◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones. or 500 Collections
◇ You can read 40 chapter ahead on P@treon . if you're interested: patreon.com/Heroicverse
------------------------------------------------
Back on the main server, Darian's days became busy once again.
Every day, he would teleport on time to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, accept daily missions from Hill, and after completing them, he would return to Kamar-Taj to improve his magic knowledge, and casually take a stroll to see if Mordo had an exclamation mark above his head.
Unfortunately, situations like the Black Robed Woman were not common.
Most of the time, the scattered dimensional intrusions or magic anomalies were easily handled by the Kamar-Taj sorcerers, not even requiring the two powerful sorcerers, Mordo and Kaecilius, to personally intervene, let alone Darian.
However, Darian and Mordo gradually became acquainted, and Darian learned a lot about Kamar-Taj from Mordo.
For example, Kamar-Taj has three Sanctum Sanctorums; besides the New York Sanctum he had visited before, the other two are located in London and HK, respectively. All three Sanctums are situated on huge magic nodes, their energies echoing each other, jointly forming a magic array to resist the invasion of dimensional demon gods into the reality dimension.
Simply put, it's like three defense towers. If the first, second, and high ground towers are all destroyed, the dimensional demon gods would have no hindrance and could come to'steal the base' at any time.
Therefore, each Sanctum Sanctorum must have at least one Archmage personally stationed to guard their respective defense tower.
Originally, the New York Sanctum was the safest of them all, because the Sorcerer Ancient One, fully leveled and geared, was stationed there. Anyone who dared to come would be treated as a minion and eliminated.
Darian couldn't help but ask, "Since the Sorcerer Ancient One is not here, who is currently stationed at the New York Sanctum?"
Mordo smiled confidently, "Kaecilius. With his abilities, the New York Sanctum's safety is not an issue."
Darian: "..."
No, he is the biggest security problem!
And in these days, Darian's magic knowledge was also steadily improving.
Since his mental attribute increased, his reading speed for ancient texts significantly accelerated, and after putting on the magic mask, this efficiency reached an astonishing level.
Now, for some low-level magic or magic with high compatibility with him, he has basically met the learning conditions, only needing to read the texts to enter the reading state.
However, the reading time for different magic varies greatly.
Simple spells, like the trace-clearing magic Mordo performed that day, might be mastered in less than half a day, while some structurally complex spells or those involving deep energy operations might require continuous reading for a week or even longer.
If other sorcerers knew about this learning speed, they would undoubtedly be envious.
You know, ordinary sorcerers need long periods of study and practice to achieve anything with a new magic, but for Darian to quickly get started just by reading texts is like openly cheating without even pretending to hide it.
However, in Darian's opinion, it was a different matter.
Making him continuously read a book for a week or even longer without interruption was more unbearable than killing him!
He tried to pick a few relatively simple magic spells to learn, and only after watching Emma's CG animation hundreds of times did he manage to convert them into his own skills.
Even so, Darian still couldn't take it anymore; even Emma's CG animation couldn't save him.
He made up his mind that unless he continued to increase his mental attribute and drastically reduce the learning time to within a day, he would never easily touch those magic spells that required long learning cycles—it was pure mental torture!
So, attitude determines everything.
When learning becomes a game, most people enjoy it, but when a game becomes learning, it's pure torture.
However, compared to the slow progress in magic, Darian found basic cold weapon usage skills incredibly easy to learn, mastering several in half a day. Now, calling him a cold weapon master would not be an exaggeration.
Darian came to the Kamar-Taj training ground and began to test his newly learned magic, Body Protection Spell!
This is a quite practical defensive magic, the effect of which is to create a close-fitting magic energy shield on the caster's body surface to resist external attacks.
In fact, Kamar-Taj also has a higher-level magic for Body Protection Spell, called Protection Charm.
It is said that it can even resist soul attacks and can also be cast on others, but that belongs to extremely profound magic. As a novice sorcerer, Darian is far from meeting the learning conditions, so he can only settle for learning the lower-level magic, Body Protection Spell.
No incantation or mudra was needed; Darian's mind moved, and the Body Protection Spell instantly activated!
The next moment, a thin energy shield immediately appeared on his body, enveloping every part of him, flowing naturally and not affecting his movements in the slightest.
However, as mentioned before, all the magic Darian uses has a light attribute, and the Body Protection Spell is naturally no exception.
Generally speaking, the energy layer of a Body Protection Spell is transparent and invisible.
But the Body Protection Spell Darian cast, however, emitted a dazzling pure White light all over his body, making him look like a walking little light man, even his facial features became blurred, only a human-like silhouette could be vaguely seen.
The sorcerers training nearby were almost blinded.
Where did the Sun come from!
Even Mordo, who was supervising the training nearby, was not spared. He quickly stepped forward and said, "Darian, stop it! This is not the place to cast lighting magic!"
Darian retorted, "This isn't lighting magic, it's a Body Protection Spell!"
He was also speechless.
The magic sword was one thing, but why was even the Body Protection Spell a bunch of light pollution?
Darian dispelled the Body Protection Spell, and the light on his body immediately vanished, allowing the many sorcerers to open their eyes.
But before their vision had fully recovered, they saw an even more dazzling light erupt from Darian's hand again.
"Ah! My eyes!"
The sorcerers covered their eyes, letting out screams.
Mordo was also blinded, exclaiming, "Darian, you cast the Body Protection Spell again!?"
"Oh no, this is a new lighting magic I learned. I just wanted to see what the difference was between this magic and my Illumination Spell."
Mordo: "..."
Damn it!
After learning a few magic spells, Darian did not continue to stay in Kamar-Taj to improve his magic knowledge, but returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
He walked straight to the Director's office, as usual, without knocking, and pushed the door open directly.
Hill and Agent Coulson, who were talking inside, simultaneously turned their heads to look.
"You're here, Agent Darian."
Hill's tone was calm and unperturbed, long accustomed to such intrusions.
In the entire S.H.I.E.L.D., only this guy dared to barge into the Director's office without a greeting, completely disregarding whether a confidential meeting was taking place inside the room.
Initially, Hill felt that Darian's behavior was somewhat disrespectful to her.
But she later learned that when Nick Fury was Director, Darian would kick the door in every time, and the cumulative repair costs for the Director's office door alone amounted to seven figures.
In comparison, she felt that Darian pushing the door open with his hand was already quite respectful to her.
Of course, such high repair costs were also actively reported by Nick Fury, with a slight exaggeration, but this was a mess left by the previous Director, and Hill made no comment on it.
Seeing Agent Coulson there, Darian couldn't help but ask curiously, "Is there a mission?"
Hill and Agent Coulson were somewhat speechless.
As Agents, one should not rashly inquire about other Agents' missions, but Darian clearly had no such scruples.
Hill pondered for a moment and then said, "Given the recent frequent supernatural and superhuman incidents worldwide, I plan to form a rapid response team specifically responsible for handling such special events. This team will be directly led by Agent Coulson, who will personally recruit its members."
Although they had allies like the Avengers, most members, with the exception of Barton and Agent Romanoff, maintained their independence and would rarely follow S.H.I.E.L.D.'s orders.
Unless it was a global crisis like the Battle of New York, or Nick Fury turned evil again to become a villain, they preferred to act independently and not interfere with each other.
Darian immediately became interested upon hearing this.
Supernatural and superhuman incidents usually meant side quests, which offered much richer rewards than the daily missions that only had a guaranteed minimum.
"Interesting, how about I join?" Darian offered proactively.
Agent Coulson said helplessly, "Darian, you are not suitable for my team."
He needed to form a team that would follow his command, but Darian was clearly not someone who would follow orders.
He could already imagine that once a mission was received, before the briefing was even finished, this guy would probably have already rushed to the target location and started a rampage.
In fact, Darian, like Natasha and Clint, was more suited to completing missions alone; having more people would hinder their performance.
"Agent Coulson is right."
Hill echoed quickly, then changed the subject: "Agent Darian, there's an incident right now that needs your attention."
"What incident?" Darian asked.
Hill explained, "It's about a new hero who has recently become active in New York. I need you to investigate his true identity and intentions. This type of investigation should normally be handled by a specialized investigation department, but this new hero seems to have some connection with you, so we decided to let you handle it."
Upon hearing this, Darian asked in confusion, "A new hero? What does that have to do with me?"
Hill didn't answer, turning the tablet computer towards Darian.
The screen was playing a street surveillance video. Several masked thugs, armed with firearms, had just completed a robbery and were about to flee when a figure suddenly swooped down from high in the sky.
The person was dressed in a black and green battle suit, wore goggles, and rode an incredibly familiar-looking glider, hovering steadily in mid-air, issuing a warning to the thugs below.
After the warning proved ineffective, he operated the glider to unleash a barrage of firepower on the thugs, with both bombs and miniature missiles, eventually successfully persuading the thugs to drop their weapons, take off their masks, and squat down with their heads in their hands.
The thugs' expressions were on the verge of tears, and their pants were soaked.
Damn it, we just robbed a convenience store, we're not Terrorists, do you really need to use missiles to bomb us?
The cost of these missiles was more than the money they stole!
Darian recognized it as the Green Goblin suit and said in surprise, "Could it be that the Green Goblin has turned over a new leaf?"
Hill shook her head, her expression complex, and said, "No, according to the information we currently have, this new hero calls himself Hob Goblin."
Darian: "???"
New York, Manhattan.
A Peterbilt truck, like an unbridled steel beast, careened through the bustling streets, directly crushing any vehicle in its path, never swerving.
In less than half a minute, it had already escalated to a two-star wanted level, with several police cars blaring their sirens in pursuit.
But the Peterbilt truck, after all, was the prototype of Optimus Prime, even more formidable than a hundred-ton king. Even without transforming, it was not something mere police cars could stop.
And at this very moment, a red and blue figure swung through the tall buildings, quickly leaping onto the top of the truck.
"It's Spider-Man!"
"It's him, it's him, our hero, Little Spider!"
"Hey! Spider-Man, look here!"
The passersby immediately recognized his identity and instantly raised their hands in a cheer.
Passersby: \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
During the Battle of New York, Peter caused quite a stir.
Each time, he was chased by a large wave of Chitauri soldiers, and even Leviathan beasts the size of whales, making it hard not to attract attention.
Therefore, Peter also gained a massive surge of media exposure during this incident, becoming a highly anticipated Super Hero.
And his 'hater,' J. Jonah Jameson, the owner of the Daily Bugle, didn't miss this wave of traffic. He directly put a photo of Peter holding Mary Jane while being chased by the Chitauri army on the newspaper's front page.
And he claimed that Spider-Man deliberately used an innocent old lady's loud voice to attract the attention of the alien army, saying that Spider-Man was simply too bad!
Peter didn't care about this at all, but Mary Jane was so angry that she almost ran to the Daily Bugle to curse.
Who are you calling an old lady!
Of course, Peter's fame was still not as great as the Avengers.
After all, Peter was just a solo trainee, while the Avengers were an idol group.
The Captain was even a national idol, Captain America, a figure adored by countless young boys and girls, not to mention that the team also had Tony, a focal point of public opinion who brought his own traffic. It was only natural that Peter couldn't compare.
Peter flipped and jumped to the outside of the truck's driver's door, knocked on the window, and said to the man inside, "Hello, Mr. Criminal, I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Please pull over. You've violated multiple traffic laws. Oh, I noticed you don't seem to be wearing a seatbelt, so that's another one now."
"Shut up!"
Peter's incessant chatter thoroughly enraged the man driving the truck. He pulled out a pistol and fired several shots at Peter.
However, Peter's reaction speed far surpassed that of an ordinary person. He deftly swayed his head left and right, directly dodging all the bullets. The flexibility of his head was such that even cheerful big boys would ask him for sensitivity tips.
"Letting go of the steering wheel while driving is not a good habit!"
Peter snatched the man's pistol and threw it out the window, simultaneously pressing the man's hand firmly onto the steering wheel. Then he shot out a web, securing the other hand to the steering wheel as well, and even conveniently helped the man buckle his seatbelt.
"This looks much safer."
Ignoring the driver's furious roar, Peter leaped and flipped onto the cargo bed at the rear of the truck.
Just as he was about to open the cargo door, his Spider-Sense suddenly blared a frantic warning!
Peter quickly recoiled, and almost simultaneously, a volley of dense bullets pierced through the truck's metal siding, whistling past the exact spot where his head had been!
"Whoa! Looks like the friends inside aren't too welcoming to visitors!"
Peter hadn't expected there to be accomplices hidden inside the cargo compartment, and the situation immediately became tricky.
Police internal communications he had intercepted earlier indicated that someone had stolen a truck belonging to Osborn Industries, with a large quantity of Plutonium-238 loaded inside the cargo compartment.
This nuclear material is not only highly radioactive but also extremely unstable, very prone to violent explosions. If a collision or explosion were to occur on a busy street, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Just as Peter was getting a headache, he suddenly heard a voice from above.
"Spider-Man, leave this to me!"
Peter looked up and almost jumped in fright.
"Green Goblin!?"
Although the outfit was somewhat different, he could still recognize it as the Green Goblin's equipment.
The Green Goblin was definitely one of Peter's shadows.
The trolley problem back then had almost pushed him to the brink, and it was still fresh in his memory, so seeing that outfit immediately triggered a reaction.
Unexpectedly, upon hearing Peter's exclamation, the newcomer's voice suddenly turned cold, conveying clear displeasure through the mask.
"Don't confuse me with that scoundrel!"
Hearing this disgusted response, Peter paused for a moment, immediately realizing that the person was not the Green Goblin, and might even be an enemy of the Green Goblin.
"Are you the Ghoul?" Peter asked tentatively.
Only then did the newcomer seem slightly satisfied, a smile playing beneath his goggles, his tone even carrying a proud, declarative quality.
"No, I am his son, the new generation of Super Hero, Hob Goblin!"