The Sea of Knowledge is Endless

Ethan and Isendra arrived at Akara's tent together. As they had agreed, Ethan helped Akara prepare the potions.

The work he was responsible for wasn't difficult, just tedious. It required considerable patience and time to process the herbs.

Only after he had properly prepared the herbs could Akara use these semi-finished products to create the finished potions.

During this process, Ethan was able to combine the knowledge he had gained the previous night with practical application, further understanding and absorbing it. He then continued to observe Akara making the potions from start to finish, gaining a complete understanding of the entire process and method of making magic potions.

"Essentially, that's how magic potions are made."

Akara pointed to the raw materials in front of her, then to the finished potion – a red liquid contained in a small transparent bottle.

"You select the appropriate raw materials, perform simple processing first, like washing, removing useless parts, or using spells to remove energies with unsuitable properties; then you dry them in the sun or with direct spells. During this process, you must use corresponding spells to ensure that the necessary properties in the raw materials are not damaged. Of course, some herbs can skip this step, like the Healing Herbs you collected this time."

"Then comes extraction and refining. You extract the essence from the herbs and mix in some auxiliary materials to create the potion you want." For example, the auxiliary material for the potion Akara was making was plain water, which made it easier to use... Yes, the reason it's made into a liquid is for ease of use.

In reality, the initial steps aren't anything special. The most crucial part of making a magic potion is the final stage: how to extract the desired 'effect' and turn it into a liquid?

Akara's explanation of this part wasn't very detailed; in fact, what she said was a bit vague. After listening for a long time, Ethan could only conclude that it entirely depended on personal comprehension. If you could figure it out, you truly understood it; if you couldn't, you wouldn't learn it no matter how hard you tried.

"This is too..."

He thought for a long time but couldn't find a suitable word to describe it. There was no help for it; many aspects of the Mystic Arts were this enigmatic. This was also why the barrier to entry for this profession was so high. If your intelligence wasn't sufficient, you really couldn't achieve anything significant.

"First, you need excellent physical fitness, and now it requires high intelligence and comprehension. No wonder Sorcerers are like cheat codes in some works. With these innate requirements, if the result of training is trash, who would still want to be a Sorcerer?"

No choice, just practice!

Fortunately, making magic potions required almost no magic power. Although some spells needed to be used, they could be completed using a Magic Array that could borrow external power.

The working principle of this Magic Array also became one of Ethan's learning goals. After all, in situations where he lacked sufficient Mental Power, couldn't generate it himself, or couldn't draw magic power from other sources for his own use, this ability to extract energy from the current environment or items containing magic power and manifest effects could solve many of Ethan's problems.

He had also considered modifying this Magic Array so that he could cast a few small spells on his own. The power supply issue for the Magic Array was also easy to solve – he thought of the low-quality Magic Stones from the Sea of Tranquility. The energy contained in those Magic Stones was enough to cast some small spells.

Thinking of this, Ethan's enthusiasm increased a few points, and he became even more motivated to learn. Not only did he listen carefully, but he also kept asking all sorts of strange questions. Many of his questions, in turn, left Akara unsure how to answer – having lived in a world of information explosion in his previous life, Ethan had no shortage of creative ideas.

Fortunately, Akara still had quite a few herbs of other properties. She gave all of these herbs to Ethan to practice making potions and using the Magic Array.

Over the next few days, Ethan helped Akara process herbs in the morning. Then, in the afternoon, while Akara was making the red potion, he practiced using some lower-quality herbs nearby.

Akara would also take time to give him pointers, telling him where he was making mistakes and which aspects he was doing well. At the same time, she would answer some of Ethan's creative questions about using the Magic Array.

Compared to just brainstorming before, after using the Magic Array for a few days and gaining a clearer understanding of its working principles, some of the ideas he proposed again received Akara's approval and praise.

"If you can find a stable source of magic power, then the few Magic Arrays you just mentioned are feasible. However, the structure of the Magic Array needs to be redesigned, and this requires you to have a clear understanding of what the spell you want to use is like."

How would Ethan know that? According to his previous idea, he wanted to design a Magic Array that could cast Fireball. The power didn't even need to be too great; being able to release a fist-sized Fireball would be enough.

As for the temperature of the flame, its concentration, or the explosive power it contained, he didn't have high requirements. Even if it was just a simple ball of fire, it would be sufficient for him at the moment.

But even such a simple requirement wasn't something that could be achieved just by chance. It required a very clear understanding of the Fireball spell, at least its principle must be understood; otherwise, how could you construct the Magic Array?

The current situation was that Ethan understood the principle of power supply and had solved the energy source problem, but he knew nothing about the construction and final casting stages.

Akara was a Priestess after all, not a Sorcerer. She was skilled in healing Divine Magic, not Elemental Attack Magic. Therefore, if Ethan wanted to complete the Magic Array he envisioned, he needed to formally and systematically learn relevant magic knowledge.

If it were before, he wouldn't know who to ask even if he wanted to learn. However, there was currently a suitable candidate: Isendra, an excellent Witch from the Sorcerer Guild, a powerful Sorcerer skilled in the application of three elemental energies: fire, frost, and lightning.

"You want to learn magic from me?"

Isendra had been staying at the camp during this time. Every day, she would wander around the camp, investigating the Dark Energy while also helping the camp clear out some of the nearby Dark Creatures.

With the help of a powerful Sorcerer like Isendra, the pressure on the Rogues in the camp was greatly reduced, so Isendra's prestige in the camp was also rising daily.

The benefit of this was that it became very easy for Ethan to find Isendra. Almost anyone he asked knew where the 'powerful Sorcerer Isendra' was and what she was doing at the moment.

"Simply put, I want to learn the various principles of some spells."

Ethan explained his idea and his plan to create several pieces of equipment inscribed with specific Magic Arrays.

After listening to the detailed explanation, Isendra merely frowned: "Making such Magic Equipment is indeed not difficult, but its value is not great."

The items Ethan wanted to make were the simplest kind, with no requirements for materials. It was just a normal piece of equipment inscribed with a Magic Array, which would then cast the spell preset in the Magic Array when triggered by Mental Power. Similar equipment wasn't rare in this world, but no one would use such inferior materials to simultaneously inscribe such basic magic.

Such things could even be described as 'crude, simple!' It was clear that Sorcerer Isendra, with her orthodox lineage, looked down on this approach.

"Pondering these things won't do you any good on your path as a Sorcerer. You should focus on cultivating and improving your Mental Power – in fact, as long as your Mental Power increases a bit more, you can officially start learning spells. At that time, you can cast these simple spells with your bare hands."

Ethan shook his head helplessly: "But I have no ability to protect myself at all right now. I could die at the hands of Dark Creatures at any moment. If I die, how can I cultivate Mental Power or even learn magic?"

"Uh..." Isendra couldn't refute him. This was indeed a very realistic problem: "Alright, I can tell you some basic magic principles."

These basic magic principles weren't secrets that couldn't be taught. Once one began formally learning magic, any Sorcerer would know these things.

Isendra originally planned to teach him a few simple introductory attack and defense spells, but she quickly changed her mind and took out a book from her luggage.

"This is a book on Basic Magic Principles. It's for you. The spells you need are all recorded inside." Isendra looked at Ethan, whose face was full of hope, and finally added: "But I still need to remind you, simple basic spells are fine, but if you want to construct more advanced magic on items, it won't be possible with ordinary materials."

Ethan nodded. He knew this point; Akara had mentioned it to him before: "Actually, even for the Magic Arrays of a few introductory spells, I plan to make weakened versions."

Even introductory level magic, if constructed at maximum power, couldn't just be inscribed onto anything. Magic conductivity and the ability to withstand the impact of greater energy would directly affect whether a Magic Array could be successfully arranged.

And materials that possessed excellent conductivity and could withstand large energy impacts were particularly rare magic materials, which Ethan, in his current state, simply couldn't obtain.

Therefore, even though he had received a whole book of introductory spell principles from Isendra, his plan hadn't changed. He would still focus on weakened versions of small spells.

Just as he was preparing to go back and carefully read this book on basic spell principles to select suitable small spells to make a few pieces of equipment, Isendra suddenly called out to Ethan, who was about to leave.

"I've been investigating outside during this time and finally discovered the area with the strongest Dark Energy: an underground cave called the Den of Evil. After discussing it with Akara, we believe that might be the gathering point for all the Dark Creatures in this vicinity."

"So?" Ethan didn't think Isendra was asking him to team up to clear the Den of Evil; he didn't have that kind of combat power.

"I need you to do me a favor." Isendra handed him a letter: "Before I came here, I met a Priest from the Rathma Cult. He was also investigating the reason for the surge in Dark Energy, so I hope you can help me deliver a letter to him and ask him to come here to eliminate those Dark Creatures with me."