"Nice look," Peter complimented. "Very sharp."
"It's been a while. What brings you here today all of a sudden?" Strange took a sip of his tea. "Actually, if you'd come a little earlier, you could've met your senior."
"My senior?" Peter asked curiously. "Who?"
"Thor," Strange replied. "He's an Avenger, and you're an Avenger now. Doesn't that make him your senior?"
"!!!"Peter's eyes widened. "You mean Thor was just here? Thor Odinson? Huff huff huff—the guy with the hammer?!"
"Yes, the huff huff huff guy with the hammer." Strange mimicked Peter's gesture, twirling his hand over his head, smiling.
"Mr. Stark said they hadn't seen Thor ever since he returned to Asgard with Loki years ago. He actually came to Earth?" Peter was still stunned.
The name "Thor" was legendary.
A god who once lived only in myth—yet one day descended upon Earth wearing thunder-forged armor, swinging Mjolnir, summoning storms with every movement.
He was the idol of countless youngsters.
"Loki was here too. But they both left for Norway just now, so you probably won't run into them," Strange said with a snap of his fingers. "Alright, this isn't the right place to talk. Sit—let's speak somewhere else."
Peter's expression tightened. He felt the spatial dimensions around him shifting rapidly, as though they were trying to relocate him.
Whoosh!
Peter suddenly leapt to his feet.
Strange froze for a moment, then looked up at him in surprise."You can sense the fluctuations of my spell?"
"That was a spell?" Peter asked back.
"Yes," Strange nodded. "Just a simple short-range phase-shifting spell. And you were able to detect it?"
"Is that… unusual?" Peter tilted his head.
Now that he knew it was Strange's magic, he no longer resisted the sensation—nor did he try to escape it.
Swoosh!His figure vanished from the spot.
The next instant, he found himself standing in an antique-style living room.
Strange sat on the sofa opposite him, studying him closely, his eyes full of curiosity."You continue to surprise me. You don't know a single spell, yet you can sense dimensional magic. Your talent for sorcery is extremely high."
"Uh… is that hard?" Peter asked, noticing a sofa behind him and sitting down.
"Of course it is!" Strange replied. "Thor and Loki just now couldn't resist my dimensional magic at all. Their reaction was completely the opposite of yours."
"Thor I can understand, but Loki—he's supposed to be the greatest mage of the Nine Realms, right? How could he…" Peter said, puzzled.
Loki—Norse god of fire and mischief—was said to possess countless magical abilities.But judging by Strange's words… maybe the myths were a little off.
"The greatest mage of the Nine Realms?" Strange recalled Loki pulling out a pair of daggers to attack him and shook his head. "He looked more like an assassin."
"Oh—right." Peter suddenly understood. It seemed he'd been misled by mythological stories.
After all, myths were simply humanity's imagination of the divine.
But Thor and Loki were real gods who lived in the divine realm.
It was only natural that stories and reality wouldn't match.
Just like how in Flash's screenplay, Spider-Man had mystical "god-eyes" and a sexy Black Cat girlfriend…
While the real Spider-Man had normal eyes… and only two hands.
Peter looked down at his hands.
So pitiful…
Strange misunderstood his expression."Want something to drink? Tea? Milk? Hot cocoa?"
"I'll take some milk, thanks," Peter said politely.
Strange snapped his fingers.A glass materialized in Peter's hand. Then, like a tiny fountain, milk rose from the bottom until it reached the brim and stopped perfectly.
"Whoa!" Peter was amazed. He inspected the bottom, finding no mechanism. "How did you do that?"
"Just a simple spell," Strange said modestly.
Peter realized that during the time after the Ancient One's passing, Strange must have devoted himself to intense magical study.
These techniques definitely weren't something the slightly clumsy sorcerer he had met the first time could have performed—
At least, not with such ease.
"Actually, I came today because I want to learn that spell called astral projection…" Peter finally said.
He explained not only that he wanted to learn magic, but also why—including the warning from his spider-sense.
Strange frowned."So you're saying your… whatever you call it… is telling you that a major disaster might happen in the future, so you must grow stronger to confront it?"
Peter nodded seriously. "Yeah! It's spider-sense—my special ability."
Strange didn't think Peter was lying or exaggerating to learn magic.
Because the first time they ever met was precisely because Peter's spider-sense detected the descent of the Dark Dimension.
And indeed—
Events unfolded exactly as Peter sensed.
After Peter left that day, many things happened.
The Ancient One chose death, entrusting the responsibilities of the Sorcerer Supreme to Strange.
Meanwhile, Kaecilius escaped to the Hong Kong Sanctum and completed the final ritual.
The ruler of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu, descended into the physical world.
Strange, still inexperienced at the time, thought of one desperate solution.
He used the Time Stone within the Eye of Agamotto to cast a time-loop spell on himself, then entered the Dark Dimension to confront Dormammu.
Every encounter ended with him being instantly killed.
And every time he was killed, the time loop reset.
Again and again—endlessly.
Through countless deaths, Dormammu finally surrendered and withdrew, taking Kaecilius and his zealots back to the Dark Dimension.
Strange's rapid growth in magic was partly because of this relentless cycle of dying and awakening.
They say that between life and death lies ultimate terror—Strange experienced that terror an uncountable number of times.
He also felt Dormammu's power firsthand, the force of the Dark Dimension, and much more.
Only then… did he truly become who he is now—
A qualified Sorcerer Supreme.
And all of this proved just how accurate Peter's spider-sense precognition truly was.
(End of Chapter)