Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 420 Prelude (First Update)

Even someone as learned as the Venerable One admits he needs to learn, let alone Salomon. He acknowledges his ignorance in certain areas, but that doesn't mean he won't refute others when they spout nonsense about areas he understands. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but when Nick Fury pulled out the Warrens' book, *The Devil of Connecticut*, Salomon couldn't help but give the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. a chillingly indifferent look.

He immediately stood up, put on his slingshot, and prepared to leave. The Warrens were New England's most renowned paranormal investigators, but Salomon held such charlatans in contempt that he considered Nick Fury's display of his books an insult.

"Wait until I finish speaking, okay?" Nick Fury sighed.

His intention wasn't to have Salomon read books written by charlatan mediums. After all, in the eyes of professional organizations like Kamar-Taj, mediums who weren't even spellcasters were frauds; even Catholic priests weren't exempt from this accusation. Even so, Nick Fury still brought out the book because he wanted Salomon to have something to do lately—at least to keep him quiet and prevent him from making any more outrageous statements that would force him to send people to mediate, which would be a huge waste of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources.

His secret investigation within S.H.I.E.L.D. has reached a critical juncture, and he has already identified several suspects. Even Coulson's team's investigation into "Clairvoyance" is part of this. Agent Coulson's "resurrection" is not a big secret to some level of agents, but the painstaking effort to "resurrect" an agent is an anomaly. Previously, the Tahiti Project was initially conceived as healing or resurrecting severely injured Avengers, but as human experiments progressed, the Tahiti Project's greatest use was merely healing severely injured agents, far removed from the original concept of "resurrection."

Therefore, Agent Coulson's every move, now truly "resurrected," will undoubtedly attract close attention, and his investigation is bound to stir up trouble for some. Those deeply embedded within S.H.I.E.L.D. will certainly be interested in Agent Coulson's unusual behavior and Nick Fury's secrets, and Nick Fury intends to follow up on those caught in the ripples.

This is just one thread in Nick Fury's secret investigation.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the "Star of Lemuria" cannot be disturbed, and Agents Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff have not had time to visit Salomon recently.

As for the internship at Whitehall, Nick Fury was convinced that Salomon intended to use magic to control government officials and even the Queen of England, and he absolutely could not agree to it. Of course, he knew that if Salomon did so, he wouldn't know, so Nick Fury could only try to distract Salomon.

“There’s a huge pile of dusty files inside S.H.I.E.L.D.” He bent down and pulled a thick stack of files, sealed with paper strips, from a drawer. The manila covers of the files contained no descriptions of the cases, only numbers and a thin layer of dust—likely oversights by the agents during the cleaning process. Nick Fury said, “They’re all eyewitness accounts about demons and angels, cases from 1946 to 2010. I’m just using the most well-known Johnson case as an example. That was the first case in American history where ‘demonic possession’ was used as a defense. I know you scoff at these things, but are you sure you don’t want to take a look? You might find some oversights in your work at Kamar-Taj.”

"Are you going to help me get the internship or not?" Salomon asked. He ignored Nick Fury's nonsense and continued to focus on his own goal.

What do you think?

"You can't stop me from taking the exam on my own, can you?" Salomon asked. "If you stop me, you're interfering in someone else's internal affairs, which contradicts your usual rhetoric. Nick Fury, don't you understand? You can't interfere with anything I do."

"I know." The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't show the dejected expression Salomon had expected, which made the arcane mage glance at him sideways. Instead, the Director asked in a calm tone, "So, would you be interested in telling me what you've been up to lately?"

"Hmm." The sorcerer nodded. "Preparing to conquer the world and write a physics paper."

"Are you serious? You're just going to brush me off like this?" Nick Fury scoffed. He could understand writing a physics paper; he even had a copy of Salomon's first draft. Although he couldn't understand it, his physicists could. Overall, the level was quite good, and Nick Fury was pleased that Salomon continued to be a good student.

As for conquering the world, Nick Fury considered it a joke. "Conquering the world in a video game doesn't count," he scoffed. "The real world is much crueler than you imagine. Your only enemies in the past were monsters. If you worked in Whitehall, you'd find that people you consider friends can stab you in the back at any moment."

Salomon simply smiled and did not refute.

Learning about unfamiliar areas inevitably comes at a price, and Salomon was prepared for that, but he didn't think his situation would get too bad. Ultimately, the most powerful force in the world is nepotism. Having climbed his way up from public school, Salomon had ample connections to infiltrate the secular government system. He could patiently wait to graduate or pursue further studies in other fields; his intelligence was sufficient to earn multiple degrees.

Archaeology and classical literature were not too difficult for him; Athena's years of education for him were not just about eating, drinking, and having fun.

----------

"Wait here, I've already had lunch brought over." Stark lifted his helmet and picked up a towel to wipe the grease off his hands. The burn marks on his eyebrows were very noticeable.

His research on the disintegration field of Asgardian weapons is one of his most important recent tasks. The overly integrated level of technology and magic in Asgard meant that Stark could only imitate the disintegration field using his own methods, rather than modifying it with Earth-style technology. The approaches used by the two are completely different.

Salomon's most important role in this was to remove the runes engraved and disintegrated inside the force field generator by the Asgardian artisans, and to explain the function of those runes.

This was an extremely challenging task. The centurion's longsword concealed a black box, and disassembling it was akin to figuring out the numbers and patterns on a coin in complete darkness. Even after Salomon explained the function of the runes to Stark, Stark could only make a rough guess about the component runes connected to them.

It was for this reason that the technological transformation of the decomposition field was declared a failure, and Stark could only use Earth technology to imitate the decomposition field.

Imitation isn't that easy either; Stark's simulation tests have exploded several times.

Of course, Salomon doesn't believe that Stark's technological level has anything to do with Earth.

Stark, wearing his Iron Man suit, was blasted down from the sky by tank shells and emerged completely unharmed. This shock absorption technology has absolutely nothing to do with Earth; you can't even find a prototype in any Earth-based technological product. Stark didn't even use vibranium—vibranium's property is to contain vibrations and release the energy when it reaches its limit. Stark simply used a series of mechanical structures for shock absorption, and the bruises he ended up with were merely superficial injuries.

Therefore, while Salomon was analyzing and decomposing the force field, he was also studying the various advanced technologies that Stark had placed on the MK2 Iron Man suit. He had seen some of these technologies in the manuscripts in the Immortal City; some of the technologies that Howard Stark left for Tony Stark had been applied to the MK2.

"Doesn't it feel good to do academic research during the holidays?" Stark knew what Salomon was up to. "Remember to show me your paper. Honestly, you should go to MIT, not Oxford. You'll have a much better chance of success at MIT."

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)