The Spider

Chapter 39: The Devil You Know

Training under Dr. Strange was...odd to say the least. It honestly felt both amazing and confusing at the same time. Plus I had to resist the pantheon of easy and silly 'Strange' puns that I could use.

I had to study and research so much before I even attempted the most basic of spells. And not only that I had to constantly meditate to allow my mind to access the power known as magic. Honestly I need to find a different name for that, screaming I can do magic just sounds silly. Strange might be okay with it, but I'm not.

The man was an amazing teacher, and that's the least I could say about him. He understood how magic worked on such a fundamental level he could explain it to me like he was talking about the weather.

It took me a while at first to actually get it, but now, I understood just what magic was. And after I understood...well, I began to experiment.

BOOM!

Strange walked into my room and looked around. My spartan like room was trashed, scorch marks everywhere with me embedded into a crater in my wall. I wore the dull red robes of an apprentice, they weren't half bad actually.

He looked at me and sigh, "let me guess, you tried to recreate the pouch of storage I gave you but forgot about conservation of mass and tried to just drown the container with magic, yes?"

I blinked, "...yes."

Strange sighed, "Peter, I told you, just because you know how it works, doesn't mean you can replicate it," he snapped his fingers causing my room to glow gold before it rearranged itself, returning back to it's previous state before the explosion.

I found myself being pulled out of the wall and sitting down on my chair before my table on which I had a backpack, now no longer ashes.

Strange came up behind me and took the bag, "let's see what you did wrong shall we?" he looked in the inside of the seems and hummed spotting the runes I had drawn inside, "ah, I see."

"What did I do wrong?"

"The Kuru rune, it's too long," he took a white quill, which we used to draw runes, and corrected the error. When he was done he placed the bag on my desk, "there, now try it."

I nodded as I closed my eyes and focused, pouring the extra-dimensional energy he called magic into the bag. It glowed bright red for a moment, I feared it was going to explode again, but luckily this time it worked.

The mouth of the bag glowed gold as I found it's inside expanding to near infinity. Strange smiled, "I have to say, I'm impressed. Only one month of training and already you are crafting your own enchanted objects."

I smiled, "honestly I'm ashamed it took me this long."

"It took me years to learn magic Peter."

"Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with overachieving is there?" I smiled.

Strange nodded, "true. Now, I'm assuming since you're here and not in the training room, you have finished the assignment I set out for you?"

I smiled as I stood up and moved away from Strange. I moved my arms clockwise before bringing them forward and throwing my hands out creating a giant magical circle made of reddish energy that covered my whole body.