Chapter 444 - I, Roland, Wire Money

444 I, Roland, Wire Money

Although the reputation of the Golden Sons seemed to have taken a hit because of the Sisilia incident, the reputation of the Golden Sons had actually risen even higher because of the death of the Legendary Swordsman.

Especially the Church of War, they didn’t bother to fight the Golden Sons over the death of the Legendary Swordsman, which further made the entirety of Hollevin, the grassroots of all the other churches, as well as the other great powers of the human world, and even distant non-human nations such as the Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and so on, aware of the Golden Sons who were impervious to reason.

And this exaggerated reputation was actually created by a bunch of women.

This more or less made many male gamers ashamed.

After all, there had been a trend on the forums that said that while female players had some individual characters who excelled, the overall average had poor battle awareness, lack of will to fight, fearfulness, and other shortcomings.

In the end, these girls they looked down upon did something great.

Those who said that the girls had no fighting ability immediately went mute, and even if someone occasionally took the matter of summoning an ocean of beasts and mansplained, they would be rebuked by other male players.

Also thanks to this incident, the Phoenix Guild’s reputation soared, and a large number of female players joined in.

The number of people had skyrocketed from three hundred to over five hundred in just a few days. There were still a large number of female players lining up, and the guild’s auditors were so busy that their hair was about to fall out.

To join the Phoenix Guild, one had to be female and an Elven Summoner. Also, the higher the summoner’s charisma, the stronger and more numerous the summoned beasts would be, so... the Phoenix Guild was only full of beauties.

As one of the three big professions, Summoners usually had two or three resident summoning beasts to protect them and summoned a large number of temporary beasts to fight in battle, capable of scouting, guarding, attacking, and so on; one person alone was a small-scale team.

At the same time, female players liked to form teams to bolster their courage, so Phoenix Guild’s girls generally traveled in small groups of five. In a battle, there would be at least three hundred to four hundred units of summoned beasts to overwhelm the opponent, and if the strength of the five people were slightly stronger, the number of beasts would rise to over a thousand.

More importantly, these summoning beasts weren’t all cannon fodder; there were many beasts with special abilities mixed within.

For example, some could heal, some knew offensive spells, and some could use stealth and sneak-attack.

Roland also helped them improve Enlivening, and many of the girls used the summoner’s unique specialty of Core Summoning to contract the enlivened Ancient of War or Ancient of Wisdom to become their inherent summoning beasts.

The inherent summoning beast could help the master take all the damage.

The vitality of the two types of ancient trees was still slightly higher than the top Warriors of the same level and could continue to grow slightly as the Summoner’s level increased.

In other words, the Elven Summoner had no weaknesses in any aspects.

The only way to deal with an Elven Summoner was to dominate them with pure overwhelming battle power. It was impossible to use other methods like assassination or poison, and so on.

To completely crush a Summoner’s combat power, one had to be at least three to five levels above the Summoner.

This was in terms of players who had high attribute growth, and if it was a professional in this world, this would probably be five to seven levels.

Now that the Golden Sons were becoming more famous and female Golden Sons more popular after the Legendary Swordsman’s death, there was already a situation in the mercenary market where the employers would leave a special message on the mission board saying that if a female Golden Son took on the mission, the pay would be raised by another fifty percent.

In the event of competition, preference would be given to the female Golden Sons.

The female Summoners not only stole business from the indigenous mercenaries, but they also stole a lot of business from male players.

Just in the half a month or so that Roland had been delving into magic, the atmosphere of the forum had changed dramatically.

Originally, the players on the forums loved to complain about Roland and Schuck, saying they were ruining the balance.

However, there were only Roland and Schuck, and the number of Elven Summoners now almost surpassed a thousand.

A female player would almost certainly be an Elven Summoner.

This severely ruined the gaming experience for other players.

On an epic quest, male players had to consider the cooperation between the tank, the damage dealer, the support, and so on.

But Elven Summoners didn’t have to, and just a team of five, plus hundreds and thousands of summoned beasts charging mindlessly, would suffice.

They could accept all the mercenary quests and complete them quickly. Having mounts, they came and went like the wind.

Originally, the average level of female players was on the lower side, and since the profession of Elven Summoner had been discovered, their growth had far outpaced that of male players.

Their average level was now about to surpass that of male players.

After another month, the male gamers couldn’t take it anymore, and half of the forum was denouncing the Elven Summoner profession, strongly demanding that the abilities of Elven Summoners be weakened.

Of course, now these protesting players had learned their lesson and no longer talked about quitting the game if a profession didn’t change.

Because the gaming officials were really not afraid if they quit the game.

The female players, on the other hand, were hardly speaking, and whether this was organized or a spontaneous act, there weren’t any female players “laning against” the protesting male players on the forum anyway, presumably having the intention of staying quiet and keeping a low profile while enjoying all the benefits.

Amid all this commotion, Roland, however, felt good.

He could finally be transparent.

Every time he went on the forums, he’d see a new post talking about him, which was a bit refreshing and proud at first, but after reading more, he became a bit annoyed.

Now he could finally enjoy the show on the forums calmly and not be annoyed.

Players had been arguing on the forums for almost a month, and in the end, no official announcements came out, so the male players knew what the intentions of the gaming officials were.

If you can’t beat them, join them.

Unfortunately, only female players could assume the profession of Elven Summoners, while male players could only be general Summoners.

It was also strong, but... there was a glaring shortcoming in terms of looks.

Elven Summoners had unicorns, flower demons, fairies, vine queens, deer women, and other beautiful creatures, and even the animals were Sirius, rainbow magic ponies, silver-fanged sabers, and other creatures that looked imposing.

In contrast, the average Summoner summoned things like bears, porcupines, rotten mud monsters, skeletons, zombies, death knights, and other things that didn’t look appealing.

Even the undead summon responsible for damage dealing was completely countered by the two holy summons, the unicorn and rainbow pony.

Male Summoners were extremely strong against other professions, but against Elven Summoners, they were just sending themselves to their deaths.

Having been beaten up by a girl, a male Summoner cried on the forums, asking, “What to do if what you summon is ugly and weak and can’t beat a girl?”

The Devil Warlocks laughed so much that they posted on the forum jokingly that the male Summoner should simply become a Warlock. Although most devils look extremely ugly, there was a beautiful succubus to accompany you all the time—what was there not to be content with?

There was almost no news about Roland on the forums anymore, it was all about Elven Summoners and male Summoners.

Regarding the Sisilia Incident, almost all the players deliberately didn’t talk about it. Not that they forgot, but they deliberately avoided it. It was just that some things would remain in their hearts and remembered for the rest of their lives.

The players thought that by deliberately forgetting this, things would fade away and pass.

Unexpectedly, this pain eventually exploded.

On the forum, a quality and popular post appeared, and inside of it was a video.

A man, whose face had been pixelated, sobbed and kept apologizing, saying that they were the ones who were too confident, that they had underestimated the power of the enemy’s counterattack, which had led to a large number of natives being killed, and that they knew they had been wrong and would accept punishment. From now on, over a thousand of them would not appear in the game again, and would simply retire from the game.

In the end, the man gasped and seized because he was too devastated.

There wasn’t much discussion below the post, just uniform replies of one word.

historical

“Farewell!”

Roland closed the forum and sighed deeply.

He wasn’t in the mood to browse the forum or conduct magic experiments anymore.

According to the conclusion reached by a deliberate player’s investigation, in Sisilia, after a month of turmoil, from start to end, a total of nearly 900,000 or more civilians were killed, including those later hunted by the alliance clean-up squads.

In reality, less than 100,000 civilians had actually been exposed to the progressive ideas of players.

In other words, 800,000 civilians died in vain.

But this wasn’t the point; what mattered was that the gods felt they had stifled the spread of “corrupted ideas.”

The players were surprisingly silent on the matter on the forum, but Roland knew that the more silent things were, the greater the strength within it represented.

It was like the silence before a volcano was about to erupt.

...

On another morning, when the sun almost reached the middle of the sky, Andonara crawled out of bed and stretched. A good-looking maid came in, fetching her a washcloth and tying her pretty braids.

The maidservant stroked her long, bright blond, silky smooth hair and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Madam, how exactly do you take care of your hair? It’s so beautiful, I’m really envious.”

Andonara smiled slightly. She liked to be called “Madam” by outsiders but would call herself the queen in front of Roland.

Because she had always found that by calling herself queen, Roland’s excitement level was significantly higher.

Still waters ran deep, but she liked him that way.

When the maidservant finished her braids, Andonara got up and undressed, revealing her beautiful body that 99.9999 percent of women would feel ashamed to look at, and then found a wide housecoat in the wardrobe and changed into it while asking, “Where is Roland?”

“The master should have gone to the Magic Tower, but left word for you to go find him after your breakfast, Madam.”

Oh.

Andonara responded, smiling as she went down the stairs and sat at the table.

She liked this lifestyle, sleeping in till whenever she wanted.

If she was still a caged bird in the royal court, she would have to wake up before dawn, and although the services of the king would be done by female officers, she, as queen, would have to be there to watch.

Every day, she would follow the king to the council chamber and then sit next to him like a mascot.

And feel the salacious, contemptuous, scrutinizing gazes of some ministers.

At night, she had to bathe the king, and the king had always been cold to her. She became queen to have the most powerful person in Hollevin protect her, to make her feel secure.

Unexpectedly, the longer she spent in the royal household, the more insecure she became.

Except for a very few women who were mentally strong and independent, most women relied on external objects for their security.

Some relies on money, others on power.

And more women depended on men, and Andonara was in that majority.

At first, Andonara had her heart set on the king, but after three or four years she realized that she had made the wrong choice and that the king didn’t care about her at all, and didn’t even usually bother to talk to her.

Although Andonara was very strong, she was, essentially, just a small woman.

Her heart grew cold.

And then she met Roland.

Unlike the king, Roland was busy with many things throughout the day, but staying by his side, Andonara felt happy.

Because she knew that, unlike the king, Roland was the kind of man who would not abandon her.

He wouldn’t give her away as some kind of political bargaining chip.

Nor would he stare at her from time to time and consider gains and losses.

There was no strict security here, nor was there any supreme power, but staying here, staying by Roland’s side, even if it was just eating and drinking, Andonara would be just as happy.

After breakfast, Andonara saw several Golden Sons waiting outside the manor.

There were men and women. These people had come to see Andonara to change their professions to Great Swordsman.

Andonara waved at them and said, “Come back this afternoon, I have to get to the Magic Tower first.”

The group let out depressed sighs.

A male player said teasingly, “She’s definitely going to find Roland.”

Andonara laughed at this male player and left right away.

This male player looked like he was mesmerized, and it took him a while to come to his senses.

The surrounding players looked at him and squinted and smiled, especially the female Warrior players, who smiled even more teasingly.

This male player straightened his neck and said angrily, “What are you laughing at, what’s wrong with me liking village girls!”

The crowd then laughed aloud.

Andonara came to the third-floor lab of the Magic Tower, where Roland had been staying recently. She had no idea what he was doing.

Pushing the door in, she saw Roland standing in front of a table, seemingly admiring something.

She quietly walked over and tried to blindfold him, but ended up only halfway there before she heard Roland say without turning back, “Stop hiding and come here.”

Andonara wasn’t a Thief, and besides, even if Roland was unconscious, there would be a faint circle of mental energy around his figure, and he would still be able to perceive someone slowly approaching.

Laughing softly, Andonara walked over to Roland’s side. She found a blue longsword on the table in front of the two of them.

With a Warrior’s keen intuition, Andonara knew immediately that it was a pretty good weapon.

Although it was not as good as the Hero’s sword (Phoenix Sword) at home, it was still quite decent.

“What’s this?”

Andonara’s eyes shone brightly as she looked at Roland.

“This is for you,” Roland said with a smile. “I know you’re not too keen on using the Phoenix Sword.”

Andonara had always felt that she had robbed her uncle of the Hero’s sword, and in her mind, her uncle’s family were the rightful descendants of the Reed family and her side was only a side branch. She was supposedly not qualified to take the heirloom.

“Really?”

Andonara immediately picked up the sword.

It felt comfortable in her hand and though it didn’t have the feeling that it was linked to her bloodline as the Phoenix Sword did, it had a smoothness that was quite handy.

With a casual swing, the sword sliced through the air without actually producing any sound.

“This is no ordinary enchanted sword!” Andonara closed her eyes and felt it. She could now use simple flame magic as well, her mental strength had improved, and she could feel things she hadn’t noticed before.

“It’s a magic sword,” Roland explained. “A rather special weapon.”

Andonara said rather excitedly, “How about I try it?”

Roland took two steps back and gestured for her to proceed.

With a casual swing, Andonara’s blue sword aura directly cut a few wooden dummies in the distance in two.

“It’s really good, it boosts my magic and sword aura’s power.” Andonara was quite happy. Even if it wasn’t as good as the Hero’s sword, as long as it was a gift from Roland, it was priceless in her heart.

Roland walked over to Andonara’s side, pointed at the blue blade of the magic sword, and said, “This sword, like the Phoenix Sword, can repair itself.”

The Phoenix Sword was a sword made from the blood of a phoenix, and the basic ability of the fire phoenix was to be reborn in fire, so it inherently had auto-repair properties.

The automatic repair of the Phoenix Sword, however, had limitations, and only in the hands of Reed’s family did it work.

Roland’s magic sword, on the other hand, was the result of pure craftsmanship and had no user restrictions.

“I like it very much,” said Andonara, hugging Roland and offering kisses happily. “I’ll go back now and return the Hero’s sword to my uncle.”

Roland nodded.

After kissing Roland one more time, Andonara left the lab.

After more than two months, Roland had finally cracked the secret of the auto-repair technique.

Auto-repair was essentially advanced divination magic that had no patterns and using data from mathematical modeling to analyze it simply didn’t work.

One had to use intuition.

It was the kind of magic where you kept making or practicing and constantly failed but never stopped, and then as your mind slowly fell into an empty state one day, your brain just had a eureka moment.

Success!

The third-level or higher divination magic required this kind of arcane and mysterious intuition.

It was very unscientific.

Roland was quite happy to see how much Andonara liked the weapon, but then he showed a dispirited expression.

It cost too much money.

Materials for the sword cost money, and practicing and studying auto-repair techniques required a lot of advanced magic materials, which also cost money.

The magic school still needed money... To build that sword, he used up most of the materials from the Magic Tower, and he teleported to the capital to buy many more materials.

His gold coins went down the drain like water.

There were less than eighty gold coins left in Roland’s Backpack now. Although the sand statue provided an endless stream of gold coins, it took a considerable amount of time. While the grass grows, the horse starves.

The operation cost for the magic school this month would consume another thirty gold coins.

Training Mages required a lot of money.

He had to make money, but how?

Roland looked at the discarded production materials at the foot of the table and thought for a moment, then suddenly had an idea.

He immediately logged onto the forum and posted it.

Making Magic Equipment for People at a High Price.

Then he mentioned in the post: “Helping people make the finest weapons. Provide the original weapon yourself, best that it’s the finest quality. Provide the magic materials yourself, I only provide labor. The cost is 20 gold coins for every piece of equipment. Providing the following list of enchantments: sharpening, silent Attack, weapon reinforcement, and auto-repair. The following magic materials are required...”

After the post was sent, Roland laughed quite happily.

This method allowed him to make money and practice with the client’s materials and weapons, relieving the drawbacks of needing a large number of magic materials to practice auto-repair—what a great idea to kill two birds with one stone.

Once the post appeared on the forum, it was pushed to the top as a popular post.

All the second-generation rich players were waving their money wildly at him in the forum.