Chapter 397: Avengers Adventure! (Part 2)

When Peter and Strange were pulled into the Mind Palace, they were still a bit dazed. Strange was already accustomed to coming to the dream base after falling asleep. What he found strange was why the landing point this time wasn't in that familiar high-level conference room, but on a corridor of a tall tower?

Peter simply hadn't figured out what was going on. He remembered that a second ago he was still playing games in front of the console, and the next second he suddenly appeared in a strange place.

Charles looked at Peter and said helplessly, "Child, I am not the kind of rigid parent, but playing games at 3 AM is really a bit..."

Peter scratched his head, revealing an embarrassed expression. Looking at Stark's not-so-good complexion, Peter explained, "It's not like this every day, it's just that a new game was released recently."

"Speaking of which, where exactly is this? How did I suddenly come here, and also, why are you all here too?"

Peter frowned and said, "My Spider-Sense didn't go off at all. How did you get me here?"

Charles explained the situation here to the two who had just arrived, and then he said, "Dr. Connors is also staying up late doing research, but because the research he is currently doing is very important, stopping suddenly might be quite dangerous, so I didn't pull him here..."

Stark let out a "Tch" and said, "You didn't say that when you hypnotized me and pulled me over back then."

Charles sighed helplessly and said, "Fine, I can pull him over now too, as long as you can accept that there will be hundreds of giant lizards running around New York City tomorrow."

"Better not!" Steve immediately spoke up.

"Professor Charles, I've understood everything you just said, so what do I need to do now?" Peter asked.

"Let's go to my world first to study the magic problem."

Steve didn't raise any objections; he just said, "Are you sure multiple people can go in?"

"We can try first. If it doesn't work, we'll have Professor Charles pull us out. Anyway, the two of them just entered and have more abundant mental energy, so they can withstand one failure."

"You all go in together; I will stay outside to prevent any accidents from happening." Charles turned and walked toward the railing, while the others followed Stark toward the door at the end of the corridor.

Stark walked into the door first. After a moment of dizziness, he returned to that small boat. Sitting beside him were exactly the three people who had entered with him. All of them had turned back into their childhood appearances. Looking at each other's looks, they couldn't help but giggle. The lamplight reflected on their innocent faces, making their eyes brighter than starlight.

What was quite surprising was that the thinnest among them was the originally strongest Steve. He was a thin, small boy, even wearing a pair of glasses, looking like the kind of nerd most commonly seen in school.

Peter didn't have much change because he wasn't very old to begin with; he was just scaled down proportionally, and his face looked about the same. The young Stark and Strange both looked quite good, only Stark's eyes were exceptionally bright.

Except for Stark, the three of them looked curiously at their own arms and bodies. Stark turned his head and shouted, "Stop laughing, hurry up and row. We need to get off the boat quickly; only by standing in the front row can we see the scene inside."

The process from rowing, getting off the boat, to arriving at the auditorium was exactly the same, as if playing a certain game from the beginning again.

It's just that this time, the first one called was Peter. When he walked in front of the chair, he wanted to reach out and grab the hat, but the Sorting Hat dodged by tilting its head. When the hat was placed on his head, he still wanted to reach out and grab the brim, but fortunately, he was stopped by the teacher in time.

"How do you work? Do you have a brain? Where are your legs? Inside the hat, or your brim?" Peter spat out a series of questions, and then he continued to ask, "They say you can sort people into houses based on their different qualities, so what do you judge a person's qualities by?"

"How many students have you sorted? Have you ever sorted wrong? What if you sort wrong?"

Next, Peter heard the Sorting Hat take a deep breath. Suddenly, a deafening roar resounded through the auditorium:

"Gryffindor!"

Next to be sorted was Steve Rogers. He walked up, took a curious look at the hat, and then obediently sat on the seat. When the teacher placed the hat on his head, the Sorting Hat let out a low, "Hmm..."

"Steadfast, kind, brave. Child, you truly surprise me. You have so many wonderful qualities..."

On the way just now, Steve had already heard Stark's preliminary introduction to the four houses. He asked the Sorting Hat, "Which house am I more suitable for?"

"Actually, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are both quite suitable for you, Ravenclaw is also fine. It mainly depends on which house you want to choose. Do you need me to introduce them to you?"

"Gryffindor is the lion on the wilderness; they are brave beyond compare, fearless, and always charge to the front. Of course, sometimes they also cause quite a lot of trouble due to recklessness."

"Hufflepuff is the little badger in the cave; they are kind, united, and willing to share, but sometimes they also hesitate due to being overly sentimental..."

"Oh! Wait! I feel it... In this regard, you cannot deceive yourself. You belong to—Hufflepuff!"

The table with the most people below erupted in violent cheers. Steve smiled and walked over, shaking hands and hugging them. The Sorting Hat was right; upon hearing Hufflepuff's qualities, a voice in Steve's heart told him that he should belong here.

When Strange sat up, the Sorting Hat was silent for a long time, and then it asked, "There are many strange things in your brain; where did this come from?"

"Don't mind that. Which house am I going to?"

"No, no, no, I must remind you, there is a lot of knowledge in your brain that can be called taboo, which may endanger your safety. If you don't tell me its source, I will shout out right now and have the teacher stop you and your parents."

The Sorting Hat said in a serious tone, "It truly surprised me that after the Great War, there would still be pure-blood parents teaching their children this taboo Dark Magic knowledge. Which family are you from?... Hey, wait, what is your surname? Strange? Could you be from a branch of the Strange family?"

Before Strange could explain, the Sorting Hat seemed to have imagined everything itself. It said, "Fine, these pure-blood families are always so bold. Did you think I wouldn't be able to tell just by changing a name?"

"This school has existed for thousands of years, and I am also clear about certain rules. If you don't want your secret to be discovered, then it's best to..."

Devour.

"Slytherin."

When the Sorting Hat read out this name, its tone was somewhat low, completely unlike the high-pitched and excitement of the past, like an echo coming from distant history.

And the group of people welcoming Strange was far less enthusiastic than other houses. They just stood up and nodded reservedly at him. One of the slightly older ones walked up, shook his hand, and said, "Welcome here. You won't regret your choice, because we are Slytherin."

After the sorting ended, everyone returned to their own homes. What was very magical was that the four people were sorted into four different houses, so they could only gather together when two houses had classes together.

The first Charms class was taken by Ravenclaw and Slytherin together, so Stark could communicate with Strange about the usage of spells.

Because Stark had already learned it once, he cast the Levitation Charm very naturally. Strange made no move; he just stared intently at the wand in his hand, lost in thought. Stark saw his action and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Do you know? What I see from this wand is not a kind of power." Strange stared blankly at the wand, as if recalling something, and said, "If you had lived in Kamar-Taj for a period of time, you would understand that magic and human society are completely disconnected."

"The education, production, and distribution you have seen in human society are completely inapplicable in the magical world."

He turned the wand in his hand and said, "What surprises me most is that in this dream, there is actually an industry specifically for making spellcasting tools. Did you hear what they said? There is a commercial street, and a shop that sells wands..."

Strange shook his head and continued, "In reality, this is almost impossible, because even if we have raw materials, methods, and producers, there aren't that many customers."

"Why?" Strange asked and answered himself, "Because magic is still a subject that cannot be popularized. Whether a person can learn it depends not on their learning ability, effort, or time spent, but on their luck."

As he spoke, he looked up at the blackboard again and said, "And as for why they have so many buyers and customers, I think the answer is right here."

"They have a perfect education system. See? There are teachers, students, and even textbooks and homework. They learn, grow, and then graduate here, becoming a member of the wizarding world, performing their duties in this world."

Strange sighed and said, "From the moment I stepped into the universe, I have been thinking that Kamar-Taj's mission to protect Earth will not end because of human development and strength. On the contrary, there are endless challenges in the universe waiting for us."

"As the most special ability that humans can master, magic may not be the sharpest spear, but it must be the most solid shield. How to make this shield harder to cope with the dangers that follow one after another in the universe is a question I have been thinking about."

"There is no doubt that to walk the path of magic and technology in parallel, what magic lacks compared to technology is its popularity."

"In elementary school, ordinary humans start by recognizing numbers and doing addition and subtraction, all the way to college-level advanced mathematics, while magic does not have this process."

"Could it be because of the essence of magic? Aren't you borrowing power from demon gods?" Stark asked.

"That's right, but learning how to borrow power is only the first step of magic. The reason why human magic is magical lies in the fact that we have developed unique magical techniques."

"In the several civilizations of the Andromeda Galaxy, have you seen portals as convenient as ours? As powerful as the Kree, do they have Mirror Dimensions? Can they utilize Crimson Bands?"

"Do you think they don't want to do this?"

"Human creativity is a treasure in any field, but the problem with magic is that the threshold to master these techniques is too high."

"Precisely because we borrow power from cosmic demon gods, young mages are not allowed to borrow those overly powerful forces because they cannot control them. However, the less they practice, the less they will be able to control. Therefore, only the gifted ones among them can master these magical techniques in this state of blind men touching an elephant."

Strange lowered his head and looked at the little wooden stick, and he said, "This gave me a new train of thought. Although those children who just joined Kamar-Taj cannot directly borrow power from demon gods, it is entirely possible for older mages to borrow power and then manufacture the power into magical items like this wand."

"In this way, young mages also have the opportunity to gradually become familiar with magic. If combined with a system like this school, step by step, learning slowly, perhaps popularizing magic will become possible."

"But the problem is, what about the price of borrowing power? Who pays it?"

Strange looked at Stark with some surprise and said, "Pay the price? When was that? Have you forgotten? The previous several member gifts, and the membership fees paid by the demon gods, even if the Great Mages go full power, it's enough for us to use until the next century."

Stark slapped his forehead. He forgot that Kamar-Taj had already changed from a buyer to a middleman, eating the plaintiff and the defendant.

"Actually, what I most want to learn is the technology of making wands, but we seem unable to leave this school." Strange touched his face and said with some regret, "I really want to know, do they really have a way to produce magical items steadily and efficiently?"

"Doesn't Kamar-Taj have this method?" Stark asked curiously.

Strange shook his head and said, "Even for the Sorcerer Supreme to manufacture a treasure for self-protection, it depends on luck. It's not successful every time, but here..." Strange turned his head to look at the students behind him and said, "Even the youngest mages have a wand in their hands."

"Not only that, I heard there are treasures left by the four founders of the house or something. It would be great if I could take a look." Stark said, rubbing his chin.

Actually, Stark was also very interested in casting, although it was magical casting, it might not be impossible for him to utilize it. After all, he still had a magical energy core. ===== CHAPTER 398 =====