Carbon-Based Server

Soren Ambrosius.

That sounded familiar. Who was that again?

Drogo began to recall. Though he could remember everything that had happened, he could not react to it immediately; he needed to search through his memories.

Like an enormous mechanical hard drive: plenty of storage, but terrible read speed.

Ah, he remembered!

The owner of Soren Mage Tower in Twin Towers City, mentioned back in Chapter Four.

That made him an old acquaintance. Back when Twin Towers City had not yet been called Twin Towers City, Drogo had even breathed fire at Soren Mage Tower.

It was not his fault he had failed to recognize him. Soren had still had hair back then, yet in barely a century, he had aged into this.

"Ah!" Aisha beside him had already screamed. "You're Soren, the Legendary Mage!"

Seeing someone play along, Soren immediately perked up and struck the pose again.

"I am the great—"

"Legendary Mage Soren!"

"Hahaha!"

Drogo felt the two of them probably did not have enough mental age between them to count as adults.

"But why do you look..."

"Nothing like the Legendary Mage you imagined, right?"

Aisha nodded.

"Did you imagine me as an old white man in long robes, with messy hair, a long beard, and a staff as tall as a person?"

Aisha nodded wildly.

"How narrow-minded. Only powerful muscles can wield powerful spells!" Soren struck a front double-biceps pose.

Drogo was beginning to regret breathing that blast so close past the tower back then.

He quickly stopped Aisha, who was getting caught up in the excitement too, and told her to handle the important matter first.

"Oh, right. This is the patent application we submitted."

Soren accepted the documents and gave them a rough scan. His expression grew somewhat serious. He flipped back to the beginning and carefully read through them again.

"Can you demonstrate it?"

Aisha cast Jump Jump.

Soren watched without blinking. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Interesting. Is this Illusion Mimicry?"

"Yes."

"Normally, mimicry spell models cannot be patented because they have no practical value. But if the point is simply to play, then achieving that through mimicry alone still counts. A very creative idea. Who is your mentor?"

As he spoke, Soren stamped the form.

"Ms. Flynn Uman."

At that name, Drogo's ears twitched involuntarily.

"Then it makes sense. The patent is approved. Now it's time for Soren's Big Question Hour."

"What?"

"The great Legendary Mage Soren will randomly appear anywhere in Twin Towers City. When you find him, you may ask him one question, and he will do his best to answer it."

It was hard to believe a centenarian would refer to himself as "he," and he had even changed his voice while explaining the rules.

Still, since they were already here, Drogo really did have something he wanted to ask.

"Is there a way to share Jump Jump with other people?" Aisha asked on his behalf.

As mentioned before, the mages of this world were like isolated islands floating upon a sea of magic. Their spell models could not interconnect.

Drogo's idea was that if people could not connect to one another, then perhaps everyone could connect to the same thing.

Simply put, they needed a server.

A very, very large server.

"Ooh! Good question. If you want to share it with someone, just teach them."

"But I need to share it with many people, including people who can't use magic."

"Ha! What kind of joke is that? We all know castable spell models cannot be shared unless the Goddess of Magic herself appears..."

At that, Soren suddenly stopped. His expression gradually became serious as he paced back and forth around the room.

Only after quite a while did he say, "Perhaps it isn't impossible. Your spell model doesn't need to be cast."

With a wave of his hand, a book nearly thirty centimeters thick appeared from thin air and slammed heavily onto the table, kicking up a cloud of dust. Judging from that dull thud, it weighed at least twenty pounds.

A spatial ring. Drogo recognized it; he had one too, though he still chose to use a Mimic for storage.

Because the ring counted as a treasure to him and ought to be kept in his collection, while the Mimic did not. Besides, a Mimic's body came with spatial magic, so it was simply putting the monster to good use.

Soren waved his hand, and the book opened on its own. Its pages flipped rapidly as his eyes remained fixed upon them. It looked rather like Quantum Wave Speed Reading from Earth, though Drogo had no idea whether he could actually see clearly.

Soren clenched his fist, and the book stopped on a page.

He read aloud, "When believers pray, gods bestow spells upon them. Though those spells cannot be used, studying them allows one to understand the purpose of inscriptions."

Soren closed the book and put it back into his ring.

"Now the problem is simple. You just need to find a god."

"Is that simple?" Aisha was dumbfounded. Were gods something one could just find anywhere? Did all Legendary Mages think in such leaps? Her mentor was like this, and so was Soren.

"No, no, no. It need not be a living god. Many gods died in the War of the Gods during the previous era. Later research found that divine remains can store spell models, and believers can still study spells through prayer. Of course, they are merely spells that cannot be cast. So..."

They only needed to find a god's remains, then have people believe in that dead god.

Drogo guessed the half of Soren's sentence that went unsaid.

Simply put, a god's body was the server, believers were the terminals, faith was the network cable, and prayer was plugging in the cable. As for why spells could only be studied and not cast, that was apparently some communication protocol established by someone.

It felt bizarre, but everything needed for the internet seemed to be in place.

A carbon-based server. He had no idea how this tech tree had been unlocked, but its upper limit should be higher than silicon-based ones.

"Then can you do it?" Soren did not look at Aisha when he asked this. He was looking at Drogo.

"Do what?" Aisha felt as though she had missed an enormous amount.

"Of course. Remains may be hard to find, but they are not nonexistent. They are always circulating through the underground market. Quite a few people believe those things can cure all illnesses, help them advance to Legendary rank, and so on. Since I'm answering questions, I might as well answer to the end. I'll take you to have a look."

Soren unfolded a teleportation array.

A flash of light later, the two humans and one dragon appeared in a place resembling an underground passage. Fluorescent Stones emitted a faint glow, and shops lined both sides, though most of the sellers had their faces covered.

"F-follow me, this way," Soren panted weakly. "Opening a teleportation portal drained all my magic."

The group stopped before a man who looked like a beggar.

He wore ragged clothes so filthy their original color could not be seen. Curled up asleep in a corner against the wall, his thick beard covered half his face, making his age impossible to discern.

"This is a treasure hunter. He's very good at finding remains."

"One hundred gold coins. Fifty as a deposit." After saying that, the treasure hunter closed his eyes again, clearly unwilling to haggle.

Drogo could afford that price, and if the game went well, one set of remains alone could earn back far more than a hundred gold coins' worth.

"Is he really reliable?" Aisha thought he looked every bit like a swindler. If they had spare money, they might as well give it to her.

"Have you never read novels? People like this are usually legendary figures with painful pasts. They suffer hardships, fall into despair, but once called upon, they still take up their responsibilities."

Soren spoke from the side with great conviction.

"Is he one of those?"

"No."

"Huh?"

"It's fine. Pay the deposit," Drogo told Aisha. He had already memorized the man's scent. Dragons were petty, had excellent memories, and lived even longer.

Aisha wrote a Royal Bank check. The toy store's earnings and a small portion of Drogo's savings were kept there.

"Address." The treasure hunter appeared to be a man of few words.

"Drogo's Toy Store."

After the human and dragon left, Soren appeared beside the treasure hunter again.

"What kind of madman is challenging the authority of the gods this time?" the treasure hunter asked.

"An ancient Red Dragon, and a young illusionist who may not fully realize what she has gotten herself involved in."

"That Red Dragon who chases nobles around and robs them?"

"That's him."

"How does he intend to challenge the gods?"

"By making games."

"Huh?" The treasure hunter's expression finally changed. He turned to look at Soren as if asking whether he was joking.

"He really is making games. And I suspect making games is his main purpose; challenging the gods is merely incidental."

"Huh?" The treasure hunter even climbed to his feet. He wondered whether he had hidden himself away for too long and could no longer understand this world.

After standing there blankly for a long while, he finally said slowly, "What a madman."

"Yes. What a madman."