When A Mage Revolts

Immediately after that, he descended to the ground and issued a series of trial commands to the water elemental sprite. Defend, protect, heal, hide… After all combative abilities had been tested, Benjamin found out that the water elemental sprite had only one true capability.

No matter what command it received, all it could do was to compress water elements at a very high force and create extremely limited forms of magic to attack or defend. Even if it could understand the other more complicated commands, it was very difficult for it to accomplish them smoothly.

This had caused Benjamin some feeling of disappointment.

"I've told you, it's an idiot. What do you wish for it to do?" The System appeared, remarking gleefully.

Benjamin shook his head and shot another question back at it, "Didn't you say that things projected by the runes' actual bodies are very rare and formidable? Why are you contradicting yourself now?'

"..."

The System had nothing to say to that.

Seeing this, Benjamin shook his head, asking, "What else do you know about this rune organism?"

After a moment's silence, the System answered begrudgingly, "...I'm not clear, but if you wish to unleash its potential, you could try communicating with it through runes."

Using runes?

Benjamin furrowed his eyebrows and turned his head to look at the water elemental sprite, who was still looking at a loss. However, an idea flashed across his mind very soon.

He remembered the projection left behind by the star chart, the triangular rune that represented "water element".

So… He would try.

He reached out his right hand towards the sprite and drew the triangular rune using water elements.

Unexpectedly, a change really happened.

The water elemental sprite raised up both arms and began to move excitedly, as though it had seen something that brought it a lot of joy. Benjamin could also feel an off emotion coming from the spiritual connection.

After that, it suddenly drew closer to Benjamin and crashed its head into the rune that had just been drawn out.

Wham!

A mysterious buzz sounded out in his head, and Benjamin suddenly felt a surge of energy flowing out from the depths of his consciousness which, in only an instant, went all over his body.

It was a freezing cold touch that went to his bones, nevertheless, he felt as though it was mysteriously familiar.

"...What happened?"

After being stunned for approximately a few seconds, Benjamin came back to his senses, feeling somewhat confused. He could only look into the big eyes of the water elemental sprite, who gazed back at him. At the moment, the rune he had just drawn had vanished, and there was nothing in the wilderness. It was as though nothing had happened.

In such a short time, he felt like something about himself had changed, but he did not know what it was specifically.

He tried to ask the sprite using the spiritual connection, but that thing did not seem to understand his questions and only echoed back with pure happiness. The water elemental sprite even alighted upon his shoulder, and rubbed itself against his neck joyfully.

Benjamin felt slightly stupid.

After some consideration, he opened his mouth to speak and restart his water elemental domain. As the invisible ripples began to spread out once more, a strange thing happened.

Roughly tens of triangular runes that looked exactly the same suddenly appeared within the domain, scattered all over like some mystical technique. The entire domain expanded to a radius of about thirty meters in just an instant, and the atmosphere inside it also changed. The water elements surged back and forth, turning into blue waves that flickered and swayed about occasionally. It was impossible to guess how deep they were, making Benjamin feel like he was in the ocean now.

Within the domain, every rune was connected to his heart.

An unknown confidence rose up in his heart, and he did not know why he felt as though he was able to call upon the wind and the rain, to do anything and everything, within this domain.

Previously, Benjamin could freely accumulate magic in the water elemental domain, but now, just by relying on the power within the domain itself, he seemed to be able to send anyone to the grave instantly.

That was not all. The water elemental sprite flew down from his shoulder and, with a flicker of its wings, its watery, transparent body disappeared immediately into the domain. Swimming within the domain, it was being camouflaged so well that Benjamin could only sense where it was by using the spiritual connection.

If this was integrated with its powerful, limited water silks to be used in real battle, that threat…

Benjamin was barely able to control the glee in his heart. He spread out both arms to feel everything within the domain. There was even some sort of disbelief mixed in.

"This… Is the full power of the projection from the rune's actual body?" He spoke subconsciously to himself.

"I've told you that the power of runic projections is very scary." The System was still chattering away on the side, "I don't know what kind of dog shit luck you've got, this is supposed to be an impossible thing."

Benjamin shrugged as he asked back, "But didn't you just say that this runic organism is rather useless? Why are you contradicting yourself again now?"

"..."

The System was once again at a loss for words.

However, its continuous complaints had caused Benjamin to realize something. The instinctual perceptions the System had towards the elemental plane were always correct. The projection of the power of an actual body into reality was definitely an extremely rare occurrence.

Could it be… That this was the doing of those higher-dimensional organisms?

Thinking up until here, Benjamin felt it was unimaginable. It was already good enough that they had not just wiped him out, so why were they helping him? Was it just because he had promised them that he would not mess around with death?

Benjamin thought for a moment, his eyebrows knitted together, and finally decided to give up. This was all to his advantage, after all, and it was very difficult to guess the rationale behind the things the higher dimensional beings did, so let them be. Right then, Benjamin was the most curious about how powerful the domain was, after this upgrade.

There was no lack of magical creatures in the wilderness, and very soon he found the habitat of the wind wolves.

Activating the water elemental domain, Benjamin descended upon the pack of wolves. At that moment, the wolves began to howl. Over eighty wind wolves woke from their afternoon nap, and after a brief confusion, leapt fiercely towards Benjamin in midair!

However, the moment they entered the water elemental domain…

The secret waves swept over their bodies like some sort of fatal poison, and the wind wolves began to convulse. Their claws, fur, eyeballs… Every body part exposed in the domain instantly turned green and purple; some parts even started to swell up. It was a startling sight.

After a few seconds, they reached Benjamin, but having lost all ability to move, they could only brush past his body in tens of smooth arcs, and land with thuds on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, there were over eighty dead wolves on the ground.

All this time, Benjamin had not even raised a finger. All he had done was to activate the water elemental domain, and this clan of wind wolves had been utterly destroyed.

He himself felt a slight chill on his back.

This was probably the so-called water elemental poisoning— the moment those wind wolves had leapt towards him, the water elements in the domain had been activated, and had surged into every tiny pore on their bodies without the need for any instructions.

Of course, the water elements were not solid matter, and so they could not rip the bodies of living organisms apart. However, they had special and exclusive properties that, combined with a massive amount of accumulation, would finally result in a phenomenon much like poisoning. Even magical creatures with the thickest of skin and the toughest of meat would be poisoned to death in an instant, not to mention human beings.

Frightful.

At that moment, Benjamin realized that he must not let his own men walk in when he had activated his domain.

Furthermore, having advanced to this level, he felt that "water elemental domain" was too plain a name, and did not fit the power it now possessed. And so, very quickly, he had given it a new name— the deep sea domain. Whoever stepped in accidentally would surely drown and die.