Mages Are Too OP

by S.H.A aifu

As one of the first players to gain access to World of Falan—the first immersive game worldwide—Roland creates his character as a Mage. However, playing as a Mage is not as fun and easy as he thought. His head even explodes after he casts the very first spell in the game. sticking to his class when most Mages decide to create a new character, Roland gradually discovers tricks anew.

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195 Quid Pro Quo

Both of them stood up when they saw the excited Bard.

Bard hugged Roland upon his arrival, which slightly surprised Antis.

Bard and Antis were both descendants of grand nobles in the capital. Bard's family focused on magic, and Antis's family were famous for their swordsmen. They were also in charge of the city guards.

Both of them were related to the royal family. Antis's family was closer to the royal family than Bard's was. So, they were actually related too, although only distantly.

Antis knew that his relative was very proud. After all, the man was a Mage and a noble; he had every reason to be proud. He had often been condescending to Antis, yet he was willing to hug an outsider.

It was quite interesting.

"Bard, he's all yours. I'll resume my patrol." Antis patted Bard's shoulder. "Drop by if you have time."

"Thank you. Please send my best to my uncle."

Antis nodded and looked at Roland again before he left the room.

After Antis left, Bard sat down and smiled. "Actually, I was going to Delpon for you. I didn't expect you to come to the capital first."

"Huh? Is there any particular reason why you wanted to come to me?" Roland asked.

"Nothing serious. I was just wondering if I could buy the derivative spells of Spell Puppet," Bard said. "Please don't be angry and let me finish."

Roland nodded. Looking at Bard's nervous face, he guessed what the guy had in mind.

Taking a deep breath, Bard said, "I would like to purchase a derivative spell of Spell Puppet that I can sign my name on, if you know what I mean. I'm going to pay you well."

Just as I expected… Roland thought for a moment and asked, "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Bard smiled bitterly. "You're right, my friend. Before you consider, can you at least hear my terms? I can offer you many gold coins and magic resources."

Roland's eyes suddenly glittered. He was here to ask Bard if he knew any books or magic models related to long-distance teleportation. Roland was already prepared to ask for his favor.

However, it seemed that they could make an equivalent exchange now!

"Can you set aside the magic resources for something else?" asked Roland casually.

Bard was much more delighted after hearing that. He knew very well that Roland was implying that he had accepted the proposal.

"Please tell me what you want. I'll do whatever I can."

Bard subconsciously rubbed his hands, which was the merchants' favorite movement and was considered humiliating by the nobles. Since Bard was the descendant of a grand noble, he shouldn't have done that.

But for some reason, he still did it.

Then, he realized what he was doing and put his hands down awkwardly.

Roland, however, didn't notice anything wrong. He asked after a brief pause, "Are there any models on long-distance teleportation in the Association of Mages?"

Bard was stunned for a moment. Then he frowned. "Yes, but you can't take it away."

"I won't. I only need to read them for about ten minutes."

"Only ten minutes?" Bard found it odd. "Long-distance teleportation is a fourth-tier spell with thousands of nodes. It's more like a gigantic folded parchment than a book. Are you sure you can remember all the nodes in ten minutes without making any mistake?"

Staring at Bard's face, Roland suddenly smiled. "You're worried that I'll rob you of the book and run away instead of only reading it for ten minutes, aren't you?"

Bard tried to laugh, but it was actually indeed his concern.

After all, Roland was much stronger than him, and according to what he had gathered about the Golden Sons, all of them had a Backpack which was allegedly their racial talent.

The Backpack could contain a lot of things and was bound to the soul, so it was impossible to steal.

Therefore, if Roland stored the spell model in his Backpack, it would be impossible for Bard to take it back.

"If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do." Roland sighed.

Though Roland seemed disappointed, Bard was even more so.

He understood Roland's implication. If he didn't allow Roland to read the spell model for ten minutes, Roland probably wouldn't sell the derivative spells of Spell Puppet to him.

Bard was frustrated at the thought of that.

Seeing his gloom, Roland said, "Rest assured. I'll still sell the derivative spells to you even if you don't show me the spell model. We're friends anyway."

Bard was stunned for a moment after hearing that. Then, he stared at Roland in silence.

After a long time, he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I believe you."

Roland smiled.

"This is not the right place to talk. You can stay in my manor for a couple of days." Bard stood up.

"Okay."

They left the room. Noticing them, Antis, who was still on duty, nodded at them politely.

Bard waved his hand at Antis, before he led Roland to a carriage behind the city gate.

In the carriage, Roland observed the street through the window.

The roads in the city were broader and smoother than those in Delpon. The buildings were taller too.

More important, the people in the capital, both the nobles and the beggars, seemed to be very proud.

Other than that, the capital was bigger and more beautiful. Roland also saw the imposing walls of the royal palace far away.

Dazzling sunlight was reflected on the ivory walls.

Roland moved his eyes back into the carriage.

Bard, who was sitting opposite him, smiled and said, "You don't seem to be interested in the capital, do you?"

"As a matter of fact, I am." Roland said, "But I'm more interested in the teleportation spell right now."

The capital of Hollevin had a population of about two million. It was a big city in this world but far away from the modern metropolises.

Roland was only enjoying the exotic atmosphere here. For him, this capital was only as large as an eighteenth-rate city in reality, with much inferior infrastructure. There was really not much to look at.

Bard raised his eyebrow but didn't talk. He could sense Roland's disdain for the city.

After ten minutes of silence, the carriage stopped in front of a manor.

Hardly had they gotten off when they saw another carriage that rode close and stopped nearby.

Both carriages had a star emblem which depicted a starry sky against a blue background.

Seeing the carriage, Bard furrowed his brow hard.

Then, a young man similar to Bard jumped off from the other carriage. He put on a mocking smile the moment he saw Bard.

"Hey, my good brother, are you still in the mood for entertaining guests?"

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196 Uneasy Kaka

The stranger seemed rather cocky.

He reminded Roland of Bard when they first met. At that time, Bard was as condescending and sarcastic as this man.

But Bard's attitude gradually changed after all the incidents that followed, and he and Roland finally became friends.

So, Roland had deja vu when he saw the man, as if he were back to months earlier.

"Felwood, why are you in my manor?" Bard seemed unhappy, if not angry.

The man slowly walked toward Bard and mocked, "Isn't it perfectly normal for an older brother to care for a younger brother who is about to be kicked out of the family?"

Roland was slightly surprised to hear that.

Bard looked at Roland guiltily and said, "Stop being a hypocrite, Felwood. You should be the happiest to see that happen."

"Hahaha!"

Felwood burst into laughter, then focused his eyes on Roland. Observing him for a while, he asked weirdly, "A Golden Son?"

He seemed both disrespectful and somewhat scared.

So, the smile on his face became very odd.

At first, Roland didn't understand why he was wearing such an expression, but then he realized that it was probably because of the players that Antis mentioned.

Stabbing themselves for money, resurrecting again and again after death, and running about naked, the players did leave an impression that they would do anything for money. But they also made everybody envious because they never died.

Furthermore, Roland was dressed differently from the previous players, who were all Warriors or agility classes.

Roland was a Mage, and every spellcaster was revered even if they were from a different race.

For example, even though people hated orcs, nobody dared to underestimate a Shaman diplomat in the human world or make any racist comments in front of him.

Thinking that through, Roland smiled and said, "Yes."

Felwood observed Roland for a while longer and said with much less mockery, "Mr. Mage, you probably don't know the latest news yet, but your friend, my brother, is about to be kicked out of the family. If he lied to you, you're free to visit my manor. It's not far away from here. Anybody on the street knows where it is."

It was blatant poaching. Young Bard's face was dark as if it had been dyed with ink. He glared at Felwood furiously and clenched his fists, but in the end, he didn't do anything.

Roland nodded. "Got it."

His voice was as casual as before. There was no telling how he felt.

Felwood couldn't figure out Roland just yet. After waiting a few seconds, he looked at Bard with a gloating smile, before he returned to his carriage and left.

Bard didn't say anything until Felwood's carriage disappeared at the end of the street.

Roland heaved a sigh and asked, "How many brothers do you have?"

"Two," Young Bard said. "He's my second brother."

"But I'm curious about one thing." Roland thought for a moment and asked, "When Antis sent for you, I only mentioned Bard. Since you're all surnamed Bard, how did the envoy find you precisely?"

"When Antis's envoy arrived, we were all in my father's manor," Bard said. "He mentioned your name, so I came to you."

Roland immediately got it. "No wonder he arrived the moment we reached your manor. He must've been eager to find out who your guest was and if your guest could help you make a comeback."

Young Bard couldn't have looked more awful.

Roland asked again, "Since you're all surnamed Bard, I think I'd better distinguish you. His given name is Felwood. What's yours?"

"Kaka."

"Well, that's a simple name." Roland nodded.

"You mean a stupid name." Young Bard, or Kaka, looked at the sky and said grimly, "It was my mother who gave me the name. My mother is the daughter of a merchant. I was mocked a lot for my name when I was little."

"Is that really important?" Roland asked slowly. "Even if your name is Kaka and it's unsophisticated, it doesn't change the fact that your father is a grand noble. I think you're too emotional."

"You wouldn't understand. Anyway, I don't quite understand the Golden Sons." Kaka sighed and said, "I've met a few other Golden Sons besides you. You have different personalities, but your eyes are similar. You stare at everybody as if they were loot."

Roland burst into laughter. "Just a while back, Antis said that we looked at everybody as if they were gold coins."

Kaka was briefly stunned. "I didn't know that Antis felt the same… But it does make sense. He killed three Golden Sons in person. Also, he's smarter and more gifted than me. It's not unusual that he saw through things so clearly. Besides, the Golden Sons who were here a while back were truly… indescribable."

Roland had been observing Kaka Bard and realized that he was truly not as confident as a few months earlier.

Roland looked at the manor and asked with a smile, "Are you not going to ask me to come in?"

"Oh… right."

After a shock, Kaka led Roland to the gate of the manor, and two guards opened the gate and let them in.

At the entrance, Roland found that the guards were respectful but unnatural, as if they were only pretending to show respect.

They passed the courtyard and entered the study on the top floor of an extravagant three-story building.

There was the vague aroma of lavender in the study.

Looking around for a moment, Roland's eyes stopped briefly on the bookshelf, before he asked, "I've been meaning to ask since just now. Why are you being kicked out of your family?"

Kaka Bard's mood had obviously been improved, but he was depressed again after hearing Roland's question.

After a long silence, he finally said, "My father asked me to be the mayor of a town next to Sisilia, which is one of our family's fiefs."

"Inheriting a fief is not exactly being kicked out of your family, is it?" Roland asked again.

"The town only has a population of fifty thousand. The environment is terrible and the place has few yields. It's always been the place where the members of my family are exiled when they make mistakes."

Roland nodded and said, "Now, I understand why you're buying derivative spells from me and even their copyright."

Kaka Bard sighed helplessly. He had intended to keep it a secret from Roland, so that he could better negotiate with Roland.

However, now that Roland had learned the secret, he could only accept whatever prices that Roland gave him.

He only hoped that Roland's price wouldn't be too much for him to pay.

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Chapter 197 I"m Really Not a Sain

Kaka Bard was quite uneasy, but Roland felt that it might be a great opportunity for him.

"Actually, I don't think it's a bad idea for you to develop your own fief." Roland thought for a moment and said, "In the tales among the Golden Sons, many unappreciated descendants of nobles were exiled to desolate places, but instead of giving in to their fate, they tried to develop their territory and even gained control over their family in the end."

Kaka was apparently not convinced. He said with a vague smile, "If I hadn't known you for a long time, I would've thought that you were instigating me to kill myself."

Roland chuckled. "You need more sense of humor."

"I'm about to be kicked out of my family. Humor can't help me." Kaka heaved a long sigh.

Roland looked around. Butlers or servants should have served them beverages, but nobody was here although they had been in the study for a while.

It seemed that Kaka Bard was really in trouble. Even the servants were losing respect for him.

He took out the fruit wine and cake that Vivian prepared for him from his Backpack, which could prevent the food it stored from turning bad.

Then, he took out two cups, one for each person.

Roland filled bright green fruit wine in both cups. He had a mouthful of the wine first and said, "Why are you being kicked out of your family all of a sudden?"

"The queen was kidnapped." Kaka seemed rather angry. "I was defending the perimeter of the royal palace that night. Right, I was also a junior royal Mage. So, the fault was almost exclusively mine. My father pulled some strings so I didn't have to go to prison, but my father said that he would banish me to Sisilia as a punishment for my failure."

"So, you want to restore your position in your family through the Association of Mages?"

"Yes. My father will reconsider his decision if my magic abilities are acknowledged," said Kaka affirmatively.

Roland enjoyed the wine unhurriedly. From what Kaka described, it was indeed a sound plan.

Spellcasters were prestigious in this world. If Kaka showed enough talent in magic, it would prove his value. In such a case, the patriarch of his family had to consider if it was the best decision to cast out a genius.

"Not a problem. I can teach you a derivative spell of Spell Puppet." Roland put the empty cup on the table and said, "I'll also ensure that you can totally understand it and won't expose yourself."

Kaka was ecstatic. "Fantastic. You're truly a great friend. Since you're so loyal, I'll certainly return the favor. After the derivative spell is approved, all the rewards that the headquarters give me will be transferred to you with sixty additional gold coins and a batch of magic resources. That's all that I have."

Sixty gold coins… It was impressive enough that the son of a noble could save so much money.

Roland said, "I don't want any of those; I only want to read the long-distance teleportation spell model for ten minutes."

Kaka lowered his head in silence. A moment later, he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay. After the derivative spell of Spell Puppet is submitted, my position in the Association of Mages will be improved, and it shouldn't be too hard to borrow the spell model for long-distance teleportation."

"Then you've got yourself a deal." Roland didn't reveal his feelings, but he was secretly relieved.

He was fully aware of the value of advanced spells now. Though such spells had a price, whoever owned them would never show them to outsiders as long as those people were not idiots. Sixty gold coins and some magic resources for an advanced spell was a bargain.

Kaka smiled. "The deal is greatly in my favor. I'll repay you if I get the chance."

"That's unnecessary." Roland thought for a moment and asked, "Why don't you try to find the queen to make up for your mistake?"

Kaka's expression turned weird. "It was an Archmage who took the queen away. I don't know who he was, but the waves of his magic power were daunting. The king knows it too. He's only venting his fury on us. He can get a beautiful woman anytime he wants, it's not worth it to piss off an Archmage for a woman."

"How pathetic." Roland sighed.

Kaka thought that Roland was talking about the king, who had to hold such humiliation back even though he was the monarch of a country. He was indeed rather pathetic.

However, Roland was actually talking about the queen.

After she was taken away, nobody wanted to get her back, not even her king husband.

Roland felt sorry for her just thinking about it.

Considering for a moment, he asked, "Can you show me where the queen was captured?"

"Yes…" Kaka was puzzled. "What's your plan?"

"I want to see if I can find any leads on the missing queen." Roland stood up.

Kaka raised his eyes and said angrily, "Is our Golden Son going to play hero again?"

Having investigated the Golden Sons for a long time, he knew that most of the Golden Sons were very kind. They were willing to help the weak and the poor. When they happened upon robbers on the street, they would fight the robbers excitedly even if the enemy was much stronger.

"What do you mean?" Roland snorted and said, "I'm only fulfilling my duty."

Roland wondered if he could trigger another quest while he searched for the queen. He refused to believe that he wanted to trigger a quest because the queen was pitiful.

Kaka shook his head. "You can go to Antis. He's in charge of the search now."

Oh… No wonder that pretty swordsman stopped him at the gate.

Roland drew the spell model of Guardian Puppet, a derivative spell, and explained the designing principles of the spell as well as the effect of each node.

Then, he asked Kaka to consider it on his own, and he went to the city gate.

Antis, the pretty swordsman, was still on duty at the city gate. Roland got his attention upon arrival.

He asked his soldiers to keep on alert while he walked to Roland.

He took off his heavy helmet again, revealing his fair and feminine face. He asked in confusion, "Are you here for me?"

"You have a great sixth sense." Roland nodded. "I'm hoping that you could tell me the details of when the queen was captured and the progress of your investigation."

Antis immediately narrowed his eyes, like a leopard that was observing its prey. "What's that supposed to mean?"

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198 Quest Triggered

Roland was surprised at Antis's drastic change of attitude. He waved his hand and said, "I'm just curious. Just keep it to yourself if you're unwilling to talk."

"Why is a Golden Son from the outside so interested in our investigation?" Antis questioned Roland and laid his hand on his sword coldly.

Was he being suspected? Roland looked at the guy's right hand gloomily.

But it was understandable on second thought. He did look like a murderer who was asking about the investigation of a crime that he committed.

Roland waved his hand quickly and said, "I am interested, but not the way you think. I'm just wondering if I can help you find the queen."

"Help us find the queen? Why?" Antis narrowed his eyes. "Can you tell me the reason?"

"I'm a Golden Son," replied Roland casually.

"I know."

"Most Golden Sons are nosy."

After a long silence, Antis relaxed his right hand and said, "Follow me."

They reentered the room where they talked earlier. Since it was inconvenient for Antis to sit in his heavy armor, he leaned against the wall and said, "I've known that the Golden Sons are nosy. But why are you meddling in this instead of helping your friend Kaka Bard?"

"Kaka doesn't need my help. He has his own plans." Roland smiled at the guy's feminine face and said, "I had nothing to do, so I thought I could pay you a visit."

Antis was silent.

The Golden Sons were a special group that all the nobles were investigating.

The people in this group all had weird quirks, like those who made money by killing themselves and who ran everywhere naked.

Although they were quite unpredictable, most Golden Sons enjoyed doing good things. They even challenged nobles when a poor man was unfairly treated.

Now, Roland had come to him, claiming that he wanted to help with the search.

It would've been suspicious if Roland were anybody else, but his reason sounded legitimate since he was a Golden Son.

Besides, he was a Mage, who was usually wise and knowledgeable. It was possible that he could track the missing queen.

However…

Thinking for a long time, Antis suddenly asked, "You're willing to help even if it might've been a powerful Archmage who captured her?"

Roland nodded. "Yes."

"Of course you are. You're unafraid of death because you can't die," Antis said enviously. "Okay, if you're willing to help, you can join us."

He curled his finger at Roland and led him to the top of the city wall through the stairs behind the city gate.

There was a pavilion on the wall, which was the command center of the city guards.

From here, it was possible to view both the royal palace and the outside of the city.

The city wall was at least ten meters thick, but this pavilion was not huge. It only had a coverage of around twenty square meters.

Antis and Roland got into the pavilion. A lot of bookshelves, laden with parchments, were placed in it.

Antis took out a new parchment and unfolded it before Roland.

"All Mages should be literate. You can read it yourself."

The new parchment had a weird scent. Roland slowed his breath and opened the parchment, before he cast Language Proficiency on himself.

Antis, who was holding his arms and observing him, was surprised, his eyes bulging.

The parchment included all the records of the investigation on the queen's missing case.

The handwriting was new and elegant. It was the style of a woman, but there was toughness between the lines.

Roland nodded in satisfaction after reading the parchment, because he had indeed triggered a quest.

New secondary quest received: The Kidnapped Queen.

The description of the quest was simple: "Rescue the queen of Hollevin."

Staring at Roland's face, Antis asked, "You seem very satisfied with our progress, don't you?"

Progress… There was actually no progress at all but only basic information, like the estimated level of the mage who kidnapped the queen, or whether the queen displayed any unusual behaviors before the incident. There were also some speculations on the case.

Roland put on a smile of satisfaction when there was no progress, so Antis was naturally suspicious.

Roland smiled. "It's not about this case. I just ran into something good."

Antis didn't give a comment. Looking Roland in the eyes, he asked, "I saw you cast a spell just now… You can't read?"

"To be more exact, I can't recognize the written language of Hollevin. After all, the Golden Sons are from another dimension." Roland shrugged.

"I've never seen a spell that can help you read. I'm told that it can only help you understand what people say at most." Antis became even more solemn, as if he were trying to find something unusual in Roland's eyes.

Roland nodded. "That's right. But I've improved Language Proficiency."

There was a brief silence in the room.

Roland began to feel curious when Antis stopped talking.

A long time later, Antis's face was finally unfrozen. "That couldn't have been an easy improvement."

"Indeed it wasn't. It took me more than a month." Roland put the parchment aside and took out fruit wine and cups from his Backpack. Filling the cups with wine, he said, "Would you like a cup?"

Antis shook his head. "No, I don't like drinking."

"Why?"

"Because a lot of people have tried to get me drunk, both men and women."

It took Roland quite a long time before he figured out what Antis meat. He shivered hard and put the other cup of wine into his Backpack. He said regretfully, "I won't offer you any wine again."

Antis smiled. "I've shown you the progress of the case now. Any thoughts?"

"How many archmages are in the capital right now?"

"Six," replied Antis.

"Can you investigate them?" Roland asked again.

Antis shook his head in self-mockery. "They're all big shots with a major family at their backs. Even the royal family dare not piss them off. You think I have the courage to investigate them?"

"Good to know."

Roland nodded.

He took a minute to reexamine the quest. It was indeed a gold one, meaning that it was an epic quest.

So, it was natural that the investigation was hard.

"In that case, can you tell me more about the queen?" Roland took out the cake that Vivian made from his Backpack. "If you don't drink, would you like some food?"

Antis's eyes glowed. He took off his gloves and had a piece of the cake. He then chuckled charmingly. "It's delicious. The files on the queen will be my payment for the cake."

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Chapter 199 Second Brother Isn"t Stupid

About an hour later, Roland left the command center.

Antis had told him a lot of things about the queen. He didn't know if Antis kept anything from him, but he did feel that he had acquired plenty of useful information.

This queen was the daughter of a noble and a swordswoman who majored in agility. Though she was not strong, she was really a professional.

Because of that, the king took her as his queen, because healthier, stronger women were more likely to give birth to smarter, sturdier kids.

The queen's name was Windy Charles, which was changed to Windy Hollevin after her marriage.

She was overall a regular noble lady, slightly vain but also caring.

Before she was kidnapped, she had a huge fight with another noble lady.

The queen's identity was honorable enough, but the lady whom she fought with was a blood relative of the royal family backed by a major force.

In this society, the king, the lords, and the nobles were dependent on each other. Although the king was the most powerful on the surface, he still had to consider the attitudes and interests of other grand nobles as well as the members of the royal family.

Apart from the fight, Antis also told Roland about the hobbies and habits of the queen.

Roland was slightly surprised when he heard it. He asked Antis why he knew so much about the queen's private life.

Antis, however, simply said that the queen was his distant relative and they used to play together as kids.

Well… Was this big capital nothing more than a small pond for the grand nobles?

Roland was going back to Kaka Bard's manor for a rest, when a carriage stopped in front of him.

Seeing the shield-shaped emblem on the carriage, Roland knew that it probably belonged to Felwood.

As he expected, when the curtain on the carriage was lifted, a familiar face appeared and said, "Mr. Roland, please wait."

Roland raised his eyebrow.

Felwood put the curtain down and got off the carriage. He stooped before Roland and said, "It's an honor to meet you here, Mr. Roland."

Felwood had been arrogant earlier, but not now. There was only delight on his face at this point.

"It seems that you've investigated me." Roland eyed Felwood in an unfriendly way.

Felwood nodded and said, "I apologize to you if it upsets you."

It's difficult to hate someone who's smiling at you. Feeling less angry at him, Roland asked, "How can I help you?"

"I'm wondering if you would like to visit my manor as a guest."

Roland was stunned. Was it a gesture of friendliness?

He thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I'm going to Kaka's manor."

"That's really a shame." After a brief hesitation, Felwood said, "Mr. Roland, although things between me and Kaka haven't been very good, I don't want it to stop us from becoming friends. Kaka is just Kaka. We can be friends with or without him."

"Are you saying that you want me to abandon Kaka and take your side?"

Felwood waved his hand and said, "That's my intention, but I know you wouldn't do that, and I would be insulting you if I asked you to do so. I merely hope that you can drop by and have a chat with me in my manor when Kaka loses everything one day. I admire experts like you, and I believe we can be good friends."

This Felwood is really good!

Roland was quite impressed, but he had known Kaka before he knew this guy. Heaving a soft sigh, he said, "Let's talk about that later."

Hearing what Roland said, Felwood put on a smile. "I hope that we can talk about life and the future in my manor someday, sir."

Then, he bowed and bid Roland farewell politely.

The people in the capital were indeed more open-minded… Although Felwood and he didn't start off great, Felwood had come to show his friendliness after figuring out who Roland was and Roland's value, trying to reduce the awkwardness between them.

Felwood's reaction suggested that he was smart and knew what was best for himself.

Back in Kaka's manor, Roland met Kaka in his study.

Kaka was studying the derivative spell that Roland taught him, bummed.

He couldn't help but give the graph to Roland and ask, "Doesn't this node require too much magic power all at once? I can't do that."

"You can try a few more times. It's a level-zero trick anyway. You wouldn't be hurt even if the attempts fail." Roland smiled and said solemnly, "I met your second brother on the way here."

Kaka was stunned. "What did he say to you? Did he threaten you?"

"Not exactly."

Roland repeated what Felwood said and concluded, "Your second brother is not simple. He found out who I was in only half a day, and he has promptly given in. I don't think I can just beat him up next time I meet him."

Kaka smiled bitterly. "Neither of my brothers are easy to deal with."

"I think all three brothers are as good as each other."

Kaka smiled and changed the topic. "Did you make any progress with Antis?"

"Not exactly." Roland shook his head. "He did give me some general intelligence, some of which was detailed and related to the queen's private life. But it can't help me find her."

"There are certain things that he can't say." Kaka thought for a moment and said, "He certainly didn't tell you anything about the six Archmages in the capital, did he?"

Roland nodded.

"We all know that one of them captured the queen, but none dare to investigate," Kaka said. "Mages are the noblest of all classes, and Antis is just a swordsman. Even though he is a noble, so what? The six Archmages are nobles too. They'd be revered even if they weren't. Antis dares not look into them. In fact, I don't think he wants you to investigate them either."

"You are a Mage too, but you're being kicked out of your family," observed Roland with a smile.

"That's only because it was a Mage who kidnapped the queen. They're only venting their fury on me." Kaka felt that he was wronged.

Roland said with a smile, "What do you know about the six Archmages? Is there anything you can tell me?"

Kaka suddenly rose and walked to the window. He looked outside for a while before he closed the window and returned to Roland. He said in a low voice, "I can tell you the basic information of the six Archmages. Just don't tell people that you learned it from me."

"Speak." Roland was interested.

Then, Kaka spent half an hour telling Roland everything that he knew about the Archmages.

After hearing him out, Roland asked, "Who do you think has most likely captured the queen?"

"If I have to give a name, I think it was Tobian."

"Why?"

Kaka smiled. "The other Archmages are too old to be interested in women, but Tobian is only in his forties. As a professional, he's as strong as a twenty-year-old ordinary person. So, you know…"

"But if it's just about biological needs, he could've just asked for a prostitute, no? Besides, as a powerful man, he must have a lot of female servants, right?"

Kaka shrugged. "Who knows? It's possible that he likes the exciting title of queen."

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Chapter 200 A Bear Mage

Roland felt that Kaka had a point.

Different men were into different types. For example, Roland liked nurses best, and Schuck liked businesswomen.

It was perfectly normal that someone liked the queen for her intimidating position.

However, Roland did feel that it was one thing to appreciate her, and it was a whole other thing to kidnap her.

Roland answered Kaka's questions regarding the derivative spell and rested for a night in the manor.

The next day, Kaka kept studying the derivative spell. Despite Roland's guidance, there were still several nodes that he hadn't fully understood.

Roland, on the other hand, went out.

Walking out of the manor, Roland turned his head.

Players did not need to sleep, but a curfew had been imposed in the capital since the queen was kidnapped. Any person who wandered the streets at night would be questioned and even thrown into prison.

As a Mage, Roland had unspoken privileges, but since it was a Mage who committed the crime, Roland decided to stay in Kaka's manor to avoid being regarded as a suspect.

Because he couldn't go out, he spent the whole night on the forums and even declined two beautiful maids that Kaka offered him.

He was on the forums for eight hours, and he was quite tired, so he left very early in the morning.

However, this incident reminded him that it was time for him to learn a spell that could hide him or let him act in secret, like Secondary Stealth or Alternate Dimensional Roaming.

Otherwise, it would be very boring if he couldn't take any action openly, or if he wanted to do anything in secret.

Leaving the neighborhood of the rich, Roland reached a busy street.

He was surrounded by people.

The roads in the capital were about thirty meters wide. The ten meters in the middle were for carriages, and ordinary people walked on the sides of the roads. Further away on the curb were peddlers whose booths were of different sizes. There was barely any gap between the booths.

The peddlers were all shouting to attract customers and sounded like a rising tide. Occasionally, when a luxurious carriage approached the edge of the road to make way for another vehicle, the noise would come to a stop until the carriage was far away.

However, when Roland walked on the road, few civilians nearby dared to look him in the eyes after seeing his robe, much less peddling their products to him.

Roland didn't want to bully anyone. He was simply walking on the street and looking at the booths with great interest. Most of the things to be sold were crafts, but there were some interesting gadgets, including a fashioned skull bowl and a bong made of the femur of an unknown animal.

Roland observed them with great pleasure.

He had devoted most of his time to magic since he came to this world. He had little time for entertainment or playing.

When he was not studying magic, he was carrying out quests.

He felt unusually relaxed while he went shopping.

It took Roland about two hours to reach the Magic Tower at the east of the city from the busy street.

In the meantime, he had bought a lot of fruits for himself. He was enjoying the fruits as he walked on.

After swallowing a juicy, sour fruit, Roland made it to a bright blue Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower was rather quiet. There was a spacious square before it, but few people dared to pass through.

Two guards were on duty at the gate. Seeing Roland, they subconsciously stood straight.

They didn't know Roland, but the robe that Roland was wearing suggested that they should respect him.

Roland came to them and smiled. "I am the chairman of the Delpon branch of the Association of Mages. I'm here to visit Master Tobian."

"Please wait a moment."

Hearing Roland's self-introduction, the guards knew that they couldn't decide for their master whether or not to meet this guest. One of them ran into the Magic Tower and soon returned. Catching his breath, he said, "Master Tobian is willing to meet you, sir. Please follow me."

"Thank you." Roland nodded at the guard.

The guard was slightly surprised. Then he led the way.

The blue Magic Tower was bigger and more spacious than the Magic Tower in Delpon. It was more luxuriously decorated too.

It was needless to mention the smooth, mirror-like floor, which was typical in all Magic Towers. The magic crystal lamps were twice in number and in two colors, blue and orange.

They looked much more appealing than the lamps in the Magic Tower in Delpon that only released pale light.

Roland followed the guard upstairs and encountered a magic apprentice when he passed the second floor.

The guard grew nervous when he saw the magic apprentice. He stooped and said, "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Lenard."

The magic apprentice snorted and didn't even look at the guard. His face was numb too.

He then noticed Roland. Seeing that Roland was also wearing a magic robe, he frowned, as if he was not happy. But then he sensed the magic power in Roland from close up.

The magic power was condensed and felt like the water in an ancient well.

Greatly scared, he immediately made way for Roland and lowered his head.

Roland smiled at him and continued following the guard upstairs.

After Roland was gone, the magic apprentice wiped away cold sweat and murmured, "Where is this guy from? He's so terrifying."

The guard led Roland to the fifth floor and pointed at a gold-edged door. "Sir, the master is waiting for you inside."

Roland went over and knocked on the door.

The confident voice of a male came from inside. "Come on in."

Roland pushed the door and walked in.

It was an extravagant study. The bookshelves seemed exclusively made of crystal. The other furniture was also embedded with gold and silver.

However, Roland was not distracted by any of those things. He simply looked at the owner of this place, who was a middle-aged man with a big beard and a bald head.

The man seemed very strong and had broad shoulders. His sleeves had been rolled up and revealed his thick arms as well as his bushy hair, which made him look like a bear in human skin.

He could've easily convinced anyone that he was a Warrior instead of a Mage.

However, Roland sensed an incredible magic power from the man.

It was about 20% more than his own magic power.

It must be noted that, thanks to full intelligence growth, he was among the people with the highest capacity of mana. Also, because of his achievements, the upper limit of his mana had been increased by fifty points.

General Mages had only half of the mana that Roland had.

So, the abundance of the magic power in this middle-aged baldy who looked as tough as a Warrior suggested that he was undoubtedly an Archmage.

Roland was slightly surprised.

But the baldy was even more surprised to see Roland.

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Chapter 201 An Unexpected Surprise

Tobian was a genius among mages, both in his own eyes and those of the people around him.

When he was a teenager, he grew to a meter and a half at the mere age of fifteen. Because of his strong body, his father considered him to be a good candidate for a warrior and wanted to send him to the Guild of Warriors to be trained strictly.

However, Tobian didn't go, being shrewish and making a scene and saying that he was going to be a Mage.

This was nonsense… What was the image of a Mage?

Not a strong but well-proportioned looking body, a refined manner, and eyes filled with intelligence.

Tobian was herculean, his thighs larger than the head of a child at his age—why be a damn Mage!

However, his father spoiled him, and when he saw how determined Tobian was to become a Mage, his father let him be a magic apprentice for a few years, assuming that he wouldn't make any progress and then come back crying and begging to become a Warrior.

It turned out… Tobian really had the talent for being a Mage.

Where others studied for at least three years to learn a level-zero trick, he could do it in half a year.

And as he grew older, he learned magic faster and faster.

He was the youngest of the six great Archmages in the capital right now.

This was a testament to his abilities and talent.

Because of such solid experience and achievements, Tobian never doubted his talent and gifts, and even if he wasn't the world's most talented Mage, he was at least one of those at the top of the pyramid.

But what was with the young man in front of him…

The young man was obviously only at the Elite level, but that volume of magic power was only one step away from his own.

He himself had two types of magic equipment equipped that boosted his magic capacity, a ring and a necklace.

If he took off these two types of equipment, his own magic power might be a little worse than this young man's.

Thinking of this, Tobian felt a little out of sorts.

He sized up Roland for a moment and asked, "You're the chairman of Delpon. I remember that it was a coward who served there originally. I think his name was something like Arminto."

"Aldo." Roland walked in and said with a smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tobian."

As he said this, Roland took out a basket of fruit from his Backpack and placed it on the table.

"I couldn't prepare properly for such a rash visit, so I could only bring some fruit up here."

It was a custom of the Chinese people to bring some fruit with them when they visited someone's home.

The kingdom of Hollevin actually had a similar custom, and of course, friends didn't need to bring anything of value over, so they either brought some flowers or some fruits just to show courtesy.

Roland had bought this basket of fruit on the street earlier. It was fresh and specially selected, and the fruits were all juicy and bright.

Tobian looked at the fruits in the basket, then gestured to invite Roland to sit down and asked, "Sir, what is your reason for coming here?"

His attitude was nonchalant.

Roland didn't find this strange. He placed the spell model he had already prepared in front of Tobian and said, "Your Excellency, Mr. Tobian, I encountered a few minor problems while learning Teleportation. This point, and this one, why is the magic power not so smooth connecting to these points? I hear you have some knowledge of spatial magic, so I wanted to ask you for advice."

Tobian glanced briefly at the spell model and said, "Why should I teach you? I didn't even know you."

Roland nodded and said with a smile, "Indeed, my visit was a bit impertinent, so I prepared something as a gift."

As he spoke, he took a magic staff out of his Backpack and placed it on the table.

Tobian didn't rush to look at the magic staff on the tabletop, but stared at Roland and said, "It was the same just now, there were no spatial magic fluctuations when you took out something—how did you get the things out of a spatial Backpack?."

"This isn't spatial magic."

Roland was about to continue his explanation, but Tobian slapped the table heavily, preempting the answer.

"Golden Son?"

Roland nodded.

Breathing out softly, Tobian repressed certain thoughts. He looked at the magic staff on the table, froze for a moment, then picked it up.

This magic staff was the reward Roland got for completing the sequel to the main quest, and although the attributes were pretty good, it wasn't quite useful to him.

For example, the magic regeneration effect… it was like an inferior add-on compared to the specialty of Roland's Zeal.

Although holding a staff would regenerate magic faster, there was basically no difference between three hours and two hours and fifty-five minutes.

Besides, it was rather inconvenient to hold a long magic staff when regenerating magic, which only worked if one held it in their hands. One also had to hold it with both hands.

After all, it was a two-handed weapon in the settings of the game.

It was quite inconvenient. Roland preferred to read a book while he was regenerating magic, which required the use of both hands.

He could also browse the forums, which requires calling out the AR virtual keyboard for typing, which also required the use of both hands.

However, the increased strength of the spells that came with the wand was almost useless with Roland's berserk fighting style where he compressed all his MP at every turn and fired it off all at once.

For example, Roland's damage value in a self-destructing giant fireball is 3000, and if he held the magic staff, that would add 20 more damage. The ultimate result is 3020, which had little to no effect.

But if it were any other Warlock player using small spells, a small fireball is 50, plus 20 is 70, which meant a 40 percent increase. For them, it was the finest equipment in the early stages of the game.

This kind of magic equipment with added magic strength was actually best suited for players who used quick and small magic.

It was naturally useful for Tobian as well.

No matter whether it was the magic regeneration effect or the increased magic strength effect.

Tobian picked up the magic staff and gently stroked the light brown trunk of the staff, his eyes growing brighter.

"This gift of yours is too precious for me to take."

Tobian placed the magic staff back on the table and pushed it in front of Roland.

Although he said that, his eyes were filled with reluctance.

"Good things are only meaningful in the hands of those who truly know how to appreciate and use them." Roland endured the feeling of nausea and said ingratiatingly. "And a powerful spell like Teleportation is very important to me. Sir, your advice is far more valuable than this magic staff."

"In that case!" Tobian thought about it and said, "I can teach you Teleportation until you learn how to use it. Also… I have a model of Dimensional Anchor here, would you be interested in making a copy?"

Roland was stunned for a moment, then said in surprise, "Yes!"

Originally he had put the magic staff out there just to get close and fish out some more news about the quest. After all, the only thing he had on him right now that was worth gifting was this magic staff.

However, there was actually an unexpected surprise in return.

Dimensional Anchor… fourth-level magic, not too high, not too low, but it was obvious to him in the general knowledge of magic that Roland had read before in the library of his own Magic Tower…

This spell was the father of all other spatial magic.

Any spatial magic would be broken by Dimensional Anchor, as long as the difference in power between the two sides of the spellcasters wasn't too outrageous, like the difference between an apprentice and a Legendary.

Arguably, it was one of the must-have spells for all Mages, along with Teleportation.

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Chapter 202 Ideas From Different Standpoints

Seeing Roland's willingness to copy it, Tobian nodded with satisfaction, his bald head seeming to shine even more.

He took down a book from the bookshelf and placed it in front of Roland and said, "This is Dimensional Anchor, you have the next two hours to copy it. I'll have the butler send up the paper and ink later."

Then, he picked up the staff again and caressed it gently, so delighted with it that he could hardly bear to put it down.

Roland opened the book… It was a very, very large piece of sewn vellum, which looked like a book when folded together in a specific way.

Turning on the system's photo function, Roland photographed the Dimensional Anchor spell model from four angles.

Then he said to Tobian, "All right, sir, I've got it down."

Tobian was shaking in fear and almost dropped the staff in his hands to the ground.

"These thousands—almost ten thousand nodes, and you've memorized it all?"

Roland said with a smile, "We Golden Sons have a special method of recording."

"How enviable. Undying, and also quite capable of memorization." Tobian sighed; the staff in his hand didn't seem so appealing to him anymore. "Are all of you Golden Sons monsters?"

Roland smiled modestly.

Although the nobles were mutually disinclined to talk about the Golden Sons in public, these guys were different from ordinary commoners after all and had no fear of them.

If the circumstances were normal, they would have already bullied this group of Golden Sons like they oppressed the commoners.

But the problem was that the Golden Sons really weren't easy to mess with.

Not to mention being undying, all of them were professionals, and their overall strength seemed to be stronger than the average professional.

What was even more disgusting was that these Golden Sons were very meddlesome, and as long as it was something they were uncomfortable with, they had to meddle with it.

There were fewer Golden Sons in the capital, and they weren't quite as eye-catching. Only a few of them came a while ago and ran away after "duping" the nobles of a large sum of money, not even wanting their clothes.

It only caused some commotion and discussions.

But the nobles were not bad at gathering information, and they had heard intermittently that two mayors had already lost their lives at the hands of the Golden Sons.

Although in the end, the Golden Sons still abided by the unspoken rules and didn't steal the mayor's heritage, neither the mayors nor the current heads of the noble families wanted to fall dead.

In addition, now that more and more information was coming in about the Golden Sons standing up for beggars and commoners, many noble families had an intuitive impression of them.

A group of peculiar aliens with outlooks comparable to golden dragons that were lawfully good.

Such a race was quite troublesome… It was already troublesome enough that golden dragons often turned into humans and ran to the human world to punish evil and promote good.

Now there was another group, the Golden Sons.

Life for the nobles was getting rough.

Tobian lowered his staff, then said, "Where are those two nodes you just mentioned? Point them out to me again."

"Here." Roland immediately placed the spell model he had prepared on the table.

In fact, he had already understood, but going through with the acting, he naturally had to make a show of listening intently.

Tobian was indeed worthy of being a master Mage. He only looked at it twice before saying, "These two points are indeed a bit difficult, especially for a Mage like you who has just reached the Elite level. The key at this point is that the magic power delivery must be steady and fine, but at this point, the magic power delivery needs to be stronger. All nodes have different magic power requirements—you have to get the feel of it."

"I understand." Roland nodded.

"By the way, can I have another look at this spell model?" Tobian then suddenly asked.

Roland said with a smile, "Of course, no problem. It's for you, Archmage."

"Thank you." Tobian stroked his bald head, feeling rather embarrassed, and then said, "My Magic Tower still has two empty floors, so why don't you stay here for the duration?"

"No, thanks." Roland waved his hand gently. "I'm staying at Kaka Bard's place—I know him well."

"Ah, the Bard's boy, I hear he's been having some trouble lately. Did you come over to help him?"

Roland shrugged. "I didn't know about it until I came here, but I can't help much. I'm just a Golden Son with no roots or power in this world. I can only be there to comfort him. But I heard that he has his own plans, so I'm not sure."

"Oh, he can still survive in this desperate situation?" Tobian said with great interest. "I'd like to see that."

Roland now looked out at the sky and said, "Mr. Tobian, thank you very much for your answer, coming to visit you was indeed the right choice. I would also like to listen to your teachings again, but now I have some important business to attend to, so I will take my leave for now."

After speaking, Roland stood up.

"Come back when you have time." Tobian nodded with a smile.

Then the butler standing outside came in and led Roland down the Magic Tower.

The westerly sun shone in from the window, shining brightly on Tobian's bald head.

It was hot and uncomfortable.

In the past, Tobian would have immediately gone over to close the window. He didn't like his bald head being exposed to the sun, and he would usually wear a hood when he went out on a sunny day.

It just so happened that magic robes usually came with a hood, and when he put it on, his head was covered and his face was hidden in the shadow of the hood, giving him the more mysterious look of a Mage.

But right now, he was mesmerized by the Teleportation spell model before him.

Compared to a normal Teleportation spell model, this spell model had more nodes, and the connections and distances between the nodes were more in line with his perception.

In other words, if he cast spells according to this spell model, the many steps he used in the past could be omitted, so that he could teleport the same distance with less mental power.

Most importantly, since this spell model was very accurate, if he could correct his previous casting habits, he would be able to control the teleportation distance more precisely.

The phenomenon of trying to teleport to the top of a palm-sized rock, but teleporting too far, would not occur.

This allowed him to teleport to some very complex terrain, which was of great tactical value in the field.

Did Roland make this spell model drawing himself?

What a genius.

Wait… Roland's name sounds familiar. He suddenly remembered something, flipping out the derivative spell model of Hand of Magic and looking at the name noted in the back.

Roland!

And then, he thought about how Roland introduced himself earlier as the chairman of the Magic Tower of Delpon.

So it's him!

"Perhaps, in the future, I'll have to suggest to the headquarters to restrict the access of the Golden Son Mages to spell models and not allow them to progress too quickly. Otherwise… there will be no place for us to stand in the future."

He somewhat regretted giving Roland the Dimensional Anchor spell model.

Roland returned to Kaka's manor and saw a few carriages at the entrance.

A group of people was in the flower garden surrounding Kaka and pointing at him.

Kaka wore an annoyed expression.

What had happened?

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Chapter 203 Advanced Pixelation Technology

The two guards who stood at the door both had expressions of enjoyment as if they were watching a show, but when Roland came over, they immediately opened the door.

Roland stopped next to them and asked, "What happened?"

The two guards seemed to despise their master, but they didn't dare to have a similar attitude towards Roland. One of them immediately replied, "Someone was sent over from the main family to urge him to leave this manor quickly, as the Third Young Master is no longer qualified to live here."

Roland sighed and walked in.

Surrounding Kaka Bard were all noble-looking people, men, women, and children alike.

As soon as Roland approached, he heard an old woman shouting, "Kaka, now that this manor is no longer yours, why are you still staying here? Have you no shame?"

"Then at least let me clear out the manor first. Don't think I don't know what you're up to." Kaka looked increasingly annoyed.

A middle-aged man shouted, "Everything in this manor belongs to the Bard family, and you have no right to take it."

"Why don't I have the right—everything in here was bought with my own money. My last name is still Bard, my father just told me to go live outside, he didn't say anything about taking away my last name." Kaka looked angrily at the middle-aged man. "Zaun, if you have the guts, go talk to Father about taking my last name away."

"Fine, you think I don't dare?" the middle-aged man barked, enraged. "I, Zaun, always do what I say, go wherever I want to go—just you wait."

This middle-aged man very impolitely pointed his finger at Kaka and then turned around to leave, but just as he turned around, he saw Roland.

He was already in a bad mood, and when he saw an outsider there, he cursed. "What's wrong with the guards, what's with all these nobodies…"

He swallowed his words halfway through his scolding.

Roland was dressed in a magic robe, so he was clearly not an ordinary person.

Although Kaka was also a mage, it was clear to everyone in the family that Kaka's status as a Mage was a bit awkward.

Someone who relied heavily on their family's resources to become an official Mage didn't really have much fighting ability, and when it came to a real fight, they were probably just a little bit stronger than a magic apprentice.

This Mage in front of him, however, had an unknown origin.

The Bard family was originally a family of spellcasters, and this middle-aged man was also an official Mage, but of course, he was the kind that used his plentiful resources to reach such a status. Like Kaka, his own fighting ability was not strong, but he was still able to mentally perceive the opponent's magic power.

Prodding a little was harmless. He immediately found that the other party was actually at least an Elite-level Mage who had incredibly high magic power.

Then, he immediately changed the expression on his face and smiled obsequiously. "Sir, are you here to look for Kaka? There's no need, he's about to be banished."

Seeing that Roland was here, Kaka was slightly relieved.

Oftentimes, when people lose their power and authority, it would feel different if they had a friend who could back them up a little.

Roland was that kind of friend.

Roland smiled at this middle-aged man. "I'm here to look for Kaka."

The middle-aged man wore a strange expression.

Usually, only friends would call each other by their first name; otherwise, they would call each other by their last name.

For someone like Kaka in the noble class, he was generally known as Little Bard.

His father was called Old Bard, and his elder brother was called Big Bard.

So Roland calling him Kaka, in itself, had shown which side he was on.

The middle-aged man looked at Roland, then at Kaka, forced a smile, and said to the people around him, "Let's go."

The group of people didn't say anything and immediately left.

Just before leaving the manor, the middle-aged man stared at Roland viciously.

Roland sensed this and looked back.

The man was so frightened that he immediately turned his head around.

"I've made an embarrassment of myself." Kaka sighed and leaned on the stone pillar at the entrance of the room, looking very lost. "How troublesome."

Roland frowned. "Didn't you say that there was still some time before you left to take up your post? Why are they here so soon to force your hand?"

"Second Brother's people." Kaka looked at the sky and said, "Let's go inside and talk."

They went up to the third floor and sat down in the study.

Kaka reclined in the chair and pressed his hand to his brow.

It was a while before he spoke up. "I guess he's a little anxious because you're here and you've made my second brother think I might still have a chance of turning the tables."

"Looks like it's my fault?"

"No, if you hadn't come, I might have been in a more difficult position." Kaka added with a smile, "The only thing I can depend on right now is the fact that you're my friend."

"Don't worry." Roland smiled. "I'll be staying here until you get honored at the Association's headquarters."

"Thanks," Kaka said sincerely, breathed a sigh of relief, and asked, "How was your visit to Tobian's Magic Tower?"

Roland stayed silent for a moment, then said, "From the looks of it, Tobian is indeed a man with great physical needs. There's a saying where we come from that the more powerful a man is in that area, the less hair he has on his head, but the more body hair. And with Tobian being completely bald and having as much body hair as a gorilla, theoretically, he fits our suspicions."

Kaka found it quite amusing. "There's actually a saying for that?"

"That's just what we say over there, I don't know if it applies to you here."

Kaka leaned in. "So, you think it's Tobian too?"

"It's just more likely." Roland shook his head. "I won't see him as a murderer until there's actual proof."

Kaka blinked, then lowered his voice and asked, "You're so concerned about the queen's capture, did you get a beeping or something like that?"

Roland was stunned and asked in surprise, "What beeping?"

"Our family has been investigating you. Our distant relatives in remote areas have gotten several Golden Sons drunk and inquired as to why they are so nosy." Kaka had a strange look on his face. "They gave it all up, but when it comes to keywords, there's this weird beeping sound that comes out of their mouths. We don't know what that beeping is, so we've been guessing."

Roland was stunned for a moment, then said with an odd expression, "Did you say 'quest'?"

Kaka clapped his hands heavily and said excitedly, "Yes, that's right, your words just now were the very harsh beeping sound."

Roland's expression immediately turned strange.

The systematic level shielding effect was a bit powerful.

He thought about it, stretched out his fingers and dipped it into the wine from the glass beside him, and then wrote the word "quest" in Hollevin on the tabletop.

As a result, Kaka was stunned when he read it. "What kind of magic is this one little square overlapping and flashing around and turning into a big square? It's kind of dizzying to watch."

Heh… this pretty da*n interesting.

To use systematic censoring technology in a realistic world, there's some serious power behind the scenes.

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Chapter 204 After Turning Around

Roland thought about it and wrote two sentences in a Tibetan poem style in Hollevin script.

The first two words from the two lines linked together formed the word "quest."

Then he pointed to the first two lines and said, "Do you understand the meaning of the two words that are connected?"

Originally Kaka had watched with interest as Roland finished writing the two sentences, but when Roland pointed to the first two words of each line, his expression turned odd. "I could just make out what the words were, but now they're all turning into these weird flashing squares. And… I can't remember what the first words of the first two lines of the sentence were. Strange!"

Then Kaka's expression became a little wary. "You used an illusion on me?"

Roland shook his head, "It has nothing to do with me. It's a big shot among the Golden Sons who seems to have used special powers to censor keywords. And the detection source seems to be coming from our side, so it has nothing to do with you. You are only temporarily affected."

"I see." Kaka nodded, looking significantly better.

The two of them then chatted for a while, then Roland went to his room to rest, as it was almost night.

After Roland left, the first two words of the two lines of the sentence were no longer pixels. The water stains still remained on it, and Kaka looked at them and saw that they read "quest" in conjunction with each other.

Quest?

The kind of quests one finds in a mercenary guild?

Is that why the Golden Sons are so nosy?

There's a strange force that gives them quests, making them nosy, and then this force doesn't let them spread news like this?

Hehe, quite interesting.

The power behind the Golden Sons, even their own power, seems to be related to the gods.

It was only natural for Kaka to think so. It seemed to him that such great power could only be wielded by a god. Roland returned to the room where he had temporarily settled, then in the system photo album, he reopened the spell model of Dimensional Anchor.

The densely packed nodes gave him a headache.

It was more complex than any spell model Roland had ever seen before.

Many of the nodes were even leaning on each other.

These kinds of nodes that were close to each other also existed in the previous models he learned. However, there were usually only two or three aggregated together.

Roland called such nodes aggregated nodes.

The nodes of Dimensional Anchor, however, not only had many large nodes, but many were also four or five nodes gathered together.

This kind of composite node would greatly affect the difficulty of circulating the magic.

"Somewhat troublesome." Roland closed the album after reading it.

This magic was difficult and not something that could be mastered in a short period of time, so right now his focus was still on the Spell Puppet's derivative spell.

He still had to figure out how to make the scout-type Spell Puppets not only have the ability to transmit images, but also have the ability to transmit sound.

Roland was working hard on it, and so was Kaka.

He was still digesting what Roland had taught him. The more he learned, the more he admired Roland.

Adding new nodes to an already perfect spell model in order to change the function of the spell…

This was easy to say, but actually doing it would be much more difficult.

Would the new nodes cause damage to the original nodes? Would they affect the smoothness of circulating the spell? Would they change the original spell's function and make it worse?

All these things had to be taken into account…

Otherwise spells wouldn't have remained the same for thousands of years.

This was why Roland built mathematical models for the spell models.

Each node's function and characteristics were recorded, and then it could be roughly deduced what the effect would be if a new node was derived nearby.

This was the reason why it was easier for Roland to change the form of the spell.

Of course, this was only one of the reasons.

The main reason was still his Magic Power Control. There were many players who knew mathematical modeling, and there were many capable people who were good at data analysis, but Roland was the only one who was ahead of all the Mages, and the main reason was this specialty.

And now Roland also felt more and more the power of this specialty.

When other players used magic, a fixed amount of MP was consumed.

They only waited to increase the damage ability of the same spell by raising their level, strengthening their equipment, and learning new specialties.

But Roland was different. He could infuse extra magic power into this spell to achieve the purpose of boosting the damage of the spell.

Normally, he could add as much as he wanted, and the one thing that could restrict him from raising the damage cap was the strength of his mental power, which controlled magic power and his own mana limit.

So in the future, if he chose a specialty, he would develop it in these two areas.

After more than four hours of deriving nodes, Roland felt a little dizzy.

After making a backup of the new spell model, Roland browsed the forums.

After more than half a year of training, most of the players now had a clear idea of what kind of path they should take in the game.

Players who liked to play at commerce, for example, were already running businesses, and while they were scattered all over the world, they could use the forums to exchange the current market price of items then post it on the forum. Soon after, the Commerce section was opened by the administrators in response to this, and they even established their own Cornucopia guild to progress together. Their ideal was to become great capitalists in this world, controlling the prices and flow of goods in a city, or even a country.

Of course, at the moment they were all still small merchants, relying on their Backpack to carry their goods, running between the wilderness and the city, dying from time to time—these "merchants" had the lowest average level.

Those who liked to dig up history, almost all of them were employed as Lorewalkers, collecting gossip and legends every day and compiling them.

And then there were those who liked to dig up other people's graves, and under the cause of archeology, they robbed graves. The disparity between the rich and poor of this group of people was very serious—the rich were extremely poor, while the poor were so poor that they chewed on bark everyday as food.

It was good that there was an Iron Stomach specialty, and after reaching a high level, one could even digest dirt so that they wouldn't starve to death

There was no need to mention those who liked adventure. Everyone knew what those people did.

What was really surprising was a group of casual players… They became proficient in the instruments of this world and began to form groups to tour major cities, now gaining fame among the noble class.

Opera, pop music, pure music, and symphonies.

Eastern, Western… Central Asian.

There was so much music, so many songs to draw from in reality. Their shows were never repeated, and already many noble debutantes, who brought their own servants and carriages, were tailing behind them to watch their shows, becoming fangirls. "We're going on a cultural invasion." That was their slogan.

After looking at it for a while, Roland found a thread in the general area. Newcomer Seeking Guidance, How Should I Add Points if I Want to Become a Powerful Mage?

There's a newcomer?

Roland clicked into the thread curiously.

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Chapter 205 Who Dares to Take Our Stuff?

Roland had always felt it was his duty to make it easier for new Mages to get started on the path of magic.

He intended to give the newcomer some advice, but it turned out that he didn't need to speak at all when he clicked in.

Answers had already been provided by enthusiastic players.

This was a lucky person who got the immersive cabin from a court auction.

It cost over four million.

He'd heard that Mages were powerful, that one big shot had wiped out half the guild and demolished the city gates all by himself, and then he had also especially found the video of this. As expected, he was impressed and filled with excitement.

He asked in the thread how to become a powerful mage like that big shot.

"If you think you have talent, then you can do full intelligence growth with 6 mental power. But I'd still suggest you do 7, 5, 9, 7, 5 balanced type of attribute point allocation. Those who used it have said it's good, it can save you from taking a lot of detours, and it was created by the big shot you speak of, even the data powerhouse O'Neal praised it ceaselessly."

"Why can't I pick the 10, 6 point allocation? That big shot should have this kind of point allocation."

"Why? Because there are thousands of Mages and only one Roland."

"Maybe I can do it too."

"Hahaha, there are many people who think so, but it turns out there's still only one Roland."

"Upstairs, just let him try. How will you know how ordinary you are if you don't try!"

Seeing this, Roland closed the thread.

Because he felt a bit embarrassed.

Then, accidentally, he saw another thread.

We Have Established Ourselves on the Outskirts of Sicilia, Comrades Who Are Willing to Overthrow This Rotten World Please Come and Fight With Us.

Roland frowned and clicked into the thread.

The content of the post was all dry. Firstly, they talked about how they had cultivated fertile land in the outer forest of this commercial town and built a lot of cottages, repaired wheat fields, and established a clean water source. Now many NPCs have also been brought into the fold and were being taught what slavery is, what feudalism is, and what advanced productivity concepts are, and so on.

These NPCs were the sparks of the future.

And they needed more players to act as instructors and leaders to grow the organization. The responses at the bottom of the thread were pretty polarized. There were lots of supporters and lots of naysayers, about half and half.

"That's pretty interesting, count me in." "You're all crazy, it's just a game, what's with starting a reform."

"One has to have some ideals. There's always something one will go crazy for. I feel like it's fun, I'd like to join."

"Don't joke about this, a game is a game, don't get so worked up."

Roland read a few pages of replies. I remembered that this player posted something similar before. It hasn't even been three months, but he already built his own hidden base.

He takes action quickly.

It was just that Roland still didn't like their actions. Productivity and combat power was predominantly advantageous for the nobles as well as the major churches of this world, and there were gods, an existence like a nuclear bomb.

At Falken's funeral, Roland saw angels descending from the sky. It was clear that there were gods in this world. A reformation, but even the gods would be struck down. Would the latter stand idly by?

Even if they didn't personally come down and just sent a few demigods, there probably wouldn't be many people who could stop them.

Roland was now one of the best combat players himself, and he knew too well how useful high-end fighting ability could be in a battle, or battlefield.

He thought about it and didn't leave a message.

And then he went to look up other threads.

About three hours later, it was dawn.

Roland had breakfast with Kaka on the first floor, then he went to another Archmage's Magic Tower to find an old Mage named Thor.

It turns out… the old Mage wasn't there.

Roland shrugged and left this Magic Tower and returned to the streets, but was surprised to see a black-robed man dragging a little girl along the ground by her hair.

The little girl screamed awfully, and when it got a little louder, the black-robed man immediately turned back and punched her on the head, which Roland heard from a great distance away.

Soon, there was a strand of blood plasma flowing from the little girl's head.

The black-robed man was dressed like an assassin who loved to operate in the shadows.

There were many pedestrians in the surrounding streets and many people stopped to watch, but no one went up to intervene.

Roland sighed and walked up to the black-robed man, blocking his way. This kind of matter was common in this world – it was the norm, survival of the fittest.

Roland told himself many times that he couldn't care about too many things.

However, upon seeing this scene, he still couldn't help but come forward.

When the black-robed man saw Roland blocking his way, he was stunned and asked, "Sir, what do you mean by this?"

Roland sized up the other man for a moment. "What exactly do you mean by abusing this little girl?"

Huh? The black-robed man looked at Roland's attire and smiled. "Sir, you've got your eyes on this girl?"

"That's not what I meant."

"That doesn't matter, it's yours." The black-robed man's face was hidden in the shadows of his hood, but a sneer was evident at the corner of his mouth. "Just think of it as making a friend."

After this person finished speaking, he tugged at the little girl's hair forcefully, throwing her directly in front of Roland. The girl rolled to Roland's feet, eyes closed and already unconscious.

There were bruises everywhere on this little girl's body.

Roland's face gradually turned cold.

"A warmhearted master Mage? That's rare." This black-robed man smiled, but then his expression grew stern. "Wait, you're a Golden Son?"

This black-robed man finally noticed that Roland's temperament and expression seemed to be very different from ordinary people.

"So what if I am?" Roland asked indifferently.

This black-robed man took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I have no intention of angering you, nor do I want to make an enemy of you."

This black-robed man slowly retreated, and after stepping a few meters away, he turned into a black shadow and slithered away on the ground like a snake.

This made him seem a little wretched.

Roland looked at the little girl on the ground. The blood plasma flowing from her head had begun to coagulate. He sighed, picked up the little girl, and walked toward the Church of Life.

The Church of Life was not far from the palace and occupied a large piece of land in the street.

The main body of the church building was about thirty meters tall, and the gates were fifteen meters tall.

Many commoners were kneeling under the church-they didn't dare nor could they approach the church.

The only people who could enter and exit the church were nobles and powerful professionals.

Roland carried the little girl inside, and immediately a priest in a white robe with green edges greeted him. He looked at Roland and then at the little girl, and kindly asked, "Do you need treatment?"

Roland nodded.

The male priest brushed the little girl's hair aside, looked at the wound, and said, "It's not a serious injury, one silver coin will do."

Roland laid the little girl flat on the altar and took out a silver coin.

The male priest sprinkled a green light on the little girl's forehead, then said, "It'll be about half an hour before she wakes up."Roland had to sit down on the bench next to him and wait quietly.

A shadow wandered against the corner of the street, entered an alley, and then wormed under the door of a certain room.

Inside was a large warehouse, and a dozen similarly dressed black-robed men were gathered there as well.

The serpentine shadow reverted to its human form, and he looked at the only sitting black-robed man and said, "Boss, the target has been taken."

"Who dares to rob the Shadow Assassins Guild?"

"A Golden Son."

"F*k, these damned off-world monsters are always ruining our business. How many times has it been this month?"

"Boss, I don't think we can be that high-profile anymore. Isn't it good to go back to being a rat again? The Golden Sons even dared to kill the mayor of a city. If we do something in broad daylight and they bump into us, they will definitely step in our way."

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Chapter 206 Talent

The seated black-robed man snorted and said unhappily, "Why do we of the Shadow Guild have to live in the shadows? It's understandable that we hide in the shadows when we go on missions, but when we live in general, why must we be sneaky? Don't you want your own daughter to proudly tell others that her father is a powerful assassin?" "We're assassins, boss. Not good at open combat-being identified is about as good as having a weakness exposed."

"That's because we're not united, and we're not intimidating enough." The black-robed boss suddenly stood up and shouted in extreme annoyance, "Spellcasters who also aren't good at head-on conflict, why are they so respected? Because they brag. They climb into the noble class and find ways to make a name for themselves, and in time, they become the benchmark for all professionals. Don't you want to be like the Mages who usually stand in the sunlight and live?"

The others all revealed yearning expressions.

The black-robed man who had just been scared away by Roland sighed long and deeply and didn't say anything else.

He wanted to live in the sunlight as well.

The little girl that he had just dragged on the street was the daughter of a debt dodger who owed money to their guild. The other party refused to pay back the money, so he had no choice but to seize the other party's daughter.

This little girl looked smooth-skinned and was also rumored to be literate, so selling her might barely pay the debt.

The reason why he had to act so strongly on the streets was to follow the pattern laid out by the chairman. This way, it would instill a threat in the minds of the civilians around him and directly demonstrate to them the power of the Shadow Guild.

If people with an overabundance of righteousness got in the way, and if they were weak or looked like they had a chance of winning, throw the hostage at them first. Wait for them to relax their nerves, then just immediately stab their heart with a dagger.

In this way, the world would be warned not to mess with the Shadow Guild.

They were just going to rob people in broad daylight and hang out in the open in a dignified manner. The night was theirs, and they would also have their share of the daylight.

This was a good idea, and the boss was also a very well-organized person.

He thought it was good. The idea had been implemented well at first, and although it had caused some resentment from some of the professionals' guilds, those guilds hadn't said anything. They were able to come out in the daytime for a breath of fresh air and do something big to intimidate civilians or other professionals and strengthen the deterrent effect of their Shadow Assassins Guild.

They just didn't expect that a few months ago, a group of special humans who called themselves the Golden Sons would suddenly appear.

This group was scattered in different cities in twos and threes.

It wasn't like they hadn't seen any creatures from a different plane before-Succubus, Cerberus, and angels of the divine realm, and so on were all from a different plane.

But the Golden Sons were different; they were very meddlesome. No matter whether one was a guild executive, a noble, or a commoner, as long as they didn't see eye to eye with you, they would pick a bone with you.

And then a problem arose when they had some conflicts with the Shadow Guild's operations.

At first, these Golden Sons were weak, and killing them was easy. But within two or three hours of killing them, these guys fought back, only to reveal later that they were a special race of undying beings.

If this one case was just an accident, then that was fine.

But then, many of the quests of the Shadow Guild in various locations were spoiled by these guys.

Although the Shadow Guild was able to come out in a big way during the day after all this mess, they were still used to working at night.

The Golden Sons, these eyesores, actually didn't need to sleep. They were just also just as energetic at night and loved to scurry around, taking a second glance at things that were any bit abnormal.

Then things got very unpleasant, and many Shadow Guild operations, such as assassinations, family exterminations, were all intercepted by them.

When they were terrorizing civilians during the day, they clashed with them again.

Over the past two or three months, the two sides had broken out into at least a thousand battles in various places.

At first, they were able to keep the Golden Sons at bay, but after two or three months, the Golden Sons got used to fighting and beat them down one-sidedly.

This black-robed man had also participated in several battles against the Golden Sons, and although he hadn't been killed, his mentality had taken a toll.

He already knew the Golden Sons' character and temperament well.

He thought there would be no Golden Sons in the capital, but he still unexpectedly encountered one.

The temperament of the Golden Sons was very unique-arrogant—but different from the cold arrogance of the nobles, with a kind of "I am more literate and more experienced than you" kind of arrogance.

This was quite irritating.

After holding back his resentment, this black-robed man thought for a moment and said, "Boss, I have an idea. Since the Golden Sons are so powerful, why don't we find a way to recruit a few of them?" The guild boss's eyes lit up. "Good, you've got a good idea. As long as we have the Golden Sons as a bridge, we'll be able to know what those monsters are thinking. In future missions, we can also find ways to avoid them. It's even possible to drive them to kill each other."

Everyone in the room laughed mischievously.

In the Church of Life, Roland sat down, and only then did he find a quest notification.

Opening it, he found it a bit funny.

Completed secondary quest: Save the Bullied Little Girl. Received 64 EXP.

Completed secondary quest: Find a way to Save the Little Girl. Received 142 EXP. Just now he was so focused on saving the little girl that he didn't even notice that he had already received the notification for quest completion.

This could be thought of as good karma. Roland smiled.

At this time, the little girl on the altar woke up.

As soon as she opened her eyes, after a moment's confusion, she immediately crawled up in shock, rolled over and got off the altar, then leaned her back against the altar, sat down and shrank into a ball, and kept looking left and right, extremely scared.

Roland stood up, walked over, and squatted down in front of her.

When this little girl saw Roland, she was even more terrified, holding her head in her hands, shaking all over, not daring to look at anyone.

"It's okay. You're safe." Roland gently reassured her. "Where's your house? I'll take you home."

Certain children had a strange intuition and knew whether someone was good or bad just by listening to them.

This little girl probably had a similar intuition. When she heard Roland's voice, she timidly raised her head and said, "Mijil's family lives on the east main street… Big brother, can you take me back to my dad?"

"Of course." Roland smiled.

Then the system sent a message.

New secondary quest received: Escort the Little Girl Home.

It really was good karma… For the current Roland, quest experience was a pretty important thing.The experience points gained from learning magic alone was no longer effective in leveling up.

He just liked this kind of simple and convenient quest.

It would be nice if there were a few more of them.

And half an hour later, Roland found that his wish seemed to be fulfilled.

Just when he sent the little girl back to the east main street, he actually triggered two quests in succession.

New secondary quest received: Mediate.

New secondary quest received: Clues About the Queen.

Hmm?

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Chapter 207 Quest System Anomaly

Clues about the queen?

Roland looked to his left and right. There were pedestrians all around him, all seemingly normal, nothing unusual at all. Why was this secondary quest suddenly updated?

He hadn't done anything himself.

He was confused when suddenly there was a cry from the front: "Mijil!"

A graceful woman rushed over and hugged the little girl, crying.

Roland, on the other hand, continued to check his surroundings, or see if there was anyone special nearby.

But for the time being, there was no one to be seen.

The quest was updated, which meant that there must be a clue to the missing queen nearby.

At this time, an obese middle-aged man came over, he stood in front of Roland with some apprehension and said, "Sir, it was you who sent Mijil back, wasn't it?"

Roland nodded. He had little desire to talk to this man and was inspecting the surroundings, afraid of missing something abnormal.

This middle-aged man had a very average appearance, with a mustache and a very average male face, the extremely ordinary kind.

When he saw that Roland didn't say anything, he gritted his teeth and continued to ask, "Sir, if Mijil is sent back, will those men from the Shadow Guild still come to trouble me?"

"I didn't know what troubles there were between you." Roland's gaze finally turned to the middle-aged man, who looked a little confused. "I just saw on the street that Mijil was about to get killed and went to save her."

When the middle-aged man heard this, his face became unhappy. "Sir… this, you're a bit…."

Hmm? Roland looked at the other party somewhat strangely.

The middle-aged man felt uncomfortable all over after being stared at by Roland like that, but he still said forcefully, "Sir, we owe money to the Shadow Guild, and they wouldn't have bothered us if they'd taken Mijil, but you sent her back again…."

The middle-aged man didn't say the next words, but Roland understood that the former felt him a nuisance for being nosy.

Roland's mood suddenly turned sour.

The woman who was holding Mijil crouched on the ground and cried out as she heard this. "You're crazy, how can you be willing to sell Mijil. Didn't you hear that they were going to beat Mijil to death?"

The middle-aged man, however, was even angrier. He practically jumped up and shouted, "If we didn't let the Shadow Guild take her, were we going to let them take Cruz and Gawain? Or take you to pay our debts as a strumpet for them?"

were

The middle-aged woman was dumbfounded for a moment, unable to speak, and could only weep silently. Then she hugged her daughter even harder.

Mijil looked to be six years old, and she could already understand a lot of things. She also understood that her parents didn't seem to want her anymore, and suddenly her little face blanched and tears fell down in heaps.

Roland shook his head helplessly repeatedly when he saw this scene.

He didn't know anything about the cause and effect but simply felt that neither parents were qualified at all.

After some thought, he walked over, took the little girl's hand, and said, "Come on, I'll take you with me first, and I'll find a place for you to settle."

The woman let go of Mijil and turned to wipe her tears.

The middle-aged obese man was relieved.

Roland pulled the little girl away. It was not a good idea to think about the quest in this situation, so he simply gave up for now.

The little girl very obediently let Roland lead her, but she looked back from time to time as she walked away, watching her parents gradually grow distant, her tears flowing more and more profusely.

However, she never cried out.

Roland pretended not to see anything and tensed his face, but in reality, he felt awful.

After walking for a while, he suddenly cried out inwardly in surprise. He stopped and used his mind to open the system notification.

Secondary quest renewed: Find the Kidnapped Queen.

Secondary quest: Mediate failed.

Hmm?

Roland looked behind him, his eyebrows quirked as he retreated a few steps with Mijil.

As he had predicted, the quest was refreshed again. Secondary quest renewed: Clues About the Queen.

As expected, this was the quest area.

However, the Mediate quest didn't refresh again, so it seemed to be a time-sensitive quest.

He smiled slightly, vaguely understanding some of the basic principles of the quest system.

Then he continued forward.

Secondary quest renewed: Find the Kidnapped Queen.

This time Roland didn't bother with the quest system anymore and just brought Mijil to Kaka's manor.

When Kaka finished his study of derivative magic, he just happened to be walking in the garden and was a little surprised to see Roland return with a little girl. "Who's this?"

Upon seeing Kaka, the little girl instinctively hid behind Roland's back.

Roland patted the little girl's head, signaling for her not to be afraid, and then he explained what happened. Then he continued, "For the time being, I'll leave this little one here. Don't let those servants of yours bully her."

"I'm already a little powerless to defend myself, so it might be hard to take care of her." Kaka shook his head helplessly.

It wasn't that he didn't want to help, but now that most of his servants had been bribed by his eldest and second brothers, the thoughts of the rest were already with someone else. These servants still didn't dare to disobey the orders that Kaka gave now, but he could tell that they didn't respect him much anymore.

It was just that he was still the third young master after all, and the servants didn't dare to go overboard.

But if it was this little girl, the situation would be different.

The servants wouldn't dare to trip up Kaka, but it was hard for him to guarantee that they wouldn't bully this little girl behind his back.

Roland scratched his head, he now felt more and more the importance of Teleportation.

If he knew Long Distance Teleportation, he would just take Mijil and teleport back to Delpon's Magic Tower first, settle her down, and then teleport back.

How convenient that would be.

Instead of the current situation, there was no way to find a place to house Mijil.

Just when Roland was in a dilemma, Mijil suddenly pulled the hem of Roland's robe and said, "Mijil has a place to stay."

Oh?

Roland then let Mijil take him by the hand and lead him out of the manor, all the way to the west of the city.

Turning from the west commercial street into an alleyway that was off the beaten path, Mijil then pulled a key attached to a red cord from under her own neck and unlocked the door to the two-story building in front of her.

No one seemed to have lived here for a very long time. The house smelled of earth and mold, and there were plenty of cobwebs hanging from the corners.

"This is where my grandma and grandpa live. They left the key to Mijil when they went to the kingdom of gods."

Mijil looked a little distressed. It seemed that she already understood the concept of life, old age, sickness, and death.

Are all the children in this world so mature?

They cleaned the small building, then found the closet in the bedroom on the second floor, took out the mattress, and laid it on the bed. Mijil sat in the corner of the bed with her arms around her legs.

The circles around her eyes began to redden again.

Roland didn't comfort her because he thought it was better for children to cry if they had any grievances; suppressing them could easily lead to neurosis.

Mijil did begin to cry, sobbing stiflingly for a long time.Then in the evening, she fell asleep.

Roland tucked her in, then left a defensive Spell Puppet and a magic scouting spider behind the window.

Then he left and went to the east main street again.

As night fell, the capital was under curfew again.

Roland found a hotel on the east main street. It was the most luxurious hotel and it was in an excellent location.

He sat on the fifth-floor balcony and drank fruit wine. The view was excellent and he could observe almost the entire stretch of the east main street.

Roland looked at his quest system. Secondary quest renewed: Clues About the Queen.

Then he casually threw down two scout-type magic spiders.

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Chapter 208 Quest Loophole

Before nightfall, Roland had walked three or four circles around the east main street and had already scouted out the general range of the quest area. It was basically a circle, and the center point was in a very large brothel compound.

The quest area was about a three hundred meter radius with this building as the center.

In other words, the clues related to the queen's disappearance were in this area.

The two magic spiders disappeared from the balcony with great speed.

Then, an image or two flashed in Roland's mind from time to time.

One spider went directly to the most central point of the quest, the extremely luxurious brothel compound.

The other one went from house to house to see if there was anything unusual. Having only two magic spiders to scout wasn't too efficient, but it was much better than Roland risking being discovered during the curfew himself.

Originally there were three of them. Roland also kept one beside Mijil in case the Shadow Guild came looking for trouble again-only one guard puppet was still a bit unsafe. If he had eyes there, then it would be better to know what was going on, and in case something really happened, the rescue would become more targeted.

He wouldn't be like a headless fly ramming into things all over the place.

The first spider had lurked unnoticed from the shadowy corner of the street into the backyard of the brothel mansion, then crawled along the wall to a balcony on the second floor and infiltrated the room after verifying that no one was watching

Meanwhile, the second spider had been moving in and out of the merchant buildings on the street, looking for anything suspicious.

These Spell Puppets would inherit the summoner's common sense and some cognitive abilities, while the magic spider had been specially enhanced by Roland in these areas until they were at a similar level as Roland.

In other words, the anomalies or clues that Roland could find, it was reasonable to say that they could as well.

Roland sat quietly on the balcony, enjoying the night view while savoring fruit wine.

All he had to do was to sit quietly and wait for the snippets of footage that the spider sent back.

But even then, Roland still felt that it was not very efficient. There were only two… If there were a hundred, or even if there were only forty-five, then the efficiency of scouting would be greatly improved.

It was just that as a level-zero spell, the Spell Puppet's model capacity was so only so large, and now it was just about at its limit. Roland estimated that fixing up another sound transmission function for it was the limit.

In other words, it was fine for scouting a small area or tracking one or two enemies, but it was less capable than desired for a large area search like this.

'How should I increase the number of scouting magic spiders?'

This was a difficult problem.

If he wanted to increase the number, he had to give up something, but both picture transmission and synchronized sound transmission were important.

"Is there any specialty in spell cloning or something like that?" Roland said to himself.

Then more and more images were transmitted into Roland's mind. There were merchants working on their tables, scholars reading books, and goblin couples fighting[1]. And when the first magic spider completely entered the brothel compound, there were more images of goblins fighting.

Roland felt a bit helpless, wanting very much to summon the first spider back, but the brothel compound was the central point of the quest area, so the search could not be abandoned.

Two spiders were still too inefficient in their search and found little that was useful or peculiar.

It would soon be morning, and the marble white color of the dawn sky already appeared on the horizon.

Roland reckoned that he might have to return home empty-handed tonight, but just then, the second spider suddenly sent over an image of several black-robed people holding a cloth sack, walking towards a gloomy alley.

Something seems to be wiggling in the cloth sack?

A kidnapping? This world really was dark-at night, just by sending two spiders out, he could see terrible things.

Roland pondered for a while. Not waiting for him to decide whether to go and see what was going on or not, the quest system triggered once again.

Received secondary quest: Save the Poor Commoners.

It was a quest, a system-certified quest-it had to be completed no matter what.

Roland stood up and looked outside.

Although the curfew hadn't ended yet, this time of day was close to dawn, so the night curfew wasn't really that important anymore.

Moreover, Roland was a Mage, and even if he was caught violating the curfew at this time, the patrol would most likely turn a blind eye.

Although the queen's disappearance was orchestrated by a Mage, a few days had passed and the king's anger had subsided quite a bit.

It was a simple desire of the rank-and-file soldiers to not offend a Mage if they could.

Roland got up and left the hotel, heading straight to the location of the kidnappers.

Since the spider had been following the black-robed men, Roland wasn't worried about them getting away.

Halfway there, Roland did encounter a patrol.

But just as he guessed, the heavily armed patrol didn't show any hostile intent when they saw Roland, and the lead officer even gave him a slight nod in greeting.

Roland naturally nodded lightly as well.

The two sides simply walked past each other.

Roland could feel that the soldiers let out a light breath of relief.

Arriving at the entrance of the alley, Roland walked right in.

It was dark inside, and Roland subconsciously wanted to illuminate it with a Light Ball, but he was afraid of being caught off guard and had to stop.

The alley stunk, the disgusting smell of urine mixed with that of feces.

Roland held his nose and walked forward slowly; it was dark after all. After a few turns, he stopped at the corner, thinking about how he should deal with the dozen or so black-robed men.

There weren't any houses here, just two walls, and further back, a wide wasteland, and even further away, the city walls.

The dull sound of a beating came from ahead.

It was accompanied by talking. "Sironato, now it's time for you to tell me where the hell you've been hiding the person."

"I don't… know." A suppressed voice could be heard. "It doesn't matter if you don't say anything, I'll kill you, and then your wife and son." A voice that sounded quite gentle said these disturbing words. "I'm a very reasonable person. You wronged me first, but for the sake of old friendship, I don't want to trouble you. But now you actually hid the person. Don't you know they're very important to me? If the person can't be found, I'll have to die." "I really don't know!" the voice yelled and coughed twice.

"Alas, I really don't want to do anything to you," this gentle voice said. "Even though you betrayed me, my life and the safety of my brothers are truly at stake." This seems… a little off.

Roland looked at the panel given by the quest system and then thought about the quest area, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Dyat, I really don't know," the voice cried out. "I know I've wronged you, but I really don't know about this.""You really don't kn

"I don't know!" The man's cries grew louder.

"Then forget it." The gentle voice sighed. "You can go now. I'll trust you one more time, and if you're still lying to me, you know the consequences…"

Then there was the sound of stumbling and hurried footsteps moving away.

Roland looked at his system's panel.

Quest failed: Save the Poor Commoner.

Roland tsked inwardly. He was looking for clues about the queen, but instead, he saw a bug, or loophole, in the quest system!

[1] Not really goblins fighting

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Chapter 209 My Stupid Brother

Roland watched as the quest bar that turned red faded away and then disappeared.

He kind of understood now how the quest system worked. It seemed to be that if anything was found on the player's side, it could be converted into a quest.

But there was a conversion rate, or at least Roland felt that his quest acquisition rate was far lower in Red Mountain Town than here.

Was it because there were fewer quests in the newbie village and more quests in the advanced maps?

Most importantly, the quest just now seemed to have gone wrong. The quest was intended to save the "pitiful" commoner.

But from what he had just heard, the commoner wasn't pitiful at all.

Or… the quest was right, the civilian was actually pitiful, and what he had heard was just false information?

Interesting

Roland gave the magic spider a new order to follow the black-robed man.

On the other hand, Roland headed back, but instead of going to the hotel, he went to Mijil's house. He unlocked the door with his key and lightly entered the house before gently pushing open the bedroom door. The Guardian Puppet was still sitting crouched in the corner, and the magic spider was still hanging from the window.

Mijil was still sleeping.

Roland watched her for a moment and was about to leave when Mijil woke up.

She crawled up and screamed, "Daddy, don't sell me…"

Mijil's eyes were open wide and her face was filled with fear as she looked around and finally came to her senses with a depressed expression on her face.

Roland walked over to her and gently stroked her little head for a moment, consoling her. "It's okay, get up and eat breakfast."

Mijil nodded. She found the clothes her grandmother had prepared for her in the closet and changed into them, then followed Roland downstairs.

Roland took out the cakes that Vivian had made from his Backpack… It was also fortunate that the system came with a spatial backpack, otherwise, these cakes would have rotted long ago.

Most children loved sweets, and Mijil was no exception.

After she ate a few bites, she was in a significantly better mood.

Roland hastily ate some dry food, then pointed to the blue guardian puppet that followed him down and said, "Mijil, this is the little friend I summoned to protect you, so don't be afraid."

Mijil had already seen it, but she saw that Roland didn't speak to her about it, so she didn't ask any questions.

It was a little heartbreaking to be so sensible at such a young age.

She nodded her head to show that she understood, then asked timidly, "Big brother, are you going out?" "Call me Roland from now on," Roland said gently. "It's true that there's something going on, and I might not be able to take care of you if I bring you with me. So will you just stay at home?"

Mijil nodded vigorously.

"Here's some food, and if I'm not back by noon, you can eat it yourself first, then take a nap."

Mijil nodded slightly again. After giving some instructions, Roland left the house.

As she watched Roland leave and close the door, the room became dark again, even a little cold.

Mijil sat on a chair and folded her legs. She cupped hands on her knees and buried her head in her legs, then soft crying sounded in the room.

Roland arrived at Kaka's manor and ended up being stopped at the door.

He found that the guards who stopped him were fresh faces, no longer the two he had seen yesterday.

"Kaka and I are friends, can you go give notice?" Roland said in a low voice as he looked at the two guards.

But the guard shook his head. "Sorry, but Kaka is not seeing visitors right now."

Hmm?

Roland's gaze passed over the two guards and saw that there was actually a group of soldiers standing in the distant garden.

And Kaka was right in the middle of this group of soldiers. Only his back could be seen, but his hair and magic robe were disheveled.

And then his growling voice was faintly heard: "Let go of me, or don't blame me for being rough with you."

He could vaguely be seen struggling, but that didn't seem to help.

Is he being forced?

Roland snapped his fingers and an extremely low-powered Ice Ring appeared close to the ground, staining the ground within a five-meter radius with a layer of white frost.

The two guards were frozen in place with a look of horror.

Roland smiled at them. "Don't worry, it will unravel itself in a few minutes."

Then he ignored the two guards and pushed straight through the door and walked in.

When he got close enough, someone from the group of soldiers, or private soldiers, who held Kaka, spotted him and immediately drew their sword, yelling at him, "Sir, stop. Please do not come any closer, or we will consider you an enemy." Roland lightly waved his hand, and the slightly enhanced Ice Ring struck again.

A ring of ice swept across the ground, and with him as the center, the grass about ten meters around him was frozen.

Everyone's feet were frozen in the ice.

Including Kaka's

When Kaka saw him, his formerly indignant expression began to ease, even showing joy. "Why do you look more and more wretched?" Roland asked as he stepped forward. Karka Bard was about to speak when the lead junior officer immediately snapped, "Master Mage, please, you'd better think about how you conduct yourself. This is the Bard's house, and this is internal Bard business, so please don't interfere recklessly."

"But Kaka is my friend," Roland said with a smile.

The officer snorted. "Since you're a Mage, you should know the Bard family's position in the Association of Mages' headquarters. If you really annoy the Bard family, even if you're a Mage, you'll have a hard time."

"Does this count as a fox masquerading as a tiger?" Roland laughed. The game world didn't have the idiomatic expression "a fox masquerading as a tiger," but Roland had Language Proficiency cast on him at this moment, so it translated into a colloquialism with similar meaning.

The officer's face immediately turned red, and he began to use more force, his right leg starting to slowly pivot out of the ice layer, directly cracking a large chunk of ice next to him.

The small officer looked at Roland with a smug and fierce look and was about to set his sword to strike.

As a result, Roland stretched out his fingers and a cloud of intensely cold air was directly pulled from the atmosphere, wafting into the officer's legs

The cold air struck too quickly and the officer couldn't move freely at the moment, so he had no chance to dodge and was directly hit by the cold air.

Then… his legs were frozen again.

This time the ice around him increased by a huge amount, freezing all of his calves below his knees into the ice.

"You actually…" The officer was shocked, struggled hard for a moment, and found it impossible to break free, so he shouted angrily at Roland, "You're finished! Eldest Young Master won't let you go."

"So rampant?" Roland looked to Kaka. "What is his identity?" "Big Brother's trusted subordinate, and the future leader of the Bard is expected to be Big Brother, so he feels like he's half a master of the Bard family."Kaka shrugged helplessly as he pulled his legs out of the ice. As he was also a Mage, his magic resistance was quite a bit higher than the average professional, so the restrictions of the Ice Ring weren't that effective on him.

"Yesterday it was your second brother, today it's your big brother, you're really not welcomed by your family." Roland chuckled.

Kaka said indifferently, "How much affection can there be in a big family! I'm used to it."

"You can't say that—I've always loved you, my stupid brother."

A voice sounded behind the two.

Roland and Kaka turned and saw a young, handsome man in red magic robes come in from outside.

Behind him, he was followed by four graceful and charming female Mages

A handsome man and some beautiful women, coupled with their firm strides and noble aura, looked extremely ostentatious.

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Chapter 210 Discovery

The big red magic robes were quite eye-catching, not to mention the four female Mages behind him.

Aldo couldn't even find a female Mage to have children with, so he had to work on his maidservants every day, hoping for a miracle like last time to grant him offspring. And this guy was followed by four of them… The distribution of resources was so unbalanced.

The two of them looked at the visitors. Kaka's face was gloomy and alert, while Roland was a bit curious.

Because this visitor was obviously Kaka's big brother, and unlike the obvious hostility of Felwood, this young man even wore an expression of hatred.

"Lance," Kaka muttered. "Call me Big Brother." The young man, who was extremely ostentatious, stopped a few meters in front of Kaka and said, "I can't remember when our relationship was this bad."

Roland wrinkled his brow.

"You didn't send these people?" Kaka pointed at the soldiers frozen in the ice. "They're your direct subordinates. You're going to kill me, and you won't allow me to treat you any worse?"

The expressions of these soldiers suddenly turned quite foul, but there was no sign of fear.

"They are indeed my soldiers," Lance said with a smile, "but there are others who can command them besides me. Father and Mother, for example."

Kaka froze, then looked at the officer. "Who the hell sent you?"

The officer looked at Kaka, then at Lance, and said helplessly, "Young masters, please give our two masters some face. I don't want to say, and I can't say."

Lance chuckled softly. "I understand. All right, you guys can get lost now."

These soldiers, still frozen by the ice, turned their attention to Roland after hearing this.

Roland snapped his fingers and undid the Ice

Ring.

Then Lance turned his attention to Roland. "This must be Mr. Roland. Kaka has been under your care for the past few days. Please allow me to say thank you."

Roland waved his hand indifferently.

"Come in and talk." Kaka pulled open the door and said, "Mr. Roland, please come in as well."

The three of them went up to the second floor of the study and sat down around a table.

The four female Mages guarded the door.

"I've been busy with a very important matter for the past few days, so I didn't have time to help you. And according to what I gathered, it should be some time before you go away to inherit the territory, but I didn't expect that you would be targeted."

Kaka was feeling depressed now and he shook his head. "I can understand Felwood sending someone to drive me away, he never liked me much. But why would Father…"

At this time, Lance looked at Roland.

And Roland immediately understood that the two brothers had a private matter to discuss, and he stood up and said, "Oh right, I have some things to take care of, so I'll leave first."

Kaka was a bit puzzled, but looking at his big brother, he still nodded. "Mr. Roland, thank you for your trouble this time too."

With a smile, Roland left the room and the manor under the gazes of the four female Mages.

As he was walking toward the west main street, a middle-aged woman knocked on Mijil's door.

Mijil, who had been sitting on a chair without moving, looked up, and somewhat delighted, she trotted to the door of the room, waited for a moment, and asked expectantly, "Is it big brother?"

"Mijil, it's me, Mom."

After a brief moment of stunned silence, an astonishing brightness burst in Mijil's eyes, and she immediately opened the door.

The middle-aged woman dashed in and hastily closed the door again, then grabbed Mijil and said sobbingly, "I knew you were here, my baby. It's so good that you're okay."

Feeling the warm, familiar embrace, Mijil began to cry as well. Mother and daughter cried for nearly half an hour before they slowly restrained their overflowing emotions.

Taking her daughter's hand, the middle-aged woman was about to go upstairs when she suddenly saw a strange blue man standing in the shadows of the corner of the room, and was so startled that she covered her heart and almost screamed.

"It's okay, Mom. It's a magical creature left behind by big brother to protect me, it won't hurt us."

The middle-aged woman was relieved.

Since the Spell Puppet would inherit the summoner's knowledge, it had recognized that this was Mijil's mother, so naturally it wouldn't do anything. They went upstairs and the Spell Puppet followed them.

"Mom, are you taking me back?" Mijil asked expectantly.

The middle-aged woman shook her head. "No, your father still owes a lot of money, and even if the assassins don't take you away, the other creditors will do so."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"You will live here, with that benevolent Master Mage," the middle-aged woman said faintly. "Remember to keep your keys. The deed of this house is written in your name. Your father does not know and you must never let him know. Understand? Otherwise, you won't even have a place to settle in the future."

"What about you guys? And Big Brother and Second Brother, will they be taken away too?" Mijil asked in a quiet voice.

"It doesn't matter. In fact, your father has quite a bit of money stashed away and when he's forced to, he'll take it out so no harm will come to me or your two brothers," the middle-aged woman said softly.

Mijil's eyelids dropped and her head lowered. "Father never liked me."

The middle-aged woman smiled bitterly.

There was a reason for that. In fact, her husband was a pretty nice guy. But the problem was that Mijil wasn't his daughter.

More than six years ago, a minor nobleman had framed her husband for tax evasion, and it was she who had volunteered herself to serve him with her life, which finally made the minor nobleman give up on suppressing her husband.

This sort of thing was common in the noble class, far too common.

Her husband felt ashamed to face her, so he had actually been very good to her. It was just that Mijil was born nine months later, much to the husband's resentment.

Because she was the daughter of that minor nobleman, not his.

At that time, the husband had been frightened out of his wits by the minor nobleman and didn't dare to abort Mijil, so he had to let her have the baby.

Later on, as Mijil grew up, the minor nobleman's power grew more and more.

Recently, however, the minor nobleman moved his family away, and Mijil was left without a source of protection.

The husband, on the other hand, had the idea to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of Mijil.He didn't dare to really hurt Mijil himself, so he had to resort to letting her take the fall for his transgressions.

The middle-aged woman held Mijil in her arms, talking softly and soothing her gently, and it wasn't long before the little girl was asleep in her arms.

The middle-aged woman carefully placed her on the bed and stood there red-eyed for a long time before she left the little house.

Using his magic spider's perspective, Roland was already aware of the middle-aged woman's arrival, and he slowed down purposefully to allow the mother and daughter to spend more time together.

As he hesitated, searching for a tavern to drink something and browse the forums to kill some time…

The magic spider hiding in the brothel compound sent a rather interesting image.

A rather sumptuous silk dress hung on the back of a chair in a small, dark house.

And the small house had a bed, on which someone appeared to be sleeping.

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Chapter 211 Goods Acquired

The gown was lavender, and the silk was embroidered with many decorative patterns, and at the waist of the gown, there were fragmented crystalline gemstones, intertwined and twisted with silver threads to create a shimmering water drop ornament.

Silk was very expensive… The way it was made was something that humans didn't know, only the elves did.

The elves and humans didn't trade much and silk itself was very difficult to make-even among the elves, silk was considered a high-grade fabric.

This was why most of the time silk dresses were usually one of the symbols of female members of the royal family.

And most of the female members of the royal family weren't yet qualified to wear it.

Roland directed the magic spider to crawl through the ceiling, then followed the wall to approach a small bed and found that there was indeed someone sleeping in the bed, but it definitely wasn't the queen.

Because the woman sleeping in the bed wore heavy makeup and was obese, and most importantly, she was at least fifty years old. And the queen was said to be a beauty, just under thirty.

Where did that gown come from?

Roland didn't believe that such a silk gown, which was obviously a slim-fit style, would be worn by an old woman.

He immediately changed direction and turned toward the east main street quest point.

Arriving directly at the entrance of the brothel compound, Roland took a deep breath.

Although he had had s*ual relationships before, this was the first time he came to such a place.

Whether it was in reality, or in the game.

The johns that came in and out of the doorway didn't greet each other when they saw each other, they just showed a peculiar and amusing smile, as if everything could be understood if left unsaid.

Closer to the door, the more Roland could smell a strong fragrance.

This fragrance was very much like some sort of incense that seemed to be used to mask certain smells, such as… the smell of photina[1].

Roland had just arrived at the door, causing many johns to be surprised.

Why would a distinguished Master Mage come here? Wouldn't it be easy for him to find a woman?

With a beckon of the hand, even noble ladies were very willing to have some negative distance friendship with them. Several prostitutes standing at the door to receive customers, seeing Roland approaching, seemed to be even more nervous, wanting to go forward but not daring to do so. They felt that their bodies were dirty, and if they went up rashly, they might displease the Master Mage and he would turn them into frogs in anger. But as Roland got closer and closer, a braver prostitute eventually stepped forward.

Her expression was stiff and tense. "Master Mage, may I ask if you are here as a guest?"

This brothel compound seemed to be quite famous in the capital. There was a lot of traffic, and now the people near the entrance had almost stopped moving-they were slowly backing away to make room for Roland.

Most of the people who came here were ordinary people—not professionals. Only those who had nothing better to do would get in the way of a Master Mage.

Many heads even peeked out the windows on the front-facing floors, all seemingly quite interested in the matter of a Master Mage's visit to the brothel.

Being stared at by at least a hundred pairs of eyes, and all of them looking at Roland in a familiar and even approving way… This made him feel some pressure.

Who the hell is acquainted with you johns?

Roland was extremely upset, but he calmly said, "I have something I need to look for."

Many people smiled knowingly when they heard this.

Because of the game character's constant 16-year-old appearance, Roland still looked like a child now. It's the first time you've come to a brothel to learn the experience… I understand, I understand!

The surrounding people all nodded their heads inwardly, identifying with Roland even more.

Finding another subtle change in the eyes of the surrounding crowd, Roland felt quite annoyed.

It was good that the prostitute who was talking to him didn't dare to show such an expression, and she also said respectfully, "What are you looking for, Master Mage? Just tell us, as long as we have it, we'll help you find it."

"No, I'll do it myself."

Roland bypassed the prostitute in front of him and went straight through the door.

The prostitute wanted to shout, but didn't dare tell him to stop. She just followed quickly.

When Roland entered the compound, he saw a soft red carpet on the floor, and two or three magic crystal lamps, pale yellow in color, which increased the illumination to a certain extent. However, the interior was still very dim and set an ambiguous and sensual mood.

The compound covered a large area; there were men and women walking around everywhere. Roland sensed the location of the magic spider and then headed for the stairs.

When he went up to the second floor, the prostitute who was following behind him finally couldn't help but ask, "Master Mage, what exactly are you looking for?"

Roland ignored her.

He was about to go up to the third floor when a man hurriedly walked over.

He looked rather gentlemanly in his black flashy suit and a black cap.

He walked quickly, straight up to Roland, and asked, "Master Mage, if you need anything, just tell me. The ordinary women here are not good enough for you, so if you want, I can call out some of the best beauties in this compound to serve you."

This was the boss on the surface of the brothel compound.

Roland smiled slightly. "Don't worry, I know what I'm looking for."

The owner gave a look at the prostitute to make her leave, then said, "Sir, please allow me to accompany you." Roland nodded.

He knew exactly what the other party was thinking, and it was nothing more than the fear of him messing things up around here. Following the Mage, if the other party really wanted to stir up trouble, he might not be able to stop it, but at least there was the possibility of communication. That was what the boss had in mind.

Roland went up the stairs to the fourth floor, then went to the right, found a small room, and said, "Open it for me."

"This is a room for a lowly staff." The boss had a confused look on his face. "She's not very good-looking."

"If you don't open it, I'll have to do it myself."

Roland grabbed an apple-sized fireball in his right hand.

Looking at the magic radiating heat, the boss gulped and immediately opened the door with his key.It was a very dark room, and the woman on the bed was still sleeping. Roland snapped his fingers and four light balls came out, then he quickly walked in, taking the silk gown in his hands.

The boss came in as well, and when he saw the silk gown, his face turned green and rather unsightly.

He knew only too well what a silk gown meant. It could be said that all the female workers in the compound together were not worth as much as this gown. Thinking back to the recent case of the missing queen, the boss's legs began to go soft and inevitably began to tremble.

Roland put the long skirt into his Backpack, and then said with a smile, "It's too bad I didn't find what I was looking for. Isn't that right, boss?"

After being startled for two seconds, the boss nodded frantically. "Yes, yes, yes."

"But may I ask the lady some questions?"

Looking at the damned fat woman who was still sleeping on the bed at this moment, the boss kicked her in anger and said, "Hurry and get up, you idiotic woman."

[1] Photinia serratifolia; a flower that smells like semen

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Chapter 212 The Gown Left Behind in the River

The obese middle-aged woman was kicked in the belly, but fortunately, she had an extreme amount of belly fat, and although the compound owner's lower leg strength was quite something and she woke up screaming in pain, she actually suffered little damage.

"Who kicked…" The obese woman cursed, rubbing her stomach, but when she looked up and saw it was her boss, she was shocked and immediately jumped off the bed.

Because she had been sleeping, she was barely dressed, but neither Roland nor the compound's boss had any thoughts of that aspect at all when they saw her, and they even felt a bit nauseous.

After all, there was really nothing aesthetically pleasing about layers of overlapping fat jumping up and down in front of your eyes. "Boss, what are you doing here?"

The woman's expression was somewhat apprehensive and ingratiating.

"This esteemed Mage has something to ask you." The owner of the compound pointed at Roland.

The woman looked at Roland and immediately lowered her head again. It was a spellcaster that outranked even her boss, so she naturally didn't dare to have an awful attitude.

"This gown, where did you get it?" Roland held up the silk gown again and placed it in front of the woman. "I believe this is definitely not something you can afford."

When the obese woman saw the silk gown in Roland's hand, she immediately turned pale, jumped up, and threw herself at Roland, shouting, "That is mine, mine, give it back!"

However, just as she jumped up, she was pressed down by two blue Hands of Magic, unable to move.

The boss gulped as he watched the two huge blue translucent hands.

The fat woman, who was pressed to the ground, now finally came to her senses and remembered that she was facing a spellcaster. In the stories amongst commoners, spellcasters were terrifying, turning people into frogs or rats at every turn, then drying them out and grinding them into magic potions. They also heard that the effects of magic potions made from humans were much better than ordinary magic. In short… the image of spellcasters among commoners was extremely frightening.

"Answer me, where did you get it?" Roland asked.

Roland didn't have much of a negative expression, not at all fierce, but this calm appearance was the calm before the storm in the eyes of the frightened woman.

She shuddered and stammered, "By the river behind the east street."

"Tell me in detail how you found this gown."

The fat woman was afraid that Roland would truly be infuriated and immediately recounted the process. It turned out to be yesterday morning, early in the morning, when she went to the river behind the street to wash her body after receiving some old men with little money.

It was dawn and there was no one by the river, but when she came to the river, she noticed that there seemed to be a bright light flickering on the grass on the bank, and then she walked over and found this gown.

Although she was a commoner, she was a woman and had an innate notion of whether a gown was good or not and whether it was worth anything.

She carefully folded the gown on the spot and put it inside her own clothes to cover it… She was fat and tucking another folded light silk gown inside, no one could tell from the outside that she was hiding something.

Then in this way, she took the gown back to her little room.

She tried to wear it today, but found that she was too big to fit into it, and in a depressed mood, she threw it on a chair and went to bed first.

But she never imagined that it was accidentally discovered by Roland's magic spider.

"This thing doesn't belong to you, I'll take it with me first," Roland said bluntly. "I picked that up… Sir, you can't do that." The obese woman made a final struggle. "Please give it back to me."

Roland was about to go, and when he heard her say that, he smiled back and said, "You should be glad that I was the one who found this gown. If it had been found by someone else, such as the city guard Antis, you would be in prison right now, being brutally tortured."

The obese woman was too frightened to cry out anymore. Roland said to the owner of the compound, "If you guys are smart, you better forget about this matter, or else the consequences…"

The owner of the compound turned pale. Although he was rich, he was only a merchant. Even though there was a nobleman from a good family standing behind him, there was no way he would go against a Mage for him. Upon hearing this, he nodded vigorously.

Roland stored the gown in his Backpack and left the rather strange-smelling brothel compound.

As he walked, he dispelled the two magical spiders.

Now that the clues for the quest had been obtained, keeping them would only slowly deplete his magic power.

Walking down the street, Roland opened the quest system.

Secondary quest completed: Clues About the Queen.

You've received 221 EXP.

Secondary quest received: Find the Next Clue.

Roland arrived at the city's river not far behind the brothel compound.

According to what the obese woman said earlier, this was where she found the silk gown.

Roland stood on the grass by the river and subconsciously held his nose. The entire area of the capital, including the suburban towns and villages, had around two million people living on this land.

And within the walls of the capital, there were nearly half a million people.

The wastewater from half a million people was discharged into this river that passed through the capital.

There were many clumps of yellow and white things floating on the surface of the river.

The river stank severely, and there were many untouchables who were now carrying their masters' feces and pouring it into the river in a wooden manner.

There were also many poor people taking their morning baths by the river; they didn't seem to find it stinky.

After hanging around nearby for a while, Roland couldn't stand it any longer and threw down two magic spiders and ran away.

He was now glad that he had derived a scouting spell early on.

Otherwise, if he were to search around this river by himself, he would probably have to give up and delete the quest in less than half an hour.

Even if the quest was gone, he could trigger others, but to have him, a modern, clean-loving man, working in such a stinky environment was something he really couldn't stand.

Call him petulant or lacking in willpower, he wouldn't do it anyway.

It was not like it was a matter of life and death.

He retreated to the vicinity of the east main street, letting the two magic spiders search the area while he casually found a tavern and sat down.

The tavern had been quite noisy, but after he went in and sat down, it was much quieter.

After ordering a glass of fruit wine, Roland began to think about this queen's business.There were still too few clues—he was certain that the queen had been captured by a Mage, and then found a gown related to her.

The appearance of the gown by the river represented many possibilities.

For example, the queen had appeared by the river, or something nefarious had happened there. It was also possible that this was a diversionary tactic by the murderer, deliberately dropping a piece of clothing to draw people toward the river, while he escaped with the queen from another place.

However, these were just guesses and not really accurate, but there was one thing that Roland was at least sure of.

The queen had a good figure.

The silk gown was narrow at the waist, and the silk at the bust had two clusters of silk that stretched outward in an arc… This was a clear sign of it being pushed out.

I'm so scrupulous, I really have the talent to be a detective.

Roland was a bit pleased with himself.

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Chapter 213 Self-Acknowledgement

Roland pondered the problem in the tavern while waiting for the results of the magic spiders' search. And in a small town a thousand miles away, Douglas was very depressed.

He climbed up woodenly from the altar of the Church of Life.

How many times was it now that he had resurrected?

The ninth, or tenth?

The black rocky statue of the Life Goddess stood tall behind him, and the bright and beautiful sun could be seen through the windows of the chapel, but he was in no mood at all to look outside.

The excitement of being new to the game three days ago was now worn away by endless frustration.

The game was a good game, a real virtual reality game-it was just too real.

Real enough to make one want to cry.

As a famous person born with a silver spoon in his mouth in Jiang City, he hadn't believed in virtual reality games. During the time when the virtual cabin was on sale, he was playing with cars, guns, and women, living blissfully, and even put the word out in front of his friends that Penguin Corporation's virtual game was just false advertising and mostly just a more advanced VR game.

However, he was soon embarrassed.

It upset him, but then it also intrigued him immensely—a real world!

He started to use his connections to buy a virtual cabin from Penguin Corporation but was told there were none left.

He then set his sights on other players, and in the end… No one was actually willing to sell it, even when he bid up to over three million.

In this modern society, no one was stupid.

Who would be willing to sell a device that gave you twice as much time as others out of thin air, unless as a last resort due to an accident?

This was a disguised increase in life expectancy.

Penguin Corporation kept their players' information very secure, and most smart players wouldn't just reveal that they had a virtual cabin. Even if it was known and they didn't want to sell it, there was nothing you could do about it.

His rich friends who acted recklessly all had criminal records.

He didn't want to follow in his friends' footsteps.

After waiting for half a year, he finally got a virtual cabin from a judicial auction.

He spent over four million yuan and finally bought it.

Before entering the game, he even asked the veterans of the forums how a Mage should add points.

In reality, he just wanted to use this method to show that he had come to this game world, and as a rich man, he felt that he had the power to change the game's landscape.

Whether it was his own ability and wisdom, or his ability to dump money.

The veterans all recommended him to use a balanced distribution, but he felt it was unnecessary and declined their advice, directly using the most extreme and special distribution method of full intelligence growth with an extra bit of resistance growth. It was said the only one with these kinds of stats in the entire game was the strongest Mage Roland; the other mages had all changed to the balanced-type method. If Roland can do it, I can do it too. If the others can't, that's because they're trash.

With that in mind, Douglas entered the game and started with his choice of Language Proficiency, as well as Inferior Fireball.

The game was really realistic and he marveled at the power of the new technology as soon as he entered the game.

But the real game also gave him the most realistic experience it had to offer.

Frustration.

Language Proficiency spellcasting failures would directly result in a head explosion, and Inferior Fireball failures would result in a massive nosebleed and a violent death.

After three days into the game, he couldn't even understand what the NPCs were saying.

He even entered a prolonged state of weakness due to too many resurrections.

In a weakened state, even walking felt tiring, let alone casting spells.

Sitting at the edge of the altar, Douglas looked down disappointedly at his palms and lowered

them.

Three days ago, his own lofty words on the forum seemed to have become a joke.

I think I can do it too.

What an overly confident thing to say. And one of the netizens who replied said it well.

"How do you know how ordinary you are if you don't try."

He really nailed it on the head.

Douglas connected to the forum again and read what other netizens had posted, but finally, he made up his mind, looked at the statue of the goddess, and said silently: Apply to log out of the current character.

Application received, please silently confirm.

A message box popped up in front of his eyes, and Douglas reconfirmed once more, while his vision gradually blurred back to the character's establishment screen.

The faces of the humans in the game were slightly altered to match one's true appearance, and there weren't many options to change it.

The next step was to add the character's attributes in a balanced way. The specialty that was chosen by Roland was Magic Material Exemption. The Almighty's choice should not be wrong.

There was also Magic Power Control, which couldn't be found and seemed to be a personal specialty.

He sighed deeply. He was born rich, but in this game, he really had no sense of superiority at all.

He then selected Magic Power Mastery from the list of specialties, which boosted his magic power control by twenty percent.

According to the guesses of the veterans on the forums, this should be the inferior version of Magic Power Control.

After the specialty was selected, he then clicked to start the game.

His vision blurred, then he appeared on the altar once again.

But then he noticed that the location where he was "born" was different from last time.

Last time it was a chapel, but there was a lot of space here.

And there were quite a few NPCs praying beside him, and they were all surprised to see Douglas suddenly appear on the altar.

Fortunately, the priest in charge of guiding the prayers was calm and had heard the rumors about the Golden Sons. This helped settle down the praying believers and avoid a commotion.

Douglas climbed down from the altar, moved his body, bent slightly to the priest in apology, and then slowly walked out of the church under the strange gazes of the Life Goddess's believers.

Arriving outside the church, there was a bright and lush green world in front of him.

The air was fresh, and compared to before, Douglas could feel that this body was physically stronger and mentally more activethe only downside being that it had slightly less control over the magical elements.

But it was quite comfortable.

The weather was good, his own spirit was good, and he had plenty of stamina. Douglas suddenly had a feeling that he would be successful in casting the spell this time.

He recalled the spell model and nodes of Inferior Fireball and then attempted to inject the magic power into the casting route.

As Douglas felt the magic power rapidly forming in the invisible lines in the air, his eyes grew wide and his breathing couldn't help but quicken.

Then a small flame appeared in the palm of his hand, swaying as if it were about to go out.

Douglas couldn't help but open his mouth wide and was about to laugh when the small flame went out.

Although it was extinguished, Douglas couldn't help but laugh aloud.

For the first time in three days, he finally managed to create a magic flame.

After laughing for a while, he wiped away the tears from his eyes and excitedly went to the forum to post a message.

Mage's Balanced Addition Method Is Really Impressive, Roland Is Awesome!

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Chapter 214 Accident

The two magic spiders were no bigger than ping pong balls and were transparent, making them hard to spot even in daylight.

They rummaged around by the river for valuable clues, avoiding people when they came across them or hiding in bushes or small holes that were easy to miss.

Finally, a spider found a sewer entrance not far from the river.

Covered by long weeds, the hole of the cave was barely visible. A magic spider accidentally found the place along the river's sand wall.

This sewer was about 1.5 meters high and estimated to be about half a meter wide. There was no sewage coming out of it, so it was more of a secret passage than a sewer.

One magic spider was waiting, while the other immediately rushed over.

After reuniting, the two spiders climbed the rock wall at the same time and began to explore the interior of the sewer.

Roland sat in the tavern and perused the dark and mysterious images that came from time to time from the magic spiders, and he finally felt like he was "playing" the game.

It was like exploring during the newbie stage.

Roland thought that he could at least find something in this sewer, but to his surprise, the two magic spiders explored the entire sewer and didn't find anything strange.

Could he have guessed wrong? Roland found it unlikely.

He had the magic spiders search the area again, inch by inch, tirelessly.

The work was worth it—in the end, one of the spiders found something of value.

A long blonde hair that looked like a female's.

It was in the deepest part of the sewer.

There should be secret doors around here.

Roland had the two spiders search back and forth where they found the hair, but hours passed and still, they didn't find even the slightest peculiarity. There was nothing else to be found until the evening.

Roland gave the two magic spiders instructions to continue their search, while he himself got up and headed for the west main street.

After all, there was a little girl he needed to take care of.

Just when Roland was almost back to Mijil's grandmother's house, he was suddenly stunned and his expression turned stern.

He began to run at full speed, almost as fast as the sprinting champions on Earth, but he still felt that he was too slow, and finally began to use Teleportation continuously. The pedestrians on the street, preparing to go home, saw a series of blinking dots and cried out in surprise.

Teleportation was really much faster than running

When Roland quickly returned to Mijile's grandmother's house, he saw several black-robed men blocking the doorway, and another black-robed man who tried to jump onto the second-floor balcony, only to be knocked off by a blue Spell Puppet.

Roland saw this and without saying a word, instantly teleported over and fired a direct 360-degree Ice Blade!

Since there was no chanting time and no accumulation of power, the range of this Ice Blade was not great.

Three of the six black-robed men jumped, mostly because they had Intuitive Reflex, a practical specialty of the agility class.

Three others had their hamstrings severed first, with gaping wounds in the bones of their feet, which hurt like hell.

And before the wound spurted blood, the ice layer brought by the Ice Blade directly froze their ankles.

The blood was directly blocked in their bodies.

The three black-robed men all screamed, but these three were ruthless enough to pull out many throwing weapons with both hands from beneath their robes and throw them at Roland at the same time.

The three black-robed men who jumped into the air did the same, each throwing at least five knives at Roland.

In an instant, there were at least thirty or more throwing weapons that were flying rapidly at Roland.

Normally, at such a distance, if there were no spells like magic boundaries or force field magic like anti-range arrow shields, Mages would most likely die.

And as of now, Roland hadn't been a Mage for too long and these defensive magics had not been learned at all. But a blue magic puppet appeared in front of him.

All the throwing weapons were blocked by the light shield held by this Spell Puppet and bounced to the side. "Stop, we have no intention of making an enemy of you." A black-robed man landed on the ice and shouted at Roland.

Roland naturally didn't believe that the six people would mutually throw so many long-range attack weapons at the same time if they didn't have killing intent

You think I'm stupid?

Roland snorted and reached out his hand to point at the middle of the three who had managed to avoid the Ice Blade.

When this black-robed man saw Roland pointing at him, fear flashed in his hazel eyes, and his instinct was to dodge to the side.

He already knew that Roland could instantly fire powerful magic.

For normal Mages, in combat, it would be good if they could chant and cast spells without making mistakes due to nervousness, interference, and so on.

The Mage in front of him was completely different from the others.

The Ice Ring alone, which could slice a person's hamstrings, was enough to amaze and even frighten people. All the melee professions didn't have much confidence when they encountered such an instantaneous Ice Ring.

And this man had just sent out a peculiar, strange puppet with a magic shield.

A summoner? Not quite… And now the other man pointed his hand at him.

Escape… This black-robed man had just had this thought, but his head was clouded, and he was suddenly immensely sleepy. His eyes immediately narrowed into slits, and his entire body fell to the ground as he became weak.

Seeing the ground coming at him at a very fast speed, this black-robed man used his last bit of consciousness to move his right hand to shield his face. And then his entire body crashed right into the ground.

It was a good thing that his hands were covering his face, or he would have been disfigured.

Hypnosis!

This didn't work too well on people, so Roland just tried it, not expecting that it would actually succeed in one shot.

After knocking out one person, Roland only pointed his hand at the other two black-robed men who weren't restricted by the Ice Ring

The other two tried to run as well. The one on the right was knocked out by Roland and fell asleep while sprinting, falling straight to the ground at a great speed, and then grazing forward quickly on the floor for five meters before stopping. There was a faint bloodstain underneath him, so he probably had a damaged face-disfigured for sure.

The other man was actually not hit by Hypnosis, but he was directly pinned to the ground by a huge blue Hand of Magic.

In less than six seconds, Roland was able to subdue all six of the black-robed people.

The three black-robed men, who were frozen in place, took out their throwing weapons again and tried to struggle a bit.

But Roland hid behind the puppet's light shield and formed a large blue fireball with a radius of about half a meter in his right hand, then squinted and smiled, looking at the other side.

These three saw the situation and obediently threw down their weapons. They could feel that the big fireball would directly burn them to ashes.

Hypnosis, Roland had never liked because it didn't work very well.

When he was level two, he experimented with Hypnosis on the children in Red Earth Town and found that the success rate was less than 30%.

But he never thought that it would work so well against these assassins now.

It actually put two people to sleep in a row.

It seemed that the assassins' mental magic resistance was really low, but of course, that had a lot to do with the fact that he had leveled up.

Then he looked at the three black-robed men who were frozen in place, and although he was smiling, his tone was quite cold. "You Assassins Guild members won't even spare a child?"

"We're not from the Assassin's Guild."

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Chapter 215 Shifting Troubles

Roland naturally didn't believe it.

The black-robed people were good at using long-range weapons, and it wasn't long ago that Mijil was captured by the Assassins' Guild. It had only been a few days since, and then again another group of black-robed people came—anyone would have thought they were Assassins sent by the Assassin's Guild.

However, this black-robed man shouted in a pathetic tone, "We really aren't from the Assassins' Guild."

The sadness of his voice and the helplessness of his expression were moving.

Roland froze for a moment, extinguished the large blue fireball in his hand, and asked, "Then who are you?"

Upon seeing Roland, a slaughterer in their eyes, dispersing his terrifying magical fluctuations, the three black-robed men whose feet were frozen were all relieved. The one who spoke just now continued, "We are from the Guild of Rogues."

Heh, that's how it is.

Assassins were a subclass advancement of the profession of Rogues. A Rogue could steal, open locks, detect traps, kill stealthily, and so on. The Assassin was a specialist in stealthy killing

With higher levels of shadow stealth, more powerful Assassination abilities, and even blind fighting or night vision, the Assassin could be said to be the king of the dark…

Provided, of course, that they didn't encounter high-level Mages or Saint Samurai of the same level or above.

Not to mention that Saint Samurai were naturally strong in melee combat and were skilled in light-type theurgy, they had a very keen sense of shadow-type abilities.

Mages and Assassins were a pair of archenemies: they countered and feared each other.

Mages had several spells that could detect stealth, and also had various force field spells to prevent being approached, but they couldn't always have detection spells and force fields cast upon themselves.

Even if magic power was abundant and could never be used up in a lifetime, people also needed to rest—even gods had times when they napped, let alone humans.

And this was often the time when Assassins made their move. After all, one couldn't guard against a thief for a thousand days.

In addition, Assassins hated Mages, who had all kinds of scouting spells that disgusted them. When they went to kill Mages who'd finally dropped their guard, the Mages would have a magic pet by their side. Most of the Mages' magic pets had good anti-stealth abilities.

Most of the prerequisites for an Assassin to be able to take out a Mage was whether or not they could get past the magic pet's anti-stealth abilities.

When he heard that they were from the Guild of Rogues, Roland's expression got a little better, but he still asked, "Why are you guys here?"

"We received a commission from Mijil's father to help him get his daughter back." "How can he commission you if he owes someone else money?"

The three black-robed men froze, and one of them said embarrassedly, "He said that if we found Mijil and brought her back, he'd be able to get a house, sell it, and get the money. He didn't know where the house was, but he believed his daughter, Mijil, did."

"So you guys investigated and then followed the trail here."

The three black-robed men laughed helplessly.

"You'll have to leave this alone, I'm the one protecting Mijil now." The three black-robed men showed a slight look of disdain, and the one who had just spoken continued: "Sir, although you are a Mage, the one standing behind us is an entire guild." Roland said indifferently, "I am a Golden Son."

The three of them suddenly felt somewhat speechless.

One of them suddenly cursed. "Shit."

The other two didn't look too pleased either.

The black-robed man who cursed was silent for a moment and said, "Sir, we, the Guild of Rogues, have put this matter behind us, and we will compensate a gold coin to Mijil. How about we both pretend nothing happened after this?"

Most of the people in the Guild of Rogues were either slippery or easily swayed.

This was a result of their professional characteristics.

When they encountered a strong person, they would cooperate if they could, or hide if they couldn't.

Against a Mage, they could still boast the guild's banner to give themselves courage.

But if this Mage was also a Golden Son, it would be a different story.

This group of undying beings… They were inhumane.

Every one of them wouldn't let go once they bit down, and if you offended them, they'd chase you to the ends of the earth to settle the matter.

The Guild of Rogues' intelligence network was quite wide and large. They had already received information about many Golden Sons meddling in their affairs more and more, and eventually, they even heard rumors that the Golden Sons dared to go against the noble families.

In fact, two mayors had already died at their hands.

In comparison, they were just nobodies.

So they simply conceded defeat and even offered compensation. Dignity was something that didn't mean much to Rogues. If they ran out of gold coins, they could always steal more—there was always a way to earn it back.

If their life was gone, there was no way to get it back.

"Sure." Roland nodded.

He didn't have the mind to cause any more major conflicts with the Guild of Rogues, now that he had the queen's quest to deal with and the main quest hanging around, and a little girl to take care of.

It would be best to keep conflict to a minimum.

One of the black-robed men threw a gold coin at Roland.

Roland, on the other hand, removed the control effect of the Ice Ring.

They quickly retreated, taking their unconscious companions with them.

Roland went upstairs and found no one in the bedroom, only a Spell Puppet standing in front of the bed.

He froze for a moment, then crouched, and sure enough, he saw Mijil lying under the bed, cowering in the corner.

When she saw Roland, she crawled out on her hands and knees and hugged Roland's thighs, clenching onto them tightly and crying. Roland knew she was terrified, so he stroked the top of her head and comforted her in a soft voice.

It wasn't long before a strange multitude of footsteps came from downstairs and stopped at the door.

Feeling a little confused, Roland went to the window and looked down, then spotted Antis with a dozen city guards in gray leather armor and carrying lances. Antis had been watching the window and smiled when he saw Roland, as if a beautiful maiden was meeting her lover.

Roland shuddered, feeling strange.

"So it's you," Antis said from below.

Roland looked down. Antis said, "I received a report from the citizens that the scum of the Guild of Rogues were trying to bully people here, so I came over to take a look."

"It's over." Roland thought about it and continued, "I found some clues about the queen, would you like to come up here and hear about it?"

Antis's eyes narrowed. "Seriously?"

"There's no need for me to lie to you." Half a minute later, Antis appeared in the bedroom, dressed in black tight-fit armor, without a helmet surprisingly. "What's the clue?" Antis asked urgently.

Roland brought out the silk dress. "Take a look, see if this is the queen's dress."

Antis looked it over, closed his eyes and thought for a while, and said, "I have indeed seen this dress on the queen."

"And is the queen blonde?" Roland took out a strand of hair.

"Yes!"

Roland laughed with a somewhat meaningful expression as he explained the process of finding the dress and hair, then continued, "I don't know much about the hidden chamber mechanisms, so I can't find it. Maybe the city guards can?"

Roland didn't like that kind of filthy place, and since Antis was also responsible for it, it wouldn't be much to ask for him to share some of the burden.

"I understand, but you have to come with us." Roland was reluctant now. "No."

Antis said fiercely, "If I can go to that disgusting place, so can you."

"It's not exactly my responsibility to find the queen. I'm just helping out of the kindness of my heart." Roland shrugged. "It's beyond my capabilities."

"The Mages' obsession with cleanliness is so annoying." Antis walked away very upset.

Roland threw down two magic spiders to follow him.

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Chapter 216 Flaws Shared by Most of the Princesses of Hollevin's Royal Family

Roland wouldn't want to go to a place like that again-it was too dirty and smelly.

The two magic spiders were climbing on the walls by the side of the road and had been trailing Antis.

Roland, on the other hand, comforted Mijil, who would most likely have been captured if not for the presence of the defensive Spell Puppet earlier.

However, it was strange that Mijil's father actually knew that his in-laws had left a house for Mijil.

In addition, Roland felt quite anonyed that it was clear that Mijil's father was after his own daughter, but on second thought, this meant the middle-aged merchant didn't really think much of Roland.

He knew it was Roland who had taken Mijil-a Mage who had taken his daughter, a daughter he didn't want. He had to be grateful to Roland for that, according to sense and reason. However, he had hired Rogues to come and snatch Mijil.

It seemed as if there was no consideration for Roland's identity or profession at all.

Roland felt sorry for Mijil to have been born to such a father… Roland didn't know that Mijil wasn't the middle-aged merchant's biological daughter.

But it was good that her mother was not bad. As Roland thought about this, he took Mijil's hand and led her to Kaka's manor.

The guards switched back to the original two, and when they saw Roland, they opened the door without saying a word. Roland nodded to thank them, and there, at the door, he met the steward of this manor, who brought the two of them outside the door of Kaka's study.

Knocking lightly on the door, Kaka's voice came from inside. "Please come in."

Pushing the door in, Roland found Kaka bent over his desk studying spell models and asked, "How's the learning going?"

"It feels almost done."

Kaka waved his hand and a blue shield-holding Spell Puppet appeared in front of him, almost identical to the one Roland had summoned, but much smaller.

This was due to Kaka's lack of magic power.

Just summoning this Spell Puppet had almost left him without mana.

After catching his breath, he stood up and said, "I plan to turn in this spell model at the Association's headquarters tomorrow." "Don't you want to be more skilled at it before doing so?" Roland asked.

Kaka shook his head and smiled bitterly. "In five more days at the most, I'll be leaving the city, so I can't put it off any longer, and after turning it over to the headquarters, It's also going to take at least two days or so for the judging period. If it drags on, it will have to be issued."

In that case, it really couldn't wait any longer.

"Then I'll start by wishing you success."

Kaka smiled. "Thank you… By the way, have you found any clues about the queen?"

"Just found a dress, a silk gown." Roland shrugged.

"Then it looks like the queen's done for," Kaka said rather regretfully.

"Are you so sure?"

"Her clothes were stripped," Kaka said helplessly. "The queen is very pretty, and if I were alone with her, I would most likely get some ideas."

Roland was a little surprised. "Is she really so pretty-how does she compare to Princess Evelyn?"

"Each has her own charm, but the queen's more elegant." Kaka showed a yearning look. "At a glance, she's the kind of woman that makes you lose yourself."

It seemed that Kaka liked mature women, and Princess Evelyn looked a little too immature.

Roland came to this conclusion as he sat and said, "Do you know a relatively safer place?" "Hmm? Are you in trouble?" "It's not me, it's this little girl."

Roland stroked Mijil's head and told him what happened. "I still have to investigate the queen's affairs and can't quite focus on her. The Guild of Rogues is here and I have a feeling the Shadow Assassins Guild isn't far away, so…"

When Mijil heard this, she looked at Roland with some concern.

Kaka contemplated for a moment, then said, "There's no way I can help you. You're an outsider and you don't know your way around, so I don't think there are many people you can trust. But if it's somewhere safe, I do know of one, but it might be a bit of a problem."

Roland leaned forward. "Oh, how so?"

"Princess Evelyn is almost old enough to get married, that's why she went to live in the city of Isnas for a while," Kaka explained. "The royal family has three other princesses living in the city. One of them, Veronica, doesn't live in the palace and has her own manor and a private army."

Roland frowned. "And so?"

"Princess Veronica is a Warrior… she doesn't think much of Mages—she thinks we're too weak." Kaka chuckled. "But she is quite an interesting person. If a Mage asks her for help with a job, she would have the Mage duel her, and if the Mage wins without using offensive magic, she'll be willing to help with anything." "Willing to help with anything?" "Right!" Kaka smiled in an obscene way that all men understood. "Including that sort of thing, let alone just fostering a little girl. But until now, no Mage has ever been able to beat her without using offensive magic. It is an impossible thing to begin with-how could a Mage fight a warrior hand-to-hand and win."

Roland nodded. "I can try."

"I think you can give it a try too." Kaka pointed at the blue puppet in front of him. "As long as you summon a few more of these puppets, you should have a bit of a chance of winning."

After thanking Kaka for his advice, Roland took Mijil and followed Kaka's instructions to a manor.

Compared to Kaka's manor, the manor in front of him was not only much larger but also had a much more diverse landscape of plants.

When the guards at the entrance saw Roland, their eyes became vigilant.

Roland walked over and said through the iron fence, "Please tell Princess Veronica that I have come to challenge her."

After a brief silence, these guards almost burst out in laughter as they looked at Roland's thin arms and legs.

Still, one of the men ran in, and before long he came out again, pulled open the iron fence, and led Roland and Mijil inside. Skirting a grove of trees that obscured his view, Roland reached the front courtyard and found a circle of soldiers already standing there, and a table and some chairs.

A young girl in white close-fitting plain clothes sat on a chair and looked at Roland with a smile.

Mijil was a little scared. Roland took her hand, walked over, nodded slightly and said, "Princess Veronica, it's nice to meet you."

The young girl stood up. She had blonde hair, tied in a ponytail, and her eyes were a rare blood-red color, like a ruby, clear and transparent. She was extremely beautiful.

She looked Roland up and down, smiled, and asked, "Before the duel, I would like to ask, what is the prize you want?"

"Help me take care of this little girl for a while." Roland patted the little girl's head.

The young woman looked surprised. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"I thought you wanted to sleep with me like the other male Mages." With a very innocent expression, Princess Veronica said something that tickled the mind. "Even the Archmage Tobian dueled me, and his condition was that he wanted me to sleep with him for a few days. I ended up almost beating his nose off."

Only then did Roland begin to study Princess Veronica, and then he shook his head lightly.

Too flat-he didn't like it.

Veronica, for no apparent reason, developed a feeling of discomfort.

She wanted to break the nose of the man in front of her.

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Feeling the "malice" in Roland's gaze, Veronica was quite upset.

In reality, Veronica was quite pretty, with a white, soft, oval face and willowy eyebrows. She was a little prettier than her sister, Princess Evelyn, but the problem was that she was so skinny that it detracted from her overall image.

Vivian, who had the better figure, was not as good-looking as Veronica, but if the two of them were put in front of Roland and he had to pick one, he would definitely choose Vivian over Princess Veronica.

"Looks like you're a man with a more normal orientation." Upset as she was, Veronica still acknowledged Roland more; at least Roland wasn't the kind of beast that rutted when he looked at a woman's face. "So we'll start now?"

Veronica beckoned, and the guard beside her handed a broadsword to her.

The broadsword was longer and wider than a normal longsword, and slightly heavier. It could be used as a two-handed sword or a one-handed sword, quite flexible in its usage, hence its popularity with most melee professionals.

After all, they weren't players; they didn't have Backpacks, so they couldn't carry dozens of weapons on them and switch or choose different options depending on the combat scenario.

This was why a weapon that could adapt to most combat scenarios was so important.

Planting her broadsword on the ground, Veronica received another small round shield from the soldier and pinned it to her left arm.

This small round shield wasn't large, a little over twenty centimeters in width, and barely interfered with the user's ability to hold the weapon with both hands, or to dual-wield weapons, and it could serve as a shield for limited blocking at critical moments.

She was an agile warrior… Most female warriors were agile.

Of course, there were many voluptuous commanders as well.

After equipping her weapon, Veronica smiled at Roland and said, "Don't worry, my broadsword hasn't been sharpened, and I'll keep my hand on it—it shouldn't kill anyone, at most, it will break a few bones… Are you ready?"

Roland signaled for Mijil to stand next to him, then he stepped back onto the grass and snapped his fingers, and a blue Spell Puppet holding a shield of light appeared in front of him.

"I'm ready."

"What a strange Spell Puppet. Looks like a guard." Veronica lowered her body slightly. The broadsword hadn't been sharpened and she used it to slightly brace her body. This way it looked as if she didn't have a point of support to exert power, but a professional couldn't be evaluated with common sense. This was a sign that she was about to charge.

"It's just a Spell Puppet…"

Just as Roland spoke, Veronica's eyes lit up and she charged forward.

She was extremely fast and extravagantly supple yet with the elegant beauty of power, like a golden cheetah on the hunt.

In just a blink of an eye, Veronica rushed in front of the Spell Puppet.

Roland had thought that the other party would just hit the Spell Puppet, and he had even conjured Hand of Magic, ready to give her a hard time when she hit the Spell Puppet.

However, Veronica suddenly twisted, and her entire body shifted two meters to the right without any warning signs. She suddenly appeared on Roland's left side, bypassing the guard-type Spell Puppet.

Z-Charge, a high-level Warrior specialty.

This specialty still hadn't been learned by any players up until now.

It wasn't that the player Warriors weren't smart enough, but no one taught it.

Got you!

Looking at Roland, who was less than two meters in front of her, Veronica had a smile on her face, but there was a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

She thought that this peer who didn't covet her for her beauty could show her a different result.

Unexpectedly, it was still just like the others who lost after two or three moves.

Are all magicians really not good at melee combat?

Next, she just had to push her broadsword forward to win the duel.

The man has a nice personality, so I won't break his bones.

While thinking this, Veronica suddenly felt a chill on the back of her neck and hurriedly lowered her head. A sharp wind passed over her head.

There were cries of surprise from the guards standing on the sidelines at this moment.

Veronica didn't know what was happening, but her Warrior instincts made her not think much about it. When her instincts drove her, she not only didn't retreat but also didn't look at what had just attacked her. She just lowered her head and charged at Roland, while thrusting forward with her broadsword.

It was just that she was one step too slow because she lowered her head.

The guard-type puppet that had been bypassed was once again in front of Roland.

And her broadsword stabbed right into the puppet's light shield.

After the clashing sound, the puppet took a slight step back, almost crashing into Roland.

Veronica took a big step sideways with her right leg, and with a twist, she completed a spin sideways. The broadsword in her hand also spun around and slashed at Roland's left shoulder with the force of the spin.

The way agile warriors attacked and moved was just so elegant.

It would have been impossible for a heavily armored warrior to make such a nimble move.

At the same time, through a surprised glimpse, as she spun, Veronica saw that what had just attacked her was a white magic doll, carrying a very long, curved blade in its hand.

What the hell kind of weapon is that… first time I've ever seen one.

On the other hand, the white puppet was now warmed up and would probably be ready to strike again in the next half-second.

So Veronica had to be able to complete the Cleave in half a second and get ready to respond to the attack from behind.

The broadsword drew a circle, the tip shining in the sunlight.

This time Veronica spun and shifted, once again bypassing the guard puppet and slashing her broadsword at Roland's right shoulder.

At this time, there was also suddenly a blue miaodao in Roland's hand, transformed from Hand of Magic.

The miaodao blocked the broadsword, and after the sound of the clash, Roland borrowed the momentum to take three steps back.

Veronica didn't rush to chase after him, but turned around abruptly and used the small shield on her left hand to block the white puppet's miaodao attack.

She was about to counterattack when she heard the wind assailing her back and the broadsword on her right hand suddenly moved toward the back of her shoulder, blocking Roland's forward-stepping slash.

Roland was not as strong as the offensive puppet, and Veronica's body merely wobbled, but he himself was instead bounced backward with his blade by the counter-shock force of the block.

At this time Veronica turned her head fiercely and smiled lightly at Roland, her pretty, innocent face full of pride.

"No more moves, right? It's my turn next… Ah!"

Veronica suddenly let out a cry of pain and her entire body was knocked four or five meters away, falling to the ground.

She rolled to her feet, then realized that it was the blue shield-bearing puppet that had knocked her off her feet.

A group of soldiers rushed over, shouting, and protected Veronica, all the while glaring at Roland.

Veronica was stunned, then looked at Roland and smiled somewhat happily. "I lost. I didn't expect that your blue puppet could actually attack."

Roland breathed a sigh of relief and snapped his fingers, dispersing the two Spell Puppets.

Veronica walked up to Roland. "I'll fulfill my conditions and help you take care of this little girl… Are you sure you really don't need me to do anything else?"

"No need." Roland shook his head.

"Good." Veronica nodded and smiled widely. "Because if you wanted me to sleep with you as other men do, I would have torn up the verbal contract, maybe even killed you. You're a good man, you got away with it."

Roland tsked, a little annoyed.

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Chapter 218 The Queen?

Roland's expression was quite unpleasant and he was tempted to say "You're insulting my character, how could I do that to a washboard."

But thinking about it, he still had to trouble her to take care of Mijil, so he didn't say anything.

"Your Spell Puppet is different from normal people's. Is it your creation?" Veronica tossed her broadsword aside and two soldiers picked it up. She smiled as she continued, "You seem to be quite the genius."

"It was Kaka Bard who made it." Roland shrugged and said, "I'm his friend, he taught it to me."

Since Roland had already agreed with Kaka that the latter would be the one to publish the spell derived from the Spell Puppet, he wouldn't argue about this.

Veronica sat down in the chair and gathered her long blonde ponytail to the left side of her chest, then fiddled it with her little finger, a gesture that added to her femininity even though she was still a young girl and very flat.

She looked directly into Roland's eyes. "But as far as I know, Kaka isn't that smart. Derivative magic is a profound technique that even the few Archmages haven't figured out, and he can do it?"

"He's just discreet."

"But I think you're using it rather skillfully." Veronica laughed softly. "Besides, I've never seen Kaka use similar spells before."

"Maybe he wanted to surprise his acquaintances."

Veronica was naturally not too convinced. The young people in the few big families in the capital knew each other, and everyone was clear about what level Kaka was at.

To say that the eldest of the Bard family had created the derivative spells wouldn't sound too strange, but if it were Kaka… just forget about it.

There were just some things that you were well aware of in your heart, and it wasn't good to talk about them so thoroughly and clearly—it wouldn't be good for either the speaker or the listener.

Veronica shook her head helplessly, then looked to Mijil not too far away. "You want me to take care of this little girl, no problem. But for how long? I can't take care of her forever."

"As short as ten days or as long as a month or two."

"Okay. I understand."

Roland bent down, stroked Mijil's little head, and said amiably, "In the meantime, will you follow this sister princess? When I'm done with things, I'll come to get you."

Although Mijil looked worried and scared, she was very sensible and nodded her head gently.

After handing Mijil over to Veronica, Roland was about to leave when the latter suddenly said, "By the way, the long saber you used just now, what's it called?"

"Miaodao."

"Meowdao?" Veronica's pronunciation wasn't quite right. She stood up and said, "It seems to me that it has a matching sword training method, can you teach it to me?"

Roland looked at the other with some surprise.

"Don't be so surprised, I'm not saying I want it for free." Veronica thought for a moment and said, "I happen to have a spell in my collection, I don't know if you've learned it, but if you haven't, it can be exchanged."

"What spell?"

"Stone to Mud, and its derivative spell Mud to Stone."

"Haven't learned that." Roland revealed a rather intrigued expression.

"This kind of magic isn't very handy—it's usually used against cavalry," Veronica said with a smile. "This is a trophy I got from last year's expedition. Many people don't use this kind of magic, and it consumes a lot of magic power, so it's not actually very effective. It might be a bit insufficient in value to trade it for your sword arts, but I really don't have anything better."

This was really just a misplaced sense of one's own value.

The things one likes, of course, felt important, and the things one didn't like, even if they were great, would be discounted.

This was the mindset Veronica had right now.

When Roland used the miaodao just now, it was obviously quite methodical, and it could be seen that it was a fairly mature system of sword arts, so she was naturally excited to try it.

Roland, on the other hand, felt that it was too good a deal to trade the miaodao arts for a type of magic.

"I'll trade. I'm willing to pay for any magic that I haven't learned, and if you have any other magic books, Your Highness, you can trade them."

Roland now had over three hundred gold coins in his Backpack.

His current possessions were already comparable to a mid-level noble family—a rich man could speak with confidence.

"I only have that one, magic book trophies are rare." Veronica was also quite happy.

Roland spent the next half a day at the manor, drawing models of miaodao stances before teaching Veronica how to stand and move with the saber.

Veronica learned quickly; after all, she was a Warrior and had a foundation to build on.

In just half a day's time, she had become more proficient in the movements of the miaodao arts.

After Roland left the manor, Veronica said to the steward, "Help me build six of the same weapons according to the model on this piece of paper and send them over. Then send this little girl to the guest area and leave her in Ashe's care. Don't neglect her, understand?"

The steward received his orders and left.

Veronica, on the other hand, drew her broadsword from the side and brandished a set of stances with this weapon instead of the miaodao for the time being.

After brandishing, she murmured, "Strength and agility in equal measure… it seems like a battlefield sword art, but it's also not bad in a solo fight. How does a Mage know how to use a sword art like this?"

I'll ask him about it the next time I see him.

Roland put the magic book in his Backpack and walked out of the princess's manor and then to Kaka's manor—and just in time to bump into Kaka's second brother, Felwood, as he was leaving, his expression full of displeasure.

Before he left, he gave Roland a hateful stare but didn't say anything harsh. Instead, he just left in a carriage.

Two minutes later, Roland appeared in Kaka's study.

When Kaka saw him and didn't find Mijil next to him, his expression suddenly became one of great surprise. "You really won against Veronica, without resorting to offensive spells?"

Roland sat down. "The princess held back."

"I don't believe it. How could I not know her personality?" Kaka shook his head, then he smiled lewdly. "I can't believe you didn't make that kind of request since you won against Veronica. She's one of the most beautiful amongst the young noblewomen."

"I'm not that horny." Roland sighed, then asked, "I saw your second brother just now, what's the situation?"

Kaka wore an extremely dissatisfied expression. "He's forcing me to take up my post in the field right now, his attitude is very unfriendly. Obviously Big Brother is on my side—what's his hurry? It's not like I'm stealing the family fortune from him."

Roland laughed. He didn't want to pay too much attention to other people's family affairs; he simply asked to make conversation. He thought about it, reclining in the chair, and asked, "Are you confident in the matter of the derivative magic being turned over to the Association?"

"I've sent someone to inform the headquarters' chairman, and he replied that a review meeting will be held tomorrow morning." With that said, Kaka's expression grew visibly excited.

"I wish you success."

Roland was about to say more blessings, but he suddenly frowned.

A picture came from the magic spider of Antis finding a woman in a secret passage in the dark.

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Chapter 219 Racial Gifts

The image sent from the magic spider was of a voluptuous woman in a white dress sitting in a hidden chamber.

The chamber wasn't large, but it was well-furnished, with bright lights made of magic crystals, a large bed, a table and chairs, and a wardrobe.

And there were many fruits on the table, as well as golden cups and goblets thoroughly embedded with various gemstones.

The few things on the large bed were all made of silk, and the woman looked extremely well, not at all haggard, and had evidently lived comfortably without any abuse.

Antis, on the other hand, was down on one knee in front of the woman.

Although he couldn't hear their voices, looking at the several images streaming into his mind continuously, it became clear to Roland that this woman must be the queen.

Just as Roland was thinking about this, a system message suddenly popped up.

He opened it and was slightly surprised.

Quest failed: Find the Next Clue.

He then watched the quest font turn black and finally fade away from the quest list.

So a quest interfered with by an NPC will result in quest failure?

Roland found himself knowing a little more about quests.

The failure and disappearance of the quest was not a big deal to Roland. It was just a quest. It wasn't a huge loss of character experience or equipment, so obtaining useful information from the failure was a profit.

It seemed that in all future quests, he would have to avoid too much interference from NPCs.

When Kaka saw him lost in thought, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just some small matter." Roland stood up. "I was expecting to be here for a long time, but something went wrong. Now it seems that in two or three days, I'll be leaving after you've successfully turned in your derivative magic."

"So soon?"

Roland shrugged. "It's been a long time since I've been back, and without a Magic Tower, I haven't even had time to test and learn magic, so it's time to return."

Kaka laughed. "Then at least for the next two or three days, you can stay at the manor and help me keep the situation under control."

"Sure." Roland was indifferent.

Roland then stayed in the manor for a while, and using this time, he started flipping through the magic book given to him by Princess Veronica.

There were two types of magic noted in it, Stone to Mud and Mud to Stone.

In reality, this was the reverse application of the same magic. This was a level-two spell, and although there were quite a few nodes, it was much less difficult compared to Language Proficiency. Besides, now that he was at a higher level than before, and had the experience from learning several spells and creating several derivative spells, he quickly got started with it.

It took Roland three hours and about seven failed attempts to successfully cast Stone to Mud and with a wave of his hand, he directly turned the large grassy area of Kaka's backyard into a swamp, which was over 900 square meters, and that was with less than a fifth of his mana. If he had cast it with all his mana, Roland reckoned that the area would be much larger.

Using this against cavalry indeed could work wonders.

Not to mention cavalry, the heavy infantry squads would also be instantly annihilated.

There were a few guards who happened to be patrolling the area at this time, and when they saw such a large swamp, they gulped in fear.

Roland then began to learn Mud to Stone, which was easier to learn since it was just a reversal of the previous magic.

It only took an hour to successfully cast it.

With a wave of his hand, he turned the swamp in front of him back into a rocky ground, which was originally just grass and mud-it was now a fairly flat square of stone slabs.

Well… I used a little too much force.

Roland repeated casting Stone to Mud and Mud to Stone several more times before finding the right level of force to turn stone back into normal mud.

Mud to Stone was simple to learn but somewhat difficult to master. Whether it was turning a swamp into mud or stone, it was all up to the Mage's control.

He practiced these two spells several more times, and feeling almost finished, he was about to leave and return to his room to rest and recover his magic power when a sudden light flashed in his mind.

Roland once again used Mud to Stone. This time he deliberately made the area of the swamp small, then using his mental power, he forced the mud of the swamp to mold into the shape of a ball, and then unleashed Mud to Stone on it.

In the earthen pit ahead, there was a large, round stone with a rather shiny surface.

Roland walked over to the large round stone and stepped on it with his foot, finding it very, very hard.

Then he froze for a moment, then slowly smiled in a Crayon Shin-chan[1] way.

Hehehe!

When Kaka returned from the Association headquarters, he hopped off the wagon and walked at a brisk pace to the backyard of the manor before his eyes widened. The space in the backyard was filled with all sorts of strange things.

A statue of a naked man in a contemplative pose, a cherub showing its bird peeing, a giant octopus, a big round ball with a quirky, squinty-eyed, wacky grin on it, and so on.

All were stone statues, some very crude, but others were clearly quite exquisite.

Then he realized that, looking from left to right, it just happened to be a process of crudeness slowly becoming exquisiteness.

"What the… What the hell!" What's going on here? Kaka gulped. Didn't he just go out for a few hours? How did his own backyard become like this?

Roland saw Kaka and smiled somewhat proudly. He said, "I've found the correct use of Stone to Mud."

He snapped his fingers and all the statues before him turned to mud and fell to the ground, which was rapidly turning into a vast swamp.

Kaka instinctively stepped back.

Then the swamp moved strangely, first bulging out with four walls about two meters high, then synthesizing into a square shape, then the walls continued to rise and synthesized into another two-meter high square shape.

Then a hole began to appear in the square shape on both the upper and lower levels. A larger vertical rectangle appeared on the mud wall facing them on the first level.

At first, Kaka didn't know what Roland was doing, but seeing this rectangular shape, he suddenly realized that it seemed to be… a door.

At this moment, Roland snapped his fingers again, and this mud hardened at a very fast rate, then turned into a very good quality stone.

In the blink of an eye, a small, square, two-story building with a door and windows appeared in front of Kaka.

"Oh my god!" Kaka felt like his worldview had been refreshed. "You used this magic to build a stone building?"

Roland nodded proudly. "Yeah, I just thought of it while making the statues. With this spell, we Mages will be able to go anywhere in the future—even in the middle of nowhere. As long as we can build this kind of stone building, we won't have to be afraid of wild animals and poisonous insects, nor of storms."

"No one has ever thought that this spell could be used like this." Kaka stared blankly at Roland with a frightened expression, as if he had seen a demon. "How does that head of yours work?"

[1] Japanese anime and manga

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Chapter 220 Ah, Women

They walked into a two-story square building with nothing in it but a sloping slab of stone leading to the second floor.

Kaka looked at Roland with a hint of a smile on his face.

There was a path to the second floor, but with such a smooth slab of stone as the stairway at a rather straight angle, it would be impossible to climb up without a bit of kung fu.

Roland chuckled. "It can't be helped. It's my first time, I'm inexperienced at building a house with magic-I'll get it after a few more times."

Kaka went to the wall, knocked on it, and found that it was thick and hard-the thickness was estimated to be around thirty centimeters. Although the defensive ability certainly wasn't comparable with castles and the like, living in a house like this in the middle of nowhere, even if the conditions weren't very good, was ten times better than living in a cave, or around a campfire under a tree.

"If this catches on, in the future, Mages who specialize in Transmutation will become extremely sought after in the mercenary world." Kaka looked at Roland with profound admiration. "Even if one doesn't know any attack magic, as long as one knows this spell, they will be the guest of honor of all the mercenaries, and if one knows Language Proficiency, then their position in the mercenary group won't be any lower than the commander's."

As someone in the magic world, Kaka knew all too well how exaggerated this ability to build a house in just a minute or two was.

Now that he was building a house, he could just as well create terrain if he was in a battle.

For example, providing archers with high ground and on-the-spot battlements.

Or, he could create swamps to block enemy movement.

Wait.

With enough imagination, this magic can have all sorts of variations.

"Don't restore this stone house, leave it there," Kaka said, touching the wall, enthralled. "I think this thing will spur me on and make me aware of how big of a gap there is between me and the top Mages." "Leave it here? Can you keep living here?" Roland said, slightly stunned. "Looks like you successfully turned in the derivative spell?"

"Yes," Kaka said happily, "First the six Archmages vetted the magic, and they all agreed that 'my' spell was quite groundbreaking, and finally the headquarter's chairman came along, affirmed the spell, and promised that tomorrow this significant event would be announced to the entire Association of Mages, and broke the rules to grant me the title of Elite Mage.

"I'm going to receive the award tomorrow." Kaka looked at Roland, extremely grateful; there were even some tears in his eyes. "As soon as it's announced, I'll get the headquarters' support, and the previous failures of duty will all be wiped away by the headquarters, and more importantly, even without my family, the headquarters will always be one of my backers in the future. Besides, I don't think my father will just give up on me in the future." "That's good."

"It will be some time before the rewards from the headquarters are distributed," Kaka said sincerely. "How about you stay here until then?"

Roland remembered that the last time rewards sent to him by the headquarters had been delayed for two months. Even if it took almost a month to transport it from the capital to Delpon, there was still a month's preparation period.

He thought about it and decided to let it go. "I'm heading back to Delpon, just send me the reward sometime later."

"Sure."

Kaka was a little disappointed. He felt that Roland was the first real friend he had had in twenty years, the kind that he could open his heart to. There was no friendship between nobles; there was even less affection amongst kin.

This was why he valued this friendship and hoped that Roland could stay here longer.

However, Roland was leaving and he couldn't force him to stay.

"Then let's go to the tavern for a few drinks together later."

Roland said with a smile, "Sure."

Though he said a few drinks, in reality… they were drinking heavily.

The fruit wine had a low alcohol level, about the same as beer. Although he was a Mage, as his level increased, Roland's constitution also increased—this little bit of alcohol had no effect on him anymore.

On the other hand, Kaka was only level two, and his constitution growth wasn't as high as Roland's, a Golden Son, so he started to get tipsy after drinking some more.

Then he placed a parchment book in front of Roland. "This is the information and model of Long-Distance Teleportation you wanted to see. I applied to the headquarters at noon to borrow it for the day."

Roland's eyes lit up. He immediately found a clean table beside him and slowly opened the single-sheet parchment book into a giant piece of parchment. Then, he turned on the system's photo function and took pictures of the densely packed nodes on it.

About five minutes later, he closed the parchment back up and handed it to Kaka.

Kaka smiled drunkenly and placed the spellbook in his garment pocket.

They drank for another half-hour, and Kaka's vision had become quite blurry. Kaka bobbed his head and said, "Roland, I know you will become a legendary Mage someday. Others may fall midway, but you Golden Sons are different, you are immortal, and the only thing that limits your growth cap is your self-control. And you are one of the hardest working Mages I've ever met."

Roland nodded; he also felt he was quite diligent. It wasn't self-glorification, but an objective fact, and he wasn't guilty of admitting it.

"I don't know if you'll still recognize me as a friend after you become a legend."

Roland reached out and patted Kaka's shoulder. "Don't worry, I will. I, Roland am not the kind of person who forgets his poor friends when he gets rich."

Kaka laughed softly and happily and didn't say another word; the impending parting made him a little upset.

To Roland, Kaka was also a friend, and parting was not something that was too hard to bear. After all, now that Long-Distance Teleportation was already in hand, as long as he studied it diligently, he could learn it in a short period of one or two months, or half a year.

Once he learned it, he would be able to teleport everywhere and wander around, and it would only be a small matter to come to the capital, so there was no need to be sorrowful now.

He parted with Kaka at the tavern.

Roland walked to Princess Veronica's manor. He planned to take Mijil to Delpon, which was his own territory, and at the Magic Tower, Mijil could be well taken care of and also learn magic, killing two birds with one stone.

But on the way, Roland met Antis, who was patrolling with a group of soldiers.

Upon seeing Roland, Antis nodded at Roland, and his mouth opened as if he wanted to say something

Roland waved to him in greeting.

Antis hesitated, shook his head, and said no more, leaving with the patrol.

"Something about him seems strange." Roland frowned but didn't think much of it.

He soon arrived at Veronica's manor and met this Princess Taiping[1].

At this time, Veronica had changed into a gown, appearing very dainty and lovely, and had emerald earrings pinned to her ears, as if she were going to attend some kind of party. "I'm here to pick up Mijil."

Veronica looked at Roland with some surprise. "I thought it would be for a month, it's only been a day."

"Things have gone awry." Roland shrugged.

"Suit yourself." Veronica smiled indifferently. "Any interest in coming to the party with me?"

"I have to get back."

Veronica wore an expression as if she were looking at an idiot. "Are you unable to understand the subtext of a lady's words?"

"You simply want me to be your male companion and help you block pursuers," Roland sneered. "Not interested."

[1] A Tang Dynasty princess that was known for her beauty

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Chapter 221 Phase One Targets Have Been Exceeded

Veronica's expression was foul as if she had eaten three pounds of crap.

Originally, she wanted to exchange insights on miaodao arts with Roland, but now she was so angry that she was in no mood for anything. She said with a stiff face, "You mean… if it's not to deter pursuers, you'd be interested if I was genuinely inviting you? Are you lusting after my body?"

"I'm not interested in either." Roland shrugged.

"Hmph, take the girl and go." Veronica waved her hand, turned, and walked away. Her good mood upon attending a banquet was gone.

She walked out of the manor and got in the carriage.

Meanwhile, Mijil was brought out.

When the little girl saw Roland, she immediately ran up and hugged Roland's thigh, looking very happy.

Actually, she was not happy in the princess's manor. She had no problem eating and sleeping, but those servants weren't nice to her—they were very cold. There was no physical abuse, but most of the time, it was the coldness that was the most horrible abuse for a small child, and sometimes even if you beat them, they wouldn't feel too scared.

Roland took Mijil to the horse market, rented a carriage, and also hired a coachman to take the little girl with him to Delpon.

Although it was a long way to go, since they could build houses in the wild using Mud to Stone, and there was a lot of food in his Backpack—the food wouldn't get cold inside — their journey was like a relaxing outing.

It really would have been a pretty enjoyable excursion if it weren't for road-blocking bandits that appeared twice on the way.

When these bandits first jumped out, they were frozen in place by Roland with an Ice Blade, then a direct Fireball incinerated them such that not even ashes were left.

Whenever Mijil saw Roland using magic, her eyes always became sparkly and filled with admiration.

About thirteen days later, Roland returned to Delpon.

Vivian was waiting at the city gate with his magic pet, White Amber.

As soon as Roland's carriage arrived at the city gate, White Amber rushed into the carriage and lay down in Roland's arms, snuggling against him. The magic pet was essentially of the same mind as its master, Even if the relationship wasn't excellent at first, the relationship between the pet and its master would eventually become more and more harmonious with the passage of time.

Vivian could know that Roland had returned because White Amber had told her.

Vivian then also walked up to the carriage. She looked at Roland with bright eyes, but then saw a little girl sitting next to Roland and froze for a moment. "You got another student?"

"Yes, she's quite… you understand. She'll be a member of our Magic Tower from now on." Roland patted the little one's head.

Mijil looked at Vivian a little timidly. She was a little worried that this older sister might not like her.

However, Vivian went straight to the little girl, picked her up, and sat her down on her own legs while she herself sat next to Roland.

As the carriage moved and shook, Roland's body came into slight contact with hers, and she felt very content and cozy. A man and a woman sitting side by side and holding a child-it was just like a family of three.

Vivian blushed a little at the thought.

The carriage soon returned to the Magic Tower, and as soon as Roland got off the carriage, he saw a group of magic apprentices waiting to greet him outside the door.

They even held a ceremony.

Roland was helpless at the sight and immediately fiercely drove all these people back inside the Magic Tower so that those who needed to study could study and those who needed to rest could rest.

Then he went back to his study and looked at the place, neat and clean. It was obvious that Vivian had been tidying up.

"Thank you," Roland couldn't help but say to Vivian.

"This is my duty."

Looking at Vivian, who was holding Mijil and blushing slightly, Roland was startled, and he suddenly remembered the key he had in his Backpack.

Although that key was no longer needed now that Vivian lived in the manor most of the time, the meaning it represented hadn't changed. Should I… respond to the invitation?

It's a bit of a dilemma.

Although Roland had been experimenting with magic for the past few days, and his concentration was high, the thought would occasionally pop up when he was resting.

Vivian was beautiful, had a good personality, her gift[1] was big and white, and she loved to do housework. From a male perspective, such a woman would be perfect for a wife.

Just like Night Tide Sands.

Wait!

Roland was suddenly shocked-why did he suddenly think of Night Tide Sands?

Just when Roland felt baffled and couldn't figure it out, Hawk came to the magic tower to look for him.

Hawk's physique seemed to be getting sturdier and sturdier. He opened the door and said, "How many gold coins do you have now? We'll buy all of them at market price. They are still going up right now, it's already at 18,000 yuan per gold coin. Just sell it to us at that price."

"I have about four hundred of them available to sell right now." Roland thought about it and said, "I'll have to keep some for myself for later."

"It's still too little, can't you sell it all to us?" Roland gasped. "Why do you guys want so many gold coins?"

"The guild leader has decided to continue building docks in other cities with rivers, with the intention of building a network of water transportation logistics. Our guild intends to specially develop the water transportation business in the future, starting with a monopoly in Hollevin."

"Good spirit." Roland shook his head admiringly.

"It's nothing," Hawk said somewhat worriedly. "Garland has already started working on forming a large commercial organization and has absorbed many NPC merchant groups into it. Now, they already have some influence in the south." "You large guilds, you guys are really something."

"There are also many small and medium-sized guilds that are starting to develop what they're good at," Hawk said indifferently. "If you're one step ahead, you'll always be one step ahead-no one wants to fall behind."

"They're all burning money to gain market share, so that's why the gold price is being ramped?"

Hawk nodded.

"Still four hundred gold. I really have use for the rest." Roland threw up his hands.

He then took the gold coins out of his Backpack and placed them all on the table.

The four hundred gold coins were piled extremely high, golden and heavy, almost collapsing the desk.

Hawk just casually looked at them and put them away. "When today's game time is over, I'll immediately go out and ask the guild leader to transfer the money to you."

Roland nodded indifferently. It wasn't the first or second time he worked with Silver Wings. The other party's reputation was quite good, and this was still credible.

Moreover, if the other party dared to deny the debt… Roland wasn't afraid. The worst-case scenario was to blow up the other party's heart and soul—the docks.

After Hawk left, Roland continued his magic experiments.

When today's game time was over, Roland climbed out of the virtual cabin, and instead of going to the saber arts club today, he rested at home.

At around nine o'clock, Roland's phone received a message.

With 7.2 million yuan credited to his bank account, he went to online banking and checked to make sure it was correct.

By all rights, he should be thrilled to have such a sum of money, but for some reason, his emotions didn't fluctuate much.

Of course, he was still happy.

Then he found his parents and showed them the balance on his mobile banking app.

Roland's parents were silent for a long, long time.

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Chapter 222 Dirty Politics

Roland's father didn't want Roland to play any games; even though it was very lucrative, he didn't want his son to waste too much time on it.

The only time one could really work hard in life was about 20 years after one graduated and got a job, and the first few years were especially important, so if one didn't work hard, it was better to take the functionary exam.

But he couldn't say the words to lecture him now, and with an addition of 7.2 million yuan, Roland's bank account now had a total of nearly 10 million yuan.

He had promised that as long as Roland could make enough money within the specified time, he would no longer care if Roland played games or not.

As a result, it had only been about six months and Roland had made several times his original target, and in a fraction of the time specified. If it had only been a few hundred thousand, or a million, it would have been possible to lecture him.

But now it was nearly ten million.

Can playing games really make that much money?

Am I already behind the times?

Roland's father was now at a loss.

Roland's mother, however, snapped out of her daze more quickly, and she looked at the bank card on the table and asked with some excitement, "Ming, should we go to the suburbs and buy some land? I heard that the future is in the south. We should take a piece of it while it's still not expensive."

Ming was Roland's father.

By this time Roland had left the room; he had left his bank card behind and had told both parents the PIN number.

Nearly ten million yuan was indeed a lot of money, but Roland wasn't too interested in it lately. Besides, he would still receive a steady stream of gold coins in the game, and as long as the gold coins don't drop in price, he would still have lots and lots of money. This game had its own set of economic systems. Gold coins were precious metals that were finite, not paper money that could be printed infinitely. As one of the three most important currencies in the game, even if the exchange ratio fluctuated, the price of gold coins wouldn't drop by much.

Unless the game server was shut down.

This was the most dreaded possibility for all of those who played games to make money.

Roland's father thought about it and said, "Okay, I'll ask my friends at the construction bureau to see if there's any inside information or something like that."

Since his son had handed over his bank card, it was a sign of trust in them as seniors.

They naturally had to think about their son's future.

As long as one had a piece of land, even if one had no money in the future, they could build a home out of the ground.

Small cities were different from big cities. The suburbs here still had a lot of land auctions that could be used as private residential land.

Roland went to the saber arts club the next day-today was a cloudy day. Roland was eating breakfast in the small kitchen, as usual, while Night Tide Sands was cooking on the side, her back turned to Roland.

She was wearing a white short-sleeved top and tight jeans underneath, the kind that wrapped around her hips and showed off her figure completely. Just looking at her back gave people a rather youthful, energetic, slim, and beautiful impression.

Plus, now that Night Tide Sands was doing housework all the time, it also gave her an air of being a good wife and loving mother.

As expected… She is perfect for a wife.

Roland stared blankly at Night Tide Sands, and Night Tide Sands seemed to sense this, looking back at Roland and saying with some surprise, "Why are you looking at me weirdly?"

"Oh, it just struck me that you seem to be a very virtuous woman." "Tsk!"

Night Tide Sands gave Roland a blank stare and then turned around to continue housework, but her lips were slightly pursed and her pupils brightened.

After Roland ate a delicious breakfast, he went to the shed.

Qi Shaoqiu was happily smoking a Jia Tianxia cigarette in his mouth, while Roland sat on the side, looking up and lost in thought.

At this time, Li Lin and the others hadn't come yet, so the place looked very empty.

"Young man, I see that you seem to have something on your mind." Qi Shaoqiu sat down next to Roland.

Roland thought about it, then said, "I suddenly realized Night Tide Sands is perfect for a wife, and I was wondering if you would beat me up if I pursued her."

Qi Shaoqiu looked at him quietly, expressionless.

Roland felt a little guilty. Telling someone about hitting on their sister, this was something that would normally make people mad.

After staring at Roland for a while with ugly dead fish eyes, Qi Shaoqiu stood up and said disdainfully, "You're the most clueless idiot I've ever seen."

Sure enough, Roland sighed as he was scolded.

When he returned home in the evening, after having dinner, Roland practiced the Daoist Nourishment of Life and meditated until about nine-thirty, then took a shower and lay down in the virtual cabin.

Roland continued his original game life, staying in the lab to optimize the Spell Puppet's abilities, and when he got tired, he went to teach the apprentices the basics of spell casting theory.

The days passed with little or no commotion.

Another fourteen days or so went by like this. Then, a special guest came to the Magic Tower.

The famous "postman" from the forum came to the Magic Tower and brought a letter to Roland.

The postman had a travel-worn appearance. He was a little excited to see Roland, and he shook Roland's hand with both hands and said quite happily, "Almighty Roland, I have always admired you, and now I am finally meeting you in person."

"I admire you even more. Focusing on only one thing, that's something that the average person can't do." Roland laughed. "I can't believe there's a letter for me, is it from Kaka Bard?"

Speaking of letters, the postman's expression immediately became serious as he placed a white letter in front of Roland. "You should read this letter now."

Roland was a little surprised by the postman's change of expression, and he opened the envelope accordingly. Inside was a piece of white paper-not parchment-filled with words.

A white paper like this was quite expensive; it cost roughly two silver coins to buy one.

The words on the paper were scribbled and even a little messy, and one could tell that the person who wrote this letter must have been in quite a mess of emotions at this point.

"My friend Roland, by the time you read this letter, I will surely be dead."

Roland's brow immediately furrowed.

"I'm sorry that I can't give you the reward anymore. The queen pointed at me the day before yesterday and said that I had taken her captive and violated her. Even though I found an alibi, everyone believed the queen's word and no one spoke up for me, be it family or in-laws, even including the headquarters' chairman who had previously looked upon me favorably. The royal family has decided to hang me in a day's time, along with the punishment of burning at the stake.

"I'm under house arrest in the manor, just waiting for my execution tomorrow, and it just so happened that a postman delivered a letter to the manor, so I asked him to bring you a letter. Please forgive me for unilaterally breaking our previous verbal contract. Now that I think about it, there were already signs before, but I was too naive to think to this level-politics really are dirty.

"Now I don't know what to say, I don't want to…"

There was a passage covered by heavy black stains.

"Anyway, getting to know you and becoming friends with you is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life."

The letter ended here.

Roland crumpled the letter into a ball forcefully with his right hand. "What the hell is going on?" "I'm not sure." The postman shook his head. "I was passing by the manor, and it just so happened that this employer stopped me. He made me wait for half an hour and gave me a letter to bring to you."

After a pause, the postman continued, "By the way, I watched this employer being hanged and then burned at the stake. He shouted before his death that someone would avenge him, and that those who targeted him would soon be punished."

Roland squeezed his hands into fists, his knuckles whitening from overexertion.

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Chapter 223 Preparations

Although Kaka had quite a few shortcomings, like looking down on ordinary people and such…

To Roland, he was still a pretty good friend.

"Can you tell me what you know about what happened?"

A little over ten days ago, Kaka had looked like he was confident in his victory, and the worst that could have happened then would have been nothing more than exile to a remote territory. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was hanged and burned at the stake?

The postman cleared his throat and said, "I'm not sure of the details. I was only there for a day, but I heard that the Bards lost a lot of their interests and gave up Kaka, and that's what saved them."

Roland's fists unclenched slowly and his expression gradually returned to normal.

"Is there any other news worth mentioning?" "I got an epic-level quest." The postman thought it didn't seem appropriate to talk about it now, but after some thought, he said slowly, "It's about Kaka, do you want me to share it with you?"

Roland waved his hand. "I received it too, it's called Kaka's Revenge right?"

The postman nodded. "It seems that we can receive this quest whenever we come into contact with Kaka's letter. Almighty Roland, will you complete this quest? If you will, will you take me with you?"

Roland looked at the opposite party, his expression a little strange.

It took a while before he slowly said, "No problem."

"This is the first time I've received a real quest instead of a letter delivery quest." The postman laughed and said rather apologetically, "Besides, it's also an epic-level quest, and I'd like to get some experience and equipment anyway. I've been wearing this outfit for half a year."

The postman did indeed look travel-worn and in dire straits, probably due to the fact that he was running through the wilds almost every

day.

Roland laughed lightly and didn't say anything

Seeing Roland in this state, the postman got up and said, "I'll stay at an inn in this town, and if you're leaving, remember to call me."

Roland nodded in agreement.

When the postman left, it was quiet again in the study.

Roland stood quietly at the window, lost in thought. The setting sun outside the window was blood red, just like Roland's mood at this moment.

During dinner, Roland said to Vivian, "I'm going to go to the capital again." "Going again?" Vivian, who was eating the cake, was a bit surprised. "Why, you've only been back here less than half a month."

"Kaka's dead."

Vivian was stunned for a while before saying, "That's so sudden."

"I have to find out what's going on."

"The Bard family is considered a great noble family in the capital, and even they couldn't protect Little Bard, so it wouldn't make much sense for you to go."

As Roland ate his cake, he said, "I am a Golden Son, and I have other companions."

"Just because you can't die doesn't mean you won't get hurt." Vivian looked seriously at Roland. "The capital is different from our city of Delpon—the professionals there are stronger and more numerous. You have to be careful yourself."

Roland was a little surprised. "I thought you were trying to stop me."

"I know I can't stop you." Vivian shook her head and said, "Take White Amber with you this time. The magic pet is one half of a Mage, it can do a lot for you if it's around."

Roland shook his head. "No, White Amber stays in the Magic Tower. Otherwise I'll be worried."

"Fine." Vivian sighed, feeling a bit depressed.

She thought Roland would be able to stay at the Magic Tower for a long while this time. She had worked up the courage to be more proactive, and then this happened. "When do you leave?"

Roland thought about it and said, "There's no hurry. I guess I'll have to leave in ten days."

Vivian let out a sigh of relief.

It was still good to get along for a while.

Roland's reason for postponing his trip to the capital was simple: to learn Long-Distance Teleportation.

After dinner, he opened the model of this spell in the magic lab and felt a jarring headache as he looked at the densely packed nodes on it.

In the spellbook, there was already a pre-made magic power circulation route, outlined with a thin, light red line. It was reasonable to say that with this circulation roadmap, it should be quite easy. But this wasn't the case, because this route passed through more than three hundred nodes.

In contrast, the number of all the nodes in Language Proficiency, a more difficult spell to learn, was just over two hundred.

However, in Long-Distance Teleportation, there were more than three hundred nodes to pass through alone, and before that, one had to know where each node was, which meant that the spell model had to at least be memorized. Based on his previous learning experience, Roland felt that it might be a bit difficult for him to learn Long-Distance Teleportation in ten days.

But after actually attempting to learn it, he suddenly realized… it didn't seem too difficult.

Did I get smarter?

Just as this thought came to his mind, he realized the real reason.

The Spatial Specialization specialty.

It reduced the difficulty of learning spatial magic and reduced the mental power and magic power exhaustion incurred when using spatial magic.

For the rest of the day, he invested all of his time and energy in learning the new spell.

He spent twenty-four hours in the magic lab, eating meals that Vivian had to bring over and not seeing anyone, including Hawk.

It took him four days to barely memorize the circulation routes of over three hundred nodes.

It took another four days to manage to run a complete simulation of over three hundred nodes at a time, and then he used mathematical models to infer and discover that one successful Long-Distance Teleportation could drain all of his magic power. This wasn't right. Long-Distance Teleportation could only be considered a level-four spell, it couldn't possibly consume that much. He had a full intelligence growth attribute allocation and a piece of equipment to increase his mana cap, and even though he was only at the Elite level now, the amount of mana he had should be about the same as an NPC Archmage, like Tobian the bear-like Mage, for example.

There was no reason why an Archmage would use Long-Distance Teleportation once and be drained of all mana.

So… there was something wrong with this spell model.

It may have deliberately used routes that could successfully cast teleportation, but were more magically draining.

But this was just a guess, and it had to actually be cast successfully to determine if this guess was correct.

Leaving the Magic Tower, Roland went to the outskirts of the city and found an empty and uninhabited location.

Unlike other spells, the side effects of spatial magic were actually immense.

Teleportation was fine, as it was only low-level spatial magic and the distance of the leap was not much, at most a hundred or two hundred meters, causing very little spatial shock.

But Long-Distance Teleportation was different. Hundreds of kilometers, even thousands of kilometers of teleportation distance, caused a very, very strong spatial shock—the farther the distance, the stronger. If it was successfully cast, the spatial shock would calm instantly, but if it failed, the spatial shock set off would turn into a spatial tsunami, directly engulfing everything around it, dragging all matter within the area of influence into the void.

Therefore, Roland had to experiment in a deserted place, so in case of failure, the impact would be minimized.

After confirming that there were no sentient creatures within sight, Roland closed his eyes and concentrated.

Magic power gathered around him and soon condensed into tangible, blue streams of magic power that manifested around him one by one, turning into a magic cage and enveloping him.

Then Roland suddenly opened his eyes, and the streams of magic power around him faded away.

"This is…" Roland frowned. "Directional Teleportation?"

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The Magic Tower had a library full of books on general magical knowledge.

There were also simple, but more important explanations and instructions about Long-Distance Teleportation.

Before Long-Distance Teleportation was activated, it would leave a hidden magic mark in place, which could only be detected by the spellcaster themselves, and even if they were separated from it by a dimension or two, it would not be affected unless it was forcibly uprooted by Dimensional Anchor, an anti-spatial spell.

The first successful Long-Distance Teleportation would perform teleportation in place, as there was only one magic mark.

And for the spellcaster to teleport somewhere else, either someone had to be willing to share their magic mark, or the spellcaster themselves would have to personally make a trip to their destination and use Teleportation once there, leaving their own private mark behind.

So, if it was a successful Teleportation, Roland should have just left a mark in place.

But just now, when the spell hadn't succeeded, Roland found a magic mark forcibly shoved into his consciousness.

If the spell continued to operate, he would be teleported to an unknown place.

He then immediately aborted the magic's operation.

Thanks to the unique specialty of Magic Power Control, Roland's control over the running flow of magic was probably second to none, excluding the gods.

After forcibly interrupting the spell, he didn't suffer any negative effects, but the unidentified magic mark in his consciousness that emitted peculiar fluctuations from time to time made him feel quite uncomfortable.

He immediately mobilized his mental power and tore this mark into pieces.

"No wonder this circulation route consumed almost all of my mana." Roland laughed grimly, softly. "So it's two spells and a trap."

This spell model was actually two spells combined into one.

The first half of the route was meant to create an unidentified mark and then force it into the spellcaster's consciousness, while the second half was the teleportation.

Is this attempting to capture Mages who are masters of spatial magic?

It wasn't surprising that Roland immediately had such a suspicion because the spell model didn't have any special notes and the mark was forced into his head—it was full of malice.

It would be a wonder if it wasn't a trap.

"Who made it?"

It definitely wasn't Kaka.

Although the spell model was brought to Roland by Kaka, Kaka's magic abilities were actually very ordinary. He couldn't learn any kind of teleportation, let alone create a new type of spell that could insert a mark into a person's head.

Most importantly, these two kinds of spells merged into one was an extremely genius piece of work.

Kaka, who wasn't even qualified to learn Teleportation, couldn't have created this compound spell.

Roland recalled that he remembered Kaka had said that the spell model was borrowed from the headquarters.

Now that's interesting.

In the next two days, Roland began to eliminate the excess nodes in the spell model, and after two days of no sleep and non-stop testing, Roland finally recreated this compound spell and reverted it into two different spells.

Long-Distance Teleportation, after eliminating the extra nodes, was only eight hundred and seventy-five nodes in total.

And the number of nodes to go through was only one hundred and seventeen.

The degree of difficulty has decreased substantially.

And Roland saved the model of the other "trap" spell.

He felt that he would use it in the future, and when he was stronger, such as after he was a Legend or a Demigod, he would teleport over to see where the destination of this spell was.

He was really curious.

In addition, this compound spell gave Roland a new idea as well.

How to combine two spells into one.

Although he still hadn't figured it out, it had at least opened a path for him. Once he grasped the principles, then he might be able to use some special signature spells in the future.

For example, fusing an Inferior Fireball and Ice Blade together.

Frostfire?

Hmm, it's very cool to think about.

After a successful use of in-situ teleportation in the suburbs, Roland got his first private spatial mark. He then uploaded the simplified Long-Distance Teleportation spell model to the forum and left a message.

Long-Distance Teleportation Spell Model, Casting Materials Required.

That's right, Long-Distance Teleportation required casting materials: a colorless cat's eye gem that weighed at least ten grams. Since Roland had the specialty of Magic Material Exemption, he didn't need them when casting spells.

Then the netizens replied at the end of the post.

"Oh damn, can I go anywhere without needing transportation after I learn this spell? I feel like I'm at a great loss having contracted a traveling horse as a magic pet."

"Also contracted a traveling horse as a magic pet just to make traveling easier, and I felt my heart bleeding when this spell was revealed."

"Hehe, I took a look, there are over a hundred nodes in the circulation route, do you people even have enough intelligence? Without even learning Language Proficiency, don't even think about learning Long-Distance Teleportation for a year or two."

"Wait, does anyone know how much a colorless cat's eye gem, ten grams in weight, roughly costs?"

"Upstairs, at least forty silver coins and up. I'm a traveling merchant, specializing in gems—they're small in size, high profit, and the Backpack can carry a whole bunch of them… Did you not learn the specialty Magic Material Exemption?"

"I thought it was a poor man's talent, so I didn't learn it."

"Ha, it is indeed a poor man's talent. Rich people don't care about this amount of money."

"For Summon Fire Meteor, top-level magic, the casting material is rumored to be a twenty-gram ruby, which should cost one gold coin. Also, the more top-tier the magic, the more likely it is that casting materials will be needed. For example, Resurrection will require five grams of Fire Phoenix's blood, which is priceless, because it can't be bought."

"Damn, it's not just about the money… Looks like I'll have to delete the account and restart."

"Same! This is the third time I've deleted my account."

"Upstairs, you're so pitiful."

Roland looked at the forum for a while and didn't find any valuable new information, so he closed the forum and then found the postman who was messing around with the prostitutes in the hotel.

Upon seeing Roland, the postman awkwardly wiped off the red lipstick on his face and asked, "Is it time to go?"

Roland nodded.

They went to the horse market where they rented a carriage and departed.

On the swaying carriage, Roland left a message in the guild system:

"I need help, meet me at the Wild Horse Inn in the capital in seven days."

Shortly after, the rest of the guild members, including Betta, all just uniformly left the words "copy that" in the guild chat room. No reasons asked, and not a word of nonsense.

Seven days later, the carriage stopped at the city gates of the capital.

The person in charge of the defense of the city gates was still Antis, and when he saw Roland jump down from the carriage, he was stunned for a moment. A trace of guilt flashed in his eyes, but it flickered away, then he took the initiative to welcome him.

"You've come again." Antis took off his helmet, revealing his pretty, delicate face. "May I ask what you're here for?"

"Kaka," Roland replied calmly.

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Chapter 225 Antis" Frustration

Antis' expression immediately became strange, and he was silent for a moment before saying, "Follow me."

It was still that small house under the city gate, but this time there was an extra postman next to it.

Antis seemed to know the postman as well and nodded in greeting upon seeing him.

Sitting down inconveniently in his full body armor, Antis leaned back against the uneven wall, clasped his hands to his chest, and said slowly, "I knew you'd come back when Little Bard screamed those words before he died because the only friend he had was you."

Roland stared into the other man's eyes and asked, "I thought you were a friend of his too."

"Just an acquaintance, not a friend."

"You're still distantly related."

Upon hearing this, Antis laughed; not at Roland, but with a self-deprecating smile. "A distant relative is nothing; real family members are honey-mouthed and dagger-hearted. I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to strike him while he was down for my own gain, and that's more than kind enough."

It sounded very cold, unreasonable even, but in fact, it was quite fair.

Roland did develop the idea that Antis was already kind enough.

"How much do you know about why Kaka died?" Roland asked indifferently.

Antis' delicate fingers pressed lightly against his pretty face as he pondered what to say and what not to say.

After a while, he looked up and said, "Little Bard's death was the result of a struggle between the royal family and the Association of Mages. That's all I can say; you'll have to look into the details yourself. After all, I'm also on the royal family's side, and there are some things that can't be said from my standpoint, at least not by me."

After speaking, Antis put his helmet back on, covering his sweet, charming face.

Then he walked outside and was about to leave the room when Roland's deep voice came from behind him.

"Thank you."

Antis paused for a moment before he slowly walked out.

The room quieted again, as the postman breathed and said in an incredulous tone, "It feels like a big show. The royal family, the Association of Mages, the queen, Little Bard, the outcast… and that's just what we see on the surface. It's not even clear how many other families are involved privately. Just thinking about it, it gives the impression of a joint and coordinated palace drama."

"You think too highly of them." Roland got up and said disdainfully, "It's just a few families fighting over a bone and biting at each other like dogs."

The postman shrugged indifferently, not arguing.

He was well aware that Roland was in an extremely bad mood right now.

It sounded very much like Roland was in an incompetent rage and on a ranting tirade.

But he knew quite well that the man in front of him was the strongest of the Mage players. A single fireball could break down the gates of the city, and as a player, having the characteristic of immortality, it wasn't difficult for one person to stir up a sudden storm in the capital.

Now the postman had already made preparations for a live broadcast. He also often hung about in the forum, and the first two players who livestreamed Roland bombing the city gates each received more than 100,000 yuan in tips. This made him quite envious.

Now it was finally his turn.

Although he told Roland that he was to complete the epic quest, it was a small matter compared to the income from the livestream. Besides, now that he didn't have a letter delivery quest for the time being, it shouldn't be too much to follow Roland and gain popularity and some money.

Roland walked out of the room.

The postman followed, asking as he walked, "Now what's next?"

"Meeting up with friends."

Friends? The other members of F6?

The postman's eyes lit up. It had always been a secret how many F6 members there were: some said six, some said seven, and now the ones standing in the open were Roland, the strongest mage, and Schuck, the Red Dragon Knight.

The identities of the others were still a mystery, except the fact that there seemed to be a Rogue, a Berserker, and a Hunter?

Livestreaming now, there should be many watching to figure out their identities.

They walked down a few commercial streets to a tavern.

The plaque on the door of the tavern was a stallion, so the tavern was called the Wild Horse Tavern.

There were many red-faced drinkers inside. Most of them were professionals or people related to mercenaries.

In fact, there weren't that many professionals in Hollevin at all. Many of the men just had the strength to learn some fighting skills, so they said they were professionals, such as swordsmen, battle axe fighters, and the like and reported to the Mercenary Guild.

The Mercenary Guild accepted everyone as long as one could cut down beasts and complete their tasks—they didn't bother with whether you were a professional or not. They were only responsible for issuing missions. Your life was your own burden, and if you thought yourself capable, go for it.

This was why the mercenary business was a mixed bag, with real professionals and a huge number of ordinary people.

Due to the extremely high mortality rate in this industry, most mercenaries lived in the moment.

When they had money, they gorged on meat, drank large bowls of wine, and got drunk with women in their arms.

When they didn't have money, they'd get down to business, carrying their longswords and axes and fighting hard for a living.

If they died, they'd be a set of white bones in a deserted suburb, but when they lived, they would continue with their previous life until the money was gone again.

Then it would be another cycle.

It sounded very romantic to look down on life and death, but in reality, this was a bunch of pitiful people.

They were insecure, they couldn't see a future, and they had to paralyze themselves in this way.

Over ninety-five percent of mercenaries didn't live to be fifty.

In this tavern, except for a few who were low-level professionals, the rest were ordinary people disguised as professionals.

They saw Roland in a magic robe and immediately calmed down.

Spellcasters were also known as "robed ones" among the physical professional mercenaries, and excluding the difference in social status, if there was a robed one in a team, then they would definitely be the core to be protected.

The spoils of war were picked first by the robed one, and when dividing the benefits, it was also the robed one who took more.

They knew very well that as long as there was a robed one in the team, the completion rate of the mission and the survival rate would skyrocket. After all, this was a world of magic, and many matters related to magic could only be settled by the robed ones.

This was why the robed ones had always been the hot cake of the adventuring teams.

But even so, robed ones rarely went out on adventures, rarely appearing in mercenary adventuring teams.

But now a robed one actually appeared in the Wild Horse Tavern. This tavern was the humble home of the Mercenary Guild, and many mercenary squads that were about to go on a mission liked to get drunk here before they left.

This was quite a rare sighting.

Did this robed one want to find a team to train his skills?

Immediately, someone was tempted to get up and try to invite the young robed one.

The chances were slim, but what if it worked?

However, after Roland entered the tavern, he didn't stop but went straight up to the second floor.

Sighs sounded, and then the tavern became noisy again.

Roland knocked on a door on the second floor.

A familiar voice came from inside. "Come in."

Roland pushed through the door and immediately saw a few of his friends.

But he looked around the room and asked, somewhat surprised, "Where's Schuck?"

"The little dragoness doesn't like places with too many people, she thinks it stinks." It was Li Lin who spoke, shrugging his shoulders and saying helplessly, "So Schuck stayed with her outside the city. If we start making a move, he'll fly right in on the red dragon for air support."

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Chapter 226 Gifts Left Behind

Indeed, as a Dragon Knight, Schuck's most logical method of attack was airstrike.

There weren't many Mages who could fly, and even if they could, only an idiot with his brain caught in a door would engage in aerial combat with a dragon in the air.

And this dragon had a Saint Samurai riding on its back.

One had to know that Saint Samurai were an all-rounder class, capable of buffs, melee, and long-range damage-dealing, as well as healing spells.

Because of the dragon knight contract, the combined abilities of the human and the dragon were greater than individual skill.

Since the little dragoness didn't want to come in, so be it. It was fine if Schuck came.

Roland walked into the room and sat down, while the postman greeted sensibly, "Hello, brothers."

The members of F6 were regular readers of the forum. The postman was also a celebrity and they were all happy to see him. Brazil, in particular, jumped up and shook the postman's hand vigorously. "Oh damn, so it's the brother postman, come come come, I most admire your perseverance. I'm Brazil, a small Hunter, come along to drink and brag."

The postman was rather flattered.

Generally, small groups like this were more exclusive.

Rarely would there be such warm hospitality.

The others leaned in and struck up a conversation with the postman, especially Betta.

He was the youngest and was especially impressed with people of great determination.

About thirty percent of people's enthusiasm was nothing more than polite courtesy. Only Betta was genuine.

Soon, the postman became acquainted with the F6 crowd.

While they were chatting, Husseret leaned in close to Roland and asked, "What happened, for you to call us all in such a hurry?"

In fact, the five of them were working on a rather troublesome quest that was in progress, and when they saw Roland's message, they didn't say anything and just interrupted the quest to come over.

Roland shared the quest Kaka's Revenge.

Husseret looked at the golden words on the quest bar and was shocked. "Damn, an epic quest."

The other F6 guys also shifted their attention simultaneously.

They didn't know that Kaka and Roland were close.

An epic quest was not easy to find, and they were about to cheer and celebrate when they noticed Roland's expression wasn't quite right.

Facing the inquisitive gazes of his close friends, Roland slowly told them how it all happened.

The room was quiet after he finished speaking.

After a long while, Husseret stood up. "I'm going to find out for you what caused Kaka to be hanged."

"Sorry to trouble you."

"Why are you being so polite, old friend?"

Husseret was a Rogue, naturally good at snooping around, and there was a Guild of Rogues in the capital, he was considered a mid-level person, there was still no problem in pulling out some news and information from the guild.

After Husseret went out, and after staying seated for a while, Roland also stood up, saying, "You guys drink first, I'm going for a walk outside."

Betta and Li Lin and the others knew that Roland needed to be alone, so they didn't say much.

Walking down the street, the capital was still very lively.

In a population of two million, one or two people less had no effect at all. Kaka's death might just cause a small commotion, providing the people of this city a little bit of a bedtime chat.

Roland had been walking aimlessly through the streets, but as he walked, he came to Kaka's manor.

The ones in charge of guarding the gate were actually the same two guards, and they wore somewhat frightened expressions when they saw Roland.

After all, they also knew that Roland and Kaka were friends.

And now that Kaka was dead, they were afraid that Roland would take out his anger on them.

Roland walked over to the terrified pair of guards and asked, "Did someone help erect Kaka's tomb after he died?"

"Yes, sir."

"Where is it?"

"The north corner of the city's western cemetery, it's the newest one with the large tombstone."

Leaving the manor, Roland arrived in front of the gate of the city's west cemetery.

The environment here was very secluded. A huge grey stone wall enclosed the cemetery, and it was only accessible through a black iron gate.

The hunchbacked graveyard keeper sat in front of the iron gate, and when he heard the sound of footsteps, he didn't look up, only said in an indifferent tone, "You have to pay to enter the cemetery, three copper coins per person."

Roland didn't have any bronze coins, so he bent down and placed a silver coin in front of the graveyard keeper.

Seeing that it was actually a silver coin, the graveyard keeper looked up in surprise, and upon seeing Roland dressed in a magic robe, he gulped and immediately sat up straight, not daring to move. Only when Roland entered the cemetery and walked away did he reach out abruptly with his pale, gray, dark hand to quickly store the silver coin in his clothes.

Then he grinned slightly.

The cemetery was large, with mossy, grayish-black tombstones that had a harsh sheen.

A large tombstone at the north corner had the most glaring reflective luster.

Roland stood in front of this tombstone.

The top read "The Tomb of Kaka Bard," while the right side had his epitaph written on it.

"This was a young man who lived a very confusing life, unable to distinguish between friend and foe or good and bad. But he was still a good boy."

At this epitaph… Roland frowned slightly.

It was noon. The direct sunlight hitting the earth was so hot that it made one feel as if they were in a fireplace, and the chirping of insects came from the surrounding trees.

The quiet cemetery seemed to be a small neighboring space separated from the rest of the world.

Roland was somewhat despondent. Just in the blink of an eye, a person who was alive and kicking in his memories was lying under a layer of mud. He had now truly realized what the saying "affairs of the world are inconstant" meant.

There were footsteps behind him. Roland turned back and saw a fat man slowly walking toward him.

It was Kaka's second brother, Felwood.

"Isn't this epitaph interesting?" Felwood walked up to Roland, the two of them side by side. His voice was gentle, no longer arrogant and harsh like it had been some time ago. "I wrote it up."

"You wrote it?" Roland was surprised, then realized something. "Did you erect this tomb?"

"Kaka can't be placed in the family cemetery because he has offended both the royal family and the Association of Mages. If he were placed in the family cemetery, it would put the Bards on the back foot—we're in a treacherous environment as it is." Felwood's eyes, which seemed tiny because of his obesity, flashed with a trace of anger. "But I can't let my little brother's corpse dry out in the wilderness, so I had to find a plot of land for him here in the cemetery. In order to differentiate him from the commoners, I built his tomb big."

Roland didn't speak; he didn't know what to say.

Felwood stepped forward and gently touched the tombstone as if this would allow him to touch his brother. "When I heard you were back, I figured you might be here, and sure enough… My brother said before he died that someone would avenge his death… is it you?"

Roland remained silent.

"It doesn't matter if it's you or not, the man is gone anyway." Felwood's little green eyes looked very seriously at Roland. "I don't know what you came back to the capital for, and I don't want to know, but there is a gift left for you in Kaka's manor that Kaka cried and begged me to tell you about the day before he was hanged. Take this key and go receive your gift."

A bronze key was thrown into Roland's hand.

Felwood turned to leave.

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