The Importance of Mental Power

A slight rocking motion made Ethan a little uncomfortable. He had finally gotten used to the constant swaying of the boat, but after resting well on land for a few days, he was back to square one.

"Anyway, I'll get used to it again in a few days."

It was foreseeable that his days at sea would be very long from now on. Through this teleportation, Ethan understood that his Golden Finger had quite a few limitations.

"Let's sort out the things I have first."

Looking at his empty left hand and his right hand holding a full large bag, Ethan confirmed several things through this round trip.

"The bag I was touching with my left hand didn't come back with me, but the bag I was carrying in my right hand and the things I had on my back all came back with me."

From this, it was concluded that the Teleportation Array could only bring back things that he could 'take away' with him; simply touching them was not enough to bring them back.

"What a shame. If I could bring back everything I touched, life would be much easier in the future."

Ethan's body had just turned seventeen. Because his family was not well-off, his nutritional intake was not sufficient. Even though the thin young man worked all year round, his strength was very limited. Being able to carry things weighing dozens of pounds was already his limit; it was impossible for him to lift anything too heavy. Even considering his instant burst of strength, he could only lift heavy objects weighing around a hundred pounds, which was far from meeting Ethan's needs.

"I was originally thinking of getting a boat."

The boat Ethan's father prepared was just a very ordinary Small Wooden Boat, with a single mast and an old sail. It was less than ten meters long from bow to stern. The wooden barrels for storing food and drinking water didn't even have a covering shed, and could only be covered with lids for storage.

With such a simple Small Wooden Boat, Ethan initially thought that going out to sea in it was suicidal. With just a little wind and slightly larger waves, the boat would capsize without question.

But after many days passed, he was surprised to find that this sea area was eerily calm. Not only did the seawater not turn deep blue after he had sailed for a long time, but the climate fluctuations were also very small. Even when the waves were strongest, it only made the boat rock a little more severely, making him feel a bit dizzy.

"There are still many places in this world that I don't understand."

After sorting out the things he brought back from the Marvel Universe, Ethan pulled up the anchor, raised the sail, and set off in a random direction.

He had originally wanted to use the Pointer to find another direction to move in. Without a clear destination, finding the next location with Space-Time Energy was the most reliable way to replenish supplies.

However, after he activated his Mental Power to summon the Pointer, he found that this time there was no familiar arrow in the light ball. Instead, a line of text appeared: Searching…

"It seems Space-Time Energy isn't something you can just have whenever you want…"

Putting away the Pointer, Ethan could only think about what to do next.

"I hope I can see land… This world can't really be all seawater, can it? Not even an island?"

Originally, he didn't believe this. At first, he just considered it the ignorant ramblings of those 'country folk'. But during the days he had been at sea, although it wasn't enough to prove that there was truly no land, some unusual things had made him fully realize that this was truly not Earth, and many 'common sense' things might not apply here.

Fortunately, the Water Creation Spell he learned from Ancient One solved the problem of drinking water.

"Considering I don't know when I'll be able to resupply, I need to be frugal with food in the coming days… I'll try to fill up on water as much as possible."

Not wanting to die inexplicably at sea, and not wanting to pin his hopes on finding Space-Time Energy at some unknown time, or being teleported to a completely unknown world, Ethan began to plan his future 'actions'.

How much food to eat each day to maintain sufficient mobility. At the same time, the books Ancient One gave him were also sorted out, and he began reading them in the order Ancient One suggested.

"No need to rush and become a fat man in one go. Ancient One said my aptitude is average, which means I might need to study this basic introductory book for a long time, so the rest can be put aside for now…"

And so, Ethan began a regular and boring life.

Every morning, he would eat something to maintain his energy for the day, then control the Small Wooden Boat to continue moving in a fixed direction—he had no idea how north, south, east, and west were divided, so he could only move in one direction without changing.

After choosing the angle and fixing the sail and rudder, he began his daily study and practice.

He used the Water Creation Spell every day, and as he practiced more and more times, he became better and better at this small spell. From being able to gather only a wooden spoon of clear water with one casting at the beginning, he could now gather half a bucket of clear water at once.

"When I first started learning, I could only gather a larger drop of water… Logically, my Mental Power shouldn't be improving this quickly, so this effect is indeed because the Water Element is abundant here."

As Ethan became proficient with the Water Creation Spell, he not only had enough clear water to drink, but he could even take a simple shower every now and then, making this dry and monotonous sailing life slightly less uncomfortable.

As for the basic introductory book on Mental Power, the very beginning was about Mental Power Training and meditation methods—it was very mysterious. Anyway, Ethan initially looked at it for a long time and couldn't understand what it was talking about. He even couldn't understand the first paragraph for three days in a row, which led him to seriously doubt his intelligence.

It wasn't until three days later when he inadvertently mobilized his Mental Power while reading that he finally discovered the 'correct way to open' this introductory article. Otherwise, he would still be living in self-doubt.

"Is this Ancient One's test for me?"

Having found the correct way to open it, Ethan added another thing he could do every day. After practicing the Water Creation Spell, he would meditate to restore his Mental Power, and then use his Mental Power to read that strange introductory article to increase the strength of his Mental Power.

And as his Mental Power slowly increased, he gradually came into contact with some of the hidden information in this book.

According to the book, regardless of the school of Sorcerer, Mental Power was the core of casting spells. The strength of Mental Power directly related to the strength of a Sorcerer's Magic Power, the degree of control over Magic Power, and so on.

Furthermore, a Sorcerer with strong Mental Power could cause fatal damage to enemies even without using Magic Power—but very few Sorcerers directly attacked enemies with Mental Power. The book also provided a simple explanation for this.

Because Mental Power was too important, almost directly connected to a person's 'source': existences such as the soul. Attacking enemies with Mental Power was also equivalent to exposing one's 'source' to the enemy, making it very easy for some enemies to take advantage of the weakness and cause great damage.

Therefore, when Sorcerers cast offensive spells, they would try their best to choose to control other energies—which was the so-called Magic Power.

Magic Power was just a general term, not referring to a single type of energy. As Ethan understood from the information in the book: Water Element could be considered Magic Power; Fire Element could also be considered Magic Power; Arcane Energy was of course also Magic Power; even extreme energies like Holy Light and Fel Energy were considered a type of Magic Power in the eyes of Sorcerers;

Therefore, the scope of Magic Power was very broad, and which specific type one could use and was good at depended on individual aptitude and cultivation.

For example, Ancient One, the Magic Power she used was very diverse. And according to the movie plots Ethan had seen in his previous life, Ancient One also drew a large amount of negative energy from some darker planes to maintain her existence and cast spells. This was a typical Sorcerer's style—as long as it was energy, it could be used as Magic Power.

But the premise of all this was that you had sufficiently strong Mental Power. Otherwise, even if you could find infinite amounts of ownerless energy, you wouldn't have the qualifications to use powerful Magic Power.

In Ethan's view, the theory emphasized in this book was that Magic Power was a tool, and Mental Power was the hands that used the tool. Using hands to directly hit someone might injure the hands, so Sorcerers who valued their lives refused this self-harming method. Using tools to attack enemies could minimize this risk.

As for the knowledge about the brewing, birth, extraction, storage, and other aspects of Magic Power, although Ethan knew these things existed, this Large Tome introductory book did not give him detailed content. It seemed to believe that he was not qualified to know these things yet.

"Am I being looked down upon by this book?"

Putting the Large Tome away casually, Ethan stopped thinking about those messy pieces of knowledge. He only needed to understand these things a little. According to the theory in the book, he couldn't even perfectly control the slightest amount of Magic Power now because his Mental Power was only slightly stronger than that of an ordinary person and he simply didn't have the aptitude to become a Sorcerer.

Therefore, to become stronger, what he needed to do now was to honestly train his Mental Power. After his Mental Power became stronger, he could then consider the issue of Magic Power.

"Huh? Is that a storm?"

He'd been at sea for dozens of days now, but this was the first time Ethan saw something other than the endless ocean in the distance.

The continuous black clouds and the rain that looked like a city wall were fully demonstrating the power of nature to Ethan, the 'rookie'.

"This isn't good, I need to turn back quickly."

Only an idiot would keep going in this situation. His little broken boat didn't even need to enter the storm's range; just getting a little closer would be enough for waves several meters high to capsize his boat.

Just as Ethan was preparing to turn the boat around and quickly leave the area, he vaguely heard someone shouting for help.

"Was that my imagination?"

Ethan stood up and picked up the telescope that Ancient One had given him from nearby. With the help of the telescope, Ethan quickly found his target.

"Wooden wreckage? Is that a ship that was caught in the storm?"

After searching near the wooden wreckage for a moment, Ethan saw two people clinging to a wooden board and waving frantically. Seeing this, Ethan no longer hesitated, slightly adjusted the direction of his boat, and sailed quickly towards the two people in the water.