How Enviable!

"?!!!"

Roger's eyes widened. "Locked up?!"

You could do that?

My God!

How had I not thought of that?

Oh, I couldn't do it. Never mind, then.

Don't let the fact that this guy was just a book fool you. It was a genuine magical creation.

It could even use every spell known to the Magic Goddess.

If it were thrown into the mortal world, it would at least start out as a demon god.

"I locked it up. So what?"

The puppet waved a hand carelessly, and a black hole suddenly appeared before her.

Before Roger could react, the book floated out of it. "Betty, how could you treat me like this?! How could you lock me in that dark space? It's simply unimaginable. Absolutely unimaginable. After our thousands... tens of thousands... countless ages of friendship, you treated me like this! Do you know that wounds to the body can heal, but the cracks within one's heart..."

The moment another black hole appeared, the book abruptly changed its tune. "However, Betty, you know me. This book never holds grudges. I am not some inferior magical creation driven by emotion..."

"Book, how is the signal from the mortal world?" Roger rubbed his slightly swollen head and cut it off directly.

Sure enough, even locking it up would never change it!

"Signal? What is a signal? Lord Roger, you always have endless new terms coming from your mouth. I have never heard such a word."

"I mean, can you smoothly receive information from the mortal world? Is it like the Divine Kingdom? Is there any delay?"

"Almost no difference." The book fell silent for a moment, as though comparing them. "Textual information travels through magic power extremely quickly, even slightly faster than light."

Slightly faster than light?

Then it was faster than fiber optics?

Roger understood at once.

This was good news.

The faster the transmission speed, the more things they could do.

The mortal world.

Dawn Capital.

Horace had finally memorized all the information about Fireball in the Magic Space.

After looking around and making sure no one was paying attention, he hurriedly tucked the ring into his robes and ran toward the Rune Society.

"Teacher, Teacher, please take a look. Is this information correct?"

After copying all the knowledge he had just obtained onto parchment, Horace rushed to his teacher's laboratory without stopping.

His teacher was a noble mid-tier spellcaster.

He was also a senior researcher at the Rune Society.

He held an extraordinary position.

Yet he was a gentle man.

Especially toward apprentices like Horace, who possessed considerable magical talent, he was remarkably approachable.

"Horace, you should be more composed. This is the capital. The people of the Rune Society may not mind you barging into them, but other mages, nobles, and priests may not have such good tempers."

As the old man spoke, his hands did not stop moving. He had already taken the parchment from Horace.

The next second, his expression grew grave.

"Crimson Fireball? Silken Fireball? These runes can compress a fireball into something with a higher temperature? They can turn a fireball into threads, then have countless threads wind together to form a fireball?"

The more the old man read, the more shocked he became. "Heavens, such a simple Fireball actually has so many variants? They are clearly the simplest runes, yet rearranging and combining them can create so many variants?"

Fireball could be considered the most common spell.

At the very least, one-third of mages chose to construct a Fireball Spell Model when advancing from magic apprentices to Formal Mages.

But even he had never imagined that Fireball could have so many variants. It seemed that different combinations of these basic runes could all produce different effects.

If this was true, then could the entire fire magic system based on Fireball possess multiple variants?!

"Horace, how did you collect this information?"

His teacher's sudden seriousness startled Horace. It was the first time he had seen his teacher wear such an expression, and he quickly explained everything that had just happened.

When he heard that his apprentice Horace had actually collided with another Formal Mage, the old man instinctively wanted to scold him. But when the reprimand reached his lips, he did not speak it.

It was not because he did not know how to reprimand his student, but because what Horace said afterward was simply too unbelievable!

Another mage had arrived, along with a ring covered in runes, where a large group of people were chatting?

Wind Whisper Magic?

But Wind Whisper Magic only allowed communication over short distances!

If activating it had not required a prayer to the Magic Goddess, he might even have suspected that his apprentice had encountered cultists.

But since it involved the Magic Goddess, there should not be a problem.

That being would never allow other gods to exploit her divine name.

"Horace, where is that ring? Let me have a look."

Horace looked conflicted, but in the end, he handed the ring to his teacher.

Someone like his teacher would not steal his divine gift, right?

Taking the ring, the old man carefully examined the runes on it. Although there were some he did not recognize, there did not seem to be any runes harmful to the body overall.

That put him somewhat at ease.

But the need to pray for activation left him conflicted.

Formal Mages generally did not believe in any gods. Even the Magic Goddess was no exception, and praying to her was almost impossible.

He had forgotten when he had last prayed. Perhaps fifty years ago, perhaps a hundred.

But when he thought of Fireball, he still took a deep breath and began to pray...

"Why is there no response? Horace, did you remember the prayer wrong? Or are there some accompanying gestures required?"

Many gods had certain movement requirements for priests. For example, at the Church of Light not far from them, every divine spell required different gestures. Once, a priest had tried to use the power of magic to forcibly invoke divine spells without performing those gestures, but the result was... his brain was gone.

In the literal sense.

His brain had been burned away by light and turned to ash, while his body remained completely unchanged.

"No, I've already told you everything I know." Horace fell silent for a moment. "How about I try?"

Horace took back his divine gift and began to pray. When the prayer ended, magic power flowed from his body, the ring activated, and a light screen appeared before them.

The old man was silent for a moment. "This ring requires soul binding. It seems only you can use it... Horace, your luck is truly enviable..."

Before he could finish speaking, a middle-aged man entered from outside. "Duru, you'll never guess what I got when I went to buy potions today. A... Huh? Why do you have this ring too?"