"'Beginner Level Evocation Magic'..." I muttered, reading off one of the titles of one of the books stored safely atop one of the bookshelves. I studied the thick thing for a moment, before stretching out a single hand and grasping the book with telekinesis. M.I. watched, silently, as the book suddenly fell off of the bookshelf and landed in my hands.
"Telekinesis is not one of the powers this place can grant. How intriguing..." She muttered, her robotic voice suppressing any emotion that would have otherwise been audible as part of her words. I pretended to ignore her, though I made a mental note that she was aware of what the Sanctuary could and couldn't grant as far as powers went while opening the book and beginning to effortlessly leaf through it.
My ultra-charged mind, pushed even further than it had been previously thanks to the new powers I possessed, was capable of instantly and effortlessly memorizing every letter, every word, every paragraph, on every page that I skimmed. It took me less than a quarter of a minute to completely memorize and absorb the contents of the book.
"An entire grimoire memorized in less than a quarter of a minute... I think I know how I'm going to spend the next few hours." I stated as I felt my mind processing how to cast countless new spells. There was a wide smirk on my face as I rose a hand and closed my eyes.
I felt a wave of heat wash over me as I spent magical energy and a potent blade of fire appeared in my outstretched hand. It cast a dim glow that I could sense through closed eyelids and I could hear the soft crackle of the flames.
"I love magic." I said, softly, as I opened my eyes and rested them on the flaming blade in my hand. M.I. stared at the blade as well, though the only way I could tell was that her clear visor displayed the temperature of the flames and various other information about the thing. The blade's flames were whitish-blue and the heat it radiated was intense but couldn't bother me since I was immune to damage and discomfort caused by heat and fire.
So far in my life as a superpowered being, I had had two direct physical altercations with other powered beings. The first of them was with the coven of Alexandria Drakos, and the second was with Bigman. In both battles, I had largely met my enemies where they were.
In the battle against the coven I didn't utilize magic but I did utilize psionics, though now I probably could have fought them with magical might since I knew evocation magic. In the battle against Bigman, I matched his strength and speed with my own and showed that I was beyond him as far as raw speed and physical might went.
In the future, I knew that I needed to develop my own fighting style that blended everything together. By combining the speed of my mind, my diverse array of abilities, and my raw physique I was capable of soloing countless regular people but if I went up against other powered beings I needed to be at the top of my game. To do so I could begin by mastering the basics of the schools of magic with grimoires I could read here.
I speedily got my hands on the grimoires that the library possessed, ordered M.I. to continue her task, and spent a healthy portion of my first night in The Sanctuary studying magic. In doing so I was rewarded with potent knowledge and expansions to my capabilities that filled me with excitement. Every single grimoire I read made me a far more potent magician and expanded my knowledge of magic.
While my main body gained access to new spells and new schools of magic, my secondary body, that of a clone who had been deployed to Earth, spent hours with my family. The almost mundane entity was able to easily interact with my fully mundane parents. The entity only possessed limited access to arguably the weakest of my abilities, but it still profited off of my ability to utilize my passive, attribute-based traits, which was way more than enough for it to be fully capable of mundane activity.
I had full awareness of the clone, as well as the ability to possess it, but I had no intention to do that. Thanks to the fact that the clone really was me, just me without access to my full suite of superpowers, it wasn't necessary for me to do that. I subconsciously listened to the thing naturally and smoothly interact with my family and, hours later, head to bed.
While my clone was in bed he began to watch all sorts of videos on the internet, and I was able to peer through his eyes and utilize one specific actual superpower of mine: "Copycat". With it, I was easily able to further enhance my physique by gaining knowledge of how to do all sorts of physical feats, such as emergency/field medicine without using my superpowers, and also how to survive in the wilderness without access to my supernatural abilities.
While my first night in The Sanctuary was occurring at a rather slow pace I did myself a favor and interrogated the system so that I could learn how to further enhance my clones. My interrogation revealed to me that the weaknesses possessed by them would be removed once I gained greater power and access to even more enhanced superpowers. That served as a keen reminder that while I had just gained access to incredibly potent abilities thanks to my link to The Sanctuary, my other superpowers were far from as powerful as they would someday be.
I possessed superstrength but not the sort of superstrength needed to do something like lift modern buildings, for instance. I could run or fly at speeds that far surpassed the speed of sound but the speed of light was still tremendously faster than I was. I could read hundreds of thousands of minds at once, but not millions and certainly not billions. All of those were things that I intended to be able to do someday and to be able to do them I needed to steadily grow in power, and continue to absorb attribute points.
As the strange, otherworldly sun of The Sanctuary began to float into view, at least to those outside of the Owner's Manor, I found myself seated at a small table in the heart of the vast library owned by those who had the privilege of ownership over The Sanctuary. Assorted grimoires were placed on the table, and I had read through all of them with ease, since I had utilized my enhanced mind to efficiently learn countless new spells in various schools of magic.
M.I. had long ago finished her duty of cataloging the contents of the vast library and moved on to do various other important but time-wasting tasks. Throughout the night several of The Trapped had visited the library and seen me in my capacity as a scholar of the arcane and eldritch traditions of magic. Some of them had seen me studying and had wisely chosen to leave.
Others had approached me and introduced themselves, especially Ceylan who also apologized for outing me as a darkness elemental, a woman and sorceress named Lavie, and a former queen of some distant dimension who had fled her home named Oselia. I had introduced myself back and politely made conversation with each of the women for several minutes before they excused themselves so I could get back to my studies.
A few minutes after the sun had risen higher into the sky outside of The Sanctuary I could smell the distant scent of food being cooked and I eventually began to hear the soft footfalls of an approaching inhabitant of the Owners Manor. It was right when I was finishing cleaning up the mess I had made while grabbing the various tomes I had read through that the footfalls reached me.
Olivia entered the vast library, a good distance away from myself, and I heard her begin to search for me. I eventually finished cleaning up and made my way to her. When "The Commander" approached me, she smiled brightly and beckoned for me to follow her.
"Hey! Good morning. Let's go and get some breakfast." She said, greeting me excitedly. She wore a surprisingly casual dress, and the atmosphere around her was surprisingly domestic given that she was, in actuality, a powerful, powered being who had fought in countless battles over the course of her life and had an array of skills. I smiled at her and began to follow her when she turned around and walk back out of the library.
The door that she opened to exit the library led us into a grand kitchen, complete with a large dining room table at the end of it. Atop the table was a luxurious-looking breakfast made up of all sorts of breakfast items from countless cultures. As we approached it Olivia began to speak again.
"I don't know if you need to eat, though I doubt it, that said I figured that having a nice breakfast would allow us a chance to sit down and converse with each other in a nice, date-like setting. Afterward, we can go to the armory and investigate the sort of technological items you possess, and of course, begin to plan our first moves with regards to the world of Terra." She explained, causing me to pause and look at her in confusion. She looked at me and giggled.
"Terra is the name of the world our home is linked to. And before you ask, no, not Earth. As of sometime around last night, a new portal to some distant world appeared in the heart of the armory. I suppose it's a consequence of you gaining ownership over The Sanctuary. So far no one else has entered it and it is clearly one-way." She explained, excitement filling her eyes as she considered the possibilities regarding this mysterious other world.
I went and sat down at the table while listening to Olivia and began to use telekinesis to pull a plate and some food to myself. She sat down next to me and began to talk away, telling me of The Sanctuary's past, while also getting her own food and beginning to eat just a bit herself.
