Merlin

The familiar sensation and the blinding light that still prevented him from seeing anything. Once everything settled, Ethan immediately scanned his surroundings, his right hand already resting on the sword hilt.

There was no heavy encirclement – this was a first. Remembering his previous two travels, each time he opened his eyes he was surrounded by a group of people. In the Diablo World, a group of Rogues even had their bows drawn and arrows nocked, ready to shoot him full of holes if things went south, leaving him with a huge 'shadow'.

This teleportation portal seemed to choose rather unreliable landing spots each time – but thinking about it another way, being dropped into a safe zone every time seemed quite reliable too.

"No need to be nervous, Sorcerer from another plane."

Just as he relaxed a little, a voice came from behind him.

Startled, Ethan immediately turned around and looked at the unremarkable steep mountain wall. The voice had come from there, yet there was no one in sight.

"Is this... an Illusion?"

Focusing his Mental Power and enhancing his senses, Ethan detected a subtle sense of disharmony. He couldn't project his Mental Power outward yet, which would allow him to detect more things. Right now, he could only sense that something was off; finding exactly what was wrong required other methods.

However, the other party didn't seem to intend to hide. As a ripple like water spread out, a section of the originally steep, bare mountain wall actually disappeared, revealing a not-so-narrow passage.

At the same time, a white-bearded old man dressed like a Sorcerer he'd pictured, leaning on a Staff, walked out with a golden-haired young man.

"Hello, guest from another world."

The old Sorcerer spoke slowly, his gentle voice seeming to indicate he had no ill intentions, merely showing his hospitality – that is, if he hadn't been openly releasing the boundless, bottomless Magic Power fluctuations as deep as the sea.

"Please don't misunderstand. As a Sorcerer, you should know that sometimes it's necessary to do this to have a proper conversation."

The old Sorcerer quickly withdrew his terrifying Magic Power fluctuations, still speaking in that kind and amiable tone.

"Furthermore, in order to break through the blockade of that enormous energy and communicate with you immediately just now, I used a little too much force."

Only then did Ethan realize that he could hear the other party's words not because he could understand the language, but because the other party had used Mental Power to communicate with him.

"Holy crap!"

Although he knew he was still weak, being linked to by powerful Sorcerers as if they were strolling through their backyard every time was extremely annoying – it seems I need to create something to prevent these Sorcerers from linking to my mind without even saying hello.

"Alright, young man, it is right for you to feel angry about this, but I still hope you can give me a chance to compensate you."

The old Sorcerer in front of him seemed to be a good person with strong moral character. He apologized immediately and was willing to offer compensation.

"For example, how about helping you create an amulet that can defend against Mental Power attacks?"

Ethan was stunned: "You can read my mind?"

"Oh, no! I just thought that's what you would want most right now." The old Sorcerer openly displayed his wisdom, and a hint of sharpness appeared in his originally kind and amiable eyes.

Ethan thought for a moment and decided not to dwell on the compensation for now. The old Sorcerer's words made it sound like creating such an amulet was a simple matter, showing his great confidence in his ability to create Magic Equipment. And currently, Ethan didn't urgently need such a defensive item – in fact, as his Mental Power increased, as long as he didn't encounter an existence that completely overwhelmed him, the other party wouldn't be able to casually succeed in a Mental Power invasion.

As for those who could successfully invade without him noticing, that proved the gap in strength between them was astonishingly huge. The other party could easily erase him from this world with a wave of their hand, so having such an amulet would be meaningless if the other party was hostile.

"Then, how should I address you?"

Seeing that Ethan showed a willingness to communicate, the old Sorcerer nodded happily: "My name is Merlin, you can just call me by my name."

"Merlin..."

Ethan frowned. It wasn't that he didn't know who Merlin was. With the name Merlin and being a powerful Sorcerer, his identity was obvious. He was just wondering which Merlin this was. As a famous legendary Western Sorcerer, he appeared in quite a few works, and even more works mentioned this Sorcerer indirectly without him appearing directly.

"Not a white-haired delinquent guy... can rule out one possibility."

"The Staff in his hand doesn't look like a metal mechanical product either, can rule out another."

Scratching his head, he realized there were countless works he knew of, and ruling them out one by one was simply impossible.

His reaction, however, made Merlin opposite him very curious.

"Young man, have you heard of my name or have you met me from other planes?"

Ethan was a little surprised by Merlin's question, but quickly figured it out – from the beginning, Merlin had stated the fact that he was from another plane, which showed that this great Sorcerer had some understanding of the concept of the Multiverse, perhaps even more than he did.

"Wait..." Ethan suddenly thought of a possibility: "My Teleportation Portal sent me here, don't tell me you did something?"

Merlin was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a smile: "I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly. I wasn't intentionally concealing it; in fact, even if you hadn't noticed, I would have mentioned this matter shortly."

Ethan's face darkened. The last time he was caught by the Ancient One was also because when he traveled into the Marvel Universe, he was intercepted by this Sorcerer Supreme who guarded Earth from invasion by other planes. At that time, he knew that some powerful existences could interfere with his teleportation.

He didn't expect to encounter another one so quickly. In that case, he wouldn't dare to use the Magic Array for Plane Travel in the future. Who knew if he would encounter someone who would just kill him without a word?

"Or, I can teach you how to better control that immense energy, so it doesn't stand out like the moon in the dark night sky, preventing other Sorcerers from detecting you the next time you teleport?"

Merlin quickly offered a condition that Ethan couldn't refuse, and it was precisely the problem he urgently wanted to solve.

"I really want to solve this problem." Ethan nodded, admitting this point, but he didn't want to be led by the nose by Merlin like this: "So, what do you want, having specifically brought me here? Great Sorcerer Merlin."

Merlin had deliberately intercepted him and changed the teleportation location to be in front of him, so he must have some intention. If he had initially suspected this famous Sorcerer was a plane guardian similar to the Ancient One, that idea was dismissed by Ethan when he repeatedly offered benefits.

"This guy wants something from me."

He couldn't figure out what he, in the eyes of this legendary super powerful being, had that was worth coveting. The only eye-catching thing was probably the ability to perform Plane Travel, right? However, his previous words revealed that Merlin didn't seem to be interested in this ability – otherwise, why would he offer to help Ethan better master Space-Time Energy?

"Let's talk somewhere else, shall we? Are we going to keep standing here?"

"We should indeed change places."

"Then, please follow me, young man."

Merlin greeted him, turned around, and walked back first. Ethan followed him into the small path hidden by the Magic Array. As he passed the location that had looked like a mountain wall before, Ethan felt himself pass through a very powerful Magic Wall. It felt similar to passing through a water curtain, but instead of being drenched and embarrassed by the magical wash, there were even some benefits: the Mental Power consumed during the travel seemed to have recovered somewhat.

The path wasn't long; after walking for a moment, the originally narrow passage suddenly opened up. Led by Merlin, Ethan arrived in a very beautiful valley.

All sorts of flowers, plants, and trees filled every inch of the valley, and countless blooming flowers filled the valley with their fragrance. His spirit was refreshed again, and Ethan immediately realized that these plants and flowers were extraordinary.

"It's a Fairyland!"

Merlin seemed to have been deliberately waiting for this compliment.

"This is where I live."

The only man-made structure in the valley was a seemingly ordinary house, which from the outside looked like a very plain three-story building. But when Ethan stepped inside, the immense space made him realize that this little house was definitely not as simple as its exterior suggested.

The few people didn't linger. Led by Merlin, they entered a room – this was a Reception Room, and Ethan also saw some Fruit already placed on the table.

"Please have a seat!"

Merlin sat down first himself, and only after Ethan was seated across from him did he continue.

"Initially, I wanted to spend some time getting to know you before telling you my purpose, but it seems you don't like that approach, so there's no need for me to keep hiding it." Merlin was just about to speak to the blonde young man beside him when he suddenly seemed to remember something: "Oh, I apologize, I may need to be a bit intrusive before that."

Merlin tapped his forehead with his finger: "There won't be any side effects, you'll just feel a bit of swelling and numbness in your head, or a slight headache."

Before he even finished speaking, the finger that had tapped his own forehead slowly pointed towards Ethan. A stream of light first flowed from Merlin's forehead to his finger, and with the old Sorcerer's movement, it shot into Ethan's head with a whoosh.

His body stiffened, and Ethan, who had just been about to get up, stopped abruptly. He had already realized what Magic Merlin had just used – he had 'packaged' a portion of the language knowledge in his mind and then 'teleported' it to Ethan, allowing him to master another foreign language in the shortest amount of time.

"Hello, my name is Arthur." At Merlin's signal, the blonde young man stood up and formally introduced himself using the language Ethan had just 'learned'.