Chapter 536 I Have a Lot of Friends
Roland was more or less disappointed learning that he had to wait another month.
Having played the game for so long, he was no longer interested in exploring the world.
Why? The reason was very simple.
Because it was too dangerous.
If one were to wander about without enough capabilities, they would die quickly. The human world was treacherous enough, and the ancient relics, the Realm of Devils, the Astral Plane, etc. could be even more perilous. While the players weren’t afraid of death, their levels would plummet and their equipment would be looted if they died a few times.
The loss was so heavy that all the players above level five were “scared of death.”
But they weren’t truly scared.
When they found that death was inevitable, or when they felt humiliated, they would turn into berserkers and die together with their enemy.
Therefore, the players were only scared of death in a relative sense.
Roland was himself in such a position.
He had calculated that, after level ten, if he hadn’t filled more than 50% of the EXP bar, he would drop to level nine after one death.
It took him almost half a year to rise to level ten from level nine.
It meant that after one death, his efforts in the previous five or six months would be for nothing
So, he certainly would rather not get killed! It was also one of the reasons why Roland was the first to reach level ten.
The other players had died more than fifteen times on average during their level-ups since they started the game. Some had even died a hundred times.
The Warriors, in particular, had died the most times on average among all the classes since they always led the charge in battles.
The class with the lowest average death count was… the Rogues.
That’s right. The Rogues, who could use stealth anytime, run the fastest on the ground among all classes, and liked spraying quicklime, had only died 2.9 times on average.
However, the greatest shortcoming of the Rogues was that they couldn’t fight head-on battles, and they couldn’t get experience by analyzing spells like the Mages could. Therefore, while the Rogues died minimally, the speed of their leveling was only slightly above average.
It wasn’t too surprising that Roland, as a player who knew most spells, completed most epic quests, and only died three times, had become the player with the highest level.
Looking at the shocking number on the EXP bar after he reached level ten, Roland dropped the idea to gain EXP through frequent battles.
It was too time-consuming and risky; there were too many variables in a battle.
Too many players had been killed by random arrows when they were about to win.
At this moment, he only wanted to gather new knowledge, acquire experience by analyzing high-level spells, and create new derivative spells to get more experience.
There were also epic quests. After all, the rewards of epic quests, including both equipment and knowledge, were all satisfactory. The risks of those epic quests were too insignificant compared to the returns.
Leaving the Association of Mages, Roland went to Stephanie’s manor and saw that an afternoon tea party was going on.
A dozen noble ladies with different vibes and styles were seated in the manor in various groups. Andonara seemed very happy among them.
Then, she became even happier when she saw Roland.
She ran to Roland and jumped into his arms.
Telling her that he was going to Hollevin, Roland left the city while Andonara stared at him affectionately. He teleported back to Delpon.
Then, not only did he see Betta, but he also met Li Lin and the others.
Those beasts had just returned from the Temple of the God of Love in the neighboring county and said goodbye to Roland the moment they met.
“We can’t get much experience anymore when we stay with the believers of the God of Love.” Li Lin couldn’t have sounded more disappointed. “So, we have to get more experience in other places through other ways, for example, in the God of Love’s base in Urganda. We want to have more profound communications with the high-level clerics of the God of Love there.”
Li Lin and the others all looked fascinated.
Roland felt that his head was dizzy… Wasn’t it still the same trick?
So, the God of Love’s clerics in Hollevin can’t satisfy you any longer.
Roland estimated that they had probably added all their points to Endurance.
Li Lin and the others were now around level right, and the female clerics in the Church of Love were only level six at best. They weren’t of much help anymore. “Okay.” It wasn’t Roland’s place to stop his friends from doing what they wanted, but he was slightly worried. “If you fool around in the game so crazily, what will you do if you can’t meet any girls in reality who are as beautiful and voluptuous as those in the game? Will you never get married?”
W
“You’re one to talk,” said Li Lin disdainfully. “Both Andonara and the long-legged angel are the most gorgeous girls ever. They’re at least two levels higher than the female clerics we were with. Why should we be scared when you’re not?” Well… Did we have similar conversations before?
Roland had a deja vu for a moment.
They found a tavern and had a lot of food and drink. Then, Li Lin and the other three friends wobbled away from Delpon. Without the four powerful professionals, Delpon became much more vulnerable.
But thankfully, Vincent returned from his travels. He had reached level seven and was much stronger than before.
On the other hand, Douglas had joined the Magic Tower too. Together with Cage Reed, the Hero’s descendant, they formed the iron triangle of Delpon.
Nobody really dared to step up and cause trouble.
On the city wall, watching the carriages that Li Lin and the others took disappear in the radiance of the sunset, Roland asked Betta, “What exactly is the matter with your territory?”
Betta gave a magic scroll to Roland. “Just come with me and see for yourself.” Then, Betta took out another scroll and opened it, before he completely vanished in blue light.
Roland sensed the scroll in his hand with his mental power, only to discover, to his surprise, that Betta had engraved Long-Distance Teleportation to the scroll and set up the destination of the teleportation.
He was a smart boy, as expected of Schuck’s cousin.
Opening the magic scroll, Roland was teleported too. After a few seconds of blankness, Roland found himself standing on a meadow.
Roland looked around and found that it seemed to be a plain.
Then, Betta rushed close from not far away, breathing heavily. “Sorry, Brother Roland, but I’m not very familiar with magic scrolls. The spells I engrave into them can’t be perfectly triggered.”
“But this is already impressive enough.” Roland’s eyes glittered. “You can sell the magic scrolls that connect the important transportation hubs between Hollevin and the capital of Fareins, for example. I’m sure that a lot of people will be willing to buy that.”
After a brief shock, Betta said in admiration, “Brother Roland, you are truly a business genius.”
“You are the impressive one here. You got the hang of magic scrolls before I did.”
Betta smiled proudly. “Since you were dedicated to magic arrays, Brother Roland, I could only study magic scrolls.”
“Let’s talk about business. You said that your new territory is full of swampland. What’s that about?”
At this moment, Betta put on a bummed expression. “Brother Roland, come with me.”
Then, they walked forward, and Betta stopped.
Roland smelled a strong stench that was mixed with water vapor and mud. It wasn’t very pleasant, but not nasty either.
In front of his eyes were green bushes. They didn’t seem odd at all. Then, Betta picked up a random stone and tossed it forward.
After a dum, the stone fell into the bushes, making some mud splash, before it sank. It was a swamp!
Roland turned around and looked at Betta. “All your territory is like this?”
Betta nodded, depressed. “Yes.” Roland, however, found it strange. “That doesn’t make sense. I could tell that Dinah liked you. She couldn’t have set you up.”
“She didn’t.” Betta shook his head quickly. “She probably didn’t know that the territory was swampland either. She told me that she left home when she was very little to be a Saint Samurai in the Holy Realm. She didn’t know her family very well.”
That was indeed quite possible.
Roland nodded and looked ahead.
A territory of swampland could barely be called a territory. No wonder the Hibiscus family who cherished their turf so much were willing to give away such a huge piece of land.
Nobody could live in such a place.
However, the players thought differently from NPCs, especially those who were born in a country famous for its constructions.
“Then we can simply turn your territory into a hardened habitable land, right?”
“Mud to Stone and Stone to Mud?” Betta shook his head. “I thought about it before, but I did some calculation and found that it would take years for us to transform this area into normal land even if we worked full time.”
“Why should we work on this alone?” asked Roland with a smile. “You can always hire more people.” “The NPC Mages are all learning battle spells. Few of them are interested in Mud to Stone.” Betta heaved a sigh. “Also, the NPC Mages are too proud. They’ll feel humiliated if they’re asked to do hard labor like this.”
Roland waved his hand. “Let’s look for players.”
“I don’t know other Mage players. I don’t think many of them are capable of Mud to Stone, either.” Betta was still pessimistic.
“I think there are plenty.” Roland waved his hand again. “Let me take care of this. But you’ll have to pay a price, for example, by giving some of your land to the helpers.”
Betta nodded. “That’s not a problem, as long as the land isn’t too expansive.”
Roland smiled. “Things are much easier now that you’ve told me that.”
On the next day, after he got up from the virtual cabin, Roland simply logged in his chat app, found the Mages’ group, and sent a message to O’Neal.
Roland: “Didn’t you want to find a piece of land and build your own Magic Tower? I have a friend who has empty land. Let’s make a deal.”
Very soon, O’Neal replied with a simple “?”.
