The alcoholics and Roland left the tavern. The waitress peeped from the tavern, but she dared not go out and stop them. She heard noises and screams, and soon, Roland returned to the tavern to finish the remaining bread with dark circles around his eyes.
The waitress knew that Roland must've won, but she still chuckled at Roland's new look.
Roland was slightly bummed.
He did not receive a system notification telling him that he had claimed or accomplished a quest. It meant that the fight was not part of a quest. He felt that the test was not worth it. Although he did defeat a few drunkards, his own face was punched several times. It was not very painful, but the bruises on his face made him look rather hilarious.
Roland finished the honey bread and paid another copper for a cup of honey juice. Then, burping in satisfaction, he reached the east side of the lake, walking along the trail next to the lake.
This place was at the foot of the mountain and would be overshadowed by the mountain in the afternoon. Due to the cold and lack of sunlight, no villagers had built their houses here. So the place was empty.
Roland found it a perfect place to practice magic. He redrew the profiles of the nodes of Inferior Fireball on the sand, before he analyzed and reversely inferred them. The mathematical model was obviously helpful right now. He could have results as long as there was enough data.
Math was a compulsory class in college. Roland was not adept at it, but he had passed it anyway. He calculated for a long time and found three excellent routes of nodes, which featured speed, power, and distance respectively while guaranteeing the stability of the spell.
After he tested the three node routes, surprisingly, he received a system notification.
He had leveled up.
No glittering special effects, and no pleasant background music. He had leveled up simply and unexpectedly as that.
Roland also noticed that the icon of Inferior Fireball on Magic Book in the system now had a bright gold background and "Versed" behind it. Studying a spell could increase the experience of the game character?
That could be the only explanation.
Such a way of leveling up was indeed fit for scholar-type classes such as Mages. Roland found the game more and more interesting. The system only offered simple notifications. There were no hints of quests, mini-maps, or character profiles. Players could only see the initial attributes of their characters when the characters were built. There were no health bars or names above the NPCs' heads, either. Everything felt real.
After the level-up, Roland felt that he was slightly stronger and more flexible. But more importantly, he could sense the flow of magic in his body more clearly.
He had to cast spells consecutively to sense magic previously, but right now, he could clearly sense a comforting matter in the air, which was being absorbed into his body slowly.
That must be the elements of magic power.
What really amazed Roland was another system notification:
Dear player, you have reached Level 1 and become an official professional. The Backpack function of the system has been activated. You can use this function by reading "Backpack" in your heart. Please find out the effects of this function on your own. Have fun.
So, the system offered a Backpack. Roland clapped his hands in great delight. It was the first time he had played an immersive game, but anybody with common sense about games should know how convenient it would be to have a backpack that did not need to be carried in such a lifelike game.
Roland soon opened the Backpack according to the instructions. A translucent cubic space was unfolded before his eyes. Though it was right next to him, Roland knew that it was a projection that only he could see.
The storage of this Backpack was eight cubic meters.
It's so huge? Roland threw some stones and sand into the Backpack, before he added twigs and water. Soon, he reached a useful conclusion.
Gravity did not exist in the Backpack, which made it easier to heap items. After all, nothing would collapse if there was no gravity.
As to whether or not the Backpack could preserve food, and for how long? That required more tests to figure out.
Roland looked around. Then, he chanted the magic coordinates very quickly.
X23… Z88
It was the optimal route of nodes for Inferior Fireball that Roland had found out through mathematical modeling. Comprehensively speaking, it had the best performance in terms of speed, power, distance, and stability.
The bright blue fireball the size of a fist dashed into the water in the lake. A few bubbles immediately popped up. Soon, three little fish floated to the surface.
Roland lifted his robe and entered the water. He threw the three silver fish into his Backpack. Those fish were stunned but still alive, but they struggled and stopped moving after they were thrown into the Backpack. They were obviously dead.
The Backpack could not keep living creatures.
Roland recorded it on his memo pad. He couldn't test the preservation abilities of the Backpack for now, but he was sure that he could find out in a day or two.
Now that he was versed in Inferior Fireball, his level had increased, and he even got an unexpected Backpack, Roland focused his attention on another level-one spell: Hand of Magic.
It was a control spell without much damage. According to its description, the spell could form an invisible hand with magic to grab objects. The size of the hand, the gripping power, and the reaching distance were related to the level of the Mage, the connection of nodes, and the amount of magic power.
Then, there were consecutive failures again… However, perhaps because he had upgraded and had a better perception of magic, he did not feel as tired and painful as he did when Inferior Fireball failed.
Therefore, Roland was soon able to draw the profiles of the nodes of Hand of Magic. It was much faster than when he analyzed Inferior Fireball.
Then, he bought more bread at Lake View Tavern, partly as supper and partly as a nighttime snack, and tossed it into his Backpack in the evening. He also bought a lamp in the tavern. After that, he spent the whole night establishing a mathematical model for Hand of Magic. Finally, when it was dawn, Roland found out the optimal route of nodes for Hand of Magic ten minutes before the game paused again.
Hand of Magic on the Magic Book was now Versed, but Roland's level did not increase this time… He estimated that it was because the experience required for the next level-up had increased, so grasping another spell was not enough for him to level up again.