When A Mage Revolts

After briefly discussing some matters regarding the potions, Benjamin bid the president farewell and made his way back to the academy.

With that meeting, the rough plan to liberate the Mage Guild was finally set - they would first produce a sufficient number of potions in Ferelden, then totally transform Icor during the Queen’s birthday party two months later.

As for how they would do that... well, only Benjamin knew.

The ten minutes of his "Descending of Water" would be the ten minutes that he would be unrivaled. Even if there were a few thousands of powerful and great mages gathered during the birthday party, Benjamin would have no fear. Moreover, as he would be assisted by the president and some mages, he could rely on their short-term suppressing force to help force those mages into drinking the cure.

Even if the Queen was outraged, she would not be able to stop it.

Of course, this plan would be rather rash. To base the whole scheme on brute force could end up seriously damage Benjamin’s reputation. But still, they had to liberate the Mage Guild, even if that meant paying a heavy price.

This was all in preparation for the day when they would launch a counterattack on the Kingdom of Helius.

Two days later, Benjamin returned to the academy safely. He did not have much to do regarding the plan, the president would be preparing everything, he just needed to focus on improving his magic.

Thus, he returned to his room and isolated himself.

The Fulner family had yet to reply him, but Benjamin was in no rush. As they were far away, it would certainly take some time before the message was delivered. It’s not like Accius would sit idly by as the group of mages was locked up.

Half a year later.

"Director, the students who were out for fieldwork practice are back. Each one of them finished a round of tasks successfully and the Mercenary Association gave us some pretty good feedback." Varys reported to Benjamin while waving a booklet in his hand.

Benjamin nodded.

The results from fieldwork practice were really important to the academy. It answered questions like whether or not the Academy was doing a good job of training mages, or whether the trained mages would be able to adapt to the social environment outside. As convincing as Benjamin’s individual strengths were, the educational results were far more important to the Academy.

Everyone had their eyes on the Mage Academy, these results would either stun them silent or make them laugh out loud.

After some thought, Benjamin gathered those who were not mages for a meeting.

"I know that all of you have no talent in magic and that staying in this academy makes you feel that you’re out of place all the time. It was my bad to put fine timber to petty use as I have only asked you to do odd jobs in the academy, instead of arranging proper jobs for you."

In the conference room, Benjamin spoke solemnly in front of the people.

Most of the people there were mercenaries, followers that he managed to rein in Ferelden. There were also the rebel soldiers who were entrenched on the mountains - after the bandits were dismissed, many of them decided to gather here as well.

Before this, Benjamin did not put much thought into how he could arrange them, but now, he finally had an idea.

"We’ve sworn before this that we will follow Sir Benjamin till the end. We’ll do anything you ask us to, and never complain about it." A mercenary said.

Benjamin laughed and shook his head, "But you have somehow wasted your life just sitting around here the entire time. Therefore, I have found you a new task."

While he said this, he started writing on the chalkboard in the conference room.

"... Black Operation of the Academy?"

As everyone looked at the words on the chalkboard, they couldn’t help but frown out of confusion.

"That’s right, the academy has been established for a few months now and we need a group of people to carry out special tasks. For example, gathering information, going undercover in other organizations, shifting public opinion... These are things the nerds in the academy might not be able to do it, but, since most of you started out as mercenaries, you should be well-suited for it."

The truth is, Benjamin only came up with this idea as a result of being inspired by the first batch of fieldwork practice.

When the batch of students had successfully carried out the tasks given by the Mercenary Association, they had received favorable comments from the association. But what about the people on the outside? He reckoned that no one knew about their success. Therefore, Benjamin felt that they needed some propaganda to make everyone aware of their educational results in order to help establish the status of the Mage Academy.

In the past, a bunch of mages would probably disguise themselves and muddle in the taverns so that they could help get the word out. But now that they had expanded into an institution, shouldn’t they cultivate a group of professionals to do that?

In essence, they would be a "Water Army".

These professionals would be very similar to secret agents; their roles would be much more than just helping to expand the influence of the academy. It was important to gather information about their opponents as well as the public; Benjamin could not always rely on the water elemental induction magic his news. Relying on dumb luck 24/7 would put him at a serious disadvantage.

Thus, Benjamin felt that it was time for the academy to establish a professional intelligence gathering organization to help obtain information!

"... I don’t really understand. What are you asking us to do?"

Some of the people expressed confusion after they heard Benjamin’s idea. The thought of it just seemed so foreign to them.

Therefore, Benjamin decided to explain in more in-depth, "For now, you will have to move to various places in different countries and build a secret intelligence network. You cannot reveal your real identity to anyway, but instead will disguise yourselves as normal foreigners and do whatever you can to blend into the crowd. When there is a new mission, you will carry out your duties secretly."

So, it was like espionage? After hearing what he had said, the people in the room finally started nodding their heads.

"But... I’ve never done this before." A young man from the dismissed rebel army opened his mouth and hesitated for a while before saying.

"It’s alright, I will arrange for some experienced mercenaries to train you before you star." Benjamin showed an encouraging smile and said, "The truth is, this is just the beginning, I don’t have ridiculous expectations of you."

It was not like he expected them to become fully functioning group overnight, nor was he hoping that these people would do something extraordinary. He just wanted a foothold in the intelligence gathering game.

He could slowly prepare procedures like the screening of members, rules, and regulations of the organization, pledging for loyalty, and whatnot in the future. For now, as long as these people carried out their duties and publicized the fact that the first fieldwork practice was carried out successfully, then they would be doing their job as the "Water Armies.

"Understood, we’ll do our best to fulfill your requirements!"

With this, the meeting ended. The people stared at the short phrase "Black Operation of the Academy" on the chalkboard on the way out and their gloomy eyes starting glowing once again.

As Benjamin looked at their faces, he smiled with relief.

He knew that some of them might even betray him in the future, and do things like sell information to the enemy. But at least right now, these people had a look of sincerity to them.

Now, time to plan the operating procedure of the organization...

"They’ve stayed in the academy for so long, so, although I’ve never paid them much attention, you should have saved a lot of their behaviors and discipline." Benjamin said in his heart, "Summarize the information on each of them – better still if you could analyze their characters as well so that I can arrange some work for them in the Black Operation of the Academy."

"Can you not push everything towards me? Do you think I’m so free? Why would I pay any attention to the behaviors of those guys?" The System said angrily.

"Didn’t you save anything in your data bank?"

"... I did."

"Then analyze it for me."

"..."

The System was speechless and went to work with a gloomy heart. Benjamin returned to his room once he was satisfied and returned once again to his meditation.