Most of the mages at Kamar-Taj practiced martial arts, especially Mordo and Kaecilius, which made Shin quietly envious.
Back in the day, he too had dreamed of practicing martial arts.
Unfortunately, ever since receiving the biochip in his brain, the so-called martial arts and other physical training methods had lost their mystery. Without some form of supernatural power as a foundation, all such techniques were essentially meaningless to him.
After watching the Kamar-Taj disciples train for a while, Shin heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Wolverine approaching, looking slightly dazed.
"How is it? Did you get your memory back?" Shin asked.
Wolverine pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag. "Yeah... I got it back. Hah! Feels like I've been wearing the same ragged sweatshirt for ten years. I was almost getting used to being brainwashed."
"Can you believe it? Over the past hundred years, I've been brainwashed more than ten times! Fuck! I'm gonna settle the score with them!"
Shin couldn't help curling his lip. That really was a tragedy. Wolverine even had some resistance to mind control, yet he'd still been subjected to it again and again. It was hard to imagine how many times his memories had been wiped.
"Oh. Then good luck with that," Shin replied nonchalantly. In his view, even if Wolverine got revenge this time, he'd probably end up losing his memory again eventually. That was just how his life seemed to go.
Not that Wolverine needed comforting. He was a lone wolf by nature. This time, he was only talking because his emotions had been stirred.
After venting a little, he didn't bother sharing his past experiences with Shin. He just finished his cigarette in silence, then said, "Thanks for helping me get my memories back. If you ever run into trouble, come find me."
Shin glanced at him and seemed to think of something. "Don't worry. If I do need something, I'll definitely call on you."
Wolverine gave a brief nod and walked off without looking back.
Shin believed him. But he also made a note to use Wolverine's favor as soon as possible who knew when the guy would get brainwashed again?
With Wolverine retreating in his own way, Shin turned to a different goal. He went looking for the Ancient One to ask about borrowing some magical texts for research.
More specifically, he wanted to modify those spells into techniques that could be triggered using chakra. In theory, both chakra and mana were forms of energy, so there should be some shared principles.
Of course, the most important thing was that Shin didn't need to study the spells himself. He could bring them back to the ninja world and hand them off to the Red Queen, then let the geniuses there help convert them.
Whether or not the plan would work remained to be seen. Although his strength was among the best in the entire ninja world, Shin's research capabilities were only average.
Thanks to his foundation and the biochip in his brain, he could understand and learn high-tech and cutting-edge ninjutsu. But when it came to inventing new techniques, he wasn't capable. He could study them but not create them.
"You want to channel magic through another energy system? That's certainly possible," the Ancient One said with a smile. "In fact, using alternative energies to drive spells isn't a new idea."
"Take Ororo, for example. She's a mutant who can combine her mutation with magic. It not only broadens her abilities but also reduces the cost of casting spells."
"Then there's the Infinity Stones. The Eye of Agamotto directly channels power from the Time Stone. Combined with the caster's own magic, it gains the ability to manipulate time."
"Of course," he added, "using the Time Stone doesn't incur magical debt but it does come with time-related backlash. Time worms, phantoms, and paradoxes often find you. In extreme cases, you can be erased by time itself."
"Spells and energies also have to match. For instance, Ororo's magic is aligned with wind and thunder. Power drawn from the Time Stone can only support time-based spells."
"The power from the Vishanti is best suited for white magic such as protection, healing, and warding. Power from Dormammu, on the other hand, is used for black magic like destruction, curses, torture."
"So if you want to learn magic, you'd better understand the attributes of your own energy first."
Shin blinked. The attribute of his chakra? Now that was something.
In the current ninja world, ask any shinobi and they'll tell you that chakra at the Kekkei Mōra level has every attribute.
Water, fire, wind, lightning, earth, yin, yang... even elements like soul power and space-time. Theoretically, chakra included every quality of mana.
What's more, chakra had exceptional fusion properties. Sage chakra, which incorporated natural energy, was a perfect example. It wasn't out of the question that chakra could absorb even more kinds of energy in the future.
Of course, there were still differences between chakra and the power of dimensional entities in the Marvel universe. But at the very least, Shin's idea seemed feasible. As for overcoming the difficulties? That would be the job of his "tool people" back in the ninja world.
Naturally, the Ancient One wouldn't give Shin the original magical tomes. Many such books were magical artifacts in their own right, containing immense power. Some could even link directly to dimensional entities or brainwash the reader on contact. They were absurdly dangerous.
Moreover, many of the spells in those books had to be carefully categorized. Magic that required direct invocation of dimensional demon gods couldn't be used.
Even aside from the risks, such spells would be useless outside the Marvel world. Once you left the plane of those beings, their magic simply wouldn't work.
However, spells that extracted energy from unclaimed dimensions or that stole ambient magic didn't need to be excluded. In the Marvel world, nearly all power had a 'master' but that wasn't true elsewhere. In other worlds, you didn't need to worry about a stolen power being marked or tracked.
In this, the Ancient One was an expert. Dormammu's dark dimension had been tapped by him daily, and when he came to collect what was owed, he beat him senseless. When he died, he came again to settle the debt only to find he had already entered Eternity.
To Ancient One, dimensional entities were nothing less than magical powerbank. It was truly tragic.
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