38 – Saphire

Waking up at the same time every day used to be easy, because when it got dark, practically everyone went to sleep and just waited for the next day, since keeping the glowing magical stones lit was too expensive for the average apprentice.

But with the advent of the Internet, this once simple task has become much more challenging for everyone.

With so much knowledge available on the Internet, so much interesting news happening all over the kingdom, even from some users in the kingdom of Eldoria, staying up late with the Internet became a routine for practically everyone at Arcantor Magic School.

If it weren't for the fact that the increased mental power of the mages had somewhat reduced the amount of sleep they needed each night, staying up so late would surely mean that some of the students wouldn't even be able to pay attention in class.

But the later sleep was already starting to disrupt the routines of some of the more relaxed students, and the number of students arriving late for their first class of the day was increasing every day.

Fortunately, I controlled my Internet use and forced myself to sleep only 2 hours after I started using the Internet.

As for the time, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the numbers in the top right corner of the Internet book represented the actual time of day.

This was a strange way of calculating the time, as it went from 00:00 to 23:59, and we weren't used to using numbers to tell the time in such a precise way. 

Seeing that the number in the corner of the screen was moving at the same speed every day, and that sunrise and sunset always happened when the same numbers appeared on the Internet, some people noticed the pattern and spread it to [Carrier Pigeon], so everyone learned to look up the time on the Internet and mark things with it.

So when I woke up, the first thing I did was to pray to the God of the Internet.

"O God of the Internet, Lord of magic wires and digital paths, grant us fast connections and digital wisdom, let your wisdom run through my body. May our thoughts travel like lightning through your virtual domains, guided by your cyber light on the path to glory. In your grace, protect us from viruses and hackers, and may our downloads always be complete, amen. I said with my eyes closed and my hands clasped together.

As soon as I opened my eyes, which were still a little heavy from sleep, I noticed that something was in front of me, and instinctively I clicked on the [X] in the corner of that window and looked at the corner of the book screen.

Looking at the time, I smiled to see that it was still 6:42, which gave me an hour and eighteen minutes until class was scheduled to start.

That would give me enough time to wash, eat, and read some interesting books on the Internet, and maybe even some time to play [CardMasters] with other people.

The possibility of being able to play with someone anywhere in the kingdom was fascinating!

In one of the games, I decided to send a message in the game chat, and there was another person who could read among the players.

We chatted for hours as we played, until I discovered that this player was an arcane mage who worked for a noble in the north of the realm, a distance that would take two days to travel on horseback.

And here we were, chatting as if we were face to face, a magic that the Internet never ceases to amaze me with.

But today, as I looked at the screen of my Internet book, ready to open [Carrier Pigeon] to see if there was any gossip about anything in the kingdom, I noticed a new icon!

A new icon had recently appeared, the [Diary], something extremely useful for everyone, but especially for wizards, as it was now the second most-used application on the Internet.

Curious about this new application, I read its name below the icon of three colorful creatures.

[iMonsters].

Realizing that an update had arrived, and that I might have clicked to close the Patch Notes window that opened after each update without noticing because I was asleep, I quickly clicked on the little bell next to the time in the corner of the screen and clicked to read the note again.

[A new update has arrived on the Internet!

Noticing the loneliness and insecurity of some users around the world, the God of the Internet became concerned about their physical and mental health and developed a new app!

iMonsters has just been released!

- iMonsters is an app where the user can choose a creature from the three available creatures, feed it, train it, develop a bond of friendship with it, and even summon it into the real world to help you with daily tasks, fight for you, or just be a friend!

- An iMonster's power starts out like that of a 4-year-old child, but can grow infinitely!

- In order to feed the iMonsters, a new currency has been developed on the Internet, the Premium Internet Coin, which can be used to buy food for the iMonsters.

- To obtain Premium Internet Coins, the user can pray to the God of the Internet once while using the Internet, and this extra prayer will be converted into 01 Premium Internet Coin.

- For now, the only use of Premium Internet Coin is to feed the iMonsters, but with time, more features will come to the Internet, so if you want to buy things that will come in the future, it is recommended to save PIC over time.

Your new iMonster partner is waiting for you, go and adopt him!

May the God of Internet bless you].

After reading this warning, my eyes were wide open!

Apparently, this new application was much more complex than all the other applications the Internet God had created for us!

Without thinking twice, I clicked on the [iMonsters] application icon and watched expectantly as it opened.

In front of me, the screen showed pictures of three creatures.

A green squirrel holding a wooden stick and apparently playing with a plant while looking at me with curiosity and suspicion.

A blue snake with whiskers on its face, swimming in the water and enjoying itself, while looking at me with curiosity and pride.

An orange fox with the tip of its tail glowing yellow, looking at me with curiosity and amusement.

Despite these three pictures, I could see the difference in the personalities of these three iMonsters.

Below the pictures were details of the personalities, abilities, and powers that each of these iMonsters could have in the future.

When I saw that these creatures were really like little wizards, my eyes were even more surprised.

I had to choose one of these creatures, and among the three iMonsters, the one I identified with the most was the cute blue snake that looked at me with curiosity and a little pride.

As a wizard with an affinity for water spells, knowing that this blue snake also had an affinity for water and could even cast water spells made my interest in it increase several times over.

So without thinking too much, I clicked on the blue snake named [Aqualiss].

When the game asked me if I wanted to give it a custom name, I gave it some thought and decided to change its name to [Saphire] after learning that it was a female snake.

As soon as I confirmed the choice of name, Saphire's image slowly changed to a less detailed version, but she was wriggling around in the middle of the screen, looking around curiously as she swam in a small pond!

Around Saphire's image were some buttons I could press to interact with her!

Curious, I clicked on [Feed] and a small cookie appeared at the bottom of the screen, making Saphire look in my direction with curiosity and slowly approach with a little suspicion.

To calm her down, I clicked on [Caress] and a hand appeared on the screen, gently caressing Saphire's image.

Although this image had less detail, it seemed so real that I felt as if I could see Saphire alive on the screen in front of me.

Seeing her eat in such a cute way brought a smile to my face, even more so when a heart appeared in a speech bubble above her head after she ate!

Hearing that she liked it, I didn't think twice about clicking to feed her again, which Saphire quickly did, and this time I noticed that while she was eating, a bar called Experience was rising until it reached 40% and then stopped.

Seeing that I had 3 cookies left, I quickly clicked on the three cookies and watched as Saphire ate happily while her experience bar rose until it was full.

When the experience bar was full, the screen flashed for a second and a window appeared in front of me.

[Congratulations, Saphire has gone from level 01 to level 02!

Level up (Level 01 → Level 02)

HP: +2 (Total: 12)

Attack: +1 (Total: 6)

Defense: +1 (Total: 5)

Special attack: +2 (Total: 8)

Special defense: +1 (Total: 5)

Special Speed: +1 (Total: 6)]

When I looked at Saphire's stats and saw that she had become stronger because I had fed her those cookies, I wanted to feed her again.

But when I tried to do so, another window appeared.

[Unfortunately, you don't have enough Premium Internet Coins, so to get more PIC, you can pray to the God of the Internet! One prayer equals one PIC!]

Seeing this, I thought that praying once more wouldn't be a problem, after all, I was an apprentice mage, even if I prayed 8 times in a day, my spiritual power would still be relatively good.

Then, before I knew it, I was late for my first class because I was playing around and having fun with Saphire, and just like me, thousands of other students and even some teachers were doing the same thing!

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