Eleanor pointed to the books in front of him. The first one was "Introduction to Mental Power Cultivation." Right after that was "Detailed Explanation of Basic Spell Application," followed by several hefty tomes, with a thick stack of "Oxford Dictionaries" at the top. In addition, there were textbooks and dictionaries for French and Chinese.

"Don't worry. If you practice diligently, as your mental power increases, your memory will also improve, and you'll be able to memorize these books very quickly."

Ethan scratched his cheek. "But, why are you giving me these?" He couldn't understand why, as someone from another world, he was being made to learn English. He'd already learned enough of it in his previous life.

"I have a feeling you'll come back..." Eleanor's expression suddenly became very serious. "When that time comes, maybe you'll be able to help me solve a big problem."

Chapter 3 The Importance of Mental Power

The slight rocking made Ethan a bit uncomfortable. He had finally gotten used to the constant swaying life on the boat, but after resting well on land for a few days, he was back to square one.

"I'll get used to it again in a few days anyway."

It was foreseeable that his days at sea would be very, very long. Through this journey, Ethan realized that his golden finger had quite a few limitations.

"Let's organize what I have first."

Looking at his empty left hand and the big, full bag in his right, Ethan confirmed a lot of things through 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 all came back with me."

From this, he concluded that the teleportation array could only bring back things he could "carry away" with him; simply touching something wasn't enough to bring it back.

"What a pity. If I could bring back everything I touched, life would be much easier."

This body of Ethan had just turned seventeen. Because his family wasn't wealthy, his nutrition intake wasn't sufficient. Even though this skinny young man had been working for years, his strength was very limited—being able to carry dozens of pounds was already his limit; there was no way he could lift anything too heavy. Even considering a burst of strength to lift something around a hundred pounds, it was still far from meeting Ethan's needs.

"I was even thinking about getting a boat."

The boat Ethan's father had prepared was just an ordinary small wooden boat, with a single mast and an old sail. It was less than ten meters long from bow to stern, and the barrels for storing food and drinking water didn't even have a shelter—just lids to cover them.

With such a simple little wooden boat, Ethan had originally thought that taking it out to sea was a death sentence. Any wind at all, or slightly bigger waves, and the boat would capsize for sure.

But after quite a few days, he was surprised to find that this sea area was eerily calm. Not only did he sail for a long time without seeing the sea turn deep blue, but the climate fluctuations were also minimal. Even at its roughest, the waves only rocked the boat a bit more, making him feel a little dizzy at most.

"There are still so many things about this world I don't understand."

After organizing 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 wanted to use the light sphere pointer to find another direction to move in. Without a clear destination, searching for the next place with temporal energy was the most reliable way to restock supplies.

However, after activating 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...

"Looks like temporal energy doesn't just appear whenever you want it..."

Putting away the pointer, Ethan could only think for himself about what to do next.

"Hope I can see land... This world can't really be all ocean, right? Not even an island?"

At first, he didn't believe this at all. He thought it was just ignorant talk from those "country folk." But after these days at sea, although it wasn't enough to prove there was truly no land, some unusual things made him fully realize: this really wasn't Earth, and a lot of "common sense" might not apply here.

Fortunately, the water creation spell he learned from Eleanor solved the problem of drinking water.

"Considering I don't know when I'll be able to resupply, I need to save food in the coming days... Try to fill up on water as much as possible."

Not wanting to die inexplicably at sea, nor to pin his hopes on finding temporal energy at some unknown time—or being sent to a completely unknown world—Ethan began to plan his next "actions."

How much food to eat each day to maintain enough energy. At the same time, he organized the books Eleanor had given him, and then started reading them in the order Eleanor suggested.

"No need to rush and try to do everything at once. Eleanor said my aptitude is average, which means I might need to study this basic introduction for a long time, so the rest can be set aside for now..."

And so, Ethan began a regular yet boring life.

Every morning, he ate a little to maintain his strength for the day, then steered the small boat in a fixed direction—he had no idea how to tell east, west, south, or north, so he could only keep going in one direction.

After choosing the angle and fixing the sail and rudder, he would start his daily study and practice.