Chapter 731 - Another Cave (2/2)

The area was fairly large, at least larger than the village.

Roland spurred the cloud to land outside of the village.

In fact, the villagers had already noticed the gigantic cloud. It even caused minor panic.

However, after the cloud descended, they found their fellows on it and were reassured. They all ran out of the village.

Roland dismissed the cloud and set foot on the land with the rest of them.

The four Red Desert Dwellers were quite happy. They wanted to direct the camels back to their village, but the camels were too scared after hours of flying to get back on their feet.

They pulled the camels and failed to move them, so they gave up.

After the villagers ran out, they surrounded Roland in silence.

They dared not utter a word.

The glowing magic stripes on Roland’s robe was the best proof of his identity.

Nobody wanted to piss off the Mages. Ordinary people, in particular, almost dared not speak to the Mages.

Eventually, an old man squeezed through the crowd, walked to Roland, humbly bowed, and asked slowly, “Mr. Mage, may I know if you’re here to help us?”

“Yes, are you the leader of this village?”

“Yes. Esteemed Mage, what would you like us to pay?”

“What can you offer?”.

Roland didn’t think that he should help them for free. He didn’t care how much they would pay, but they should at least pay something.

Giving help selflessly wasn’t the best choice. The villagers would be prompted to ask for other people’s help for free when they were in trouble again.

It was just like giving money to the poor couldn’t free them from poverty. Instead, they would only be accustomed to living a poor life.

When the same trouble happened again, the villagers would likely ask for help again without paying anything.

If the person they asked was nice, he might curse them and go away.

If the person was bad-tempered, he might kill his potential employers on the spot.

“We don’t have much money. The only valuable things we have are the young girls in the village. If you like them, you can take a couple of them away with you.”

In Urganda, women were possessions, and beautiful women were important and valuable possessions.

In countries such as Hollevin and Fareins, the bias that women were possessions was more or less covered up, but it was blatantly propagated in Urganda.

Roland waved his hand. “I have a lot of women in my house. Maybe something else.”

“But…” The village leader hesitated. “We really can’t offer you anything else.”

“Then give me your specialties,” said Roland with a smile. “The more, the better.” The village leader thought for a moment and bowed. “As you wish.” “Now, can you tell me what the glittering glass ocean behind the village is about?”

At the mention of the glass ocean, every villager revealed an awful expression.

The village leader heaved a sign and told the story.

Supposedly, they had been living a prosperous and peaceful life with the small oasis next to the village.

They had been living here for about three hundred years.

However, an accident happened two months earlier.

A woman who went out to “pick worm food” discovered the accident.

The so-called “picking worm food” meant capturing small creatures such as scorpions, centipedes, and beetles for their protein.

The woman discovered a lot of beautiful and colorful gems in the sand behind the village. They were large and numerous.

Although all women liked glittering things, she was a Red Desert Dweller, so she observed the tradition of not touching anything weird in the desert that nobody had ever seen, as nobody knew whether or not it was a trap of the devil’s.

The woman came back and informed the other villagers of the matter. They all went to check it out.

It was indeed a land of gems, with a coverage of about a hundred square meters at that time.

Someone intended to pick the gems, but the village leader stopped them. To test if the gems were dangerous, they threw some small animals at them.

As it turned out, the animals were crystallized into glass-like items the moment they reached the area.

At this moment, even the dumbest person knew that something was wrong with the gems.

Ever since, the gems had been spreading. Their scale had increased by hundreds of times in two months, and they were approaching the village.

If the villagers were in another country, they would’ve already fled.

But in Urganda, the villagers knew that in order to survive in the harsh desert, a steady source of water was required.

Without the oasis and the not-so-large lake near the village, they would die of thirst in the desert within three days.

They wanted to run, but where could they run to?

The other oases wouldn’t accept outsiders easily, and nor would the big cities.

It was because every water source and oasis had a limited capacity.

It only provided enough water for a limited number of people.

If they moved in, they would occupy the locals’ living space. Most locals wouldn’t be happy about that.

So, the villagers could only wish that the sea of gems wouldn’t expand so fast.

If the lake on the oasis was invaded by the sea of gems, the village would be doomed.

Roland nodded to show that he got it. “You can start preparing local specialties. I’ll go there and take a look.”

After saying that, he summoned a tiny cloud that carried him to the back of the village.

In front of his eyes was a dazzling mine of gems… Under the sunlight, countless colorful spots of light were glittering. They looked like flowing water in the twisted air.

Roland opened the system vision and looked at the pillar-like gems.

Item: Magic Power Crystal

Effect: It’s the amalgamation of magic power under the influence of natural-law-level magic power. It can be used for magic experiments, but it’s highly unstable and won’t be effective.

Roland had read descriptions of such magic power crystals in books.

They all said that the crystals had special energy, but because they contained assorted elemental powers, no Mages were ever willing to purify them.

It was not worth their time and magic power.

Roland stood at the edge of the sea of gems and sensed the chaotic magic, frowning.

It was hard for him to control this magic power even with his special talent.

Also, the gems were still spreading, which meant that they must be powered by something.

Roland tossed three magic spiders down.

Because the magic spiders were created by magic power just as the sea of gems was, they weren’t affected at all. If anything, they were even faster than normal.

The spiders performed a blanket search and found a dark cave at the center of the sea of gems.

The cave looked very, very deep. “Why do you all like digging?”

Roland remarked.