Chapter 8
Eventually, Roland managed to eat an uncomfortable lunch with a knife and a fork. Although he appreciated the villagers’ gift, frankly speaking, the food did not taste very good. It was either overcooked or made with the wrong ingredients.
Fried fish with mushrooms and steamed pheasant with tomatoes… Roland would’ve flipped the table if this was served in a real restaurant, but since he was in a game, he had to deal with it.
13Besides, the knife and the fork were made of wood. Their bluntness made it more difficult for Roland to enjoy the food. Actually, only magnates and nobles could afford iron knives and forks in this game.
7Even the plates were made of wood. It was not hard to imagine the poor life of the civilians in this world. The families of the three kids must’ve done their best to provide such an abundant meal for Roland.
3After lunch, the weakness debuff on Roland disappeared. Roland felt agile and energetic again.
It was a strange feeling. When he was weak, everything seemed to be covered in a veil, but when the state of weakness was over, not only was the veil gone, but everything was also much brighter, as if a spotlight shone on the world.
1His mood was much better now that he was more comfortable. Roland observed the cottage that belonged to him now with great interest. The house had a coverage of about thirty square meters. Except for the supporting pillars which were made of wood, the whole house was made up of dry grasses. Even the floor had been piled with grasses.
3The dry grasses were gold and still had the smell of sunlight. Such a house would’ve been highly attractive to tourists in reality, but here, it was just a common cottage.
The cabinet and the bed were simple. They were made of several planks and carried the unique smell of wooden products.
Roland was grateful to the villagers. It would’ve taken him more than a day to build such a cottage, but the villagers had accomplished the task in only slightly more than an hour.
7Now that he had a place to crash, Roland was not in a hurry to go to the city anymore. He decided to stay here and find a job to feed himself first. He wouldn’t go elsewhere until he familiarized himself with the three spells.
Otherwise, he would be killed should he encounter a monster like a giant spider.
Roland rested for a while on the bed. Then, he walked to the back of the church, ready to practice spells.
He summoned Magic Book from the system and looked at the three built-in spells of his character.
Inferior Fireball (level-one spell)
Hand of Magic (level-one spell)
Language Proficiency (level-two spell)
Taking a deep breath, Roland began to activate Inferior Fireball. Same as when he used Language Proficiency, a weird circle with a lot of blue nodes popped up in his head. The starting node, which was bigger than the others, darted out a red line to another blue node.
3Just like the first time, the red line broke off after shaking for a while, except that the consequence was much milder and Roland’s head did not explode this time. He was still as alive as could be, albeit with a minor headache.
“This game is too realistic. It’s so challenging.” Roland couldn’t help but complain. “How are Mages going to make a living when it’s so difficult to cast a spell?”
Although he grumbled, Roland tried another experiment once his headache was gone, only to fail again. Then, his attempt failed once more ten minutes later.
After repeating this more than ten times, Roland’s nose started bleeding. Yet, Roland covered his nose and chuckled. It was true that failure was the mother of success. Although Roland hadn’t cast any spells successfully yet, he made unexpected discoveries.
A bright halo suddenly appeared above Roland and enshrouded him, quickly alleviating the pain in his head. He turned back and saw Falken walking in slowly.
“Thanks.” Roland waved at the old man.
Falken stared at Roland as he approached him. He seemed tranquil, but he was greatly shocked deep down in his heart. He could tell that Roland was smart and a natural-born spellcaster. However, the guy’s potential was still beyond his imagination.
Generally speaking, even the most excellent spellcasters had to rest for more than three days when they had two or three consecutive failed attempts to cast a spell, or their brains would’ve been wounded because of the pain. But how many times had this young man failed? At least fifteen, from what Falken had seen. Yet, he still seemed vigorous despite the fact that his nose was bleeding.
2Were all the Golden Sons such monsters?
“Have you discovered anything?” Falken held back his surprise and questioned Roland in a low voice.
“I know what magic is now.”
Roland extended his hand, and a bright transparent ball soon appeared in his hand. It looked rather beautiful.
“Fiery magic power,” Falken mumbled, enviously and yearningly. Yet, the emotions were replaced by relief only a moment later. “Now that you’ve grasped the power of magic, it won’t be long before you cast a spell.”
Roland, however, sighed. “There are too many nodes in the spell. I can’t remember them even though I’ve learned how to use magic. Also, it seems that different nodes will result in different magic effects.”
1His failed attempts had not only taught him how to use magic but also informed him of the relationship between the nodes. However, the problem was that there were too many nodes, and it was hard to control the flow of power, which made spellcasting all the more difficult.
Falken turned around and walked away, not intending to stay any longer. The last thing that a mediocre person would like to see was a rapidly growing genius, which would make the mediocre person jealous. According to the teaching of the Life Goddess, jealousy was a sin.
3Although Falken had left, his voice still came from far away gloomily.
1“The beginner Mages have to chant to cast a spell.”
Roland stiffened for a moment as if he were hit by lightning. Then, he was greatly enlightened.
He picked up a stick and drew a profile of the nodes on the ground. He observed it intently for a while, before he numbered all the nodes. He was delighted at first but fell silent later. In the end, he became angry.
He threw the wood stick away and cursed at the sky, “You s*itty producers, isn’t this mathematical modeling? Is this necessary? Do you have to make it so complicated? I just want to play a game! Why do you hate Mages?”
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