I Really Couldn't Stand Him, So I Locked Him Up

The moment he finished praying, Horace could clearly feel a trace of the magic power within him flowing toward the ring.

Immediately afterward, dozens of seemingly intricate runes appeared to activate, emitting a soft glow before finally forming a palm-sized light screen.

Four lines were displayed on it.

[Welcome to Magic Space. The Magic Internet is at your service.]

[As this is your first time entering, please enter your Magic Space nickname.]

[Nicknames cannot be changed. Please choose carefully.]

[Note: You may use your real name, but this is not recommended.]

"Magic Space? Magic Internet?! What is this?! That mage actually gave such a powerful magical artifact to me? I must be crazy! This has to be a dream!"

Horace swore that this was the most miraculous magical artifact he had ever seen in his life.

Dozens of incredibly precise runes—none of them were something an Apprentice like him could create. Even his teacher, a Mid-Order Mage, would likely have to expend tremendous effort to create a rune like this!

And that was only one of the runes.

Dozens of runes were all concentrated on this tiny ring. Even his teacher probably could not accomplish such a thing.

He viciously pinched his own thigh, and the pain finally brought him back to his senses.

It was actually real!

He had inexplicably been beaten up by one mage, then inexplicably received a magical artifact from another mage—something he had never seen before in his life and never even dared dream of... And what did this unbelievable light screen mean?

Horace's mind simply could not process so many things at once.

After who knew how long, he cautiously looked around. Once he confirmed no one was paying attention to him, he quickly entered "Mage's Apprentice" into the nickname field.

[Input successful. Dear Mr. Mage's Apprentice, Magic Space is a gift from the Magic Goddess and the Technology God. Please make good use of it.]

Upon seeing the names of the Magic Goddess and the Technology God again, the reverence on Horace's face grew even stronger.

That powerful mage was probably a devotee of the Magic Goddess or the Technology God.

They had actually bestowed such a divine gift upon a weak Apprentice like him!

A monstrous wave rose in Horace's heart.

Only after that line of text vanished and the Magic Space interface appeared on the light screen did he finally recover his senses.

[I want to collect all the magic in the world. Please help me!]

[Offering a High-Order Knight Armor as a reward. Interested parties, contact me.]

[The White Walkers in the Far North have been stirring, but the watchtower guarding them seems not to have noticed!]

[An ancient ruin is suspected to have appeared in the High Collar Kingdom. A High-Order Mage has been exploring it for months with no news yet. Does anyone know what happened?]

High-Order Knight Armor?

The Far North? White Walkers?! A High Collar Kingdom ruin?!

Horace felt that he had never been so shocked in such a short span of time in his entire life.

As expected of a divine gift. The topics discussed actually... actually reached such a level. Was this really something he was allowed to see?

Yet he could not suppress his curiosity in the end. He opened the least "dangerous" and easiest-to-accept post among them.

The screen shifted.

[I want to collect all the magic in the world. Please help me!]

[Fireball, Frost Spell, Entanglement Spell...]

"Thank goodness, something at my level might have a chance..." Just as Horace was about to sigh in relief at finally seeing something he could understand, he saw the next line: "Soul Devouring, Annihilation Bullet, Doom Judgment..." What were those supposed to be?

What level of magic could possibly achieve that?

Why did they feel like forbidden spells?

Just their names sounded completely wrong.

As he continued scrolling down, the tone became increasingly bizarre.

Quite a few people were indeed replying with magic they knew, but even more were saying all sorts of strange things.

[Thanks for the invite. I'm a Dwarf. I don't understand magic, only blacksmithing!]

[You can't activate it at all without magic power, okay?!]

[Is the original poster insane? Magic encompasses everything. Even if you spent your entire life on it, you could never collect even one-tenth of it.]

[Using this post: I'm Strang Franz. I'm not dead. I've been trapped in a secret realm for 1,200 years. Give me ten Gold Shields, and once I break the seal, I'll make you Hand of the Kingdom!]

Horace stared blankly, utter shock and confusion intertwining in his mind.

What even was all this?

Why did so many people seem abnormal?

And yet... the things these people mentioned felt so real!

What kind of existence was this divine gift?

As he kept reading, he suddenly froze.

Someone had actually said that Fireball had many variants. People in different regions used slightly different activation runes when casting Fireball, and the fireballs' power, speed, and temperature also differed.

That person had even explained in detail how to construct the various Fireball variants and what effects they could achieve.

In an instant, he became completely excited.

He read it carefully, again and again, afraid of missing even a single word.

Goddess of Magic's Divine Realm.

Roger watched this scene, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "Not bad. That old fellow's apprentice is pretty reliable. He's already sent out several of them, and this Apprentice isn't bad either. He's already started using it. He's just a little slow-witted. Who knows when he'll fully master it."

"If you opened fewer alt... alternate accounts and wrote less useless nonsense, I'm sure he'd master it much faster." The puppet complained weakly. "Even I find it hard to understand all the information on there."

"But without that information, the internet would be incomplete." Roger smiled faintly. "And don't you think that when lots of people start chatting according to my method, the internet will become very interesting? Many people won't be able to resist opening it a few more times... Wait! It's here! It's here! I'm not talking to you anymore!"

"What's here?" The puppet looked at Roger, whose expression had suddenly changed dramatically, her eyes full of confusion.

"What else could it be? Faith, of course!"

The transmission speed of faith seemed to be slightly slower than magic power. The Apprentice had already opened Magic Space for quite some time before Roger finally sensed that the Blank Divine Core bound to the name of the Technology God had suddenly received a strange... presence? Or perhaps light.

The feeling was not distinct.

He did not know how to describe it.

But it was undeniably golden, like smoke.

Dreamlike and illusory.

Before long, under Roger's gaze, it merged into the Divinity and completely vanished.

Perhaps because it was only a single prayer from a Mage Apprentice, it was extremely faint. After merging into the Divinity, it was almost impossible to sense, yet it still made Roger tremendously excited!

At the very least, it proved that he really could absorb faith!

"What kind of expression is that? And you still say you aren't jealous of me."

Reluctantly shifting his attention away from the Blank Divine Core within his body, Roger looked at the puppet's resentful expression and could not help laughing.

Ever since he had met this fellow, he had rarely seen such an expression on her face!

Seeing that the other party's excited head seemed about to fall off again, Roger quickly changed the subject.

"By the way, where's the book? The mortal world has already started using the internet. I wanted to ask him whether he had any special feelings about it, and whether he could handle it once the number of users increased in the future!"

"I locked him in the storage room. Ever since he saw those absurd things you said, he's become even stranger. I really couldn't stand him anymore, so I locked him up." The puppet spoke as naturally as though the book were her personal possession.