26 CHAPTER 26

If you want to read up to 30 chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[3 MONTHS LATER]

Three months had passed since the events of the Dark Phoenix and things had changed a lot, for one my relationship with Emily had significantly improved with me giving her more of my time, and more than once I would catch her calling me Dad, which was more than enough to completely melt me. Two, I was taking a more passive approach with Hydra, prioritizing the locating of their bases over their destruction, for now, and three, I was farming stats the old fashioned way.

I mean, yes I had picked a physical build instead of a magical one, but that was not to say I could still stack my INT or other stats to improve my general power. You know what they say, no power is bad power.

Also during this time I had decided to become a crafter of sorts, you know, to craft my own items, maybe not on the level Tony would one day do, but enough to make my own shit, I mean, most of what Fury would give me was crap, better than the crap I had yes, but crap nonetheless.

Anyway, with that in mind I had taken up a new hobby, a dad hobby, you know, those hobbies dads do in their garages, I had one now, and it was crafting. Not gonna lie, at times I feel like having this power, classified as the Gamer, was a massive cheat.

I mean, all it took me to master the art of blacksmithing was two months, and a bunch of books and shit, of course, this alone was technically nothing, humans are not the best smiths, not by a long shot, so once I became a master smith by earth standards I had to improvise in order to improve.

"Can we get pizza?" Emily asked from the kitchen, snapping me back to reality, which was now located in my garage.

"We had pizza yesterday, besides there are beans on the fridge, that will suffice for today," I replied, with a chuckle.

"Ok…" Emily muttered, sounding disappointed.

Chuckling at her reaction, I took a deep breath and focused on the task at hand, crafting a new weapon, taking a step into the forge I had installed in my garage, I took an apron and a pair of gloves from my worktable. "Time to see if this works," with a sigh, I took an iron ingot and placed it by the furnace in the forge, letting it heat up while I worked on the mana side of things; you see, I was working on a new crafting way, that would if worked give me stats on the items I crafted, better stats, reason why I was pushing mana into the materials like there was no tomorrow, once done, I turned around to see ingot was sufficiently hot, taking a deep breath I fixed a metal wedge between avil, before using the tongs to take the red hot ingot; then I placed it on the wedge, while praying to the gods, "Please don't break…"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Long story short, the thing broke… again, meaning that if I wanted to craft with magic being part of it, I would need to.. One went to Asgard so that I could visit the dwarf that is by no means a dwarf, or… keep trying until it works. "Stupid mana forge, I can craft a AK-47, but I can't craft a knife with mana capabilties," entirly different crafting skill, I had aslo learned how to craft weapons, but wasn't into that as much as I was into crafting swords, and stuff, what can I say, it had… a novelty to it.

"Can we watch Snow white?" Emily asked from the living room, as I internally groaned, of all the movies she could've possibly fallen in love with, she did with one of the oldest ones… I guess this is the Frozen of this generation, though I wonder why… the movie it's from over fifty years ago.

"Are you sure you don't want to see another movie? Like the Aristocats?" I asked, in the hopes she would pick anything but Snow White.

"Yes, I love the movie a lot," Being a good parent is torture sometimes.

"Ok," Oh well, at one point I will learn to tune it out… hopefully. "I will make some popcorn, do you want cheese on them? Or lime?" 

"Cheese!" Emily replied with a giggle.

"Cheese it is!" I chuckled, turning up the stove, to make the popcorn the old fashioned way. They just tasted better that way.

"Da- Alex," Emily said as she entered the kitchen, "When is miss Ororo coming to visit?" 

I hummed at that, last time I spoke with her, she was getting into a plane to visit her hometown. "Well, she said she would be back soon," I replied, with a smile, patting her head, "You know you can call me dad if you want to right?"

"Yes," Emily nodded.

"Good," I smiled, sending her back to the living room.

"Hurry up Ale- dad!" Emily called as she ran towards the living room.

As she left, I couldn't help but wonder how I would protect her from everything that was going to come. Being a parent was apparently a job with a lot of worries, and in the MCU, I had many, "If only I could get… her… a… pet to protect her!" and then it clicked me, what if… I did give her a pet that was by all means able to take on most threats like a petsmart toy, what if I got her a certain alien cat that basically had Cthulhu inside of her, what if I got her Goose, the Flerken, I mean, the poor female alien cat was abandoned in the PEGASUS base. "Emily, we are getting a cat!" 

"YESSSS!" Emily screamed with delight running back into the kitchen with a wide smile on her face, that if it was any wider, the Joke would sue her. I expected a positive response, but not what I could only describe as a seven year old on crack jumping up and down.

[New Quest Created! = Adopt a Cat… an Alien Cat!

Goose is the adorable yet deadly Flerken that was brought to earth by Mar-Vell a Kree as her pet and companion, but after her death, the poor mighty cthulhu cat was left alone waiting for someone to purr with, now will you be the one to adopt this adorable civilization eating cat giving him a PURRfect opportunity, or would you leave it alone to cause a CATastrophe?

Objective = Befriend the alien cat and add him to your family

Rewards = A fierce protector that will eat away all your problems, and your tuna, 150$, 150 EXP.

Failure = No cat, Emily sad, Goose sad no purr.]

So my cash reward was basically an adoption fee, huh, neat. Oh well, Goose alone was reward enough, "Well… tomorrow I'll get to it, but you have to help me take care of it, alright?"

"YESS!" Emily nodded so fast, I was beginning to wonder how her head didn't fall off. I guess pets and candy are the drugs for the kids, in this case, pets are crack… that's an analogy I never thought I would use.