Chapter 144 - Carriers
Chapter 144 Carriers
Roland and Jett stood on the ice, watching the two battleships that were rapidly catching up to them.
Jett was a bit excited. He had already taken his mace, as well as his studded small round shield, out of his Backpack, licking his lips in excitement. He had the frenzied expression of a maniac who was about to jump over and go on a killing spree when the battleships got closer.
However, after waiting for the battleships to get closer and waiting for the soldiers who stood by the ship’s railing to show their faces, Roland and Jett both had disappointed expressions.
These two battleships weren’t large; at most they could only be considered medium-sized ships.
After all, this was just a large river, and the riverbed wasn’t deep enough to support a truly large battleship.
But what really disappointed Roland and Jett was the mental state of the sailors on board.
Although the other side stood taller on their ships and had more people…
Roland and Jett could both tell that the faces of these sailors had frightened expressions on them, especially when they saw Roland.
“Doesn’t seem interesting at all.” Jett sighed, putting away his weapon.
This group of sailors clearly had no intention of fighting.
The reason was actually simple: these sailors were in fear of war.
How much training time could the inland lord’s sailors have under a feudalistic empire? It was already good enough to be able to form a navy.
Besides, John Senior was only fond of cavalry, and only haphazardly trained other types of soldiers with the attitude of using them to “clean up” or to serve the cavalry.
So, it was already a good thing that a navy was built, and that there were six not-so-small ships.
It was not like this place was some harbor-type territory.
Many of the other cities built on riversides didn’t even have a navy established, much less warships.
The two ships had cast off their anchors from afar and were set to stay in place.
The soldiers standing on the ship, though in two rows, had their bows behind them and didn’t even take the action of drawing their bows to prepare for battle.
The young man taking the lead looked somewhat familiar to Roland. After a moment’s thought, he realized that it was the young officer on the city wall from that time he and Betta were transporting the seriously injured girl back to the city at night.
Seeing that the other party didn’t seem to have any fighting spirit, Roland didn’t take any action, but when he used magic to freeze an ice path on the river surface that extended to the shore and was about to leave, the young officer on the other side suddenly shouted, “Mr. Roland, please stop.”
It was a little far away, but the voice came through.
Roland twisted around to look at him.
The young officer continued shouting loudly: “The mayor asked us to stop you, please don’t make it difficult for us.”
It’s probably actually more than stopping! Roland could see that the young officer had lied. It was only normal for John Senior to give an order to at least capture them alive, or kill them.
But after all, they were Golden Sons, undying, and simply killing them was useless—it was more just a delay, which was also John Senior’s purpose.
For these soldiers, fighting two undying spellcasters—scary monsters at the elite-level—was no different from committing suicide. This was why they were afraid.
Now they were on a large river, and as the navy, theoretically, they had a huge advantage.
So this young officer had some confidence in this mission at first. After all, the other party was only in a small boat, while they had a large ship. If the other party didn’t cooperate, he could just knock them over and drown them.
The Golden Sons would be reborn in the Church of Life after they resurrected—there was an ambush of a large number of elite soldiers laid by the mayor waiting there.
It was safe to say that, before acting, the mayor John Senior had considered almost everything he could think of and had given orders to that effect.
This was a very reasonable arrangement.
However, the young officer could now be certain of one thing: the mayor had still underestimated Roland’s strength.
The enemy was indeed in a small boat, but now they were standing on top of a huge floating ice platform, and even the small boat was frozen in the floating ice layer.
It was a hot day now… it would be quite difficult to create a larger piece of ice, even for an official mage.
However, the reality was even more exaggerated, as such a large block of floating ice appeared right in front of his eyes.
If Roland could create a block of floating ice like this, then he could definitely create a bigger and more exaggerated block of floating ice.
Even if the other party didn’t use any magic attacks, they could just use ice to jam their ships—their ships weren’t large warships with anti-magic shell hulls that had the ability to break ice.
Their two ships would definitely be unable to move if that happened.
Plus, their sailors rarely trained, and without their ships, it would be impossible to put up much of a fight when they went on land or fought on the ice floes.
The sailors’ role was only to deter those tax-evading “water bandits.”
Roland didn’t pay any more attention to the ships and just smiled at the other side. Since the ships didn’t dare to come up, there was no need for him to deliberately deal with them.
Using magic, an ice bridge to the shore had been formed on the river.
Roland and Jett began to walk toward the shore.
By this time the young officer was anxious, and he had a bad feeling, for Roland had gone straight to shore after their appearance, a move that seemed decisive and obviously prepared.
It couldn’t be that their departure was a ploy in itself, could it?
The young officer’s heart was trembling.
Even though he knew that he was no match in this situation, the young officer still shouted, “Mr. Roland, I’ll repeat myself, if you leave, we’ll have to take some forceful measures.”
The young officer’s face hardened and he raised his hand at the rear. The sailors disorderly set arrows on their bows, but none of them drew all the way.
Roland looked at the magic reserve in the Mind-Calming Necklace and found that nearly half of it was already filled, so he turned around and gently knocked on the ice bridge with his staff.
The magic power materialized due to a large amount of condensation, and white ice fragments danced around Roland. First, a streak of white ice spread on the river at an extremely quick speed and suddenly turned in front of the two battleships, drawing a white, marked line on both shores of the large river.
Then this white line thickened and widened speedily.
The sailors on the battleships, dumbfounded and even terrified, watched as, before their eyes, an ice platform that completely spanned the entire river and was almost a meter thick appeared in front of them. It was a vast expanse of white, gaining a dazzling luster in the sunlight.
And all this, from start to finish, took less than fifteen seconds.
Roland nodded in satisfaction. Half of his own mana bar could accomplish this—his effective use of magic power had gone up another level.
At least three months locked in the magic lab, vigorously studying and experimenting with magic was quite good for the growth of his own abilities.
Then he and Jett both turned away, never looking at the two ships again.
“Archmage!” The young officer stared blankly at Roland’s back. “The mayor may be in trouble this time.”
He breathed a long sigh of relief, then said to the lieutenant behind him, “Raise the anchor and ram it.”
The lieutenant gulped. “It won’t move, the ice is too thick. Our ship will be damaged instead.”
“I know,” the young officer said indifferently. “This time, Delpon will definitely fall, but these Golden Sons probably won’t rob the John family of their military rights and territory. They are quite good in nature and are of a good alignment. So, we will still be working for Delpon in the future, and if we don’t put in some ‘effort’ now, without any losses, that’s cowardice and disobedience to command—there’s no telling what kind of underhanded punishment the heir of John’s family will give us in the future.”
The lieutenant suddenly came to his senses and looked at the young officer with an expression of admiration. “I see. I’ll secretly break the legs and hands of some more soldiers and try to make this look as perfect as possible.”
The young officer smiled and nodded.
Shortly afterward, the two warships crashed into the thick ice floes with unyielding momentum.
At this moment, Roland and Jett were walking on the shore, and instead of going directly to the docks, they took a detour toward the entrance of the city wall.
Jett had been silent, but suddenly he said, “Roland, you’ve incited a conversation again.”
Roland was stunned for a moment, then came to realize… “You’re on the air?”
“Yeah,” Jett said with some excitement. “The last time you guys went to the city of Mory, the guy in charge of the livestream got tens of thousands of yuan in tips, so I’ll give it a try this time. You, Hawk, and Link all have your own things to do—you’re all busy people—so, I’ll be the one to livestream this time, and get some pocket money to use in passing.”
Roland laughed lightly and said, “You say it so bluntly. Aren’t you afraid that the netizens won’t give you tips?”
The truth was quite the opposite. Because of what Jett had just said, he instead got a small stream of tips worth several thousand.
Although the tips were given, the discussion in the livestream was still about Roland-related topics.
“The ice layer that was just created across the river is so scary and awesome. What kind of magic is this? Ice wall spell?”
“There is no such thing as an ice wall spell, only a fire wall spell.”
“I do think it’s the dynamic use of Ice Ring.”
“I’m poorly-read, don’t lie to me, is this what Ice Ring looks like?”
“That’s why he is the number one mage and you guys are just little warlocks.”
“A mage is someone who learns magic and can use it dynamically, changing the way it manifests. You warlocks just simply use magic.”
“Warlocks never produce magic, you guys are just magic carriers.”
“The thing about magic is, can it be said to be carried? Anyway, now it’s we warlocks who are more powerful on average, the only renowned mage is Roland. There are many gods among us warlocks, such as the famous livestream uploader, Demonic Warlock Griefwind.”
“Stop saying those words, it’s humiliating to watch. Roland, that guy is simply a player-boss of another level. If he came to our warlock side to kick ass after knocking down a bunch of people, he could still arrogantly shout: who else? I want to beat five more!”
A player named Griefwind immediately left a message.
“Hahaha…”
There was a lively atmosphere in the livestream.
Roland and Jet, on the other hand, arrived at a small forest almost a kilometer outside the city walls.
In the shadowy woods, more than a hundred sturdy men stood in silence, and before them was Link, who held a blade of grass in his mouth.
Upon seeing Roland and Jett enter, Link spat out the grass and revealed a very gentle smile. “I’ve been waiting for you guys for a long time.”