29: Kamar-Taj [02]

—

After coming to an accord, and talking about some important stuff, Peter was ordered to move and stand with his fellow students and practice using the sling ring.

Peter knew nothing about what he was supposed to do. So, he walked around in order to find someone he could ask from. Sure, there were many students here, and he could surely ask from them, but Peter had seen a particular someone, and he wanted to learn from her if possible.

He walked around for a while in his peculiar outfit.

The Spider-Man suit and apprentice robes. It was quite a strange combination. Anyways, after walking for a few minutes and enjoying the view, Peter finally found her.

Sitting a distance away from him was a blonde girl, who sat with her eyes closed and her blonde hair fluttering due to the yellow-orange constructs of light around her. Her fluttering hairs were beautiful, and so was she herself.

But Peter's attention wasn't on her beauty, but on the implications wrought by her existence.

He had his suspicions before, but he was certain now.

Peter sighed, and approached her. Then, he sat down in front of her, staring at her concentrating like that.

She was his age, probably.

Almost as if she sensed his presence—which she certainly did—the blonde opened her eyes and looked at him impassively. Her gaze was cold.

She did not say anything, so Peter decided to take the initiative.

"Hi, I'm Spider-Man." She ignored him; Peter wasn't bothered either. "I want to learn from you."

She looked at him with her eyebrow raised.

"Why?" she asked finally.

"Well…" Peter scratched his head. "How should I say this? I find you similar to me? No, not that. But we are similar enough."

"How so?" said she, sounding genuinely curious.

"Well, you're a mutant for one."

She stiffened and immediately shot an eldritch whip at him. Peter's spider-sense shrieked, and he dodged out of the way.

"Come on," Peter sighed. "What's with girls and them attacking me even though I just want to talk?"

"Probably you being a creep in that you know too much?"

"Well, sorry that I'm a spider with good senses."

"Spider?"

Peter nodded slowly as he shot a web at her, which she promptly destroyed.

["Teach apprentice spider while I'm busy with something else, will you?"] The Ancient One's voice resounded in her mind and the blonde grunted as her face scrunched.

"I hate you already, spider."

"What? Why? I didn't even do anything, I just wanna learn magic."

The girl nodded.

"Magik." She spoke.

"Yeah, magic, I wanna learn magic."

"No, not magic, it's Magik." Magik stressed. "My name is Magik."

"Oh… is that so." Peter tilted his head. He, of course, knew her name was Magik, but he had to act the oblivious part since he didn't really know her. Though her existence confirmed a lot of things; such as there are mutants in this world. With X-Men and The Brotherhood in tow.

Oh... and Deadpool. Probably.

Peter should've suspected this when he saw the notification with Phoenix Force's name in it, but he was too busy panicking, so he didn't notice. But, oh well, it didn't matter.

"Nice to meet you, Magik." Peter smiled under his mask, offering her his hand for a handshake. "I'm Spider-Man."

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes. "Like there weren't any better names."

"What? I think it's a good name." Peter defended.

"Well…" Magik sighed. "Anyways, let's get to learning magic, as you call it."

"How much do you know about Magic?"

"Well, she's beautiful for one."

Magik stiffened before glaring at him.

"Magic, as in abracadabra magic, not me. There's a difference between M-A-G-I-C and M-A-G-I-K!"

"Okay, sheesh. Calm down."

Then, she started explaining beginner stuff to Peter.

"Anyways," Magik began, creating a yellow-orange construct. "This golden energy is called Eldritch Energy. A type of dimensional energy. You'll be practicing Eldritch Magic."

"Eldritch Magic is utilized by the Master of the Mystic Arts. It's a light-based magic that produces sparks and fiery energy, mostly in yellowish orange color—referred as golden, by some."

Peter nodded.

"This energy not only produces light but provides warmth as well. It's very versatile, and can be used to generate constructs of tangible energy."

The construct above her hand morphed into a baseball bat before changing into a shield of sorts.

"As you can see, these constructs can take the shape of melee weapons or shields. Many other shapes as well; it all depends on your imagination in the end, after all. And capability, of course."

Peter looked at the shield, which vibrated before morphing into a circular disk with jagged and sharp edges as it wriggled and transformed into a sort of shuriken. Then, it started spinning, fast.

"Can be extremely dangerous and lethal, if used right."

"Other than that," she said, waving her hand as the shuriken puffed into sparks before specific formations and geometric patterns appeared in a circle, which were in front of her hand. "You can cast spells by conjuring complex formations and geometric shapes with the Eldritch Energy."

"Do you understand?"

Peter nodded, "Yes." This was interesting for a nerd like him, especially since he was an intelligent person who only believed in science.

"Now," Magik sighed, and threw him something. Peter caught it instinctually. It was a sling ring. "Opening a portal using a sling ring is technically the easiest thing you can do with Eldritch Energy. So, you'll be practicing and trying to open a portal. Then, we'll move on to something else, I don't know."

Peter wore the ring on his fingers before he copied the students' stance. It was quite easy to copy that stance. Then, he brought his hand forward and waved in a circle, focusing to create a portal to the warehouse.

This will be easy.

A circle formed, and sparks burst out before they calmed down, breaking the circle as it vanished into thin air.

Okay, maybe not so easy.

Peter sighed and continued practicing for an hour or so with no result whatsoever.

Peter stopped; what is he missing here?

Sure, he was doing all the movements pretty well, and he was focusing too, so, what could be the problem?

Maybe he lacked something basic?

So, what happens in teleportation?

Simply put, at point-A, a 'gate' is opened. And so is one opened on point-B. If he considered the space he needs to cross as a paper, then if he were to fold said paper in a way that points A and B perfectly line up; teleportation.

So, with that simple concept in mind, Peter thought of the place in front of him as point 'A' and closed his eye for a single second to imagine the warehouse as point 'B'. Then, he tried to bend the 'paper' so that points 'A' and 'B' lined up properly as he waved his hand in a circle.

And lo and behold, a second of sparks later, a big circular portal opened up, the insides of which, wobbled for a jiffy before morphing into the scenery inside the warehouse.

Yuri was asleep on the bed he made, fully naked.

Peter quickly closed the portal, thinking of closing it with a simple thought while he hoped no one saw.

"Whew-"

"Who was that?"

Peter stiffened and turned to look at who it was, and sighed when he saw that it was just Magik.

"My girlfriend?"

"Oh… okay,' Magik nodded. "Anyways, congratulations on opening a portal."

"How long have you been here?" Peter asked.

"Um, since the start?"

Magik just blinked.

"Anyways, think of Eldritch Magic as an advanced science. Maybe think of it as programs to alter the world? Maybe that's not the best analogy, but whatever. Now that you've learned to use a portal, it's time to get to the next par-"

"Actually," Peter raised his hand to stop her. "I need to go home now."

She stared at him dumbfoundedly.

"I got permission from the Ancient One."

He did, actually. He'd talked some 'conditions' with her, before coming to an accord.

Before Magik could say anything, Peter waved her goodbye before opening a portal to an alley near his house. He hopped in the portal, closing it just after. Then, he stored the sling ring in his [Inventory] and moved towards his house before jumping in through the window to his room.

Peter unsummoned the suit and slumped down on his bed.

He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and looked at the time.

[02:21 a.m.]

Peter should sleep for a bit, no?

"But first…"

Peter looked over at the system notifications he'd gotten.

He needed to check them.

[Eldritch Magic learned!]

[Generating Skill!]

[Eldritch Magic(Lvl: 01)]

Description: A type of magic utilized by Master of the Mystic Arts. Eldritch energy is used to form constructs of yellow-orange light. It can be used to conjure complex shapes, forms, formations, and geometric shapes to perform 'magic'. The Eldritch energy is a dimensional energy.

—

[The user has learned a 'skill' without the system's help!]

[A reward is being issued!]

[+1,000 SP]

[If a skill is learned, the user will be rewarded according to the skill's 'status']

Peter was a bit surprised.

So, he could earn SP by learning new magic, or, new skills as well? Good to know, he was thinking that he might have to go on a world hunt in the near future, and fuck countless women just so he could get enough points to level up. Ugh, even Peter wasn't that big a degenerate, so he was happy to know that SP could be earned by different methods as well.

Anyways, Peter continued scrolling through the remaining notifications.

[A Sub-Skill learned!]

[Teleport(Lvl: 01)]

Description: Open a portal with the help of a sling ring to any place in mind. This is, technically, the easiest thing to do in Eldritch Magic.

—a sling ring is required to open a portal. Level up this skill to use teleportation without any sling ring.

—

[The user has learned a 'sub-skill' without the system's help!]

[A reward is being issued!]

[+500 SP]

[7,100/20,000 SP]

[SP will be rewarded only once if a sub-skill of a skill is learned. not twice. not for the sub-skill under the same skill. If it's a sub-skill of a different skill, SP will be rewarded]

Peter was surprised at the number of SP he'd made. He could buy skills, but he shook his head. He should just sleep now; he'd buy all the skills when he had enough points. Of course, if the situation didn't call for it.

Thinking so, Peter closed his eyes for a good night's sleep.

The next day.

The breakfast at the table was awkward. Especially after what Peter had said last night. May, on the other hand, was kind of thinking about the recent changes in her.

There was no use denying it.

She was sexually attracted to Peter.

Maybe romantically as well.

This was so wrong. So, so wrong. But she couldn't help but get a sense of repulsion as well. He was her nephew for God's sake. Sure, they weren't blood-related, but that didn't void the fact that he was, in fact, her nephew. More so, he had a girlfriend. She didn't want to hurt Peter and Gwen's relationship.

She'd accepted her feelings now.

She'd accepted her strange side.

In her mind, the idea of fucking her nephew was so hot. Incest was so hot. But, she knew, the biggest reason behind why she was feeling like this was also because Peter reminded her of Ben a lot.

Again, it was wrong. It was wrong to think like this about her nephew just because he reminded her of her late husband, but she couldn't take it. She was horny, she was having sexual dreams about her nephew every night, and this made her really uncomfortable in his presence.

"May?"

"Ah- um, yes?"

"Is everything alright?"

"Of course! Of course, everything's alright. Why would anything be wrong? Everything is alright."

Peter squinted his eyes at her.

"I see," he sighed, getting up.

"You're definitely bothered about something. Telling me or not is up to you."

"So," Peter said, leaning on the table as he stared at her. "Why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just fucking you in my dreams, and am having thoughts of doing it in reality too. There's nothing wrong with that, right?" Like May could say anything like that. She would never. She loved Peter, and she wouldn't lose him over some pathetic heat she was in.