Roland felt a little speechless. He had just told Hawk not too long ago that some players might end up ashamed of themselves due to the NPCs’ actions, and now he was almost slapped in the face.
Indeed, people shouldn’t think too highly of themselves.
Roland clenched the fake wooden coat of arms tighter and returned to the Magic Tower.
Instead of calling the wooden coat of arms a clue, it was more a warning that Big Edward had left for him before he committed suicide.
After thinking it through, there were many points of suspicion.
If it wasn’t for John, who would have sent the gangs to kidnap and kill Lisa’s loved ones? Who would have threatened Big Edward into taking the rap? Moreover, when Hawk sent a beggar to watch over John’s movements, Big Edward appeared to muddy his monitoring just five days later.
The gang had been wiped out by Bard, so there was no way they could find anything new.
And the true murderer seemed to know about the actions of the Golden Sons.
The news was leaked from Hawk’s beggar?
The more Roland thought about it, the more he felt his head hurt. Such a case that did not have many clues was really thorny. He was working off of pure speculation. He finally understood why there were so many surveillance cameras everywhere in China.
No matter how intelligent a criminal was, it would be useless once they were captured on camera.
When he returned to the Magic Tower, Roland spent four hours deriving the Spell Puppet before he calmed down.
He decided not to think too much about it for the time being. The murderer would definitely be lurking around during this period of time. He would consider it after the Gray Sand Gang investigated the matter.
It was already evening. Vivian served him dinner and placed a few thin books in front of Roland.
“What is this?” Roland asked in surprise.
“Our Magic Tower’s income and expenses from last month,” Vivian explained. “The chairman was supposed to be responsible for the review, but he isn’t around, so the job is now yours.”
So that’s the case. Roland looked at the accounts book as he ate his dinner.
After a while, Roland raised his head and asked, “Who made this record?”
“Claus,” Vivian replied. “Of all our magic apprentices, he’s the best at numbers.”
Claus was the young man that brought Roland to Magic Tower for his first visit.
He was a relatively talented individual among all the magic apprentices. He learned magic very quickly and was very friendly.
“What’s going on with these additional ten gold coins that appeared for no rhyme or reason?”
Vivian glanced at it and smiled as she said, “This is the tax collected from our surrounding areas. With the Magic Tower as the center, the surrounding two kilometers is our territory.”
“Why aren’t the taxpayers labeled?” Roland asked curiously. “Otherwise, how do you know who didn’t pay?”
“There’s no need to label them. They just need to submit 15 gold coins each month.” Vivian smiled. “Our Magic Tower doesn’t care about anything else. We only care about collecting money and maintaining peace in the area.”
Vivian’s words were very gentle, but she had a lofty air about her when she spoke against others.
However, it was very normal if one thought about it. After all, Mages were very respected and feared professionals, and they were also synonymous with mystery. As a spellcaster, even if she was just a magic apprentice, Vivian had reason to be proud.
After reading through accounts, Roland came to understand where the Magic Tower’s money came from.
This also meant that Roland had officially taken over the operations of the Magic Tower.
Especially when Aldo was hiding to recuperate.
All the matters of the Magic Tower were thrown onto Roland. He had to meet the nobles or merchants who had something to ask for. He had to come to agreements with them, such as clearing ferocious beasts or magical beasts near Delpon City. Otherwise, it would be to help in an exorcism.
This busied Roland greatly. He led a few magic apprentices everywhere. This greatly reduced the time he had to experiment with magic.
He had no choice in this matter. He had received a high salary from the Magic Tower.
It was a simple principle—you work for the money received.
However, thanks to the recent update of the game, the chances of triggering Quests had increased. During this period, he had triggered a few small Quests such as getting experience after resolving a certain problem.
Thanks to the completion of these Quests, Roland was now only one step away from Level 5. His experience bar was just a sliver short.
Then, he locked himself in the magic lab and instructed Vivian not to have anyone disturb him.
Then, he spent more than five hours in the magic lab and finally finished the Spell Puppet’s first derivative spell: Enhanced Spell Puppet.
Roland had considered many ways of carrying out the enhancement, but all of them had their cons. Finally, he decided to try a synthetic enhancement. The first enhancement was of course not very effective, but what about the second and third enhancement?
Of course, before that, he had to solve the problem of the lack of “space” in the spell models.
The moment he summoned the Enhanced Spell Puppet, he immediately received a notification from the system.
“You gained proficiency in Spell Puppet magic. EXP +140.”
“You have leveled up to Level 5.”
“Please choose your Class’s Mastery skills.”
Then, a section of Class skills appeared on the system’s menu in a list.
Roland breathed a sigh of relief. He was finally Level 5. It wasn’t easy. After reaching Level 5, the experience needed for leveling up would be greatly increased. From this level, even Warriors would experience a slowdown in leveling speed.
Roland looked at the system menu and read the names of the Mastery list.
Evoking Specialization, Divination Specialization, and Summoning Specialization. He scrolled down and at the end of the list, he found the specialization he wanted.
Spatial Specialization.
This world was very large and inconceivably large. As a result, the ability to travel was extremely important.
The players on the discussion forums were already complaining. They often received missions to transport goods to other cities, and even Quests to go overseas. Now, they weren’t even proficient in the language of Horlais, let alone overseas.
They felt like crying just from needing to walk to another city.
Compared to the convenience of modern society which had an efficient transportation system, this world’s better roads were dirt roads. Many areas were rugged mountain roads. There was no need to mention the distance. Most of the time when they traversed the mountain roads, they would encounter ferocious or magical beasts that ate humans.
If one was lucky, one would be able to get a huge pile of meat to eat for a few days.
If one was unlucky, one could return to the city for free and lose a portion of their experience.
Sometimes, they would even encounter bandits. It was a thrilling adventure.
Hence, unlike most other games, the ability to travel long distances in this real game world was rather important.
That was unless one wished to stay in a fixed area for the rest of their lives and never leave.
This was Roland’s greatest reason for choosing a Spatial Specialization.
He wished to travel in the future. Since the world was so huge, why not travel it?
Whether it was a moving mount or flying magic, it was definitely not as easy as snapping a finger to teleport to another city.
And it was freaking cool.