"It was supposed to be his, but I've waited too long."
After speaking, the Ancient One lifted her teacup again, as though discussing some trivial matter that had nothing to do with her.
Lucian watched her without answering for a long while.
That sentence contained quite a lot of information.
Having waited too long meant she no longer intended to keep waiting. As for Strange, he was still working as a doctor in New York, a long way from becoming the unlucky bastard whose hands were broken in a car crash.
The title of Sorcerer Supreme sounded impressive, but to Lucian, it was no Medal of Honor. It was a contract signing away his freedom.
Fending off invasions by the demonic gods of various dimensions, serving as Earth's unpaid security guard, being on call at all hours, and constantly watching out for extradimensional evil gods who never played by the rules.
Whoever wanted that dirty, exhausting job could have it.
Lucian held his teacup without moving, rapidly weighing the gains and losses in his mind.
His greatest advantages were his ability to copy powers and travel between worlds. His future absolutely lay in hopping between countless universes to plunder higher-level powers, not tying himself firmly to this world's Earth as its babysitter.
Besides, the Marvel Universe never ran out of trouble.
Dormammu today, Thanos tomorrow, and a Celestial embryo buried underground, ready to break out of its shell at any moment. A couple of days later, the multiverse itself would be facing destruction, and Doom would be refining all worlds.
If he really took on this mess, putting out fires everywhere every day would exhaust him half to death.
With that thought, Lucian decided to lay his cards on the table. Looking at the bald woman across from him, he