Andonara was quite angry.
How can you and your mother tell my man what he can and can’t do?
But then, she too realized Nia’s implication.
What? Roland wants to become a lich?
She was terrified.
She didn’t care whether or not Roland was handsome, rich, or strong.
However, her man should at least be a warm-blooded creature.
Her heart would be broken if she had to hug a lich who felt like ice and didn’t have any human emotions.
She quickly walked to Roland, grabbed his hands, and said, “Honey, don’t rush into anything. I won’t be as bossy anymore, okay?”
She even wondered if Roland wanted to eradicate his feelings because she had been going too hard on him in bed.
Obviously, when you’re too attached to someone, you tend to have random thoughts whenever they do anything unusual.
Roland looked at the two women in surprise. He then realized why they were so anxious. He said with a smile, “Don’t worry, I don’t want to become a lich. I simply want to figure out the phylacteries’ mechanism so that I can locate them.”
Hearing that, both of the women were reassured. Andonara was still slightly worried. She stared at the phylactery in Roland’s hand aggressively, as if she were going to destroy it at any moment.
Nia was wearing a similar expression, although the two of them wanted to destroy it for different purposes.
In fact, their excitement was understandable, as the liches’ knowledge was unbelievably alluring in this world.
Too many great heroes fell victim to the liches’ knowledge after only a quick glance at it.
Few people could resist such a temptation.
It was also the reason why the major Magic Towers and churches dared not keep the liches’ knowledge in their libraries.
Seeing their reaction, Roland thought for a moment and said, “I’m really just trying to study them. If you don’t believe me, you can watch over me in my lab. How does that sound?”
Nia instantly nodded. “All right, that sounds good.”
After a moment of hesitation, Andonara nodded too.
She should’ve trusted Roland more, but she was afraid of losing him because she cared about him too much.
Then, Roland went to the lab.
To be honest, he didn’t know the first thing about phylacteries, and he feared that he might accidentally break the phylactery during his research and set the lich free, which would be terrible.
As a Life Angel, Nia could suppress evil powers. He had nothing to worry about in his research as long as she was watching out for him.
After he started the research, both of the two women slept in the lab too.
Roland concentrated his attention on the phylactery and ignored the two beautiful women who wandered around in pajamas.
In moments like this, women weren’t nearly as attractive as new knowledge.
The greatest essence of the liches’ knowledge was the phylactery.
Their dark spells and blood curses were all that the Mages had tried and abandoned.
The phylactery was the only thing that was designed without following the current spell system.
Roland didn’t hastily dismantle it. He studied the magic stripes on the surface of the box first.
Unlike the current magic arrays, the magic array on the lich’s phylactery was quite strange.
They were in very different systems, but they had similarities too.
If a comparison must be drawn, one of them could be compared to physical chemistry, and the other, biochemistry.
Although their cores were the same, the abilities and knowledge derived from them were vastly different.
The magic array on the box was already fascinating enough for Roland. It took him a month to parse the magic array on the box, which greatly broadened his view on magic arrays. At this moment, he could try achieving things that he hadn’t been able to with magic arrays.
For example, he could try transforming energy into matter with a magic array.
But that had to wait. At this moment, the most important thing was to crack the phylactery.
Roland would rather not have a bunch of enemies lurking in the dark waiting to attack him forever.
Research was a process that consumed time, money, and materials.
Roland used a lot of magic materials even though he was merely cracking the phylactery. He created simple magic arrays to perform all kinds of attribute tests.
Magic arrays could be used for a lot of purposes, such as offense, defense, and support.
They had even more usages in Roland’s hands.
For example, he created a small see-through magic array.
It was Roland’s latest masterpiece, one that could see the inside of a small object.
There was also the material recognition magic array. He had perpetuated a recognition spell in a magic array and added a weighing effect, so that it could measure the weight of an item and detect the elements within.
There were other similar small magic arrays. Roland created them with inspiration from modern labs.
At this moment, Roland was using tools to help with his research without doing all the calculations separately.
Time flew very fast when Roland was completely dedicated to magic.
At first, Nia and Andonara were worried that Roland would be corrupted into a lich, but seeing that Roland was merely pursuing knowledge, they were greatly reassured.
But they didn’t leave the lab. They decided to wait until Roland stopped studying the lich stuff.
About eight hundred kilometers to the west of Delpon, four young men wearing black robes were riding camels from a desert village in Urganda to the city.
Although black materials absorbed more heat, black robes were still more comfortable than white ones in a desert.
They had been traveling for days, and their destination was Delpon.
Something happened in their hometown. They asked for the help of a lot of mercenaries and even Mages, but none could resolve the trouble.
They begged everywhere, to no avail. By accident, a Golden Son passed the place. He scratched his head after seeing the scene and said to the village leader, “Just give up. This task is too troublesome for anyone to pick up. You should offer more money. This is clearly related to magic.” He was the only person who was willing to tell them about what might have happened.
Other people simply left after they took a look at the scene.
They were unwilling to speak to the villagers at all. Some even spat at them. So, the village leader fell on his knees before the Golden Son.
The Golden Son was a kindhearted man. He waited for a moment and said, “You can go to Delpon for a Mage named Roland. He’s one of my people and has a good heart. He’s also good at magic. He might accept your request and take care of your trouble.” “Then how much money will he charge?” asked the village leader pitifully.
The Golden Son smiled. “Money? Few people in this world are richer than Roland, even the dragons. You can take some of your local specialties to him. The key is sincerity and earnestness. You must not trick him. Maybe you can get him here after saying everything you need to say.”
“Then can you help us invite him?” asked the village leader hopefully. “I can see that you are a good person too.”
The Golden Son instantly smiled. “Of course I am a good person. You can see green above my head if you perform an alignment test… Damn, that sounds like I’ve been cuckolded. However, I’m not a fool. Why do you think I should owe someone else a favor? This is your own issue. Since you can’t save yourselves, I’ve pointed out a solution for you, yet you want me to take care of your problem for you? That’s not how you should do things.”
The Golden Son laughed mockingly and left.
Naturally, the villagers dared not chase him.
A few days later, the village leader chose four of the strongest villagers and had them come to Delpon, carrying local specialties on their camels.
They asked merchants and travelers on the way and traveled slowly on the roads.
It took him more than ten days to walk out of Urganda, the desert country.
However, the ten days weren’t a waste of time.
On their way, they asked everybody’s opinion on the Golden Sons, and everybody raised their thumb and said that the Golden Sons were the only people with a conscience on this continent.
They were really good people. Hearing that, the four villages were even more excited and continued riding forth on their camels.
They traveled for another dozen days and finally arrived in Delpon.
They didn’t run into any bandits, but when they passed cities, the guards had all demanded bribes, and they only had one-tenth of the local specialties left.
Although they came to Delpon, they couldn’t have looked more devastated. They felt like crying as they looked at the empty sacks on the camels.
Eventually, the middle-aged in the lead said slowly, “We’ve already tried. There’s nothing we can do. Since we’ve made it here, we might as well pay a visit to the Master Mage.”
They were still outside of the city. When they went through the city gate, they were blocked again.
They thought that they had to bribe again. Their leader searched the sacks and gave the guards a few dry fruits.
However, the guards waved at their hands, and a friendly-looking middle-aged man observed them for a while and said, “You’re from the Red Desert?”
The four of them quickly nodded.
“Why are you here?” Carrying the Hero’s Sword, Cage looked at them. “For business? But you don’t have enough goods. Were you robbed on the way? If you were, where did it happen? Do tell me if it happened within the jurisdiction of Delpon City. We’ll help you get your goods back.”
The villagers quickly nodded. “No, we’re here to meet a Mage named Roland.”
Roland?
Cage was slightly surprised. “You came all the way here from Urganda on camels just to meet Roland? You don’t seem to be potential magic apprentices.”
“No. Something dreadful happened to our village. A Golden Son mentioned that Roland might be able to take care of it for us.”
Cage slightly nodded.
He too had discovered that the four villagers looked miserable.
They were dry, skinny, and suntanned.
They must’ve suffered a lot on the way. They probably didn’t even have enough to eat.
Even the camels had become slim due to hunger.
Just like farmers who often considered cows as their family members, the Red Desert Dwellers regarded camels as the most important property of their family or village.
They would feed camels first even if they were starving.
“Roland has been busy studying magic…” said Cage. Then, he looked at the four desperate ordinary people and said, “Forget it, I’ll take you to him.”
The villagers were excited to learn that this man had direct access to Roland.
Their leader reached his hand for the sacks and fetched a handful of dry fruits for Cage.
Cage waved his hand.
The man got anxious and insisted on giving the dry fruits to Cage. He was about to kneel when Cage refused him again.
Cage was a professional, and he grabbed the man before he fell on his knees. “Fine, I’ll accept them.”
He accepted the dry fruits, put them in his pocket, and led them to the center of the city.
Outside of Roland’s manor, Cage asked them to leash their camels and then took them into the manor.
There were guards in the manor, but as Roland’s friend and Andonara’s family, Cage wasn’t stopped by any of them.
In the courtyard, Cage and the visitors saw Andonara and Nia enjoying afternoon tea. It was their rare leisure period. In about half an hour, they would return to the lab and keep Roland company.
Seeing her uncle and four suntanned men behind him, Andonara asked in surprise, “Uncle, who are they?”.
“They want to meet Roland and ask for his help.”
“Do they need money?” Andonara stood up and was about to return to her room to fetch money.
Andonara wouldn’t have cared if a random person came to ask for help, but the case was different now that her uncle brought them here.
Andonara had always been grateful to her uncle for taking care of her.
“It’s not about money,” Cage explained. “They claim that their village ran into a weird magic problem and nobody would help them. A Golden Son told them that Roland might help them, so they came here from Urganda on camels.”
“Urganda? That’s a thousand kilometers away.” Andonara was shocked. “Is there nobody in Urganda that can take care of the problem?” Cage opened his hands. “The people of the Red Desert prefer sword arts and battle techniques. Everybody knows of their ineptitude in magic.”
“That’s true.”
Andonara didn’t want anyone to disrupt Roland, especially when he was doing magic experiments.
However, she saw that the villagers were nearly defeated by the one-month journey and the heavy pressure.
Their eyes were even unfocused. Had it not been for the hint of hope in their gazes, they would’ve been no better than zombies.
Andonara knew that they would pass out in desperation if she turned them down.
They were really pitiful! She thought of herself in the past. Although she was strong, she almost drowned in desperation because of the intentional and unintentional psychological abuse of the royal family.
If it weren’t for Roland…
Thinking about that, Andonara said to her uncle, “Let them wait here and ask the maids to prepare some food and water for them. I think they’re dying.”
Cage put on a smile. The Hero’s descendents should truly be as caring as her.
Andonara went into the lab and patted Roland’s shoulder. After Roland turned around, she told him what happened.
Roland found it rather unbelievable. “A magic problem that nobody in Urganda can take care of?”
He was quite interested.
But he was even more interested in the phylactery.
On the other hand, people’s lives were at risk. He had to pay a visit to Urganda anyway.
While he was in a dilemma, a system notification popped up.
Epic quest detected: Magic Essence. Would you like to pick it?
Hmm?
Of course he would!
It had been forever since he had picked an epic quest.
It wasn’t easy for him to get one at all!
