Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 279 Man with Child (Second Update)

"Stand straight, don't bend all your fingers at once, just bend your little finger, keep your ring and middle fingers straight. Your hand gestures must be precise; if the spell model goes out of control and backfires, the human body will have a hard time withstanding it. Straighten your ring finger, bend your little finger!"

"This is impossible... Ughhhhh, don't break my fingers..."

"Stop yelling, it doesn't hurt at all! Inhale... exhale... concentrate!" Salomon looked at little Lorna beside him, who was whimpering incessantly, with a headache. He couldn't concentrate on his book at all. Perhaps he should blame it on the sudden whims of a teenage girl, or perhaps he should have been prepared for his foster mother's girlish, erratic thinking, but he never expected that little Lorna would want to become a witch.

He now somewhat regretted mentioning Lorna's siblings to her; he had told her that her sister was a witch. This had ignited a passion in the girl for learning magic, and she had even begun to call her intermittent superpowers "magic." If she truly had talent, Athena would surely have taught her in this area, but the truth was, Lorna only possessed some talent in controlling metal.

"Your girlfriend has never done these hand gestures before!" Little Lorna complained, pouting as she held the gesture. "I've never seen you do such difficult gestures before; you can just casually make a few lines and produce those orange sparks!"

"Of course not," Salomon thought. "This is my knowledge, and it's definitely different from the magic of the Vishanti lineage." The knowledge he taught Lorna combined the solid theoretical foundations of Kamar-Taj with the mage training of the Toril universe. He taught Lorna how to adjust her breathing to better relax her body, how to concentrate better, and how to use her diaphragm and chest to produce sounds that are difficult to make with the tongue. To be a mage, one needs a flexible tongue and fingers, and Salomon was one of the best at it, as evidenced by Bayonetta and the sofa cover in the washing machine.

"Foolish girl, you could never have signed a contract with Vishanti," Salomon said. "You're not the same as Bayonetta either. She's a spontaneous spellcaster, we aren't. The magic I'm teaching you is from a different system."

What is a spontaneous spellcaster?

"Self-casters have fully formed magic flowing in their veins, passed down through generations, resulting in little difference in the magic of an entire race. We don't have magic in our blood, but we can learn and use more magic than self-casters, and we have a wider selection of spells to choose from," the arcane mage said. "Since you can't form a pact with the Vishanti, you must find another source of magic. The simplest way is to refine life force, but I don't recommend it; the cost-effectiveness is too low. The best method is to draw magic from nature. The four elemental planes—earth, water, wind, and fire—are all good choices, although elemental planes aren't always neutral, and you might end up harming yourself."

"Do I really have a talent for learning magic?" Little Lorna rubbed her aching hand, somewhat regretting her impulsive decision. "You said my sister is a witch, so I should be a witch too, at least we share the same father in a parallel world. Also, why did you say I couldn't possibly make a contract with that person?"

"If you could, you would have signed the contract by now." Salomon looked up from his book, reached out and grabbed the girl's hand. He squeezed it hard, and little Lorna cried out again. He ignored her cries of pain. "The talent for magic can be passed down in the most natural way, whether in the blood or the soul, no one can say for sure yet. I think it's both. This kind of inheritance is quite dangerous without guidance. Magic is a dangerous science, just like how you always want to try things out after discovering your superpowers—Minerva told me about what you did, picking coins from people's pockets on the street. Humph—magic is more dangerous than your superpowers. I'm sure you've been hit on the head by a coin. Don't try to deny it. Don't think I can't see what that bruise on your forehead is. That's a gun butt mark. You must have gone to steal the pistol that Minerva hid."

"Ouch...it hurts so much!"

"Idiot, you're having a cramp! Give me your hand!"

"How do you know everything, Salomon?" Little Lorna grinned, clearly annoyed. "How did you know I went to steal a gun?"

"Because the orphanage has my surveillance magic, I can see everything just by closing one eye."

"You didn't peek while I was changing, did you?"

"No, otherwise Minerva would have shot me."

Little Lorna squinted and grinned at Salomon, but this time she was cheerful. "Take me out to play!" she exclaimed. "I want to ride a flying broomstick, like in Harry Potter! Or I'll tell Minerva you used magic to peek at me while I was changing! Ahhh... Gently! Gently! I'm sorry... Ahhh..."

"Do you think Minerva would believe such nonsense? If I liked you, Minerva would have sent you to my bed long ago. Don't forget her views on marriage; Minerva believes that fourteen-year-olds can get married and have children. Okay, okay, stop yelling, it doesn't hurt that much. Keep training."

"You still haven't answered my question! Can I become a witch or not?!"

"Theoretically speaking, you have the potential to become a witch, but no one can say for sure right now. Remember when I told you about your sister? Her power is gradually stabilizing. Once her power is stable, I will replicate the experiments she went through on you. At that time, you will have the opportunity to master the power of magic."

"real?"

"The prerequisite is that you have to study hard. You need to have at least a physics degree, otherwise you will not be able to develop your superpowers at all."

"So, I can't go out to play now?" Little Lorna's thin cheeks puffed up suddenly.

"Hmm...that's not necessarily true. Little Lorna, what do you think about robbing a bank?"

"That's so cool!"

"Right~" Salomon raised his voice at the end, "Then would you be interested in participating?"

"Of course!"

"Why isn't the armored truck here yet?" Little Lorna and Salomon were on the top of the building, their feet dangling in the air. Little Lorna was looking down at the bank through binoculars, fidgeting restlessly.

"You should be more patient," Salomon said, sitting to the side and organizing the tools they would need later. This money belonged to the AIM Group, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had already notified the bank to freeze it. He didn't know what tricks Nick Fury had used to manage to snatch the funds from the military and then secretly transfer them away. But he hadn't expected that someone else was also eyeing this money—he knew Salomon wasn't interested in paper dollars, but he didn't know that Salomon desperately needed a large sum of paper dollars to buy experimental equipment.

Each piece of equipment costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even if Salomon had plenty of living expenses, he couldn't afford to spend like that. He hasn't even taken over all of Kamar-Taj's secular properties yet, so it would be quite difficult for him to support the entire laboratory on his own.

Salomon didn't tell anyone about this plan, especially Athena. If she knew, she would never let Salomon take care of the child.

Why didn't you bring a gun?

"We're going to steal some money, not rob someone," Salomon said with one eye closed. "We need to find out where the bank keeps its dollars first, then we can just open the portal."

"But this isn't fun at all!" Little Lorna said discontentedly. "There's no fun in robbing a bank if you don't trigger the alarm."

"I've prepared your favorite mode of transportation for you." The sorcerer clapped his hands, and a neatly arranged broom appeared in his hand. "The Light Wheel 2000, of course, is something I made myself. We'll be riding this thing out of the vault in a bit."

"Cool!" Little Lorna's eyes sparkled; she couldn't wait to ride on the flying broom.

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)