The Romance in Every Man's Heart

On the village road, Roland looked at the magic staff in his hand.

Magical items were very expensive, but Falken still gave him the staff. Was it a reward when his intimacy with the NPC surpassed a certain threshold, a prerequisite of a certain quest, or simply a choice that Falken had made as a human being?

Roland's puzzlement was quite understandable. After all, he was now in a game.

According to common sense, since he was in a game, the item should be related to a quest.

Yet, Roland felt that it was not so simple. Both Falken and other people in the village impressed him as living souls with their own emotions, instead of NPCs. Although they were merely artificial intelligence according to the promotion of the game, Roland did not feel that they were any different from real people.

Was he really in an immersive game?

Or was it a real world with human beings in the flesh?

Those people even had their own languages, customs, and history.

Could a game team have come up with so many things?

Roland found it unlikely. If they were capable of that, they could've been hired by think tanks to infer the history and future of the whole world.

It was extremely sophisticated stuff.

Yet, the window of the system popping up before his eyes convinced him that he was only in a game.

Name: Mini Sapphire Magic Staff (Excellent)

Attributes: Casting Concentration +2, Magic Power Regeneration +1

Introduction: A rather common staff, but can be used for a lifetime if maintained properly.

Then, he looked at his own body, and another translucent window popped up.

Name: White Magic Robe (Excellent)

Attributes: Magic Power Regeneration +2

Introduction: An unattractive long robe, which is likely the very first gear for apprentices.

Roland sighed. He did not know how other players viewed the NPCs in the game, but as for himself, he could not consider the human-like NPCs as experience for him to level up as he did in other games.

However, it was not a problem for him to kill the bizarre wildlife.

The maple forest was right up ahead.

Roland looked at his staff and his longsword. Taking a deep breath, he walked into the forest slowly.

As he pressed deeper and deeper, the woods became dimmer and dimmer.

The quiet here was occasionally interrupted by the chirping of birds from unknown corners.

Roland stepped on a thick carpet of rotten leaves, which crackled under his feet.

He smelled a strange smell of fermentation.

Despite knowing that he would be resurrected if he died, Roland inevitably felt scared in such an environment.

He walked forward prudently and stayed on full alert. Even the tiniest noise would make his heart palpitate. He looked at the sources of the noises, and they were mostly caused by uncanny creatures.

This special feeling of fear and anticipation reminded him of Resident Evil 2, which he played when he was seven.

It was both thrilling and enjoyable.

After another three minutes, Roland noticed white, broken spiderwebs at the bottom of the trees around him. He also heard the rattling sounds from ahead, as if someone was churning leaves with sticks.

It must be the giant spiders.

Roland squatted and took a soft breath.

A giant, crimson spider emerged in the darkness slowly.

The spider did not seem to notice him, but Roland's heart was racing as the spider approached. He remembered a famous line he read on the Internet.

Hesitation meant failure. A lion always tried its best even though it was only catching a hare!

Concentrating all his magic power, Roland launched a big blue fire ball the size of a basin.

After shooting it out, Roland immediately ran back and crouched.

The fireball grew larger in size as it flew on. Soon, it reached the giant spider.

Most animals were scared of fire, and the giant spiders were no exception.

The fireball collapsed rapidly at first, before it exploded at an extremely high speed.

The sound and flare of the explosion suggested that a bomb had just been detonated.

Before the giant spider realized what was going on, it had been consumed by the furious flames.

Then, fire and smoke rose like a tiny mushroom.

Even though he was outside of the range of the explosion, Roland was flung away by an enormous blast.

He was lifted with a pile of dry leaves and fell to the ground. Then, hot air brushed past his head.

Thankfully, the leaves were thick enough to prevent him from being hurt.

Then, he struggled back to his feet, only to be rendered speechless by what he had caused.

Before him was a gigantic pit, with dark red magma flowing at the bottom. The trees nearby were burning and cracking. A stretch of land at least half the size of a football field had been razed to the ground by the explosion. Many trees leaned away in radial circles.

Within the blast radius, nothing but a few tree trunks that had been reduced to charcoal could be seen.

Such power… Roland collapsed on the ground.

His magic power had been used up. The power of the fireball was much greater than back when he was in Red Mountain Town.

It was probably because his level had improved, and because the staff had enhanced his power!

In any case, the power of the spell was beyond Roland's imagination.

It was hardly possible for a melee class to do the same at the beginning phase of the game.

He didn't think Warlocks could achieve this, either.

It was said that the power to cast a spell for a Warlock was fixed or set to a certain ratio that could not be changed.

It meant that… if compared to cars, Warlocks would be the AT ones, and the Mages would be the MT ones.

As everyone knew, the best cars for racing were all MT ones.

Roland moved his body further away from the site of the explosion. He did not have much strength left.

Thankfully, it was rather damp in the forest, and the fire did not spread out but started dying out.

Sitting still, he enjoyed the dreadful scene that he caused in fascination and satisfaction.

It was truly exhilarating to possess such a destructive power.

What couldn't be done in reality could be achieved in the game. In this world that was almost entirely vivid, he could do things that he couldn't imagine in the past.

The Mage dream he had when he was a little kid was now fulfilled.

Roland chuckled with ambitiousness and determination that he hadn't felt in years.

A fantasy world of swords and magic was always the greatest romance in every boy's heart.