[Desert Rose – Samira]
"+1 synthesis material."
[Adept of Dark Magic – Shaco]
"What? Shaco? I don't recognize this skin."
Noah opened the two fragments and found a hero shard for Samira, an ordinary mortal. He immediately decided to use it as synthesis material. The Demonic Jester Shaco skin shard, however, didn't seem particularly interesting to him. If he had Shaco, he might have considered synthesizing the skin.
"Too bad it's not Dark Star Shaco. I would've built that right away," he mused.
With this, he completed his series of ten summons. This session had been quite successful, significantly bolstering his strength. Now he felt capable of competing with most enemies from the movies, with only a few, such as Thanos wielding the Infinity Stones, still posing a concern.
"Time to head back."
The past few days, Noah had mostly spent in the lab, emerging only for meals, playtime with Gwen, missions, or resting with Lissandra. During this time, Gwen had acclimated well to this world and begun to enjoy its amenities. She had taken a liking to using the computer, watching TV, and browsing the internet. He was slightly worried, noticing she was gradually turning into an internet-addicted girl.
"Come on, hat, let me show you a new world," he said, addressing the hat on his head.
The hat wobbled excitedly from side to side, its enormous mouth opening and releasing a puff of magical energy.
Seeing its joyful reaction, he thought, "You won't bite anyone, right? Listen, there are two ladies upstairs. They're your new mistresses. Don't you dare attack them, or I'll lock you in the panel forever."
The hat immediately froze and seemed frightened by his threat. It floated closer and began nodding, signaling its agreement.
"Good." Noah nodded with satisfaction, releasing a small amount of magical energy, which the hat eagerly absorbed, making a contented sound before emitting a tiny puff of magic that it quickly inhaled again.
"Let's go."
The doors to the training room opened automatically, and he stepped into the long corridor leading to the elevator of the underground lab.
Upon reaching the surface and leaving the lab, he felt the sunlight on his face and stretched. Every time he became absorbed in research, he would get exhausted, so he was considering hiring talented assistants.
"By the way, where is Bruce? He hasn't called me yet," he pondered. Since Ross took Bruce, he hadn't reached out once. Noah began to doubt whether Bruce could manage to escape on his own. Had Ross resorted to using charm against him?
"Well, if he doesn't show up in a few days, I'll go looking for him myself," Noah decided. He believed Ross couldn't control Bruce and the Hulk for long, so he chose not to rush into solving this problem.
As he approached the villa, the hat, new to this world, acted like Gwen did at first, happily jumping and flying around. It dove into the fountain, played in the water, and climbed the garden statues.
When he reached the villa, Lissandra came out to meet him.
"Noah."
Lissandra had spent the last few days by his side in the lab and had just gone up to prepare lunch. Seeing him return to the surface, she understood he was taking a break from his research.
"Lissandra, let me introduce you – this is Rabadon's Deathcap, an enchanted hat," Noah said, introducing his new companion.
The hat seemed displeased with that description. Just an enchanted hat? It was the most powerful magical creation!
Despite its annoyance, the hat cheerfully flew up to Lissandra and circled her, trying to impress. This was the result of Noah's recent convincing threats, and the hat temporarily forgot its pride.
"Yes, I've noticed it already. An impressive magical creation," Lissandra replied. She didn't need to be in the underground lab to know what was happening there. Her magical vision covered the entire mansion, allowing her to see everything within its walls, even when Noah was taking a bath.
The magical hat hovering next to Lissandra nodded in agreement: "Yes, I'm indeed a powerful hat."
"Oh, Noah, you're back?" At that moment, a melodious and ringing voice sounded from behind Lissandra.
Gwen appeared, her white hands resting on Lissandra's shoulders, her head peeking out from the left side.
For the past few days, Noah had been busy with experiments and hadn't had time to play with Gwen. She hadn't played games either, as playing with him was much more fun for her.
"Yes, I've been working hard lately, so I decided to take a break," Noah stretched, his body emitting a series of cracks as it relaxed after the strain.
The hat, noticing Gwen's arrival, realized this was the other mistress Noah had mentioned. It quickly repeated its earlier actions, circling around her.
"Wow! A flying hat, how cool!" Gwen exclaimed, her multi-colored eyes sparkling with excitement.
Just as the hat was about to puff itself up proudly, it heard Gwen's next words: "The material is so pretty. Can I cut off a piece?"
"Snip-snip~"
Gwen took out a pair of scissors and made cutting motions with her hands.
The hat was so terrified by her words that it nearly fell from the air.
Gathering itself, it immediately hid behind Noah, too scared to approach Gwen.
"Gwen, don't scare it," Noah said with a smile.
"Hehe~"
"By the way, Noah, you said you're not going back down to the lab? That's great; let's play together now!"
Hearing that Noah had finally decided to leave the lab she disliked so much, a bright smile spread across her face. She stepped out from behind Lissandra, grabbed his hand, and began pulling him upstairs.
As she made her way to the game room where they usually played, a hand rested on her shoulder. Despite being soft and white, Gwen felt an unexpected weight that made her stop.
"Gwen, lunch first," Lissandra said calmly but firmly.
"Alright, sister Lissandra," Gwen replied with an embarrassed smile. To her, Lissandra always had great authority, and though she really wanted to play with Noah, she understood the importance of listening.
"Come on, Lissandra, Gwen, let's go have lunch. Gwen, I'll have plenty of free time now, so we can play as much as you want."
"Yay!"
…
After lunch, Noah kept his promise and played several games with Gwen.
"Noah, I've been seeing you on TV a lot lately. You're really famous now," Gwen said, taking a momentary pause from their game.
"Really?" Noah responded nonchalantly. He knew that after the Abomination incident, his fame had inevitably spread around the world, as it was the first significant demonstration of technology surpassing human capabilities.
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