Before Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, became a goddess, she was once a brilliant person.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have invented so many powerful spells and become a god as a human.
It was an unprecedented move. She was the first strong person to become a god as a mortal.
And it was precisely because it was unprecedented that there was no experience to learn from.
Before becoming a real god, Mystra also did a lot of probing in terms of safety and freedom restrictions, and when she found that becoming a god didn't involve any safety risks, she gladly became a god.
It was just that she never expected that becoming a god, while there really wasn't any danger to her life, would completely erase the creativity that she was so proud of.
The inspiration and creativity that she had accumulated as a mortal were all blocked by the power of the rules.
It was clear that it was fairly easy for her to create a new spell, but her own ideas were blocked by a layer of fog, invisible and untouchable.
That was fine.
Since she couldn't create new spells, she could just let her believers offer them up.
But for all orthodox believers, what they knew, the gods they believed in also knew all of it.
As a result, most Mages were influenced by her deeds, all of them became arrogant, believing that their fate was up to them and not to the gods, and hoping that they could become the next Mystra.
And those who were willing to believe in her … didn't even look at the new spells that they offered up.
For example, putting up a so-called new Inferior Fireball was just a slight improvement in power … just a little bit.
But the magic power consumption increased exponentially.
It was a complete negative transformation.
And then there were a lot of improved spells like this. As the Goddess of Magic, how could she possibly look at such things?
So the Mages who believed in her joyfully offered improved spells to the Goddess of Magic, only to have no response at all, and over time, fewer and fewer people were willing to believe in her.
In the end … only a group of so-called "priests" still maintained the operation of a small number of temples, letting people know that there was a goddess who specialized in magic in this world.
In fact, although the Goddess of Magic was extremely powerful in her own right, her reputation was completely incomparable to that of the two goddesses of life and light.
Even the water goddess had a much higher presence than she did.
In this way, the Goddess of Magic existed in this world for hundreds of years as if she were invisible.
Then, one day, a Magician from another world presented a very interesting spell.
Blue Fireball!
She fell in love with it at first glance. If she had not become a god, it would not have been difficult to create such a spell. Many of the ideas in it were similar to her previous ideas.
She gave this child from another world a bit of divine favor.
But after a while, someone offered new spells, such as water-making spells and oil-making spells, which were quite interesting.
And these two spells were quite similar to the first blue fireball. Then she understood?
The second sacrifice was the true inventor of these spells.
The first one was just a thief.
Was that why she took back the blessing of the first person?
To this child from another world.
At the same time, hope?
The other party believed in him.
Unfortunately … the other party wasn't willing.
But even so, Mystra was not angry.
Any magician with ability would have their own pride. Wasn't he the same back then?
But now?
Roland sacrificed a new magic array. She could tell at a glance that it was only half a model. As the Goddess of Magic,
Her thirst for new magic and knowledge was the strongest among all the gods.
He couldn't sit still anymore?
She directly pulled Roland into her paradise with her mental power.
Then she saw Roland's soul?
A peculiar one?
A soul that was completely unaffected by the rules of the gods.
But now that he had reached the Master level, he could already look at her without getting hurt.
This man wanted to make a deal with her.
The Goddess of Magic found this man more and more interesting?
And the more she wanted him to become her believer.
Roland didn't know what the Goddess of Magic across from him was thinking. He just wanted to make a deal.
"What deal?"
The Goddess of Magic's voice was beautiful. But in essence?
A beautiful woman's voice was generally not bad.
Even if her voice was mediocre, with the blessing of her beauty, one would find her voice pleasant to listen to.
"I offer the complete version of the multiple teleportation array model to you, Goddess," Roland said slowly. "But I don't want your reward directly."
"Then what do you want?" Although Mystra was eager to know the pattern of the other half of the magic array, she held back the throbbing for the time being and asked calmly, "Do you think my reward isn't good enough? Why don't you listen to what I'm offering first? "
Roland gestured for her to continue.
He wasn't in a hurry, and in case the other party did give something better than what he had in mind, he didn't mind changing the reward.
"I can give you a divine clone?"
Hmm?
Speaking of divine clones, Roland thought of the Nether God's Soul Gatherer and immediately lost interest.
What did he want that kind of tool-like thing for? And from some of the miscellaneous books he had read, it was said that the divine clone of a god could transmit the nearby environment and images back to the god's mind.
In other words, having a divine clone was like having an extra monitor next to him.
Seeing Roland's slightly frown, the Goddess of Magic waved her hand lightly.
Blue magical light converged around her.
Roland was immediately interested when he saw this light.
Because it wasn't ordinary magic, but a higher and purer energy.
Divine power?
Roland understood, and at the same time, he secretly thought that it would be great if he could steal some divine power back to study.
Unfortunately, he couldn't steal it.
Right now, he couldn't control this power yet.
In his regret, this blue divine power gathered into the shape of a human, then a head, face, hands, and feet all materialized.
Long lavender hair, a small body, and a similar white dress.
It was the Goddess of Magic in her teenage form.
But this girl's eyes were closed, and although she looked lifelike, there was no sign of life.
No soul either.
She was just a model.
Although it did look much better than the Nether God's Soul Gatherer, at least much more beautiful in appearance, the question was why Roland wanted an inflatable doll.
Although this inflatable doll was indeed beautiful, realistic, and seemed to have warmth, Roland really didn't need it.
He had a queen and Vivian, and his body couldn't take any more.
He was about to refuse when Mystra continued, "This is only a half-finished product, and if you agree, I will put a piece of my soul into her body, and she will have life."
Oh?
Roland's eyes widened slightly.
How interesting!
This could be considered the creation of a new life.
"And she will have a lot of knowledge I will give her, and she will have extremely high intelligence as soon as she opens her eyes, without your teaching and nurturing." Mystra smiled and said, "She will be your most loyal assistant and friend, and she will listen to you in everything, everything!"
At this point, Mystra's eyes rolled, and she revealed a tacit smile.
But as expected of a goddess, even with such a perverted smile, she looked extremely beautiful when she smiled, even somewhat sacred.
Seeing such a smile, Roland understood even more.
Sure enough … the so-called gods were still essentially human.
They were just very, very, very strong, that was all.
Roland looked at the teenage Mystra doll again, a little tempted.
After all, it was really beautiful.
And that body contained divine power, and after he got it, he could study it thoroughly.
Not for anything else, but he was sure that he just wanted to study the nature of divine power.
But thinking about why he came, he still resisted the itch in his heart.
"Sorry, I'll still choose the deal I want."
"Okay." Mystra shook her finger, and the lifeless doll turned back into blue divine energy and returned to her body. "So, tell me what your effect is."
"I'll offer this magic array to you in its entirety. Then, in your name, I'll use your divine power to place a teleportation magic array in front of every temple in every large and medium-sized city. Everyone will be able to use it."
Mystra found it a little strange. "But I don't see what you will get out of this deal."
"It will cost ten copper coins per person to teleport, and the money will be collected by the Church of Magic." Looking at her beautiful pink eyes, Roland said, "And five of the copper coins will be mine, and we will settle the accounts once a month, how about that?"
"Fifty-fifty?" Mystra sighed. "You still want money. I thought you had more in the deal, which is obviously not as valuable as my clone. And for me, it doesn't seem to be of any benefit. What do I need money for? "
Roland froze for a moment, then he said carefully, "Goddess, among your believers, there must be no one who understands the long-term rules, right?"
He now knew that the intelligence, knowledge, experience, and vision of the gods all depended on the "quality" of the believers.
Mystra was a little embarrassed.
She had less than ten thousand regular believers at the moment!
And most of them were Mages with no prospects or talent.
Anyone with a bit of a future had joined the Association of Mages everywhere. Which serious Mage would believe in the Goddess of Magic?
"Sit down." Mystra quickly calmed down and waved her hand, bringing out two chairs.
Then the two of them sat face to face.
She sat very dignified, then nodded at Roland. "Tell me about it, I'm short of talents in this area right now."
In the past, Mystra was just a magic research maniac, and she had no research or dabbled in economic rules or the long-term layout of power.
And now … her believers were all good-for-nothings, and it was even less likely for them to understand the theory of power and organization operation.
"First of all, money is very important. Maybe you don't need it, Goddess, but your temple and your believers do."
"But it only costs ten copper coins per teleportation, that doesn't seem to make much money." Mystra didn't think too much about it.
"Goddess, do you know how many large, medium, and small cities there are altogether?"
"If only the human world is counted, about 110,000."
Roland smiled. "So, even if only a hundred people teleport in each city every day, how much money will it be?"
Mystra froze for a moment, then her expression immediately became serious. "More than a hundred million copper coins! And that's the lowest number. With such a low teleportation cost, anyone can afford it as long as they're not too poor. The average number of people teleported in each city can't be less than a thousand a day! Hiss! "
Even a goddess who had lived for hundreds of years was shocked by this number.
She couldn't help but gasp. "You're so ambitious!"
"You flatter me." Roland smiled.
At this moment, Mystra was a little upset. She was a goddess anyway, and now she was moved in front of a mortal, so she wanted to get back at him. "But no matter how much money there is, it doesn't work for me, and I still don't see any benefits for me. You, on the other hand … are very likely to become the richest person in the world, and in a decade, even Bahamut, the dragon king, won't be as rich as you. "
Roland shook his head. "So, Goddess, you still lack someone who can help you in the long run. As far as I know, there are probably only a few hundred temples left for you now, Goddess. So like I just said, it's impossible to spread teleportation arrays all over the world. "
Mystra's expression was a little ugly, but she wasn't angry, just embarrassed.
"But with money, you can build more temples, can't you? And with money, you can also pay your orthodox believers higher monthly stipends, so that they'll be more motivated to preach, right? "
Mystra nodded. "That's true. Are there any other benefits?"
"The other one is faith!" Roland spread his hands as if he were embracing the whole world and said, "When the magic teleportation array is everywhere in all the cities in the world, when all humans, or intelligent creatures, are used to using teleportation arrays to travel, visit relatives, and do business … Every time they teleport, they will think that this magic array is a gift from Goddess Mystra, and that from childhood to adulthood, generations and generations will remember your kindness. So, how good do you think this will be for the spread of your faith? "
Mystra's eyes lit up, very, very bright.
She didn't have the knowledge in that area, nor did she have believers who knew about it, so she couldn't think of it for now.
But that didn't mean she was stupid.
After all, she was the Goddess of Magic, and she was very intelligent. As long as the relevant knowledge was put in front of her, she would quickly understand it.
Her hands were slightly shaking, but she still resisted the urge to jump up and down, and she said seriously, "I understand the benefits you're talking about, but you're asking for too much. A fifty-fifty split is not good. I'm paying too much, and you're paying too little."
"But I'm paying the spell models and the plans about the Church of Magic, and I can tell you," said Roland.
"That's still too much." The Goddess of Magic shook her head. "You're too greedy. If it's this number, I'd rather not know about this magic array."
The Goddess of Magic's expression was serious and certain.
Roland sighed. "Then how much do you want?"
"Ninety-one!"
Roland put on an exaggerated, even angry expression. "Goddess, that's not very nice of you. In that case, I'm leaving. "
With that, Roland was about to stand up.
"Eighty-two!" The goddess stared at Roland. "It can't be any higher, young man. Don't be too greedy."
Roland thought for a long time and nodded with difficulty. "Okay, let's make it eighty-two."
"Then let's make a contract." The goddess used her divine power to create a divine document between the two of them. "Put your palm on it."
Roland looked at it casually and felt that there was no problem, so he put his hand on it.
The green divine power contract disappeared, and both of them felt that a strange force was restraining them.
Then Roland smiled, and he smiled very happily.
Mystra stared at Roland for a while and suddenly said with some anger, "Little guy, you actually tricked me. This isn't your bottom line. What is your bottom line?"
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