Translator: Yang_Wenli
“This should be the place.”
In the end, Sansa decided to accompany Hyrlan to listen to the programming lecture that she would most definitely not understand. She even took the lead to guide Hyrlan toward the lecture hall.
Following the announcement paper in her hand, she led Hyrlan to a classroom with a sign that stated: ‘Leskerner Prayer Room.’
“This classroom is so remote. Hyrlan, I bet you a silver coin that there’s not going to be many students in this classroom.”
Sansa took a glance at the two sides of the hallway. She cannot see anyone walking around at all. Instead, she felt an eerie and scary feeling.
“I don’t that’ll be the case,” Hyrlan actually took out a silver coin from her pocket. She planned to gamble with her close friend.
“Let’s see then.”
Sansa placed her hand on the door handle and pushed open the classroom door. When she saw the scenery inside this Leskerner Prayer Room, she stood there completely speechless.
Hyrlan quietly placed her silver coin into Sansa’s hand.
Sansa had won their small gamble. There wasn’t a single student from the advanced magic academy in the classroom...
Instead, all the people inside the classroom were Norland’s renowned mages.
Even though those mages were only sitting there, some of them were emitting auras so powerful that the girl from the Nation of the Holy Church found it difficult to withstand.
It was like two junior high students had entered a seminar of the top scientists in the world. It was like Edison and Tesla were arguing over the problem of electricity, Newton and Galilei were having talks about their discoveries.
The correct choice before the two junior high students was not to cheerfully enter the seminar. Instead, they should immediately turn around and run away while shouting ‘Oh my god!’
Sansa was pondering whether or not to turn around and run away. She was having a session of stage fright... Mainly, it was because she saw the Nation of the Holy Church’s Archbishop Desireless to be present too. She was feeling extremely frantic. It was like she was a student who was secretly playing with her cellphone in class only to find out that the school’s director was standing behind her.
It seemed to Sansa was very self-aware of her lack of belief in her faith recently.
Hyrlan, on the other hand, was acting much more natural. She entered the classroom without hesitation and, even though she was the youngest person present, seated herself in the frontmost row.
With Hyrlan already seated, Sansa had no choice but to follow her close friend and run to the first row. Under the gazes from all those mages, she quietly seated herself next to Hyrlan.
However, Sansa’s overcautiousness did not persist for long. Soon, the Chaos Demon appeared at the front of the classroom.
“He... is the lecturer?” Sansa couldn’t help but ask that question when she saw Joshua.
Sansa believed that only Norland’s Seven Sages were capable of gathering all these renowned mages together for a lecture. But, that Chaos Demon was clearly the lecturer for the ‘programming’ system of runes.
“Umm...” Hyrlan was about to tell Sansa that Joshua was the person who taught her ‘programming’ when she discovered Joshua made a hissing motion at her.
His motion lasted less than a second. But, it was enough to make Hyrlan realize that she should quiet down and stop talking about those things.
“I believe that all of you are here today because you’ve received Gray Mage’s invitation,” Joshua loudly spoke to the mages gathered in the classroom.
When they saw that it was Joshua who was standing on the podium, they all, more or less, revealed the same sort of astonishment on their faces as Sansa.
After all, Joshua had never publicized to anyone that he was the creator of the magic network. The proud mages of Norland would rather believe the magic network to be a masterpiece created by the Gray Mage than to believe that the legendary magic network was created by a Chaos Demon.
As such, the majority of the people present felt that the Gray Mage would be the lecturer for this ‘programming’ course. After all, the majority of them were here because they’ve received Gray Mage’s invitation.
Joshua ran his eyes across the people in the classroom. Apart from the mages who were here with the desire to learn, he also caught sight of many luxuriously-dressed merchants and noblemen.
With the popularity the magic network enjoyed in Norland, the intelligent merchants most definitely realized the business opportunities presented by the magic network...
As such, Joshua decided that he should not start giving a lecture about the dull, dry and tedious programming knowledge for his very first lecture. Instead, he planned to paint a ‘pie,’ a large, fragrant and sweet ‘pie’ to everyone here. A ‘pie’ enough to cause merchants to drool and declare ‘take my money!’
“I know that everyone here was expecting the Gray Mage. Regretfully... I am the creator of the magic network.”
As Joshua said those words, he gently snapped his fingers. A large amount of faint white runes started to flicker around him.
The greater the amount of runes a mage grasped, the higher their status would generally be. After all, the magic runes were the foundation for all magic utilization.
“Those are completely new and never-before-seen runes...”
“Wasn’t that rune used as the core of teleportation formation creation?”
“That sage... exactly where did he come from?”
“Demon Realm?”
The mages began to whisper. However, their whisperings were cut short by a light cough from Gray Mage Lursk. The crowd once again turned their eyes back to Joshua.
Even though Joshua looked very young, one’s appearance was not the main way to determine one’s age in this world. For mages, they possessed countless ways to slow down the outward aging of their body.
When the curiosity of the mages was invoked, Joshua knew that it was time for him to draw the ‘pie.’
“Let’s move on to the main topic right away. All of you are here because you’re curious about the magic network. So, I’ll give a simple explanation of the ‘magic’ behind the magic network and what it could accomplish.”
After saying that, Joshua displayed his own magic network interface. Using special magic runes, he enlarged his magic network interface and projected it to the blackboard behind him.
What appeared was the Mage Forum interface. New posts were being posted nonstop.
“I believe that all of you are very familiar with the Mage Forum by now. Perhaps you will even sign onto the Mage Forum the moment you wake up everyday to check if there’s anything new.”
Joshua’s words caused the expressions of the ‘aloof’ mages seated in the classroom to change slightly.
It would appear that these aged mages had all, more or less, acquired that habit.
“But, I wonder if you all have discovered this yet...” Joshua stopped trying to expose these elderly fellows.
“The amount of words posted on the Mage Forum has already reached over seven hundred million. Seven hundred million... Do you know how vast of a number that is? Let’s take Gray Mage’s most renowned work, ‘The Way To Raise White Owls,’ seven hundred million words would be enough to fill an entire library with his books.”
Joshua could see the light flickering in the eyes of the mages. The Mage Forum had indeed given these old fellows a way to exchange magic knowledge and store their own knowledge. Most importantly...
“This library is one that you can refer to at any time. It is unlike the library in the center of Norland where you would have to spend three copper coins to take a horse carriage to the center of Norland just to use it. The Mage Forum only needed you to be within Norland. Then, with a wave of your hand, all the knowledge recorded in it will be before your eyes.”
Even though many mages were moved by Joshua’s words, the merchants remained expressionless... Perhaps to the merchants, storing and sharing knowledge was not that important.
As such... Joshua planned to draw an even larger ‘pie’ for them.