A fiery-red light was visible in the dark. My hands were currently covering my open eyes. Yes, I was trying to learn spirit vision, the most basic skill in mysticism. I succeeded on the second try.

You might ask why I would want to learn this skill as I am embarking of the spectator pathway. The answer is simple. I feel it might be useful, at least at sequence 7 and below. While powers of observation are supposed to be increased tremendously for a spectator, this ability is more deductive in nature. I am not a seer or mystery pryer so I can't see the astral projection using spirit vision. Not that I will need it as the visionary pathway will give me all its related abilities as I progress. It was mentioned in LotM that the highest level of spirit vision allowed the user to see anything in anyplace, even the past or future. The spectator and reader pathways themselves allow access to this ability without training spirit vision.

In all honesty, spirit vision should be useless for a spectator. But this world is that of marvel comics. I can at the very least use spirit vision as a detector if nothing else. Marvel is a world filled with many weird abilities, much like LotM. Having one more skill to use can never go wrong and who knows it might end up saving my life sometime. If 'acting' ever requires it, maybe it might come in handy as well.

I then quickly set up a switch for my spirit vision while using cogitation. I set it so that lightly tapping the side of my leg twice would switch it on and vice versa, so that it won't draw attention. I then exit my spirit vision state to conserve my spirituality. Its worth mentioning that my spirituality is now strong enough to not faint while summoning and unsummoning the astral book, though it will still tire me out. This is probably due to the fact that as a sequence 9, the spectator potion only enhances spirituality and not the physical body.

That brings me to the next point.

As a spectator pathway beyonder, acting behind the scenes is of the essence. Meaning, I don't need to join the avengers or any other groups. Even better if I stay far away from them and just observe. At most I should subtly influence characters and events instead of actually taking part in them.

While this is true, the lower sequences of spectator pathway are really too weak with low survivability. So its best to learn some form of self-defence like martial arts. I considered just popping up at kamar-taj and learning mystic arts but immediately denied it. After all, I don't know how my presence influences this world. I don't know if my presence was accounted for in the normal timeline of this world or not. Maybe my presence is just being hidden by the chaos sea, but if I go stand in front of the supreme mage, he/she might chuck me out of this world. Or any other organisations that can see the future for that matter. Another reason, to minimize my effect on major events as much as possible. At the very least try to. Knowing me, I will probably fail.

I don't have any major goals either. I don't have any hopes to return back to my previous world. Klein's experience was horrible enough. And I know that I am in a fictional world so I don't expect any better. The only goal to name currently might be to survive as much as possible.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

This makes me want to leave Chernobyl as soon as possible. I remember Dracula making Chernobyl his new den for vampires in some comic, though it was fairly later on the timeline. Also animals and beasts mutated in and around Chernobyl. Of course these things might not happen as I might not be in the worlds of comics that described those events. I don't even know how much of comic related stuff is there in this world. But maybe I can use this as an opportunity to digest the spectator potion.

With this I can create a check-list of things to do at the earliest-

1. Get a valid identity

2. Solve money issues

3. Leave Chernobyl as soon as possible

4. Learning some form of self-defence or fighting

5. 'Acting' to digest the potion

6. Raise the sequence as soon as possible

7. And I should have put this first. Find some more food. I don't know when they will distribute food next.

With this in mind, I picked up Arrodes who promptly spoke- "Great master, congratulations on taking the first step towards retuning to your throne \(^O^)/."

"I must thank you Arrodes for your help. I am feeling fine." After all it was the 'Arrodes' in cogitation that stopped me from losing control after taking the potion.

"I live to serve great master, though I don't know how I helped you. Your question great master?"

I have been awfully hungry for a while now and I think I should ste…'borrow' some more food before testing out my new spectator abilities.

*************************

A bald woman was currently closing her eyes as if to speculate about something. She had experiences a rather surprising situation, something that was not very common in her long years of life. Outside the area where she currently was, all sorts of different people were practicing the mystic arts in order to protect the sanctums that have guarded earth for generations. This was kamar-taj, a holy place of mystic arts and sorcery.

The bald woman, Gu Yi, opened her eyes and took a sip of tea, specially prepared from rare tea leaves she had acquired as she thought of her recent experience.

The timeline had changed. It had been changed forcefully by some mysterious outside force. She had been observing the timeline using time magic, something very difficult to master, and the eye of Agamotto as usual. It was part of her routine to do so in order to prevent any unexpected disasters should they come. But for the first time since she had begun to do so, the multiple possibilities of the future she had seen earlier were nowhere to be seen. The timeline had been covered by a layer of fog representing unknowns and she did not like it. Such a sign normally meant trouble. The astral plane had been abnormal as well as of late. As the sorcerer supreme, such changes would naturally get her attention.

When she delved deeper into the layer of fog in order to find clues, she heard the sound of flowing water. Although she could not see the 'water' clearly, it was causing the whole timeline to be chaotic. Warning bells started ringing in her head as she decided to turn back and ask Vishanti about the cause instead. As she was turning around she seemed to see 'someone' looking at her from far away in the 'past' of the timeline. Before the world existed. The second she looked into those eyes, she seemed to see the essence of the universe, of how it was created. She started going crazy, luckily for her though, those eyes closed just in time.

She then thought of the result of her enquiry to the Vishanti and mumbled. "The god almighty, huh…"

***

I kept Gu Yi as a woman. I just feel that to be better as compared to a man