When A Mage Revolts

Four days later.

"Good evening Sir, please present your invitation."

"Here you go." It was a rare sight that Benjamin looked so well kept, in a full suit with neatly brushed hair. It was as if time has turned back, and he was back to his aristocrat life, participating in that royal ball.

He carried a smile and took the invitation out of his front pocket and into the purser’s palm.

After they had settled down in the new place, they did not encounter any trouble. After all that humps and bumps in their journey, they finally had a stable environment where they could calm down to meditate and steadily grow. Some religious group was also assaulted by an underworld gang, and that made the City of Rayleigh unsafe, it was best that they did not get involved.

For the next few days, they did not leave home.

The four days went past like a blink of an eye and the date of the gathering on Benjamin’s invitation has finally arrived.

It was an important event to be the acquaintance of other mages, he couldn’t just participate with a bird’s nest of a hair and in unsightly clothes. He recalled his memories of being an aristocrat and had himself fixed up. A few of the female mages in the group were in awe as though saying "Oh, teacher, you look like this!" as Benjamin set his foot out the door.

Benjamin smiled and waved them goodbye.

The venue of the gathering was clearly written on the invitation — a private villa in the suburban of Rayleigh City, it should belong to that famous mage, Vinci. While Benjamin was on his way, he met with quite a few mages, heading the same direction, obviously to attend the same gathering.

Benjamin was amazed how mage Vinci was quite influential.

He was also able to sense that there were a few powerful mages and tried to acquaint himself with them. However, these people were gave him the cold shoulder and were less interested. Apart from a few "Hello", "Uh huh", "Oh", "Haha", Benjamin wasn’t able to get any further response.

This made him feel defeated.

It was hard to interact with Fereldan’s mages as they were used to being independent. But, Benjamin thought that perhaps everyone was rushing to the gathering, that nobody talked on the way to avoid wasting time.

Things would probably be better once they reached the venue. Otherwise, if no one were to talk, then what was the point of having a gathering to begin with.

Finally, Benjamin gave up on walking and rose to the air to fly. He arrived at the scene ten minutes earlier.

He was in awe once he lay eyes on the villa. The mage who called for this gathering was quite wealthy. Although the area of the villa wasn’t as large as their home, but the renovations, the garden and pond on both sides, the flooring that was clean as if new, must be at a hefty price which not a regular wealthy man could afford.

He landed at the entrance of the villa, full of excitement. And showed his invitation to the purser upon the purser’s polite request.

The purser took the invitation and glanced, then returned it back to Benjamin with a smile. He moved to the side and bowed deeply.

"Please enter, Sir Mage, we are really thankful to have you join this gathering."

Benjamin nodded and walked in.

Benjamin was brought to a magnificent hall by a servant. Under the glistening of several crystal chandeliers, he could see that the decoration was similar that of the ball in Havenwright. There were several well positioned round tables, servants running around, setting dishes on the tables for guests to taste.

Although it hasn’t officially started yet, the hall already has a few mages that arrived early. Most of them came in groups and pairs, standing at a corner. There wasn’t really any chatter going on, instead they were glancing around the hall.

Benjamin couldn’t go strike a conversation with them under these circumstances, so he walked to a corner and grabbed a drink while waiting for the gathering to begin.

As time passed, there were more and more mages that arrived. Benjamin rounded up the numbers and realized that there were more than a hundred, and if he waited longer, there would be a possibility the numbers would go up to a few hundred.

The scene was slowly getting exciting as the number of people attending grew.

Benjamin began to slowly understand more about the Fereldan mage circle as the mages around started talking. For an example, phrases like "Mages freemasonry" seemed to be the hot topic as Benjamin had coincidently heard the same phrase from several different groups.

From what their conversation, it seemed to be an influential organization, and has several divisions in major cities that helped many mages in their education. Most importantly, the mage freemasonry and the government of Fereldan has absolutely no relations, and never requested the mages of anything.

It sounded like an organization focused solely on serving mages.

Benjamin wasn't very sure but he noted what the surrounding had said — the location of the mage freemasonry in Rayleigh City. He was prepared to check it out when available.

Apart from the mage freemasonry, the mages discussed about magic, potion making and complimenting the gathering’s organizers. Benjamin felt that he wouldn’t be listening to any more new secrets, and so he found a group of seemingly extroverted mages, and brought his friendly smile to strike up a conversation.

"Good evening, my name is Benjamin. I’m a mage who recently arrived in town. I’m pleased to meet you and do take care of me."

The few mages turned to look and nodded at him with a smile. The leader of the pack said, "Mage Benjamin, we are pleased to meet you too. I’m Jack and we’re the mages of the ‘Viper" mercenary group. Pleased to be of acquaintance and do take care of us."

Mages of mercenary group?

Benjamin raised his eyebrow.

However, mages who teamed up with a mercenary group or forming their own group seemed to be a norm. After all, mages would be at an advantage when it came to combat ability. Even hunting magic beasts was not a problem.

He decided to use this as a topic opener, and with curiosity asked, "Is this a mercenary group that you formed yourselves? I think there seemed to be a lot of mages who are not willing to team up with just any mercenaries."

Jack and his companions glanced and smiled at each other before saying, "I guess so, our team does consists of mages. There are also mages who will join other mercenary groups because of money. But at the end of the day, only mages understand mages. Without equipment and magic potion, those simple minded mercenaries are just regular mortals, no?"

Although he did not understand this superiority complex, Benjamin could only pretend he did and nodded in agreement so that he’ll be accepted in the group.

"Why did you guys figure to form a mercenary group together?" He casually threw a question.

"For the money." Jack smiled and out rightly replied, "New chants, better laws of meditation, elemental crystals... It is costly to be a mage. Moreover, the Mercenary Association had always hoped that more mages would join and thus, welcomed us. They would provide you a lot of benefits for a mage to become a mercenary. There’s still different kinds of privileges when you go on missions. Basically, mages with better combat skills that I know have all joined a mercenary group."

Benjamin who was heavy in his thoughts, nodded.

If there were so many advantages, then... why don’t they form one too?

After buying the magic potion’s formula, it did set back their finances quite a bit. They could only wait for a new batch of magic potions to be mixed before they are paid. And that would be too long to wait.

Most of the mages were also meditating to a new stage. Incantations for intermediate magic could be more costly than beginner level magic potion formula.

The more Benjamin considered it, the more he felt the idea was not so bad.

Just as he was about to ask more about the mercenary group; suddenly, there was a disturbance in the crowd. The mages looked back together and there was whispers all around, some were even filled with excitement and anticipation.

"Oh great, mage Vinci has finally arrived."