C64 Time Snooper

*Bonus Chapter!*

(A/N: Want to read ahead of what I've posted so far? Go to my patreòn and get early access chapters.

As of this chapter, the patreòn is 15 chapters ahead at chapter 79. I'll be writing and posting at least 2 chapters tonight.

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Thanks for the Power Stones and enjoy the chapter!)

After going through the usual morning training, Tom cleaned himself up and went looking for the Ancient One. He made sure to wear his new boots while he always has the snake totem around his neck.

After searching through Kamar-Taj, Tom found his teacher in one of the outdoor training halls. She was meditating and floating above the ground with the eye of Agamotto active.

Tom didn't want to disrupt her so he sat on one of the steps and meditated himself. He's been spending most of his free time trying to find his spirit animal and it's been taking longer than he thought it would.

The Ancient One couldn't find much in her library about the Snake God, Manasa. She isn't a god that has had many encounters with sorcerers, which could be a good thing or a bad thing.

If she doesn't have contact with sorcerers, that could mean she doesn't do anything that endangers the earth. Although, it could also mean that she's careful and haven't been caught.

After spending the whole night searching for information, she decided to look into the future. The next morning, once she took care of some important things, the Ancient One activated the Eye of Agamotto and looked for anything that has to do with the Snake God.

She couldn't find anything in the many possible futures, as Tom seems to be involved and his presence blocks her sight.

Seeing as her future sight was blocked, she started looking into the past. She found that Manasa was a snake goddess that the Native Americans worshipped. She was the representation of fertility, rebirth, death, and immortality.

Female native Americans would sacrifice animals in her name to boost their fertility. They would also pray for the safe birth of their children.

Everyone would pray to Manasa for a long and happy life and upon the death of a loved one, the family would ask her to send the dead along to their next life. Of course, this would be accompanied by a sacrifice in her name, which was usually an animal as human sacrifice wasn't very popular.

After seeing the past of the Native Americans, the Ancient One started looking at the history of the Snake Totem itself. Although, she couldn't look into its future as it is in Toms possession now.

Once again the Ancient One was stuck with seeing the past. She looked into the past and saw the many years the totem spent in the New York sanctum.

Going further back into the past, she saw how the totem was found by Agamotto himself and stored away. He found it in the ruins of an underground temple held in the hands of a female skeleton.

Diving deeper into the past, she sees the woman worship the totem and gain powers in return. The woman was heavily favored by the Snake God, Manasa.

The woman went on to rule the strongest Native American tribe. She spread the word of the great Snake God, Manasa far and wide. Upon her death, her children fought over who would rule next and wield the power of the totem.

Seeing her children fighting over all that she built, the woman didn't trust any of her children with the totem. She didn't trust them not to anger Manasa since they weren't favored as she was.

She ended up taking the totem to her grave and named her close friend the next chief of her tribe. The tomb is where the totem was found by the first sorcerer supreme, Agamotto.

The Ancient One didn't look back any further and exited her meditation. She's supposed to take her student to the shadow dimension today to see if it has a ruler.

Speaking of her student, he's currently meditating a few meters away from her. Checking the time, she sees that it's getting late. If they want to go to the shadow dimension, it's now or they will have to postpone for tomorrow.

With a slight smirk, the Ancient One levitates a pebble from the ground and launches it at Tom's forehead.

*Thud*

"Ahh! Sh*t!" Tom awakens from his meditation with a scream and holds his head where a red mark could be seen.

"Oh, you're done meditating?" The Ancient One says as if she didn't just attack him. "Let's get going then. I want to get this trip to the shadow dimension done quickly so I can relax for the rest of the night."

"You couldn't just tap me on the shoulder or call my name?" Tom says as he glares daggers at his teacher.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She says as she waves her hand at Tom. "Let's get going already."

Tom followed after her as he muttered about his annoying bald teacher. As always, the Ancient One acted like he said nothing at all as they moved to her personal quarters.

The Ancient One activates some barriers around the place in order to protect their physical bodies. They're going into the astral plane to survey the shadow dimension unnoticed. Their physical bodies will be left behind and vulnerable to attack, so the barriers will keep out any unwanted guests and inform her of any possible intruders.

"Alright, since we'll be traveling in our astral forms, I've placed some protections for our physical bodies." She says as she finished with the barriers. "Don't reveal your astral form during our excursion. We aren't going to fight any cosmic beings, nor are we going to ask permission to draw upon their dimension. We go in and see if anyone has claimed the shadow dimension and then we leave. Do you understand?"

"Yes, in and out without revealing ourselves." Tom says as he finds a comfortable spot to leave his body.

"Good, I'm going to leave my body in my bed. I'm too old to be leaving it in random places. The last time I did that, I had a kink in my neck for the rest of the week." She says and leaves Tom in the living room.

Tom decided to just leave his body on the sofa and separated from his physical form becoming an existence of pure energy. Time slowed in the material plane as Tom saw his body breathing at a very slow pace.

After a moment, the Ancient One floats into the room in her astral form.

"How are we traveling through our astral forms anyway? We don't have our sling rings in the astral plane after all." Tom asks.

"Yet you still have the sling ring attached to your hand. Just because we've entered the astral plane, doesn't mean we still don't have access to some of our relics and items. Though your boots are fairly useless since we can fly in the astral plane." She says and Tom wears a look of realization.

(A/N: It's never said how this works so I'm just making it up myself. Although they can use some relics and other magic items in the astral plane, they still can't fight very well in it. Especially when their opponent is in the mortal plane.)

"Huh, why didn't I notice that sooner?" Tom Thought as the Ancient One opened a portal to the Shadow Dimension.

"Let's go and remember not to reveal yourself." She says and floats through the portal.

"Coming!"