When A Mage Revolts

Hearing this, Benjamin got straight to the point, "The Church has secretly snuck into Carretas, and now even the royal family is under their control. The situation in the kingdom is terrible right now. I was hoping that you could join us to fight the Church together."

Without thinking, Luke answered, "The Church? What has that got to do with us?"

"The goal of the Church is to exterminate all the mages under the sun. How does that have nothing to do with you?"

However, Luke laughed carelessly and replied, "You think too much and are just saying things. How can they kill every mage under the sun? So many years have passed but the mages in the Kingdom of Helius are still around, right? Still living as per usual. Why do you care about what government ordinances they announce, we don’t have to adhere to them, why should we spend so much time and energy to fight them?"

"..."

Hearing this, Benjamin bit his tongue.

This carefree, none-of-my-business attitude was indeed a bit troublesome...

But he chose not to continue to argue with the other party and instead just shrugged his shoulders and changed the topic, "Let’s not talk about this... Right, you’ve just mentioned that you have elders in this village?"

Luke nodded, "Yes, we have three very respected mages. This place was built under their leadership, and because of that, we call them our elders. They can also be considered our leaders."

"In that case, can I meet the elders?"

Luke immediately agreed, "Of course, tonight I will tell the elders. With power as yours, sir, the elders will be very happy to meet you."

And so, Luke helped Benjamin and his men set up camp on a plot of empty land next to the village. After this, Luke went off to look for the elders, saying he would return after a while.

As the rookie mages were busy organizing their luggage, Benjamin finally had the chance to think properly about what to do next.

Although there were a few hundred mages here, the atmosphere was very quiet. Residents of a utopia should not be so cold. Faced with the arrival of Benjamin and his men, the local mages did not react much and did not even take a second look. It was as though they were used to such things.

Benjamin had encountered a roadblock.

With the entire atmosphere so unfriendly, he was unsure of whether he could really convince the mages here to help his cause

To be honest, this group of people lived here an environment that was good and a place that was hidden; even if the Church really did conquer the entire world, chances were that they would be left alone anyway. If that was the case, then what incentive did they have to care about the outside world?

With such a mindset, although this group of mages had only begun to live in isolation a few months ago, they had quickly adopted a couldn’t care less attitude, unable to listen to advice and unwilling to solve anything.

What to do now…

"Teacher, this is a bottle of the giant bear’s blood. We really don’t know how to use this stuff. How about we ask the people here?" Suddenly, Varys brought a glass bottle full of the sticky blood over to Benjamin

Hearing this, Benjamin took the bottle of bear blood and nodded his head.

"Give it to me, I am about to go take a walk around the village."

And so, Varys returned to continue organizing things and Benjamin, holding the bottle walked into the settlement. He planned to use the bear blood as an excuse to get in touch with the mages who lived here.

After a while, he came to the front of a house and knocked on the door.

There came the sound of footsteps from inside the house and after a few seconds, the door opened a crack. A pair of alert eyes peeked through, coldly watching Benjamin.

"What is it?"

Benjamin raised the bear blood in his hands and shook it in front of the person, "I had killed a giant, silver bear in the mountains a few days ago, and have taken some of the blood. I don’t know what the blood may be used for. Would you happen to know?"

"A giant, silver bear? Is it from the outskirts of the mountains? You killed it?" The person seemed to recognize the bear, and his indifferent tone suddenly revealed a sliver of surprise.

"That’s right, I had killed him myself. But because the carcass was way too big, I had taken only some of the blood. The rest of the carcass is still on the mountain path on the outskirts."

The mage in the house could not keep still and swung open the door to walk out, "Which mountain path is this? Tell me."

Benjamin replied casually, "First, you have to tell me what use is this thing."

Hearing this, the other person looked at Benjamin angrily. His expression revealed that he was not to be pushed around.

After a moment of silence, the mage suddenly opened his mouth and spoke, "You… you should be a mage from the outside, right?"

"Yes, why? Did you not also come from the outside..."

However, halfway through Benjamin’s sentence, the man turned around and went back into the house. He slammed the door shut, cutting Benjamin off.

Benjamin was stunned.

…why?

Coming back to his senses, he knocked on the door again. But no matter how hard he knocked, the man did not open the door again. He spoke angrily from inside, "Go away", causing Benjamin to be even more baffled.

What kind of a situation was this?

Helplessly, he moved to a few other houses, and his results were the same with every one of them — after saying a few sentences, they would retreat back into their homes, close the door and refuse to open it again.

Benjamin felt that something was not right.

An attitude of indifference toward the outside world was still understandable, but this moody behaviour and logic were really baffling. They were all mages, if there was anything to be said, why not talk about it properly?

After getting rejected so many times, Benjamin could not help but use water element sensing technique to spy on the situation inside the houses. He saw the mages sitting on their beds with their eyes closed and seemingly in deep thought, totally ignoring the knocking on the door. This made Benjamin frustrated.

These people were just too strange.

At that moment, he had given up all hope of convincing these mages. Expecting these people to fight the Church was an impossible task; even the general population of Carretas was easier to communicate with than they were.

Shaking his head, Benjamin turned to leave and returned to the camp that had been set up. His enthusiasm had already greatly diminished. All he could do now was wait to meet the elders and talk to them properly about the situation.

After an hour, Luke reappeared.

"Sir, the three elders are waiting for you. Follow me."

Benjamin did not have any objection and followed Luke into the village. Very quickly, they went through the winding street and arrived at the centre of the village — at the biggest and tallest wooden building of them all.

There was a simple, aboriginal decorative style to the living room in the house. It was here that Benjamin met the three old mages.

"How fortunate, how fortunate. You are the extremely powerful mage, yes? We have heard about it all from Luke, to have reached such a level at this age, your talent is really something to be praised."

In contrast with the rest of the mages in the settlement, the three elders were very friendly. They stepped forward to hold Benjamin’s hand, shaking it vigorously; the old calluses on their hands warmly rubbing against Benjamin’s skin.

Nonetheless, Benjamin’s mood did not improve.

Because at the moment he had entered through the door, the System had suddenly made a sound, and warned him in an exceptionally stern manner.

"Be careful, something about this place is odd."