American Comics: Something's Wrong with This Superhero World

Chapter 155 Magical Genius

The Ancient One led Xiao Xian through Kamar-Taki's labyrinthine corridors, finally arriving at a hidden chamber. This chamber was concealed deep within the ancient library, surrounded by various protective spells to prevent unauthorized entry. The Ancient One gently waved her hand, a flash of light appeared, and the heavy door slowly opened, revealing the interior of the chamber.

The room was filled with an ancient atmosphere, with the walls covered with relics of ancient civilizations and various magical symbols. In the center was a table carved from ancient wood, on which were scattered various ancient scrolls and mysterious magical artifacts.

Gu Yi pulled Xiao Xian to the table, then took the Eye of Agamotto from her chest and placed it in the middle of the table.

The Ancient One then taught Xiao Xian how to properly use the Eye of Agamotto, including the incantation to activate it, how to focus one's mind, and how to use it. The Ancient One emphasized the importance and potential risks of every detail.

"Remember, those who play with time will eventually be played with by time. Unless absolutely necessary, it's best not to use this." After giving Xiao Xian this final piece of advice, Gu Yi gestured for Xiao Xian to try picking up the Eye of Agamotto using the method she had taught him.

"Does this spell really have to borrow the energy of Vishanti? I'm a dimensional lord, for goodness' sake. It's not appropriate for me to be bowing down to someone else, is it?"

Xiao Xian then asked Gu Yidao, "Whether it's Marvel or DC, magicians always have to pay a price for using magic. Xiao Xian doesn't want his soul to be marked by the Vishanti."

Ordinary people, even superheroes, might not be noticed by Vishanti at the dock, but once someone like him signs a loan agreement at the dock, he will definitely be discovered.

Even if he lacked the world's origin, Xiao Xian was unwilling to borrow from the Vishan Emperor. Loans with high interest rates are always a loss unless you're like the Ancient One who doesn't intend to repay them.

"Of course you can. Just modify the incantation a little. Replace Vishanti in the prayer part with yourself." Ancient One looked at Xiao Xian with appreciation. To become a powerful sorcerer, the most important thing is to be bold and careful. When you can get something for free, do so. When you can't, be extra cautious.

"That's all? No need to modify the directional ritual?" Xiao Xian asked, quite surprised. Was modifying magic really that simple? Even if he was a dimensional demon god from the hell realm, possessing a vast amount of black magic knowledge and able to directly read spells and understand the meaning of each part of the incantation, it couldn't be that simple, could it?

"Pray to yourself. Do you think you won't receive the message, or are you unwilling to lend energy? If you like, delete all the targeted rituals and just direct them to yourself." Gu Yi asked Xiao Xian, who looked puzzled.

"Hmm, what you said seems to make sense." Upon hearing this, Xiao Xian had to admit that Gu Yi was right. The essence of magic is borrowing from dimensional demons. Praying to Vishanti and others is white magic, while praying to Mephisto and demons like himself from hellish dimensions is black magic.

As a dimensional demon god, Xiao Xian has dimensional space as his energy source, so he doesn't need lengthy rituals to cast spells. In the end, those things are just used to strengthen the signal, increase the probability of connecting with the dimensional demon god, and pass the other party's credit review.

What ritual do I need to follow? As the chairman of the company, how can I not get things done when I come to the company to conduct business?

If Xiao Xian fully understands this magic, he won't even need to use normal methods like prayer to release it; he can simply consume the world's essence to use it.

In fact, if it were within a dimensional space, Xiao Xian wouldn't need to understand any magical principles. He could achieve a similar effect simply by using his wish-granting ability and consuming enough world essence. However, that would be far too crude, as the world essence consumed would be on a completely different level from that used in magic.

A mage's magic is obtained by risking their life and mortgaging their soul, so they use it sparingly. No, it should be called economical.

Just like the Water Ball spell, which uses the ability to make wishes come true, the amount of world essence needed to create a water ball out of thin air is completely different from the amount of energy required for a mage to use magic to guide water vapor in the air to condense into a water ball.

There are many similar energy-saving techniques in a mage's spells, such as controlling the flow of energy and how to reduce energy consumption.

For established dimensional lords like Mephisto and Dormammu, the energy saved by simply using their wish-granting abilities could far exceed that of ordinary spells. However, Xiao Xian, as a newly appointed dimensional lord, is still far behind in this aspect, and using spells is indeed more energy-efficient than simply casting wish-granting directly.

Changing the object of his prayer to himself, Xiao Xian cast a spell, picked up the Eye of Agamotto from the center of the table, and manipulated his fingers to open the Eye of Agamotto, revealing the green Time Stone inside.

"Very good." Seeing this, the Ancient One nodded in satisfaction and said, "As expected of a dimensional demon, you have a very strong magical talent."

"This is quite a drain. I've only just started, and I feel like I can't afford to use it at all." Sensing the reduction of the world's origin, Xiao Xian quickly shut down the Eye of Agamotto. In just this short while, Xiao Xian lost the world's origin worth ten ordinary souls.

Thinking back to the Ancient One and Doctor Strange in the movies, and the various cool special effects when they fought, Xiao Xian finally understood why so many dimensional demons were eyeing Earth and hating the Ancient One or Doctor Strange.

How much debt did they actually incur? How much did they fleece from other dimensional demons? As for the Ancient One, it was more like robbery than borrowing. Doctor Strange, if it weren't for the fact that he's the Sorcerer Supreme, responsible for protecting Earth, and that dealing with him allows him to devour countless Earth souls, would that guy even have been able to get a loan?

"When it comes to divine artifacts, this level of damage is minimal, and this is after my optimization. Besides, other dimensional demons often devour entire planets or even worlds at once, so these souls are nothing to them," Gu Yi explained to Xiao Xian, implying that Xiao Xian was too poor.

"What can I do? I just randomly grabbed a few people and they were marked by the world's will." Xiao Xian pouted and said helplessly. Didn't he want to have a lot of world origin to squander? He even wanted to devour planets and even worlds. He just randomly grabbed a few people and they were marked by the world's will, which also attracted the Ancient One. If this continued, he was afraid that even Galactus and the Celestials would have to come and have a heart-to-heart talk with him.

"You can go to other worlds to fleece people. Not every world is as strong as ours," the Ancient One advised Xiao Xian. "Although the quality of souls in weaker worlds might be lower, there's plenty of them. It's good enough if you have some."

(End of this chapter)