The Lonely Voyage Home

"Such good luck?"

Yinsen studied it over and over for quite a while, yet still could not figure out whether the White Magic Stone in his hand was truly the kind he suspected it was. If it was, then considering everything he had experienced lately, his luck was so good that even he found it hard to believe.

"Even though I know good luck can't last forever... I still hope it can keep going forever."

Unfortunately, the Golden Finger he had obtained did not come with something like a Status Panel. There was no way to see exactly how high his luck stat was, or what rank it might be.

He tucked the Magic Stone away close to his body. This time, his gains had been even greater than he had expected, including a larger, better caravel-type ship—because it looked so similar, Yinsen simply treated it as a Caravel Sailboat.

He believed these things could be traded for quite a few resources to improve his strength.

"I still know too little about this world. I have no idea how people here improve their strength."

As for a larger, better ship, he did not need to consider that for now after obtaining this new vessel. If the ship became any larger, it would be genuinely difficult for one person to handle. Unless he could find reliable companions, he did not intend to switch to an even bigger ship.

The Goddess of Dawn he had just acquired might have to be sold back to the guild. Of course, he would keep the name for himself.

Perhaps the hold full of ore could be forged into something? The only problem was that he did not know what kind of ore he had found, what it could be made into, or whether he should simply trade it for finished products.

"I wonder whether this world has cannons or steam engines or anything like that?"

From everything he had seen so far, this world's ships were still in the age of sail. Their power mainly came from wind and manpower. He had not yet seen steam-powered vessels or any other kind of propulsion device he did not recognize.

"Maybe it does. Since things like Magic Stones exist, perhaps they've developed Magic Stone Cannons or something."

Thinking of the furnace he had that used Magic Stones as fuel, Yinsen felt that his guess was highly likely to be true.

"If that's the case, then not only will I need to gather all kinds of supplies in the future, I may even need to study Magic Stone Technology?"

As he pondered his future, he used several thick ropes to tie his original small boat to the new Goddess of Dawn, allowing the larger ship to tow the smaller one forward.

With the cabin packed full of ore, the Caravel Type Sailboat, which should have been known for speed, was now slower than the little boat he had first owned.

"Good thing I have enough food, and I can make fresh water myself. Slow is fine."

He could also take this opportunity to consolidate what he had learned recently.

And so, Yinsen once again returned to a regular life at sea.

After getting up in the morning, he would wash up, make breakfast, rest briefly after eating, and then practice swordsmanship. At noon, when the sunlight was strongest, he would read—he still had many of the books he had brought back to finish. However, as his Mental Power gradually increased, his reading speed kept growing as well.

For instance, he had already finished the thick stack of "English textbooks" that The Ancient One had given him. He could now converse and write in English with ease. At most, his spoken English was somewhat rusty because he had no one to practice with—but that problem would be easy to solve. As long as he found a plane where English was spoken, he could use it as naturally as his native tongue within three days.

"Choosing the path of a mage has this advantage too. What an unexpected bonus."

He possessed the Space-Time Pointer, which could search for Space-Time Energy and travel through different planes. Based on the first Marvel Cinematic Universe he had visited, he could tell that he would definitely encounter similar Movie Worlds in the future. Many Movie Worlds used English for communication, and combined with the Chinese language heritage he had inherited from his previous life, he would not be left helpless by language barriers when entering Movie Worlds again.

All of this stemmed from his choice of the mage's Mental Power cultivation path. If he had chosen the Warrior Path from the start and prioritized improving his physical attributes, then conversation alone would have caused him countless problems.

"And I remember there are spells that let you quickly master another person's language. Even if I go to non-Earth-language worlds like Diablo or Warcraft in the future, I won't be tortured by language problems."

The prerequisite was that Yinsen had to improve his strength further, at the very least becoming an official mage.

For now, he was steadily working toward that goal step by step. It was just that he had quite a lot to learn before then.

After his noon reading and study session ended, he would eat some fruit to restore his energy. In the afternoon, Yinsen would do some basic training to reinforce his morning practice, then decide based on the circumstances whether to catch some seafood for dinner and the next day's breakfast.

By the time he finished dinner, the sun had usually sunk below the horizon. Yinsen would not sail at night, because he was alone aboard the ship and had no one to take shifts with him.

Therefore, before making dinner, he would drop anchor and secure the ship before getting busy with the meal.

After finishing the final meal of the day, Yinsen would begin cultivating his Mental Power. He would train until around midnight, then go to sleep and rest.

That was basically his schedule. It was extremely fixed, interrupted only occasionally by trivial matters, such as taking books out onto the deck to air them out and prevent them from becoming damp, moldy, and damaged. He also maintained his weapons and armor. Whenever he did that, he could not stop complaining about the novels he had read in his previous life.

"The weapons those protagonists got never seemed to need maintenance. They'd fire thousands of rounds from a gun, and it would still be as good as new. Forget maintenance—they never even wiped it down."

"Cold weapons are even worse. If they aren't Divine Artifacts, then they're magic weapons. At the very least, they're peerless weapons forged by some famous master. Maintenance never even exists as a concept. You can toss one into a corner to gather dust for years, pull it out, wipe it casually, and it'll still gleam brilliantly, cutting through iron like mud."

"I've got quite a bit of equipment, and it's all pretty useful, but cleaning and maintaining every single piece is really a pain."

Whenever that happened, Yinsen wished he could obtain one of those legendary indestructible weapons, or a spatial storage item capable of freezing time.

Complaints were complaints, but these pieces of equipment were the foundation of his survival. More than half his life depended on them, so while he grumbled nonstop, his hands remained exceptionally careful and meticulous. He was terrified that inadequate maintenance might damage his gear.

His constant muttering was, in truth, something forced out of him by his lonely life at sea. Going so long without anyone to talk to made him afraid that his language skills would deteriorate over time, so he took every chance he could to keep talking.

Often, he realized that if this continued, he would either go crazy or become an idiot. He needed to find a companion as soon as possible.

"But... where can I find a companion that easily?"

Leaving aside whether they could be trusted, could he share his secrets with them? Could he bring a companion along to other planes? It was not that he could not accept it, but how would such people react after learning the truth? He did not want to assume the worst of others, yet a vivid example had only recently reminded him otherwise.

"Maybe... I should look for companions in the worlds I travel to?"

Since he would have to bring people out, the secret would not be a secret from the very beginning. This choice also had one advantage: he could "persuade" familiar people from familiar planes.

At the very least, he knew which people possessed noble character. Even if they refused him, they would not stab him in the back.

He suddenly thought of the many plane-travel novels he had read in his previous life. Finding companions from other worlds seemed to be one of the intended uses of this kind of Golden Finger. When he had read those books, he had fantasized more than once about obtaining such a Golden Finger himself, then talking a few characters he liked into joining him.

"I wonder whether this thing can bring people out?"

He remembered that he had needed to pick up an object before in order to bring it along. Did that mean he would have to carry someone in his arms to bring them with him?

With a wave of his hand, Yinsen summoned the Space-Time Pointer. He immersed his Mental Power in it, hoping to explore more of its secrets.

The first time he had used it, at the instant the Space-Time Pointer activated the Magic Array, the erupting Space-Time Energy had also poured some information into his mind. That was when he had learned its basic method of use and general function. At the time, his Mental Power had been ordinary, perhaps only capable of carrying a small portion of the information. Now that he had grown stronger, could he obtain more information?

Unfortunately, no matter what "posture" he used to send his Mental Power into the Pointer, other than making its form more stable, not a single bit of information returned to his mind.

"Do I really have to figure everything out on my own?"

Just as he was feeling frustrated, he suddenly noticed that the Space-Time Pointer was displaying an arrow.

"Space-Time Energy?"

He had been lost in random thoughts and had not noticed that the Space-Time Pointer was not displaying Searching... but an arrow pointing toward the left side of his ship.

As the ship continued onward, the direction indicated by the Pointer was also shifting subtly.

"It's nearby?"

Yinsen immediately jumped up, changed course at top speed, and sailed in the direction the Pointer indicated.

"Right! I forgot something."

There was one question he had never resolved: when he traveled to another world, did time in this world run parallel to that world's time, or did it flow at a completely different rate?

It was not as though he had never considered this before. He simply had no way to test it. This time, thanks to capturing a ship and looting quite a few odds and ends, he happened to have an hourglass. He had tested it before, and it took exactly one day for all the sand to flow to the bottom.

"One day is a little short... but at least I can find out whether time stops or continues moving."

After putting on all his equipment, Yinsen even placed several "health potions" in the pouch at his waist. Only after checking everything repeatedly did he begin timing with the hourglass. Then he stepped back a few paces and activated the Traversing Magic Array.

"I wonder what kind of world I'll go to this time."