Erza accompanied Nate to town, where they shopped extensively. Since it was a rare visit to the Magic Council headquarters, they decided to bring back small gifts for their guildmates.
"For Lucy...," Nate thought as he opened his browser and looked at her profile titled "Gotta Earn Money." Under the 'likes' section, he found the answer: books and Celestial Spirits. Even the most common silver Celestial Spirit keys cost tens of thousands of J, and Lucy still owed him over ten million J.
So, Nate bought her a copy of the current best-selling novel for 1,400J from a bookstore. According to the store owner, this book hadn't been released in the Kingdom of Fiore yet, making it a perfect gift.
"And for Mirajane…" Nate didn't need to check to know what she liked—cooking. He picked up a cookbook from the same store, which cost 700J more than Lucy's novel.
Then there were Natsu, Gray, Elfman, Cana, Levy... and of course, Happy and Master Makarov.
When he tallied everything up, he realized he had spent over 100,000J.
"By the way, Erza, what would you like as a gift?" Nate suddenly remembered the knight beside him as they were about to head back.
Erza seemed surprised. "Me? I don't need anything."
"Let me think…"
Nate rubbed his chin. Beneath Erza's scarlet hair, he noticed a pair of orange earrings—something easy to overlook. Despite her serious personality and reputation as the "Fairy Queen," Nate recalled that Erza liked to dress up. She had maid outfits, nurse uniforms, bunny costumes—every kind of outfit!
Could this be the famous "gap moe"?
Thinking about it, Nate realized Erza's personality had its own unique charm.
"I've got an idea. Stay here and don't move; I'll be right back," Nate said before hurrying off.
"An orange?" Erza muttered, confused. Was he really going to give her an orange as a gift?
A short while later, Nate returned.
"This is for you. These earrings match your hair color better."
He held out a pair of exquisite black crystal earrings between his thumb and forefinger.
Erza was momentarily stunned.
Nate was the first person to ever give her earrings. In fact, had anyone ever given her a gift before? Probably not. Maybe because she was too strict, people had been afraid to give her anything.
She extended her pale hand, carefully taking the earrings into her palm to examine them closely. They were beautifully crafted, crescent-shaped, and inlaid with black crystals. The combination of red and black had always been considered classic. The black crystals would highlight her scarlet hair even more.
"Thank you, Nate. I really like them," Erza smiled, genuinely touched. "I should give you a gift in return."
"What are you going to give me?" Nate asked, intrigued.
"Stand right here and don't move. I'm going to go buy an orange too," Erza said with a smile, walking away.
Nate stood alone on the street, dumbfounded, watching her leave.
'Did she get the joke?' he wondered. 'No way Erza would understand that—she's not a transmigrator.'
Even if she didn't get it, she probably picked up on his teasing tone.
"Uh-oh, now she's using my own trick against me!"
Not long after, Erza returned with her own gift, now wearing the black crystal earrings.
"How do they look?" she asked, pulling back her long hair to show them off.
"They look great," Nate replied.
Erza nodded seriously. "I think so too. Here, this is for you," she said, handing him a small gift box.
"I'll open it later," Nate said, already having a good idea of what was inside.
"Alright, let's go. Hold on to me."
Nate took Erza's hand and activated his time-space magic. A golden magic circle appeared at their feet, the magic energy swirling powerfully and drawing the attention of passersby.
In the next moment, both of them vanished.
...
They arrived at Nate's apartment. The long-distance teleportation, especially while bringing someone along, had consumed three stars' worth of his magic energy.
They returned to the guild—or rather, the construction site—just in time for lunch. The site was deserted as everyone had gone downstairs for food. The basement, once used to store lacrimas and supplies, had been temporarily turned into a tavern while the guild was being rebuilt.
As soon as Nate and Erza arrived, the guild members gathered around.
"Nate, Erza, you're finally back!"
"Natsu was about to storm the headquarters if you didn't return soon."
"Hey, are those gifts in your hands?"
That certainly sounded like something Natsu would do, and Nate wasn't surprised.
"Don't worry, it was just a formality. Nothing to worry about. Erza and I picked up some gifts for everyone while we were out," Nate said, pulling out the presents from his bags.
Most of the gifts were modest, priced between 1,000 and 2,000J each.
"Macao, this pipe is for you, but maybe try to smoke less."
"Levy, this light pen is one of the priciest gifts."
"Cana, here's a new set of tarot cards."
The group excitedly gathered around Nate, beaming as they received their gifts.
"Wow, so many gifts?"
"Tarot cards? I was just thinking of getting a new set. Thanks, Nate!"
"Do I have one? Do I?"
Mirajane smiled, watching the joyful scene unfold without interrupting. It was no wonder Nate was so well-liked—everyone appreciated him.
After all the gifts had been distributed, the crowd dispersed.
"Do I get one too?" Mirajane blinked playfully. If everyone else got something and she didn't, she'd definitely pout.
"Of course, I got something for you—and the guildmaster as well," Nate said with a chuckle, handing her the gift bag. "By the way, where is the guildmaster?"
"Guildmaster? He's busy writing a self-reflection essay…" Mirajane replied with a wry smile.
'Self-reflection essay?' Nate thought with a hint of sympathy. It seemed the guildmaster wouldn't have time to teach him magic for a while.
As Nate looked around the makeshift tavern, his eyes landed on someone.
"Warren."
Warren, who was unwrapping his gift, looked up at the mention of his name.
"Nate? What can I do for you? Whatever it is, I'll help, even if it means crossing mountains and seas!"
Warren, whose full name was Warren Rocko, didn't stand out much in the guild, but appearances could be deceiving. Warren was actually one of the stronger mages and specialized in 'Telepathy' magic.
Nate sat across from him and said, "I'm going to develop a voice chat feature for the internet, and I'd like to learn telepathy from you. Could you teach me?"
Warren was momentarily surprised but then smiled. "Of course, I'll teach you everything I know."
...
Time flew by, and a week passed.
Warren taught Nate everything about 'Telepathy' without holding back. Learning it wasn't too difficult—on a scale of difficulty, it was medium compared to 'Thought Projection'. In fact, Nate mastered the basics in just two days, leaving Warren astonished at his learning ability.
'Telepathy' wasn't just about mind-to-mind communication. At higher levels, it could even be used in combat to read an opponent's thoughts. Nate didn't need to reach that level, though. He just needed to understand the fundamentals to incorporate it into the deep web's core code.
After mastering the basics in two days, Nate treated Warren to a meal to express his gratitude.
For the next few days, Nate was fully focused on coding. He worked on implementing voice chat, the Council's forum section, and the 'Magic Net Express' system that his thought-projection assistant had been developing.
Looking at the work he'd done, Nate marveled at his productivity.
In just a week, he had completed all three projects.
As he finished typing the last line of code, Nate sighed in relief.
"I thought the point of having an assistant was to be less busy. Why am I working even more?"
"Maybe I'm just naturally wired to write code."
He chuckled to himself, then prepared to update the Magic Net to version 0.5—a major update!
~~~
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