When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin and gang took the whole night to clear the battlefield.

Clearing thousands of wolf corpses was an impossible task. They didn’t even know where to start, and really wanted to just leave things as they were. But, to protect the ecosystem of the grasslands and to get the spoils of the battle, they went ahead with it anyway.

There weren’t many resources that could be harvested from the wolf-magical creature; it was mostly the hide, fangs and the blood. But it would take forever to skin the thousands of hides; not to mention they couldn’t carry even close to that amount.

In the end, they settled with several big bottles of fresh blood, a hundred hides, and ten sacks of wolf meat. After that, Benjamin let out a roar of frustration, conjured an ice wall to separate them from the bodies, and proceeded to torch the rest of the carcasses.

Looking at the fire behind the ice wall, Varys couldn’t help but exclaim, "I can’t imagine how much money we are just burning away."

"Don’t even think about it – it wouldn’t be possible to harvest everything." Benjamin shook his head, "Not to mention, we wouldn’t be able to move an inch if we were loaded up with all the spoils."

Even though it was a waste, he stood by his decision.

It may be a good thing that they had gotten so many resources from the magical creatures but there was still a need to see if there was any demand for it in the first place. Benjamin had a bit of saving after staying in Ferelden for such a long time, it wasn’t as though he had reached a point where he had to start hoarding materials.

And they still had to focus on their main objective: to get better and eventually challenge the church. Earning money was not their main concern right now.

After lighting the rest of the carcasses on fire, the mages went back to their tents and got some well-deserved shut-eye. It was already late, and they had an early journey the next day, they needed to recharge their batteries.

The graziers told Benjamin that during the previous migration, there were several packs of wolves roaming about. It was obvious to everyone that this year was different from the previous years, but still, they had to be prepared for the worst.

The next day, they left the grasslands to continue their journey. Some of the graziers wanted to follow them, Benjamin and the rest were already drastically slowed down from having to carry all the extra resources; any excess cargo would waste their precious time.

So, Benjamin had to reject their request.

"You should take this book. There is everything from simple methods of meditation to entry-level magic spells. Use it and don’t follow anyone else, you can learn to do magic on your own."

He took out his unfinished copy of "Declaration of the Freedom of Magic" and gave it to the two new students.

They both looked regretful as they took the book,

"Master, can we not follow you? We are weak now, but we promise to be more useful in the future."

"There is no need to. My best advice for you is to continue to follow the path of magic and become a mage." Benjamin smiled as he replied, "When the time comes, if you still want to follow me, then leave the grasslands and move to a bigger town. Don’t worry about not being able to find me, I assure you that people would have heard of me by then."

This time, he had no plans to recklessly expand the group. He didn’t even know where he was going next and yet was responsible for the safety of close to a hundred people. He had to be selective of new party members.

The people of the grasslands didn’t even know what magic was. It would be much more useful to Benjamin f the two of them were to stay here and spread the word of magic to the locals.

They were like Benjamin’s own special mage "virus". He believed that now that he had planted them, they would soon "infect" the rest and create a whole new community of mages.

So, he made them promise him to share everything if anyone asked them about magic. This was so that more people would be able to connect with magic.

Then, he lifted his heavy backpack and flew up to the sky under the watchful eye of the graziers.

The grasslands were not exceptionally big and at the rate that they were traveling, it should have only taken them a couple of days to get through it all. But it ended up taking them a bit longer than this.

Because along the way, they met a few more graziers and packs of wolves.

The large-scale migration this time around was bad news for the graziers who lived on the grasslands. Their original tribes had split apart because they had to run and hide from the wolf packs. They lived in constant fear as they watched their own people get brutally slaughtered by the beast.

So, it was nothing short of majestic when they witnessed Benjamin and his group descend from the heavens to save their lives.

In just a few days, they had saved nearly a thousand graziers. Every time they flew down from the skies and slaughtered the wolf pack, they made sure to give the graziers books on rules on meditation and spells, so they could help spread the news of magic.

Many people also started to seek the power to defend themselves and be free from the chains of a mundane life. Thus, before long, more than forty new magical students were recruited from the grasslands - "Mage Benjamin" was the word on everybody’s mouth.

Some of the graziers even started worshipping him as a divine spirit and offered him sacrifices and prayers. As Benjamin approached the edges of the grasslands, he met a group of graziers. These graziers had not met Benjamin but have heard of his name; they immediately started kneeling and praying when they realized who they were speaking to.

"Mighty messenger of god, this is Danielle, a fourteen-year-old girl, she is our sacrifice to you. She has three pieces of ice that have yet to melt in her mouth and her hair was just wet with pure water, all the required rituals had been observed."

Benjamin didn’t know how to react to this.

It had only been a few days, how had things escalated to such proportions?

It was true that his mage team had killed many magical creatures and in some ways solved this year’s migration problems. They saved the entire grasslands and allowed the graziers to survive. So, it was no wonder that from the graziers’ point of view, Benjamin was no different from a god.

But, still….

The word "save" was not in a god’s vocabulary.

"I am just a normal human being."

Before he had entered Carretas, Benjamin never thought that he would have to utter these words, and yet here he was, having to repeat them multiple times per day. Maybe it was because of the tragedies that these graziers now desperately needed spiritual support. But unfortunately, Benjamin wanted nothing to do with it.

If humans wanted to survive they needed to rely on themselves, devotion was a waste of time.

Because of this, many of the graziers became angry with Benjamin’s blasé attitude. They became doubtful and blamed him, becoming really aggressive towards him and his gang. Benjamin didn’t understand why they were having this kind of reaction but always manage to calm them down by mentioning magic.

"I am not a god. I am only a mage." He repeated countless times, "Among you are people who have the potential to acquire the same powers as me. So, don’t place your hope on some god. If you don’t try to save yourselves, then no one can help you."

Honestly, he rejoiced as he was said these words.

These graziers from the grasslands were naïve and easily influenced - perfect for the church’s mission. Luckily, Benjamin had arrived just before them.

He didn’t know if his words would change anything, but he knew that the collective strength of the new mages that emerged from the community of graziers had the potential to make a real difference.