       

This is the general information that is needed, and I’m sure you will find more out about this device on your own. I’m having this device hidden where I’ll never find it, making sure I never see it again. Whether you use this heroically, or for malicious intent, this device will be the demise of you, one way or another. 

-H 

I read the note beginning to end, wondering if it was some sort of practical joke. My mind began to race with ideas of what I could do if this device was capable of granting wishes. I could bring about world peace, save millions of lives, prevent global warming, or accomplish thousands of other incredible feats. Then again, this could have been some art project that I stumbled upon, and believing this to be true could’ve made me look like a fool. 

The only true way to determine the legitimacy of the device was to try it out. The strange note said to keep it simple. I had an idea in mind. There used to be a communal garden behind my apartment building. However, due to the recent drought, and the fact that nobody watered them, the plants that were in the dirt bed have all turned to barren stems. I carried the device to the middle of the small raised bed, and spoke my wish very slowly and clearly.

“I wish for these dead plants surrounding me to be alive once again.”

Around me, the fallen over, broken stems began to rise, gaining color as they did. A yellow bud turned into a green marble which turned into a red, full sized tomato all within 10 seconds. I thought I was dreaming. It's almost as if this device read my mind, because what happened was exactly how I imagined it. I fell on the ground, terrified yet overzealous to see where this newfound power would take me.  

In regard to: the future

   Now that I have verified the utmost importance of the situation, I need to set some ground rules and methods which will help ensure my safety. I of course don’t want to make the so called “mistakes” that my predecessor made so I will proceed with extreme caution. These are the ideas I took note of:

1. I have 3 major goals. To wish for the good of humanity, to fix the natural world and keep it fixed, and to subtly gain power in this world.  

1. I will try to make the smartest decisions, and make every wish as if it were my last. I may not be the smartest, but I was the one who found it, so I will do my very best.

1. It is imperative that I act clandestinely. My name, location, age, gender, appearance, and even daily activities will be excluded for the most part. 

1. The purpose of this journal is to record each of the 100 wishes, word by word, I make, and the repercussions of each one. 

1. As far as I know, there are no limits to this power except what the user can think. The words said act as a guide to what details are in the users mind, as proved by the garden situation. This means I will make the most out of every wish, pushing my imagination to the limit.

1. As I use this device, I need to decide how I will choose to end this, if it ever comes to that. Will I let the counter reach 0, or do what my predecessor did: pass it on to a new contender?

   These rules will guide me through this journey, and I am planning to add more as they arise. My greatest fear is that I will not make the most out of this gift I have been given.

In regard to: the first wishes 

The first wishes I feel should be for gathering information, or wishes that I know I will need later down the line. It is currently Friday night, so I have two full days to get started on the right foot. I began with a simple wish, grasping the device, I held the button down. 

#1”I wish to understand every language I come into contact with.” 

The counter decreased by one, now standing at 99. Understanding (which in my mind includes reading, writing, and speaking) any language I come into contact with will help me no matter where I go in the world. I could have said “all languages known to man”, but I feel that my mind couldn’t contain all that information. They way I thought of it, whenever someone speaks to me in another language, or if I read it, I instantly understand each word as I go, as if everything I hear is in English. I confirmed it worked by watching a spanish soap opera, and I understood it as it all was spoken. At first I did not understand the modern slang, but I figured out what each word meant by context clues. I continued to learn other languages in my spare time mostly by listening to music, since it's not time consuming.

Going forward, I had several ideas to what I could wish for next. Things like being able to cast spells, become invisible at will, being able to teleport, or even asking questions that humanity has always wanted the answer to. I wasn't sure whether I should wish for several wishes all at once or take the time to actually think. The longer I take however, the longer before I can begin my plans. 

Then an idea hit me, what it if I wished for the abilities of a pre-existing fictional character, an example being Superman. It could go even further than that, because as long as I know the abilities of these characters, the device would fill in the blanks using my thoughts as a guide. This would save a great amount of wishes, while also giving me the result I wanted. So I decided to test this sort of theory out. 

#2 “ I wish to be able to cast all the spells that are within the Dungeons and Dragons universe, with no limits.”

The wish did not go through. The device gave a single buzz and “---” appeared on the small screen, which then blinked back to show 99. I wasn’t quite sure what caused it, since I seemed to have followed the rules mentioned on the note. I know I did it right, however, since I almost felt some sort of connection between me and the device after I wished, which got cut off shortly after. There were most likely other rules that even my predecessor never really came into contact with. Maybe I phrased it the wrong way, so I switched the wording around and I still had no results. Was it because it was fictional, or maybe the device couldn't piece together all of what I was thinking of in that moment. 

I should probably step back for a moment and explain why this wish would be important, instead of just wishing for something plain like “give me the powers of Superman.” Dungeons and Dragons is a role playing game which takes place in a mystical world where basically anything could happen. There are tons of useful spells detailed within the guide books which would be very useful to myself. For example, Teleport, Invisibility, Detect Thoughts, Disguise Self, and powerful spells which could bring destruction if I needed, such as, Fireball, Burning Hands, Cloud of Daggers, and Magic Missile. I added the last part, “with no limits” because each spell has certain limits to them which would hold me back, for example, Teleport only allows you to travel at most a couple thousand feet, and I was hoping for a couple thousand miles. 

It was essential to gain these abilities, so I re-read all of the spells, all their details and tried to memorize them, hoping that would be a solution to my issue, but then I realized something, all of the spells have limits for a reason, wishing for them to go away would be a whole other wish, if that makes sense. So, for this to happen I would have to be willing to spend 2 wishes. I truly believe it is worth it, so I then rushed for the device, which at the moment was on my desk, and pressed the button.

#2.5 “I wish to be able to cast every spell in the Dungeons and Dragons universe at will.”

A massive amount of information entered my head, and if it wasn’t for the first wish I made, I wouldn’t have been able to understand most of it. Most of the spells were in this arcane language which I could really only compare to some sort of Latin, at least that's what it sounded like when I spoke it. I guess fantasy languages counted as a language to the device, so I could comprehend it. Good thing I did get that wish out of the way, or else I could have been in quite the predicament now. 

Putting aside the massive headache and nausea I felt, I wanted to at least test a very basic spell that needed no material component.(something that the device to be a limit.). I chose to cast Mage Hand, a harmless spell that summons a spectral hand which I can control for up to a minute. I think for a moment and look into my newly given thoughts to find the “instructions” on how to cast it. I then saw images in my head of myself casting the spell, so I repeated the motions with no issue and spoke the words in that same arcane language. Within seconds, a see-through hand had appeared in front of me, and as I waved my hand, it did the same. I even thought of it holding up 2 fingers, and did exactly that. I then spoke a word that loosely translates to “end” and the hand disappeared. Now that I have confirmed it, I went on to the next step. 

#3 “I wish to be able to cast every spell in the Dungeons and Dragons universe with no limits.”

 After this wish, the nausea faded, as if the burden on my mind was lifted, making room for the incoming information. Everything in my mind was suddenly “updated.” To cast spells with no limits, I had to cast them in a different way. For example, to cast Mage Hand but with no time limit, I had to perform different hand motions and speak slightly different phrases and voila, the hand stayed there for as long as I wanted. I could also cast spells that formerly needed materials with them. For example, if I needed some phosphorus for the spell Dancing Lights, there was now a new set of hand motions to perform the spell without needing it. 

Knowing that it could be possible to forget these things, I had two options: 

• Write down the instructions to every spell.
• Wish to never forget anything.

   Wishing for my mind to never forget anything would be very beneficial not only for the 3 most recent wishes, but the ones that come after. So, to get my last “first wish” out of the way, I reached for the device once again. 

   #4 “I wish for my mind to never run out of space, therefore to never forget anything.”

   Although the words I said might sound a little confusing, once again the device knew what I meant. Instead of feeling any sort of a headache, every spell and the process of casting them became so clear and defined. Tons of memories came flushing in as well, things that I have not remembered in years. Not everything I saw was uplifting, of course. 

   After going through each of the less powerful and less destructive spells, and testing them out to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, I finally put my mind to rest and sleep, knowing I was protected with these abilities meaning I could finally get started on my plans. 

In regard to: the precautions 

   It goes without saying that there are those who would try to take this power from me if I were to go public with my existence. Therefore, for periods of time, I was extremely hesitant in whether I should act or simply wait for a better moment. The curious part of me wondered what would happen if I did introduce myself to the world. I would imagine chaos would result, due to the fact that no “magic” has been thought to exist, excluding the idea of god himself. 

As I layed in bed one morning, I thought deeply as where to go next. I had a few options. I could become some sort of vigilante working in the shadows solving smaller conflicts that I come across. The more ambitious option, however, would be to somehow form a position of power in which I could impact the world more directly. Obtaining this power could be through the government, or through my own will. It’s quite a sticky situation, because I must be perceived positively by the public eye, but using my very own power, I become a threat. People don’t just trust other people due to how they act, they think of the potential destruction. Having only used 4 wishes out of 100, I do believe I have room for correction in the future. The first action I take will be the most important, it will set the precedent for anything I will ever do with this power. If I fail to prove myself as a hero, I will automatically become the enemy. 

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