Chapter 29 The First Companion
"Is this your ship?"
Young Arthur was still in a state where everything was new and interesting to him. Having grown up in Merlin's isolated valley since childhood, the sight of the vast sea also greatly piqued his interest.
After spending some extra time in King Arthur's plane, Ethan returned to the Sea of Peace.
This time, he was finally not alone. The young King Arthur had come here with him, and he finally understood how the teleportation magic array brought people back.
For sentient beings with independent will, as long as they stood within the magic array's range and subjectively willed themselves to 'follow' Ethan through space, the teleportation array would transport them together.
As for non-sentient things like ores, water, books, etc., Ethan needed to 'bring' them back. Simply placing them within the magic array's range or merely touching them wouldn't cause them to be transported back together.
"So that's how it works."
After gaining a certain degree of control over spatiotemporal energy, Ethan finally received new information. Perhaps as his control increased, he would eventually understand all the mysteries of this magic array. At that time, he might be able to activate the magic array using his own magic power, without necessarily needing the pointer to find specific spatiotemporal energy.
Suddenly remembering something, Ethan turned his head to look at the hourglass placed not far away. Only a little sand had flowed down, as if the timer had just started.
"So, every time I travel, time in this plane stops?" Ethan shook his head. "No, it should be that the time I return is very close to the time I left. It seems this magic array is not just about traveling between planes; it also involves the domain of time."
Turning back to look at Arthur, the golden-haired youth had specifically cut his originally long golden hair short. This was because Ethan told him that long hair was difficult to manage when sailing at sea and that short hair was more convenient. So, before setting off, he had specifically gotten a haircut—Ethan noticed that after Arthur cut his hair short, a small tuft of hair was particularly noticeable, stubbornly refusing to lie flat against his head with the rest of his hair.
In addition, young Arthur also possessed various equipment gifted by Merlin, including silver-white light armor, a blue battle robe, and a two-handed broadsword over 1.2 meters long. As for many miscellaneous items, Ethan wasn't very clear, only knowing that in the end, Merlin had specifically cast a blessing spell on Arthur to prevent him from drowning in the sea.
Neither Ethan nor Arthur were very clear about the specific effect of this blessing. Arthur only felt vaguely that the endless seawater seemed very friendly.
In this short while, Arthur had already toured the entire ship and also noticed the smaller boat being towed behind. "Is that your loot?"
"No, this ship is my loot."
He had previously given a general overview of the Sea of Peace but hadn't gone into such detail about his experiences here. Since there was nothing else to do at the moment, he took the opportunity to explain.
"It seems there are quite a few shameless villains in this world."
"Without restrictions, many people will constantly push the boundaries of morality."
The interior space of this caravel was not only spacious but also divided into various functional areas, including a separate captain's cabin and a rest area for ordinary crew members.
However, there were only two people on the ship now, and the captain's cabin was spacious enough, so Ethan directly used it as a shared rest area for both of them.
As for beds? Although Arthur was the heir to a kingdom, he had received various training since childhood. While he didn't lack for food or clothing, he hadn't developed the habits of a nobleman in his daily life and wasn't much different from ordinary people. Therefore, he didn't find anything wrong with the rest area's environment.
"I advise you to take off this armor and put it away properly. Wearing this thing normally is just asking for trouble."
Ethan had taken off his armor the moment he returned. If he wore it for much longer, he estimated it would turn into an oven again.
The Sea of Peace had excellent conditions, meaning there was plenty of sunshine most of the time. Metal armor would become scorching hot under the sun in less than an hour.
That silly kid Arthur was already drenched in sweat from the sun, yet he hadn't thought of taking off his armor. Ethan didn't know if it was due to his adherence to the 'Way of the Knight' or simply being slow-witted.
After Ethan finished speaking, he saw the kid hastily remove his armor and then let out a long sigh. Seeing this, Ethan realized it was likely the latter.
"But this place seems full of danger. Is it really okay not to wear armor all the time?"
"Don't worry, there's an advantage at sea: you can see very far. When you spot other ships, you'll have enough time not only to judge whether they are enemies but also plenty of time to prepare for battle."
In fact, Ethan had only figured these things out recently and was now using them to educate Arthur.
While he was at it, he also taught Arthur some common sense about living at sea. Ethan told him to organize his luggage first—Arthur hadn't brought a small amount of stuff; there were several large chests worth.
He himself went to the place where he stored his books. Taking out the Book of Inheritance with his left hand, and urged by his mental power, the Book of Inheritance floated in the air before his left palm. Its open pages emitted white light towards the stacks of books, absorbing them one by one into itself.
Merlin's Book of Inheritance could either completely absorb information or simply copy it when recording data.
Simply copying the data was more troublesome, took more time, and required more mental power to activate. Complete absorption was much simpler; a beam of light would shine over, and the targeted book would slowly vanish in the light, while its contents were fully recorded by the Book of Inheritance. When reading, it was no different from reading the original book; it was as if only the cover had changed.
"This is a big help."
In the future, he would collect more and more books. Although his memory would continue to improve, he had too much to learn now. No matter how good his memory was, it would still take time to read them one by one. So, the number of books would definitely increase, and this made things much easier.
Happily returning to the deck, Ethan saw Arthur standing on the quarterdeck, constantly looking around. Occasionally, he would stare intently at something—perhaps the calm sea surface, the clear blue sky, or possibly fish suddenly leaping out of the water.
Finally, Arthur's gaze settled on the ship beneath his feet. He turned to Ethan, who was standing on the main deck, and asked, "Is a ship like this difficult to build?"
"Uh..."
Ethan didn't know how to answer this question. He was completely ignorant about shipbuilding and had no idea what the shipbuilding technology was like in this world. He could only answer based on some impressions in his mind.
"I'm not entirely sure, but based on the productivity of your world, if it's built by ordinary people manually without using magic abilities, then it's very troublesome... And it's not just the building that's troublesome; the wood used for shipbuilding isn't that easy to find either."
Thanks to having read many novels in his previous life, he actually had some information about the construction of sailing ships.
For sailing ships like this, the wood used has strict requirements. Even if suitable timber is found, it needs to undergo long-term treatment before it can be used as raw material for the ship.
Among these, the keel, which serves as the ship's most important backbone, has even higher material requirements!
Arthur nodded and then continued to ask.
"A ship like this... isn't the best kind, is it?"
Originally, he thought this ship was already very good. It could sail steadily and swiftly across the sea even when loaded with cargo and towing another boat. If his kingdom had such ships, they would be invincible at sea.
But he soon remembered that Ethan himself had said he had only been adventuring on this ocean for a short time, and this ship was taken from another group of bandits—just a few bandits who were slightly stronger than ordinary people.
Thinking this way, maybe this ship could only be considered average in this world? Otherwise, how could just a few bandits keep this ship in a world without the suppression of powerful laws? This could only prove that while such ships were decent, they weren't considered top-tier in this world.
Ethan also had this suspicion, and he was certain there were better ships—otherwise, how could one cross the Sea of Storms? Relying on this smaller caravel? That would be suicide.
It was just that he didn't know what the better ships in this ocean were like yet, so he could only tell Arthur about ships from other worlds.
Ethan briefly told Arthur about things like steam engines, internal combustion engines, and even nuclear power. And when young Arthur heard about so many amazing warships, he suddenly understood why Merlin had insisted he travel with Ethan.
"You were right. Traveling with you really broadens one's horizons."
After just the first day, Arthur felt that this trip was well worth it.
Over the next few days, Ethan's schedule underwent some adjustments. In addition to his original training plans, he added sparring sessions with Arthur.
Higher-level cultivation of his mental power, and mastery of spatiotemporal energy... The former was still scheduled before sleep, while the latter had to wait until spatiotemporal energy was collected again, as the energy stored in the pointer had been depleted.
Ethan and Arthur lived very monotonous and regular lives in the following days, until one day, as they gradually approached Stat Island. Just as Ethan was about to introduce this central city of the Sea of Peace to Arthur, the two suddenly spotted a large ship appearing on the distant horizon.
Using the telescope, the two had clearly seen the appearance of the ship: a vessel at least twice the size of Ethan's caravel.
However, none of this was the main point. The main point was that they seemed to have ill intentions. After spotting Ethan and the others, they immediately changed direction and rushed over. At the same time, something resembling a cannon muzzle appeared at the front of that ship.