When A Mage Revolts

"Mage Benjamin, how did you come up with this?"

Walking down from the city wall, the prime minister took off his sunglasses and couldn’t help but feel in awe. He looked at Benjamin as if he was some rare specimen.

Benjamin scratched his head in embarrassment, "About this... it’s just painting some stuff on the lens. It’s not a big deal."

"But to come up with this in such a short period of time is really an amazing talent."

"You’re flattering me..."

Benjamin was flattered to the point of speechlessness. After all, it wasn’t he who invented the sunglasses. He merely made use of others’ clever inventions.

How to have vision under robust light? The Kingdom of Helius threw them with this issue but Benjamin quickly connected the dots to the sunglasses. The production standard of glass in this world wasn’t that bad. Eye glasses existed as well but the world was still far off from inventing the flashy sunglasses.

Hence, Benjamin pointed out the idea of the sunglasses and the craftsman and mages in the city were put to work. In order to filter the robust light while guaranteeing clear vision, they of course would not use a brusque choice such as ink. They had the potion mages refine a type of liquid then swiftly produced them after collecting all the glasses in the city.

In a matter of a few hours, they rushed over a thousand pairs of sunglasses and had the guard soldiers put them on and display them at the city walls.

— They were using their actions to gesture at their enemy, "This trick is no use to us!"

When Grant and that leader-like person came over to observe the situation, Benjamin hid in the crowd guarding the city. At that time, seeing Grant being set back and foiled through the lens of his sunglasses, he was filled with all kinds of gratification.

So they really thought using this lame trick would put them at a loss?

He still remembered the expression of that leader’s face. His eyeballs nearly fell to the ground with his whole body shivered as if intimidated by their imposing grandeur and in the end, returned dejectedly to his tent in shame.

It was then the Cannons of Holy Light ceased its fire at Rock City. It was obvious that the Church realized it was futile and gave up on cannon blasting and returned to the drawing board.

Benjamin went to the municipal hall.

He was clear that it was not the end of the Kingdom of Helius. Once a siege entered a tug of war, it would quickly become like current situation, a long tiresome battle and any tactics would go. They had only foiled their enemy at the first stage, worse tactical strategies were still to come.

They would just roll with the punches and see who gets the last laugh.

"Interesting, I want this thing." Outside the municipal hall, Miles wore the sunglasses while leaning against the wall. He requested as he saw Benjamin walk by.

It was unclear whether it was the effect of the sunglasses but Benjamin felt his voice called for a good spanking.

"This item is very valuable. I can make it a gift to you but I need you to run a few tasks for us. Of course, this will be your reward. We will not be paying anything more."

"... Do you take me for a fool? The cost of this thing is not even a gold coin."

"That’s just the cost of the ingredient. This is not counting the intellectual property right! It’s a priceless treasure." Benjamin in all seriousness, "Just by coming up with the idea of sunglasses, I wasted a lot of brain cells. Therefore, don’t see that just because its materials are cheap, this is an artistic product that was birthed from the intelligence of men. You’ve gained. I’m giving it to you for just a few tasks."

"..."

Luckily Miles had the sunglasses on or else his look would be glazed over.

"Alright, I should stop wasting time here." Benjamin waved off and continued before Miles had a chance to speak, "We are all keeping watch in Rock City and because of the Runic Defense Formation, it’s hard to transmit messages. Only you can come and go at ease. Hence, I need you on the outside as our sentry watching the troops of Kingdom of Helius’ every move."

"That..." Miles was reluctant, "is pretty dangerous."

"What dangerous? A few hundred priests couldn’t even blast you to death. You just need to watch them from the sides. Don’t bother to mark up the price for such an easy task."

"..."

Finally, after a series of bargaining, Miles nodded in agreement. He turned and quietly left Rock City — The Runic Defense Formation had the entire city sealed off, only he alone would enter and leave at ease.

And on Icor’s side, there should be someone that was keeping an eye on the Kingdom of Helius.

Just as the executive prime minister was apprehensive about — Detour to raid another city. Although to date they showed no signs of such and the Church seemed adamant in conquering Rock City, but with the passage of time, they would surely have others prepared.

Benjamin had to send Miles out in act of prevention.

At the same time.

In the base camp of the Kingdom of Helius.

"Your Highness, I... I didn’t think they would have figured it out. Plea-Please do not kill me, I... I still have other ways to help you conquer Rock City!"

In the tent, General Press was pale white and kneeling on the ground, begging Grant for his mercy.

"... You have other ways?" Grant’s voice was calm, without any indication of any expression but it sent Press into a panic frenzy.

"I-I think that I can bypass Rock City!" He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down, "It’s not just this city in Icor. Your Highness, what say you? Rock City is not even the capital, why are we persisting with it?"

However, Grant shook his head.

"No, we must get hold of Rock City. Bypassing it would render it meaningless."

General Press was dumbfounded and carefully lifted his head, "Your Highness, forgive my rudeness, but why... why must we take Rock City?"

"Because the director of the Magic Academy is there." Grant stiffened his face, "Did you forget why we dispatched troops? The Magic Academy is despicable and stole our holy relic. We have to go with brute force to suppress the enemy in order to regain the key to the Realm of God."

"But... Weren’t we also spreading the glory of god to vast expanses of territory?"

"You really have a lot of questions." Grant narrowed his eyes, his tone hinted a smear of displeasure, "As long as that person still lies hidden in Rock City, we will not leave!"

"Your Highness, that’s not my intention." General Press quickly explained, "After the bypass and pacifying other cities in Icor, we can cut off the supply to Rock City. That way, isn’t it easier for us to encircle the director of the Magic Academy and retrieve the holy relic?"

"You may divide the troops to do this but I must remain here." Grant coldly responded, "Once I don’t pay attention, he may escape Rock City. Everything then, will be fruitless effort."

"Alright... Alright then."

"Then why are you still crouching there for?"

It was as though General Press was pardoned from death that he scrambled to get off the ground. He bowed heavily at Grant a few times before turning and left the tent in a hurry.

Silence returned to the tent.

Suddenly, Grant lowered his head and stretched open his left hand. In the palm of his hand was a strange white rune character appearing indistinctly. He stared at the rune and his brow climbed into a tight knot.