Right at 6 P.M. EST on Earth, the time flow in Seraphia accelerated to a 2:1 ratio, and players began to log back into the game in droves, like excited dogs heading out for a walk.

  One player, in particular, was seemingly more excited than the rest: William, also known as Prominence. The longer-than-usual update had allowed him to complete a new spell using the Spell Generator program, and now was the perfect time to test it. Eagerly, he rushed to the magic training area where players typically practiced their spells.

  To his surprise, he was not the only one with the same idea, nor was he the first to arrive. Many other players had already gathered, each ready to test their new self-created spells—some were posing as if about to race in the Olympics.

  As William darted toward the magic training area, a fellow player approached him. “Yo, if it isn’t Prominence! What’s up, bro?” It was Locktekei, a kindred spirit.

  “Hey there,” William replied, scratching his itchy nose. “I’m here to test a new spell. It just so happened the one I generated through the Spell Generator program just finished the other day. Are you by chance doing the same thing?”

  “Damn straight!” He proudly thumped his chest and pointed at the other players gathered around the wooden training dummies. “We all are.”

  William recognized several noteworthy players among the crowd, including GiveMeTheNuclearCode and Aphrodite96. As a fellow “enthusiast,” he could guess what kind of spells they had concocted. True to his suspicions, Aphrodite cast a spell and summoned a slimy tentacle from the ground, which promptly entangled a wooden dummy. He then laughed heartily at the success of his spell. This display elicited a mix of reactions, with several players, especially the female ones, looking visibly repulsed and backing away from him with disgust.

  Although William was admittedly quite dirty-minded, he hadn’t used it for anything obscene himself yet. Creating even a single spell took weeks despite using a high-end computer, so he focused on something combat-related to compensate for his shortcomings. This spell was also meant to celebrate his advancement, which was 100 percent going to happen today; it was supposed to be last night based on his progression, but the maintenance postponed it.

  Without wasting any more time in idle chatter, he came forward to test his new spell as soon as there was an empty spot available.

  Taking a deep breath, William focused his mind, erasing any lingering stray thoughts. Despite the assistance of the Spell Assist feature, casting a new spell for the first time was quite challenging in this game. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for players to suffer injuries and backlash from complacency. Fortunately, none had died from such mistakes so far.

  “{Flame Prison}!” he chanted. A prison of fire emerged, encasing the wooden dummy and quickly burning it to cinders. Not bad. Success on the first casting… though I guess I can do better with some practice.

  “Nice.” Locktekei, from the sidelines, clapped his hands and added with a smug, confident smile, “Still not as good as what I’ve cooked up myself. Hehe.”

  Reacting to his friend’s confidence, William said, “Then show me.”

  “As you wish.”

  Locktekei stepped forward, positioning himself in front of an empty spot. He took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing in concentration. With a fluid motion, he raised his hand and chanted, “{Storm Surge}!”

  The air around him crackled with energy as he attempted to summon a swirling vortex of wind and water.

  “A combination spell?!” William’s eyes widened in surprise.

  According to the official website wiki, it was possible to cast a combination spell by merging two spells, though none of the players had successfully done this. Conversely, what Locktekei attempted was even more ambitious: casting a single spell that combined two elements seamlessly. If he managed to pull it off, he would become a legend with his name immortalized in the Hall of Fame.

  However, the elements spiraled out of control instead of forming a controlled surge. The wind whipped violently around him, and the water splashed chaotically, drenching him and causing him to lose his balance. Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and the backlash hit him hard. Locktekei stumbled, clutching his head as a sharp pain coursed through him and left him gasping for breath as the unstable energy dissipated.

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  William rushed to his side. “Dude! Are you okay?”

  Locktekei grimaced, rubbing his temples. “Yeah, just a minor backlash. Luckily, I was able to stop the spell in time, or else I would have suffered more than one day of respawn time… Guess using a combination spell like this is impossible…”

  But was that really the case?

  William was one of the most advanced players in the game, but even he knew that it wasn’t by much. What a single individual could accomplish paled in comparison to the potential of a collective effort. Perhaps their roles as acolytes in this academy were to research and innovate as well as to collaborate with each other.

  Shaking his thoughts aside, William helped him to his feet. “You should take it easy. Try a simpler, proven method listed in the wiki before delving into unknown territory. That way, you’ll achieve success more reliably.”

  In contrast to his advice, Locktekei shook his head and laughed as if nothing had happened. “Ha! Failure is the mother of success. I’ll get it right eventually.”

  Other players glanced over, some offering encouragement while others nodded in understanding. The training area continued to be crowded as more players practiced their spells, pushing their limits and striving for mastery in the game.

  Amidst the buzz of the training area, a figure stood behind a large window on the topmost floor of the Headmaster’s Building, his arms folded behind his back. An intrigued smile spread across his face as a scene below caught his attention.

  Of course, the man was none other than Victor.

  “Interesting,” he muttered, stroking his chin as he watched the players test their new spells. “So, the program has finally borne fruit.”

  The main reason behind creating the Spell Generator program was to diversify Victor’s arsenal of spells, but that wasn’t all there was to it. The spells generated by the players would also be available to him. After all, every new spell was stored through the Shadowlink Marks, allowing Victor to use them without the players ever knowing. When it came to creativity, nothing could beat these players who possessed boundless imagination.

  “Hmm-hmm! Who else but me is the programmer behind it!” Lizbeth proudly patted her chest while sitting on the table with her legs crossed.

  “Well, I have to give you that. Still…” Victor gazed at the list of spells on the holographic screen, his eyes twitching. He was quite dumbfounded to find several “questionable spells” among them. For example, there was one named {Harder Daddy} created by GiveMeTheNuclearCode, which summoned obsidian belts to whip the target relentlessly.

  Despite its apparent uses for torture, Victor imagined that it would be utterly embarrassing to announce the spell loudly in front of others, especially other Magi. After all, the program automatically translated the spell’s name into the ancient Seraphia language, which other magicians would understand and raise their eyebrows at. He definitely didn’t want others to mistake him as a masochistic individual.

  Not only do their usernames sound trollish, but the names of their magic spells appear as if they were made by a bunch of perverts, Victor thought helplessly.

  Noticing his dilemma, Lizbeth flew over. He simply couldn’t keep this to himself as he pointed to the spell on the list, asking, “Did you see this one?”

  Lizbeth leaned in and then burst into laughter. “Oh my, that’s indeed something. I must say that the ‘creativity’ of these players to input their fetishes at every opportunity never ceases to amaze me.”

  Victor sighed. “Should I have implemented some guidelines for naming spells?” He was beginning to regret giving the players free reins to name the spell, other than banning outright profanities.

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Lizbeth raised her hands. “Besides, their creativity is what makes the Spell Generator program so successful.”

  Finding some sense behind her reasoning, Victor nodded rather reluctantly. “True. I just hope they don’t get too carried away. We need spells that are effective in combat, not just ones that are amusing or embarrassing.”

  Lizbeth chuckled. “Worry not, Master. We should just take the back seats and enjoy the show.”

  “Alright then, let’s see what other gems they’ve come up with.”

  Luckily, there were also some spells that Victor found useful even for his own use. Take the {Flame Prison} spell that Prominence created, for example. Despite its low rank, it was a spell that could come in handy even for an official Magus like himself. He also found several other spells intriguing, which could be useful in various situations.

  One had to understand that even a multi-generations rich individual like Graviel wouldn’t learn more than ten spell models for a few reasons. Not only was each spell model expensive, but mastering each one also took considerable time. Furthermore, acolytes like Jared tended to prioritize offensive spells over support spells because they believed those spells were cooler. As such, other than Graviel, the other three could be considered mediocre in terms of their combat prowess and versatility. In fact, Victor himself was a better fighter than all of them apart from Graviel.

  By taking all of this into consideration, the players were truly blessed with outrageous cheats. They could test any spell without worrying about getting killed in the process, and they also had a feature that helped them master any spell. One could only imagine what they would become in the future. The notion sent shivers down Victor’s spine.