After being dragged into the car, Stephen had no time to struggle when his neck hurt and he lost consciousness completely.
Needless to say, it was Quinn who dragged him onto the car and knocked him unconscious.
In a daze and confusion, Stephen didn't know how much time had passed. Suddenly, he felt a chill all over his body, accompanied by a damp sensation. He knew it was cold water splashed on him, which made him come to his senses immediately. But when his consciousness was restored, he didn't panic. Instead, he subconsciously jumped up from the ground. After all, in his previous life, he was a hacker who had reached the peak. Hackers have always been walking in the dark, so they have sufficient vigilance.
Almost the moment he woke up, he jumped up from the ground. But as soon as he straightened his body, a long sword was already resting on his neck.
It was Quinn holding the sword. Besides, Locke was standing beside him, carrying a bucket in his hand. It must have been him who had splashed Stephen's head and face just now. And standing behind the two of them, unsurprisingly, was Buska.
What place is this? Stephen asked coldly and reached out to touch his waist.
This is a place where no one else will ever be able to find you. Buska sneered and said, glancing at Stephen's hand that was fumbling around him. "Stop looking for your wand. I threw it into the fire long ago. Besides, I'll take the twenty-one silver coins on you first. It's the first payment you've paid me back."
The magic wand on his body and the silver coins were confiscated. This wasn't unexpected to Stephen, but he caught something else from Buska's words: Pay the first installment of my debt? He turned his head to look beside him, and his gaze soon focused on the table and chairs in a corner of the small dark room, a stack of parchment placed on the table, a bottle of magic ink, and of course, a quill pen stuck in the ink bottle.
You want to imprison me and help you make the magic scroll. Stephen guessed the reason for his imprisonment and also quietly heaved a sigh of relief: It seemed that Bousca had no intention of killing him directly.
And as long as one is not dead, there is still hope.
You are very smart. Before, people said you were dull and stupid, but it all seemed fake. No wonder you could make over a hundred magic scrolls in just three days. Buska said coldly, "Since that's the case, I won't waste words with you. From today on, you make me thirty magic scrolls every day. I can guarantee that you will always live here. At the same time, I can also guarantee that nothing will happen to your little sister Debbie. You know, although she is a giant swordsman, she is only a second-order swordsman after all. If I want to deal with her, It will really be very easy.
Hearing these words, Stephen felt inexplicably angry in his heart: "If you dare to touch Debbie, I won't let you off."
"Hehe." Buska was indifferent to Stephen's threat. A magician without a magic wand posed no threat at all. Moreover, even if Stephen had a magic wand in hand, he couldn't be a match for the two second-order swordsmen beside him in this small room. So he sneered and said, "This is a business deal. Do as we say, and everything will be fine." When you pay off the debt you owe me, I will let you go.
Stephen, of course, knew that there was no such thing as a day to pay off debts, but he still asked, "When can I pay off your debts?"
One year, two years, three years... When I'm satisfied.
Buska said with a hint of greed. He gave a cold smile, waved to Locke and Quinn, and turned to walk out of the room. Quinn and Locke followed closely behind, and then the door of the room slammed shut with a loud crash.
Outside the room was a dim corridor. Buska's plump face showed a hint of excitement. He turned around and instructed the two second-order swordsmen, "Keep a close eye on him. Make sure he hands over thirty magic scrolls on time every day, and always be on guard against any tricks he might play." Saying this, probably thinking of the incident where his son was damaged by Stephen's scroll, he said in a deep voice, "This kid is very slippery."
"Mr. Bouska, I'm a bit confused. This kid is just a second-level mage. Just kill him. Why bother to imprison him?" The income from a magic scroll is no more than forty copper coins. Quinn grumbled somewhat unhappily, saying that more than half a month ago, he was concentrated in Stephen's "Lightning", and now there was still the scar on his face from that time. He had a lot of resentment towards Stephen.
What do you know? Buska glared at Quinn. "This kid is really good at writing magic scrolls. His speed is on par with that of intermediate and advanced mages. But when mages reach intermediate and advanced levels, who would still write such basic magic scrolls?" So this kid is a treasure. As long as we imprison him and let him keep writing magic scrolls continuously, we'll be guarding a precious mountain. If we keep him imprisoned for a year, he can make ten thousand magic scrolls for us. That's fifty gold coins. This sum of money is more expensive than the combined lives of the two of you!
Hearing Buska's words, Quinn and Locke's eyes lit up immediately. An ordinary low-level magician could only carve about ten magic scrolls a day at most, but Stephen could carve thirty. This was indeed extraordinary.
Buska then snorted coldly again, "The hundred gold coins that Stephen cheated out of me earlier, I'll have Debbie spit them out sooner or later. But now, you guys just keep a close eye on this hammerhead for me first!"
"Mr. Bouska, don't worry. The two of us will stay here and keep this kid safe from leaving." Quinn and Locke hurriedly said.
...
The small dark room was only about twenty square meters in size. The air was filled with a rotten smell. Inside the room, there was a small bed with a damp quilt on it. Next to the bed was a table with items for writing magic scrolls on it. There was also a magic lamp emitting a dim yellow light. On the other side of the small room was a messy pile of things: A dilapidated wooden box that has been piled up for years and is full of wormholes, a vase covered with cobwebs, and even a tattered black iron armor full of copper rust.
Obviously, this small room was originally a warehouse. The pile of things in the corner was all worthless scrap metal, so much so that when Bouska was about to lock him up, the pile of things was not cleaned up either.
In fact, those things were really of no use to Stephen, the thin magician.
Stephen figured out the situation of this small black room in a very short time, and then he came to the conclusion that it was impossible for him to escape from here with his current ability.
There is only one door here. Behind it, two second-order swordsmen are guarding. There is a small window above, but in fact, it is a small hole as big as a steamed bun, used for ventilation and air exchange. Besides, the walls, ceiling and floor all around are made of hard granite. It is obviously a pipe dream to dig a hole here to escape.
After confirming these situations, Stephen turned his head and looked at the table beside him.
He is a magician, but he can't perform magic without a magic wand. So now the strongest means he can use is the magic scroll.
At the same time, he also understood that with the power of the five basic magic scrolls he knew, he couldn't cause any harm to the small black room that imprisoned him, nor could he guarantee his survival. Even if he used a huge number of scrolls to hit him like he did when dealing with Kerry last time, it wouldn't have any effect in the cramped space. So the solution became even more obvious: That is to develop magic scrolls that are stronger than the basic ones.
The logical relationship of the matter is very simple.
But if he wants to develop a magic scroll that is stronger than the basic one, he has to first understand the intermediate and even advanced magic languages.
Learning the magic language is of course very difficult. No one would think that Stephen could master the remaining twenty-seven of the thirty-two magic characters by himself without a teacher. That's why Buska would rest assured to lock Stephen in the small dark room and provide him with the materials and tools to make magic scrolls.
If it were any other second-level mage, at this moment, they would probably only be as desperate as a brutally exploited slave.
But Stephen wasn't desperate.
Even so, a faint trace of excitement emerged in his eyes.
In the previous life, he was a peak hacker, but this doesn't mean he had a high talent for computers. In fact, the reason why he gradually became a peak hacker, to a large extent... It was forced.
He was expelled from school for being addicted to games. To find a job for himself, he had to delve into hacking techniques. After achieving some success, he joined a hacking gang. However, the gang was wiped out in the second month, and he became a notorious wanted criminal on the Internet. To escape, he had to study his hacking skills with all his might. Eventually, he gained a bit of fame, but was then targeted by a foreign hacking group. He was challenged and provoked one after another. So he once again exerted all his strength to enhance his hacking skills and fought him to the death. Later, the super virus he had painstakingly researched was stolen, paralyting the online world. Everyone was at a loss as to what to do. He was once again pushed to the limit and began to study the restraint program. Finally, he surpassed his peak.
In this way, step by step, he reached the pinnacle of the hacking field.
If there is anything in him that can be called a "talent", it is not his hacking talent, but his tenacity and the spirit of daring to compete with tigers for food when pushed to the limit.
Now he is pushed to the limit.
"Damn it! I'll show you a genius for once."