Chapter 26 A difficult but bright road
Merlin was very surprised that Ethan made a decision so quickly, and also wondered why Ethan would so easily choose such a difficult path.
"You said that as long as I can keep walking down this path, I will at least possess strength no less than yours, right?"
Merlin nodded: "That's right. As long as you can firmly keep going and don't perish due to some accident... Although this path is difficult, there are no serious bottlenecks."
Ethan also realized this, but his reason for making the decision was not just this.
"Then, if I follow the path of a normal mage, how far can I guarantee I can go?"
"This..." Merlin immediately understood Ethan's meaning and showed a knowing smile: "Young man, your mind is very clear-headed. This will allow you to walk faster on the path of a mage. I hope you can always maintain this clarity."
The reason Ethan made this decision was simple: one was a grand path that would definitely allow him to reach the level of a top Archmage like Merlin. Perhaps this path was full of thorns, but the destination was vaguely visible.
The other path was full of unknowns, and he didn't even know where the end was or what it looked like. There was absolutely no need for him to risk various accidents and dangers to choose such a path.
The path of a normal mage might allow him to form combat power faster, but Ethan was not a pure mage from the start, and his methods for dealing with emergencies were not limited to the magic system.
As for self-preservation, at worst, he could prepare some technological equipment later, which would be enough to help him get through the difficult initial period of that path.
"As long as I can control spacetime energy, there's a greater possibility of returning to the Marvel Universe... At that time, maybe I can fool Tony Stark into helping me get some equipment?"
However, as far as he remembered, Tony Stark wasn't the type to be eager to help others. If he wanted to get benefits from him, he would definitely have to pay a sufficient price.
Worst case scenario, getting some firearms in some movie worlds would be enough to deal with many dangers.
Therefore, Ethan didn't care how difficult the initial stage of this path was. Cultivating mental power was something he had been consistently doing, and now it was just a matter of continuing to persevere.
"Actually, you don't need to worry too much. Although it will be very boring and monotonous at the beginning, once you can cultivate magic power from within yourself, as your mental power becomes stronger and stronger, the magic energy produced will also increase. At this time, it's not impossible for you to draw energy from the outside world to enhance your magic power. You just need to be careful not to draw too much and in turn pollute your own magic power."
This is like the ocean. If Ethan had enough magic power, absorbing external energy and converting it into magic power would be like pouring a little ink into the seawater; it wouldn't have any effect on the ocean at all.
Conversely, if there was only a small basin of water and half a bottle of ink was poured in...
Those were all very distant matters. Next, Merlin explained in detail the cultivation method he had proposed. Although he only introduced the major steps of this cultivation method, it still took quite a bit of time.
Simply put, this method is divided into several steps:
Continue to firmly strengthen mental power, and at the same time, have sufficient control over one's own mental power. Ethan naturally had an advantage in this regard; his control over his own mental power already surpassed that of many newly initiated mage apprentices.
During this stage, one cannot draw magic energy from the outside world, not even a tiny bit, as that would pollute one's own mental power.
At the same time, one must constantly learn various kinds of knowledge to broaden one's knowledge base. According to Merlin's theory, the magic power cultivated from within one's own mental power does not include all attributes. It has a certain bias based on the mage's understanding of various energies.
For example, if a mage has an extremely deep understanding of fire element energy, then even if he doesn't draw fire element energy from the outside world, the magic power he cultivates from within will also have a considerable affinity for fire elements, allowing him to better master fire-attribute magic. Many mages use this method to increase their magical attributes – by using the magic power they cultivate from within to, in turn, 'pollute' the magic power whose original attribute was fixed.
If Ethan wanted to have more comprehensive magic power, then he would need to continue diligently studying various magical knowledge – not only could he not cast spells like a normal mage, but he also had to constantly work hard to learn various magic-related knowledge. This feeling was truly... Ethan couldn't find a suitable adjective. Just thinking about it, he knew that feeling would definitely be particularly uncomfortable.
"Then, can I use magic arrays or magic items?"
"Oh, that's not a problem."
Ethan nodded. It seemed he had to firmly continue down the path of 'item-based' combat. Coupled with his diligently practiced close combat ability, Ethan was now less like a mage and more like a hybrid – knowing a little bit of everything, but not excelling in any one field.
Once he persevered through this stage, things would get better.
Sufficiently strong mental power combined with enough magical knowledge reserves, and a special meditation method, would cause a special change in mental power.
This change is like carving out a spring on soil composed of mental power, and then the magic power cultivated from mental power will slowly gush out like spring water.
At this stage, Ethan could already cast spells using the magic power he generated himself, without having to rely entirely on external objects.
Of course, at first, the spring was very small, and the amount of water that could gush out was also very small. The magic power at this time was still very fragile and easily polluted by external forces, so he still couldn't absorb external energy.
After that, the spring water would turn into a stream, the stream would gather into a small lake, then become rivers and large lakes, until it became an ocean.
At this time, Ethan's magic power could be described as profound. He could not only cast spells using his own power like a normal mage, but he also no longer had to worry about external energy polluting his own magic power. He could absorb energy to increase his total magic power or simply restore his losses.
From Merlin's words, Ethan realized that to make his magic power into an ocean that could contain all things, in addition to relying on the accumulation of time, he also needed to have a sufficiently vast amount of magical knowledge, and even need to come into contact with, learn, and understand the properties of various kinds of energy. Otherwise, it would be unlikely to produce the 'attribute' that could encompass all things.
Unfortunately, Merlin didn't give a clear answer.
"It's a pity, I don't know exactly how it works, after all, no one has truly tried this cultivation method before."
Ethan was suddenly very curious. How did Merlin start? Did he choose an energy he was most familiar with, like a normal mage?
"Oh! That..." Merlin suddenly showed a smug smile: "I am not purely human; I was born with vast magic power."
"Damn, it's all based on talent!"
Only then did he remember that the legendary Merlin had fairy blood, and was born with explosive magical talent. A normal person like himself, who couldn't even be an apprentice, was completely incomparable to this person.
Ethan, who was inexplicably put in his place, felt depressed. At this moment, he thought again that the profession of a mage was very dependent on talent. From this perspective, the path Merlin proposed to him might be the only path that could allow him to achieve something.
If he really cultivated like most mages, it was very likely that he would reach a certain point and then be unable to go any further – in the best case scenario, perhaps after mastering the water element attribute, his mental power would be polluted, and then he would be stuck on a single attribute unable to break through. And because his talent was not good enough and he started too late, his total magic power would also be less than mages of the same level.
Of course, Ethan, who possessed the spacetime pointer, might find other means to break through the bottleneck of talent, but how far he would ultimately go was full of too much uncertainty.
He didn't like this, so when such an opportunity that could allow him to achieve considerable success was placed before him, he immediately grabbed it and refused to let go.
Although this cultivation method only talked about the 'ocean' level, Ethan had already opened up his imagination and roughly 'deduced' what came after.
The ocean seemed boundless and unfathomable enough, but it wasn't the most 'vast'.
No matter how big the ocean is, it's at most a planet. What if he could cultivate a galaxy containing countless planets? Leaving aside the quality, just the depth of the magic power alone would crush many beings; and quality wasn't without direction either, such as a star that could serve as the core of several planets?
Further still, countless such stellar systems forming larger galaxies... Ethan even thought of using magic power to create a universe existing within his own body.
"Uh... Should this thing be called a 'Cosmo'?"
Ethan, who had accidentally changed his profession to a Saint Seiya, put away his wild thoughts. Thinking so far ahead at this moment was meaningless. What he needed to do next was to systematically learn this knowledge completely, memorize it all in his mind, and then persevere in his diligent cultivation.
Because time was limited, he could only stay in this world for ten days. After Merlin confirmed Ethan's learning direction, the most important thing was to guide him on how to control spacetime energy. As for the mental power cultivation method, Merlin planned to organize all the materials and let Ethan go back and practice slowly by himself.
This meant that Ethan was about to receive another large stack of textbooks.
"Speaking of books, I have an idea. I wonder if you can do it?"
Ethan suddenly thought of the large piles of books on his ship. Now seeing that Merlin was preparing to give him another large pile, he immediately felt a bit overwhelmed.
It was foreseeable that in order to learn more magical knowledge and understand more energy attributes, he would have to read even more books in the future. Would he have to specially prepare a ship just to carry books from now on?
Therefore, creating a magical item that could store learning materials became the most important task at hand.