Artemis continued its voyage through the void of the universe, approaching the next star system.
After the initial wonder and collecting a large amount of data, Bruce Banner's life returned to normal. Like Logan, he built a wooden house on the island with his own hands. After Ethan helped him perfectly integrate the Hulk's power, even without transforming, Bruce's physical condition was stronger than that of an ordinary person.
Plus, there were quite a few idle people on the ship, and anyone who lent a hand could solve the small troubles Bruce encountered while building his house.
Compared to Logan, who chose a spot near the forest deeper inside the island, Bruce chose a spot between the forest and the beach. It was not too far from the wooden house connecting the island to Artemis. In fact, you could easily see Bruce's wooden house from that connecting house.
Ethan also built a wooden house, but compared to others, he chose a rather special location.
He built a wooden house on a flat area he had long favored on the upper part of the mountain. Behind this wooden house was an open-air hot spring, with a temperature even higher than other hot springs on the mountain. However, for Ethan and Diana, this level of heat was nothing.
With this new divine body, and after his mana underwent some inexplicable changes, building a wooden house became easier for Ethan than for others. He simply stood there and gently raised his hands, and several thick trees grew out from under the deep snow, then slowly deformed, twisted, and combined into the wooden house he had envisioned.
After transforming into a wooden house, the original lush green leaves on the trees slowly disappeared, and the walls and other surfaces looked like wood that had been polished and treated by a first-class carpenter, in no way resembling something that had simply grown out.
"What kind of magic is this?"
When Ethan was building his wooden house, there were quite a few onlookers. Several people on the ship who were studying magic came to watch, and even Scáthach, who was also learning new magic, came to observe and learn.
"Making trees grow rapidly seems to be Druidic nature magic?" To everyone's surprise, the first to notice something was not the crew members studying magic, nor was it Scáthach, a top master of Rune Magecraft, but Ada, the super spy focused on stealth and reconnaissance. "The latter part looks a bit like Arcane magic shaping. I do not understand the final method that stabilized its form."
Ethan knew that Ada had carefully studied all the different power systems he had collected. Regardless of which one she herself practiced, her understanding of various types of knowledge was among the best of everyone.
Taking advantage of this continuous casting, Ethan finally understood where the energy for his magic came from. That energy existed within his body. Now, his situation was somewhat similar to Diana's back then. A powerful body contained vast energy, which could be used as stamina or to cast spells.
After observing for a while and comparing it with the power Diana possessed, Ethan was certain that this energy spread throughout his body was divine power.
Once he confirmed this, he knew what to do. Just like Diana did back then, he would practice diligently, constantly familiarizing himself with this energy and completely mastering it.
He also took some time to try and condense mana again. Even with divine power, it did not mean his mana was useless. After all, his spiritual universe still had significant room for improvement and was even related to his future.
However, no matter whether he introduced external energy or guided the divine power from his body into his spiritual universe, the final result was always absorption and devour by that strange black spot, and then the entire spiritual space continued to remain in a state of void.
"How strange, but this situation... could it be the Big Bang?"
He had once considered creating a spiritual universe directly like the Big Bang, but at the time, he felt the risk was too great and chose the more stable method of expanding it little by little.
Unexpectedly, he had stumbled onto this path again by chance. However, this time, he did not feel anything was amiss.
Previously, he worried that his body could not withstand such a Big Bang, but after reshaping his divine body and even strengthening his soul, he vaguely felt that this was the most suitable path.
Moreover, not only did he feel no danger in his heart, he even had a premonition that when the spiritual universe took shape, combined with the already mature divine body, that would be the true result of this enhancement.
"The road ahead seems to have become clearer."
Knowing which way to go, Ethan began to clear his mind and diligently adapt to this new body. Strength, speed, and so on were all a bit weaker than before, but those were not the most troublesome issues.
What truly made him uncomfortable was the huge change in height and arm length. The change was so significant that he could not adapt in a short period. He would often charge forward head-on, only to be taken down by Diana with a smiling move.
As Ethan's daily life became monotonous training and showing affection with Diana, the onlookers also dispersed.
Previously, everyone was crowded on the ship with not much to do, so they were quite bored and would watch any excitement until they were sick of it. Now, Artemis had established a passage to the Starship Troopers world, allowing free travel back and forth via the teleportation device.
Coupled with Annette's Cherry Military Industries getting on track, there were many things to do if they felt bored.
Even O'Connell and others who did not like desk jobs and preferred fighting had a playground to pass the time. The Starship Troopers world had countless bugs they could kill to their heart's content.
Furthermore, the Starship Troopers world had a complete and relatively peaceful Earth where they could relax, so everyone would go there to wander around when they were bored or felt stifled.
Based on this, Ethan was considering binding the Marvel Universe to Artemis's teleportation device as well. Once bound, the time flow between the two worlds would basically remain consistent, but that was already irrelevant.
Speaking of this, after receiving Ethan's all clear message, Tony Stark strongly requested that Ethan complete the teleportation device connection between the two worlds as soon as possible, so that he could actively come to find Ethan in the future, instead of having to wait for Ethan to come to him every time.
"You know, I am more proactive."
"... "
"Also, can your teleportation device go to other worlds? I mentioned wanting to meet Oliver Queen last time, have you forgotten?"
"Didn't forget, didn't forget. I will take you when I have recovered enough."
"Let me see you before you recover. I am very curious about what you look like now."
"Click~ Beep beep beep beep..."
"This is not a phone!"
...
Wandering around the island with Diana, returning to the wooden house on the mountain top at night to rest, and setting aside enough time each day for sparring, unilaterally getting beaten up by Diana.
Getting beaten up was not the most frustrating thing for Ethan. The main issue was that Diana would use grappling techniques to control him. With short arms and legs and being at a disadvantage in strength, once Ethan was caught, there was basically no possibility of breaking free, and then he would be subjected to Diana's various forms of torture.
After the routine combat practice, Ethan would set aside a period of time specifically to teach Leah. This was his responsibility as a teacher.
Although he currently looked about the same age as Leah, putting on a teacher's demeanor felt a bit awkward, but good little Leah would not complain about her teacher.
Even more awkward was that every time he lectured, a purple-haired woman whose age was unknown, yet always maintained a girlish posture, sat beside them.
"Teacher, is your head okay?"
"It is fine."
Pulling out the red spearhead, Ethan continued to explain various magic knowledge and theories to Leah. These things were something Leah would not be able to use in the short term, but her talent was very good. Even if she did not understand them in the short term, she could firmly remember them and honestly cultivate according to the methods Ethan instructed. When her strength steadily improved, she would find that the things she did not understand before suddenly became clear.
So Leah had also gotten used to this way of teaching, but Scáthach on the side found it a bit difficult to follow. The magic knowledge Ethan possessed was too different from what she had mastered before. Even with some knowledge taught by Merlin as a buffer, she could not immediately understand everything Ethan was teaching.
However, Scáthach's talent was equally formidable. Otherwise, she would not have been able to kill her way from a human to a demigod. Even in this state of partial understanding and severe lack of foundation, she still learned many things and integrated them into her own knowledge system.
For her, the biggest gain was severing her magic system from the Root of the Type-Moon world, making it a separate magic system.
Although this system was not yet mature and required a long time to slowly perfect, being able to take the first step meant the road ahead was very clear. She just needed to walk it resolutely.
"So..."
"So... you are not planning to go back?"
Ethan's body gradually stabilized. Although he was still in the appearance of a child, he should go back and say hello to Illya, and also send Scáthach back.
"It is very interesting here. Why go back to that place where there is nothing?" Scáthach suddenly stood up and walked over to Ethan, then leaned down and said in a particularly suggestive voice, "If you think it is necessary, I can pay you a satisfactory reward~"
Ethan swallowed, his ears tickled by the scent, and then he saw Scáthach straighten up with a serious expression.
"Rune Magecraft unrestricted by the Root, and the Land of Shadows."
(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.)