“According to my observation, the energy within your body is slowly decreasing. In about seven days, it will completely dissipate.”

Ethan knew that the temporal energy in his body wouldn’t last seven days, but only six. When the temporal energy reached its minimum after six days, it would automatically erupt, activating the magic circle to send him back.

“It wasn’t easy to come here—if I can’t at least have a few good meals and drinks before going back, that’s such a loss.” He just didn’t know if this Grand Sorcerer would be willing to teach magic to someone like him, a suspected ‘stowaway.’

After a simple probe, Eleanor indeed immediately shifted the topic elsewhere, and after Ethan pressed a few more times, Eleanor finally made him give up on the idea of directly becoming an apprentice to learn magic.

“Your mental strength is only decent. Even if you study magic, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve much, and you’d just waste most of your life.”

Alright, so it turns out Ethan’s aptitude simply didn’t impress her.

That wasn’t surprising. In any story setting, magicians always have high standards for talent. And Ethan, whether in his previous life or this one, was just an ordinary person.

“However, if you only want to learn magic to solve your current troubles, that’s not difficult.”

Ethan had already confessed the predicament he was facing, hoping to win some sympathy from Eleanor. But Eleanor, who had lived for who knows how long, wasn’t someone who would be easily moved to pity. Fortunately, she also wasn’t the type to just stand by and watch Ethan face a desperate situation without helping.

“You have pretty good control over your mental strength, so getting started won’t be hard for you. As long as you practice diligently, this little spell can help you solve your drinking water problem.”

Communicating mentally had the great advantage that many things hard to describe with words or notes could be conveyed much more conveniently, and Ethan immediately understood all the key points of this little spell. Now, he just needed to practice to be able to cast this spell, which was specifically for extracting water elements from the surroundings to create clean water.

This little spell extracted water elements (water molecules?) already present in the environment and condensed them into drinkable water. The environment directly affected the spell’s effectiveness. It didn’t create water out of thin air or convert it from magic power. The spell wasn’t hard to cast, but it required a suitable environment, so its practicality was average.

But it was perfect for the world Ethan lived in—wherever he looked, there was water everywhere...

The only difficulty was in controlling mental strength. Many people had strong mental power but couldn’t control it precisely, so they couldn’t even get started as magicians. Coincidentally, ever since crossing over, Ethan had been constantly training his mental control to use the light orb pointer, so this difficulty didn’t exist for him.

Looking at the water droplet gradually forming in his palm, Ethan finally showed a look of joy: just for this alone, this trip was worth it.

What’s more, to make communication easier, Eleanor even used a mental link to ‘teach’ him a local language, finally freeing him from the awkward situation of not being able to talk to anyone.

In the following three days, besides staying in his own room, Ethan wandered around a bit, but there weren’t many places he could go, nor many people he could meet, and he didn’t see any ‘familiar’ faces.

Although Eleanor didn’t harm him, she also wouldn’t let him wander around her home unchecked. The appropriate surveillance was never lifted. Whenever Ethan tried to leave the ‘designated activity area,’ someone would show up in time to stop him.

Other than that, there weren’t really any restrictions. He could chat and joke with the apprentices, even discuss learning magic, and there was a young mage apprentice who showed off his smartphone to this ‘native from another world,’ bullying him for not knowing what it was. But after Ethan pretended to fiddle with it for a while, he taught the guy a lesson—he’d already played Angry Birds to death in his previous life.

Thanks to this guy’s showing off, Ethan finally figured out his current place in the timeline while playing with the phone—Iron Man had just been born not long ago, and since this game was still new, it should be between Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2.

“So Doctor Strange won’t be coming here for a few more years... Huh? Does that make me his senior?”

Maybe because he’d been ‘well-behaved,’ Eleanor soon sent over some more things.

These included packed food, some simple daily and nautical tools, a few changes of clothes, and several books.

“The energy in your body will activate tonight and send you back to your original world. These things should be enough for you to use for a while.”

The title of Grand Sorcerer wasn’t for nothing. In just a few days, Eleanor had already figured out the true state of the energy in Ethan’s body, calculated the exact time he would leave, and prepared some things for him in advance.

“The water creation spell I taught you is a very simple little spell, but if you practice diligently, it will also be a good exercise for your mind. So I think you’ll find these things useful in the future.”