Chapter 13: The First Contact
The arid landscape of the New Mexico desert lay silent under the glare of the midday sun, its stillness shattered only by the distant hum of a new kind of power. Tony and John streaked through the sky in their respective armors, a pair of metallic comets against a sea of blue. The coordinates from Nick Fury had led them to a remote military testing ground, now a wasteland of twisted steel and flattened earth. The devastation was a grim testament to the alien's strength. Smashed tanks, their turrets ripped off, lay scattered like child's toys. The charred remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjets littered the ground.
At the center of it all stood the Kree warrior, a hulking, blue-skinned figure in black and purple armor. He held a sophisticated energy rifle, its polished surface a stark contrast to the raw power it wielded. He was calmly surveying the wreckage, his arrogance palpable even from a distance.
"That's our guy," Tony's voice crackled through the comms, a hint of professional anger in his tone. "He's not just a threat; he's a planetary problem."
"Not for long," John replied.
The Kree warrior looked up, his movements too fast for human eyes to follow. He had detected their approach. His energy rifle raised, and a blinding blue plasma bolt tore through the air, heading straight for Tony.
Tony, however, was no longer a terrestrial opponent. His Mark II armor was a blur of motion. He banked left, the plasma bolt missing him by inches, and in a single fluid motion, he fired back with his Kinetic Repulsor Cannons. The blast, now powered by the immense Cosmic Field Reactor, hit the Kree warrior directly in the chest.
The Kree staggered back a step, but did not fall. His advanced alien armor, far more durable than Stane's, had absorbed the hit. He sneered, a look of contempt on his face. "Your weapons are primitive. You are nothing."
This was the Kree's mistake. Tony wasn't going to defeat him with brute force alone.
John flew in low, a silent shadow. The Kree warrior, focused on Tony, didn't even see him coming. John's [Basic Kinetic Control] skill, now at a colossal level, was put to use. He placed an immense, invisible pressure field around the Kree, a crushing force that made it difficult for the alien to move. The Kree warrior roared in confusion, his powerful muscles straining against a force he couldn't see or understand.
[Skill Used: [Basic Kinetic Control]]
[EXP Gained: 25 EXP x 100 = 2500 EXP!]
The numbers flashed in John's vision, but something more profound was happening. The System was registering the immense power being used, the constant strain of using a "basic" skill to control a planetary-level threat.
[Skill [Basic Kinetic Control] has reached its limit. Commencing upgrade…]
[Skill has been upgraded to [Advanced Kinetic Sovereignty]!]
A wave of new, instantaneous understanding washed over John. He didn't just feel a little stronger; he felt a complete and utter mastery over the concept of kinetic force. He could now manipulate not just movement, but also momentum, inertia, and mass itself. He could stop a speeding bullet with a thought or send a man flying with a glance.
The Kree warrior, now completely immobile, was helpless. He tried to raise his energy rifle, but John, with his newly upgraded skill, simply willed the weapon apart. The rifle disassembled into its component parts, a spray of microchips and wires that rained down around the bewildered alien.
The Kree screamed, a look of pure terror on his face. He began to charge up his body's internal energy, a last-ditch effort to unleash a massive energy blast. This was a classic Kree tactic, a final, suicidal blast to take down their enemy.
John wasn't having it. With his newly upgraded [Basic Runic Enchanting] skill, he willed a massive, intricate runic circle to appear beneath the Kree's feet. The runes glowed with a pure, white energy, instantly siphoning the alien's power and dispersing it harmlessly into the earth.
[Skill Used: [Basic Runic Enchanting]]
[EXP Gained: 25 EXP x 100 = 2500 EXP!]
[Skill [Basic Runic Enchanting] has reached its limit. Commencing upgrade…]
[Skill has been upgraded to [Superior Runic Crafting]!]
Another wave of intuitive knowledge washed over John. He now had the ability to create incredibly complex magical runes, not just for power-siphoning but for an infinite number of other purposes, including teleportation, reality-bending, and time manipulation. He was no longer a basic craftsman of magic; he was a master architect of it.
With both of his basic skills now upgraded to a higher, more potent level, John ended the fight. He used his newfound [Advanced Kinetic Sovereignty] to deliver a single, precise kinetic punch to the Kree warrior's solar plexus. The punch, a perfectly executed, non-lethal strike, knocked the alien unconscious without leaving a scratch on his armor. The Kree warrior crumpled to the ground, defeated.
The battle had taken less than a minute. The planet had been saved from a threat that a hundred S.H.I.E.L.D. agents couldn't have handled.
As John and Tony stood over the defeated Kree, a series of glorious, blinding notifications, visible only to John, cascaded into his vision.
[Quest Completed: The First Contact]
[Reward Gained: [Cosmic Awareness Skill Book], 100 Attribute Points, 5,000,000 EXP, and [Master of All Magics] Unique Skill Book.]
The notifications then flashed with the unique 100x amplifier perk. The numbers were staggering.
[Total EXP Gained: 500,000,000 EXP!]
[Total Attribute Points Gained: 10,000!]
A new wave of power, far more immense than the last, coursed through John's body as the System began the process of leveling him up and distributing his new, astronomical number of attributes.
The final, most important notification appeared.
[Unique Skill Book Gained: [Master of All Magics]! Consuming… ]
The skill book was not a book at all. It was a single, ancient-looking symbol that pulsed with a rainbow of colors. The symbol dissolved into a torrent of light that streamed into John's chest. He felt an instantaneous, perfect understanding of every magic system in every fictional reality he had ever known. He could now cast spells with a thought, bend reality with a gesture, and wield power with a word. He was no longer just a powerful hero; he was a Magus, a being of limitless, unimaginable power.