How much was a complete World Tree flower worth? Gold coins could act as a measure, but under normal circumstances, no one would sell it voluntarily.

“I invented the Great Wish, I know its weaknesses.” Mordenkainen stood up and waved to his granddaughter. Lamia immediately stepped forward to support him. The old man smiled at Roland. “Let’s talk as we walk.”

The old man had been sitting for a long time. He just had to move, or else his qi and blood would easily be blocked.

The flower was on the table, and neither Mordenkainen nor Lamia looked at it again.

It was not that they didn’t care, but no one could steal it out from this manor.

The three of them walked along the cobblestone pathway to the manor, where the grandfather and granddaughter duo were used to the scenery, but Roland still found it a bit strange.

As he walked, he looked at the surroundings.

Mordenkainen suddenly said, “To fight against Great Wish, you must first be strong enough. Your mental power must be at least Master-level or above.”

Roland nodded.

He understood this. After all, strength was the foundation of everything, and mental strength was a Mage’s foundation.

“And then you’ll have to learn at least three levels of divination spells,” Mordenkainen continued, “that way you’ll be able to feel the line of karma, or fate, wrap around you.”

At this moment, Mordenkainen moved his finger, as if picking at an object.

“You can’t see or feel it now,” Mordenkainen said smilingly, “but the thread of fate of Great Wish is on me now. It’s just that I’ve regressed so much in strength that I can’t see who it’s connected to.”

A small bug flew down in front of the path they were walking on, and Mordenkainen saw it and waited for the bug to crawl away from the road before slowly continuing on his way.

“When you can see the thread of fate, you’ll be qualified to cut it,” said Mordenkainen with a sigh, “but there are different ways to do it with different threads of fate. For example, the thread of fate produced by the Great Wishing spell is simplest to cut as long as you can see it—use your mental power as a knife, and simply sever it. However, if it’s an established thread of fate… it won’t be easy to cut.”

“What do you mean?”

“As soon as a person is born, their death is set by the Goddess of Fortune, and the only thing ordinary people can decide is who they become before they die.” Mordenkainen chuckled. “But someone with great strength can cut this thread and take their fate into their own hands. To reach this level, one must at least reach the Saint level.”

Saint level… Roland reckoned that this meant Legendary.

In the middle of the conversation, Mordenkainen pointed to a stone bench under a tree in the distance and said, “I’m a little tired, let’s go sit over there.”

The three of them sat down. The sunlight fell through the canopy trees, speckling them.

Mordenkainen continued, “When I was young I cut the threads of fate and had a conflict with the Goddess of Fortune. That bi*ch was seriously injured by me at least three times… Now that she’s reincarnated, she won’t think about coming to the main plane for one or two hundred years. Of course, I’m not doing too well either; my mental power was all messed up by her. However, it doesn’t matter. My life is complete, and besides, now you’ve given me the flower of the World Tree.”

Roland now had a feeling as if he was back in his childhood, sitting and listening to his adult neighbor brag.

Saying how great and powerful they were, hacking from the east side of town to the west, with sparks of lightning all the way.

Pressured by the old man’s powerful aura, he couldn’t believe it but didn’t dare to disbelieve it.

And now, he felt the same way.

The fact that Mordenkainen had pinned down and pummeled the Goddess of Fortune was something Roland felt he should believe, but didn’t quite dare to believe.

“If I have any regrets, it’s the World Tree.” Mordenkainen showed a gaze of remembrance. “I went to see her once when I was three hundred years old… and talked to her about magic theory. She was really pretty, and I even courted her, but unfortunately she didn’t like me enough and said I wasn’t wild enough.”

Roland was stunned. “The World Tree likes orcs and the like?”

“No.” Mordenkainen looked rather depressed. “She said that the man she wanted had to be able to last at least ten hours and be handsome, in addition to being able to take care of her elven children.”

Roland’s mouth opened in surprise.

Lamia’s face was a little red.

Talking to a big shot was unique, and Roland felt as if he had heard a lot of rather remarkable information.

“I have to pay you for the World Tree flower as well. On the third floor, there are magic notes I took when I was young, you can go through them all,” Mordenkainen said smilingly. “And I will also teach you the techniques of making magic swords, as well as the techniques of automatic item reparation. But you only have ten days to learn. Because after ten days, this space will disappear, and you and I will both return to our own streams of time, and it will be difficult to see each other again in this life.”

“I see.” Roland thought for a moment and said, “Also, I want something else, some Water of Light. Can you intercede for me, old man? I can buy some.”

“That’s simple.” Mordenkainen looked to Lamia. “Go to the altar later and fetch him a jug of Water of Light.”

Lamia nodded.

Roland then bid farewell to Mordenkainen for the time being, and he returned to the hotel and told his F6 friends about Mordenkainen when they returned.

Li Lin threw up his hands helplessly. “In other words, this quest doesn’t require any fighting at all, right? Then next, we just have to get by for ten days? That’s too boring. I thought there would be an unrestrained and epic battle.”

Brazil chuckled. “Isn’t that nice? You can get a lot of experience without having to spend any effort.”

“It is good, just a bit uninteresting.” Li Lin stood up. “For the next ten days, everyone’s free to do whatever they like!”

With that said, Li Lin was about to walk outside.

Roland said with a smile, “Be careful, don’t get sick.”

Li Lin turned and gave Roland a middle finger.

The others then chatted and dispersed, all finding things to do that interested them.

Roland went to Mordenkainen’s manor and spent the day learning how to make magic swords with Mordenkainen, and the evening in Mordenkainen’s study, going over the old man’s notes.

He also used the built-in camera to take pictures of them.

He had to say that this trait of the Golden Sons not needing to rest was too powerful—one day could be treated as two.

And there was no such thing as learning fatigue.

Mordenkainen was teaching seriously, and Roland was learning even more seriously.

Although the era in which Mordenkainen lived was nearly two thousand years ago, and many of the theories of magic were quite crude and not as refined as those of two thousand years later, most people’s understanding of magic was incomparable to Mordenkainen’s.

Except for Mystra’s.

However, the Goddess of Magic… this was not someone Roland could come into contact with right now.

Roland had thought that these next ten days would be a fairly quiet, happy time of study.

However, accidents happen.

It wasn’t that an accident happened in this dungeon space, but something big happened in the game world.

On the sixth day in the dungeon, after the game had been temporarily suspended for the day, Roland opened the forum as usual.

Since the forum couldn’t be connected to from within the dungeon, things were already underway when Roland saw the news.

It all started when the Coalition of Progress, next to the city of Sisilia, felt that they had reached a certain stage of power and started an uprising.

At this time, the Coalition of Progress had over a thousand players and over 50,000 natives.

The 50,000 or so natives who accepted their theories and ideas and built a formidable army took Hollevin’s major northwestern town of Sisilia.

And they continued to preach their ideas in a city of over a million people.

Then more people joined them; after all, they represented more advanced ideas and systems.

This was quite appealing.

However… Just yesterday, all the popes of all the churches received a higher order.

Annihilate those who oppose the gods.

All the churches mobilized, formed a fearsome religious alliance, and set out in great numbers for the city of Sisilia.

Moreover, except for players like Roland who were in dungeons, almost all other players received a quest.

Whether or not to help the gods annihilate those who defied the gods.

Many players accepted the quest, and many others began making their way to the city of Sisilia, for they wanted to help the Coalition of Progress fight this terrible war.

At this point the forum was split into three factions.

The god-protectors, the resistance, and the neutrals.

After getting a general idea of what was going on, Roland slammed down on the keyboard directly.

He didn’t feel the pain although his hands were red and swollen, but said helplessly, “Too soon… the average level of the players is not enough. If a tenth of the people reached Legend, the uprising could succeed. Now… wait to be annihilated.”

He sighed, staring at the forum.

It wasn’t long before Schuck’s call came.

“Come over to chat.”

And then Schuck hung up the phone.

Roland rode a public bike to the cold drink bar.

Schuck didn’t invite anyone else; Roland was the only one who came.

Pouring Roland a glass of watermelon juice, Schuck said, “You should have already read what happened on the forum.”

“I did.” Roland thought for a moment and said, “You’re a Saint Samurai, which means you’ll have to go against those people?”

Schuck waved his hand. “I declined despite the order. But…”

“But what?”

“The order was given by the Goddess of Light herself, and she is the only one who has the right to command us. She looked a little disappointed when I refused,” Schuk said rather gloomily. “The goddess is very kind to us Saint Samurai, so I felt bad for refusing her order. But what the Coalition of Progress is doing is right—freeing the slaves, freeing the productive forces, removing class barriers and building a better society. Who dares say it is wrong? So I’m quite at a loss. I don’t know what to do now.”

Roland thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t you stay out of the game for a while? Stay away for ten days or half a month, then enter the game again and see what happens?”

Schuck sighed. “This is the only solution that’s not really a solution.”