When A Mage Revolts

"...Has it ended?"

By the time Benjamin came back to his senses, he discovered that he was still standing on the same spot in the space of consciousness. Time did not seem to have passed too much, and the horrified screams of the System rang in his ears, as though it had never stopped doing so in the first place.

He looked before him, and at that moment, could still see the offending circle of light.

The circle of light had not vanished and floated there as though it had just swallowed up the Heart of Souls. However, at that moment, the frightening suction force had completely disappeared. The smiley faces all fell and rolled about on the ground, but they had not yet completely returned to their original shape. Flattened into the shape of a football, it would be some time before they slowly recovered.

Benjamin felt as though he was looking back on a dream.

The conversation he had just had with the ghost… However, in reality, had even a second not passed yet?

Although he had prepared himself mentally for this, but to experience such a disconnect in time personally was still something extremely unimaginable.

Recalling the content of their conversation, Benjamin still felt as though the information was a bit too much. The elements… Are living organisms of a higher dimensional plane? This was a theory that had never existed before, and surpassed anything he had imagined previously. Even more so, it had subverted all the research that the magical world had right now.

Thinking about the times he usually cast spells, and how the basic components that made up magic were actually a group of higher-level living beings, Benjamin felt somewhat weird.

However, as the ghost had said, he could not consider their ideas through the thought of humankind.

It was rather a pity that Benjamin had wanted to ask the ghost about how he could become stronger, as well as the relationship between the Church and the elemental planes. The ghost, however, had not given him sufficient time and had tossed him back onto the timeline.

...It seemed that he could not hope to gain any advantage.

Benjamin sighed and shook his head. It was better to set the matter of the elemental plane aside first. He turned to look at the circle of light.

At that time, he could clearly see that the circle of light was beginning to shrink. Very obviously, the Heart of Souls that had been thrown is was starting to be of some use, and although he did not know what principles this was based on, or what the organisms of the elemental planes were doing on the other side, but… The disaster this round should be coming to an end now.

As he quietly watched the circle of light shrink to utterly noting, Benjamin let out a sigh of relief in his heart.

Following that was an ache in the flesh.

The Heart of Souls was such a rare treasure, but who would have expected that he would have to pass it on after having it in his possession for such a short time? Even if… Even if Benjamin had not yet found good use for it, but he could not help but feel it was a pity to have just lost it like that.

Was this the price to pay for seeking death?

"Why…" All of a sudden, the voice of the System drifted over to him, lamenting as though it were in a drama series, "Why… Are the heavens so unfair to me? It was clearly the mistake of that idiot human, but a powerful, incomparable artificial intelligence like me, innocent me, has to bear the pain? Why…"

"..."

Benjamin regarded the System, who was weak and weary. At that moment, he was embarrassed to speak too harshly to him, so he let him continue on with his complaints.

After about fifteen minutes of lamentation, it began to slowly stop. The flattened bodies were once again round, and the sneering faces jumped about in front of Benjamin. Very quickly, the guilt and sympathy that he rarely felt were soon extinguished.

"...Okay, that's enough. If you say another word, I'm going to turn you back into sixteen fruit pancakes."

Terrified of his threat, the System immediately fell silent for at least ten seconds.

After that, it began to speak again, in a trembling voice, "That… It's not that I want to scold you, but… Next time, could you please not do such a thing?"

"Of course, there will be no next time."

"For real? Why do I have doubts...:"

Benjamin furrowed his eyebrows.

He suddenly realized that he had been the only one who had jumped out from the timeline and experienced that unprecedented conversation with the organisms from the higher dimension. Thus, the System had no knowledge of the appearance of the ghost.

Alright… Since it did not know, he could not be bothered to explain.

Benjamin shrugged and heeded the System no more. Instead, he began to recall the details of the conversation. He remembered that the ghost seemed to have mentioned that they had left their warning in his memories? But now that he was thinking about it carefully, it seemed… He could not remember what the ghost had wished for him not to do.

How did this happen?

It was not just the elemental plane that needed to warn him. He needed to warn himself— he needed an entry that covered all dangerous actions. As long as he avoided doing anything on the entry, he could mess around with death as much as he wanted, and there would not be any serious, negative consequences.

It was simply heaven on earth.

However, now that he had thought about it for a while, he simply could not remember anything. It was so disappointing. Had there been a mistake on the part of the ghost? It could not be. They were as strict as the purest form of rationalism. How would they disappoint…

Or perhaps, they were using another method to warn him?

After some thought, Benjamin suddenly stretched out his hand and posed as though he was about to draw runes. In his heart, the runes he was preparing to draw were obviously the two runes that had caused the hole to appear in the plane.

Immediately, a sense of danger he had never felt before appeared in his heart.

Benjamin was slightly startled, and nodded after that with full understanding.

This was their way of warning him.

The ghost had not left the warning in his superficial memory, but rather, had stored it into his subconscious. Every time he was prepared to play the fool with death, his subconscious would jump out to stop him, letting him know what were the things he must not do.

It was very interesting… And also an extremely secretive method of warning.

Those organisms from the higher dimensions seemed hell-bent on not disturbing the principles of this world. The content of the warnings might divulge deeper secrets, and so they had stored it into his subconscious to prevent the world from being involved in too much interference.

Benjamin felt it was sort of a pity, but it did not matter. He could still do whatever dangerous stunts he wanted without a care because he now had such premonitions of danger, right?

"What are you doing? No… What shall we do if you create another hole? The entire space of consciousness would be swallowed in! Please reconsider carefully, it isn't worth it just to destroy a broken computer like me!"

The System did not understand. Seeing Benjamin's raised hand, and the first stroke of the first rune, it had immediately felt a rush of fear and advised Benjamin against it, panicking.

Hearing this, Benjamin turned his head and smiled maliciously at the System. His finger mischievously darted about lightly in the air… In the end, however, it was still withdrawn slowly.

The System was shocked into a daze.

"Alright. I'm not that stupid." Benjamin finally kept his hand away and looked around. All of a sudden, he asked, "Don't you feel… After the baptism just now, the space of consciousness seems to have become slightly different?"

"Different?" The System came back to its senses. After a moment of observation, perhaps, it said in a surprised voice, "Your spiritual energy has grown a lot stronger. Is it because of the Heart of Souls?"

"I don't know."

Benjamin shrugged.

He had also just realized this.

After such long training, he had already possessed rather powerful spiritual energy, but now, feeling it once more… He discovered that his spiritual energy seemed to have more than doubled what he used to have!

What was this?

Everything had happened so quietly. He did not even know what had kicked in.

"Have you recorded that process in the database?" Benjamin asked.

"No. My hardware storage had been immediately damaged by the effects of the hole in the plane." The System said in an unsatisfied tone, "In other words, I was f*cking messed up, how could I have remembered anything?"

"Okay…"

Benjamin scratched his head, and finally looked up.

The strengthening of his spiritual energy might have been extremely covert, but the changes that had happened to the runic star chart above his head were not as difficult to notice.