Chapter 451 - Roland’s Oil-Making Spell
writer:翔炎      update:2022-07-29 14:48
  After a day, the Cornucopia’s robbery was heatedly discussed on the forum.

  Charles was a minor celebrity on the forum. After all, the Cornucopia was a huge business and recently dominated the material market. It was one of the successful guilds in the eyes of most players.

  Therefore, many players were filled with indignity after the Cornucopia was attacked, but a couple of days later, they discovered, to their surprise, that none of them received any quests to help the Cornucopia.

  That was highly unusual.

  By logic, a help quest should’ve been triggered since the Cornucopia lost so many magic materials, but none received any quests about the Cornucopia.

  This made the players on the forum feel that there might be other factors behind the incident.

  Roland also saw the discussion on this matter on the forum, but he didn’t pay much attention to it.

  Antis was probably behind this.

  It was true that the privateering license was against the hostile foreign merchants, not the businessmen within the country.

  But the problem was that nobody seemed to regard the Golden Sons as their compatriots.

  Even the Church of Life never considered the Golden Sons, who were resurrected in their temples, as their own kind.

  The players who were hired by the NPCs were nothing more than employees. They were never considered to be part of the community.

  Therefore, it was not surprising that the privateering license worked on the Cornucopia.

  More importantly, the Cornucopia made a lot of forces hate them for maliciously monopolizing magic materials, and this organization happened to be weak.

  Those players were only level two on average two years after the game was launched. It was not hard to imagine how they hated leveling and how crazy they were about money-making.

  They were a weak but wealthy force, so it was only natural that they were robbed.

  Nobody robbed them previously because of the possible revenge of the Golden Sons, but since many Golden Sons sided with the nobles and the royal family and led the charge in the robbery, others naturally followed them.

  After all, if anything happened, they had Golden Sons on their side too.

  On the other hand, with the parchment where the oil-making spell was written, Roland traveled to the capital through Long-Distance Teleportation again.

  Then, he ran into Antis who was watching over the city gate as usual.

  He curled his finger at Roland and led him to the windowless room behind the city gate.

  “Your method worked well.” Antis wasted no time in small talk and simply smiled. “With the privateering licenses, the Golden Sons who took our side had the courage to attack the outrageous Golden Sons. Do you have certain unspoken rules that you abide by?”


  The rules of the system…… That was very normal.

  Roland slightly nodded and then asked back, “What’s your opinion on the Golden Sons who have taken your side?”


  “Very useful.” Antis put on a happy smile. “As long as we give them a mission, or tell them their responsibilities in detail, they will do a marvelous job. I’m even starting to think that you guys are too obsessed with order.”


  Roland raised his eyebrow. “Why don’t you give me an example?”


  “The capital is very large. We’ve appointed many sheriffs who are responsible for different precincts.” Antis narrowed his eyes like a cunning fox. “One of those sheriffs is a Golden Son. Only four months after he accepted the job, he already trained his subordinates well and made his precinct safe enough to walk in the middle of the night. He even solved a crime from years ago. I couldn’t have done a job as great as him.”


  “That does not seem very remarkable.” Roland shook his head.

  In Delpon, Link and Vincent did their jobs as well as this Golden Son sheriff.

  “You may be too used to this to feel surprised.” Antis clicked his tongue. “But it’s almost a miracle in our eyes.”


  Fine…… People living in a different world tended to think differently.

  Antis continued, “Why don’t you join the royal family as a Mage in the king’s service?”


  Stunned, Roland shook his head. “Can the king still tolerate me?”


  “Is that a surprise? He never put you on the wanted list after the queen spent such a long time with you.” Antis thought and said, “Besides, if you come to the royal family, the queen will return with you. In such a way, the royal family will gain their face back, the queen won’t be forced to do anything, and you will have power. Wouldn’t it be a…… win-win? That’s you Golden Sons’ favorite phrase.”


  “Forget it.” Roland shook his head. “You really never stop trying to pull me into the royal family.”


  “A real talent is popular everywhere.”


  Antis heaved a sigh and said after a moment of thought, “Is there any way for us to deal with the Golden Sons apart from the privateering license?”


  Roland rolled his eyes at him. “Do you really expect me to ramble again?”


  “Tsk. You’re not a good friend,” Antis murmured. “Will you drink with me when you’re done with your business?”


  “It depends,” Roland said casually and left the room.

  In the capital, Roland soon came to the temple of the Church of Magic.

  The Goddess of Magic had her temple too, but too few people worshiped her. After all, Mages were rare, and many Mages proudly thought that they could become gods too, so the Goddess of Magic had few believers.

  Therefore, the temple of the Church of Magic was often set up in the capitals of the countries for symbolic purposes only.

  The temple gate was open. Roland walked in, only to see that a senior Mage was reading a book carefully behind a ritual table under the enormous statue of the Goddess of Magic.

  As if he heard Roland’s footsteps, or maybe because he sensed the stranger with his mental power, the senior Mage turned a page and said slowly without raising his head, “Anything I can help you with, young man? If you’re here to pray, go to the prayer room on your right. If you’re here to borrow money, show me your mental power and let me see how valuable your talent is!”


  The Mage was an extravagant class. Without Magic Material Exemption, they would need countless materials to practice the spells, which could be costly.

  Besides, they had to spend a fortune on spell models too.

  The Church of Magic, on the other hand, offered loan service. They would vet their customers, offer an appropriate amount of money to them, sign a contract, and then ask them to pay back their debt in time.

  The interest rate, which was about 10% for five years, wasn’t very high. It could almost be considered a bargain in this world.

  Roland walked to the ritual table and said, “I’m here to offer sacrifices and verify a new spell.”


  Huh?

  The senior Mage suddenly raised his head and looked at Roland in surprise.

  Considering the magic level in Hollevin, few young Mages could ever reach the level of Master, and only the Masters could consider inventing their own spells.

  Besides, many of the “invented spells” were absolutely useless.

  Those Mages simply messed up the magic nodes randomly and created novel but useless spells.

  For example, they created Fiery Fork, which cost ten times more magic power and dealt half as much damage. It could only boil a kettle of water after a whole minute of casting.

  There was also Rainbow Bubble Confinement, which would use up all the mental power of an elite Mage and then let out a gigantic colorful fart to cage the enemy.

  Those spells were new but absolutely useless. The Goddess of Magic would never give any feedback after taking them.

  Noticing how young Roland was, the old Mage thought that he might be one of those Mages too, so he pointed at the ritual table and said, “Put the spell model there and recite Lady Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, ten times.”


  After that, the senior Mage was devoted to his book again.

  Roland put the parchment on the ritual table and recited the Goddess of Magic’s name ten times as he was told.

  After his recitation, the parchment on the ritual table dispersed into spots of light and disappeared.

  Roland waited a moment but saw no feedback. He heaved a sigh.

  Either there were similar spells to this oil-making spell, or Mystra didn’t think that this spell was worthy of her feedback.

  Hearing Roland’s sigh, the senior Mage wasn’t surprised at all. He simply smiled and raised his thumb for himself for his correct prediction.

  Roland turned around and was about to leave.

  Exactly at this moment, the gigantic goddess statue at the rear of the temple glowed, and the whole temple was covered by a weird barrier.

  The goddess statue whose face had been worn out seemed to return to life. She stared at Roland.

  Magnificent and awe-inspiring mental power stirred above this temple.

  The senior Mage had already fallen to his knees, his eyes full of passion and his body shaking.

  Roland, on the other hand, looked at the Goddess of Magic’s statue in the eyes.

  “A very interesting spell.” A female voice which was heavy but rather gentle sounded in the temple. “Young man, what’s your purpose in modifying Grease into this?”


  The goddess had a pleasant voice!

  Roland suddenly remembered what Schuck said about the Goddess of Light’s pleasant voice.

  He also remembered that the Life Goddess, too, had a great voice when she invited him to the Paradise of Life.

  “I think that life is too hard for the magic apprentices in this world. The magic apprentices who are gifted but poor have no way to make money in the early phases of their life, and they can’t learn magic without money, so they have to quit. I think it’s too wasteful……”


  Roland stated his thoughts in the next few minutes.

  “I understand.” Mystra’s voice sounded even gentler. “What’s your name?”


  “Roland.”


  “I’ll name this spell Roland’s Oil-Making. Also, I’ll disseminate it to all my temples with my divine power for all the Mages to study.”


  Roland was greatly relieved. That was exactly why he had modified Grease.

  “Your ideas are not bad. Keep working. This is a reward for you.”


  Two green streaks of light darted out of the goddess statue’s eyes into Roland’s head, so fast that Roland couldn’t even react.

  Thankfully, the two streaks of light did not carry any damage, and they disappeared two seconds later.

  Mystra’s enormous divine mental power disappeared at the same time.

  At this moment, Roland looked at his system menu.

  You’ve won the Goddess of Magic’s favor.

  Divine Favor (Mystra): Your maximal health has been improved by 20, and your maximal mana has been improved by 80. Also, you now carry Goddess Mystra’s aura, which will influence your personal relationships as well as your relationships with other forces.