Miles braced himself against a lamppost, gasping hard, his legs still trembling uncontrollably. The alternating waves of nausea and the embarrassing noises from moments ago had been so awful he wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and never come back out.
Now that he had finally escaped the effects of the vomiting spell and farting spell, he looked at Harry with pure horror. He honestly could not imagine what kind of deeply twisted person would invent magic with such terrible taste.
His face burning red, he snapped, "You call that magic?! That was a nightmare prank from hell!"
Harry looked even more embarrassed, though he still nodded. "Miles, you're very smart. It really is prank magic. It's normally only supposed to cause hiccups and gas, but the magic I released seems to have been too strong, so it turned into... that."
Seeing how sincerely Harry was apologizing, Miles gradually calmed down. Then he suddenly remembered Harry's offer of compensation and blinked.
"Wait. Forget the gold and magic for a second. You said you could also give me a long life. How long are we talking?"
Harry smiled and explained, "The gold is just normal gold. As for magic, I can have you sign a Lending contract with me. And lifespan is simple, I have more than enough magical items that can extend a person's life."
Miles thought about it for a moment, then asked, "Any recommendations?"
Harry did not hesitate at all.
"Of course. Becoming one of my Lenders is the best choice. Once you become my Lender, there are plenty of benefits..."
He proceeded to explain the obligations and advantages of being a Lender.
The moment Miles learned that he could greatly increase his own power, his eyes lit up. Every trace of his earlier anger vanished on the spot. He made up his mind instantly and said excitedly, "Harry, I want to become your Lender!"
Harry nodded and immediately drafted a contract for Miles to sign.
At that point, Gwen, who had been listening from the side, looked extremely tempted herself and could not help asking, "Um... Harry, can I become your Lender too?"
Miles flashed a smug grin. "Gwen, becoming Harry's Lender is obviously a rare opportunity. The only reason I got to become one is because Harry needed to compensate me."
Gwen's eyes dimmed slightly with disappointment.
But to the surprise of both of them, Harry only smiled and said, "Of course. I can let you become one of my Lenders too."
Miles: "???"
Wait, just like that?
Then what was all that about me being special? I look like a total clown now!
Harry glanced at Miles and laughed. "Becoming a Lender isn't some especially rare privilege. But I am waiving two full years of missions for you. You should know that every mission comes with a certain amount of danger."
Only then did Miles grin again. "Thanks so much, Harry!"
Soon after, Harry and Gwen finished their contract as well.
Miles, still standing nearby, tried to walk over and talk to Gwen. Curious, he asked, "Gwen, why did you suddenly come to my universe?"
But after taking only one step forward, he realized Gwen had instinctively backed away, which left him awkwardly frozen in place.
Confused, he looked at her, not understanding what exactly about him she found so repulsive.
Then he heard her say, "Sorry, Miles. The smell from earlier was really intense. Don't come any closer yet, or I'm going to remember what just happened..."
Miles: "..."
After saying goodbye to Gwen and Miles, Harry used gold to buy a large amount of materials. After several more days of research, he successfully restored The Spot to a human appearance.
After that, he signed a contract with The Spot and gained a Lender who could freely travel back and forth across the multiverse.
Naturally, Harry could also keep drawing experience and new ideas about spatial and temporal travel from The Spot.
Once he had fulfilled his promise and healed him, Harry immediately used his Lender connection to pinpoint the location of his own universe, then directly opened a portal leading back to it.
But the moment Harry stepped out of the portal, he was stunned to discover that he had not arrived at Earth, but in the vacuum of space somewhere out in the cosmos.
Harry let out a sigh and was just about to open another portal to Earth when, at the exact moment he pulled out his wand, a spaceship suddenly came hurtling toward him from the distance.
Wait...
It's going to hit me!
Rocket Raccoon felt like his luck had been absolute garbage lately. Not long ago, he and Groot had run into another one of the High Evolutionary's hunting squads. They had barely managed to break free from the encirclement alive.
"The High Evolutionary..." Rocket spat the name through clenched teeth, the tip of his tail whipping violently behind him. "That lunatic thinks he can shove me back in a cage? I'm gonna blow him into dust!"
Standing beside Rocket was a tall tree being. Seeing that Rocket was still drowning in the pain of the past, he tried to comfort him in a quiet voice.
"I'm Groot!"
Hearing Groot's attempt at comfort, Rocket wiped his face hard, then turned around wearing that usual cynical, carefree expression again. He waved a paw at Groot.
"Oh, give it a rest. You got anything else besides that one line? I stopped caring about the High Evolutionary a long time ago. Compared to the great Rocket, those idiots are nothing."
He straightened up and continued, "Come on. Our luck's finally turned. I found an easy job. All we gotta do is grab some idiot named Star-Lord, and we'll get a huge payout. Maybe even enough to buy a new ship.
"Damn it, I've hated this pile of junk for a long time now. Once this job's over, we're replacing it."
Just then, Groot suddenly pointed frantically out the front and shouted, "I'm Groot!"
Rocket burst out laughing, bending over and slapping his knee. "Ha! There's somebody out there? You seriously expect me to fall for that? Still, buddy, thanks. I'll admit that one was funny."
But Groot did not calm down. If anything, his voice became even sharper and more urgent.
"I'm Groot!"
The moment he finished, the ship's alarm suddenly began blaring. A blurry human silhouette appeared on the transparent forward shield.
Rocket's laughter died in his throat. His eyes widened instantly in disbelief.
"Damn it! You were actually telling the truth this time?!"
He yanked wildly on the controls, the ship jerking violently as it turned, its thrusters carving a scorched arc through space.
But the ship was already far too close to avoid a collision.
It slammed into the figure head-on.
What left Rocket even more stunned was that the one who got hurt was not the human, who somehow still seemed perfectly alive, but their ship.
There appeared to be an invisible energy shield surrounding that person. The instant the ship's energy shield collided with it, the ship's shield was violently repelled and shattered.
Then the mysterious figure smashed straight through the ship's hull and burst into the cockpit.
Countless broken fragments exploded in every direction. Groot, being a Flora colossus, was essentially a living tree and did not have true vital points, so even though flying debris riddled his body with holes, he was not seriously harmed.
Rocket was different.
He was flesh and blood. Even with Groot standing in front of him and blocking most of the damage, the remaining metal shards still tore into him badly enough to leave him critically wounded, almost dead.
The moment Groot noticed Rocket losing huge amounts of blood and rapidly slipping away, he flew into a fury and lashed out at the mysterious intruder with his vines.
He was going to avenge Rocket.
Harry pulled out his wand, glanced over his absurdly long list of spells, and immediately cast a Transfiguration spell.
His target was not the wreckage or anything else, but the tall tree-being in front of him.
Under the effect of the Transfiguration spell, Groot rapidly shrank. Even his once-hard vines softened, losing their ability to hurt anyone.
Only after the tree-being had been reduced to about four inches tall, leaving him no longer a threat, did Harry finally explain, "Wait, calm down. I'm not a bad person, and this raccoon can still be saved."
The moment Groot heard that Rocket could still be saved, he calmed down at once, though he still glared at Harry and said, "I'm Groot!"
Once Groot had settled down, Harry smiled. "Relax. I can have him fully recovered in no time."
He flicked his wand and said softly, "Reparo."
In the next instant, the damaged spaceship began repairing itself at visible speed, and Rocket Raccoon's body did the same.
In only a few seconds, everything had returned to the way it had been before, except now Harry was sitting there inside the cockpit.
A moment later, Rocket's nose twitched. His entire body jolted, and he sat upright.
His mind quickly flashed back to what had happened before he blacked out. He remembered countless metal fragments piercing through him, remembered being on the verge of death.
At once he snapped fully awake and rapidly scanned his surroundings.
But the cockpit around him was still the same old battered cockpit as before. Nothing seemed to have changed.
Was that whole thing just a hallucination?
Then his eyes landed on the stranger sitting nearby.
Rocket froze for one second, then jolted again. His tail puffed up like a giant bottlebrush, and baring his teeth, he reached for the pulse pistol at his waist.
But when his paw hit his side, the gun was not there.
He turned his head and saw that at some point it had drifted away from his belt and was now floating in the air.
At the same time, a gentle voice sounded from in front of him.
"My friend, there's no need to get too worked up. If I really meant you harm, you wouldn't have any power to resist me anyway."
Realizing just how enormous the gap between himself and Harry was, Rocket instantly raised both paws and gave him a nervous, ingratiating smile.
"Whoa, hang on, pal, don't get worked up. That was just a misunderstanding. I was only trying to scratch an itch."
Harry gave a quiet laugh and did not bother responding to that obvious lie.
At that moment, Groot walked over. He had already returned to normal size. Reaching out, he patted Rocket on the shoulder and said, "I'm Groot!"
Rocket and Groot understood each other perfectly. Rocket could follow the nearly identical sounds of Groot's Flora colossus speech without any trouble.
Once he understood what Groot had said, shock spread across Rocket's face.
"Wait, you're saying that guy was the one from before? He smashed through our energy shield and armor and crashed straight into the cockpit?"
"I'm Groot!"
"What, so everything I saw was real? I really was about to die, and all he did was wave that stick around and time started running backward, then I was completely healed?!"
"I'm Groot!"
After Groot confirmed it, Rocket's expression instantly turned serious.
Then, in the very next moment, he lunged forward and hugged Harry's leg.
"Boss, please take me with you!"
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