#3The importance of mental strengthAI Model: gemini-2.5-flash
Chapter 3 The Importance of Mental Strength
The slight rocking motion made Ethan a bit uncomfortable. Just when he had finally gotten used to the constant swaying of the ship, a few days of good rest on land had undone his progress.
"Anyway, I'll get used to it again in a few days."
It was foreseeable that his days at sea would be very long in the future. Through this spatial-temporal jump, Ethan understood that his 'cheat' ability had quite a few limitations.
"Let's sort out the things I have on hand first."
Looking at his empty left hand and the full large bag in his right, Ethan confirmed quite a few things from this round trip.
"The package 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 on my back did."
From this, he concluded that the spatial-temporal array could only bring back things he could 'take with him'; simply touching something wasn't enough to bring it back.
"That's 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. Due to his family's poverty, his nutrition wasn't sufficient, and even though the scrawny young man had worked for years, his strength was very limited. Being able to carry tens of pounds was already his limit; it was impossible for him to lift anything too heavy. Even considering his burst strength allowed him to lift objects weighing around a hundred pounds, it was still far from meeting Ethan's needs.
"I was originally thinking about getting a boat, too."
The boat Ethan's father had prepared was just an ordinary small wooden boat, with a single mast and an old sail, less than ten meters long. The wooden barrels for storing food and water didn't even have a covering shed and could only be stored covered with lids.
With such a simple small wooden boat, Ethan had initially thought that sailing out with it was suicide. Any slight wind or larger wave would capsize the boat without question.
But after many days had passed, he was surprised to find the sea in this area strangely calm. Not only had he sailed for a long time without seeing the water turn deep blue, but the climate fluctuations were also minimal. Even when the waves were strongest, it only rocked the boat a bit more violently, making him feel a little dizzy.
"There are still many things I don't understand about this world."
After sorting out the things he brought back from the Marvel world, Ethan pulled up the anchor, raised the sail, and set off in a random direction.
He had originally planned to use the light sphere pointer to find another direction to proceed. Without a clear destination, searching for the next location with spatial-temporal 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 sphere. Instead, a line of text appeared: Searching...
"It seems spatial-temporal energy isn't something you can just have whenever you want..."
Putting the pointer away, Ethan could only ponder what he should do next.
"I hope I can see land... This world can't really be all water, can it? Not even an island?"
He hadn't believed this originally, initially dismissing it as the ignorant ramblings of 'country folk'. But during his time at sea, while it wasn't enough to prove there was truly no land, some unusual aspects made him fully realize: this really wasn't Earth, and many 'common sense' notions might not apply here.
Fortunately, the water creation spell he learned from the Ancient One solved the drinking water problem.
"Considering I don't know when I'll be able to resupply, I need to eat sparingly in the coming days... I'll try to fill up on water."
Not wanting to die inexplicably at sea, nor wanting to place his hopes on spatial-temporal energy that he might not find anytime soon, and having no idea what world he might be transported to, Ethan began to plan his future 'actions'.
He determined how much he needed to eat each day to maintain sufficient stamina. At the same time, he organized the books the Ancient One had given him and began reading them in the order the Ancient One had suggested.
"No need to rush and become a 'fatty' in one go. The Ancient One said my aptitude is average, which means I might need a long time to study this basic introductory book. So, I can put the rest aside for now..."
And so, Ethan settled into a regular yet boring life.
Every morning, he would eat something to maintain his energy for the day, then steer the small boat to continue moving in a fixed direction—he had no idea how to distinguish between east, west, north, and south, so he just kept going in one unchanging direction.
After choosing the angle and securing the sail and rudder, he began his daily studies and practice.
He used the water creation spell every day, and as he practiced more and more, he got better at using this small spell. From being able to gather only a wooden spoon's worth of clean water per cast initially, he could now gather half a barrel of clean water in one go.
"When I first started learning, I could only gather a large drop of water... Logically, my mental power shouldn't be improving this quickly, so this effect must be because the water elements here are abundant."
As Ethan became more proficient with the water creation spell, not only did he have enough clean water to drink, but he could even take a simple shower every few days, making the dry and monotonous sailing life slightly less uncomfortable.
As for the basic mental power introductory book, it started with methods for mental power training and meditation—it was very profound. Anyway, Ethan stared at it for a long time at first without understanding what it was talking about. He couldn't even understand the first paragraph of the opening for three days straight, which led him to seriously doubt his own intelligence.
It wasn't until three days later, when he inadvertently activated his mental power while reading, that he finally discovered the 'correct way to open' this introductory text. Otherwise, he would still be living in self-doubt.
"Could this be a test left by the Ancient One?"
Having found the correct way to open it, Ethan had one more thing to 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 text to increase the strength of his mental power.
And as his mental power slowly increased, he gradually began to access some of the hidden information within the book.
According to the book, regardless of the school of magic, mental power is the core of spellcasting. The strength of one's mental power is directly related to the intensity of a mage's magic power, the degree of control over magic power, and so on.
Furthermore, a mage with powerful mental power could inflict fatal damage on enemies even without using magic power—however, very few mages directly attack enemies with mental power. The book also provides a simple explanation for this.
Because mental power is too important, almost directly connected to a person's 'origin': such as the soul and other existences. Using mental power to attack an enemy is also equivalent to exposing one's own 'origin' to the enemy, making it very easy for some enemies to exploit the weakness and cause great damage.
Therefore, when mages cast offensive spells, they will try their best to choose to control other energies to do so—which is what is called magic power.
Magic power is just a general term, not referring to a single type of energy. Based on the information Ethan gained from the book, he understood: water elements can be considered magic power; fire elements can also be considered magic power; arcane energy is naturally also magic power; even extreme energies like Holy Light and Fel energy are considered a type of magic power in the eyes of a mage;
Therefore, the scope of magic power is very broad, and which specific type one can use and is proficient in depends on the individual's aptitude and training situation.
For example, the Ancient One, the magic power she used was very diverse. And according to the movie plot Ethan saw in his previous life, the Ancient One even drew a large amount of negative energy from some darker dimensions to maintain her existence and cast spells. This is typical mage behavior—as long as it's energy, it can be used as magic power.
But the prerequisite for all of this is that you possess sufficiently strong mental power. Otherwise, even if you can find infinite amounts of ownerless energy, you won't have the qualification to wield powerful magic power.
In Ethan's view, the theory emphasized in this book is that magic power is a tool, and mental power is the hands that use the tool. Hitting someone directly with one's hands might injure them, so mages who value their lives refuse this self-harming method, while using tools to attack enemies can minimize this risk.
As for the numerous pieces of knowledge regarding the brewing, birth, extraction, storage, etc., of magic power, although Ethan knew these things existed, this voluminous introductory book did not provide him with the detailed content. It seemed to have determined that he was not qualified to know these things yet.
"Is this book looking down on me?"
Casually putting the voluminous book away, Ethan stopped thinking about those miscellaneous pieces of knowledge. He only needed to understand these things generally. According to the theory in the book, he couldn't even perfectly control the slightest amount of magic power right now, because his mental power was only slightly stronger than an ordinary person's and he simply didn't have the aptitude to become a mage.
Therefore, to become stronger, what he needed to do now was honestly train his mental power. Only after his mental power became stronger should he consider the issue of magic power.
"Huh? Is that a storm?"
It had been several tens of days since he set sail, and this was the first time Ethan saw something in the distance that wasn't just the endless sea.
The continuous black clouds and the torrential rain like a city wall fully demonstrated the power of nature to Ethan, this 'rookie'.
"Not good, I need to turn back quickly."
Seeing this situation, only a fool would continue forward. With his small, broken boat, he didn't even need to enter the storm's range; just getting a little closer, waves several meters high would be enough to flip his boat over.
Just as Ethan was preparing to turn the boat around and quickly leave the area, he vaguely seemed to hear someone shouting for help.
"Am I hearing things?"
Ethan stood up and picked up a pair of binoculars that the Ancient One had given him from nearby. With the help of the binoculars, Ethan quickly found his target.
"Wooden wreckage? Is that a ship that was wrecked in the storm?"
After searching near the wooden wreckage for a moment, Ethan saw two people holding onto planks and waving continuously. Seeing this situation, Ethan no longer hesitated. He slightly adjusted the direction of the boat and sailed quickly towards the two people in the water.