"Shinno, having a sense of reverence toward death isn't a bad thing."
The Ancient One pressed her index and middle fingers to the Eye of Agamotto, speaking with subtle meaning as she faced Yamanaka Shinno.
"Hmm?"
Shinno raised an eyebrow. The first thought that popped into his head was—
Did the Ancient One see a future where he went on a killing spree on Earth?
He admitted it—he could be a bit ruthless when dealing with enemies. But surely it hadn't reached a point where she needed to remind him...
Or...
Was she talking about Death, one of the five Primordial Entities?
Had he done something with the Time Stone inside the Eye of Agamotto that ticked her off?
He glanced at his trait panel: five Trait Removals, five Trait Downgrades, and eight Trait Resets. That calmed him down a bit.
No need to panic. Not a big deal.
If he couldn't go toe-to-toe with her, he'd just keep a lower profile for a while.
"Right, Dormammu's already aware that I siphoned a massive amount of energy from the Dark Dimension. If we clash again... it'd be better to play weak to gain longer-term benefits."
The Ancient One took two steps back. Behind her, space-time energy rapidly coalesced into a dimensional portal.
It wasn't like the spark-filled portals conjured by Kamar-Taj magic. This one felt... different. It didn't belong to the Ancient One. If anything, it felt more like the Rainbow Bridge.
"I look forward to seeing you again."
Shinno nodded thoughtfully.
Truth was, he'd been eyeing the seemingly limitless energy of the Dark Dimension for a while now.
He'd even considered figuring out how to contact Dormammu directly—learn from the Ancient One's playbook and drain him dry.
But from what she said, Dormammu might be showing up on Earth again soon. If he wanted to keep drawing power and profits from that realm, he'd need to go slow—milk the cow instead of scaring it off.
"I'll be waiting too."
The Ancient One's figure slowly vanished into the portal.
With her departure, the Mirror Dimension—set up to prevent any real-world destruction—shattered like glass and disappeared.
Once again, Shinno stood atop the freezing peak of the snow-covered mountain.
Right on cue, the system chimed in:
[Ding~ Major alteration of an important supporting character's fate. Slight deviation in worldline progression. Reward: Trait Copy ×1, Blue Trait Upgrade ×2, Trait Extraction ×2, Trait Gift ×2.]
"..."
Shinno smacked his lips at the reward list in his mind but didn't complain.
The Marvel universe was massive—multi-dimensional, multi-universal, filled with countless worldlines. Changing the fate of one person rarely had a major impact on the timeline.
Even if that person was the Ancient One.
Especially since...
He raised a hand and gently rubbed the Eye of Agamotto hanging at his chest.
She had clearly chosen a path that minimized interference with the current timeline. She even gave him plenty of advice.
If there had been a major shift, that would've been the real anomaly.
Not to mention...
In the original story, she died way too early. Aside from mentoring Doctor Strange, she was practically invisible the rest of the time.
"Forget it..."
After altering the Ancient One's fate, the [Clockwork of Fate] trait had caused the red luck aura around him to darken considerably.
Shinno shook his head, clearing out the mental clutter.
He opened the system interface, ready to make full use of the rewards he just earned.
Currently, he had three active blue traits:
[Silent Walker], [Great-Granny Club], and [Satellite Devourer].
The Ancient One's departure had netted him two Blue Trait Upgrade opportunities.
Odds were good that his most important trait—[Satellite Devourer]—could be leveled up.
But rolling the dice like this? Unless absolutely necessary, he'd rather not.
As for the traits...
His options were: Gift them to someone else, Extract them from himself, Reset them, or Downgrade them.
Extraction was too costly—definitely a no.
Reset and Downgrade... Reset was still a gamble. A bad roll could land him a negative trait. Even if he got a good one, stealth-related traits weren't that useful to him.
And downgrading a blue trait? What a waste.
"Who could I gift it to?"
A flurry of faces flashed through his mind—but he rejected them all.
Too far away!
Just to deal with one blue trait, he'd have to travel back to Jotunheim, cross dimensions to return to the Naruto world, then come all the way back here?
That's just plain masochism.
What about Kushina?
She and Tsunade were both brute-force types. A stealth-based trait like this wouldn't suit either of them.
"Shinno, she's awake."
Kushina's voice echoed in his mind.
Shinno raised an eyebrow and immediately entered the mini-world.
There, a tall, blonde, blue-eyed woman—slim-waisted, thick-thighed, and wearing a faint, ever-present smile—was already sitting up.
In the cold, somewhat emotionless tone of a Claymore warrior, she offered sincere thanks to both Shinno and Kushina for saving her life. Then, she stated her name and rank.
No. 182 of Generation 77. Currently ranked first among all Claymore warriors.
Teresa.
As soon as Shinno heard who she was, he didn't hesitate.
Six Paths Illusion: Hypnotic Academy.
Boom—out like a light.
...
While quickly explaining her situation through genjutsu, he also gifted her [Silent Walker].
He had no plans to visit the Claymore world anytime soon.
But who said he couldn't influence that world—and earn timeline-altering rewards—remotely?
Teresa, Number One of her generation. A swordswoman so powerful she didn't even need to release her energy to take down most monsters.
Through her, altering the fate of the entire Claymore world shouldn't be all that difficult.
Leaving Teresa to sleep under the genjutsu's influence, Shinno and Kushina exited the mini-world.
They sat at the edge of a cliff on the snowy mountaintop, admiring the icy landscape while going over the rest of the loot.
"System, use both Blue Trait Upgrade chances!"
[Congratulations! Blue Trait "Great-Granny Club" upgraded. New Purple Trait: Fourfold Mental Break in One Second.]
[Congratulations! Blue Trait "Satellite Devourer" upgraded. New Purple Trait: Planet Devourer.]
[Fourfold Mental Break in One Second] (Purple):Death comes to all—but this might just kill your will to live. When wielding polearms or bludgeoning weapons, each hit on an enemy whose mental resilience is lower than the user's will trigger flashes of: parental guilt-tripping, betrayal by friends, romantic infidelity, and total financial ruin. Enemies suffer massive drops in combat will and survival instinct. Weapon mastery, control, skill acquisition, and attack speed are all greatly enhanced.
[Planet Devourer] (Purple):Allows absorption of any form of energy to increase internal reserves. If internal energy is lower than mid-tier cosmic energy, all reserves will be converted to mid-tier cosmic energy. Energy absorption and conversion efficiency drastically improved. Trait will evolve after absorbing 100 units of planetary energy.
"These two couldn't be more different if they tried..."
Shinno grinned.
[Fourfold Mental Break in One Second] sounded like a gag anime ability—totally unhinged.
At first glance, he'd thought the polearm-related trait might be referencing Fiora the Sword Maiden or something. But no—"Fourfold Break" literally meant emotionally shattering someone four times in one second!
Family, friendship, love, and money—all crumbling in an instant.
Who wouldn't lose the will to live?
On the other hand, [Planet Devourer] looked dead serious and powerful.
With its upgrade to purple, it now added the ability to convert all internal energy into mid-tier cosmic energy.
Shinno didn't yet fully grasp Marvel's energy system. He was still working on that.
But one thing he could tell—
His own spiritual energy was just barely above mid-tier cosmic energy in terms of power.
Which begged the question:
Was high-tier cosmic energy even stronger than his spirit power? Denser, more destructive, more refined?
He waited for a minute.
When no new Trait Fusion prompt appeared, he turned his attention to his three unactivated traits:
Rainbow Traits: [Chaos God of Magic], [Eternal Companion]
Gold Trait: [Multiversal Voyager]
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
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