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Time Hotel
Chapter 3: Please Teach Me Spells

Chapter 3: Please Teach Me Spells

  Like an otherworldly hobo the old man exuded a wise, friendly colouring, and if it hadn't been for his patched shoes and robes Ethan would never have associated him with a hobo.

  Once Nathan had introduced himself again in more detailed words, Ethan began to look him over again.

  He looked very old, his hair was white, his pupils were slightly cloudy from age, and his face was kind, but not wrinkled. He was wearing a very simple cloth robe, with four or five patches on the front alone, and in his hand was a staff of about one metre eight, the thickness of a baby's arm, which was quite eye-catching because there was a crystal ball the size of an apple embedded on the top of the staff.

  Other than that, there didn't seem to be anything special.

  But Ethan thought he was special all over, especially when he stepped out of the glowing body, made himself understand his unknown language, and told himself: he was from the Otherworld and a spellcaster.

  "My name is Ethan," Ethan said quickly, "Master Spellcaster, may I ask what you are doing here?"

  "Hmm?" Nathan didn't answer him, but rather narrowed his eyes slightly as he surveyed him for a long time before letting out a helpless sigh, "You're a lucky man, aren't you?"

  "Huh?"

  "I sensed the appearance of a space-time node, close to my world, so I came over to take a look." Nathan said with a smile, then held out his hand and spread it out, in the palm of his hand there was a miniature soap ordered by the hotel, the soap read Warm Heart Pavilion.

  "May I ask if this flows from here?" Nathan asked.

  "No!" Ethan denied decisively.

  "Oh."

  "You said you were just stopping by to take a look?"

  "Yes."

  "Then please go back." Ethan's mind was reeling.

  "I think you need my help." Nathan, unimpressed by his attitude, smiled.

  "You're wrong, I don't need it."

  "You have a lot of doubts you need me to answer for you."

  "No thanks."

  "......" Nathan was baffled, then shook his head helplessly before turning to point at the glowing object again, "Don't you want to know what that is? Don't you want to know what this place is?"

  "Thank you, you'd better go back."

  "It already exists, I'm just one of the first to come, but I won't be the last. You should feel lucky, or at least relatively lucky, that I was the first one you met and not someone else." Nathan said, "It's a staging area, a steady stream of people will come here next, some may be weak in comparison to you, some may have the power to destroy your world, but what you're not sure about is if every one of them has a good temper."

  "Eh ......" Ethan was a little shaken, then he said, "But I'm not a superhero, I can't be held responsible for something this big. If not, I'll close the door, I don't want this warehouse anymore!"

  Nathan shook his head again and gazed at him calmly, "Some people are going to have to stay here for a while, maybe some can live without food or water, but some can't stand the hunger and thirst. Some will starve to death here if you close the door."

  "I neither know them nor am I a god."

  "Yes, I understand what you mean, and I'm not a god either, but I've decided to help you out here." Nathan said calmly, smiling slightly at him, "If you could easily decide whether someone who had nothing to do with you lived or died, I think the vast majority of people would let that person live."

  "However it's not easy, I'm taking too much of a risk." Ethan countered subconsciously.

  "It's not as big as you think, it's just that you don't know how to control those people because you don't know anything about them right now." Nathan said, "But that's okay, I can teach you."

  Without waiting for Ethan to speak, he added, "It's true that maybe this thing isn't as easy as I just made it out to be, but it's not like you're getting nothing out of it. It can bring you very rich things, more than you can imagine, and even more than I can imagine."

  "Hmm?"

  "You moved." Nathan said with certainty.

  "I'm not." Ethan flatly denied, then sat down on his knees, "Come on, Gramps, let's take our time."

  Nathan smiled and also sat down without any formalities, then he began to narrate, "This is a space-time node, which can also be called a space-time relay point, roughly equivalent to a relay station connecting various universes. It exists in every world, but it doesn't necessarily awaken, the awakening here refers to becoming a 'relay station'. The vast majority of space-time nodes are dormant, and there is one in our world; I once found it and spent ten years by its side, so I sort of know it."

  "But unfortunately, it stayed 'asleep' in our world. Until it changed location again and I lost it."

  Ethan listened with a dumbfounded face, he was not the protagonist who had his IQ forcefully reduced by a certain system, this kind of peculiar thing expressed incompetence in understanding even if he tried to understand it with his known knowledge.

  Fortunately, acceptance and understanding were two different things.

  Nathan continued, "Almost no one knows the principle of its existence, how it was born, according to the vastness of the universe, its lifespan and uncertainty, almost no one can find it in the long river of years, and the people who can guard it until it awakens are almost non-existent, and more often than not it remains asleep until the world dries up. And the probability of someone being around when it awakens is even lower, I had spent ten years researching it, trying to open it, but as you can see, I didn't succeed."

  "Becoming one with it is a very low probability, and you were so lucky to meet it in such a coincidence constructed by the endless universe and the long years."

  Ethan couldn't help but tug at the corner of his mouth, "So I'm one with it?"

  "Yes. It would probably take an incredibly demanding coincidence."

  "But what's the point?"

  "I'm here in this place now, and after that, I'll need your help if I want to leave it, return to my original world or continue on to some destination." Nathan smiled at him politely, "At the same time when there is another person travelling through time and space in a nearby world, if the distance is too far or their own ability is not enough, they will need to borrow the time and space nodes of this world as a transit, and that's when they will need your help."

  "What if I ...... I don't help?" Ethan asked again.

  "They won't be able to leave." Nathan said, "Maybe some will be trapped in nodespace until they die, or maybe some will figure out some way to get from nodespace into your world for the rest of their long lives, and then you might be in trouble."

  "Eh, you're intimidating me." Ethan was a little offended by the change from persuasion to intimidation, "And this has nothing to do with you, does it."

  "I'm telling you the truth." Nathan looked at him calmly, "I've seen other opened time nodes, but only once have I seen a time node fused with a particular creature. Theoretically, you would have a lifespan on par with that of a space-time node, followed by contact with endless worlds for as long as you wanted, so long enough to reach a height infinitely close to that of a god in the broadest sense of the word, so in fact you'd probably outlive this universe."

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  "That's not just your responsibility, it's also your opportunity." Nathan withdrew his gaze, "How many times have I tried to touch that opportunity and failed to do so."

  "......" Ethan fell silent, those words all sounded too much.

  His mind started to go on and on: if this old man was telling the truth, would he take the idea to himself? He himself did not get the "awakening" time and space node, so he planned to rob his own? If so, then he ...... simply give it to him.

  "Then I simply let this thing to you, do you know how to transfer this thing?"

  "......" Nathan was speechless.

  Ethan finally realised that the thing was not transferable, which was a relief to him, at least it reduced the possibility of this Old Pharaoh plotting against his money.

  Afterwards, the old law master began to explain to Ethan about space-time nodes, but it was mostly theoretical knowledge, that is, the results of his former research, and there was no practical support.

  It looked like Old Master Fa was a very powerful person, and the patched vestments should be his pretence, but there were many things that he said he could not know until he had researched them as well. If Ethan was willing to cooperate with his research, he would share the results with Ethan.

  And according to Old Pharaoh, he came here but could not leave on his own. Because the space-time node had completed fusion with Ethan, which was equivalent to having a consciousness, which was beyond his expectation, now he needed Ethan, the consciousness of the space-time node, to learn to operate the space-time node before he could send him back. But he wasn't in a hurry to leave, the purpose of his coming here was to study the continuation of the space-time node and look for more wisdom, now this was better, at least the space-time node could actively cooperate with him.

  Ethan thus became the subject of Old Pharaoh's research.

  Old Master Fa actually did not rely on spells to cross the border, but instead relied on a scroll made of a strange material, which was now floating above Ethan's head, illuminated by a ghostly blue light that was very obvious. It was only because Ethan hadn't raised his head before that he didn't notice it.

  However, after arriving in this space, it seemed that the Old Master of Law had lost the scroll for the time being, and he demonstrated it to Ethan on the spot - he floated up and reached out to grab the scroll, only for the scroll to suddenly disappear and then appear on the other side. Ethan was able to hold the scroll in his hand.

  The old master used the term "rules of the game" to describe this phenomenon, because he couldn't figure out the principle for the time being.

  The two of them studied for two hours, but they failed to figure out how Ethan operated the space-time node, but Old Master subverted Ethan's inherent knowledge in a few sentences.

  For example, this space actually did not have a ground at all, it was only because Ethan was used to stepping on the ground, so this space fictionalised a ground out based on his perception. When the Old Master convinced him of this fact, the "ground" disappeared, and he began to fall, and it took him a lot of effort to get back on his feet. He could be anywhere he wanted to be without being bound by "space".

  It was then that Ethan realised that he was truly one with the space. And he gradually came to realise that this might be an unshakeable fact.

  After a long time, he had almost finished playing, so he looked at the time on his mobile phone and said to Old Master Fa, "I'm tired after all this time, let's go out and talk."

  The time shown on his mobile phone was already evening, and if there was no difference in the flow of time between this space and the outside world, in a little while, Elaine should have called him to report her results.

  The facts proved that there was a difference in the flow of time between the two spaces - when he stepped out of the space, his mobile phone showed the time as nine thirty-six, and when he returned to Earth and connected to the internet, the mobile phone time was immediately synchronised to nine thirty-nine.

  Across the board, there is only that much difference.

  Stepping out of the door, Old Master Fa turned back and squinted his eyes to survey the door, and said, "It seems that the space-time node and this place have accomplished a very interesting combination."

  Ethan didn't chime in, but instead headed downstairs, "Master Mage, come down for a drink."

  Old Master Mage followed him down the stairs.

  He reached out and rubbed the metal escalator, felt the softness of the carpet with his feet, and then glanced at the one room on the first floor, pondering, a strange gleam in his eyes.

  Everything seemed to be hidden from his eyes.

  As he sat on the small sofa on the ground floor, sipping warm water from a paper cup, he still surveyed everything as far as the eye could see.

  The streetlights and stalls outside, the dark city, the occasional hustle and bustle of cars driving by, the Internet cafe across the street from the side door, the computers at the counter and the chandeliers and water fountains overhead ......

  He was wise beyond Ethan's wildest dreams.

  Quickly, he placed his paper cup on the clear coffee table and said, "I can see you're a material civilisation that appears to be in a relatively rudimentary stage, and as far as I can tell from what I've seen so far, it's pretty even in terms of development."

  Ethan tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  It's still relatively elementary? Take a look at your patchy clothes before you start talking big!

  He asked, "What about your world?"

  "Our world!" Old Master Fa pursed his lips slightly, looking very stylish, "In your words, we should perhaps be called a mystical civilisation, a magic civilisation, a sorcery civilisation or something like that, or an energy civilisation, a supernatural civilisation, I don't know how to describe it."

Old Master Fa pondered for a while and said "In our world, there is a kind of people who master marvellous abilities, they are probably similar to your scientists, medical doctors, philosophers and so on. I have searched for many words in the language of your world, perhaps I should use words like mage, sorcerer, spell caster to describe our group of people ......"

  At this point, Ethan's eyes widened abruptly and stared at him, "You ...... you're speaking English now!!!"

  It was just after he himself had made a phone call, this old Frenchman had actually learnt English?

  "Yes." Old Master Fa nodded, "I just acquired the language of your world."

  "Acquired it from where? It won't be from my brain ...... "Ethan suddenly froze, "Wait, the language of our world? Not the language of our country?"

  "Yes, I acquired the language of this world from this world." A strange gleam in the eyes of the Old Master of Law affirmed his question, "Your country's, other countries', modern, ancient, still in use, lost ......"

  "......" Ethan looked shocked, "Master Fa, please teach me your spells!!!"