Chapter 246 - Charge More
Chapter 246 Charge More
After the participants were decided, the players from Silver Wings were all relieved.It had been more than half a year since the players started the game, but their journey of leveling up had been tough.In order to level up quickly, one had to trigger as many quests as possible.
The lesser quests could be easily triggered, but their EXP reward was little. The quests above the blue level were often beyond their abilities, and when they died, the protection or escort quests they got would fail. When the NPCs they protected were killed, it was impossible for them to retry the quest.
The dungeon quests would mostly disappear, too, after the first failure.
More importantly, a player would lose ten percent of their total experience when they died, which further affected the unskilled players’ speed in leveling up.
They didn’t feel much before level five, but after level five, every death would mean that their half-month of hard work was in vain. If their current experience was too little, their level might even drop.
Considering the trend, if they died after level ten, their efforts in the previous half-year would probably be rendered useless.
So, the players had been trying to avoid death after level five.
Not everybody was good at fighting. Besides, many players were here to appreciate scenery or enjoy a different life.
There were now guilds for cooking, fishing, hunting, forging, etc. founded by players who loved those skills in reality.
As a result, the average level of the players was further lowered.
People believed in different things. Some liked fighting and adventures, and some preferred an easy and casual life.
Also, the second type of players had their own motivation: if they honed their skills in cooking or crafting in the game, they could put the skills into practice in reality.
They could work in a restaurant as a chef or sell delicate handicrafts that they made. They might be able to make a fortune.
As for forging… The handmade swords nowadays could be unbelievably expensive, although forging could hurt one’s back.
What could the battle-oriented players do even if they were experts at fighting?
Could they pick a fight in reality? They would only be handcuffed by the police.
For various reasons, only around three percent of the players had reached level five at this point.
Birds of a feather flocked together.
Those whom a high-level player was involved with were mostly also high-level players.
So, Roland always had this illusion that there were many more level-five players like him.
But actually, there weren’t so many. Every guild only had a few of them on average. After all, many strong lone wolves were unwilling to join any guild.
As a result, most guilds were seriously short of high-level fighters.
It was actually not bad that Silver Wings could gather five of them.
The other guilds often only had one or two high-level fighters.
F6 were probably the only exception. Everybody there was a level-five at the top of the pyramid.
Roland talked to them for a while. After they decided when to set off, Roland was about to leave, when Hawk suddenly said, “Roland, there are a few friends in my guild who want to be promoted to be Great Swordsmen. What are the conditions and the fee?”
“You would have to ask the queen in person.”
Hawk asked in surprise, “Isn’t the queen your woman? Can’t you say something for us, or at least introduce us to her?”
Up until this moment, Silver Wings hadn’t been officially registered in the game yet.
The NPC in the Holy Realm who was responsible for the registration of guilds was too proud to talk to regular people.
Even though Schuck said something for them, the NPC still proposed three troublesome demands. Some people in Silver Wings were trying to meet the demands. But they felt that it wouldn’t be long before their guild was established.
Because of that, most players learned that the grand nobles appreciated decorum and manners, and that most of them had little time for non-celebrities.
Subconsciously, they applied the lesson they learned to the queen.
They thought that the queen, as an honorable noble and a high-level Great Swordsman, probably wouldn’t meet any random guy.
But thankfully, they could ask someone to speak for them.
That was exactly what Hawk asked Roland to do.
“There is absolutely nothing between me and the queen,” Roland said solemnly. “Watch your mouth, or I’ll sue you for slander.”
Hawk chuckled and shrugged scornfully.
Link was grimacing too.
Fine. None of them believed him.
Actually, Roland didn’t think that he would’ve believed it himself if he were in their shoes.
Unwilling to explain it any further, Roland thought for a moment and said, “I’ve posted it on the forum and talked to Andonara. If you want a promotion, go talk to her. But of course, it’s up to her whether or not she’s going to teach you.”
“Can you say something for us?” Hawk patted Roland’s shoulder and begged him. “You know that things might go completely differently if you say something for us.”
Roland thought for a moment and decided to accept his request.
After all, he was only going to deliver a message for them; he wouldn’t do much if Andonara was unwilling to help.
Hawk was rather happy that Roland accepted his request. He patted Roland’s shoulder and said, “Bro, I owe you one.”
Roland smiled and did not take it seriously.
Verbal promises didn’t matter; what mattered was action.
Roland and those people were close at the beginning, but for their interests, Hawk and Link elbowed Roland out of the decision-making circle of Delpon.
Although Roland never planned to call the shots behind the curtain, quitting on his own and being kicked away were different.
It was dawn when he left the docks, and the city gate had just opened. Roland entered the city with the merchants waiting outside.
When he returned to his manor, he saw Andonara at the dinner table. She smiled at him when she noticed him.
“You’re back?”
Roland nodded.
Then, Vivian walked out of the kitchen with a tray of freshly-baked bread. She smiled at Roland. “You came at the right moment. Fresh bread.”
Roland sat down and had breakfast while he told Andonara about Hawk’s request.
“If they’re your friends, I’ll teach them well.” Andonara nodded and accepted it.
“But don’t forget to charge fees.”
Andonara blinked her eyes and suddenly said charmingly, “Then I’ll charge those I like slightly more, and those I don’t like double. How does it sound?”
As a queen, she was quite observant. She could tell from Roland’s tone that he was not too enthusiastic about those people, and that he did not seem willing to help them, although he had to deliver the message to her for various reasons.
Tsk… Whoever made Roland uncomfortable would make her uncomfortable.
But she couldn’t do anything to them except charge them more.
After breakfast, Roland wiped his mouth and said, “I’m going to the magic tower for experiments. You do whatever you want.”
After that, Roland left the manor.
The atmosphere in the living room did not turn bad without Roland’s presence.
Andonara finished the rest of the bread and sat down next to Vivian, before she said, “Let’s go shopping later. I can teach you the most popular combination of clothes in the capital. You can definitely captivate Roland.”
Vivian nodded, her eyes glittering.
All the magic apprentices cheered for Roland’s return.
Since Roland had been away recently, they had no teachers to teach them anything.
There were another two Golden Sons in the magic tower. They were quite strong, but they weren’t good at teaching. They were even not as good as regular apprentices in terms of magic common sense.
Instead of doing magic experiments directly, Roland answered the apprentices’ questions on magic that had accumulated in the past two months first.
It took him two days to answer all the questions, and he only had time for experiments at night.
Two days later, Schuck and Betta arrived.
Schuck didn’t fly into the city on the red dragon. Instead, he asked Margret to take human form and walked in with her.
After all, the entrance of a dragon would’ve been too terrifying.
Roland asked them to take a rest in the manor. He then met the guys from Silver Wings with them at the docks the next day.
After they introduced themselves, as the second-in-command of Silver Wings, Hawk did not hesitate to adulate Schuck.
Margret seemed disgusted, but she did not say anything and responded with silence.
Naturally, Schuck took the chance to praise Hawk too.
As the atmosphere grew warmer and warmer, Hawk introduced the classes and specialties of the participants on his side.
As for those from F6, they were too famous to need any self-introduction.
Schuck went straight at the topic. “I’ve read the quest. Correct me if I’m wrong, but we have to leave Hollevin and pass Urganda in order to meet an elf named Ans at the edge of the Elven Forest before we can continue the quest, right?”
Hawk nodded. “That’s right.”
“Impressive. You’ve already spread your influence to the Elven Forest!” Roland said somewhat in admiration.
Hawk smiled and said, “There are a lot of adventurers in my guild who like traveling. One of them roamed at the edge of the forest and got in touch with the elves. He triggered the quest and gradually passed it on to us by sharing it with other players before deleting it.”
“It sounds quite distant.”
Roland felt a strong headache too. He had been too occupied to study any new spells. He was quite upset.
“That’s right.” Hawk explained with a bitter smile, “It will take twenty days if we take horses. If the weather or the road is bad, it might take a month.”
Everybody shook their heads with bitter smiles.
“The world in this game is too huge.”
Roland was now even more determined to invent a “Quick Travel” spell.
If he could arrive at the destination quickly, he could then teleport his pals to his location.
Therefore, he had to put the revision of Long-Distance Teleportation on his agenda too, so that he could teleport other people besides himself.