The whole room was silent.
Everyone had played the game for nearly four years now. The vast majority of them never missed out on any hours of gameplay each night, and Mages who had been able to keep playing until now were all well-informed players with a deep understanding of the game, or enough knowledge of the world.
What was the concept of gods in this world?
Not to mention the coalition of gods during the exploration stages of the game, the descent of the archangel later on, and the Goddess of Light’s descent some time ago, these were enough to prove that the gods in this world not only existed but were also very active.
They influenced the world with their power at every turn.
Although players clamored every day that they decided their fates and that gods were just a more powerful creature and so on, they still revered the gods to a degree. It was like the reverence for the supreme leader of a nation.
Of course, there was a fundamental difference between this idea and the veneration of the
gods.
They were silent, and Roland was silent, waiting for their response.
After a while, it was O’Neal who spoke up. “That Goddess of Magic, Mystra?”
“There seems to be only one Goddess of Magic, right?”
“No, I mean, can the goddess of magic be invited whenever we want?” O’Neal looked at Roland with a puzzled expression.
Roland froze for a moment and waved his hand. “Didn’t mean that. I was just saying that we could try asking the Goddess of Magic to come down and talk to us—just to try.”
In reality, Roland felt that the Goddess of Magic would gladly come down.
As she was interested in knowledge herself, and Roland was someone she wanted to rope in, it didn’t seem difficult to ask her to take time to come down.
When the crowd heard Roland’s explanation, they all had sneers on their faces. They didn’t believe in Roland’s words.
O’Neal sighed. “Is it strange that you can invite the Goddess of Magic down when you are carrying the button of the Life Goddess and talking and laughing with the Nether God?”
Oh… is that how you guys actually see me?
Roland was quite surprised. He had a pure relationship with these goddesses-no ambiguity at all.
He was just friends with them.
However, he understood that the more he explained these things, the more guilty he would be in the eyes of others, so he said, “So would you guys like to invite her down to
talk?”
“Of course.” O’Neal shrugged and said, “I heard that the lawful goddesses are all quite beautiful, so how could we not get a look at them. Besides, this is also related to our future interests, so of course, we have to talk about
it.’
Then Roland took out the Goddess of Magic’s statue from his Backpack.
He prepared this a few days ago.
Because he had already thought of tying the association to the Goddess of Magic, this way, it could pave the way for the development of the players’ Association of Mages.
Placing the statue of the Goddess of Magic on the table, he then communicated with his consciousness.
All the statues of gods in this world possessed a weak divine power.
… To ensure that the statues were not desecrated, defiled and that the orthodox believers could quickly communicate with their gods when something happened.
Although Roland wasn’t a believer, his mental power was already registered by Mystra’s divine power. It was only then that his spiritual consciousness could be connected, and with a swish, he was pulled into the divine realm of magic.
It was still the same blue spiral-patterned platform, still a divine realm filled with magic.
“You actually reached out to me?” Mystra was somewhat surprised and seemed delighted. “Is something wrong?”
“Well, I plan to call on the Golden Sons to establish an Association of Mages and exchange knowledge on magic together.” Roland didn’t notice the faint elation in Mystra’s eyes and continued, “So I want to invite you to go down and talk to them. I think it will be of great benefit to your faith and preaching in the future.”
Mystra’s expression remained elated. “You’re helping me?”
Roland froze. That sounded quite strange.
But there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. “It’s not really helping you, it’s just a win-win.”
In Roland’s opinion, it was indeed a win-win situation. After the establishment of the Association of Mages, it was impossible to open it only to the players. It also had to be open to the NPCs; then it would inevitably produce exchanges and even conflicts with other organizations.
If the Goddess of Magic stood behind them, then many small troubles might disappear, and big troubles would become small ones.
With less trouble, Mages could devote more energy to magic research. Producing more interesting spells and advancing magic theory would be a good thing for the Goddess of Magic.
It would increase the amount of her faith and solidify her Divine Spark.
If this wasn’t a win-win, what was?
“If you say win-win, then it’s a win-win,” the Goddess of Magic said with a smile. “I’ll be right down.”
She waved her hand, and Roland’s consciousness returned to the ground, back in the conference room. O’Neal and the others were a bit puzzled.
For just now they saw that Roland was suddenly dazed for about three minutes.
Meeting their strange gazes, Roland settled himself and said, “Get ready, the Goddess of Magic is coming down immediately…”
He hadn’t even finished the last word when a powerful mental power was cast down from the air.
A blue pillar of light enveloped the entire makeshift conference room, and after a few seconds, the pillar of light diminished and disappeared, and there was a blue pixelated mass floating faintly above the small statue of the table.
This was the view of the crowd in the conference room; they could only see pixels.
But in Roland’s eyes, it was a scaled-down, cute version of the Goddess of Magic floating in midair with her arms crossed.
She was cute and beautiful. “Well, I’ve come down at Roland’s invitation,” the Goddess of Magic said lightly as she looked around the room. “What would you like to talk to me about?”
The group sighed in disappointment.
They wanted to see how beautiful the Goddess of Magic really was, but all they could see was a mosaic.
After all, this might be the only chance they had to get up close and personal with the gods.
Then everyone’s eyes turned to Roland.
As the nominal chairman now, Roland naturally had the right to negotiate. Besides, he was familiar with the Goddess of Magic, so it was indeed more appropriate and easier to negotiate for him.
Roland understood what the other players meant and slowly said, “Honorable Goddess of Magic, we, the Golden Sons, intend to establish an Association of Mages to exchange magic and spell models.” “Well, that’s a good thing.” Mystra nodded. “I’m sort of aware of where you Golden Sons come from, and I’m even more aware of your strong academic atmosphere. So, I’m very positive about you guys huddling together for research.”
Although her words were more grounded, Mystra’s statement was more formal at the core-a polite response, no judgment, and no feedback.
There was an immediate change in the eyes of the player Mages.
The Goddess of Magic was so prudent that it truly seemed like she wanted to negotiate.
Roland continued, “I believe in the abilities of us Golden Sons, although right now, overall, we’re not as good as other magic organizations, such as the major Magic Towers and so on. I believe that when we unite, we will soon be able to make gains. At that time, if a new spell is created-do you have any ideas, Goddess?”
“Then naturally, offering it to me is the most worthwhile.” Mystra looked at Roland’s serious expression. Somehow, the corners of her mouth pursed up slightly as if she wanted to laugh. “The rewards I give are very good. You should know best after offering so many spells.”
The players all looked at Roland; they had a feeling that Mystra seemed to have a soft touch when she spoke to Roland.
They couldn’t help but feel like there was an adulterous relationship here.
But Roland didn’t feel this, because that was how Msystra had spoken when he first met her.
So he took it for granted that Mystra spoke with that tone of voice and expression.
“For individuals, it is indeed high.” Roland nodded in agreement. “But we are a group now. If we work together and invent new spells, then after we offer it, you will inevitably spread it to all the churches, so that all magic organizations know about it. But this way, other organizations also know about our spell, which will seriously damage our interestsespecially if we are still a newly formed magic organization.”
“You have a point, the power struggle in the main plane is indeed brutal.” Mystra wrapped one arm around her chest, propped her chin with the other, looked down, and pondered for a while. She then said, “Then, how about I increase the rewards?”
Roland looked at O’Neal and the other Mages in the room.
Then they discussed for a while, and after about six or seven minutes, O’Neal spoke up. “Sorry, this increase in reward, how much can be added? Can it offset the loss in our interests?”
“That depends on how you will measure the losses you suffer in the future,” Mystra said, spreading her hands.
“That’s hard to measure.” O’Neal shook his head. “After all, no one can guarantee what hasn’t happened. So… goddess, do you plan to compensate us after it happens?”
Roland shook his head. “That’s not a good idea. Losses have a chain reaction, and it’s best to give compensation before they happen, so that compensation might stop the damage from happening.”
“Then wouldn’t it be better for the goddess to give us a reward and then delay the introduction of the new spell, say by more than five years or something like that,” someone shouted.
This was a good idea. Roland and the crowd looked at Mystra.
Mystra pondered for a moment before she shook her head and said, “I need new spells to attract believers. You are Mages and you yourselves should be clear on this: a new spell published a year earlier or a year later generates a completely different amount of faith, because faith spreads. Not to mention the five years… Understand?”
The crowd obviously understood incremental growth.
It was the so-called word of mouth.
Roland thought for a while and said, “What about shortening the time? Let’s say three years before revealing it to the world?”
This could work, but the players smiled; Roland was a veteran at bargaining, directly cutting the time in half. It was obvious that he often went to the street stalls to buy clothes.
Wait… Roland’s on our side, he cut it in half but it feels weird.
“No, it’s still too long. How about a year,” Mystra said with a smile.
“A year, and we’re not even ready to work on the next spell yet,” Roland said helplessly.
Mystra looked at Roland and smiled. “Okay, for your sake, three years it is.” The players were relieved. Three years was a long time for the players, enough for them to maintain their lead in skills.
As expected, when it came to business negotiations, it was better to have acquaintances.
“Done negotiating?” the tiny mirage of the Goddess of Magic floated up to sit on Roland’s shoulder. “I hear the city is quite interesting. Take me around for a stroll, will you?”
