"The mountain, having reverence for death is not a bad thing." The Ancient One tapped the Eye of Agamotto with her index and middle fingers, seemingly implying something as she spoke to Kei.
"Hmm?" Kei raised an eyebrow. Could it be that she had seen some future where he went on a rampage on Earth?
He admitted that he could be quite ruthless when dealing with enemies. But it shouldn't be to the extent that she needed to remind him about it, right…?
Or perhaps… She was referring to Death, one of the primordial gods?
Did he do something with the Time Stone inside the Eye of Agamotto that offended her?
He glanced at his own status panel.
No need to panic, not a big problem!
If he wasn't yet at the level where he could face her head-on, he just had to restrain himself a little.
"By the way, Dormammu has already noticed that I stole a massive amount of energy from the Dark Dimension. Regarding him... showing appropriate weakness will allow me to reap long-term benefits."
The Ancient One took two steps back. Behind her, space and time rapidly condensed, forming a dimensional portal. Unlike the spark-filled magical energy of Kamar-Taj, this energy clearly did not belong to her. Instead, it bore some resemblance to the energy of the Bifröst.
"I look forward to our next meeting." Kei nodded thoughtfully.
Just now, he had been eyeing the seemingly limitless energy of the Dark Dimension. He was even considering finding a way to contact Dormammu and learning from the Ancient One, ruthlessly siphoning off a chunk of his power.
Listening to what she said…
Dormammu might return to Earth in the near future, and if he wanted to extract more energy and gain greater benefits, he had to do it gradually, like shearing a sheep, he couldn't take too much at once and scare him off.
"I look forward to it as well." The Ancient One's figure slowly disappeared into the dimensional portal.
Immediately after, the Mirror Dimension magic that had been preventing destruction in the real world shattered like glass and vanished.
Kei was once again standing atop the snow-capped peak, where the icy wind howled.
A system notification arrived on cue.
[Major alteration to an important supporting character's fate.]
[The worldline has significantly deviated.]
- 1 trait duplication
- 2 random trait upgrading (Blue)
- 2 gifting opportunity]
Kei looked at the rewards in his mind, smacked his lips, and silently complained.
The Marvel Universe had an incredibly vast worldview, with multi-dimensional, multi-universal, and multi-worldline settings. Changing just one person's fate usually wouldn't significantly affect the worldline's progression.
Even if that person was the Sorcerer Supreme.
He rubbed the Eye of Agamotto on his chest. The Ancient One had deliberately chosen the path that had the least impact on the current worldline. She even gave him several precautionary reminders. If this actually caused major disruptions, that would be strange.
Besides, in the original story, this powerhouse had exited the stage way too early. Aside from her influence on Doctor Strange, she was practically invisible the rest of the time.
Forget it, forget it… Kei looked at the red fortune energy surrounding him, which had deepened in color, and shook his head slightly.
Pushing aside his random thoughts, he focused on his system panel, ready to make full use of his gains this time. At present, he had only activated three blue traits:
[Silent Walker], [Granny's Stick], and [Satellite Devourer].
With the Ancient One's departure, he had directly received two random blue trait upgrade opportunities.
There was a high chance he could upgrade [Satellite Devourer], the most important one. But relying on luck for these things, unless absolutely necessary, was something he really didn't want to do.
As for unactivated traits… He could either "" them to others, remove them from himself, reset them, or downgrade them.
Removing them was out of the question, the cost was too high.
Resetting and downgrading… The former involved gambling on luck, and if he got a negative trait, it wouldn't be worth it. Even if luck was on his side, stealth-type traits weren't particularly useful to him.
As for downgrading… well, it was still a blue trait. That would be such a waste.
Who should I give it to? His mind quickly flashed through a series of figures, but he rejected them all just as quickly.
Just to deal with a single blue trait, he'd have to go all the way back to Jotunheim, cross a world portal, make a special trip back to the Naruto world, and then return again… Wouldn't that just be unnecessary trouble?
As for Kushina… Like Tsunade, she followed a brute-force combat style. A stealth or assassination-related trait wouldn't suit her at all.
She's awake. Kushina's voice echoed in his mind.
Kei raised an eyebrow and immediately entered Eden.
Inside was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman, whose lips seemed to always carry a faint smile.
With the cold, indifferent tone characteristic of a Claymore, she expressed her gratitude to Kei and Kushina for saving her life before introducing herself.
Claymore No. 182 of the 77th generation, currently the No. 1 ranked—Teresa.
Upon learning her identity, he didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately used a genjutsu, knocking her unconscious.
While using illusion techniques to quickly explain her situation, he also gifted her [Silent Walker]. He had no immediate plans to visit the Claymore world. But who said he couldn't alter the worldline from afar and reap the rewards?
Teresa of the Faint Smile was a swordswoman so powerful that she could defeat most Yoma without even unleashing her demonic energy, through her, reshaping the entire Claymore world shouldn't be too difficult.
Leaving her asleep under the genjutsu's effects, Kei and Kushina exited Eden and sat on the cliffside at the snowy mountain's peak.
While admiring the breathtaking snow-covered landscape, he continued experimenting with his recent gains.
System, use both of my Trait Upgrading.
[Granny's Stick (Blue) into Fourfold Break in One Second (Purple)]
[Satellite Devourer (Blue) into Planet Devourer (Purple)]
[Fourfold Break in One Second (Purple):
"Since ancient times, who has not faced death? Fourfold break in one second, tears unstoppable."
When using polearms, staves, or club-type weapons, every strike will cause opponents whose mental fortitude is lower than the user's to experience a flood of soul-crushing hallucinations—including betrayal by friends, abandonment by family, romantic heartbreak, and financial ruin. Their fighting spirit and survival instincts will greatly deteriorate. Additionally, proficiency, control, technique learning speed, and attack speed with polearm weapons are significantly enhanced.]
[Planet Devourer (Purple):
Can absorb any energy to enhance one's own power and increase energy storage capacity. If internal energy levels are below "High-Grade Cosmic Energy," all absorbed energy will be automatically converted into it. Energy absorption and conversion efficiency are greatly improved. Upon absorbing a total of 100 planetary unit of energy, the trait will upgrade.]
Kei's lips curled into a grin. These two traits are from completely different worlds.
[Fourfold Break in One Second] looked like something straight out of a comedy anime. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed ridiculous.
The moment he read its description, he thought it might have some connection to Fiora, the sword duelist, but it turned out to be something else entirely... A one-second quadruple mental breakdown! Family, friendship, love, and money—all shattered at once.
For ordinary people, this might just instantly kill their will to live.
On the other hand, [Planet Devourer] was the exact opposite, it had a completely serious and overpowered feel.
And now that it had reached purple-tier, it even gained an ability to convert all absorbed energy into High-Grade Cosmic Energy.
His understanding of Marvel's energy system was still only partial, but…
He could clearly sense something.
His own spiritual energy was just slightly above High-Grade Cosmic Energy in terms of overall quality.
Did this mean that so-called High-Grade Cosmic Energy might actually surpass spiritual energy in terms of strength, potency, and density?
After waiting for a full minute, Kei, seeing that no trait fusion notifications appeared, paused for a moment and glanced at his currently activated traits.
[Chaos Archmage], [Eternal Adherent] and [Multidimensional Voyager].