Chapter 60: The Life of a Lazy Wizard in Asgard (3)
Sherlock inadvertently showed off, but he didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt about it.
Although he didn't know what these scoundrels had done to him, Sherlock decided to treat this display of showing off as revenge against them.
Of course, Sherlock naturally went to the training ground with Thor, as Sherlock had only memorized the book, but magic still needed practical application to be learned.
Even so, it only took Sherlock three days, under the watchful eyes of Thor and the others, to skillfully use the Illusion Magic and Sequence Magic from Asgard.
Such rapid progress made the eyes of these close-combat warriors almost pop out, and Sherlock had also become quite familiar with these brutes during these three days.
Sherlock also figured out one thing: these brutes, led by Thor, were absolute failures when it came to magic, even to the point of being beyond redemption.
This explained why it took them three years to learn some basic magic.
Of course, as Sherlock became more proficient in magic, he also learned something that made him both ecstatic and frustrated: the Sequence Magic he was learning was actually the most primitive version.
No one in Asgard currently used such an primitive version of Sequence Magic; the archers' Sequence Magic had already been updated to thousands of forms.
This made Sherlock pound his chest in frustration. This time, he suffered from not having studied history and humanities. After all that effort, he was actually learning the weakest, most primitive version.
Fortunately, Sherlock had a relatively good mindset and quickly adjusted. After all, for Sherlock, the primitive version held infinite possibilities.
This was like the Type 59 tank; no matter how it was modified later, even if it was turned into a star destroyer, its essence or core would still be the Type 59.
Sherlock considered himself to have obtained the prototype core. If the Asgardians could develop Sequence Magic to thousands of forms, Sherlock believed he could do it too, and even better.
After all, Sherlock came from a country that could modify a World War II-era bomber, the H-6, so much that the 26 letters of the alphabet were almost not enough to name the variants. Sherlock was quite confident about this.
Seeing that Sherlock had gradually mastered his magic, Thor, being a warrior, naturally stepped forward at the instigation of the others and proposed a spar with Sherlock.
After all, Sherlock's magical talent made them incredibly jealous, envious, and hateful, especially during these three days. They had watched Sherlock transform from knowing nothing to being able to cast spells fluently.
Sherlock naturally did not refuse Thor's challenge, and his gaze towards the group of people following Thor was equally ill-intentioned. If Sherlock didn't know any time-stop magic, he might have already collected a complete set of Meow-Meow Hammer-themed Asgardian warrior 'pain masks' in his library.
As for Thor's challenge, Sherlock clearly made Thor realize two things: what it meant to not provoke Sherlock unnecessarily, and what it meant for 'My Lord, times have changed.'
The moment 'Begin' was called, Sherlock used Illusion Magic to create a Naruto-style Shadow Clone Jutsu. With the enhancement of the illusions, the entire training ground was filled with Sherlocks, completely surrounding Thor, the brute.
Thor, who was extremely familiar with Illusion Magic due to Loki's training, naturally wouldn't be intimidated by such a scene, because he knew that even if there appeared to be many people, there was actually only one true body.
Aside from the true body, the rest were just illusions.
But the next second, Sherlock made him clearly realize what 'My Lord, times have changed' meant. With just a turn, Sherlock pulled out a massive Gatling gun and held it in his hand.
Before Thor could react, Sherlock quickly deployed the Blasting Sorcerer style, forming a light curtain made of magical runes in front of him.
By the time Thor felt something was wrong and wanted to throw his hammer at Sherlock, Sherlock grinned and pulled the trigger. With the enhancement of magic, the ordinary bullets of the Gatling gun instantly transformed into grenades.
The massive explosions and smoke quickly engulfed Thor. Coupled with the special effects enhanced by Illusion Magic, the Asgardian warriors experienced for the first time what it felt like to be overwhelmed by a barrage of firepower.
Almost all the Asgardian warriors, seeing this scene, couldn't help but suck air through their teeth, their eyes twitching as they looked at the cloud of smoke at the very center of the concentrated fire.
Fortunately, Sherlock had reined it in a bit. The Blasting Sorcerer style's enhancement wasn't maxed out, and the Gatling's bullets weren't full-power rounds, just ordinary .22s, completely unable to penetrate Thor's armor's defense, but they definitely hurt a lot.
Sherlock finished firing a thousand bullets with a grin, then contentedly put the Gatling gun into his library and dispelled his Illusion Magic.
The entire training ground became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone in the stands seemed to be hoping that Thor was still alive within the dust cloud and could launch some kind of counterattack, so he wouldn't lose so badly.
As if their wishes were granted, from within the dust cloud, the Meow-Meow Hammer flew out at an extremely fast speed. The wind pressure from the flying hammer even blew away the smoke, revealing a bruised and swollen Thor inside.
Seeing the Meow-Meow Hammer flying towards him, Sherlock, despite its extreme speed, agilely dodged it with a head-tuck and squat defense.
Watching the Meow-Meow Hammer graze his scalp as it flew past, Sherlock stood up triumphantly and chuckled as he looked at the bruised and swollen Thor, as if saying, 'What other tricks do you have?'
When Thor saw that Sherlock seemed to have relaxed, he was overjoyed. He stretched out his hand and began to recall the Meow-Meow Hammer, hoping it could sneak up on Sherlock from behind and deliver a powerful backstab while he wasn't paying attention.
As an old Marvel fan, how could Sherlock not know the characteristics of the Meow-Meow Hammer? Everything was an act for Thor. Seeing Thor make the motion to summon the Meow-Meow Hammer, Sherlock, who had already spread his senses, sidestepped the moment he sensed the Meow-Meow Hammer flying towards his back, not forgetting to leave behind an Armor-Piercing Spell where he had been.
The moment the Armor-Piercing Spell appeared, both Thor and the audience in the stands changed their expressions drastically. Especially Thor, whose expression gradually changed from smugness to terror. He frantically tried to cancel the Meow-Meow Hammer's summoning action.
But unfortunately, Thor's reaction was still a step too slow. The Meow-Meow Hammer, after passing through the spell left by Sherlock, gained an extremely fast acceleration, almost turning into a gray straight line that slammed hard into Thor's face.
As the Meow-Meow Hammer was firmly embedded in Thor's face, and under the immense force of inertia, Thor was directly carried by his own Meow-Meow Hammer, flying quite a distance before falling to the ground.
Sherlock then showed a smug expression and made a contemptuous gesture towards Thor, extremely arrogantly.
"Hmph, a magic failure trying to trick me? No way!"
After saying that, he left the training ground without looking back. The people in the stands, however, rushed onto the field, scrambling to rescue Thor, who had been knocked unconscious by his own hammer.
But when everyone arrived on the field, they all found themselves in a predicament. Looking at the Meow-Meow Hammer firmly embedded in Thor's face, everyone began to ponder how they could possibly get Thor to the infirmary.