Two and a Half Years Fly By, and the Draws

"Burp~ There wasn't much meat, but it tasted pretty good, and it was Chinese food too! Five stars!" Xiahou walked back to his room, belching.

After washing up, he sat on the bed and stared into space.

After a while, he began to complain. "It's so boring here! I want to watch short videos, play games, and read novels!"

Then he looked again at the prompt asking whether to bind a new respawn point, which had been there since he arrived. After thinking for a while, he confirmed the binding.

The main reason was that this was probably the safest place on Earth. Who would dare cause trouble here while the Ancient One was still alive? Even if he got himself killed fooling around outside, no one could camp his respawn point and guard his corpse! Later, though, he would deeply regret this decision.

Over the next few days, Xiahou got to know most of the mages there. Besides sparring with different mages every day, he often chatted and shot the breeze with them, but the Ancient One wouldn't let him leave Kamar-Taj.

A month later, he sat alone on a rock, staring blankly at the distant Himalayas, the light gradually fading from his eyes.

Uncle Mads suddenly came over, handed him a bottle of beer, and sat down beside him.

"Why are you sitting here staring into space again?"

Xiahou took a sip of beer with a vacant expression and replied, "Uncle Mads! I regret it so much! This is prison with extra steps! I can't go anywhere! There's nothing to do for fun, either! Do you know how I've spent this past month?"

Uncle Mads didn't know how to answer, so he patted Xiahou on the shoulder. "You'll get used to it eventually. That's how all the mages here spend their time. Studying and researching magic requires a quiet environment!"

Xiahou looked utterly distraught. "But I can't freaking learn it! How is this any different from being in prison?"

Uncle Mads... He has a point! Unable to console him, he patted Xiahou on the shoulder, left him another bottle of beer, and walked away.

Xiahou watched Uncle Mads leave, then looked back at the distant mountains and fell into thought.

He had to find something to do to occupy himself, or he would go crazy. The main thing was that the game shop didn't sell anything for entertainment. Could you believe it? Couldn't you play games in a game?

After thinking it over carefully, he suddenly came up with an idea. Until now, he had only passively accepted side quests and had never considered actively triggering them. He felt he could give it a try.

Over the following month, he went around Kamar-Taj trying to trigger quests with various mages, but his success rate was low. Unless someone made a genuine request, the game's quest system wouldn't accept it.

But the mages of Kamar-Taj had hardly any major requests, except for those related to magic, which Xiahou knew nothing about!

In the end, he managed to attract some mages to learn from him by offering to teach them the martial skills he had learned from Siegfried, triggering a few quests. In one month, he earned 2,000 energy points and seven random draws.

But after another month, those mages had fully learned the basics, and triggering quests that way became even harder. He could only start looking for other methods.

It wasn't as though he hadn't gone to the Ancient One, but he was sent away every time. Eventually, she got so fed up with him that she moved to New York, leaving Xiahou looking as though he had nothing left to live for.

He began causing all sorts of damage and pulling pranks around Kamar-Taj, making life miserable for the many mages he harassed. In the end, they all begged him to stop. He even triggered a side story reward, which was ridiculous.

Just like that, a year passed, leaving a year and a half until he could leave.

After guiding him in his dreams for half a year, Siegfried stopped appearing in them, saying that Xiahou had fully mastered all his skills and was now a seasoned warrior!

After continuously strengthening him for a year, the Dragon Slayer's Heart inside him stopped strengthening his body as well. It had probably reached its limit.

His strength was now 560, agility 310, intelligence 245, and magic power 11,150. In terms of levels, he would have had to gain nearly 200 levels to get that many free attribute points.

As long as the mages of Kamar-Taj didn't play dirty by opening a Mirror Dimension and trapping him inside, none of them could beat him. In particular, he had also learned Siegfried's skill, Demonic Dragon's Descent, but he forced it into use with magic power alone, so it was much weaker.

Even so, he could now coat his weapon in magic power to unleash sword qi, allowing him to launch ranged attacks without the Blue Rose.

During one fight with Uncle Mads, Uncle Mads couldn't beat him and trapped him in the Mirror Dimension. After half an hour inside, Xiahou got bored and chose to take his own life.

Uncle Mads, who had been watching in secret, was so shocked that he wanted to atone with his own life, but the Ancient One stopped him.

"He won't die. He'll come back to life the next day, so there's no need to make such a fuss."

Those were the Ancient One's exact words to the mages present at the time, and they also saw Xiahou's corpse turn into specks of light and disappear.

But when Xiahou appeared again completely unharmed the next day, the mages of Kamar-Taj instantly became even more awed by and disgusted with him! They were awed because the ability was far too heaven-defying, and disgusted because of everything he had done over the past year!

Xiahou also realized that he could use this method to get through all this useless time quickly. After collecting the mages' side quests each day, he chose to take his own life.

Once the mages saw that he had started dying every day, they no longer wanted to issue quest requests to him. But would Xiahou let it go when he couldn't get any quests? He chose to start tormenting the mages again, either disrupting their studies or wrecking the place in all sorts of ways. With no other choice, the mages could only beg him to spare them once more.

Time slowly passed like this for two and a half years, and the day Xiahou could leave was finally approaching.

He was now in his room reviewing what he had gained over those two and a half years. His level and attributes hadn't changed, but he had accumulated 300,000 energy points, 45 random draws, and 10 targeted draws. The reason he had so few draws was that, later on, repeated quests only rewarded energy points.

He had saved them up for a full two and a half years! Before leaving tomorrow, he planned to use them all!

First, he spent 1,500 energy points to bring his random draws up to 50, then made five ten-pulls. The items he obtained were as follows:

First draw:

Remy's Aid: Restores 30% HP and MP, CD 10 seconds. Removes all abnormal status effects. Quantity: 1

Heaven's Healing Potion: Restores 100% HP and MP. Quantity: 1

Second draw:

Portal gun: Fires portals in two colors: blue and orange. A player entering either portal instantly emerges from the other, regardless of spatial distance. The two portals must be different colors, and only one portal of each color can exist at a time.

Revival coin: Revives a person who has been dead for less than 30 minutes. Quantity: 1

Third draw:

Fragment of the Knights of the Round Table's meeting table: A fragment of the table the Knights of the Round Table used for meetings. Perhaps it has another use?

Divine Blessing Potion: For 30 minutes after consumption, the user will revive on the spot upon death. Quantity: 1

Fourth draw:

Heaven's Healing Potion: Restores 100% HP and MP. Quantity: 3

Fifth draw:

Magic Version Quantum Bomb: Condenses magic power into a highly destructive magical nuclear bomb. The amount of magic power used determines the power and range of the explosion. Minimum cost: 300 magic power, with no upper limit.

Long yellow floral shirt: Adds 1 luck when worn.

Looking at the various items he had just drawn, Xiahou felt no stirrings in his heart, except for the Magic Version Quantum Bomb. He planned to test-detonate one in Kamar-Taj when he left tomorrow to express his dissatisfaction!

He had been confined for two and a half years while playing a game. In particular, after he had started using death to fast-forward through time, the fact that he still hadn't gone crazy could only mean his state of mind was pretty good! After finishing the random draws, he decided to hold off on the targeted ones for now. He had already gotten so many good items today that he felt he would get ripped off if he drew again. He would wait a while.

(If any esteemed readers ask why I set things up this way, I can only say that I mainly didn't want to write too much more of the story here, or the transition would be too slow. It also gives me a direct way to strengthen the protagonist. Otherwise, if I can't keep making the protagonist's improvement the main focus, I wouldn't know what to write to fill out the story later. The Marvel movie timeline spans too much time-decades, just like that-and it wouldn't be great to skip straight over the intervening years either. It's better to fill them in reasonably while strengthening the protagonist like this. Also, the characters in Marvel are ridiculously overpowered. If I don't forcibly strengthen the protagonist, he can only be a bystander. I hope everyone understands. Later on, I may reasonably incorporate some plots from TV series, such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it won't be excessive or wreck the story!)