"Incidentally?"
"He taught me some things and then let me leave, saying that you might find this useful, so he told me to bring it to you."
It was clear that Merlin had anticipated Scáthach would not leave immediately, so he deliberately kept something back, waiting until the right moment to use it as an excuse to send her away. As for whether it would cause Ethan trouble, Merlin did not care at all, or perhaps causing Ethan a little trouble was actually more interesting.
Although he considered this, Ethan did not want to dwell on it for now. He looked at the ruby-like crystal in his hand, turning it slightly to see the red inside seemed to be a flowing liquid.
Holding it carefully and feeling it, he could only sense the powerful energy it contained and... dragon might.
"Dragon blood?"
Ethan had certainly seen dragon blood before. Years ago, he and Loki killed the black dragon princess Onyxia and collected a good amount of her dragon blood.
Given Onyxia's origin and status in Azeroth, it was hard to find dragon blood rarer and more noble than hers, and the dragon blood crystal in his hand was just such an item.
He remembered the body-shaping Magic Merlin had taught him. Various materials could be added to it, and these materials would have their essence extracted by the Magic, perfectly integrating into the new body. Because they were integrated at the birth of the body, like innate attributes, they would not cause any extra side effects on the body. Instead, they would make the new body stronger.
Ethan had quite a few items in his possession, but most of them had already been used on himself, so he did not need to add these things again when casting this spell. He just needed to refine them again to make them integrate more perfectly with the body.
The only exception was the Titan Potion, which he had not had time to use yet. After integrating the Titan bloodline, he could truly be considered a Titan god by blood.
While Ethan was examining the item in his hand, Scáthach was looking around Artemis.
As a special being who had lived from ancient times to the present, Scáthach could naturally understand what a spaceship was, but she had not expected Ethan's home to actually be a spaceship.
Moreover, this was not a particularly huge spaceship, yet there were quite a few people on board, and their strengths were all pretty good.
"This is Scáthach, the legendary Queen of the Land of Shadows..."
What the Land of Shadows was, Ethan did not specifically explain. Although the few people present were not clear, there was also Luna on Artemis. This intelligent system used the simplest and most direct way to introduce the Land of Shadows and what kind of being Scáthach was.
Everyone was already used to the appearance of a legendary figure. As for Nebula and Betty, who had joined most recently, they had no sense of connection to Earth's legends. It was no different from listening to a story.
Only Diana took an extra moment to observe, looking at Scáthach's tight-fitting outfit that perfectly showcased her figure, and she quickly made a judgment.
"She's your type."
"Huh?"
Ethan casually put away the dragon blood and saw Diana nod her chin toward Scáthach. Only then did he turn his head to look over there.
Diana narrowed her eyes slightly, but besides that, she did not continue to dwell on this topic. Instead, she turned to look at Leah beside her.
Regarding this disciple, Ethan had specifically mentioned her when he was dating Diana. He not only said that Leah had become his disciple but also specifically mentioned the future Leah would have faced.
Hearing that such a kind child would face such an end, Diana felt that Ethan's actions were very correct. However, because she had always stayed in her own world, this was the first time she had met Leah.
So after greeting Logan, Diana had been talking to Leah.
"Let's stop reminiscing here. I still have some things to do."
The preparation work was more than just this. He needed to check the teleportation device and send a message to the Ancient One. Besides expressing his gratitude, he also informed her of his recent situation to prevent her from not being able to find him if something unexpected happened.
Similarly, Tony also received a communication. Although Tony said he really wanted to see what Ethan looked like as an old man and expressed his desire to come over, Ethan refused, citing that he could not currently perform stable inter-dimensional teleportation.
"Don't try to fool me! Didn't Diana already go over?"
"...Oh dear, the signal doesn't seem very good. Let's leave it at that. Talk next time!"
Tony was not the one who made Ethan feel most speechless; it was the crew members on the ship who did.
He did not know who sent the message "Ethan has turned into an old man!" to everyone. With the teleportation positioning device, allowing free travel between the Starship Troopers world and Artemis, almost everyone rushed back and then surrounded the aged Ethan, examining him non-stop.
"Am I a panda?"
He was now like a rare animal being observed by countless tourists, though not everyone on the ship knew what a panda was.
"What's a panda?"
"... "
Scáthach originally thought Ethan's ship was quite lively, but she had not expected it to be even livelier than she imagined. At the same time, she was also very curious about where these people had been before. It seemed like so many people had not been staying on the spaceship all the time.
She had already known that Ethan had the ability to travel through countless worlds. She had thought that only powerful magi could do that, like the one she had seen earlier, Merlin, who was very different from the one in her memory.
Now it seemed that Ethan had other means here that allowed some ordinary people who did not understand Magecraft to also travel freely to other worlds.
"Interesting."
She became interested in this place and planned to study the ability to travel between dimensions while practicing the knowledge she had obtained from Merlin.
Endless dimensions also meant countless strong individuals. Her originally boring and monotonous life suddenly became interesting.
"Alright, have you all seen enough? There will not be anything to see later."
Due to space constraints, they moved to the island to make it convenient for everyone to observe him.
It was spacious enough for everyone to gather, and there was no need to worry about the aftershocks generated by casting Magecraft affecting the spaceship.
More importantly, with the modifications Ethan had made before, this small world was full of energy, especially the hot springs, which were an excellent place for recovery for Ethan, who would be in a weakened state after completing the Magecraft.
"I originally wanted to build a small wooden house with you on that snow-covered mountain peak and live a peaceful life for a while before undergoing body reshaping."
Unfortunately, his physical condition continued to deteriorate. If he delayed any longer, he might not even have the strength to complete this Magecraft on his own.
At that point, he would have to ask Merlin and the Ancient One to come and help him complete this body reshaping.
It was not that he did not trust those two, but for a magus, not being able to personally complete such important Magecraft would always feel like a regret. So, he had to put these things aside for now and solve the problem with his body first.
"After you complete this body reshaping, I will stay and accompany you for a while."
Although Diana and Ethan enjoyed meeting every so often and being busy with their own things at other times, maintaining a long-term relationship was inherently troublesome, and some changes were needed from time to time.
The location for setting up the magic circle was finally chosen near the forest at the foot of the mountain, not far from Logan's small wooden house.
Ethan personally outlined the magic circle. At his current level, setting up a circle no longer required any external objects. He could effortlessly release vast and pure mana and then construct a complete magic circle with pure mana.
Scáthach watched the entire process from the side, specifically to see such a scene. Now she was satisfied, and the other few on the ship who had studied Magic were also shocked by Ethan's methods.
The more they understood Magic, the more they could comprehend the difficulty of Ethan's technique.
Normally, Ethan would definitely play a few more tricks and enjoy more praise and admiring glances, but now he did not have the time to waste. After quickly completing the magic circle, he directly stood in the center of the circle.
"What happens next might be a bit unsettling, but please do not panic."
Before everyone could figure out what he meant, they saw Ethan's body slowly turn into fragments, then become a pile of black ash that slowly floated down and gathered in the center of the magic circle.
Ethan's clothes and equipment were not destroyed but were directly ejected outside the magic circle.
Even with the prior warning, everyone was startled by this scene. Diana almost punched the magic circle in front of her.
However, a faint image quickly appeared in the magic circle. This colorless, almost invisible transparent image made a reassuring gesture toward everyone, then gave Diana and Ada a look that told them not to worry.
"Is that your soul?"
"No, this is a pure spiritual body."
Not only was Ethan's body shattered just now, but his soul was also almost disassembled. This Magic seemed to reshape even the soul, with only the core of his spirit being preserved.
And from a perspective that no one else could see, only Ethan could see, countless light spots floated around him. These were the resources that could be reused. Everything else that could not be used turned into black ash. After extracting and draining the useful parts, the rest were impurities harmful to the body.
The method of shaping the body was also a bit different from what Ethan had imagined. He looked at the panel in front of him speechlessly, making various choices using his spiritual power.
"Humanoid! It must be humanoid!"
"Gender? Does that even need consideration? Must be a pure man!"
"Hair color? Red? Gold? White? No, no, black hair is what I am used to..."
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)