Chapter 75: Arc 2: Chapter 30: Christmas Present Pt. 2

It was the night of 22nd December 1992, 3 days before Christmas.

Agent Merlin who had been reinstated to SHIELD was sitting in a hotel room in Paris, on the table in front of him were 4 boxes.

3 were delivered to him through the former SSR internal mailing system, the last one was directly delivered to the front desk of the hotel via FedEx.

All 4 boxes were labeled Christmas Present.

Merlin had received Christmas Presents before, but the ones in front of him had a special meaning. They were the first presents he ever received since the beginning of his new life.

Merlin takes the paper cutter and carefully cuts open the first box, in it was a black wooden box, and in the box, was a Classic Colt 1911. 

The gun had traces of use on its body, it gave off a feeling that it had been through a long journey, yet it was still as sharp as a knife even over time.

Merlin picks up the gun, the touch felt great, he unloads the ammo clip, and it was fully loaded. Inside the box was a card.

The card was beautifully written:

"My first trophy, to my friend, Merlin; Merry Christmas. - Clint 'Francis' Barton"

"Thanks, Clint."

Merlin lightly says so and puts the gun aside, he picks up the second box.

This box was lighter than the first one, Merlin shook it and he heard the sound of something colliding.

He opens the box, in it was a cardboard box, in that box, was a black item similar to a camera film canister.

Next to it was a card, on it, were words handwritten by a female:

"Thanks for the present, little boy, hope that you like my return gift."

Mmm, such frivolous tone, must be from Natasha.

Merlin picks up the lightweight black cylinder, it was only as thick as his thumb, and on the top of the cylinder, Merlin found a small buckle that seemed to fit his pinkie.

Merlin buckles the buckle and pulls outwards.

"Shwa"

Following a light snap, a black string, made of unknown materials, that was similar to steel wire, was drawn out. It buzzed in front of Merlin, and Merlin could feel a chill on his neck when he saw this.

He knew what this was, he had seen something similar when he learned assassination in the Academy.

This was a coil that was used for slitting throats during assassinations.

One can easily slit open someone's throat if one tightens the coil around the target's neck from behind. It was much more convenient to use during assassinations than a knife.

But to use this thing fluently requires a certain amount of skill, otherwise, it's easy to harm the user during practical situations; plus, Merlin had never used one before.

"How very Black Widow-ey..."

Merlin casually places the assassination spool into the pocket of his undergarment, it did not look like much, but it was very useful.

"Thanks, Natasha."

Merlin happily pushes the second box aside and picks up the third box.

Compared to the two before, this box seemed rather pocket-sized, even with the packaging, it was no bigger than Merlin's palm. Merlin was curious about its contents.

Although he could find out whatever was inside using his dark senses, doing so would ruin the mystique of the present itself, Merlin didn't like doing so, he didn't like failing expectations.

He takes the paper cutter and opens the box. In a shock, he found...a pack of cigars.

Mmm, a pack of Silk Cigars, and it's been opened.

"Is this a prank?"

Merlin confusedly picks up the card on the box, on it was:

"I found this from agent Silver Bullet, I think you might like this...also, thanks for the sunglasses, they're very useful, I like them."

This should be a present sent by Fury.

Surely he isn't so silly?

Merlin grabs the cigar pack in his hand and immediately senses something odd. It was at least twice as heavy as a real Silk Cigar pack!

Merlin opens the cigar pack, in it were two cigars.

He picks up the first one and examines it in his hand, it looked exactly like the real thing, but it was made of metal; Merlin holds it with both hands and notices that it can be turned, so he does so.

"Bzzt"

A faint sound of an electric surge resounds from the cigar, Merlin could sense a weak electric surge exploding from the cigar; at the same time, all the electronic devices in the room act abnormally.

The lamp bulb by his hand and the lights in the ceiling all short out in an instant.

"EMP?"

In the darkness, Merlin looks at the cigar in his hand with surprise, it was a miniature electric magnetic pulse launcher, its radius of effect is only the size of the room, but it was certainly useful for destroying electronic devices in close range.

This gave Merlin quite the excitement, this was his first gift that was related to being an agent after all.

"How very James Bond-ey!"

Merlin puts the cigar back into the box and picks up the second cigar. Using his experience from the first one, he carefully turns the cigar, and a heat ray shoots out of the cigar, easily melting a hole on the table in front of him.

"Cool! A miniature high-frequency ray gun!"

Merlin keeps the metal pack of cigars in his pocket, he loved practical little things like these.

How nice of Fury.

But the bad news is that tomorrow morning, he'd have to explain to the hotel staff about the broken lamp and the damaged table.

"Lastly, let's see what this is."

Merlin picks up the last package, it wasn't sent by any of his friends; in fact, the content of the package was a file.

In the darkness, Merlin could see the small sentence on the file:

"Coulson, this is what you need, remember your promise! - Talia."

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"Oh, not a Christmas Present."

Merlin opens the file in slight disappointment, this file was the payment from the girl he saved who was supposedly from the League of Assassins that day, in it was the information on an offensive magic artifact.

Frankly, if it hadn't been delivered to him, Merlin would've already forgotten about it.

He did not know of the League of Assassins, nor did he know of their abilities, but from what Merlin could tell from the girl's fighting style that day, this organization is presumably unrelated to magic, so Merlin did not hold high hopes from them.

Unexpectedly, the girl did find something, she remembered what she had promised Merlin, which made his impression of the girl, who dragged him into her business, slightly better.

Merlin takes out a stack of jagged parchments from the file and lays them out on the table.

It seemed to be very old, the drawings on it made it look like something from the Middle Ages. 

There are even labels of the sea replaced with sea monsters.

"What is this?"

Merlin looks at the parchment fragments in front of him through the darkness, he subconsciously tries to fit them together, as he has a feeling that these could be a treasure map. He flips the biggest fragment conversely and finds a sentence written in French behind it.

Merlin frowns, he did not understand French, and the map was too fragmented for him to make something out of it.

But from the material of the parchment, it could be hundreds of years old, so the information on it could be a joke someone drew hundreds of years ago or an actual lead to an offensive magic artifact.

But Merlin could not find any leads on the incredibly crude map

Unfortunately, Talia had delivered this to him without any additional instructions.

Maybe she did not know what it was, maybe she did and she pretended that she didn't as to fulfill her end of the promise yet leave Merlin fruitless. 

This made Merlin's impression of Talia worse.

"That cunning woman!"

Merlin shakes his head and no longer pays attention to such meaningless information, one could not find treasure from an incomplete map, and he wasn't going to spend his time on a potentially fruitless adventure.

A few dozen minutes later, midnight strikes.

In the darkness, Merlin walks out of the washroom and prepares to switch to his sleeping garments to rest. He was now a low-level non-military agent in the European branch base, which was the new identity given to him by Garrett to protect him.

As Merlin opens the cabinet and takes out his sleeping garments, he accidentally knocks off his coat from the table, the coat falls onto the floor and reveals a rectangular box that contained Lola, Merlin's own red claw wand.

Merlin reaches out to grab Lola from the rug, and as he grabs it, a flash of inspiration appears in his mind.

That's right, he was a wizard now!

Things that have been utterly destroyed may seem useless to normal people, but they're not useless to wizards...

If he remembered correctly, there was a spell that was used for repairing damaged items in the magic textbooks Mr. Arthur had given him!

Light flashes in his eyes as he quickly gets dressed and takes out <Standard Spell - Elementary>; a few minutes later, Merlin finds what he needs.

Reparo.

A simple spell with a simple effect.

Can only be used to repair non-magic items, Reparo is useless to damaged magic items. The effects of Reparo are variable, although it's described very formulaically in the textbook, Merlin assumes it's based on luck.

1 spell chant is enough if you're lucky, more than 10 if you're unlucky.

Most importantly, it's noted very clearly in the textbook, that to cast Reparo, all the parts of the damaged item need to be present. But Merlin himself did not know whether or not all the pieces are here.

So he decides to give it a try.

In the darkness of midnight, Merlin in his sleeping garment, an open magic textbook on one hand and Lola on the other.

"Reparo!"

"Swish"

A dark red glow emits from the tip of Lola as Merlin chants and waves his wand rhythmically. The dark mana flows into the wand, and under Merlin's control, Reparo's mana model forms on the tip of the wand and shoots out of the tip.

"Swish"

A cold breeze flows and sweeps up the fragments of the parchment in front of Merlin.

Like it was being moved by an invisible hand, it quickly begins to be repaired on the table.

"It's working!"

Merlin's eyes light up, and as the winds begin to die down, he quickly casts another Reparo; a few minutes later, after 4 chants, the fragmented parchments form a map on the table.

On the rectangular parchment was a part of a complete map, yet parts were missing from the center and bottom left corner of the map.

"It is incomplete, Talia, you cunning woman!"

Merlin reaches out and picks up the parchment map that was repaired using mana. He looks at the map and labels and finds a sense of familiarity.

A few seconds later, he takes out the World Map, and after cross-examination, Merlin confirms the lines on the map to fit the European region, to be precise, Northern Europe.

Merlin flips over the map, the sentences at the back of the parchment were connected, but only the ones at the upper right corner were complete.

Merlin picks up the brick phone and calls the hotel staff; moments later, a thick French dictionary is delivered to his room.

At midnight 1.30-am, after a long period of comparing and translating, the meaning of the sentence surfaces in Merlin's mind.

"South of Water, North of Mountain."

"In the Ring of Rocks, among Ancient Trees."

"Walk 37 steps, a gift from gods."

This riddle-like thing made Merlin squint his eyes as he looks at the incomplete map in his hand.

He has a whim, that maybe he has to take a short break...

On a trip to Northern Europe.

 

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