At around two in the afternoon, Elaine finished her nap and came down the stairs. She yawned as she rubbed her sleepy eyes, "I'll go back and get a change of clothes and come back to turn in my shift ah ...... hmm?"

　　She fixed her eyes on Ethan, who was crouched on the counter sleeping soundly, not making a sound at all.

　　Like he was dead!

　　Elaine sighed helplessly and walked across the hall in diameter, pushing open the glass door and heading out.

　　The sunlight at the end of June was very scorching, causing her to frown and reach out her palm to cover her forehead as she picked up her car and headed home.

　　Almost as soon as she had left, the old mage also happened to return from outside carrying a shopping bag. Thinking about the shopping experience he had just had, the old mage would still show a few embarrassed looks.

　　He glanced over at Ethan, who was crouched asleep on the counter, and carried the clothes upstairs, and then down again when Ethan had woken up from his nap, his face looking much better than before.

　　"Well, back." Ethan greeted.

　　"Hmm." The old mage nodded and fished out a few tickets from his pocket and handed them back to Ethan, "This is the money left over from buying the clothes, give it back to you."

　　"Well, there's no need to be so polite ......," Ethan glanced at the tickets and was instantly a bit baffled.

　　Good lord, he seemed to have given the old mage a total of four hundred dollars, after all, summer clothes were cheap and he wasn't rich! As a result, the old mage left him more than three hundred and fifty back ......

　　"Where did you buy these clothes?" He asked.

　　"I found a wholesale clothing city on the Internet, where there are quite a lot of people, may be to see that I am old, so I dispose of a set of clothes to me." The old mage said.

　　"Wholesale town!!!" Ethan looked down at the table, then continued to stare at the old mage incredulously, "You travelled this far in two hours!"

　　The old mage smiled faintly and said, "Yes. You seem to be in much better spirits than in the morning after sleeping for two hours!"

　　"Yeah?" Ethan froze and stopped dwelling on it and sighed, "It might have something to do with the fact that I just slept. By the way, I've been repeating the first step of the meditation method before I go to sleep, and every time I finish meditating I feel a little tired, but immediately I feel that my essence has become a little bit stronger, this is a normal phenomenon, right?"

　　"...... "The old mage was silent for a while, then revealed a somewhat embarrassed expression, "It's been so long in the past that I've pretty much forgotten about it. But the results should tell us something."

　　"Then when my sister wakes up from her nap and comes down to turn in her shift, let's move on to learning the next step!" Ethan was a little excited, "By the way, what's the name of this meditation?"

　　"Well, let's see ah...... seems to be the Iron Horse Kingdom's Beginner's Raw Basic Meditation, Set 7, Simplified Version." The old mage doused all his expectations with a single sentence.

　　"......" Ethan.

　　As if he had seen the dullness in his expression, the old mage immediately added, "But I've optimised it, the way of meditation is a lot more scientific than the one that was implemented at the beginning, and the effect should also be better."

　　"In the beginning ...... should ......" Ethan couldn't help but be a little silent, "The Iron Horse Kingdom is that kingdom that expanded to Yan Lake a few hundred years ago, right? Is it still around now?"

　　"Still there." The old mage affirmed the firmness of this ancient kingdom, "But it seems to have been reduced to a third world country."

　　Ethan squeezed a far-fetched smile at him and immediately got up, walking out of the counter, "Keep an eye on things for me, I'll go up and see if Elaine's awake from her nap."

　　He was just about to go upstairs when he saw Elaine, wearing a visor and carrying a large watermelon in her hand, push open the door from outside and look at him, "Awake?"

　　"Erm, when did you go out?"

　　"Just now." Elaine said, glancing lightly at the old mage.

　　"You keep watch then, I'll go upstairs and rest."

　　"Wait!" Elaine shouted.

　　"Huh?"

　　"I brought you melatonin and sleeping pills I bought earlier and didn't finish." Elaine calmly took half of the watermelon that had been cut in half and placed it on the counter, sticking a spoon in the middle of the red flesh, and then stuffed the other half into the cooler with the drinks before fumbling for another small bag and tossing it to him, "The dose of melatonin is 5mg, take one to try it out and if it's not enough, take two. Sleeping pills are best avoided until you have to, I had a hard time prescribing this much."

　　"Okay." Ethan took the medicine and went upstairs.

　　The old mage followed him calmly, while Elaine stood inside the till, watching their backs and yawning.

　　In Nodespace, Ethan sat on his knees.

　　"Lord Lawgiver, I think we can proceed with our research on the space-time nodes first, followed by a bit of time left over before we can spend it on learning about meditation." Ethan raised his head and said to the old mage, who had already lost most of his interest in the "National Primary School Students' Radio Gymnastics".

　　"Good." The old mage smiled and didn't say much, "Then let's first study how to identify the energy recovery of travellers and props today."

　　"Hmm!" Ethan remained seated on the ground.

　　It had been proven countless times before that Old Mage's experiments didn't require him to physically cooperate, and in this space, it didn't make sense at all in what position he was in.

　　With a wave of his hand, the old mage fumbled for the large staff again, and stuttered twice at his feet - the extraordinarily tawdry looking staff didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to make the old mage look more like a mage and to match some of his habitual movements.

　　"Let's first establish a standard, tentatively delineated in percentages, and later subdivided into energy scales ...... I can clearly sense the total amount of energy and existing reserves of myself and the scrolls, and you have a certain level of perception of the beings and objects that enter this space, so it's simple enough --as long as you confirm which part of the sensation you perceive is related to our energy, and then find out how it changes and corresponds into the standard, it's fine."

　　"Good!" Ethan said.

　　"Most of the previous experiments were me sharing my findings to you, this time it's your turn to share your results to me." Perhaps the old mage would not be able to use the results of this research in his lifetime, but he just had a paranoid pursuit of knowledge.

　　"Good!" Ethan said.

　　"Now I'm going to help you amplify your senses, and you're going to remember every sense you can feel."

　　"Yes!" Ethan said.

　　An hour of time passed.

　　"Let's put this research on hold for today, it's not something that can be done in a short period of time, let's move on to the next research project." The old mage paused his staff again, "I took some time last night to think about it, although I haven't had time to make a formula to analyse and verify it, I think you should have more than just a hold on this space, I think we can try to excavate in that direction."

　　"Good!" Ethan said.

　　"You're really ...... ugh!" The old mage shook his head, "Let's get started then."

　　"Good!" Ethan's expression was frozen.

　　It was as if he had gone back in time, to high school.

　　Teacher: Because sinB (sin squared A + cos squared A) = √2sinA, right?

　　Ethan: Hmm.

　　Teacher: so sinB = √2sinA, right?

　　Ethan: Hmm.

　　Teacher: Now the result comes out, right?

　　Ethan: Hmm.

　　Teacher: And what is the result?

　　Ethan: ......

　　About an hour and a half later-

　　"Well, that's it for today." The old mage smiled, "You're learning meditation quite quickly."

　　Ethan sat down on the ground and put his meditation aid card away, feeling like a wreck already.

　　He looked up at the old mage but didn't move, instead he asked, "Lord Lawgiver, I'm actually curious, do gods exist in your world? I seem to have heard you mention the word demon."

　　"God? What is a god?" The old mage looked at him and smiled helplessly, "The original god was just an answer in people's minds, its purpose was to explain why this world and life are the way they are, and after all, it was just a tool that people fantasised to fill in the gaps in their perceptions and eliminate their inner fears and trepidations."

　　Ethan froze, "And then what happened?"

　　"Later?" The old mage's expression became even more helpless, "You have to understand that any god in the broad sense does not exist, and any god in the narrow sense is not a god. This is something that we mages are more than clear about. This is because during the long development process of our world, too many races and individuals who fancied themselves as gods or were once honoured as gods were pulled off the altar by the rapidly advancing magic technology."

　　"So!" Ethan frowned, "And what kind of world is your magical world?"

　　"Our world?" The old mage revealed a smirk, "To say the least, the background of our world is quite different from your world! The difference lies in the difference of subtle rules, so we don't have natural sciences, and it's hard for us to breed natural sciences, because before natural sciences, we already had magic. We had a longer feudal age than you guys, those primitive-like wars we lasted for tens of thousands of years, and then the development of civilisation changed everything, including magic and spellcasters ......"

　　"Magic was no longer used to roll fireball spells, and no one formed casters into mage warbands ...... We began to use magic to make weapons, magic to create cities, magic to build bridges across canyons and highways across deserts, and magic to take us off-planet to explore our realm! ...... "The old mage looked at him as he seemed to be listening with some fascination, and couldn't help but feel a pang of amusement, "But boy, these are only external differences after all."

　　"Apart from the differences in background, the climax and decline of cultures, the wars that start up and gradually subside, the kingdoms that go from being established, to rising, and then to falling into disrepair, the goodness, the greed, the order, the violence, the rules, and the desires, these are always more or less the same!" The old mage looked at him and said, "People in both worlds are actually doing pretty much the same thing. I perceive that people in your world also love to use a metaphor, the wheel of history, do you know why that is?"

　　"Why?" Ethan asked, "Isn't it because the wheel will crush everything? It leaves everything behind into the past?"

　　"Because the wheel is a circle that goes round and round." The old mage drew a circle in the air with his hand, and white lines emerged, gradually evolving into the style of an ancient wagon wheel and turning abruptly, "When the wheel of history rolls and turns, even if it keeps moving forward, it's just a change of time setting to play out the same story!"

　　"Is ...... it?" Ethan narrowed his eyes at the dripping wheel.

　　He didn't retort, nor did he have the heart to think about how to do so, even if he could always pick out the flaws if he wanted to.

　　The old mage had lived twelve hundred years.

　　A thousand years might not seem long, but for ordinary people, it was like a long road with no end in sight. That's why ordinary people may never be able to imagine what a spellcaster who has lived for thousands of years is really like - how he thinks, what kind of experiences and insights he has had, being wiser than we can imagine, or hopelessly pedantic.

　　Ethan didn't want to think about it, because he was sleepy.

　　The experiment with the old master had helped him a lot, and he had learnt the second, third and fourth steps of meditation from the old master, who said that he should be able to deal with it for a while, and he wanted to go back to sleep and try it out.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

　　In order to avoid accidents, he ordered a takeaway for the old mage before going to bed and chose to have it delivered from six o'clock.

　　This move proved to be a wise one, as he slept straight through until eleven at night without dreaming or insomnia. When he woke up he was almost so relieved he wanted to scream.

　　Insomnia was terrible!

　　It was also the first time he realised that a good night's sleep could be so comfortable!

　　Unfortunately it was just a little hungry.

　　As Ethan stumbled down the stairs he saw that Elaine appeared to be being pestered at the cashier's desk by a crisply dressed young man of about twenty.

　　Ethan's sleepy eyes popped open.

　　The youth looked to be about the same height as Elaine, Ethan estimated him to be at most 5'5", with a figure that might fall into the standard category in the eyes of many little girls, but in Ethan's opinion it was skinny, estimated to be at most a hundred pounds or so. This kind of height and weight is good to be a good person, if you are fighting and causing trouble, a push can push a heel.

　　Ethan immediately put down his heart, and only then slowly walked down the stairs, at the same time carefully measured up this young man---

　　He is a little handsome, probably one third of himself, cotton shorts, white t-shirt, loafers, wearing a string of decorative beads on his hand, looks like a clean and clean "little brother".

　　However, it was already past eleven o'clock at night, and Ethan still smelled the vague smell of alcohol. There are a lot of bars and nightclubs next to the university, although most of them are relatively innocent, but there is no lack of encounter-themed, so it is very likely that this guy just came back from the nightclub, failed to have an encounter, so he came here alone to look for a place to stay. Otherwise, it was because of a failed love affair, depressed mood or something like that that he ran out to get drunk.

　　Obviously, the drunken man was instantly captured by Elaine's still green and delicate face and tall figure.

　　Ethan came closer and closer, but the young man did not notice, only stared straight at Elaine, and also squeezed out a smile that he thought was very elegant: "You also did not say whether you have a boyfriend, I'm not necessarily chasing after you, just like this just leave a sentence not to give, it's a little bit too unkind, right?"

　　Elaine glanced at Ethan in her afterglow, and continued to look at the youth coldly, saying, "We welcome you to stay, but if you want to get drunk, you'd better get out of here!"

　　"Is that so mean?" That youth froze, "I just want to make a friend."

　　"I don't want to make friends with you."

　　"Wow little beauty, people are so pretty, how come you have such a bad personality! Is it so hard to stay one?" The youth smiled helplessly and bitterly, "If you have a boyfriend, I'll turn around and leave, okay? I'm not the kind of person who loves to dig up people. But if you don't have a boyfriend, give me a chance, give me a chance! Let's add a WeChat, whether we can chat together depends on fate, what do you say?"

　　"No stay!" Elaine's eyes were a little cold.

　　This person is not a retard, right?

　　"Little beauty don't be so cruel, right? Give me face, okay, give me a step down, okay?" The youth begged bitterly, "If I give WeChat, and then you find it inappropriate afterwards and you delete me again, it's my fault, if you don't even give it, then it's your fault ......"

　　In the course of the youth's chatter, Elaine has expressionlessly picked up a thick and heavy Atlas book placed on the computer desk in front of her and shrugged her shoulders, and before the youth could finish speaking, she swiftly turned her body sideways, and then the strength of her waist drove her arm to swing up and speak the book as a brick forcefully smashed the side of the youth's face-

　　"Wrong you sister!" Elaine shouted in a cold voice!

　　There was a bang!

　　The youth's body lurched and sat directly on the ground, his head was dizzy and he was unconscious.

　　Ethan, who was watching the battle from a few metres away, laughed.

　　Elaine's temper was not only high and cold, but also explosive, and she was really practised. This youth didn't necessarily weigh more than her, and his height was about the same, Elaine reckoned she could beat him up twice.

　　But businessman, to make peace is precious.

　　So Ethan stepped over, see the youth seems to have been confused, sitting on the ground for a long time did not react, and quickly went over to reach out to pull him up, mouth also said: "Aiya brother what's wrong with you! Why are you suddenly sitting on the ground? Drink too much, right? Quickly get up get up ......"

　　The youth blinked twice and shook his head fiercely, looking incredulously at Elaine, the Atlas, which was comparable to the Oxford Dictionary, still sitting on the counter.

　　He held out his hand as if to point it at Elaine.

　　With a snap, Ethan held his hand down, "Steady brother, don't move or you'll fall again!"

　　The youth twisted his head to look at Ethan, his face was full of confusion and bewilderment, he opened his mouth and let out syllables from his mouth, "This chick ......"

　　Ethan pursed his lips and let his hands go.

　　Only to hear a thud, he sat down on his arse again!

　　The sciatic nerve suffered a heavy blow, directly causing his face to twist in pain, and he couldn't say a word.

　　Ethan hurriedly grabbed his arm again to yank him up, with Ethan's height and weight, this weak youth was lifted up like a doggy: ''See, told you to stay still, fell again! Come on come on where do you live, I'll take you back!"

　　Snap!

　　A student ID card fell out.

　　Ethan picked up the student ID card and looked at it, then he was happy: "Yo, it's still a junior ah! You're only a freshman and you're going out to hang out in a bar?"

　　Ethan looked the young man up and down before saying, "Your physique is similar to a comedian!"

　　The young man looked up at him, his face twisted, and he stifled his words, "Brother, I was wrong."

　　Gotta! It's no fun anymore!

　　Ethan simply stopped teasing him, released him, and also patted the non-existent dust on his clothes and said, "Okay, I won't bother with you if you know you're wrong, usually either drink less, if you're drunk, you have to pay attention to it, pestering a human girl for contact information in the middle of the night, and not letting go even after you've been rejected, what kind of words is that!"

　　The youth stifled an ugly expression, under the effect of alcohol amplifying the emotions actually have a kind of impulse to cry.

　　He didn't want to lose face!

　　In the end, he touched his arse and limped out the door, and stood in the doorway, scanning left and right for a few moments before finding a direction to continue looking for the hotel.

　　Ethan turned back to Elaine.

　　The two looked at each other, one couldn't help but smile, while the other was cold and expressionless.

　　After a long time, Ethan stifled a sentence, "It's a good thing you used the book to hit, or else with that physique of his, he wouldn't have to give you a slap and be confused?"

　　"I have my measure, I don't need you to remind me!" Elaine said coldly, and after a pause, she added, "If the shop wasn't open, I would have picked up the book and huffed at him!"

　　"Well, it's not like I blame you." Ethan said, "Shouldn't have let you on night duty in the first place, girls aren't very safe at night, everyone will subconsciously classify girls as the category that is good for bullying ...... especially your kind, besides those who really want to commit crimes, it will also attract quite a lot of dilettantes."

　　"Dilettantes like this?" Elaine looked disdainful.

　　"A young man who doesn't know what he's doing." Ethan said helplessly, "In case a taller and stronger one really comes, and you're that impulsive to make a move, causing him to get annoyed, I'll see what you'll do next!"

　　"Then I didn't see you come to my aid just now!" Elaine's tone hid some dissatisfaction.

　　"I saw that you could handle it, but if you were a taller man, I'd still have to do it!"

　　"Can you stop thinking you're so great?" Elaine gave him a sidelong glance, "Still a weakling!"

　　"......" Ethan stared at her in surprise, "A weakling? Come on, have you ever seen a five-foot-nine seventy-something kilo weakling?"

　　"One metre eighty-eight, in shoes, it'd be nice to be one metre eighty-five without them!" Elaine despised, "And if fat is useful isn't a pig able to eat a tiger?"

　　"Net height of one metre eighteen! Thanks!" Ethan was a little annoyed that this girl was always lifting the bar with him, "And I'm not fat, I used to be on the basketball team, okay!"

　　"Used to."

　　"And I have abs and pecs!"

　　"Used to."

　　"You win." Ethan had no choice but to raise his hands in surrender.

　　"I'm telling the truth, you've completed the reverse process of developing a great physique in the first place." Elaine glanced over him, then back to his face, and said, "You're in much better spirits after half a day's sleep, and you've got the strength to argue with me!"

　　Ethan helplessly skimmed his lips, what law he had.

　　In the beginning, he often exercised and loved sports himself, of course he had a good body. Later on, when he started to be busy with his business, he gradually did less exercise, and at most went out for a run on a whim. From the third year of college to resume single, very decadent for a period of time, coupled with the fourth year of college will not be in school, negligent exercise and eat well and play well, of course, to grow fat.

　　Not wanting to argue with Elaine about that aspect, he walked in to sit at the counter and said, "Go to bed, I'll keep watch tonight."

　　"Not sleepy." Elaine said lightly, picking up the large book and flipping about a third of the way through it, looking down at it, "Sit here if you can't sleep, if I get sleepy early I'll go upstairs and rest, if not I'll sit here with you and see if any dilettantes come over to let you round out the bull you just bragged about."

　　"......" Ethan said, "I'm so hungry."

　　"Should be hungry too." Elaine nodded with her book in hand, her fingers flicking over a page, "I'm having a barbecue tonight, with barbecued ribs and aubergines, barbecued chicken wings, beef and lamb ......"

　　"Elaine!!! you're going a bit overboard!!!" Ethan blackened his face and said in a deep voice.

　　Elaine, however, ignored him and said to herself, "By the way, I also ordered a cold small carp for the main meal."

　　"Enough!" Ethan's face darkened even more.

　　"Why is it enough?" Elaine's face still couldn't see much expression, and she didn't raise her head, "Have you forgotten how you treated me when you were little?"

　　"It was so small then! Do you have to hold a grudge that much!?" Ethan was just speechless.

　　"I'm small now too, I'm not an adult yet." Elaine said faintly while reading a book, "So I only have to ask you as a guardian to be a little more patient."

　　"Fine." Ethan pursed his lips and sighed helplessly, then fished out his mobile phone and opened the takeaway software, "I'll order a takeaway now, what do you want to eat? ...... Don't say yes, I'll order exclusively what you love to eat, anyway, I'm so hungry right now, I feel like I could eat a cow."

　　Elaine: "......"

　　Ethan really did order a whole lot of food, and Elaine really did keep forcing herself not to grab it. Except that she had secretly taken the incident to heart and went upstairs with a horribly grim face.

　　It was a little after one in the morning when the hotel closed and went upstairs to bed.

　　At this time, the old mage is still awake, the bottom of the door of the room at the gap through the blue light, in the dark environment is particularly conspicuous.