When A Mage Revolts

The whole scene was still quite eerie.

In a place where he had initially thought to be empty, a dried up corpse appeared out of nowhere when he turned his head. At that moment, Benjamin almost wondered if he had wandered mistakenly into some grave robbing sidequest.

However, the dried up corpse did not charge and attack him, nor did it show any signs of movement. It was merely silently sprawled over there, looking like it had been there for quite some time.

So, Benjamin could not help walking over to take a closer look but did not expect to find the corpse the more familiar the more he looked at it. From its parched face and facial features, he could even identify the corpse.

This was Michelle’s body.

"... Damn." Upon realising this, Benjamin could not hold his shocked expression.

He had known of the news of Michelle’s death, but what he had never imagined was that she died here.

But …...

As he was recovering from the shock, Benjamin realised that everything made sense now.

Most probably after entering the treasure spot, Michelle saw the red gemstone and thought the red gemstone was the treasure "Soul’s Fire" left behind and thus, picked it up. But the result was as Benjamin’s experienced earlier, her whole body bled which could not be stopped. Sadly, she did not possess such ability like the Space of Consciousness, and so, she bled to death.

And the blood she bled with the help of the red gemstone or some other factors, formed the cursed soul figure he saw later.

After figuring all this out, Benjamin could not help but sigh deeply.

From another point of view, Michelle could be seen a formidable hero. She had a great ambition and also elaborate plans. In order to execute her plans, she handled things one at a time, exhausting all types of ideas by hook or by crook, but in the end, she lost to a small piece of red gemstone.

... Could this be what was known as "God’s will"?

Benjamin helplessly shook his head a little.

She had died; thinking about all this was useless. He just suddenly felt that he should give Michelle a proper burial. Whether it be burying her or cremating her, at the end of the day, he could not just leave her corpse here like this, rotting away alone.

----- She did sacrifice herself for him after all.

Within this whole chamber, most parts of the ground were hard rocks and could not be penetrated. But, at some corner of the side, Benjamin managed to find soil. And so, he spent almost more than an hour digging, using a wooden bucket as a tool, and managed to dig out a small pit.

He placed Michelle’s corpse in the pit and covered it up with soil; he considered that a burial for Michelle. Finally, Benjamin stood at the side, had a moment of silence, nodded his head and turned around to leave.

Perhaps he knew of Michelle’s death beforehand, he did not feel emotional. He only felt it was a pity and lamented on how one’s death could be so hasty.

But he quickly moved on from this lamenting and continued on his journey.

He walked towards the opening that appeared just now.

During the whole process of digging a pit, he was also discussing what was going on with the "mechanisms" here with the System who had transformed into a "fish egg". He had attentively searched the whole chamber before; he could not find Michelle’s corpse, nor did he find that opening. And now it just popped up out of nowhere and that could not be right.

Finally, he came to the conclusion that it was those suddenly withering mosses which were behind all this.

Combining the fact that he felt dizziness after the disappearance of the mosses and as the System said, certain hormones in his body seemed to have increased when he first entered the cave. Thus, Benjamin reckoned that apart from emitting light, these mosses could also induce hallucinations.

The hallucinations obstructed Benjamin’s sight, making him unable to detect these things.

This probably was a trap set down by that "Soul’s Fire" here.

The mosses relied on the red gemstone to live and at the same time, lured those who enter here into hallucinations. Unless someone could destroy the red gemstone, or absorb the energy within, or else, no one would be able to find the way out.

The person who designed this was quite the schemer.

However, Benjamin was still a little puzzled. Why did "Soul’s Fire" do this? Benjamin had personally felt the energy within the red gemstone, so, he did not think that many people in the world could actually handle this.

Since no one could handle this, then why the need to make people suffer?

No matter how deep Benjamin thought about it, he could not figure it out. So in the end, he could only conclude that this preceding mage probably had a very odd temper, and at the very least, evil.

Benjamin thought along those lines as he continued heading towards the cave opening.

He was also curious at first at how light came in from the opening. But, after walking for a bit, the answer to this question revealed itself.

He saw a shining subterranean river.

Walking not far away from the cave opening, the terrain at the right side began collapsing. And among the collapsing canal, a thin, curvy stream of water flowed from an unknown source, moving unceasingly along a stone trough. At the beginning, it was similar to a small stream. But following the dropping terrain, the sunken depth of it all grew wider and deeper. Soon enough, a river appeared before Benjamin.

--- This was already a magnificent subterranean view, not to mention that this river was shining.

At first, Benjamin thought it was the river water which was unique. But upon scrutiny, he instead discovered that the river was full of a type of tadpole-like living thing. They had a translucent body and gave off a soft, white glow. It was this white glow that they were emitting together which gave an illusion of the river glowing, as if it was a gleaming, swerving, subterranean Milky Way.

Benjamin watched with amazement.

What could this be? A normal creature of this world, or what was known as a "magical beast"?

Whether it was the Benjamin before transmigrating, or the Benjamin after transmigrating, they both have been to quite little places. Thus, he had never seen any type of real magical beast.

He observed the glowing "tadpoles" in the river for a while. Benjamin suppressed his desire of scooping a few of them out. He turned around, stood up and continued walking forward.

Know your limit; who knew if this thing was risky? What if he ended up poisoning himself after scooping them out? Could he stand the chance to even cry?

Thus, he held in his curiosity, and continued walking.

However, after walking for not very long, at Benjamin’s unintentional turn of the head, he found a huge paragraph of words to his left on the wall.

The curiosity in him was immediately ignited.

The words looked to be engraved on by some peculiar tool; they seemed to have existed for a long time. The handwriting was not very pleasant on the eyes; it was all crooked but at least it was big enough so one could still read it.

As for the content of the paragraph, Benjamin scanned over it and confirmed that these words were most probably written by that "Soul’s Fire".

"I hate all Priests, and I don’t quite like those Mages either."

This was the first sentence Benjamin read.

Continuing from there, the whole paragraph was highly narcissistic. Always talking about how great his natural talent was, saying how he was not even twenty years old yet and no one could defeat him; how boring life was, and how he wished to seek out thrills. So finally, this mage decided to seal a part of his powers into the red gemstone and then ran off to fight the Church, singlehandedly.

Benjamin was a little disturbed upon reading this.

What-What a big-headed senior.

Considering the strength of the energy in the red gemstone, he was filled with fear. If the sealed portion of his powers were already so terrifying, then what about his true full form?

Then ... What was the result of the battle with the Church?

Sadly, it was not written above. This paragraph of words was probably written before "Soul’s Fire" ran off to fight the Church so Benjamin naturally would not have a clue about the events occurring after that.

But judging from the way the current Church was at its peak, this genius mage probably did not make it.

How unfortunate.

After sympathizing for a while, Benjamin continued reading. And at the very last part of this paragraph, he saw something about the red gemstone.

"I initially hoped to leave something behind for others, but after completing it only did I realize that, even though I’ve only sealed a part of my powers, it still isn’t something the others can handle. Since it is that way, those who have read these words, you are either dead or stronger than I am. If you’re still alive, continue down this path and you will be able to walk to the east of the kingdom. But this isn’t possible. You must be dead. This land, even after thousands of years, will not see a man stronger than me, thank you."

"…..."

Finishing the whole paragraph, Benjamin could not think of a response.

What else could he say?

Truly, apart from arrogant, Benjamin could not think of a more suitable description for this "Soul’s Fire".

It did not matter whether this "Soul’s Fire" ‘s abilities were as strong as dictated, Benjamin could not comprehend this type of mentality. What in the world of mindset was that? Only someone so powerful to the extent of feeling bored that could live so wantonly and treat life as a game.

Also, what a pity that Michelle persistently chased after the treasure, but things turned out to be this way. He was not sure if her dead soul saw this passage. If she did, how downcast would she feel?

Benjamin, thinking along those lines, skimmed the paragraph two more times. But, he suddenly discovered that to the upper corner of these engraved words, there were also some smaller words stuck closely together.

The smaller words were not engraved and instead used some sort of …... material which looked like blood or something of that sort to write with. The time of writing probably was not long ago but it had almost completely fallen off. Benjamin had to go closer, and look at them extra attentively to manage to see them clearly.

Obviously, the smaller words were not left by "Soul’s Fire", but by someone else who had been here before and was left as a comment to this paragraph.

They had written "Son of a bXtXh."