The slight rocking made Yinsen a little uncomfortable. He had only just managed to adapt to the constantly swaying life aboard the boat, but after resting properly on land for several days, he had somewhat reverted to square one.
"I'll get used to it again in a few days anyway."
It was foreseeable that he would be spending a very, very long time at sea. Through this trip, Yinsen had realized that his Golden Finger came with quite a few limitations.
"Let's sort out what I have first."
Looking at his empty left hand and the large, stuffed bag in his right, Yinsen had confirmed quite a few things during this round trip.
"The bundle my left hand was touching didn't come back with me, but the bundle I carried in my right hand and the things on my back did."
From this, he concluded that the Teleportation Array could only bring back things he could "take away" himself. Simply touching something was not enough to bring it back.
"What a shame. If I could bring back everything I touched, life would be much easier."
This body of Yinsen's had just turned seventeen. Because his family was poor, he had never received adequate nutrition. Though the thin, scrawny youth had worked for years, his strength was still very limited—carrying a few dozen jin was already his limit, and he simply could not lift anything too heavy. Even accounting for Burst Power that might let him hold objects weighing around a hundred jin, it was still nowhere near enough for Yinsen's needs.
"I was originally thinking of getting a boat."
The boat Yinsen's father had prepared was nothing more than an ordinary little wooden vessel, with a single mast and an old sail. It was less than ten meters long from bow to stern. The barrels holding food and drinking water did not even have a shelter over them and could only be covered with lids.
With such a crude little wooden boat, Yinsen had initially thought taking it out to sea was no different from courting death. A little wind or slightly larger waves would overturn it without question.
But after many days had passed, he was surprised to discover that this stretch of sea was eerily calm. Not only had he sailed for a long time without seeing the water turn dark blue, but the climate barely fluctuated either. Even at their strongest, the waves merely rocked the boat a little harder and made him feel slightly dizzy.
"There's still a lot about this world that I don't understand."
After organizing the things he had brought back from the Marvel Universe, Yinsen pulled up the anchor, raised the sail, and set off in a random direction.
He had originally wanted to use the orb compass to find another direction. Without a clear destination, looking for the next place with Space-Time Energy was the most reliable way to replenish his supplies.
However, after channeling his Mental Power to summon the compass, he found that the familiar arrow was absent from the orb. Instead, a line of text appeared: Searching...
"Looks like Space-Time Energy isn't something you can find whenever you want..."
Putting away the compass, Yinsen could only ponder what he should do next.
"I hope I can see land... This world can't really be nothing but seawater, can it? Not even an island?"
Originally, he had not believed that. At first, he had taken it as ignorant talk from those "country folk." Yet during his time at sea, while it was not enough to prove there truly was no land, certain unusual things had made him fully realize that this really was not Earth. Much of the "common sense" he knew might not apply here.
Fortunately, the Water Creation Spell he had learned from The Ancient One had solved his drinking water problem.
"Since I don't know when I'll be able to resupply, I need to eat more sparingly from now on... I'll try to fill myself up with water."
Not wanting to die inexplicably at sea, nor wanting to place his hopes on Space-Time Energy that might not be found anytime soon, or on being sent to a completely unknown world, Yinsen began planning his future "activities."
He calculated how much food he needed to eat each day to maintain sufficient mobility. At the same time, he sorted through the books The Ancient One had given him and began reading them in the order she had recommended.
"No need to rush and try to become fat in one bite. The Ancient One said my aptitude is average, which means I might need a long time to study this basic primer. I can put the rest aside for now..."
And so, Yinsen began living a regular yet boring life.
Every morning, he would eat a little to maintain his strength for the day, then steer the little boat onward in a fixed direction—he had no idea how east, west, north, and south were divided, so he could only keep heading in the same direction.
After choosing an angle and securing the sail and rudder, he would begin his daily studies and practice.
He used the Water Creation Spell every day, and as he practiced more and more, he grew increasingly proficient with the little spell. At first, each casting could only gather a wooden spoonful of water. Now, he could gather half a barrel at once.
"When I first started learning, I could only gather one slightly larger water droplet... Logically speaking, my Mental Power couldn't have improved this quickly, so this effect really must be because Water Element is so abundant here."
As Yinsen became more skilled with the Water Creation Spell, he not only had enough clean water to drink, but could even take a simple rinse every few days. It made the dull, monotonous life at sea slightly less unbearable.
As for the basic primer on Mental Power, its opening sections covered Mental Power Training and methods of meditation—it was all rather mysterious. Yinsen had stared at it for ages at first without understanding what it was talking about. He could not even comprehend the first paragraph for three days straight, making him seriously doubt his own intelligence.
It was not until three days later, when he inadvertently channeled his Mental Power while reading, that he finally discovered the "correct way" to read the primer. Otherwise, he might still have been drowning in self-doubt.
"Was this some kind of test The Ancient One left for me?"
Having found the correct approach, Yinsen had one more thing to do every day. After practicing the Water Creation Spell, he meditated to restore his Mental Power, then used that Mental Power to read the strange introductory text and strengthen his Mental Power.
As his Mental Power slowly grew, he gradually came into contact with some of the hidden information in the book.
According to the book, Mental Power was the core of spellcasting for mages of every school. The strength of one's Mental Power directly determined a mage's magical power, control over it, and more.
A mage with powerful Mental Power could even inflict fatal damage on an enemy through Mental Power alone without using magical power. Yet very few mages directly attacked enemies with Mental Power, and the book gave a brief explanation for that as well.
Mental Power was too important. It was almost directly connected to a person's "origin," things such as the soul. Attacking an enemy with Mental Power was equivalent to exposing one's own "origin" before that enemy, making it easy for certain enemies to exploit the opening and inflict devastating harm.
Therefore, when casting offensive magic, mages generally chose to manipulate other forms of energy—what was collectively known as magical power.
Magical power was merely a general term, not a specific kind of energy. Based on the information Yinsen had gathered from the book, Water Element could serve as magical power; Fire Element could also serve as magical power; Arcane Energy was naturally magical power as well; even extreme energies such as holy light and Fel Energy were considered forms of magical power in the eyes of mages.
Thus, magical power covered an extremely broad range. Which kind one could use and excel at depended on one's aptitude and cultivation.
Take The Ancient One, for example. The magical power she used was quite varied. According to the movie plots Yinsen had seen in his previous life, she had even drawn enormous amounts of Negative Energy from certain darker dimensions to sustain herself and cast spells. That was a typical mage's approach—so long as it was energy, it could be used as magical power.
But the prerequisite for all of this was possessing sufficiently powerful Mental Power. Otherwise, even if you found limitless ownerless energy, you would not be qualified to wield powerful magical power.
In Yinsen's view, the theory emphasized by this book was that magical power was a tool, while Mental Power was the hands that used that tool. Punching someone directly with your hands might injure them, so mages who valued their lives rejected that self-harming method. Using tools to attack enemies could reduce the risk to a minimum.
As for the many areas of knowledge concerning the brewing, birth, extraction, storage, and other aspects of magical power, Yinsen knew such things existed, but this thick introductory book did not provide the details. Apparently, it had decided that he was not yet qualified to know them.
"Did a book just look down on me?"
Casually putting away the thick book, Yinsen stopped thinking about that messy knowledge. It was enough for him to understand it in broad terms. According to the book's theories, he could not even perfectly control the smallest amount of magical power right now, because his Mental Power was only barely stronger than that of an ordinary person. He simply did not possess the aptitude to become a mage.
Therefore, if he wanted to become stronger, what he needed to do for now was honestly train his Mental Power. Once it became stronger, he could consider the matter of magical power.
"Huh? Is that a storm?"
He had been at sea for dozens of days now, and this was the first time Yinsen had seen something other than an endless expanse of ocean in the distance.
The unbroken black clouds and the torrential rain that looked like a city wall fully displayed nature's might to this "rookie."
"This is bad. I need to turn around immediately."
Only an idiot would keep going under these circumstances. His lousy little boat would not even need to enter the storm. As long as it got a little closer, waves several meters high could flip it over.
Just as Yinsen was preparing to turn the boat around and leave as quickly as possible, he vaguely seemed to hear someone crying for help.
"Was that an auditory hallucination?"
Yinsen stood up and picked up a pair of binoculars The Ancient One had given him from beside his hand. With their help, he quickly found the target.
"Wreckage from a wooden board? Was it a ship that got caught in the storm?"
After searching around the wooden wreckage for a moment, Yinsen saw two people clinging to a plank and continuously waving their hands. Seeing this, he no longer hesitated. He adjusted the boat's direction slightly and sailed rapidly toward the two people in the water.
Before you continue