After sending Blade back to Washington with instructions to keep hunting vampires, Mario returned to his underground base in Central Park. He collapsed onto the couch, staring up at the golden fluorite blocks embedded in the ceiling that provided light.
He'd deliberately left Pearl and Woody with Blade to help manage the Association's operations. The decision made sense, but it also had personal benefits.
"Finally alone again," Mario muttered to himself. "Having backup is great and all, but I swear Pearl kept staring at me while I slept. Creepy bastard. What are the boys doing? I haven't heard anything from them in a while..."
He sat up, rolling his shoulders. The Hulk incident had made him feel somewhat insecure about his own safety. The Marvel Cinematic Universe might not be as apocalyptically dangerous as the comics, but shit could still hit the fan without warning.
What if some alien spacecraft decides to crash-land in Central Park and flattens me like a pancake? That would be the stupidest death ever.
"Time to clear out the Twilight Forest bosses," he decided. "Maybe finishing that dimension will unlock new mods. Can't hurt to try."
He stood and started walking toward the Nether portal that connected to his Twilight Forest gateway. But before he could take more than three steps, a familiar synthetic voice echoed in his mind.
[ELECTROBLUB'S WIZARDRY MOD LOADING...]
[LOAD COMPLETE]
Mario stopped walking, standing frozen like someone had just hit pause on reality.
"How? I didn't do anything. Why am I getting a new mod?"
His system, whatever it actually was, always seemed to surprise him at the most unexpected moments. There was no logic he could discern. Just random power-ups dropped into his lap whenever the universe felt generous.
"Electroblob's Wizardry?" He scratched his head, trying to recall if he'd ever played with it during his Minecraft days. "I don't remember this one. Does that mean I can unlock mods I never even installed?"
The name alone told him it would be complicated. Magic mods always were. They came with research trees, arcane crafting systems, and enough obscure mechanics to make your brain hurt.
"Why can't it ever be something simple? X-Ray Vision, Equivalent Exchange, I'd even take Avaritia at this point. Ah well. Beggars can't be choosers."
He opened his inventory interface and navigated to the newly unlocked crafting recipes. The sheer volume of items made his eyes glaze over, but he quickly found what he needed, the introductory item that would explain everything else.
[The Wizard's Handbook]
When he focused on it, text appeared in glowing letters:
Your very own, not-so-pocket-sized guide to the Arcane Arts! For any wizard full of ambition and eager to explore the mysteries of magic, this handbook is absolutely indispensable.
Mario grinned. "Okay, that's actually pretty useful. Just like the Tinker's Construct guidebook."
The crafting recipe was simple: one book plus one magic crystal.
"Let's see if the Twilight Forest chests have updated with magic items."
He adjusted his gear, checking his weapon loadouts and food supplies. Then he walked through the Nether portal, traveled the underground highway, and emerged in the Twilight Forest.
He pulled out his Twilight Forest map and located an unexplored Hollow Hill.
As he ran through the forest, the sound of cicadas filled the air. He glanced up at a nearby tree and immediately regretted it.
A cicada the size of a small dog clung to the bark, its massive red compound eyes seeming to stare directly at him.
"Mamma Mia..."
Even knowing it was just a decorative mob that couldn't move, he still felt uncomfortable. The Twilight Forest mod designers clearly had some weird ideas about aesthetics.
"If that thing suddenly flew at my face, I'd have a heart attack on the spot."
He walked over and knocked the cicada off the tree with his pickaxe, watching it drop to the ground as a collectible item. He picked it up and stuffed it into his inventory.
"This is going in someone's bedroom as a prank. Maybe Tony's lab. Yeah, he'd love waking up to find a meter-long insect on his workbench."
The thought made him chuckle as he continued toward the Hollow Hill. Along the way, he spotted patches of colorful flowers growing near a stream, crystal flowers.
"Jackpot!"
He harvested every crystal flower he could find, each one breaking down into two magic crystals. Once he had enough materials, he crafted his first Wizard's Handbook right there in the field.
"The mod must have retroactively generated items in existing chunks. That means the treasure chests should have updated too."
He opened the handbook and began reading through the basics. The magic system was resource-intensive, spells required mana, and mana had to be manually charged into wands using magic crystals. One crystal provided 100 mana points.
"So magic isn't infinite? That's bullshit. Even Terraria had regenerating mana."
He absorbed the information quickly, then closed the book once he'd memorized the essentials. Time to make his first wand.
Electroblob's Wizardry featured four tiers of wands: Novice, Apprentice, Advanced, and Master. To upgrade, he'd need to fill an experience gauge through repeated casting, then use an Arcane Workbench and the appropriate Tome of Arcana.
He placed a crafting table and assembled a novice wand along with the only spell book he could craft, Magic Missile, which required four magic crystals and one book.
After building an arcane workbench, he inscribed the Magic Missile spell onto his wand and charged it with mana crystals.
He aimed at a distant tree and tapped the wand. A bolt of magical energy shot out, streaking through the air before impacting the bark with a small explosion of splinters.
"Beautiful!"
Like a kid with a new toy, he began rapid-firing magic missiles, watching the continuous stream of blue projectiles light up the forest. The spell's low mana cost meant he could spam it almost indefinitely.
By the time he reached the Hollow Hill, he was grinning like an idiot.
---
The mine was enormous.
Mario found a strategic position near a narrow chokepoint, dug himself a small hidey-hole in the wall, and began his massacre.
Magic missiles streamed from his wand in a barrage, each bolt seeking out the nearest mob. The damage wasn't spectacular, each hit only took a small chunk of health, but the fire rate more than made up for it.
"Way better than a bow," he muttered as he mowed down a group of zombies.
His mana bar drained steadily, but he had more than enough crystals to keep casting. The Hollow Hill was packed with monsters, and under the faint glow of fluorite in the ceiling, he could see veins of valuable ore everywhere.
Including magic crystal ore, which meant infinite ammo once he mined it out.
"No AOE spells is gonna be a problem, though."
As if on cue, a creeper shuffled to the front of the mob pack. Mario's eyes lit up.
He pulled out flint and steel, crawled forward through his one-block-high tunnel, and sparked the creeper. Then he scrambled backward as fast as he could.
BOOM!
The explosion tore through the stone wall and cleared out a huge crowd of monsters. He charged forward, torch in hand, and planted it in the darkness to prevent respawns.
When he spotted a monster spawner, he immediately switched to his pickaxe and started breaking it. But before he could finish, a fresh wave of mobs closed in from behind.
Several slime balls shot out from beetle-like creatures, hitting him in the back. The damage was minimal, but the knockback interrupted his mining.
He spun and unleashed a barrage of magic missiles, but there were just too many targets. The spell's single-target nature was showing its limitations.
"Should've brought grenades. Even weak ones would be better than nothing."
Unable to hold the position, Mario made a tactical retreat. But he didn't notice the massive yellow beetle creeping up behind him until it was too late.
The pinch beetle's giant claws clamped around his torso, lifting him off the ground in an involuntary bear hug. He could still move his head and arms, but the rest of his body was completely immobilized.
"Fuck!"
The beetle carried him toward the mob pack, its stubby legs scuttling rapidly. Mario drew his Netherite sword, and hacked at the beetle's back. But this creature had 20 HP, too much to kill in just one hit.
Meanwhile, arrows and slime balls continued raining down, steadily draining his health. The damage wasn't much individually, but it added up fast.
After several tense seconds, Mario finally cut down the beetle and regained control of his body. He immediately bit into a golden apple, watching his health bar rocket back to full.
Then he pulled out the peacock feather fan and swung it hard at the mob pack. A powerful gust of wind erupted from the fan, blowing the monsters backward and giving him breathing room.
"That beetle was a sneaky bastard. Gotta watch for those."
He switched back to Magic Missile and resumed his assault, focusing on the ranged attackers first. Once the archers and beetles were down, a group of redcap goblins charged at him with iron pickaxes, laughing maniacally.
Their high-pitched "hehehehe" laughter reminded him of dark fantasy stories about goblins and captured adventurers. He shuddered at the mental image.
"Nope."
He drew his Netherite sword and met them head-on.
For the next ten minutes, Mario was cutting down everything in sight. When the last monster fell, the entire Hollow Hill was silent.
"Finally. Time to loot."
He pulled out a regular carrot and munched it down to restore his hunger bar. Then he walked to the nearest treasure chest.
"Come on, give me something good."
He opened the chest and immediately spotted new items, eight magic crystals, two venom grenades, and one smoke bomb, along with the usual Twilight Forest junk.
"That's... kind of disappointing."
But it made sense. The Hollow Hill was one of the easier locations in Twilight. Better loot would probably be found deeper in the dimension.
The second chest proved his theory correct. Along with more magic crystals, he found a new wand and, most importantly, an unidentified spell book covered in glowing runes.
[Apprentice Healer's Staff:
+30% Healing Effectiveness
1000 Mana Capacity]
"They're trying to make me a support class? Really?"
The healer's staff didn't prevent him from casting offensive spells, it just lacked damage bonuses. He pocketed it anyway. Having healing options might save his life someday.
He glanced at the remaining chests scattered throughout the mine. Dozens more, and he refused to believe none of them contained identification scrolls.
Ten minutes later, Mario sat on a cobblestone block, staring at the pile of loot he'd collected. Several spell books, all unidentified. Two identification scrolls.
And he couldn't decide which books to identify.
"Screw it. I'll do the first one I found and the last one."
He unrolled both scrolls, watching as magical energy swirled around the spell books. The runes shifted and rearranged themselves, becoming readable.
Sorcery Novice: [Telekinesis]
Healing Apprentice: [Heal Ally]
He stared at the results, then broke into a wide grin. Telekinesis meant he could manipulate objects from a distance, incredibly useful for both combat and utility. And Heal Ally meant he could actually keep teammates alive.