Chapter 10
Many villagers hurriedly climbed the mountain with their torches to see what was going on. They were shocked by what they saw: illuminated by a burning tree, the strange young man named Roland was lying on the ground, half-dead, but he seemed to be grinning at the sky.
His face was red and black, with plenty of blisters. Most of his hair had been burnt.
Around the young man were many bright blue flames, which were not dying out even though they were on sand.
1The villagers knew that the young man had saved three kids of the town. They were going to help, when Falken stopped them and said, “Don’t approach. The blue fire is magic and will consume everything it touches. You will be burnt to ashes in two minutes if you step on it.”
Falken was highly revered in Red Mountain Town. The villagers never questioned his authority.
Intimidated by his warning, the villagers dared not move anymore.
Falken waved his hand and said, “There’s nothing serious here. Go back and sleep. I’ll ask for your help if need be.”
The villagers quickly dispersed. As ordinary people, they were naturally scared of things like magic or ghosts and were happy to keep a distance from them.
Soon, Falken was left alone on the site of the explosion.
Gazing at the scattered bright blue flames, he did not press forward. Although he was a Priest, he dared not underestimate the fire. In his eyes, every one of those flames could burn him to ashes, too.
He focused his eyes on the young man who had been scorched but who was smiling happily. Sighing enviously, he waited quietly for twenty minutes until the bright blue flames died out when the magic sustaining them ran out.
Then, Falken approached Roland and cast Healing and Language Proficiency at him. A bright pillar of light enveloped the young man and illuminated the environment.
“Was it worth it?”
“Yes.” Healing was not effective immediately but took some time. Yet, it was still faster than natural recovery. Roland’s body was sore and weak, but since he could only feel one-tenth of the pain, it was not too uncomfortable. Hearing Falken’s question, he replied without any hesitation or complaint, “Unveiling the magic nodes feels like lifting the skirt of the Goddess of Fortune bit by bit. It’s really thrilling.”
17Cough, cough… Falken coughed hard. Although he was a believer of the Life Goddess, he had respect for other deities. Roland’s remark sounded like blasphemy in every way. He could only pretend that he did not hear it.
But of course, if Roland had compared his experience to lifting the skirt of the Life Goddess, Falken definitely wouldn’t have reacted so peacefully.
“Sorry for blowing up the wall of your temple.” Lying on the ground, Roland looked up to Falken, not because he liked to look up at other people, but because he was too weak to get back to his feet. “Rest assured, I’ll definitely compensate for your loss, although I don’t have much money right now.”
“It’s just a wall… The temple is already ragged. I’ve long planned to repair it.” Falken turned around and looked at the collapsed wall, his eyelids twitching. He was not regretful about the wall, but shocked at the power of the spell. He could tell that his temple was not the target of the attack but only accidentally involved, and still, a wall had collapsed. It was not hard to infer how powerful the spell just now was.
Roland had learned to control magic in two hours, drawn the magic models in half a day, and could even strengthen a spell with the magic model now. “Genius” was not enough to describe him. His knowledge was unbelievable, and he was still so young.
4Roland was relieved to see that Falken was not angry. After all, Falken had helped him a lot. If he pissed off Falken because of this, it would be too shameful… Roland made up his mind that he would find an empty place for his magic experiments next time.
Falken sat down next to Roland and said slowly, “Son, your body can’t recover so fast. Why don’t we chit-chat for a while?”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Roland agreed to the proposal, because lying on the ground was too boring. “What are we going to talk about?”
Looking at the moon in the sky, Falken said, “Let’s talk about your dimension.”
After a brief hesitation, Roland said, “I can’t tell you much. We signed an agreement before we came here. We are not allowed to tell you the details of our dimension.”
2At this moment, Roland did not know that there was not only an agreement but also systematic censorship. The names of special entities in reality would be identified and blocked, such as computers or phones.
Falken smiled and said, “What a shame. But I’m really curious about your world. Why don’t I tell you about my adventures when I was young?”
“I’m all ears.”
Roland did not know why Falken was suddenly talking about his youth, but he was rather interested: partly because it could kill time, and partly because Falken’s experience might prove useful after he left this town.
With the slow and steady voice of an old man, Falken talked about his childhood, his first crush, his ambitions, his helplessness, his self-reconciliation, and his persistence… The scroll of his life unfolded before Roland’s eyes.
2Everybody tended to be curious about someone else’s life, and Roland was not an exception. While Falken’s life was not exactly remarkable, he had his own shining and interesting stories.
One of them talked and the other listened. The night passed quickly, and soon enough it was already dawn. Thanks to Healing, Roland recovered fast and was already able to sit up. Based on the speed of recovery, he would be healthy again soon.
“Just like that, I became a believer of the Life Goddess and came to Red Mountain Town.”
The sun had already half-risen, radiating orange brightness from the east. Since the temple faced the east, it was now gilded by the morning sunlight.
Falken was about to stand up, when he suddenly stopped as if time was frozen. Roland was briefly stunned. Then, he realized that he couldn’t move anymore, either. Not just them, the whole world consolidated and turned monochrome.
“The game is over for now. Please wait for the next opening.”
Reading the system notification in his vision, Roland exited the game, though he was not entirely satisfied yet.