Chapter 18:
-One Month Later-
"Am I just really untalented with Eldritch magic?" I asked as I struggled to create a portal to the Arctic with the sling ring on my finger. I briefly got to see a glimpse of the frozen tundra before the whole thing collapsed pathetically. I had yet to make a stable portal that lasted more than a few seconds. Needless to say, I sucked. This magic was a lot more difficult to learn than Angel Magic was.
"I'd say you have average talent as a sorceress." The Ancient One was standing next to me in the courtyard. "It takes most students a few months to master the sling ring alone. A single month to get it working for a few seconds is about right." She explained.
'I'm not most students though!' I lamented in my head. I'm a Gamer. A Fallen Angel Gamer. I was a literal magical being with built in cheats! Learning magic was supposed to come super easy to me!
[You need to raise your Intelligence more for that to happen. While it will not make you smarter, it will raise your magical comprehension talents. You should have no problems with the sling ring at 50 intelligence.]
And there was the system, once again, dropping new information on my lap. My intelligence stat was sitting at 36 after I spent the stat points I got from killing the baby demon. 'Why doesn't raising intelligence make you smarter?' I asked the system in my head.
[Before that change was implemented, Gamers who rapidly raised their intelligence experienced personality changes almost over night. Some Gamers may or may not have had psychotic breaks because of that. Now if you want to get smarter… you have to study.]
'I suppose that makes sense.' I reasoned. That would be like going from Morty to Rick overnight. You really would go crazy.
"If you're quite done spacing out and talking to the voice in your head, I actually have something to discuss." The Ancient One said to me. She looked mildly uncomfortable for some reason.
I gave her a curious look. "What is it?" I asked.
She started to explain. "This is not something I ever expected to happen in the remaining time I thought I had left. The timeline has completely changed with your arrival and our divided realm returning together. Because of that, I am hesitant to allow major events to play out without intervention."
"So you want my help with these major events?" I asked.
The Ancient One nodded to me. "You told me that the only magic you were currently interested in were the sling rings–"
"Yeah, I want to travel to other planets at some point!" I interrupted her in my excitement. She gave me a minor glare in return. "Sorry, please continue."
"There's nothing more we can teach you about using your sling ring. You just have to practice more with it on your own." She explained. "And since you now find yourself with nothing to do, I have a task I require your help with."
I told her to lay it on me and she did. My existence had completely screwed up her foreseen timeline. She didn't know what ramifications that would have. What she did know was that one of the most important humans for the advancement of the world was going to be in more danger because of it. She didn't want me to restore the timeline, because that was impossible, she just wanted me to make sure that person didn't die.
Following her explanation, the ancient one handed me a new ID, passport and papers with information for my new Swiss bank account.
I just raised an eyebrow as I read my new fake IDs name. "I'm Layla… Grigori?" I questioned her. "Isn't that a little on the nose?"
"It's the best we came up with. Trust me, we put it to a vote and this was the best option." She said.
"Who's we? And why didn't I get a vote!?"
"That's not important, you have all your papers. Don't screw up or the world might end."
"Wait!? What!?" I exclaimed before an orange portal opened up beneath me and I was unceremoniously dumped in a new location. It looked like a restroom. Also… my clothes had magically changed. I was wearing what looked like a secretary outfit… The ancient one had the power to make clothes out of magic and she chose to wear those ugly colored robes all day.
"I should have asked her to fix my dress…" I muttered.
[She did…]
"What?"
[Her magic allowed her to reach into your inventory, WHICH SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE, and she fixed the dress Penemue gave you.]
"Holy shit…" That woman's magic skills were scary. I guess that's what studying the art for hundreds of years straight would get you though.
[Yeah… Makes you think about how bullshit it was that Doctor Strange reaches her level in only a year or less.]
"Protagonist's are just built different I guess..."
KNOCK KNOCK
"Excuse me, is anyone in there?" A woman's voice called out as they knocked on the other side of the bathroom door.
"Yes I'll be right out." I answered automatically. "Welp, time to go face whatever situation the Sorceress Supreme just dumped on me…" I muttered quietly. I opened the door and stepped out. As I looked around, I appeared to be in what looked like a corporate office. There were nicely dressed business men and women wandering around all over. At least I wasn't under dressed.
"Oh, wow. You're just as pretty as in your application photo." A blond woman dressed similarly to myself was the one who knocked.
"Thank you," I replied to the woman. "And might I just say that you look absolutely beautiful as well." I said to her with a smile.
She smiled back at me. "Thank you. I'm Pepper Potts. You're Layla Grigori right. I received your application for the secretarial position this morning. Why don't you step into my office and we'll start the interview for the position of Mr. Stark's secretary." She said as she led me to a nearby office door with her name on it.
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