Ethan hit his stiff mattress with a heavy sigh, staring up at the cold stone ceiling of his room.
It had been exactly two months since he woke up in Kamar-Taj. Two months of dodging the Ancient One's philosophical traps, getting beaten half to death by Mordo, and reading so many ancient texts his eyes were permanently bloodshot.
But time was ticking. He knew the timeline. It was currently 2007. In less than a year, a certain billionaire playboy philanthropist was going to take a fateful business trip to Afghanistan. Tony Stark would build a suit of armor in a cave with a box of scraps, and after that, superheroes and supervillains were going to start popping out of the woodwork like mushrooms after a rainstorm.
If he wanted to survive the upcoming cosmic circus, he needed to check his progress.
"System," Ethan muttered. "Show me the sheet."
A translucent blue screen flickered to life in the dark room.
[ User Status ]
Name: Ethan Williams
Age: 26
Affiliation: Kamar-Taj (Direct Disciple to the Sorcerer Supreme)
Current Template: Albus Dumbledore
Sync Rate: 10%
Power Level: Intermediate Sorcerer
[System Note: Congratulations. You have upgraded from 'Wet Tissue Paper' to 'Cardboard.' At least now you won't die instantly if the Hulk sneezes in your general direction.]
Ethan rolled his eyes at the glowing text and swiped to his skills tab. This was the part that always pissed him off.
[ Kamar-Taj Spells Learned: ]
Eldritch Shields (Tao Mandalas)
Eldritch Whips
Basic Dimensional Folding (Theory)
[ Dumbledore Template Inheritance: ]
Apparition (Unlocked & Modified)
Protego (Unlocked & Modified)
Expelliarmus (Unlocked & Modified)
Lumos [LOCKED]
Accio [LOCKED]
Obliviate [LOCKED]
Avada Kedavra [LOCKED]
(+142 other spells currently Locked. Please adapt them to the MCU logic to unlock.)
"Total scam," Ethan grumbled, flipping off the holographic screen. "What is the point of a golden finger if I have to do all the heavy lifting? You gave me the template, but you locked the spells? Why do I have to manually translate them into Eldritch math? Even EA Games wouldn't charge for this kind of DLC."
The system remained stubbornly silent.
Still, the last two months hadn't been a waste. Ethan checked his currency balance. Between the daily grinds, studying, and a few spontaneous mini-missions from the system (like surviving Wong's bad moods without getting banned from the library), he had accumulated a solid 1,560 System Points.
His physical stats had skyrocketed, too. The daily Saitama routineā100 push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and a 10km runāhadn't turned him into a bald god who could one-punch planets, but it had seriously transformed his physique. The soft, civilian fat was gone, replaced by dense, lean muscle.
A smirk crossed his face as he remembered yesterday morning. He had taken his shirt off because he was sweating through his robes during push-ups. A group of female disciples had walked by, stopped mid-stride, and completely butchered their morning meditation chants, their faces turning bright red.
It was nice to know his suffering had aesthetic benefits.
The physical conditioning had saved his life in the sparring ring, too. After a month of being treated like Mordo's personal punching bag, Ethan could finally defend himself. He wasn't beating Mordoāthe guy was a veteran combatantābut it was no longer a one-sided beatdown. Ethan could block, counter, and hold his ground for a solid ten minutes before hitting the floor.
But physical strength wouldn't stop Thanos. He needed magic.
"System," Ethan said, sitting up on his bed. "My main mission, 'The Path of the Supreme,' requires me to adapt five spells. I've got Apparition, Protego, and the disarming charm done. Three out of five."
He looked at his point balance. 1,560.
"I'm hitting a wall with the next two spells. The Eldritch geometry is getting too complicated. I need more processing power." He took a deep breath. "System, spend 1,000 points. Upgrade my template synchronization."
[ Deducting 1,000 System Points... ]
[ Upgrading Albus Dumbledore Template... ]
[ New Sync Rate: 20% ]
It hit him instantly.
Ethan gasped, his back arching off the mattress as a massive wave of raw data and energy slammed into his brain. It wasn't the agonizing, railroad-spike pain of the first time, but it was intense.
It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to the dam inside his chest. His Wizarding Core flooded with heat, expanding rapidly. He could physically feel his magical capacity doubling, then tripling in density. The innate magic rushed through his veins, making his fingertips tingle with crackling blue static.
But the real change was in his mind.
Decades of Dumbledore's intense magical study, duel tactics, and arcane understanding unfolded in his brain. The complex Eldritch math that had been giving him a headache for the past three days suddenly seemed... obvious. The magical formulas unhooked themselves, rearranging into perfect, logical patterns in his head.
He didn't just know more magic. His fundamental understanding of how magic worked had evolved.
Ethan slowly sat up, panting, wiping a drop of sweat from his forehead. He looked down at his hands. With a mere thought, without even making a hand sign, a tiny, glowing Eldritch spark danced across his knuckles.
"Oh," Ethan whispered, a wide, dangerous grin spreading across his face. "Now we're talking."