Tony's words just now drew my interest. He didn't come here alone?
Toward one of the corners of this open room where the built-in elevator stood, it began to open up. It wasn't your typical elevator you would see inside a hotel or something. This elevator was built into the very foundation of the tower. It was the same elevator shown in the expanded scenes of Endgame, where it would reach full occupancy, causing the Hulk to yell in anger, and punch it. That, in turn, would cause the Hulk to take the stairs. Becoming so angry during that scene would actually spur the Loki series to take place. Once the Hulk finished his descent, he would rage out. That would cause the case that held the Tesseract to slide right into Loki's grasp, allowing him to retreat from Planet Earth.
That was funny to me. A single scene using this elevator ended up causing a whole series in the MCU to happen. I'll likely use the elevator as well, whenever we decide to leave this place. That will be something to discuss with both the girls, and Tony and Natasha. It's not like we can forever intrude here. I don't want that weird Job to take hold of me. I ain't no freeloader, haha!
Joking aside, knowing that it was already a week past the end of the first movie, the expanded scenes of Endgame likely have already taken place. All except Loki's. The Avengers need to initiate their time traveling bit to cause that disturbance in the Sacred Timeline. Right now, Loki should be with Thor back on Asgard, undergoing his punishment. Loki's series won't take place until then. That does pose a question, though. With me coming into the picture, did that affect the so-called Sacred Timeline in some way? I do know God provided his protection so we can safely arrive here.
I also know we were brought into Earth-616, which was considered the "Sacred Timeline", or more commonly known as the MCU. There are multiple versions of Planet Earth of the expanded marvel universe, to which one of them shed some light during Doctor Strange's Multiverse of Madness. That particular earth was called Earth-838, I believe?
A whole bunch of Multiverse shit that will get sent our way eventually. Back to my point, my grounds have solidified. The events of the first Avengers movie played out as they should, minus our small interference. The TVA did not interrupt back then, so more than likely, they don't know about us. And I plan to keep it that way. I just have another thing to thank God for. Without that protective barrier of his, some things likely would have taken place, but they did not.
And while things have solidified, our bearings have yet not. For the time being, I will just let Tony do what he wants to do. If he wants to stretch his hand out to me for a new friendship, what reason do I have to turn him down? Hell, he's even giving me a favor because I rescued him. I'm really interested to see what he's going to do for me in regards to that. If Tony decides to do something that will benefit me, that might be the way to go here. We have yet to get our new identities squared away, so he could possibly land a hand in that.
I might even jump the gun on that after I saw who it was that came out of the elevator. Our gazes were drawn to the now-open door. Two figures came out. One was none other than Tony's best friend, or perhaps his only friend, a guy who went by the name James Rhodes. AKA, War Machine.
This guy should have earned his moniker by now. He played a big role in both Iron Man movies that took place before the Avengers movie, Iron Man I and II respectfully. The latter was just about a year ago. Back then, a rift did form between this guy and Tony while Tony was in his slump dealing with his health issues. He had then fixed said issues, creating the Arc Reactor in the process, and tying it to his own chest. War Machine himself didn't make it to the big picture during the Avengers movie. It didn't exactly say where he was at the time, but it was presumed somewhere overseas with the United States Military. He had already "taken" Tony's tech and handed it over to those guys in the military.
And in response, the War Machine was born. The whole battle of Stark Expo took place, causing a bunch of bots to go haywire, destroying a bunch of stuff in the process. This happened during Iron Man II.
That was still around a year before the Avengers movie. If we were brought into the MCU prior to that, Iron Man II would have been an excellent battleground to earn a good pile of experience points. Unfortunately, like I said before, you work with what you're dealt with. I was brought into the end of the Chitauri Invasion, causing two sources of experience to evade my grasp. It's not the end of the world, though.
Closer to home, Iron Man III should be taking place within this next year. There are sources out there that prompts this movie to occur a year later than its originally stated timeframe, being Christmas of 2013 instead of 2012, so we'll see how that progresses here. I would not be surprised if some events happen sooner or out of order due to our presence. It just depends on how much I want to get involved with the whole MCU plot.
I don't have to wait for Iron Man III, thankfully. There's even a closer spot to wrack up some good experience, which is already likely taking place as we speak.
Hell's Kitchen. The whole Daredevil plot. It was confirmed Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, is part of Earth-616, the MCU. His events happen during the aftermath of the Chitauri Invasion, where the criminal underworld is thrown into chaos. Some try to solidify their forces and take hold of what was left for them, forming new gangs and all that shit. I do know a guy named Wilson Fisk is involved too. He's called Kingpin, if I recall? A guy you never want to interact with, like ever. He's a cool villain, though. Appears both in Daredevil and Kate Bishop's stories.
I know a lot of stories go that route, I'm not going to try and become a vigilante. I just beat up some thugs here and there to see how much experience I get. Daredevil's plot is the one I could immediately hop into, once we get settled in.
There was also Spiderman, and a young Peter Parker. The events of Spider-Man Homecoming shouldn't begin anytime soon, but there might be a chance to interact with him, before he gets bit by that spider. And this is the MCU, so this version of Spiderman should be Tom Holland.
So yeah, some opportunities to be had. Plots are already churning regardless of my presence. If I want to hop into one of them, nothing is stopping me from doing so.
Still, the man before me was the War Machine, one of the survivors of the snap. In fact, all three present here, that being Iron Man, the Black Widow, and the War Machine, were survivors. It was already exciting enough meeting Iron Man and the Black Widow, but now War Machine entered the field. Quite literally. And in response to that, I heard a couple notifications sound off inside my head.
[Ding! Host has encountered three major figures of the MCU. 500 EXP has been received.]
[Ding! Skill, Transcendence, has triggered. Now recalculating EXP gain...]
[Ding! 1250 EXP has been obtained.]
[Ding! Host has Leveled Up! (100/200 -> 200/200)]
[Ding! Host has Leveled Up! (0/300 -> 300/300)]
[Ding! Host has Leveled Up! (0/400 -> 400/400)]
[Ding! Skill, Transcendence, has triggered. Host's stat gains have tripled. Now recalculating stat gains...]
[Ding! Host has obtained 246 HP, 219 STA, 54 STR, 54 VIT, 54 AGI, 9 INT.]
[Ding! Host's Status Window has been updated.]
[Ding! 15 additional points are now available to spend. Skill, Transcendence has triggered. Now recalculating additional points...]
[Ding! 45 additional points have been received.]
[Shall I invest the additional points as per our previous discussion?] Aura suddenly asked me.
'Please do. You also don't need to ask me every time, either. I appreciate the sentiment. I'm not being stingy with my points this time around.', I answered Aura.
[Understood, Master.] Aura replied.
[Ding! Host's Status Window has been updated.]
'Why don't we take a quick peak while the War Machine gets situated?', I wondered, taking a quick moment to review my updated Status Window. It was already a far cry from my starting point. I haven't even begun training yet!
[STATUS WINDOW]
Baki Hanma
Age: 18 (?)
Job: Freeloader
Title: Son of the Ogre
Level: 5 (250/500)
HP: 506/506 (+246)
STA: 376/376 (+219)
STR: 73 (+54)
VIT: 73 (+54)
AGI: 73 (+54)
INT: 18 (+13)
LUC: 34 (+23)
CHA: 23 (+18)
Available Points: 0
[STAT CALCS]
BASE LEVEL UP:
+1 STR +1 VIT +1 AGI +1 INT
SON OF THE OGRE:
+3 STR +3 VIT +3 AGI
OGRE'S BLESSING:
+2 STR +2 VIT +2 AGI
ADDITIONAL POINT ALLOCATION:
50% to LUC 40% to CHA 10% to INT.
STAT CALCULATION:
HP Gain = VIT + Previous Level(s)
Stamina Gain = VIT
*MP and Ki are hidden for now. Just keep in mind these parameters exist, just not unlocked.
[SKILLS]
-Transcendence
-Curse Reversal
-Ogre's Blessing
[ATTACK SKILLS]
-N/A
[STYLES]
-N/A
'Ahh, music to my ears. Things are looking better already.', I happily thought. 'Plus Intelligence naturally increases with each Level Up just like the first three stats do, just on a lesser scale. That's why Aura suggested using only 10% of the available points there. The remaining 90% gets split into Luck and Charisma, as they can't normally increase by merely leveling up.', I continued to think
Yet these thoughts quickly concluded, as I felt a gaze strike against my entire body, causing me to cease those thoughts. I didn't expect to suddenly feel this, which caused my eyes to wander to my side. It landed on the red-haired woman, who was looking right at me. Don't tell me, did she feel my strength increase somehow? Holy, just how sharp are your senses, Black Widow?