Chapter 714 Collapse of Faith
After flashing out of the cave, Roland found that the five girls were all outside.
They gathered around Roland upon seeing him.
“How did it go?” asked Solisa voluntarily.
Roland nodded and took out 25 gold coins, giving them to Solisa. “Thank you for having my back.”
“You’re too kind.” Solisa smiled. “We didn’t do anything, yet we’ve made so much money.”
Solisa was only being courteous. There was no way that she and her partners would give the money back.
Naturally, Roland didn’t care about the money at all. He said, “That’s your reward we agreed upon. I have to fulfill my promise. To be honest, it’s not easy to establish a Summoning Magic Tower.”
Hearing that, Solisa heaved a sigh and said in frustration, “I didn’t know how hard it was to establish my own organization until I really tried it.”
“As a matter of fact, my Association of Mages has almost been established,” said Roland in a sincere tone. “Should we forge an alliance? We can help each other if either of us is in trouble.”
Solisa shook her head. “The main reason I established the Summoning Magic Tower was that I didn’t want to rely on men.”
“But there’s bound to be things that are inconvenient for you to do as girls,” said Roland slowly. “It’s just an alliance. We don’t have to meet too often.”
“What’s in it for you?” asked Solisa curiously.
“A lot,” explained Roland. “There are too many conflicts of interests among men. It’s inconvenient to ask male friends to help with certain matters. It will be easier to trust you.”
“To do what?”
Roland looked at the distance and said, “For example, the lich definitely has more secret camps than this one in Hollevin.”
“So, you want to ask us to keep searching for the lich?”
“Yes.” Roland nodded and said, “You’ll get five hundred gold coins for every secret camp you find. You don’t need to do anything except inform me.”
“Deal!” Solisa accepted the request the moment she heard the monetary reward. “Boss, you’re truly generous. The Summoning Magic Tower will be your ally for as long as you are its sponsor.”
Favors should always be exchanged.
Although Solisa couldn’t return the favor yet, she still wanted to make friends with Roland.
She had also realized that it was impossible for the girls of the Summoning Magic Tower to be completely independent from the outside world. The mark of players had been imprinted on them. Besides, any organization needed communication with the outside world in order to develop.
It was better to interact with other player groups, such as Wetland City and the Association of Mages that Roland had recently recreated, than with the chauvinistic forces who were biased against women and thought that women were just objects. Both of them were satisfied as they got what they wanted.
After reminding them to be careful when they searched for the lich’s camps, Roland teleported himself away.
He returned to Delpon and gathered the important personnel under his command for a short meeting
“Another force is onto us. Their target is me, but I believe they’re more likely to start with you. So, from now on, the guards of Delpon should be on full alert. The Black Sand Gang should also search for suspicious people.” Roland looked around the meeting room and continued, “Also, try not to leave Delpon. Don’t go out even if business partners invite you.”
Everybody nodded.
“We’re very strong. Both Cage and Andonara are great experts. All the dark forces will have a headache after seeing them. I don’t think they can get into Delpon.” Roland looked at the plump, cute fruit bats that were hanging over his head and continued, “I’m only afraid that they’ll lure you out.”
It was impossible for the dark forces to approach somewhere a family of Heroes lived.
Everyone nodded their heads to show that they understood.
Then, Roland introduced other things that they should pay attention to, and the meeting was over.
After the meeting, Andonara went to Roland and asked, “Do we need to inform Stephanie, or ask her to live with us for a while?”
“We certainly have to inform her,” said Roland with a smile. “But it will be unnecessary to let her live with us. She’s the queen of Fareins and well-protected. Besides, it’s also the Holy Realm. The dark forces would be idiots to go there.”
“But haven’t dark forces already lurked there twice?”
Roland smiled even more happily and said, “Wouldn’t it be even better? The Holy Realm really loathes the dark creatures after being humiliated by them twice. If they ever sneak into the capital of Fareins again, a lot of people in the church will lose their jobs!”
That did make sense!
Andonara was greatly relieved.
Stephanie was her good friend and her partner. She was naturally concerned about her.
Then, Roland teleported to the capital of Fareins. Because he represented the Association of Mages during the coronation, he was already a celebrity. After seeing him, the guards soon informed Stephanie, and he was taken to her personal chambers.
Roland intended to leave after telling her about the lich, but Stephanie asked him to stay for the night.
On the second morning, he finally left in high spirits.
This time, Roland went straight to the Frostwolf Clan in the Froststar Kingdom. He visited the Holy Lady of Winterwolf. There was no telling whether he was lucky or unlucky, but he attended another of her ritual dances, where she danced like a slut wearing nothing but red ropes.
After the ritual dance, all the believers left with their heads lowered.
Roland was the only person who appreciated the dance the whole time.
He had to admit that the Winterwolf Holy Lady’s dance was truly exciting.
The Winterwolf Holy Lady put on a white leather cloak that covered her body. She then stepped on the ice and slowly walked to Roland.
In the end, she sat down and crossed her legs, not worrying at all that she might get exposed when she did that.
“You’re truly not shy at all, are you? You know that I won’t kill you, so you simply take advantage of me,” said the Winterwolf Holy Lady gloomily. “Do you think it’s easy to take advantage of me?” “This is my offering.” Roland took out ten gold coins and placed them before her. “Your dance was art. I appreciated it as an artist with a pure heart.”
The Winterwolf Holy Lady glanced at Roland’s groin and sneered. Nevertheless, she accepted the ten gold coins.
The only specialty of the Froststar Kingdom was dried fish, which wasn’t very profitable, so the people in the Froststar Kingdom were generally short of money, although they never worried about food.
The purchasing power of gold coins was astonishing here.
“You don’t seem to be in a good mood.” After she accepted the coins, Roland asked, “Did anything happen?” The Winterwolf Holy Lady’s long silver eyelashes shivered. Then she asked, “How did you know?”
“Your dance was filled with hesitation and confusion. It wasn’t as energetic and enlivening as before.”
After a brief shock, the Winterwolf Holy Lady smiled. “It seems that you didn’t lie and you do know dancing, but you would’ve been more convincing if you didn’t show such strong physical reactions.”
“That’s the normal reaction of a man who has seen the most beautiful woman with the most beautiful art. You can’t ask me to suppress my nature,” declared Roland solemnly. “Tell me what your trouble is. Maybe I can help you!”
The Winterwolf Holy Lady looked at Roland weirdly. “You want to pursue me?”
“Not exactly. It’s just a chat between friends.” Roland thought for a moment and said, “Although it does look like I’m courting you, I don’t have feelings for you.”
The Winterwolf Holy Lady was an interesting woman.
As a Holy Lady, she was more humane and arousing, and less sacred and pure, than the Holy Lady of Light.
This woman knew human nature very well, so Roland believed that it was better to speak to her frankly than to tell lies.
The Winterwolf Holy Lady smiled, bringing a warm breeze to the cold world.
But then, she pulled a long face again. She straightened a leg, lowered her upper body, pressed her face against her knee, and said in frustration, “Our Winterwolf Goddess has run away!” Roland subconsciously peeped at the end of her thigh. Then, he found it inappropriate and moved his eyes away.
That couldn’t be helped. It was the natural reaction of a man. He didn’t want to peep.
He had already shown enough self-control by moving his eyes away immediately.
The Winterwolf Holy Lady had only a long rope that weaved around her in circles and covered some critical parts.
When she straightened her leg, she revealed parts that shouldn’t be… After all, how much skin could a red rope cover?
Then, Roland asked in confusion, “The Winterwolf Goddess is gone?” “Not gone; she ran away,” said the Winterwolf Holy Lady, almost crying. “She was lured by a human from outside. She simply said that we should live on our own now, that she had to pursue love. Then she ran away.”
Roland was quite impressed. “Which man couldn be so good? I remember that the Winterwolf Goddess is more than a hundred meters tall, isn’t she?”
“She can take on the appearance of a regular girl.” The Winterwolf Holy Lady thought for a moment and said, “The witnesses said that it was a human who wore golden armor. He seemed to be from the Temple of Light and rode a red dragon here.”
Oh… Roland knew who it was.
Then, he had a “that’s only natural” feeling.
“So, this is the last time I dance for the ritual.” The Winterwolf Holy Lady almost cried out. “I won’t be the Holy Lady in the future. The Frostwolf Clan won’t use the Winterwolf as our totem anymore.”
Her faith had collapsed!
No wonder she seemed lethargic and unconcerned when a man peeped at her.
“What’s the plan for the Frostwolf Clan?” asked Roland.
“We’ll just stay here for as long as we can,” said the Winterwolf Holy Lady unhappily. “We don’t need to save the world anyway. The old men said that human beings needed us to beat a great devil every couple hundred of years, until Heroes emerged among them. They don’t need us anymore. Now, even the Winterwolf has abandoned us. Why are we so unlucky? We haven’t done anything wrong. Why did the Winterwolf Goddess abandon us?”
This time, the Winterwolf Holy Lady truly burst into tears, and the white dog ears above her head dangled down.
Oh… Roland truly did not know what to do.
He was not a believer, and he did not know how to comfort the crying woman.
It was also worth noting that Roland didn’t even know whether or not he should touch her considering how she was dressed.
He could only remain silent.
Fortunately, the Winterwolf Holy Lady wiped her own eyes a moment later, and her ears rose again. “Right, you must be here for something. Is there anything I can help you
with?”
Relieved, Roland nodded and said, “I would like to ask the Frostwolf Clan to look for someone for me.” “Who is it?”
“The camp of a northern lich.” Roland smiled.
A couple of days earlier, when Roland fought the lich, he found some leads even though the lich didn’t confess anything.
He noticed the hint of northern frost in the lich’s dark magic power.
That was a very remarkable skill.
It was like how a wine taster, after sipping the wine, could tell where the wine was produced, how the grapes were fertilized, how long they were exposed to sunlight, how much rainwater they received, how many leaves of the grape vines were cut every day, and how the wine was fermented in the bucket, to produce such an outstanding taste.
Thanks to Roland’s high mental power, he was able to sense the intricacies of magic power as he leveled up, provided that he had been familiarized with it before.
Roland had run into liches on the way to the Froststar Kingdom last time.
He had remembered the smell of the frosty northern magic power since then.
So, while the lich thought that he didn’t say anything or betray himself, Roland had already figured out where he was from.
“You must be referring to the liches near the border of the Froststar Kingdom.” The Winterwolf Holy Lady frowned. “They are quite troublesome. They dig every day, and the places they live in are filthy and disgusting.”
“I’m willing to pay a high price.”
The Winterwolf Holy Lady was uninterested. She wasn’t attracted to money, but for her people, she was willing to listen to Roland’s offer.
“Five hundred gold coins for one lich camp.” Roland gave her the same offer as he did to the Phoenix Guild. “I can pay you a hundred coins up front as your founding.” “How many?” The Winterwolf Holy Lady’s beautiful eyes were widened.
“Five hundred gold coins. I can pay…”
Hum!
The Winterwolf Holy Lady had been seated at least one meter away from him, but she suddenly emerged before Roland’s eyes.
Her posture was the same, but there was no distance between them anymore.
They were so close that her breasts nearly touched Roland’s chest.
She was almost as fast as Andonara.
“Fantastic. We’ll take the mission.” Bright light burst out of the Winterwolf Holy Lady’s eyes. “The northern liches, right? They’re now the Frostwolf Clan’s targets. Nobody can beat us to them.”
