Chapter 571 - Reasons (1/2)
Many players liked adventures. The more thrilling, the better. Actually, Roland liked them too. But that was only on the premise that he and other players could be resurrected. He would rather not get Marilyn involved in any danger. So, he asked the catgirl to go first. Marilyn might be bad at many things, but escaping was definitely her strong suit. She wandered on the street for a while and then suddenly vanished from the crowd. Her stalkers were human beings who couldn’t track her down by smell. Also, there were intense, assorted smells on this populated street full of restaurants and spice stores. Even a vulpera couldn’t have detected her there. After Marilyn disappeared, the two followers both returned to the hotel and met the other three people who were keeping an eye on Roland.
They didn’t look very anxious, so it was obvious that their main target was Roland, not the catgirl. Through the magic spider, Roland saw their appearances and learned where they were. Next, Roland had to get himself out of here. First, Roland lit up the candles in the room and projected his shadow to the window. A moment later, he squatted, and a magic puppet rose where he stood just now, casting a new shadow to the window. Roland, on the other hand, secretly opened the door and slipped away to the top of the hotel. Those people were only watching over him from outside of the hotel. They wouldn’t follow him as long as he didn’t leave the hotel.
There was nobody on the rooftop. Roland cast Slow Landing on himself to reduce his weight as much as possible. Then, he slightly exerted his strength and jumped across the rooftops as if he were a Rogue. Of course, he wasn’t as fast as a real Rogue when he moved on the uneven rooftops, and his footsteps could be quite noisy.
Perhaps because his watchers’ vision was limited and the magic puppet’s shadow deceived them, Roland didn’t run into any of them on his way to the city gate via the rooftops. After he was half a kilometer from the hotel, Roland finally jumped to a dark street from the rooftop. He then changed his clothes and slowly walked to the city gate. The city gate wasn’t closed yet. In fact, it would’ve been faster for him if he used flash or teleportation. However, this was the Spatial Magic Tower, which had multiple Legendary Mages who were adept at spatial magic. They might detect the waves if he recklessly used spatial magic, so Roland would rather not use that.
After paying one bronze coin as the toll, Roland left the city.
Before he left, the guards kindly warned him that he would likely be frozen in the desert in the middle of the night if he wasn’t prepared. Roland thanked the guards. He strolled to the north outside of the city for a while, and Marilyn, who had waited for a long time, emerged from behind a hill. She was rather delighted to see Roland. She hopped around him and asked, “Master, are we going home with that swoosh spell?” She was referring to multiple teleportation.
Roland shook his head and looked at the city behind him. He said, “We’re still in the territory of the Spatial Magic Tower. The magic array for multiple teleportation will be too noisy. The Legendary Mages can reach us in no more than one second after they detect it. So, we have to walk away on foot first.”
Marilyn felt slightly cold. As the night got deeper, the temperature in the desert would drop. Holding her arms, she asked, “How much farther must we walk?” “By my personal estimation, at least thirty kilometers.” Roland heaved a sigh. “I really shouldn’t have been greedy about the four spell models.” Marilyn stared at Roland in silence.
Although catgirls all longed for freedom, she had learned that she’d better listen to Roland in the case of emergencies. She wasn’t very strong or knowledgeable, and if she was too self-willed, she might get herself and other people killed. She felt rather guilty over getting her friends killed last time.
Sometimes, she woke up in tears at night. After Roland heaved a sigh, he confirmed the direction and led the catgirl on foot. It was truly cold at night in the desert, but Roland didn’t feel much as a professional who had a strong body.
The catgirl, on the other hand, wasn’t strong because of her low level, and she trembled with cold after walking for a while. Roland took a robe out of the system Backpack and put it on her, and she finally felt much better.
A journey in the desert without camels was even harder than they thought.
Roland had thought that they could walk thirty kilometers in two to three hours, but they failed to walk that far after five.
It was almost dawn.
The catgirl kept yawning. She also meowed now and then.
Seeing that she was really exhausted, Roland thought for a moment and built a small rock building under the sand. In case anyone noticed something wrong, he covered it with the sand. Hiding deep inside the sand, and with Roland next to her, the catgirl felt a strong sense of safety. She had some food and water and laid a blanket on the floor, falling asleep very soon. Roland, on the other hand, suppressed his magic waves to the minimum and then browsed the forum. In Tebesia twenty kilometers away, Maromatha got up early and came to visit Roland and Marilyn. But nobody answered the door after a long time. At first, she thought that Roland and Marilyn overdid it the previous night and they were still too tired to get up. Then she realized that this wasn’t right. After opening the door forcefully, she found neither Roland nor Marilyn in the room but only a weird magic puppet that was sitting on the bed motionlessly. “What happened here?” Maromatha found it weird. She spoke to the receptionist, only to learn that Marilyn never returned after she left the previous night, and that the male Mage never left the hotel at all. “They’re gone?” Maromatha was rather confused. “The Spatial Magic Tower was so friendly to him. Why did he leave so secretively?” She decided to ask the elder who was responsible for their reception the previous day and see if anything happened. Seeing that Maromatha came out with a weird look on her face, the few human beings who had been monitoring Roland knew that something was wrong. They hurriedly checked the room upstairs, only to see nothing but a magic puppet in the room. So, the shadow that they had been watching for a whole night was actually left by this puppet. They had a feeling that they would be gravely punished for their mistake. On the other hand, Maromatha went to the elder from yesterday and said, “Roland has left. Elder, did anything happen between you two?”
“Roland has left?” The elder’s hand that was holding the book trembled. He moved his eyes from the book to Maromatha. “That’s not right. We had a nice conversation yesterday. Maromatha, you go back now. I have work to do… Right, go look for Roland if you have time. Maybe he’s just playing hide and seek with
us.”
Maromatha had the feeling that the elder was hiding something and didn’t tell her the whole truth.
However, from her perspective, it was beyond unthinkable that the Spatial Magic Tower would plot against Roland. After Maromatha left, this elder convened a meeting of the elders. Hearing that Roland had left, those people instantly burst into fury. “That boy is an ungrateful wolf. We gave him so many valuable things, and he simply ran off?”
“What do we do? Should we bring him back?” “Of course we have to bring him back. How else can we read the coordinates of the alternate dimension he’s from?”
At this moment, an elder who looked slightly younger asked, “I have a question. How did Roland know that there was a conspiracy against him?” Everybody looked at the elder who was in touch with Roland the previous day. This elder gently tapped the table and said, “I was very gentle with him during our conversation. I don’t think it was my doing.” “Then whose doing was it?” someone asked. “Did he spot the people we sent out to monitor him?”
“It’s possible.”
“Now that Roland has been alerted, we no longer need to focus on him. We can totally lure in another Golden Son.” “But based on my investigation, Roland is the strongest of the Golden Sons at this moment, and he knows our spatial magic. If we want to learn about an alternate world, we have to count on him.” “I agree that Roland is a necessary tool for us,” said an old man with a goatee. “I’ve investigated it. According to them, the Golden Sons don’t have magic in the dimension they’re from, but only something called technology. However, it has many restrictions and is not easy to use.” “In any case, it will be as easy as pie for us to conquer an alternate world that is a magic desert, won’t it? The world of the Golden Sons is wonderful. To figure out its coordinates, Roland will be the key. He understands spatial magic. Even if he’s too stubborn to confess the coordinates, we can still infer them by the spatial aura that he carries.” “Everybody will go out and look for Roland. I don’t think he dares to teleport himself away with spatial magic yet. He’s too smart to overlook the possibility that we can detect him, so he can’t be far away.”
“I’ll ask the white dragon to join the search later,” said the Great Elder of the Monochrome Magic Tower who was sitting in the most honorable seat. “I had planned to catch Roland with the white dragon as a cover-up. Then, the Monochrome Magic Tower wouldn’t be to blame for his disappearance, and there wouldn’t be conflicts between us and the Red Magic Tower. I didn’t expect that Roland would run off on his own.” “You have so many people with you, yet you can’t even keep track of a single individual. Are you not ashamed?”
An old man shouted angrily. All the elders put on a bitter smile. “It’s not time to assign blame yet,” said the Great Elder again. “Roland must be captured. Whoever catches him will be generously rewarded with a special spell model, if you know what I mean.”
The Legendary Spatial Mages all stood up. Even Legendary Mages didn’t know all the spell models in existence. Many unique spell models, as well as special models of other schools, were kept in the Spatial Magic Tower. They could only be learned with “contributions.”
Even the Great Elder himself hadn’t learned all the models yet.
Those models had all been specifically modified. They represented the essence of this Magic Tower. Very soon, an enormous white dragon hovered above the city and then flew away.
Many people found it odd and wondered why the white dragon had flown off without hunting anyone. Then, several Mages took off and flew to various corners of the city.
Besides the Legendary Mages, many mentors and apprentices were mobilized too.
Roland’s image had even been delivered to all of them.
At this moment, Roland and the catgirl were still resting below the sand. Not long before, several Mages had flown overhead.
However, none of those flying Mages knew that the targets they sought were right in the sand below them.
Seeing so many Mages taking to the sky, Maromatha couldn’t help but ask her mentor what happened. But her mentor simply told her, “Roland stole a unique spell model of the Spatial Magic Tower and fled. All the Mages are obliged to capture him.” Maromatha was frightened to hear that. It was almost as if thunder just rumbled next to her ears.
She didn’t even think that was possible! She knew a thing or two about Roland, who seemed approachable on the surface but was actually very proud. Could such a person have stolen someone else’s spell model? Unlikely. But in any case, it was an undeniable fact that Roland was wanted by the Spatial Magic Tower.
What should she do?