3 The Forum Goes Online

"Power of Soul, third degree!"

Shock and sarcasm could be sensed in the elder's loud declaration!

Discussions and jeers erupted in the ancestral hall as soon as he finished speaking.

"A sixteen-year-old's soul power is not even a match to a nine-year-old child's. All his years of cultivation are a waste of time!"

"A dunce is a dunce. He would be just wasting resources!"

"He's a disgrace to his family! He'd better scram. What's the use of cultivating with his 'talents'?"

The sneers and ridicule from Justin's clan members felt like a stake to his heart, deeply hurting his soul.

Although he had already been mentally prepared for it, the results still made him feel as if he had fallen into an abyss.

Out of instinct, he turned his head to look at his parents sitting amongst the clan's elders.

His mother was clearly worried as she looked at him…

And his father had a grave expression with a thick disappointment in his gaze.

For Justin, that gaze felt even worse and harder to accept than all the ridicule.

He clenched his teeth and left the ancestral hall under the countless deriding and disdainful gazes.

Nobody stopped him.

His mother was pulled back by his father when she was about to get up.

Justin felt quite desperate when he saw that happen.

Although soul power didn't mean everything, he was born into a magical clan; this represented his potential future.

A third degree Power of Soul at sixteen years old. He could only be a grand mage at most in his future.

It sucked!

But… he was born like this. What could he do about it?

Didn't he work hard enough?

No. He had worked harder than everyone else. He meditated more than eight hours every day, but what came of it?

He had to accept that there would be the weaklings in this world since there were powerhouses.

And he was destined to be a weakling struggling in the quagmire!

"Thump!"

"Who is it?!"

Something fell on Justin's head as he walked out of his residence and he swiftly looked around. Actually, he had already guessed what happened.

It had to be those brats bullying him again.

Well, who asked him to be a good-for-nothing?

However, Justin was stunned after checking the area.

There were no brats coming to bully him. It was a mithril ring that had fallen on his head.

And then, the ring later spun on the ground.

Justin made a turn on the spot to check his surroundings once again. After making sure no one was there, he picked up the ring with a suspicious expression.

"This is a divine skill?"

Justin, who had a profound magic knowledge, immediately recognized the magical engraving on that mithril ring was engraved by a deity.

In other words, it was a divine skill.

According to the rumors, those scheming demons and false gods love to take advantage and sneak in at times when the human heart is weak. So in this case, am I being targeted now?

Justin laughed self-deprecatingly.

Still, after remembering the round of ridicule in the ancestral hall and his father's disappointed gaze, he took the mithril ring home without any hesitation. Then, he activated it.

Even if he had to trade, or whether it was an enticement or he had to pay with his soul, he didn't want to be a good-for-nothing anymore!!!

The expected demon didn't appear when he injected his soul power. Instead, an illusory scroll unfurled in front of him and a user manual flowed into his consciousness.

Justin was stunned.

After a while, he clicked on the word "Library" with a shaky hand.

The word on the scroll disappeared the very next moment and then four big modules appeared.

They were: 'Magic,''Divine Skills,''Combat Skills' and 'Others' respectively.

Justin was dumbfounded; he clicked on the Magic module suspiciously. The screen changed again and a dense table of contents appeared.

There was a detailed explanation on the basics of magic and a basic meditation.

What amazed him the most was to see a table of contents full of advanced magic that could only be learned in the School of Magic.

That made Justin's heart beat rapidly.

He clicked on an advanced magic that he was interested in for a long time. Alas, an illusory parchment bounced out on the illusory scroll.

It was written: "You don't have enough points to unlock the contents."

Points?

Justin was perplexed. He clicked on the word "Point" written in bold to read up on its explanation before he understood what it was.

So, it was something that resembled a gold coin, except that it was virtual and could only be obtained by promoting the Internet Divine Skill.

He would gain a point every time he promoted it to another person.

As long as he had the points, he could exchange them for magic cultivation methods, divine skills, combat skills and other niche cultivation methods.

Justin had zero points at the moment, so he could only check on the basic meditation and the basics of the water-based and fire-based magic.

Justin was shocked to see all that magical knowledge.

Because he realized that all of it was real.

He quickly looked over on the divine skills, combat skills and other minor categories.

Their basics were the same as the magic category, and they were completely open; but the deeper knowledge had to be exchanged with the so-called "points."

Justin's eyes lit up upon seeing this.

Although he was young, he wasn't stupid.

Of course, he had the common sense a mage should have—Those who used divine skills would be watched by the deities!

This was like a Sword of Damocles!

Who knew if the deity would be malicious?

In the Five Main Righteous Deities's propaganda, apart from them, all the rest of the deities spreading divine skills harbored evil intentions. They were coveting the users' souls!

However, the mage community would often add another sentence as a habit: 'Including the Five Main Righteous Deities.'

Hence, Justin wasn't sure whether that knowledge was a sweet bait, a false god's prank or a real existence.

After some hesitation, he returned to the main page and clicked on the "Forum" option.

He was utterly shocked the very next moment.

"Hail the Internet Deity! The points were indeed useful. I finally got the hang of the Mage's Hand! That damned teacher was using me as free labor. Watch me as I seek revenge!"

"I am in the Queville Empire now. I just got off the aeroplane… Is anyone here?"

"The Fearless Mercenaries are recruiting…"

"Is anyone practicing the Levitation Technique? Seeking advice on constructing a floating magical engraving in the cellular loop."

"Aren't you people afraid of being watched by the deities?"

"The idiot on top, why would the deities be watching you? Who do you think you are?!"

"Looking to buy a blue crystal magic staff that could magnify soul power beyond 10 meters at a minimum! I'm in a small town at the fringe of the Linger Forest."

"I just discovered a secret. No matter what language you use to comment here, the Internet Divine Skill is able to convert it into languages that other users understand."

"Breaking news. Baron Isaac was assassinated. The bounty for the culprit is 6000 luke gold coins. Clues, anyone? Tell me and I will give you 1000 luke gold coins after the mission is accomplished."

Justin—never having left his home—had never seen the world beyond it.

He was instantly dazzled by all the flurry of different news.

Even the sense of loss he had felt after being ridiculed by his family seemed to have faded away.

He even had mixed feelings.

On one hand, he was disappointed since this divine skill wasn't possessed by him alone—

On the other hand, he began to feel quite intrigued by the outside world!

Especially when he read about the few mercenaries sharing things about their adventures, such as falling into a cliff and then transforming from a fighter to a mage after obtaining a top meditation method by accident.

Or the beggar whom a guy rescued that was actually a deity travelling around the world and was handsomely rewarded.

Or a guy who had fallen into an underground river while being pursued by his enemies, to later coming upon a giant dragon's nest. He killed the giant dragon in its sleep and took over the dragon's treasure.

In short, there were all sorts of adventure stories that made Justin's heart throb and feel eager to try it out himself.

The world was actually this rich and colorful?!

Justin felt embarrassed since he was always picking fights with brats and nasty servants at home!

At that moment, a bold idea appeared in his heart.

He would only suffer if he remained in his clan, so why not leave?!

With that divine skill in his hand, he would no longer have to worry about learning new things in the future.

If his magic talent was indeed lacking, he could learn combat skills!

If that failed, he could still learn about divine skills, witchcraft, necromancy… He believed at least one out of so many cultivation systems would be suitable for him.

At that moment, Justin had already forgotten about "those who used divine skills would be watched by the deities."

He thought, if so many people were using these divine skills, so why couldn't he?

Besides, just like one of the posts said, why would the deities be watching me?

Furthermore, how were the deities going to watch over so many people?

Justin's reservations disappeared completely when he considered this.

He even began to admire the Internet Deity who created that divine skill.

To him, the act of sharing all the cultivation secrets openly was simply… groundbreaking!!!

However, he had no idea that his every movement was being watched by the so-called Internet Deity.

And, what he didn't know about was that, 90% of the posts that he read had been personally written by… the Internet Deity.

At the moment, all he wanted to do was to earn points to exchange for the cultivation methods he was interested in.