Who says the Magic Cyber ​​Police can't overthrow the Heavenly Gang?

"Why is my warrior level 98%?! I'm almost a level 1 warrior already!"

Latis scratched his head, closed the simulator panel, and began to think about his next plan and the possibility of a safe escape.

"Reaching level one as a warrior means I can break free from my cage. If I meditate now, I should be able to quickly increase my warrior level... Does that make sense? Increase a warrior level through meditation?"

He curled his lip in displeasure, then suddenly remembered the simulator's earlier comments and said dismissively:

"Who wants to be some kind of bloodline warrior? It sounds so bloody and barbaric, it's not civilized at all!"

"However, I used Mage's Hand through the magic network before, why wasn't it counted as a skill?" Latis stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Does that mean spells used through the magic network don't count as skills? What does that mean?"

"It's now confirmed that I'll be able to leave the dungeon soon. In fact, it's not impossible that I can leave with Hooded Bro tomorrow. But to be on the safe side, I'll wait another day and let my simulated self confirm a completely feasible route before taking any action."

"Now we know that the chaos caused by the red dragon has added more possibilities for my escape. However, going to the red dragon's lair is not a good choice. If I go with the priestess, I will encounter the so-called black-hat sorcerer again. I must find a solution in the simulation before I face that step in reality."

"Speaking of which, while simulators have a kind of prophetic ability regarding major events like the Red Dragon's Descent, they generally don't mention the minor events that occur in between. These minor events might actually lead to completely different outcomes in reality..."

Latis glanced at the hooded man who was sleeping soundly and pondered silently:

"The hooded guy is also a fifth-ring mage. Maybe we can find a way out together. Among those legendary combatants, I'm like a fragile Oujinjin being fanned by a ten-speed electric fan."

"We've been in jail together, so we're practically best buddies. In my past life, I never really had any friends I was truly close to through thick and thin."

He took a deep breath, then smiled confidently, gently patted the hooded man's shoulder, and began his meditation.

Chapter 17 Pulling the Musk Internet Cable

"I'm coming in!"

"What…" Latis sprang up from the haystack, his face stung by the rising sun outside the dungeon door. He quickly smeared his face with his hands and yawned.

He had been meditating all night and was so tired!

"A new guard has appeared? That makes sense, such a change is to be expected, but I wonder if this will affect the subsequent development of events?"

Latis pondered to himself, glancing toward the dungeon door.

In the morning sunlight, a young man in a red robe carrying a roll of bedding walked in. Behind him, a floating mage's hand pulled a small cart filled with strange plant minerals and fur materials.

"Let's give a round of applause to the noble First Ring Mage, everyone!"

The young man in the red robe proudly draped his bedding over the cart, glanced at Latis, who was clinging to the railing with a blank expression, gave a frivolous smile, then took a step forward, stepped into the mud, and slipped.

"I wipe!"

The young man in the red robe performed a street dance in the mud and water, then rolled to Latis's feet.

"..." Latis was silent for a moment, then hesitantly clapped his hands and tentatively whispered:

“...bravo?”

"roll!"

The young man in the black robe and red shirt stood up awkwardly, spat, and muttered curses:

"Damn it, what kind of backwater is this...?"

He shook the mud off his hands and cleared his throat:

"Let me introduce myself. I am Musk, a first-year student at the Green Vine Academy in Lundia City. I am currently completing my annual mission in Dragon Horn Territory. It seems that the previous guard suffered some kind of magical accident that caused rectal prolapse. There are not many usable mage talents in this countryside, so the lord can only ask me to guard the prison for a few days. I hope you two gentlemen will do me a favor and help me out. Don't be ungrateful and cause trouble for yourselves and others."

Musk smugly adjusted his bow tie, then glanced at his surroundings with disgust. He dispelled the mage's hand, and with a flash of his hands, the mud on his black robe was instantly wiped away. Then, a broom suddenly flew out of the cart and began to sweep the ground automatically.

"This guy is actually quite polite... A mage student from Lundia? It's good for me to learn more common sense, which might have a huge impact on my simulated self."

As Latis thought to himself, he quickly dodged the mud and water kicked up by the broom, pulled the still unconscious hooded man back to a position against the wall, and looked at Musk.

[First Ring of Folk Magic - Cleansing Spell]

The magic key automatically detected the magical fluctuations and imprinted the corresponding spell in front of Latis's eyes. At the same time, a line of small characters slowly appeared above Musk's head.

[I have no interest in money (Elon Musk) #Online]

Latis stared blankly at the line of small print.

"A half-elf, a vagrant, sigh, am I stuck in the slums?" Musk was still grumbling, but Latis had already started to think.

"Is this the functionality of the Magic Network Key I obtained? It seems more powerful than I imagined... Is this his online persona on the Magic Network? What does 'online' mean...?"

He thought for a moment, watching the broom fly up, about to pass over Musk to sweep the narrow corridor behind him, and curiously fiddled with the online button.

The small lettering above Musk's head flickered, and the font instantly changed.

[I have no interest in money (Elon Musk) #Offline]

As the situation changed, Latis clearly noticed that the magic attached to the broom dissipated instantly, and the next second, the broom fell heavily on Musk's head like the Sword of Damocles.

boom!

"what!"

Musk let out a short scream, and before he could say a word, he fell into a deep, infant-like sleep.

Latis's eyes widened, and he immediately raised his hands in surrender:

"I didn't do it!"

Before Latis, Musk collapsed to the ground, one hand pointing at him with a pained expression, as if accusing the evil murderer.

The scene fell into silence for a while.

……

"Ugh... It's so noisy."

The hooded man slowly sat up, pulling on the heavy shackles.

"Is it execution day?"

"Not yet, brother." Latis's muffled voice came from not far away. The hooded man stretched his back and was surprised to find that although his life force had decreased slightly, the pain in his shoulder had disappeared without a trace.

She glanced at her shoulder with difficulty, then looked at Latis, who was crouching in front of the cell bars.

"Friend, what are you doing?"

"Oh." Latis turned his head, his mouth still full of dried sweet potatoes. He forcefully stuffed the sweet potatoes that were sticking out of his mouth back in and then swallowed them whole.

"Ah, delicious yet with a touch of the original, unpalatable flavor..." Latis's eyes welled up with tears. After being locked up for a week, eating only black bread every day, even black garlic now seemed appealing, let alone the slightly sweet dried sweet potato.

He grabbed another handful of dried sweet potatoes from the mage's hand, rushed to the hooded woman, pulled out a handful, and started stuffing them into her mouth.

"Brother, eat!"

"Ugh! Ugh ugh ugh?"

“Oh, you’re asking about dried sweet potatoes? They’re from this Master Ma.” Latis pointed to Musk, who, after some manipulation, was now lying on the ground with his hands clasped over his lower abdomen, looking peaceful.

The hooded woman struggled to swallow the dried sweet potato in her mouth. She looked up at Musk, pursed her lips, and said:

"Second-circle mage".

"Second Ring?" Latis held another dried sweet potato to the hooded woman's mouth, and when she hesitated, he deliberately shook it. "Are you sure? He just said he was from the First Ring!"

The hooded man sighed, bit into a dried sweet potato, tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and let it slide in. Then he coughed twice and said:

“When I was a child, I didn’t like studying. I just liked to explore outside every day. The adults in my family were afraid that I would pick up mud from the road and eat it, so they gave me the ability to identify things.”

"A solidification spell?" Latis immediately remembered his Dragon Knight's Heart and quickly asked, "Brother, Hooded Master! Tell me more!"

The hooded man watched as Latis lightly patted his face with a dried sweet potato, gritted his teeth in slight annoyance, opened his mouth to bite into the dried sweet potato, and after recalling for a moment, said:

"The Solidification Spell is a very costly magical ritual, usually applied to equipment or buildings to give them long-lasting functionality."

“Under special circumstances, solidification spells can also be applied to people, but this comes at a very high cost. A spell solidified on a person usually costs four to five times more than the cost of copying it into a magic book…”

"Heh, just an old relic." Musk's weak voice came from the ground. Latis turned his head and saw the unfortunate red-robed mage standing up with a look of disgust on his face, clutching his head.

"Why call it an old relic?" Latis asked humbly, calmly withdrawing his mage hand and stuffing the remaining dried sweet potatoes into his pocket.

“These are the guys who are still using magic books.” Musk pulled a round stool from the cart and sat down shakily, but his words were utterly merciless:

"In the course on the brief history of magic, we learned why old-school mages were swept into the dustbin of history. Haha, not only did they have to make magic scrolls according to the recipe, but they also had to spend another set of materials to copy the magic in the scrolls into the magic book before they could be used properly."

"It's because the cost of learning magic for old-school mages is so high that being a mage has become one of the most difficult professions to enter in the world."

"Really?" The hooded man readily took a bite of the dried sweet potato that Latis had hidden in his sleeve, chuckled softly, and said:

"I've heard that nowadays, mages need to submit applications through the Magic Network for approval to learn magic, and they are also obligated to complete the Magic Network's annual tasks and commissions. At the same time, the folk magic they painstakingly create may be targeted by Magic Network sorcerers for purging at any time?"

She feigned thought and remained silent for a moment before asking:

"Wouldn't that mean we'd be begging on our knees?"

Chapter 18 Where is my magic network?

"You, you, you, you're talking nonsense!"

Musk jumped up from the stool, pointing at the hooded man who was trembling.

"You old-fashioned people, spending your entire lives, may not even learn a hundred spells, many of you may only learn a dozen or so! But we, the mages of this new era, can roam freely in a vast sea of ​​spells! Not to mention the diverse folk spells that are flourishing, this is the best era for spellcasters!"

"I see." The hooded man nodded seriously and said:

"I heard before that apart from folk magic, academy mages can only choose one school of magic within the academy. To learn other schools, they have to accept commissions to earn points in order to obtain authorization to use them. So most students' spell trees only have one school of magic."

"Furthermore, it seems the magic network also stipulates spell slots, requiring you to wait for the spell to cool down before casting again, and there's also a limit to the number of prepared spells, making it impossible to switch prepared spells instantly in a sudden battle. Little friend, what faction are you, illusion or evocation?"

“Protection…” Musk blurted out, then realized the hooded man was mocking him. His face immediately turned red, veins bulging on his forehead, as he argued, “Please, please… can a magician’s matter be called a request!”

Then came a string of incomprehensible phrases: "mages strive for self-improvement," "fairness," and "this is the confidence that MagicNet Loan gives me"...

Suddenly, he finally found a point of attack, sneered, and retorted:

"If the old method really works, then why are all the old-school mages almost dead now?"

He stood on a round stool, looking down at the hooded man.

The hooded man slightly raised his head, looked at the wall behind Musk that was covered in decaying bloodstains, remained silent for a moment, and then snorted:

"If you kneel in the church of the goddess for three days and three nights, the goddess might tell you the answer."

"How dare you blaspheme the goddess?" Musk's expression changed drastically, then he seemed to suddenly realize something and said, "Half-elf, old-school mage, you are the Herod clan that declined for twenty years until it was completely wiped out a year ago, right?"

The hooded woman didn't respond. She lowered her head, and a hint of sadness appeared on her face hidden under the hood.