After training, I rinsed myself in the stream and returned to Smarty. I still had many questions, the answers to which I will have to shake out of him. Overall, I'm surprised by how quickly we managed to get a conversation going. It doesn't seem like he is hiding any information from me. It is difficult to verify, but I have not yet found any discrepancies in his story.

"Hello again, Smarty!" I said as I settled down in the armchair and it again bent into a form convenient for me. "Are you doing this?"

"What exactly?"

"Well, bending the chair to be more comfortable to me."

"Oh, no, this chair is an independent system. After I was activated it also turned on. Adjustment to the operator's parameters is its main function."

"I see... Okay, I here is a question that I have. Do you monitor what is going on in the outside world? In other words, do you keep tabs on what is happening on the planet?"

"From time to time," Smarty hesitated for a couple of seconds. "Fact is, I have little energy of my own and I am afraid to connect to the info-net to take some from there."

"What are you afraid of?" I immediately clung to his hesitation.

"Of the local gods, of course. They deprived me of my owner, my ship, and I was left alone here. At least they do not pay attention to me, although that's mainly because I do not stick out in the info-net and when the gods appear I completely disconnect."

"Wait a second," I said as I involuntarily raised my hand. "Is the same connection channel used for both information and energy?"

"Yes. However, energy can also be pulled in another way, bypassing this channel. For example, from the environment, which then regenerates on its own. However, this is more difficult and I don't know how to do this. But for the local magicians, since their connection with the info-net is limited, it's easier to pump energy from nature, although this is a more labor-intensive process. There are no special restrictions here. The only possible restriction is the internal storage of the magician and the rate of energy accumulation in the environment."

"Wait a second," I said, shaking my head. "We'll talk about the local magicians another time. For now, I'm interested in other issues. First, tell me, do you know anything about how I appeared in this world? How did I get here?" I held my breath, waiting for an answer.

"Are you not local?!" surprisingly exclaimed Smarty.

Who knows which of us was more surprised?

"Can not you see? I speak a different language, you read my memory, sometimes you connect to the local info-net and you still ask?"

"You see, Nick, I obviously noticed your difference from the others, but I don't follow all of the events that occur in the outside world. I connect to the network only once every hundred years, and I mostly monitor only the major events happening in the world. I only peek in, as you would say. In such a period of time, many major events may occur in the world. Therefore, I only have the most basic data about what is going on, but if you give me a command, I will scan the whole network and make a report."

"Consider that you have already received such a command," I growled. "Tell me, did you notice anything strange happening a couple of months ago?"

"I'm sorry, Nick, but I only registered a splash of magical energy in the immediate vicinity of the ship or maybe inside, judging by the force that reached me. I can not say anything concrete about this since I cannot access the ship's sensors. I think all of the crystals have burned out."

I nodded my head - sadly it seems that I also bummed out here.

"Smarty, when you scan the network, pay attention to any information relating to travel between worlds, okay?"

"Will do."

How wonderful it is that I have Smarty!

"Okay, okay. Next question. Can you unlock my connection to the network?" This topic was of great interest to me. Since, after all, it could unlock many great opportunities!

"I can, but I do not advise it."

"Why?" I was surprised.

"Have you forgotten why Dront did this gradually to the locals?" asked Smarty. "You can burn out. Our people have been taught this since early childhood, and only when they are about a hundred years old they begin having complete control in the network."

"A hundred years? How many years did Dront live?" To say that I was surprised is like not saying anything. It seems that today is a day of amazing discoveries. "How long do your people normally live?"

"At the time of his death Dront was eight hundred and twenty-three years old, and people live for about a thousand years."

Wow! Of course, in such a long period of time one can learn anything.

"Can you give me any suggestions on speeding this up?" I asked in displeasure.

"In order to give you correct advice, I need to run a complete scan of your information structure."

"Well, go ahead! Do it!" It seems like I may have a chance after all, I smiled. "How long will it take?"

"About an hour. All this time you may feel discomfort or fatigue. In addition to your information structure, I'll try to carry out a deeper scan of your brain to make sure that the blockage is not physiological, but only informational."

"Okay," I agreed. "You may begin."

The next hour I felt as if I've gone through a centrifuge, got squeezed by a giant and shaked like a salt shaker. Phantom pains appeared and almost immediately disappeared. In short, it felt as if I was being tortured. After the end of the examination, it took quite some time for me to return to my senses. Meanwhile, Smarty carried out some calculations based on Dront's prior research. I managed to take a nap, drink some of the "living" water, but Smarty was still busy. I decided to just relax for now. I got out of the station, sat down in front of the entrance and just watched the nature. Two hours later I heard Smarty's voice.

"I'm done."

I shuddered.

"How did you get through to me? I'm outside."

"You forgot Nick, the diadem key is still on you. While it's on you, I can talk to you at any distance."

- I see. I completely forgot about it. It sits so gently on my head that I do not feel it at all. Cool. Well then, tell me about your findings, - I said, tensing up.

"Here are the results. Your information structure is completely suitable for controlling the network. In fact, there are some additional control structures which are unknown to me, but I can say that, with a high degree of probability, they will not interfere with communications to the network. Further on, the blockage is not physiological, only informational. However, despite the compatibility of your information structure, you can not immediately unlock it. Your body is not prepared to handle the huge amounts of energy flowing through the communication channel. In addition, your brain is also not trained to process the information. My best recommendation is to introduce a control circuit into your information structure, which will gradually influence your body, gently expanding the communication channel and getting your body ready to work with the network."

"Good," I said as I jumped to my feet. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes." Smarty paused for a moment. "If your level reaches Dront's level, it may draw the attention of the local gods. This scenario is very likely and I do not know what to advise here. Although Dront could go head-to-head with the gods, I can not imagine what fighting techniques he knew or whether he knew any at all. You will have to think of something on your own. Of course, I will help you where I can, but you have to do the most basic work on your own. Here is a tip: learn from the local magicians. They are constantly at war with each other, so I'm pretty sure they can teach you something."

"Okay, I understand everything. Tell me, how long will it take to fully unlock my body?"

"At least a year or more. I don't know exactly how your body will react to the changes. This may take several years to complete."

"It's unfortunate, but still better than a hundred years," I said, smiling. "As I understood from your explanations, through my information structure you can influence my body, right?" I looked up, waiting for an answer.

"Yes," answered Smarty.

"Think about it, is it possible to carefully change my information structure to improve something in my body?" I giggled, remembering the constant spam that I kept receiving back on Earth about penis enlargement. It has almost been a hundred years since the beginning of the century of the Internet, but even so, such mail still regularly comes in.

"It depends on what you want to change." As always, Smarty gives general answers to general questions.

"How about you calculate what changes need to be made to improve my reaction, and increase my endurance and strength."

"It will take me about five hours. I must be sure to act with caution."

"Of course, my friend!" I replied, mischievously rubbing my hands. "Oh, and there's another thing: can you turn on some emotions or a virtual persona, or something. Your monotonous voice is simply killing me."

"Unfortunately, the personality masks were stored separately, as non-critical data, on an unprotected crystal that was destroyed."

"Damn, if only you'd just watch a movie, I'm sure you would understand," I said.

"What is a 'movie'?" replied Smarty.

I froze. Damn. I should really show my computers to Smarty. I got carried away and used up the next few hours to show him our technology. Surprisingly, Dront's race was not familiar with electronics, although, of course, they simply used the info-net and magic to accomplish the same things. I could not connect Smarty directly to the subnote - he felt the wireless signals, but without external sensors he could not work with them. In the end, we found a way out with the help of a little magic. By the way, that's when I finally observed what magic looks like to the naked eye. Smarty created an informational structure capable of perceiving light, in other words, a kind of eye, imbued it with energy, and I saw a slowly appearing ball of light. After a while, this ball became almost completely invisible. Smarty didn't even think to make such an eye to observe the outside world. Previously, he relied only on the crystal sensors. I guess that's what artificial brains mean.

By the way, at the same time he saw me for the first time. Smarty confirmed that my appearance corresponds to Dront's race down to the smallest details, not taking into account the individual characteristics. In addition to the eye, Smarty formed a small object, which he could pull to the ground by command. I'll just call it a finger. Smarty could move around this finger and therefore, press the subnote's buttons and use its touchscreen. I couldn't think of any way to get Smarty to work with the brain sensors that I used to control my computers. Then, I took me a while to teach him how to work with the subnote. He grasped everything on the fly. He was simply delighted by some of the implementations in the storage and processing of information (if I correctly deciphered his monotonous utterances). In the end, I left Smarty to watch our films - and I had several thousand of them on my subnote, - reminding him not to use up all of his resources watching movies and reading literature, to leave some for the calculations that I needed. Finally, I went outside to get some fresh air.