You Will Return

Ethan sat up abruptly as consciousness returned, looking down at himself. His original tattered clothes, which had become even dirtier and more worn after spending so long at sea, had been replaced. He was now wearing a set of white cloth garments. Although they clearly weren't new, they were very clean.

He touched his lips. They had been cracked and dry from dehydration but were now much better. He even found his mind clearer than ever before. That sleep (or was it a coma?) had been incredibly comfortable.

"Your body is quite good; you recovered much faster than I expected."

Ethan immediately turned his head when he heard the voice. He saw the bald person who had walked towards him before he lost consciousness sitting quietly at a table beside his bed, making tea.

"Although I gave you some restorative medicine while you were unconscious, I'm still surprised you woke up so quickly..."

The bald person continued making tea without even looking up at Ethan, busy with their own task. The reason Ethan didn't respond immediately was that he realized this person wasn't moving their mouth at all when they 'spoke'. The voice seemed to be coming from inside his own head.

"Yes, I'm communicating with you by directly linking to your mind through magic. I assume you don't understand the language of our world... young man from another world."

The bald person finally looked up, and Ethan finally saw their face... Uh, maybe I should use 'her'?

"Where is this?"

Ethan tried to focus his mental power and then 'spoke' this sentence.

His reaction slightly surprised the person opposite him. The bald woman showed a rare expression of astonishment. "Oh, you're very talented. You've mastered mental communication so quickly. This makes things much more convenient."

The bald woman picked up a cup of tea and walked over to Ethan. As she handed him the cup, she began to introduce herself. "This is Earth. My name is Ancient One, and I am a Sorcerer... Do you know what a Sorcerer is?"

Ethan took the tea and slowly took a small sip. "I know!"

He knew more than just what a Sorcerer was; he also knew what Earth was. After all, his previous life was spent as a native Earthling – just not this Earth.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Ethan suddenly became alert: Mental Link... she won't be able to read my thoughts directly, will she?

He looked up at Ancient One. This powerful Sorcerer from the Marvel Universe didn't seem to have 'heard' his inner thoughts just now. He didn't know if she was deliberately acting unconcerned or if she truly didn't have the ability to 'read minds'.

Don't panic. Ethan put the half-finished cup of water down beside him and began to 'chat' with Ancient One, sometimes engaging and sometimes not.

He deliberately interspersed his focused mental speech with letting his mind wander and thinking about 'conversations' internally without focusing his mental power, in order to determine whether Ancient One could directly read his thoughts.

It didn't take long for him to reach a conclusion: either Ancient One had discovered it and was deliberately acting unconcerned, or she could only 'hear' the information he sent out by focusing his mental power.

Although he really hoped the latter was true, he couldn't rule out the possibility of the former. Fortunately, no matter which was the case, at least Ancient One's current attitude allowed him to relax a little for now – it was good that she hadn't immediately turned hostile.

As for schemes and tricks, with Ancient One's strength, she wouldn't need to play those games with him; a single glance would be enough to kill him.

After chatting for a while, Ancient One roughly understood Ethan's 'situation': he came from a world full of oceans, was just seventeen years old, his parents were deceased, he was alone, and he had accidentally arrived here.

Ethan also finally understood why he had appeared here.

It turned out that the glowing orb pointer in his hand was pointing towards scattered Space-Time Energy. After finding the Space-Time Energy, it would absorb it. Then, as the host, Ethan could use his mental power to activate this Space-Time Energy, thereby activating a Magic Array for Planar Teleportation.

After teleporting, the Space-Time Energy would 'protect' the host for a period of time until the energy was depleted, at which point he would be teleported back to his 'original location'.

This was the fundamental reason Ancient One had chatted with him for so long: there was unstable Space-Time Energy within Ethan.

Furthermore, Ethan learned another thing: the destination of the teleportation Magic Array was not Kamar-Taj, where Ancient One resided. Instead, Ancient One, who was responsible for protecting Earth from invasion by forces from other planes, had detected his 'stowaway' intrusion and intercepted him midway.

Okay, as expected of the Sorcerer Supreme. If she says she'll stop you, she'll stop you, no discussion... I really don't understand how so many people who transmigrate to the Marvel Universe manage to hide from these Sorcerers Supreme who are constantly monitoring for planar invaders.

At the same time, he was also glad he had come to the Movie Universe, because the Ancient One in front of him was simply too familiar. If it had been the Comic Universe... the outcome might not have been so pleasant. Although he didn't have detailed knowledge, he knew that the Marvel Comic Universe had more monsters and was more unreasonable.

"Based on my observation, the energy within you is slowly decreasing. It will likely completely dissipate in about seven days."

Ethan knew that the Space-Time Energy within him wouldn't last for seven days, but six. After six days, when the Space-Time Energy reached its minimum level, it would automatically erupt, activating the Magic Array to send him back.

I finally made it here; I can't just eat a few meals and have a drink and go back. That would be too much of a loss. He just didn't know if this Sorcerer Supreme would be willing to teach magic to him, a suspected 'stowaway'.

After a simple probe, Ancient One immediately changed the subject as expected. After Ethan, unwilling to give up, asked a few more questions, Ancient One finally made him abandon the idea of directly becoming her disciple and learning magic.

"Your mental power is only decent. Even if you learn magic, it will be difficult to achieve much, and it will waste most of your life."

Alright, turns out she doesn't think much of Ethan's aptitude.

This wasn't surprising. In the settings of any story, the requirements for a magician's aptitude were never low. And Ethan, both in his previous life and this one, was just an ordinary person.

"However, if you only want to solve the troubles you face by learning magic, it's not difficult."

Ethan had already confessed the predicament he was facing, hoping to gain Ancient One's sympathy. However, Ancient One, who had lived for who knows how long, was not someone whose compassion was easily stirred. Fortunately, she wasn't the type to sit by and watch Ethan face a desperate situation without being willing to help.

"You have good mental power control abilities, so getting started won't be difficult for you. As long as you practice diligently, this small spell can help you solve your drinking water problem."

The greatest advantage of communicating through the mind was that many things that were difficult to describe with words and notes could be understood by the other party in a more convenient way. And Ethan immediately understood all the key points of this small spell. Now he just needed to practice diligently to cast this small spell specifically used to extract surrounding water elements to create clean water.

This small magic extracted the water elements (water molecules?) already present in the environment and then condensed them into drinkable clean water. It could be said that the environment directly affected the effectiveness of this magic. At the same time, it wasn't generated out of thin air or converted from magic power. The casting difficulty was not high, but it had high environmental requirements and was of average practicality.

But it happened to perfectly match the world Ethan lived in – looking around, all he saw was water...

The only difficulty was controlling mental power. Many people had strong mental power but couldn't become a Sorcerer because they couldn't control it precisely enough to get started. By chance, ever since he transmigrated, Ethan had been constantly training to control his mental power in order to use the light orb pointer, so this difficulty was non-existent for him.

Looking at the water droplets gradually condensing in his palm, Ethan finally showed a look of joy: just getting this made the trip worthwhile.

What's more, to facilitate communication with him, Ancient One had also 'taught' him a local language through the Mental Link. This finally allowed him to escape the awkward situation of being unable to communicate with people.

Over the next three days, Ethan also wandered around outside his room, but there weren't many places he could go, nor many people he met. He didn't see any 'familiar' faces.

Although Ancient One didn't harm him, she wouldn't let him wander around her home ground. Appropriate surveillance was not removed. Once Ethan tried to leave the 'designated activity area', someone would appear in time to stop him.

Other than that, there were no restrictions. Chatting and joking with the apprentices, and even discussing the study of magic, were fine. There was even a young Sorcerer apprentice who showed off his smartphone to this 'otherworldly native', bullying him because he didn't know what it was. As a result, Ethan pretended to fiddle with it for a while and then taught him a lesson – he had gotten tired of playing Angry Birds and similar games in his previous life.

Thanks to this guy's showing off, Ethan was finally able to figure out the current timeline he was in by fiddling with the phone – Iron Man had just been born not long ago, and this game was still new, so it should be sometime between Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2.

So Doctor Strange won't be coming here for several more years... Huh? Does that make me his senior brother?

Perhaps because he was behaving 'well,' the Ancient One sent over some more things.

These included packaged food, some simple daily necessities and navigation tools, a few changes of clothes, and several books.

"The energy within you will activate tonight and send you back to your original world. These things should be enough for you to use for a while."

The title of Sorcerer Supreme wasn't given for nothing. In just a few days, the Ancient One had clearly understood the true state of the energy within Ethan, calculated the exact time of his departure, and prepared some things for him in advance.

"Although the Water Creation Spell I taught you is a very simple little spell, diligent practice is also a good form of cultivation for your mind. So, I believe you will need these things in the future."

The Ancient One pointed to the books in front of her. The first one was Introduction to Mental Power Cultivation. Following that was Detailed Explanation of Basic Spell Application, and then several large volumes, starting with a thick stack of Oxford Dictionaries. Besides that, there were textbooks and dictionaries for French, Chinese, and other languages.

"Don't worry, if you practice diligently, your memory will also improve as your mental power increases. You'll be able to memorize these books very quickly."

Ethan scratched his cheek. "But why give me these?" He didn't understand why she would want an outsider like him to learn English. He had learned enough of it in his previous life.

"I have a premonition that you will return..." The Ancient One's expression suddenly became very serious. "And when you do, perhaps you can help me solve a big problem."