Inside the bookstore lounge, Lucas sighed deeply and picked up his phone to call Erin.
The path to accumulate the energy needed to upgrade was long, so Lucas decided to quicken his pace.
A moment later, the call connected.
A slightly hoarse voice came through. "Hello?"
From the voice, Lucas detected drowsiness, confusion, displeasure, and doubt. Clearly, Erin had not yet woken up from her sleep.
Because of this, Lucas couldn't help but blurt out, "At your age, how can you even sleep?"
"Huh?! Who are you, and what do you want with me?" This time, Erin's voice gained a bit more clarity.
"I'm Lucas." Lucas was puzzled.
"Erin, don't you check caller ID when you answer the phone?"
"Oh, Lucas, is there something urgent this early? If not, I'll call you back after I wake up."
Lucas vaguely heard a yawn from the other end of the phone.
"Erin, do you still want a spider totem? If you do, go to the training ground at Avengers Tower immediately."
On the other end of the phone, Erin's sleepiness vanished instantly, feeling a surge of energy erupt from her head and spread rapidly.
She couldn't help but shiver, her heart raced, and her fingers holding the phone trembled slightly.
"Lucas, are you serious?"
"Sorcerer Spider-Man doesn't lie to Sorcerer Spider-Man."
With that, Lucas hung up the phone.
Hours later, at the training ground outside Avengers Tower, Erin was undergoing various tests.
The spider totem Lucas had replicated was a type of directional enhancement, and its effects were relatively quick. In just a few hours, the transformation could largely be completed.
A small portion of her potential would need to be gradually unlocked through long-term training later on.
Besides Lucas and Erin, Steve was also present. He spent most of his time in the training ground. He was currently assisting Erin in collecting data.
"Lucas, these are Erin's physical test results." Steve handed Lucas a form, his tone filled with unsuppressable shock.
He knew this girl, a member of the Phantom Band, nicknamed Sorcerer Spider-Man, and one of New York's street heroes.
Before the Super Hero Registration Act was enacted, she was mainly active in Queens, New York.
According to the data collected by the Avengers, this girl possessed physical abilities several times beyond that of an ordinary person.
Her strength, speed, and reflexes were all excellent. However, her physique was still slightly inferior to that of a soldier injected with the Super Soldier Serum.
Even with training, she could at most become an elite warrior, not a true super-powered individual.
Steve glanced at Erin's physical test form again. Even though he couldn't clearly see the data due to the angle, this did not affect anything, as he had already firmly memorized the data.
"Strength to lift 80 tons, limit unknown."
"Vertical jump approximately 26 meters."
"Maximum speed exceeding the speed of sound, approaching Mach 1.3."
This physical test data far surpassed all types of Super Soldier Serum recipients.
Most importantly, it surpassed most Spider-Men in their normal state.
Lucas was very satisfied with this.
If the spider totem he modified wasn't as effective as the original, wouldn't he be embarrassed?
"Erin, stay here for a while and get used to your vastly increased strength. Don't go home until you can skillfully control it."
"Now, ordinary people are like cakes in front of you. You might accidentally break them." Lucas cautioned.
"Mm." Erin nodded heavily, unconsciously exerting force with her feet.
Crack... Crack...
The training ground floor cracked, and fissures spread from under her feet.
Lucas and Steve had already grown accustomed to the unintentional destruction caused by Erin.
"Remember this carefully." Lucas cautioned again.
Erin assured him again, "Lucas, don't worry, I won't go anywhere during this time. I'll just stay here. I'll call home right now."
Saying that, Erin was about to pick up the phone she had placed aside earlier to call her family.
Crack...
The phone was picked up, but it was already twisted into a mess and unusable.
Seeing this, Lucas had no choice but to have Erin tell him the number, and he dialed it for her. Then, he helped hold it, letting Erin explain the situation to her family herself.
And so on and so forth.
After an explanation, Erin successfully convinced her parents.
"Alright then, let's start training, Erin. Try to get familiar with your current strength as soon as possible, then you can go home."
Lucas first patted Erin's shoulder in encouragement, then turned to ask Steve for a favor, "Steve, please help me test Erin's data once a day. Her potential hasn't been fully unleashed yet, and I need to observe her future growth."
"Okay." Steve nodded, agreeing.
Anyway, after the Super Hero Registration Act was enacted, he had become idle. Working out alone was quite boring, so having someone else around wasn't bad.
Additionally, once Erin could freely control her strength, he planned to further train her combat skills. With such excellent physical quality, it would be a waste not to train properly.
After instructing the two, Lucas left first, returning to the bookstore to relax.
Although he had experiments to conduct, he didn't plan to constantly monitor Erin. Recording data periodically would suffice.
Not just now, he had been relaxing during this entire period.
In the short term, it would be difficult for G'iah and Wanda to reach the Dimensional Lord level.
And until they reached that level, Lucas would not allow them to go to other Universe to search for different dimensions.
On one hand, with insufficient strength, they would not even be able to freely enter and exit different dimensions, greatly increasing the difficulty of the search.
On the other hand, with insufficient strength, they could easily encounter danger.
Lucas didn't want to constantly worry about someone pressing a button and needing his rescue.
Lucas understood the principle of sharpening the axe before chopping wood.
'I wonder when the Reality Stone will emerge.'
Lying on the sofa in the bookstore lounge, Lucas silently calculated the time.
He didn't pay close attention to the exact time the Reality Stone would reappear when he watched the movie (Thor 2) before transmigrating, only remembering it was in 2013.
Now, there were only two months left until 2013 would pass.
He still remembered the plot, though.
Thousands of years ago, the Dark Elves attempted to use the Aether to plunge the Universe into darkness.
Thor and Loki's grandfather, the former Asgardian King Bor, defeated the Dark Elves and seized their divine artifact, the Aether.
He wanted to destroy the Aether but couldn't, so he could only hide it.
Thousands of years later, during the Convergence, the Aether emerged and accidentally merged with Thor's girlfriend, Jane Foster.
Acquiring the Reality Stone was a plan Lucas had made long ago.
For no other reason than to strengthen the members of his Sorcerer Supreme Team and motivate them to protect the Universe.
Of course, before giving away the Infinity Stones, Lucas would need to research them himself and eliminate any risks. And while researching, he would learn and improve the diversity of his methods.