453 A Dragon is Not as Fast as a Person

He cursed Roland for purposefully, inconsiderately, and viciously not mentioning that he had already verified the spell with the Goddess of Magic. This person went to the Temple of Magic and wanted to verify the spell, only to be punished by Mystra with a permanent negative puff named "Divine Retribution," which lowered his health and mana by exactly the same amount that Roland was improved with Divine Favor.

Also, what enraged the poster even more was that his character was on the blacklist of the Church of Magic and was wanted. Though he didn't have to quit the game like the black leaf players, life would be very hard for him in the future.

His character had obtained lots of resources and already reached level five. He was among one of the top Mages, but because of Roland's trick, his two years of work was in vain, and he had to start all over.

That was two years! How many "two years" can be repeated in one's life?

The rest of the thread was him yelling at Roland with the most vulgar expletives. He also threw out many questions like "Was it really necessary to set up traps like that?" and "If you already verified it, why didn't you mention it so that other people wouldn't take the risk?" It was obvious that this player was mad.

Most of the netizens criticized this player in the reply section.

"Wow, you were punished when you wanted to take advantage of others, yet you're still complaining. I've never seen anyone as shameless as you!"

"Hehe. He thinks he's the most important person in the world. He has to blame his own problem on someone else."

"He's probably only second to Roland, O'Neal, and the other bigshots among the LV5 Mages. He probably exchanged a lot of the spell models that Roland uploaded freely for resources. Yet, he jumps out shamelessly now that he's punished?"

"Let's be honest here. This player only made use of a loophole. If a spell is not registered, he can register it and claim it. The ownership of the spells belongs to whoever registers them first anyway."

"That's not fair at all. You don't want Roland to register the spells, but other people are free to register them? Is it fair?"

"I suspect that Roland intentionally kept it a secret that he had already registered the spells, hoping that someone would fall for the trap. It's understandable, but nonetheless unscrupulous."

"You are probably someone who likes to take advantage too, like the poster of this thread."

"Is it your business at all what kind of person I am?"

Then, the players began to lambaste each other. Most players were on Roland's side, and some accused Roland for his inconsideration.

The rest of the replies had no actual content except curses and name-calling, so Roland quit the forum.

He returned to his manor and told Andonara that he was going out. Andonara was slightly upset.

Sitting in Roland's arms and facing him, she wrapped her hands around Roland's neck and asked, "Can I come with you?"

"It's not convenient. I'm going to the Froststar Kingdom. I'll be back very soon."

Roland was going to search for the Well of Eternity in the Froststar Kingdom. It was possible for him to take Andonara with him, but he wouldn't be able to fly if so. If they were to take a carriage, considering all the hills and rivers, it would take them a couple of months before they reached the Froststar Kingdom.

That was already an optimistic estimation.

If Andonara saw beautiful sceneries and wanted to linger a few more days to appreciate them, which was very possible because girls loved beautiful sceneries, or if she stayed at a certain place for the wonderful food, it might take them half a year to reach the Froststar Kingdom.

Even if they could find the Well of Eternity quickly, it would still take time for them to return.

Chances were that they would have to spend more than a year on the trip, which would be horrible.

Women were time killers, especially the beautiful ones.

"How long will you be gone?" asked Andonara gently on Roland's shoulder.

"Fifteen days, if I'm fast, or one month, if I'm slow," replied Roland with a smile.

"Try to be fast."

…

Leaving the Magic Tower, Roland went to a hotel in the city where his friends lived.

After he entered the hotel, he found his friends drinking and chatting with Douglas in the lobby.

His friends looked a lot better than before, but they were still weak and emaciated.

Roland walked to them and said with a smile, "I didn't expect you to be chatting together. Douglas, I thought you already left."

"I certainly didn't. I still have magic to learn." Douglas raised his cup and said, "Right, you came at the perfect moment. Can I join F6?"

Nobody spoke.

Douglas smiled awkwardly and continued, "That seems to be a no. Then another question. Can I join the Magic Tower?"

"That's certainly not a problem." Roland nodded.

Actually, Douglas had left a good impression on Roland, but F6 was reserved for him and his friends. He didn't want to let outsiders in.

Even Betta was not officially part of F6 yet.

Douglas was relieved. His real purpose was exactly to join the Magic Tower and learn magic from Roland and Vincent.

As to why he asked to join F6, it was only meant to make his real request more acceptable.

Then Roland said to his friends, "I'll probably be away from Delpon for more than half a month. You take a rest first. If anything happens, drop me a message in the guild chat room in the system."

"Okay, no problem." Li Lin nodded. "We'll keep an eye on your manor too. We won't let anybody cause trouble."

"Thanks."

Roland patted Li Lin's shoulder with a smile.

After drinking and talking with everybody for a while, he left the city and flew straight north with Human Cannonball.

The Froststar Kingdom was so far away that he only finished half of the journey after flying for a whole day. After nightfall, he landed and took a rest in a rock cottage that he built with Mud to Rock.

He then browsed through the forum.

He certainly dared not fly at night, which would be too dangerous.

Flying with the spatial bubbles was very fast. Also, the closer he was to the north, the colder and cloudier the weather became.

He could barely see anything among the clouds, and he couldn't sense gravity clearly during flight. Due to the lack of vision, he might lose his sense of direction and crash.

If he were to fly above the clouds, even though there was moonlight, he couldn't see the ground past the clouds, and he couldn't tell the direction either.

At dawn the next day, Roland set off again.

Observing the mountains nearby from the sky, and confirming his location with the simple map he took out from the system Backpack, he continued flying north at full speed.

When it was almost noon, Roland created magic shields to block the strong wind and ate the meatloaf that he prepared.

Because he was too focused on flying and eating, he didn't notice that a silver spot was chasing after him crazily.

It was far away behind him, but the silver spot chased him very desperately.

But after four hours, the silver spot finally lost Roland.

It gradually slowed down and began to hover.

Getting closer, it became obvious that the silver spot was actually a gigantic silver dragon.

After hovering for a while, it landed on the ground, folded its wings, and breathed heavily.

Its every breath would raise a minor hurricane before it.

After half an hour's rest, the silver dragon was finally less exhausted. Silver magic waves rippling, the silver dragon turned into a mature human woman in silver armor.

Generally speaking, dragons prefered to take the shape of elves during their transformation, but many changed to human beings too.

While still breathing heavily, the woman mumbled, "He was the human being I saw on the prairie! He used spatial bubbles to push him! I finally know why he can be so fast. Damn it. Why do human beings know so many weird tricks?"

Roland didn't know that he had outrun a silver dragon, which had the highest speed on average among the dragons.

After another half-day of flight, Roland saw the white mountain on the horizon at dusk.

He took out his map and checked it, only to be delighted.

The white mountain was the famous Dragon's Back. Crossing the mountain, he would enter the Froststar Kingdom.

This place was already far in the north. The temperature here was much lower than that in Hollevin.

The mountain was white because it was covered in snow and ice.

The Froststar Kingdom was exactly a kingdom of snow and ice.

Night had fallen again at this moment. Roland landed and took shelter in a rock cottage that he built for himself again.

As the night fell, cold wind began to rage outside. It was even snowing.

The cottage was small, but its walls were 1.5 meters thick. The cold from outside couldn't leak in even though a blizzard was going on.

Roland was very comfortable inside the cottage. As a professional, he was much more resistant to cold than ordinary people.

Lying on the blanket that he took out from the system Backpack, he continued browsing through the forum.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger. When it came in from the air holes, weird and nasty noises could be heard.

Roland wasn't bothered. Although the environment outside was horrible, his room was warm and cozy, and he felt tranquil and safe resting and reading the forum here.

It was as comfortable as listening to the drizzling rain outside the window on a spring night.

But at the same time, faint, bell-like clicks were carried over the freezing wind as a caravan was struggling forward in the blizzard.

A dim windproof lamp was hanging on the wagon in the lead and the rear end of the caravan.

With the help of the two lamps, the caravan was able to stay intact in the dark, terrible environment where wind was louder than words.

At the lead of the caravan, Wallace, leader of the caravan, roared at the guide nearby, "What s*ithole have you taken us to? We can't see any villages yet. If we don't find a shelter, the wind will be strong enough to blow us away by midnight. Then all of us will die on this plain."

The guide was a middle-aged man who had a chiseled and weatherbeaten face.

Without talking, he simply looked around in hope of finding a shelter.

Though he looked calm on the surface, he was actually desperate.

The night was too dark for him to see what was around.

Based on his guiding experience in the past twenty years, he was already dead for sure, although he didn't show his desperation.

In the meantime, he kept praying to the God of Guides and the God of Roads, hoping that the gods could protect him and let him walk away from this doom.

While he felt desperate, his god seemed to hear his prayer.

A rock building suddenly entered their sight.