CHAPTER 158

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For the following month, I trained with the Ancient One to be able to enter the quantum realm without a risk, day and night without a break, even sharing some classes with Emily, because the Ancient thought it was of the essence for her to learn what I was learning too.

To which I agreed.

At first, the training was hard, but fortunately for me, my powers as the gamer seemed to adapt to this out of the box training and created a skill to go with what I was learning, [Soul Casting], it was a cool sounding passive that was actually quite weak in essence, at least for now.

[Soul Casting - Passive - LV 12 = It allows the user to use magic and other skills without a body as a channel.

All skills and spells, used in this form are 90% weaker]

The debuff was originally 99%, but after a few levels on the skill, it was going down.

Anywho.

Thanks to this skill, my training became easier, making the mission of rescuing Janet more and more possible as the days went by.

However, even with this skill, I was still not ready, at least, according to the Ancient One.

Which made me think, what exactly was within the quantum realm she wanted me to be prepared for?

I mean, my mission was one without enemies, and yet, the Ancient One seemed adamant I needed to be stronger in my body-less casting.

I couldn't help but wonder, what did she know, I didn't?

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[The Ancient One POV]

Once again, Alex had surprised me.

In a matter of days, he had adapted to what he was facing, a feat that was by no means small, after all, the use of magic without a body it's one of the greatest obstacles a mage has to face in its life, and yet, his soul adapted at a shocking rate, in the very same symmetrical way, his body normally acted.

Nonetheless, even with all of his surprising feats so far during training, he was still not ready.

Not to face the possible futures I saw within the quantum realm.

Futures that troubled me.

Because even with all his power, Alex was still a mortal, meaning death was still on his tail.

And what I saw within the quantum realm was death, more than life.

Of course, this was all a bunch of what ifs, but still, they scared me.

Alex had changed the timeline so much, the world needed him, no… the universe needed him.

And while I would prefer to keep him out of danger's way, I know I can't stop him. He is, after all, a very stubborn individual, so the only thing I can do is prepare him for what could happen.

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[Alex Walker POV]

After a few extra days of training, I decided to confront the Ancient One to understand why she was acting the way she was acting.

So, with that thought in mind, I walked to her office, and asked, "What do you know, that I don't?"

The Ancient, who was reading the newspaper as I entered, looked up from her reading material, and smiled, "You'll have to be more specific, Mr. Walker, I mean, do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?"

In retrospective I could've asked the question better, but she knew what I was asking, she was just trolling me, as usual, "About the quantum realm, look since we started training, something has changed, and it's like you are preparing me for something, and I don't even know what, so… what am I preparing for?"

The Ancient One sighed, putting her newspaper down, "I suppose like time, this conversation was unavoidable,"

"So YOU were preparing for something," I knew it!

"I am," The Ancient One nodded, "Granted, take this with a grain of salt, I'm not sure if what I'm preparing you for will happen, it's just a big, and I mean, a really big if,"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The quantum realm operates outside time and space, so to speak, because two elements still affect it, but in a very different manner than we are used to, anywho, taking that into consideration, the realm of what is possible, and what is not, it's very gray," The Ancient One sighed, summoning an illusion around us to aid in her explanation.

"So, you are preparing me for every possible scenario?" 

"No, and yes," The Ancient One chuckled, "As I was saying, what is possible, and what is not, it's very complicated, especially if we take into account the quantum realm, a place we know frighteningly little,"

I looked at her, before turning my attention to the illusions she was showing me, it looked like people running, but from what?

"So, taking that into account, I used the time stone to see what could go wrong with your expedition, and well, I got what I wanted," The Ancient One added, changing the illusions around us, this time showing a picture that looked like out of an apocalyptic setting, showing New York in ruins.

However, this wasn't the scariest part.

No.

What scared me the most, was that in the middle of that apocalyptic picture, a lone figure stood, twitching in place.

And that figure was me.

"How… What happened to me?!" I asked, looking at the illusion.

"A virus from the quantum realm, it infected you, and you infected the rest of the world," The Ancient One replied.

"That…" Marvel Zombies?! That was a possibility here!?

"Worry not though, that scenario happened in one of the what-ifs where you entered the quantum realm without your soul casting, also, this scenario it's not very likely to happen, out of the eighteen million futures I saw, only a few thousand included the virus," The Ancient One sighed.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better, and by the way, how the fuck did they infect me if I was a soul?" I asked, still staring at my zombie self with a feeling I quite couldn't understand.

"Souls are not intangible as many would think, Mr. Walker, certain things can affect the soul, and this virus seems like one of those things," The Ancient One replied, summoning a cup of tea.

"You are surprisingly calm about this…" I replied, looking at her, "I mean, just now, you showed me, a possible end of the world scenario, and yet, you seem okay,"

"Well, that's the thing with the quantum realm, everything I saw, could very well be trash," The Ancient One chuckled, "This realm, it's unique in many ways, and because of that, even with the time stone, I can't see into it very well, in short, out of the eighteen million possible outcomes I saw, I have no idea how many apply to us,"

"What do you mean?" I.. this conversation was getting confusing.

"Well, it means the quantum realm is connected to the very essence of the multiverse, therefore, what I saw, could've been eighteen million possible outcomes for other realities, or for ours, we can't know for sure, that's how tricky the quantum realm is," The Ancient One shrugged.