16 – Investing in School
"So he just provides entertainment and information in exchange for prayers?"
Harry asked confused.
"That's what it sounds like, Lord Harry, ever since I heard about the Internet, I realized that it offers both entertainment, such as interesting books, a forum for people to chat from anywhere in the kingdom, card games, and for information, the [Library] offers the magical books practically for free, with only the cost of a prayer for an hour's use." Raymond explained with his head bowed.
"And how did you feel after you prayed?" Jaina asked curiously.
"I felt like some of my mental power had been used up, like I'd done a Lumos spell a few times in a row, nothing too strong, but it can wear me out after seven or eight prayers," Raymond explained.
Nodding her head, Jaina looked at the book as she used the other functions of it.
Raymond had explained how to use it, and there were explanations of how to use it for her mind as well.
But because she had very strong mental defenses, this information was blocked outside her mind for her to accept or reject.
As far as she could tell, there was no malice in this information, it was just politely offered to her mind and disappeared if she chose to reject it, which was quite considerate.
Considering the frightening image she'd had of the gods ever since she'd heard the backstory on becoming an Archmage, the impression this Internet God gave was much better.
"Is it possible to know how many people have access to the Internet?" asked Charles thoughtfully.
"From the posts on [Carrier Pigeon], I believe there are already hundreds of people using the internet right now, and the possible number is only getting higher and higher," Jaina said as she looked at the number of posts and likes these posts had.
Although this was all very new and innovative to her, it was still very easy to understand, especially for a mind as developed as hers.
"How long has this been going on?" Charles asked Raymond again.
"I believe less than a week, Lord Charles," Raymond replied politely.
Hearing this explanation, Charles became even more thoughtful. "Hundreds of users in a week, considering the benefits it brings, it's only a matter of time before the number of people using it exceeds four digits, if it hasn't already, in a month it could have taken over the Arcantor capital if we do nothing..."
The Sage Mages were shocked by this possibility.
But when they thought about how useful it really seemed after Raymond's explanation, and how practical it seemed to be to use, not even a single copper coin was needed.
As long as the person can read, it's possible that he might be tempted to use the Internet to try to become a wizard...
"What should we do, Lord Charles, ban the use of the Internet?" asked a frightened wizard.
"It's impossible to ban it, who will stop ordinary people from using the Internet in their homes at night?"Jaina immediately refuted this idea.
"Jaina's right. Banning it will not only cause the number of users to decrease, but it may even increase as people will know that we're blocking something and will try to find out what it is..."Charles sighed.
"So what are we going to do?" another wise mage asked worriedly.
Hearing this, the three Archmages looked at each other and realized that they were thinking the same thing.
"We should meet with the God of the Internet and try to find out his goal for our land," Harry said in a firm voice, receiving a nod from the other two Archmages.
Jaina added, "If his intentions are chaotic and destructive to our country, even if it's dangerous and may lead to our deaths, we must fight."
Charles finished, "But if his intentions are not evil, it's not impossible to find a middle ground and use this as an opportunity for our country."
With the reasoning of the three Archmages, the wise mages became calmer and a plan began to form in this meeting room.
Unaware that the Internet was the subject of a meeting at the Arcantor School of Magic, I just concentrated on helping Father Robert with the school.
This being a medieval world, it was understandable that the nobles didn't care about the education of the commoners, or rather, they preferred them to remain ignorant, as it was easier to deceive and manipulate them that way.
But I saw no advantage in that.
If the people were better educated and at least knew how to read and write, that would be much more useful to me, as they would be able to use the Internet even more and increase the number of times they prayed each day.
So helping Father Robert develop a school was a high priority for me.
"Thank you for coming again, Lord Athenos..." the old man thanked me as he bowed to me.
"Don't worry, Father Robert. Tell me, what's your question?" I asked.
Embarrassed, he admitted the reason for his guilt. "I announced that I would open the school and teach people to read and write at a cost of 2 copper coins a week.I imagined that only 15 people at most would sign up to learn, Lord Athenos, but more than 100 people have shown interest in learning from me so that they can use the Internet better..."
Hearing that, I just smiled and asked him, "And what's wrong with that?"
"The problem is that it would earn me 200 copper coins or 2 silver coins a week, Lord Athenos... I feel guilty about receiving so much money..." Father Robert explained with his head down.
I just laughed at that and answered his doubt with another question, "Tell me Father Robert, if you had 200 copper coins available to you every week to reinvest in the school, to hire other people to help you teach even more people, to divide those 100 people into two classes of 50 people for two people to teach, would that be better or worse for the God of the Internet?"
Hearing this, the old man's eyes lit up again, "That would certainly be better..."
"Yes, the excess copper coins can be used to hire more teachers, buy better desks so that students can learn to read and write more comfortably, improve the general structure of the church... all of this can only be achieved with money.So don't despise the coin, despise what despicable people do with the coin," I said with a reassuring smile, causing the old man's eyes to widen in shock.
"Yes... talking to you always broadens my horizons, Lord Athenos, thank you," Robert thanked me.
I nodded at him as I thought of something."Seeing your dedication to teaching people and helping the God of the Internet made me think of writing a book that focuses on helping you teach them how to write... I'll pass this idea on to the God of the Internet, and maybe this book will be available in the [Library] by your first class, so just focus on organizing things around here, and I'll help you up there, too," I said as I pointed to the sky.
Hearing this, Robert's eyes became even brighter with gratitude, and I simply went back to where the statue normally stood and took my consciousness out of this body.
Instead of making a book specifically to teach mortals how to write, I, who didn't have very good teaching skills in either of my two lives, simply asked the school staff for some literacy books and within a few minutes they arrived at my cabin.
With these books, I read them in just two hours and managed to create virtual versions of these books and make them available in the [Library].
For people who were already literate, these books were a great way to teach people who couldn't read to start learning.
The ideal would be if there was a way for me to use audio on the Internet without increasing the cost of Divine Power per hour to the point of making it a loss-making activity, because audio on the Internet would make it possible for even illiterate people to learn to read on their own.
But since there was no way to do that now, I just concentrated on improving what I already had while watching the number of believers grow.
Last night I went to bed with 290 believers, and by the end of the evening that number had increased to 435 believers, an increase of 50% in just one day!
With the increase in users, the average time of use dropped slightly to just 3 hours per day per user.
But that was still a very satisfying number.
In just one day, I had gained another 1,305 Divine Power Points!
=========================
| Character Status
=========================
| Name: Adrian Innovashine
| Titles: God of Creativity, God of the Internet,
| Level: Embryonic Divinity Rank 1
|------------------------
| Divine Power: 1,910 / 10,000 -> 3,215 / 10,000 (+1,305)
=========================
My divine power had more than doubled in just two days, and considering how fast it was growing, it wouldn't be long before I could become a Rank 2 Embryonic Deity!
The next day would be Father Robert's first class.
Following my advice, he hired Amber at a salary of 50 copper coins per week to serve as his assistant in the classroom.
But to my surprise, among the students in Father Robert's first class was a woman with a completely different profile from the ordinary students.
Strangely enough, no one noticed the abnormality of that woman!
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