The successful creation of the portal made Feeney so happy he could practically fly.
Unfortunately, it could only be opened while he was wearing Ghost Rider.
In his normal state, it still merely flickered and sputtered with sparks.
“So just how far has Doctor Strange developed his talent for magic?!”
Feeney silently wept inside.
He had spent an entire year focusing on this one spell and still hadn’t managed to master it.
Yet in the future, Doctor Strange seemed to have simply gone to the Himalayas, frozen there for a while, and somehow learned it.
Mastering the portal gave Feeney much more confidence in facing the dangers ahead.
If he couldn’t beat someone, couldn’t he at least run away?
With this one trick alone, he could deal with most people.
Next, Feeney turned his attention to the system.
His nearly full experience bar indicated that he would soon be able to draw his fourth skill.
One skill a year.
In the past, this was something Feeney wouldn’t even have dared to imagine.
After all, aside from his first skill, it had taken him seven years to obtain his second and eight years to obtain his third.
But now, he was about to accumulate enough experience for his fourth skill in just one year.
The price he had paid for it was gaining a few strange titles, such as “Kamar-Taj Battle Maniac,” “Armored Mage,” and “The Mad Knight Who Can’t Use Magic.”
Such a crazily fast rate of improvement was inseparable from Kamar-Taj.
Feeney was now incredibly glad that he had come here back then.
Otherwise, where else could he have found a “dungeon” that was both safe and efficient?
At this point, Feeney’s only hope was to draw his fourth skill before Tony Stark returned.
And preferably, it would be another powerful skill.
“Portal!”
Looking at the fiery-red portal before him, Feeney felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
Finally, he no longer had to go back and forth through the Sanctums or ask someone else to open a door for him.
“But having to wear the Sling Ring is pretty troublesome.”
After returning to Kamar-Taj, Feeney thought about it.
Although the Sling Ring seemed to be something everyone had while training, it was actually quite precious, and control over them was fairly strict.
However, Feeney wasn’t without a solution.
Just like the compass he had once imbued with special effects using the Golden Great Evolution Technique, now that he had the Sling Ring in his possession, he could likewise create a similar ring and imbue it with the Sling Ring’s effects.
However, unlike the compass, the Sling Ring’s power had a much greater impact on reality, so creating one certainly wouldn’t be as simple as creating the compass.
Another thing worth worrying about was that it might suddenly stop working after being used for a while.
Fortunately, there was no need to rush right now.
For the sake of his training, he had previously applied to the Ancient One for long-term use of a Sling Ring, so he didn’t need to return it anytime soon.
Putting the matter of the Sling Ring aside for the moment, Feeney began thinking about how to obtain enough experience for his fourth skill as quickly as possible.
If he simply continued training according to his normal routine, it might still take another month or two before he could draw it.
Although he should still have enough time, Feeney felt it would be safer to do it ahead of schedule.
“Looks like I’ll have to work a little harder!”
Actually, the best way to obtain large amounts of experience was to fight the Ancient One.
But that depended on whether the Ancient One was willing to cooperate.
At the beginning, Feeney had once gone to the Ancient One under the pretext of asking for guidance, hoping to take the opportunity to fight and gain experience.
Unfortunately, the Ancient One was simply too strong.
He could never last more than a few moves before being defeated, and the experience he gained was actually less than what he could get from Mordo, his experience-giving punching bag.
At least Mordo would go easy on him, allowing him to fight for longer.
Only when the Ancient One deliberately held back could Feeney possibly farm experience from her.
But obviously, the Ancient One wasn’t nearly that idle.
Besides fighting with his skills, there was actually another way to increase his experience faster.
That was to make his skills break through.
After nearly a year of training, Ghost Rider was still the same Ghost Rider as before, but he was already far stronger than he had been a year ago.
One had to remember that the mages of Kamar-Taj were close-combat mages.
Without a good body, how could they fight in close quarters?
So after a year of training, although Feeney hadn’t reached the point where Ghost Rider could evolve, he was almost capable of unlocking another one of its abilities.
An ability that countless people dreamed of possessing.
Invisibility!
Recently, whenever he equipped Ghost Rider, he could already sense that he was only one step away from unlocking this ability.
He just needed to work a little harder.
In order to unlock it and draw his fourth skill sooner, Feeney decided to double his training schedule for the following week.
If that still didn’t work, he could only find a way to spend more time with his elite experience punching bag, Mordo, and his ordinary experience punching bag, Wong.
Unfortunately, accidents often came far more suddenly than expected.
The very next day, two pieces of news sent the entire media world—and even the country—into an uproar, completely disrupting Feeney’s plans.
Tony Stark was back!
He announced the permanent closure of the weapons development division!
Looking at the Tony Stark on television, sitting beside the podium covered in wounds and without a shred of his usual image, announcing that he would no longer engage in the arms business, everyone knew that he had changed.
He was no longer the arrogant genius and playboy who indulged in pleasure like before.
Aside from Feeney, there were probably very few people who knew whether these changes were good or bad.
Of course, for Obadiah Stane, they could only be bad.
“What happened to him?”
Skye, who was standing nearby, couldn’t help asking Feeney as she watched the television.
She knew that Feeney was mysterious and somehow seemed to know a great many things.
“He thought that making weapons was his way of maintaining world peace. But he eventually realized he was wrong, so he decided to try another method!”
Feeney explained.
But Skye clearly wore an expression of disbelief.
The core business of Stark Industries was the arms industry.
Shutting down that division was practically equivalent to cutting off both of its own arms.
Just realizing that he had made mistakes in the past and then directly abandoning a company worth hundreds of billions of dollars?
Few people would be willing to believe such a reason.
“All right, stop standing there blankly. I need you to do me a favor.”
Seeing Skye standing there stupidly, Feeney thought for a moment before saying, “Buy as many Stark Industries shares as possible. Buy as much as you can!”
“You’re sure?”
Skye looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated.
“Don’t worry. He’s a genius. How could he decisively give up the weapons division without having something else in mind? Stark Industries’ stock will only become more valuable in the future. Whether you can become a little rich lady depends on how well you handle this move.”
Seeing Skye’s expression, Feeney smiled and explained.
This stock sell-off was different from the previous incident involving Obadiah’s kidnapping scheme.
That one had been prepared in advance.
This time, there had been absolutely no warning.
On top of that, Tony’s appearance at the time, combined with statements stirring things up from certain rival companies, caused many people to genuinely believe that Stark Industries was finished and began selling their shares.
Seeing this, Feeney couldn’t help once again marveling at the deception and treachery of business warfare.
In fact, the reason he had never considered starting a company and making money all these years was simply because it was too exhausting.
The more money you wanted to make, the more exhausting it became.
Managing relationships between various factions, dealing with attacks from rival companies, and even handling internal conflicts…
There were all kinds of problems.
Whenever he thought about opening a company, just thinking about these things gave him a headache.
In the end, Feeney still felt that having enough money to spend was fine.
There was no need to force himself to make the number bigger and bigger.
Besides, if it weren’t for Obadiah before him and Pepper Potts helping manage the company afterward, Tony would never have been able to remain so carefree.
Perhaps in the near future, after Tony created the Iron Man armor, some people would think that he was able to withstand pressure from the military because of his money.
But in reality, the military’s wariness of Tony Stark wasn’t merely because he was rich or because his company was large.
His family connections were also very important.
His father had been one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D.
On top of that, Tony himself was an extraordinary genius.
He had developed who-knew-how-many weapons, and the military needed to purchase them.
That was why they couldn’t secretly force Tony into submission.
If it were simply a matter of having a lot of money, he could never have achieved that level of influence.
Of course, after explaining all of that, the two most important points were still these:
First, he wasn’t as much of a genius as Tony.
Second, the only person he truly trusted, Skye, didn’t possess the same talent for management as Pepper.
This older sister of his was practically being raised into a shut-in couch potato!
Looking at Skye, whose weight and cheeks were gradually becoming rounder, Feeney silently thought to himself.
(End of Chapter)