Pressing random symbols on the keyboard that appeared after his touch, Roy mind was in shambles. The interface looked exactly like the browser back in his world, and while he was the son of other times, he still managed to be up to date thanks to his kids. His daughters provided a surprisingly insightful point of view on social media, the power of the internet, and how to leverage it to get a free education.

During his years as a professor, he was very successful with his students by demonstrating his "mastery" over their favorite tool to pass exams, and oh how proud he was the first time he managed to watch one of his favorite black and white films in streaming with his wife.

Absentmindedly pressing letters he couldn't understand, the man felt lost, as questions kept appearing in his mind. Did he have a direct channel with his world? Did they develop a similar technology? How many differences were between their version and his hometown net?

The man's gaze hardened. He shut off his current stream of consciousness, touched the purple circle on the left side of the screen, and left the room in a hurry.

A moment later, he was back in the grand library. His hands rushed to the control book and rapidly wrote the words " Internet in Iliria " on the first page. A list appeared on the page, written in a plethora of unrecognizable alphabets. Skimming through the list, he finally found something in English.

"The Archlord success: A comprehensive guide on the great revolution of the second Age of technology"

The book was a compendium, explaining how one of the most powerful mages on the planet ushered an era of greatness for all people of Iliria, by managing to connect the single greatest pillar of ether to an advanced civilization many ErasOfDt away, a place unreachable by the creatures of their world due to the singular lack of sustainable energy found in that particular universe.

Roy was confused by some of the definitions used for distance and other measurements but the gist of the text was clear: the people he would encounter weren't savages, nor medieval knights and mages. They managed to bridge the gap between their planet and Earth, and essentially managed to copy their technology, surpassing it in many fields, aided by their powerful magic, The connection was onesided, but It was enough to let them siphon off every significant principle, theory, and discovery of his home planet.

A mild sense of discomfort was born. Before this discovery, he thought that he could use his education to set up somewhat of a power base for himself once on the planet. By revealing some basic high school knowledge, he would become rich and influential, giving him time to develop his personal power.

That notion was now of the window, but the discomfort was soon replaced by a strong sense of pride. Aliens existed, and they stole earth technology because it was way better than theirs. What a guess. Not many people were sustainers of the first civilization theory back on his planet, and now he was the first person to know that, in fact, Earth was way ahead of the curve, at least for this stretch of reality.

The book was also very interesting to read, explaining how the people on Iliria managed to get from the late tribal stages of civilization to the technomagical age of greatness they were experiencing now in less than a couple hundred years. This was due to the figure of the Archlord, a mage of incredible power and broad interest, that made his discovery public. This particular event led to a somewhat strange series of events, all in the first two decades since the discovery.

First, only formally trained mages thought that they were able to use the interface, and as such, they soon tried to become the overlords of Iliria, by releasing only snippets of information, and by implementing advanced weaponry used by their grunts.

Soon after they were culled in a revolution led by warriors, paladins, enforcers, and basically every nonmagical entity on the planet. Turns out that guns didn't work very well on people that could turn coal into diamonds with the pressure of their buttcheeks.

Other magical creatures that didn't like how the mage classes were acting also aided the revolution, leading to a swift beating of the arrogant rulers-to-be.

Then, those nonmagical factions realized that by using particular forms of magics called engraving, enchanting, and runesmithing they could also benefit from this discovery.

This, aided by the fact that innately magical entities, like pixies, elementals, and most importantly, gnomes, could see the information displayed by the ether pillar led to a uniform decision: they would milk the mages for all their worth

So, after culling the masterminds behind the information wall placed on the "Source" as they called it, they let the others formally trained mages with the task of creating those devices, and the sudden influx of information spread like wildfire, creating a snowballing effect that in next two century would lead to the golden ages that still lasted to this date.

Closing the book, the old professor was impressed. Everything humanity accomplished, the Ilirian took and improved upon in less than half a millennium. For sure, the guidelines were there, but their ingenuity wasn't something to be underestimated.

Also, the fact that the mage that led the discovery wasn't bothered by the culling of his brethren piqued his curiosity but realizing that he was wasting time that would be better spent in other manners, he decided he would focus on the more pressing matters at his hand.

The god said he should try to punch his way out, and while the advice seemed moronic, for some strange reason he found the perspective endearing.

So he turned towards the first books the library suggested him to read and after two uneventful days of learning from Paths to Power 101, The mystery of the Body and how everything is connected, and a quick skim of Ilirian Common For Dummies, the professor set a schedule for himself.

First, he would read the language book for a couple of hours every day, to be able to be more open with his book selection. Then he would start training his body. Using his previous world knowledge he decided to settle for full-body training three times a week. If he found it too difficult he would lower the training volume, and, If everything went accordingly to the books he read, he would instead ramp it up massively.

With this schedule in mind and an objective in front of him, the man conjured his three meals for the day, a big bottle that he filled with the water in the pond, gym equipment, and an assortment of slabs of woods. He placed them in order of tenderness: poplar, birch, oak, acacia, peach, and ebony.

After the first few dumbells were placed on the pavement of the cavern, he decided to experiment a bit with his notebook. He wrote something on the item, and what seemed a barometer appeared in his hand.

That answered two of his questions: first, he could conjure something in different positions, as he thought of having the object materialize in his hand, instead of naturally letting it appear in front of him, and second, he could use templates from objects he knew to conjure more esoteric instruments.

The barometer was in fact, a magical energy detector, which he used to quickly analyze the magical density of the cavern, of his inventory, and of the area near the lake. The results were something that he suspected, but he wanted to confirm. His inventory was theoretically full of magic, but it was all used to stabilize itself.

The cavern had a lot of energy imbued into Its walls, and the density was quite good, but as he imagined, the sky-blue lake was something different. The water itself held so much mana that the instrument couldn't quantify it properly, and the air nearing it was almost as mana heavy as the pool itself.

Quickly tossing the mana barometer inside his inventory space, he set up the few weights he conjured in the vicinity of his camp, conjured a bench, a squat rack, an inclined bench, and some other training tools he remembered using when he was younger.

With everything in place, the marathon started.

Abaddon was talking with someone on a screen, talking about how confused his latest addition to his little circle of friends was about a particular discovery that he had while in the library.

"And then he managed to discover one of the forbidden tomes! Without even trying! You should reward him Davon, you know ? The people that are aware that the Source isn't your original creation can be counted on two hands!"

The grumpy face of a blonde man could be seen on the other side of the screen.

"That's not funny, dad, you know how much time I spent trying to connect the damn thing to something useful, and all the enchantments I needed to just keep everything from falling apart. "

"Moreover Donovan always made fun of me about how stupid my disciples were, trying to conquer the planet with firearms after looking at that documentary about the evolution of ranged weaponry during the 20th century"

The god looked affectionately at the screen.

"Their faults aren't yours, little gecko, they looked at miniguns shredding people apart and instantly connected the wrong dots. And you know that If things got too serious your brothers wouldn't simply watch the world be ruled by your faction alone. You made the right decision back then, you cut your losses and avoided a blown-out war in the family"

The man's expression went from grumpy, to happy, to embarrassed in just a few seconds.

"Dragon Dad, I'm a mighty dragon! The most badass, most wonderful creature on Iliria, the most talented mage, and as the Archlord I'm sure you can stop using my nickname!"

Abaddon laughed, a full, throaty sound that shook the plane he was standing on.

"That always gets some funny reaction out of you son. Don't worry, I'm proud of what you accomplished, and I'm even prouder you didn't turn out like a stuck-up, prideful loser, as some spoiled brat in the pantheon did. "

With a mischievous expression, the god added.

"Also, don't let your pride slip too much in front of Donnie and Dagon, you know they love to bully the youngest one of the batch"

This time the blonde man, Davon, king of dragons, Archlord of magic and connector of worlds apart, paled, his lips turning into a downwards smirk.

"Just don't tell on me dad, and they won't know! We are equal, but it's not my problem they are a musclebound idiot and a creepy soul lord. I was blessed with beauty and intelligence, It's only normal for the ugly and stupid to be better than me in trivial matters like combat"

Abaddon let himself go in another laugh, the ground shaking once again.

"How good It is to be young! I will keep you and your brothers informed about this new addition to the roster. I've gotta go now

I'll reach out to you once he does something amazing again! Don't skimp on calling me too much, you know I love to hear about your research. Gday, son"

Davon smiled at his father and with a wave of his hand the screen disappeared.

"Good day to you, dad"

The screen disappeared, and Abaddon was alone once again. He pulled out a cigar, a mixer appearing in mid-air. He made his way towards the hammock. Opening another screen, he looked at the figure of a sweaty old man, apparently trying to suffocate himself with a barbell. With a chuckle, he watched as Roy unsummoned the gym equipment, freeing himself from the weight.

That would be his favorite spot for a while.