“Storing characters and words is merely one function of this ‘magic.’ The true use of the magic network is its ability to curtail the distance between intelligent creatures.”
Originally, Joshua wanted to say ‘humans.’ But, humans were not the only creatures in this world that possessed intelligence. Elves, dwarves, goblins, gnomes and various other creatures had skills far surpassing humans.
Joshua even caught sight of the Blackwood Elves’ Elder Safran seated among the audience. He was together with Gray Mage Lursk.
“Everyone, if I wish to contact a Grand Duchess in Farucci from here, I would need an owl or a pigeon capable of long distance flying. I will also have to wait one to two months for a reply. During all that, I will have to worry about my owl or pigeon being potentially shot down by someone’s arrow and the letter being lost in the process.”
What Joshua described were issues that troubled the merchants. Once the scope of their caravan expands to a certain size, communication between cities would become a major headache.
“But, this can make up for all of that,” Joshua tapped open the magic network’s messenger. The number of users for Messenger was far fewer than the Mage Forum and the Voice of Norland. The reason for that was because it was still in a testing stage and has not been ‘completely released to the public.’
“This here is capable of transmitting your message to anyone’s hand in a short period of time as long as it’s within the range of the magic network.”
Joshua entered the ID for Ashed-colored Owl on the messenger. Then, he sent a message to Ash-colored Owl. In unison, the mages all turned to Gray Mage Lursk seated near the back.
Many of the mages present already knew that Gray Mage Lursk was one of Norland’s Seven Sages. Gray Mage Lursk revealed his magic network interface to the crowd as well as the message Joshua sent him.
After seeing the message, Joshua was finally able to see interest in the eyes of the merchants and nobles.
It was finally time for him to reveal a ‘pie’ so large who knows how many years it would take to make.
“Lessening the distance of communication is merely a beginning. For example, I believe that all transactions and business dealings started from a single communication. But, in the past, such communications and business transactions can only be done face-to-face. A shop will only be able to attract the clients nearby. The reputation of said shop will only be known to the city it’s in or perhaps a couple nearby cities...” Joshua’s words fully piqued the interest of the merchants.
“But, what if all of you are to establish a shop on the magic network? All the users of the magic network will be able to see your shop. Whether they be in Norland, Farucci or the Nation of Steel, they will all be able to see your shop as long as they’re within an area covered by the magic network...”
Right when Joshua said those words, he saw Hyrlan who was seated at the front row raising her hand. She seemed like she had something to say. Likely, raising one’s hand was a gesture with the same meaning as ‘Teacher, I have a question’ on earth.
“Do you have any question, Miss Hyrlan?” Joshua stopped drawing his pie to let Hyrlan speak.
“Mister Joshua... I... would like to be able to hear you explain about programming,” said Hyrlan.
Hyrlan’s words seemed to have gained the approval of the mages in the audience. Even though they didn’t express it, Joshua could tell that they were not interested in ‘how to make money with the magic network.’
“In that case, we’ll begin with analyzing the runes that are used to construct the magic network.”
Joshua realized that he was too engrossed in drawing his ‘pie’ that he had forgotten about the main reason he’s here today. After being reminded by Hyrlan, he began to officially explain ‘programming.’
Even though Joshua’s sudden shift to the main topic caused the mages to gleefully take out their ‘notebooks’ to absorb all programming related knowledge, it greatly vexed the merchants that became all enthusiastic after being fed the ‘pie’ drawn by Joshua.
Among them was the merchant from the Nation of Steel that came with Sir Weissenasche, Fritt.
Different from some of the baffled merchants, Fritt realized how valuable the magic network was after hearing the simple explanation from Joshua.
The first thing that came to his mind was to publicize the goods of his company on the Mage Forum. He was certain that it would bring him over a hundred times the amount of publicity.
It would be much more effective than hiring people off the street to hand out fliers!
As for the concept mentioned by Joshua, the one to turn the magic network into a ‘shop,’ it was even more enticing.
Fritt was itching to learn from Joshua exactly what sort of business operation that would be.
Joshua had successfully drawn a delicious and tempting ‘giant pie’ enough to make Fritt drool over.
But, before he could even sniff the fragrant of that ‘giant pie,’ Joshua pulled back the pie after being reminded by a female mage.
Right now, Fritt had a massive urge to stand up and declare to Joshua ‘I don’t care about programming! Keep showing me that pie!’
If all the people that came to the lecture were ordinary students, Fritt would most definitely have the confidence to declare such a thing...
But, the issue lies in the students of the lecture. All those that were earnestly listening to Joshua’s lecture were Norland’s renowned mages... There was even one of Norland’s Seven Sages, one of the people with the greatest amount of authority in Norland, listening to Joshua’s lecture.
Fritt even had to watch the volume of his voice when speaking with Sir Weissenasche seated next to him so that he would not disturb the mages seeking out new knowledge.
“I am truly ashamed. I cannot understand these things at all.”
Sir Weissenasche only listened to Joshua’s ‘programming’ lecture for a couple minutes before the desire to sleep hit him.
He even started to doubt if the things Joshua was speaking of were knowledge from this world. All those strange terms were giving him a headache.
“I’m the same,” said Fritt.
Even though Fritt had the credentials of a rank five mage, this lecture was still extremely difficult to understand for this merchant from the Nation of Steel.
Such a situation also occurred to the other merchants and nobles that came for the lecture. There were already merchants and nobles that were unable to tolerate the tedious and boring lecture anymore and left the classroom.
Fritt also had the desire to leave. But, he decided to endure the boring lecture and watched the leaving merchants and nobles with cold and indifferent eyes.
Those people had no idea how valuable the magic network was. It might be possible that there were some merchants among them that believed what that young man said to be something impossible to realize.
But, Fritt could already see the boundless business opportunities from Joshua’s lecture. In order to acquire greater benefits, so what if he had to suffer through a couple hours of boringness?
Right now, what he really needed to consider was how to defeat his competitors in the future. Fritt looked around... he saw many ‘old friends’ he was familiar with.
He was not the only person who managed to see the business opportunities in the magic network.