"Welcome back!"
Ancient One opened her eyes and looked at Finney.
"Good morning, Master!" Finney quickly nodded and greeted her.
"You weren't injured in yesterday's battle, were you?"
Ancient One continued to ask, making Finney pause slightly, thinking to himself that Ancient One was indeed still paying attention to the Battle of New York.
"No!"
Finney shook his head, thought for a moment, and then directly began to tell Ancient One about the Tesseract: "Master, yesterday the people of Asgard asked me for the Tesseract, but I didn't give it to them."
"Hmm!"
Ancient One nodded with a normal expression, walked to the table, and while boiling water to make tea, asked, "Why?"
"Why should I give it to them?"
Finney didn't answer, but instead asked a question.
Ancient One's hand, which was making tea, paused slightly, turned around and looked deeply at Finney, and said, "Finney, each of the six Infinity Stones possesses immense power."
"I know!"
Finney nodded. He also knew that once the six stones were gathered together and placed on a gauntlet, destroying half the universe wouldn't be a problem.
"It's good that you understand." The Ancient One sighed and said, "I only hope you remember this: you must control the power, not be controlled by it."
"I will!"
Finney nodded earnestly, then hesitated before asking, "Did Asgard suddenly agree to let me keep the Tesseract because of you?"
"Not entirely!"
The Ancient One neither admitted nor completely denied it, but said, "Odin himself felt that you were qualified to possess the Tesseract; he just asked me."
"Thank you, teacher!"
Finney sighed inwardly. Although the Ancient One's explanation wasn't entirely her fault, Finney still felt that Odin's compromise was mostly due to her.
"It's alright. I hope you won't betray my trust. Also, be extremely careful of the power of these two items,"
the Ancient One warned again.
Having resolved his doubts, Finney felt much more relaxed. He consulted the Ancient One about magic, then drank some tea before bidding her farewell.
Back at the training grounds, almost all the sorcerers in Kamar-Taj knew of Finney's return.
Besides the exchanges among the sorcerers, the impact of the New York incident was beginning to show.
"Sorcerer Finney, what's going on with those aliens in New York?"a sorcerer asked Finney curiously while ordering a chicken nugget wrap. Sorcerers are human too; although they possess extraordinary power, they also have curiosity, only their capacity for understanding is stronger than ordinary people.
"An alien wanted to rule Earth, so he opened a portal to bring his army over. I went to help stop him,"
Finney didn't hide anything, but he concealed Loki's name. After all, Odin had given him the Tesseract, so there was no need for him to continue smearing Asgard.
"Where's that silver dragon?"
another mage asked, still holding a tablet. "I saw in the video that you were riding a huge white dragon."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but scroll through the comments on the tablet, continuing, "And now you have a new nickname, the Silver Dragon Knight, haha, you're being called a knight again!"
Finney glanced at the mage, silently memorizing his face. Next time they sparred, he'd show him his magic!
"That's my family's ancestral Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Summoning it isn't easy,"
Finney replied casually, not wanting to summon the dragon for them to watch.
The mages were already used to Finney's ancestral possessions; after all, his family had many heirlooms—ancestral armor, ancestral chicken nugget summoning spells, ancestral flight spells.
Now, it was just an ancestral Blue-Eyes White Dragon; what was the big deal? Maybe Finney's ancestors were a knightly family!
Afterward, Finney replenished his chicken nugget stock in Kamar-Taj's freezer before finding Mordo, who was training with Kaecilius.
After more than half a year, Kaecilius had changed a lot. His sharp eyes no longer showed any trace of his former dejection, and he possessed agile movements, currently fighting Mordo.
Finney stood by, watching the fight with interest. He had to admit that Mordo's assessment of Kaecilius's significant improvement was well-founded.
During the battle, Kaecilius's spellcasting was swift, his movements agile, and his attacks decisive; he even seemed to be subtly suppressing Mordo.
Fortunately, Mordo was no pushover either. As the senior disciple of Kamar-Taj, he hadn't really lost face except in front of Finney.
He deliberately exposed an opening, then immediately seized the opportunity, ending the fight with a combo.
"You shouldn't have thrown that punch,"
Mordo said, helping Kaecilius up from the ground and pointing out his mistake. Finney, who was walking towards them, overheard this and chuckled mischievously,
"No, he should have thrown it, just a little too lightly. If it were me, you'd be the one down."
Hearing Finney's voice, Mordo turned his head. He hadn't noticed Finney's presence during the intense fight, and upon hearing this, his face darkened slightly, unsure how to retort.
Fighting Finney and fighting Kaecilius are clearly two different things, unless Finney removes his armor.
However, Mordo didn't know that now that Finney had the 'Breathing Technique,' even without the 'Demon Possession,' Finney's physical abilities would far surpass what they used to be.
"You've come!"
Mordo pulled Kaecilius up, looked at Finney who had come over, and then looked at Kaecilius with concern. He knew that the two didn't get along well.
Or rather, Finney unilaterally disliked Kaecilius.
"Not bad, you've almost defeated Senior Brother Mordo in such a short time!"
But to Mordo's surprise, Finney didn't treat Kasirius coldly as usual, but instead offered a rare compliment.
"But he's still a bit weaker than me. I've only been here a short time, and I've already defeated him. If I had taken that punch, who knows who would be on the ground."
Just as Mordo was happy that their relationship might be improving, he heard this last sentence and his face stiffened. He retorted, "That's because you were wearing armor!"
"Then next time I won't wear it and I'll fight you!"
Finney raised an eyebrow, looking defiant. He had studied combat techniques with Red Skull for five months, and he even had the 'Breathing Technique' and 'Golden Grand Evolution Technique' to cheat. There was no way he could lose.
"It's a deal!"
Mordo became excited, feeling that his chance for revenge had come. He wanted to show Finney the correct way to fight as a Kamar-Taj mage, and who the senior brother was!
Meanwhile, Kaecilius looked at Finney and Mordo with a puzzled expression, especially at Finney. He could sense Finney's dislike for him, so he rarely interacted with Finney.
In the past six months, he was probably the person in Kamar-Taj who missed Finney the least.
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(End of this chapter)