DOTM: Chapter 571/572

Chapter 571: Having Fun

Difference? In the past, Ethan would proudly talk about the advantages of his training method.

But after stepping into a new realm, his perspective on magic had changed.

"There are some differences in the process, but in the end, they all lead to the same place."

Ethan's training method seemed theoretically capable of reaching very high levels, but this didn't mean the other options were dead ends.

Look at Merlin, look at the Ancient One, were their strengths weak? Even the current Ethan couldn't say he had caught up to these two.

Leah's strength might have reached a certain bottleneck, but this was related to her personal talent and knowledge, and neither of these issues was a problem for Ethan.

So Leah could choose whichever path she wanted. Even if she reached a certain point and didn't know how to proceed, Ethan could offer appropriate suggestions from a higher perspective.

After all, what mages pursue in the end is roughly the same, the easier application of various energies and rules.

Things like Ethan's idea of creating everything with his own power did not fall outside this scope. It was a byproduct of pursuing this goal.

These things were still very far off for Leah, so the essential difference between the choices before her was merely the difference between gaining casting ability sooner or later.

"The same training method as Teacher."

After much thought, Leah finally decided to follow the path Ethan had taken. Although it sounded like a difficult path and she wouldn't feel like a mage for a long time, it was said that her teacher, back then, didn't act like a mage at all when fighting and developed strange habits. His first reaction when facing someone was not to cast spells but to draw his sword.

If she hadn't later become Ethan's disciple, Leah would never have guessed that Ethan was a mage. She had always thought Ethan was an existence like the Archangels, possessing great power while also being able to cast various powerful spells.

"Of course you can."

The path Ethan took was to first focus on improving mental power without rushing to control a certain energy, and not absorbing energy from the outside to convert into magic power stored within the body, but rather generating magic power from within oneself when mental power reached a certain level.

From a certain perspective, Leah herself possessed a very powerful bloodline, and her mental power was also stronger than that of ordinary people, so she could complete the initial training in a shorter time.

Ethan suddenly thought of Leah's Diablo bloodline. Would this method of training by digging into one's own potential stimulate the hidden demon lord bloodline?

However, at that time, Diablo was in foreign territory. Coupled with Leah's period of training, which enhanced her mental strength and soul strength, and with Ethan protecting her nearby, this portion of Diablo's mental power or soul fragments might instead become nourishment for Leah's self-improvement.

"That would be interesting."

Ethan had originally been thinking about how to resolve this hidden danger, but now he wasn't in a hurry. He wanted to see if Leah could resolve this issue on her own.

If she could achieve all of this with her own strength, perhaps Leah would achieve even greater accomplishments in the future.

Having decided what to learn, and with Sherry having already taught Leah the basic methods of mental power usage, coupled with her good innate talent, her progress was very fast. She quickly learned this knowledge, and the next step was long-term practice.

Besides this, Ethan didn't teach her too much. Things like elemental properties could be slowly analyzed later.

Anyway, Artemis wasn't counting on Leah quickly mastering combat abilities right now. She had ample time to quietly build a sufficiently solid foundation for herself.

After finishing teaching her the magic knowledge, Leah looked up, her big innocent eyes wide, and asked a question that made Ethan want to spit blood.

"Don't I need to learn swordsmanship?"

"Why would you need to learn swordsmanship?"

"I thought if I followed Teacher's path, I had to learn swordsmanship."

"..."

He briefly explained to the little girl that he had learned swordsmanship back then for self-protection when he didn't have casting ability, and now Leah didn't need to worry about her safety.

However, on second thought, there was no harm in Leah learning swordsmanship. At least it could be used for physical exercise. So his explanation gradually turned into a lecture on the basic points of swordsmanship.

Although Leah realized her teacher seemed to be going off-topic, being a well-behaved child, she wouldn't question her teacher directly. Instead, she obediently continued to listen, and then dutifully followed Ethan to the practice room, picked up a small blunted practice sword, and practiced some basic movements.

Ethan's swordsmanship foundation was learned from Arthur, belonging to orthodox knightly swordsmanship.

He had mastered the techniques for using weapons including one-handed swords with shields, two-handed greatswords, broadswords, and others. In fact, a knight had to master more types of weapons than just these, but Ethan hadn't learned that many, focusing only on swordsmanship.

This swordsmanship wasn't particularly profound, but it was very suitable for building a foundation, perfect for Leah to learn.

Leah also learned very seriously. After learning the basics of swordsmanship and methods for mental power training, she diligently practiced every day. In the end, Ethan had to set a clear training schedule for her to prevent her from overtraining and harming herself, which slightly reduced her training time.

But Leah didn't become idle because of this. After Sherry discovered Leah was learning swordsmanship, she dragged her to learn how to use various firearms. Artemis had all sorts of weapons and equipment available for everyone to learn and master.

Not to mention various modern gunpowder weapons, even antique muzzle-loading matchlock guns were available. Besides serving as decorations, people could also use them to have some fun shooting when they were bored.

Now, Sherry had found a new use for them, helping Leah understand the evolution of weapons more intuitively.

After Leah's training got on the right track, Artemis continued to sail steadily through the endless cosmic void. During this time, it didn't encounter any planets, and there was still a considerable amount of time before reaching the next star system. He began to consider whether to take everyone somewhere to relax appropriately.

The advantage of having companions was that when he couldn't think of a suitable option for a while, he could ask for their opinions.

He wanted to go out and explore, but he didn't know what kind of world he should go to. Maybe he could ask his companions if they had any ideas?

"There's nowhere I want to go right now."

"I'm still observing various data in the universe. This place is practically a treasure trove, so I don't want to go anywhere for now."

"Boring idea..."

"I'd really like to go see, but I just used a strengthening potion, so it's not convenient for me to travel around recently."

From Sherry to Hill, no one was interested in going out to play with Ethan. As for Leah, she felt she still had many things to practice and hadn't considered going out to play at all. She didn't even speak up.

Logan also didn't speak. Under normal circumstances, he would have gone out to play with Ethan, but this time he didn't feel like moving. He had had enough fun in Starship Troopers last time. Although the bugs were disgusting, the way they swarmed in overwhelming numbers, and then were gunned down by him, was indeed a very suitable way to vent.

After several battles, Logan's strength was pretty much depleted. Although his body had regained youth, his mindset wasn't as active as when he was young. Unless he was truly interested, he still preferred a calmer life.

"Maybe we could go see the past you, are you interested?"

"Not interested."

Logan casually lit a cigar for himself. He knew Ethan was fully capable of taking him to see Jean now. If it were the old him, he would definitely have asked Ethan to take him to see her, but the current him had figured out many things. If he accidentally stumbled upon that world, he might still go see his past self, but he wouldn't specifically go there.

"Really..."

Ethan shook his head. He had originally thought everyone would be very interested, but he didn't expect them to be so uncooperative.

"Maybe in another two months, everyone will get bored. When you suggest it then, there will definitely be a lot of responses."

"I'm bored right now."

Frankly, Ethan was just looking for something to do because he was too idle. He had had a much longer journey on the ocean back then, and at that time, he had to control the ship every day and deal with various weather changes.

Although space was more dangerous, it wasn't as busy as it was back then. Plus, he had companions now, and the spaceship had a very high-end intelligent system, Luna, so he didn't need to stare at the cockpit for long periods. He just needed to find a place to do his own thing.

Although it was said that mages were homebodies, they still needed things to do to stay home. The current situation was that Ethan's strength had just crossed a major realm, and his strength was stabilizing but not completely stable, so he didn't dare to use potions for further improvement.

There were no urgent research projects at the moment, and the few magic properties he was slowly studying had entered the stage of painstaking effort, which could only be achieved with time.

This led to him having nothing much to do recently, just waiting for this stage to be completed.

He could go find Diana. Perhaps spending time alone together was a good way to pass the time. However, Diana wouldn't do things according to his wishes. She would only spend her free time with him, and if she had something busy to do, Ethan would be directly left aside.

So he could only find places to play by himself.

He didn't know if his desire to find fun was too strong, but when he used teleportation magic to arrive at a new world and saw people of various shapes lying all over the ground, he knew this was going to be interesting.

"This is really a place suitable for finding fun."

Ethan was looking around when one of the people got up and looked at Ethan with a surprised expression.

"How did you wake up so fast?"

(To be continued.)

Chapter 572: This Place is Full of Fun

The man opposite him had a refined and gentle appearance, his hair meticulously styled with pomade, and dressed in a suit, he looked like a social elite.

Ethan looked around again. They were in the living room of a very spacious room. There was a sofa set and coffee table right behind him, but when he tried to walk over, he found himself blocked by an invisible barrier. He reached out to test it and confirmed it could not trap him, but he did not do anything, and turned back instead.

"During the protection period, you won't be able to leave this area."

The social elite pointed to the area where everyone had fallen. Judging by the range he indicated, it was probably just this empty space.

"What should I call you?"

Ethan glanced around and casually scanned the few people lying on the ground. He was certain these people were ordinary, but the person opposite him had a chaotic mix of auras, making it hard to tell if this guy even counted as human.

"My name is Chen Peng, but looking at you, you can also call me Wallace."

"Where is this?"

The people lying down woke up one after another. Ethan had already scanned them roughly just now, and now that a few people had stood up, he could see more clearly.

No one was wearing pajamas or slippers. Everyone was neatly dressed with shoes and socks. Besides Chen Peng and the fat guy, there was also a thin young man with slightly yellow hair and a hint of a tattoo on his wrist. He looked like someone involved in gangs, but he did not jump out as expected. He stood there quietly, his eyes scanning around.

There was a woman, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, wearing a suit. She seemed like a very ordinary professional woman. After waking up, she appeared a bit panicked, even letting out a small gasp at first, but she quickly covered her mouth and quietly backed away a few steps.

There was also a middle-aged man, whose age was unclear, perhaps in his thirties or forties. His muscles were developed and shiny black, and his weather-beaten, wrinkled face showed no expression. The first thing he did after waking up was try to grab the mop in the corner of the living room, but he ran headfirst into the barrier. Now he was rubbing his head while reaching out to touch the barrier.

Including himself and Chen Peng, there were six people in total here. This was practically a classic opening trope. Perhaps these few were the protagonists of this world? It seemed he had not seen this work before.

Thinking of the situation in the King Arthur world, he could not rule out that this was not a work that existed in his previous life at all, but a parallel world with a Lord God Space.

Considering he had no idea about the plot, it was best to treat it as this kind of situation.

Seeing that everyone was awake and their emotions were stable, Chen Peng nodded with satisfaction.

"The quality of newcomers has been getting higher recently."

Seeing that everyone's attention was focused on him, Chen Peng continued speaking.

"In this day and age, I'm sure everyone knows about Infinite Flow to some extent, or at least heard a little... Does everyone know about Infinite Flow?"

"Yes, we know."

The young man with slightly yellow hair nodded, but the woman in the suit beside him gently shook her head.

"I don't know."

Chen Peng looked at the woman's attire and was not surprised that she did not know about Infinite Flow. Then he looked at the slightly older middle-aged man.

"When I was working on the construction site, the only free time I had was for reading novels. I know about Infinite Flow."

"We're in an Infinite Space now? What kind is it?"

Besides the woman, the others immediately understood the fat guy's words. Everyone's attention was focused on Chen Peng.

"It's the decent kind. There are no health bars or stats, and you can't just go home whenever you want. There are exchanges and missions. There are penalties for not completing missions, but you won't be erased."

"Is it a fixed team format?"

"This is relatively free. When newcomers arrive, the Lord God will randomly group those whose entry areas are close together, so there won't be communication barriers... Oh, this Infinite Space won't help with translation. Considering the bizarre worlds you'll go to in the future, as your newcomer guide, I personally recommend prioritizing the exchange for a few versatile languages."

"It sounds like this Lord God isn't very powerful?"

After hearing the fat guy's comment, Chen Peng shook his head dismissively, "The Lord God just doesn't want to make things too easy for you... Even if you learn Earth languages, you might be thrown into some alternate dimension or alien civilization. At that point, you'll have to figure out the language problem entirely on your own."

Besides not solving language issues, the Lord God also would not solve appearance or race issues. Sometimes, they would not even give you an identity. These people would be completely undocumented in the mission worlds.

This time, besides the fat guy, the other two also grimaced speechlessly. The treatment in this Lord God Space was not great.

"Besides these, the other benefits are pretty good."

Various living benefits are comprehensive. Ordinary food and clothing are free, and basic training equipment is also provided for free. If newcomers can achieve a sufficiently high evaluation within a certain time, they can even obtain better training equipment for free.

"Simply put, if you're willing to use your brain and work hard, good days naturally await you. As for those who want to coast... Heh heh."

Chen Peng did not say it explicitly, but everyone understood his meaning.

Continuing the explanation, besides the novice mission, after completing the first mission, they could choose to stay with the current team or leave. Then the Lord God would help assign them to teams that needed newcomers.

"What if someone wants to go solo?"

"That's possible, of course... but I still recommend finding a team to latch onto, mastering the common sense of this world, and then going solo. Going solo right away will put you at a great disadvantage."

The young man with slightly yellow hair nodded and finally thanked Chen Peng, "My name is Zhang Yi, and I work in a factory."

The worker identity surprised the woman in the suit a bit, and she looked at Zhang Yi a few more times, but she quickly withdrew her gaze. The other two, as if receiving a signal, introduced themselves one after another.

"My name is Wang Hai, and I don't have a fixed job. I've been an online game booster, opened an online store, written online novels, been a paid commenter... Basically, I've done any job that lets me make money without leaving home..."

But relatively speaking, physical labor was not his thing. Although Wang Hai did not say it directly, he had made this subtext very clear.

"Zhou Shulin, I move bricks on a construction site."

"Zhao Ying, copywriter... I've been exercising, so my stamina is decent, but I need to change my shoes first."

A few people looked at the not-very-high heels on Zhao Ying's feet. Even if the heels were not those twenty-centimeter thin stilettos, these shoes were not suitable for this situation, especially since she was also wearing a skirt.

"You don't need to worry about that. The Lord God arranged us here, and in most cases, this is where we get our initial supplies. You can change into clothes that fit the world's background and general environment, so you won't be noticed as being out of place by the locals as soon as you go out."

"That good? Are there weapons?"

Chen Peng did not answer directly, but the mocking laughter still made the fat guy Wang Hai realize he was overthinking it.

At this moment, everyone turned their gaze to Ethan. He was the only one who had not introduced himself yet.

"Ethan... Ethan Arendelle."

He introduced himself this way as a subtle way to test how similar the Earth these people lived on was to his own Earth.

"Arendelle?" The fat guy Wang Hai frowned, then tentatively asked, "Arendelle, like Elsa's Arendelle?"

"Just a coincidence. You wouldn't believe how popular I was with kids back then."

Ethan's relaxed tone made everyone not think too much about it. Only Chen Peng was still secretly observing him. He remembered that Ethan had woken up earlier than him, a situation he had not even heard of, let alone seen.

However, he was not planning to show his hand here. After checking his watch, Chen Peng demonstrated to everyone. Roll up your sleeves, call out to the Lord God in your mind, and they would see a complex mysterious symbol on the inside of their arm. Everyone would use this tattoo-like mark to view their missions in various worlds.

"This time, your newcomer trial mission is very simple. Survive in this city for thirty days."

Except for Zhao Ying, the others knew the mission definitely would not be that simple.

"Which world have we entered?"

Ethan was also very curious. Generally speaking, novice worlds were usually worlds with moderate difficulty and danger, like Resident Evil. He wondered if he had ended up in Raccoon City again, and whether it was the game version or the movie version this time.

Unexpectedly, Chen Peng gave an answer that surprised everyone, "The newcomer trial is a bit special. There's no plot... The Lord God will arrange for whatever dangers it deems appropriate to appear."

(To be continued.)