A month later.
"To be honest, I'm disappointed."
Carlo turned his back to the guy who was standing behind him, tightly bound with black magic chains, and was lying on a high platform, drinking from a cup of coffee in his hand.
"At first I found out that this place is not my old home, but it's not scary. Then I found out that the world walls in this hole are so strong that I will have to wait ten years for the next weak spot to appear. Then there are you scumbags, and forget about it, let me be clear... Imbeciles".
He put down his coffee and turned around, taking the wand from the guy's belt and holding it in his hand with an expression of bewilderment: "Seriously, how in the world do you cast spells with such low-quality wands? Your magic is pathetically weak and your mental strength is mediocre, but you can cast spells with these things for five-year-olds."
He chatted for another good five minutes, not caring about the feelings of the person he tied up like a dumpling. He took a last careful look at the wand in his hand and threw it behind his back. He raised the index finger of his right hand, and a thin layer of magic blade appeared from it. He stepped up to the poor local wizard, noting his abundant sweat and frightened expression, and smiled rather gently: "Calm down, friend. Given the experience of your previous companions, I will be very careful this time. At least you won't be in as much pain as they are."
After half an hour, Carlo wiped the blood off his hands and left the basement, snapping his fingers to clean up the mess inside with his magic. Then he came to sit in the courtyard of a country house. He began to think.
Thanks to the fool who helped him reach the door, he gradually figured out how the magicians-or, in their words, sorcerers-of this world work. It was no different from the human structure of the previous world, where magic was still stored in the brain. But he relied heavily on a clumsy wand. They could cast spells without their wands, but most didn't have the skills or magic to cast "advanced" spells without their wands.
Advanced? Carlo laughed almost loudly. Half a month ago, he sensed the existence of magic in this world, so he came to Europe and with the help of his scouting spells found the largest collection of wizards in this region.
Out of caution, he decided to find some scum to study their manner of conjuring and the differences between their spells, hoping that there would be something to learn and even borrow, but the problem was that after the wizards he caught used all the magic they knew, as he asked them, he was disappointed.
Almost all of their low-level magic was a superficial use of magic and mental power, without the slightest hint of precision or rationality. When Carlo asked them to use more complex magic, one of them suggested three unforgivable spells. He was glad to hear the name of the spell, thinking that real people had finally opened his eyes. He didn't realize that it was just a basic spell with evil emotions added to it...
The spells he learned from the Ancient One were developed and refined over time, each gesture matching the syllable of the spell with rhythm and a special charm. The essence of the spell is to use your imagination to set your psychic energy in motion, and then use that energy to set the flow of magic in motion. This is combined with using a lot of calculations to create a spell matrix and a spell model etched into the mind.
This process is extremely dangerous, and without long practice or amazing talent, any step can lead to serious consequences. At best, you can become an idiot or die on the spot. It is for this reason that Carlo loves this strict discipline so much. As he improved in magic, he realized that the essence of magic, ultimately, is to use a strong will to influence the world, distort it, and even change it.
It's like having a glass of water in front of you, and under normal circumstances, if you turned the glass upside down, the water would pour out. But if a worthless magician wanted to, he could just seal the neck of the glass with his magic and not let the water pour out.
A more powerful one will change the shape of the cup by twisting it so that the hole disappears. Or he can change the shape of the water so that it turns into ice.
The best of them can change the nature of water so that it becomes solid, so that it remains "water" while remaining solid.
As for Carlo, he can do even more. The magicians in the examples above affect what is in front of them, but Carlo can make all the water in every person's cup in the world become solid if he wants, and without any spell or gesture, because he already understands the nature of magic.
Of course, only as an example. The real reason he was disappointed in the wizards of the world was that most of them had spent their lives sealing the neck of the cup with magic.
Yes, this is the basis of magic, the fundamental use of magic. But a running child and a running Bolt are different concepts. Just because you've learned to run doesn't mean you can run as fast as Bolt. You're all running, yes. But you just run, while Bolt has been training for years, turning every detail of the start, the rhythm of breathing and so on into art.
Most of all, he regretted that the wizards of this world were children who had just learned to run, but they all had a gift. But this gift was wasted, and the boy could grow up not to be a great runner, but a runner who would shock everyone. But he could do it. He could reach great heights and even become great.
He was looking at the gloomy sky of the European countryside, intending to gradually transform the world in his own way - sounds arrogant, doesn't it? If Strange were here, he'd probably be talking a lot of shit about people being fine and not asking you to help them.
But Carlo said... He doesn't care.
He does this for the simple reason that it is very unpleasant to see them using their magic in such a rude way. It's like walking into an internet cafe and seeing next to you a guy with the best gear and accessories in the game, only dying within 10 seconds after the start of each round. You will be with him for a while, even if you don't say it out loud, you will say it mentally.
He is a man of action. A person closes his eyes, he no longer hides his spiritual power, although only half of his soul remains, it allows him to scan the whole world in a second. Everyone with magic in their bodies felt an inexplicable excitement at that moment. But only the strongest could understand that it was actually a message, an invitation.
Having done this, he imposed a small illusion on the villa where he lived for half a month. It was a test. Then, in a joyful mood, he went to cook for himself. He really enjoys the cooking process because it frees his mind-at least in his opinion. It also adds a sense of ritual to life, which consists of such little things, and he, as it turned out, enjoys the details that make him human.
If you ask him what he has learned from the 700 or so smelly, long stories of magic from around the world that are stored in his library, he will answer that all magicians who do not consider themselves human end up badly.
Because you are born human.