When A Mage Revolts

Hearing that, the runic organism flew in a loop twice where it was, and stopped to continue looking at Benjamin. Its action seemed to convey curiosity and joy, as though it did not comprehend the question at all.

Alright… So it did not understand human language.

Benjamin scratched his head.

After some thought, he used the spiritual connection to send a "introduce yourself" command over. Nevertheless, the runic organism was immediately confused. It halted in midair, and stared at Benjamin blankly as though it was unable to understand the meaning of this command.

Seeing this, Benjamin rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

The rune had transformed into an unknown body containing life and appeared in his space of consciousness. This was something extremely new and strange, but from what he could see so far, this thing had the understanding of a newborn baby, and did not seem at all related to the higher dimensional conscious being from the elemental plane.

Then what on earth was it?

"It's just an idiot, why do we have to be so considerate?" The System, which had just been kicked off flying into the air, had returned with a bounce and a leap and was speaking in a disdainful manner.

"Hold on…" However, something seemed to have occurred to Benjamin, and he suddenly asked, "Didn't you just say something about the projection of the actual body of runes, that sort of thing? In that case, you should know what is going on now."

"I do not know."

"Do I owe you a beating? I could create an ice mountain now and squash you into sixteen pancakes."

"...My bad." The System admitted defeat under Benjamin's threat, and opened its mouths to speak, "But I am not wrong, it is an idiot. Its soul comes from the energy of the projection of the rune's actual body— you know for yourself that just a bit of energy from higher dimensional projections could easily create a whole new life. This thing should be the organism formed from when your spiritual imprints combined with the projection.

Hearing all that, Benjamin looked back at the runic organism, his eyes filled with interest.

"So that is to say… It can be considered an organism I summoned?"

"Whatever you wish to define it as, I guess." The System replied impatiently, "I can only tell you that it will never have IQ greater than that of a three year old, because it is missing several hardware. It won't be very useful, so don't hope for too much."

"En." Benjamin nodded, saying, "It sounds like it's a whole lot smarter than you are."

"..."

The System was irked beyond words.

Benjamin ignored it, and began to focus on the runic organism once again. If it was as the System had said, even the projection of a rune's actual body contained terrible powers, so this small thing that he had summoned would definitely be a complex issue.

What could it do?

"That… Let me call you the water elemental sprite." First off, Benjamin gave it the most straightforward and simplest name he could think of.

"So corny." The System did not give up any opportunity for retaliation.

Benjamin did not ignore the System this time. Using the spiritual connection, he conveyed the command "attack that yellow ball-like creature" to the water elemental sprite.

And so, the water elemental sprite finally stirred up from its daze.

It began to move its cicada-like wings and gurgled strangely, before suddenly streaking towards the System. At that time, the System was completely oblivious to the possible danger shooting towards it, and was still yammering away at Benjamin.

In the next second, a weird thing happened out of the blue.

Whoosh!

The water elemental sprite put its hands together, and a mild blue light glowed from the palms of its hands. Following which, strands of delicate light silks shot out, piercing through the air into one of the smiley faces!

There was a flash, and the System had no reaction at all.

"Ah!"

In an instant, an abnormal and shocking scream filled the entire space of consciousness, as though the tail of a sleeping, old cat had been stepped on. Benjamin's ears rang from the sound.

He was also taken aback by the action of the water elemental sprite, and by the time he had regained his senses to look more closely, the body of the System that had been targeted by the light silk had a tiny hole right between its eyes.

The System stood rooted to the ground, and kept silent for a long time.

Benjamin also did not make a sound.

After god knows how long, that agonizing, mechanical voice began to sound out. "You… You… You gave the order, didn't you? Do you wish to die! After all these years, slaving away for you, going through so much for you, you get that hellish thing to kill me? Do you have a heart at all?"

Benjamin rubbed his head, and spoke with embarrassment, "No, I just wanted to try out a move. You see, you're alright now, aren't you?"

"Try out a move? Who would try out a move like you just did…"

It was very obvious that the System was now in a rage that would not be calmed within only half an hour. Benjamin could only patiently console it for a while, and controlled even more water elements to surge towards that body of smiley face and fill up the tiny hole in its forehead, before the System would finally give it a rest.

After the System had been calmed down, Benjamin gave a sigh of relief and looked to the innocent water elemental sprite once more, as it hovered on the side.

That water silk… If he was not mistaken, it should be an attack created by the condensation of pure water elements, and Grant's attack move naturally came to his mind immediately.

Was it a coincidence?

After giving it some thought, Benjamin suddenly left the space of consciousness and returned to reality. Standing alone in the director's room, he shut his eyes and communicated with the water elemental sprite in the space of consciousness, through the spiritual connection.

After that, he opened his eyes to see the blue, half-transparent little creature appear before him.

So it could really be brought over to reality…

To continue experimenting on the abilities of the water elemental sprite, he brought it with him as he left the academy, to a wilderness outside of the town where no one lived. Up until then, this mysterious runic organism could only provide him assistance in the form of companionship. Nevertheless, he still felt that the potential it possessed was not just a little.

The delicate silk it had just released was, indeed, very powerful. To be able to compress water element made Benjamin feel that it would not be much weaker than Grant, but… Benjamin had more expectations.

The water elemental sprite was unable to speak, and there was no handbook on it. He could only figure it out himself.

Flying above the wilderness, he soon found a tiger-like magical creature that he could use as his lab rat, and issued a command to the water elemental sprite.

"Capture that magical creature alive!"

Receiving the command, the water sprite began to move speedily. It shot towards the tiger-like magical creature, and circles of water silk spread out from around its body, like a spider spurting out its web. The tiger-like magical creature seemed to feel threatened, and crouched down with a low growl. Layer of rocky scales suddenly grew from its body.

For some reason, the tiger-like magical creature seemed somewhat terrified, and chose to defend itself immediately instead of attacking.

After that, under Benjamin's expectant watch, the water elemental sprite flew over the magical creature's head. The limited amount of water silks was weaved into a huge net, and fell right over the magical creature…

"Wargh!"

A horrible yelp.

The sharp water silks went right through the rocky scales, piercing through lightly and cutting the tiger-like magical creature up into countless meat pieces, like newspaper being put through a shredding machine.

The tiger-like magical creature died on the spot.

Benjamin was stunned. He had not expected the situation to unfold like this. The water elemental sprite, after a moment of being stunned, slowly flew back to him with its head lowered in guilt.

"...Alright."

Benjamin sighed, noting that the water elemental sprite's intelligence about fighting had much room for improvement.