Chapter 10: Only a healthy person can become a magician
Although Ethan didn't understand Isendra's words, he had been busy for a long time, the sky was getting darker and darker, and his vision was starting to be affected. He was already planning to return to the camp.
So, even though the two of them couldn't communicate successfully, Ethan still brought Isendra to the Rogue Encampment.
The wooden palisade and the Rogues patrolling and standing guard at various vital points told Isendra that this was not the town she was looking for, but through their contact just now, she also realized that she and Ethan seemed unable to communicate smoothly, so she suppressed the questions in her heart and quietly followed behind.
"It's good to see you return safely."
The Rogue standing guard at the entrance greeted Ethan when she saw him, then stopped Isendra and asked about her purpose.
"I am a mage from the East, and I have been traveling around recently. During this time, I have noticed that the dark power in this area is growing stronger, so I came specifically to investigate."
"Hello, esteemed Mage, welcome to the Rogue Encampment. Regarding your question, I believe Lady Kashya can give you a satisfactory answer."
Then, after greeting her colleague who was also on guard duty, she led Isendra to find Kashya.
Ethan didn't go with them. He took the collected herbs directly to Akara. He wasn't very interested in the conversation that would take place between this world's 'protagonist' and Kashya, and besides, he couldn't understand it anyway.
Now, in addition to handing over the herbs to Akara for his reward, he wanted to see if he could learn Akara's potion-making skills.
He didn't expect to learn it immediately, just to be able to record the knowledge and practice it slowly later.
He hadn't thought of this point originally, only realizing it while collecting herbs and fighting zombies. In that world full of oceans, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't get sick or even injured. Without companions, it was very necessary to learn some medical skills.
After counting the herbs, Akara gave Ethan the prepared food, water, and some gold coins, and nodded when she learned that Ethan wanted to help make magic potions.
"The erosion of dark power is becoming more severe, and these herbs inevitably contain increasingly strong dark energy. This energy must be removed before making potions, and this requires a lot of my energy," Akara seemed helpless about the worsening situation. "Therefore, I do need someone to help. Unfortunately, the sisters of the Sightless Eye are all very busy and cannot spare anyone to do these Trivial tasks."
"If you are willing to help me handle those Trivial matters, I can teach you the knowledge of making magic potions..." Akara thought for a moment, "As for healing spells, you probably won't be able to learn those."
Ethan asked briefly and learned that the mainstream spells used by the Sightless Eye were based on devout faith. Compared to the spells used by many mages who use various energies to achieve their goals, their healing spells were closer to the divine magic that borrowed power from deities.
"So that's how it is."
Fortunately, Ethan was not a greedy person and was already very happy to be able to learn the knowledge of making magic potions. The painful part was that before learning potion making, he needed to memorize an entire thick introductory book on herbalism.
According to Akara, he had to first learn to distinguish the types of herbs and the different medicinal properties they contained before he could begin to learn how to reasonably use these herbs to make various magic potions.
Carrying the introductory book given by Akara, Ethan returned to his tent feeling depressed. He really didn't know what use this kind of book would be to him.
"Could the herbs of the Diablo world be found across various planes?"
His only hope now was that the herbs recorded in this book were more 'universal' and could be found in more places, otherwise, memorizing it would be useless after leaving this world.
"Huh?"
Only when he opened the book did he realize how wrong he was.
The methods for identifying and classifying herbs recorded in this herbalism introduction he got from Akara were not what he had imagined - fixed herb shapes, fixed colors, and even fixed medicinal properties.
Instead, it was an introductory book on how to directly use mental power to distinguish the 'energy characteristics' contained within the herbs themselves. The way it classified herbs was also based on the nature of the energy contained in the herbs, teaching from the beginning how to use mental power to discern what effect an herb could have and what kind of potion it was suitable for making.
As for the appearance and color, there were no fixed descriptions. According to the classification method in the book, anything that contained effects like stopping bleeding or stimulating wound recovery could be used as the main ingredient for making red potions. Even two herbs with completely different appearances were classified in the same category in this book because the same characteristics could be extracted from them to make the same potion.
"So that's how it is!"
This book was actually an introductory herbalism book only suitable for mages. It directly pointed to the essence of magical pharmacology - extracting the characteristics from plants and amplifying their effects and accelerating their action time. So, there was no such thing as this book becoming completely useless after leaving the Diablo world.
It could even be said that the ability to make magic potions was much more important than Ethan had thought.
After realizing the immense value of this book, Ethan's previous lack of interest vanished. He devoured the book all night long, and by the time he came to his senses, it was Akara who had sent a sister to call him over to help. Only then did he realize that it was already light outside.
"I don't feel tired at all!"
Aside from his body being a bit stiff and uncomfortable from sitting up all night, Ethan felt no mental fatigue at all, which was simply unimaginable in his previous life. Even when he was in his best physical condition back then, after a day of labor and an all-night session, he would be utterly exhausted.
"Is this because my mental power has improved?"
Mental power comes from both the body and the soul. The strength of both aspects is indispensable.
Ethan's body was still developing rapidly and had no hidden problems. Although not strong, it was above the passing line.
His mental power was originally only considered ordinary, but due to the time-space pointer, he had practiced controlling his mental power for several years, building a very solid foundation.
In addition, because of the soul possession and transmigration, besides the mental power carried by his own soul, there were still remnants of the original owner's mental power inside this body. Originally, these mental powers would gradually dissipate over time, but Ethan happened to obtain a method for training mental power in time. After cultivating for a period, he began to automatically absorb all the energy in his body that could enhance mental power, thus naturally entering a period of rapid improvement.
The improvement of mental power would, in turn, stimulate the improvement of physical fitness - this improvement was actually very small, and could simply be understood as strong mental power stimulating body cells to be more active, allowing Ethan to develop faster and have better recovery. Originally, this change was not noticeable. If he wanted earth-shattering changes in a short period, he would need more profound and powerful magic.
It was just that Ethan himself was in a stage of rapid development, coupled with the sudden absorption of a considerable amount of residual mental power, which led to a relatively obvious change.
"Looking at it this way, mages aren't fragile either!"
Thinking about it, the mages in the Marvel world are all close-combat fanatics, handling pancakes with one hand like a pro.
That white-bearded old man with a long sword in one hand and a staff in the other in the world of The Lord of the Rings is even the benchmark for close-combat mages.
It is said that even that famous magician in the legends of King Arthur was actually a close-combat fanatic, preferring to split people with the Holy Sword rather than use magic.
Yet, in many games and novels Ethan had played and read before, mages were always described as particularly frail, as if their bodies were their biggest weakness. In reality, if you think carefully, this is impossible.
In many adventure stories, mages travel long distances with their teammates, crossing mountains and rivers as if walking on flat ground. Can you imagine a frail person walking like that for a month? Moreover, mages are ready to enter combat at any time and have a big fight with enemies.
They can't walk all day, and then finally see an enemy, only for the mage to be too tired to get up from the ground, right? That scene would be unbearable to watch.
Even without mentioning this point, mages often work continuously for long periods in their laboratories for various experiments. If they had poor health, they would have died suddenly long ago - at least Ethan has never seen a mage die suddenly in any story. At most, they die from uncontrollable accidents during experiments.
"So, an excellent mage must have a body like steel and iron? Or perhaps a good body is the foundation for becoming a mage?"
Ethan walked out of his tent, doing some simple exercises while lost in thought. As he turned his head to stretch his neck, he saw a familiar person walking out of a tent not far away - it was Isendra, the female mage he had met yesterday. It seemed she had already gained Kashya's approval and was also staying in the camp.
Isendra also saw him and walked over with her staff.
"Hello, Ethan, thank you for helping me with directions yesterday."
No longer using a language Ethan couldn't understand to communicate, Isendra used mental power to communicate with Ethan - and to show respect for Ethan, Isendra even 'knocked' with her mental power first, and only linked after getting Ethan's permission.
"You're welcome. Even if you hadn't met me, you would have seen the Rogue Encampment soon anyway."
"By the way, where are you from, Mage?"
The mage groups in this world were generally only a few, and they had even formed a dedicated Mage Council. Regardless of which group one came from, there would be no situation where they couldn't communicate in the common language, so Isendra was very curious about Ethan.
"The East. My teacher is not very famous."
"The East?" Isendra didn't believe it. Most mage groups were currently in the East, and she didn't believe a mage from the East would be unable to communicate.
Ethan sensed Isendra's suspicion, so he added, "Much farther. I accidentally dropped here while using a teleportation scroll, so I'm not very clear how far it is."
"Oh... a much farther place?" Isendra was half-believing, half-doubting. "By the way, I need to find Akara. Kashya said yesterday that she might need my help. Do you know where to find her?"
Ethan, who was originally struggling with how to continue fabricating his story, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the topic change. "I'm going there too. Let's go together."