Chapter 609 Bad Start
Upon seeing the white cloud, everybody’s first reaction was to hide.
However, there was nothing around to hide in or behind.
Roland reacted fast enough by digging a huge pit with magic before the cloud drifted too close. He then covered the pit after they all jumped in.
Thanks to the overwhelming mental power in the sky, Roland’s mental waves when he used magic were eclipsed and didn’t spread far.
Roland didn’t forget to leave several peepholes on the lid that covered the pit. The five of them observed the cloud each through one peephole. After the cloud finally flew above their hideout, they found that it wasn’t a cloud at all but a mass of feathers.
It was a weird amalgamation of white feathers, with a black skull at the center.
The skull was smooth and shiny on the surface, and white flames were burning in its hollow eye sockets.
Upon seeing that, Roland closed his eyes and said, “Lower your heads and don’t look at it.”
The other four people instantly lowered their heads.
Roland didn’t open his eyes until that thing flew far away. Schuck asked, “What was that?”
“It must be a Soul Gatherer of the Netherworld.”
One could learn a lot of things from reading.
One of the books Roland had read introduced the Soul Gatherers of the Netherworld, who were the clones of the Nether God’s godhood.
They were intelligent, but essentially tools rather than living creatures.
They were generally innocuous, but whatever they saw would be seen by the Nether God.
While the Nether God was a righteous god, he was never liked, as all living creatures disliked death. So, nobody wanted to see Soul Gatherers under normal circumstances. The five of them crawled out of the pit. “It seems that we’re indeed in the Netherworld. Let’s start a livestream.” Schuck thought for a moment and said, “We must be the first players to reach this place. We can start a livestream so that other players will know what’s out there when they come someday.”
Roland felt that he had a point. “Okay, you can start it.”
“You should do it.” Schuck smiled. “It’s you who took us to this place. Besides, you’re the most famous player in this game.”
“Okay.” Roland wasn’t a pretentious man. He owned a Magic Tower and was the boss behind the scenes in Delpon. He was already used to being the center of attention and didn’t have any stage fright.
He simply created a stream channel with the name “I Think I’ve Teleported to the Netherworld.”
A hundred thousand people surged into this channel in no more than one minute. More players and netizens were on their way.
As the player who had the highest level and most controversies in the entire server, whenever Roland posted a thread on the forum, it would be a hit.
It was not hard to imagine what would happen after he started a livestream.
However, after turning on the stream, Roland simply left it aside and didn’t interact with the audience at all.
He didn’t care about the tips and remarks at all.
A lot of comments were popping up in the channel.
“Damn. Roland is starting a stream. That’s quite rare.” Actually, of all the famous players, Roland and Schuck were the only two who weren’t crazy about streaming. The others, such as the leaders of the Phoenix Guild and Cornucopia, streamed their adventure all the time, partly to be more famous and partly to earn tips.
At this moment, World of Falan had already become a symbol that the whole world knew. Not only did the players like watching streams, but even the netizens who didn’t have virtual cabins liked watching it too even though it meant that they had to endure the pain of watching the video at three times the normal speed.
Of course, sometimes they recorded the brilliant clips and then played them back at normal speed.
“This is so rare! I’ve always wondered how Roland plays this game. My question can be answered now!”
“Wait, are you all watching Roland? How can his friend Schuck be so unbelievably handsome? Is nobody curious?”
“I’m already licking the screen.”
“So am I. He’s so handsome that even another man wouldn’t be able to refuse him.” “Something is seriously wrong with what you’re interested in. Why is nobody discussing the place they’re in? Is it really the Netherworld?” “Just look at the barren land and the two streams of energy in different colors. Is any discussion needed? We might as well watch the players.” “That’s the difference between an expert and a noob.”
“Have the noobs ever done wrong to you? Get lost!”
Leaving aside the argument in the stream channel, Roland and the others checked around and found that they were on a barren plain without any landmarks.
Also, there were no stars in the sky, which made it hard to tell the way.
But that was not a problem for Roland. He took out a straight stick, set it up, and then performed Lesser Benediction.
The stick then fell toward a certain direction.
Schuck shook his head. “No matter how many times I watch this, I always find it really unscientific, yet it works every time.”
Li Lin the Berserker remarked angrily, “And I too find it really unscientific that you’re so handsome.”
A lot of people agreed with him in the stream channel.
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There was also crazy talk such as, “Handsome guys must die,” and, “Draw your sword, the dragon princess is mine!”
Lesser Benediction had no side effects when used to tell the direction.
They ran more than two hours, and then a city appeared on the horizon.
They approached the city cautiously, only to discover that the city was alive.
It was not a typical city in the Netherworld that was filled with the dead or wandering souls.
Roland and his friends were ready to deal with a huge number of ghosts.
Yet, the city before their eyes was vigorous.
Most of the residents in it were living creatures of flesh and blood. Also, the wall of the city was so short that it was more of a pile of soil than a wall.
Roland and his friends didn’t recklessly barge in. Instead, Roland created a secret camp with his magic and then observed the traffic at the gate through the peepholes.
Then, they found that the population of this city consisted of all kinds of races and hybrids.
Human beings were the majority, and there were a lot of vulpera, elves, drows, orcs and even dwarves.
They also found that while there were guards inspecting those who passed the city gate, they didn’t seem rigorous and would allow the travelers to pass as long as they paid something.
“Let’s get into this city,” Roland suggested.
“It’s your call.” Schuck waved his hand.
The five of them left the camp and waited in line before the city gate.
They all looked more or less nervous, but they tried to pretend to be cool.
When it was their turn, Roland gave five coppers to the guard before him.
The guard was a gray-scaled lizard, who looked at the coppers in surprise with wide eyes. “Mr. Mage, are you really willing to submit such valuable human currencies?”
Were they really valuable?
Roland said with obvious impatience, “Just take whatever I give you and cut the nonsense!” He sounded exactly as arrogant as a typical Mage. The lizard instantly became obsequious. He stooped and opened his mouth. “You and your assistants may come in, sir. Enjoy your stay in Portree.”
The five of them entered the city gate.
When Schuck passed the lizard, the lizard subconsciously stepped back and covered his nose, as if he had smelled a fart.
After they entered the city, they found that the city named Portree was really lively. There were peddlers and shoppers everywhere on the street.
Here, human beings and the other races were in such harmony that no racial gaps and prejudices could be sensed at all.
Roland and his friends were not peculiar at all after they blended in.
They wandered on the street for a while and then checked in at an inn that was owned by a dwarf.
After a break, Roland cast Language Proficiency on Li Lin and the other two physical classes. Then, they all dispersed and collected intelligence in the city.
At this moment, the spell could last 36 hours after he cast it, which made it much more practical than when it would lose its effect after only a couple of hours.
Li Lin and then went to the brothels… They were quite familiar with those places and knew how to communicate with the patrons.
Roland and Schuck went to different taverns.
As a matter of act, Roland wasn’t a great intelligence collector, but he was willing to pay silver coins for information he needed.
Looking at the silver coins, the alcoholics in the tavern, be they human beings or other races, told him everything they knew.
It took Roland only half an hour to collect the information he wanted.
The mayor of Portree was a young girl. Nobody knew how old she was, but she had been the mayor for a long time.
He also learned that the girl had a pair of dark golden eyes and she was so beautiful that everybody who saw her would fall in love with her regardless of their gender and age.
Roland had a feeling that he had found the True Ancestor of vampires.
After all, she completely matched Christina’s description.
Then Roland returned to his inn. His friends all came back one after another. They talked to each other, only to find that something wasn’t right.
The intelligence that Roland collected suggested that the mayor was a young girl.
But Schuck had learned that the mayor was a middle-aged vulpera.
The mayors that Li Lin and the others learned of were different too.
They were either a dwarf or a human female.
How could the descriptions be so different?
Roland found it hard to believe.
Did those people intentionally give them false intelligence because they were outsiders?
Then Roland quickly shook his head.
Unlikely!
Those alcoholics were all drunk. They might have bragged, but they couldn’t have lied.
“As I expected, this quest isn’t simple.”
Roland nodded.
The stream channel, however, was overflowing with comments.
“Boss, you’ve been charmed. Wake up!” “They can’t hear the words that you typed.” “Then I’m ready to have a good laugh at Roland.”
