When A Mage Revolts

And so Benjamin and Michelle went their separate ways. Benjamin was ready to return to Chief Silverfox’s inn and reclaim his battle trophies.

Michelle was a little puzzled by Benjamin’s sudden departure. However, it was not her intention to stay for long. She quickly left the prison ruins along with Benjamin who was rushing off.

Of course, before she left, Benjamin did not forget to enquire her on a separate matter.

"Before you killed Annie, didn’t she mention something about burying something under the third tree of the usual place? Where is this usual place?"

This was a good opportunity to ask Michelle since she was standing right there before him. He could ask for the accurate location instead of wasting his time running around.

Michelle could not help but pull a weird face, "Annie is a traitor. She killed her own partner out of her own jealousy. What she said before she died... is just bull crap. Why would you believe it?"

"I don’t care. I have nothing better to do. I want to find out."

"..."

Having said that much, Michelle nevertheless told Benjamin the location of the ‘usual place’ due to his persistence. Benjamin realized that the location was not within the abandoned stronghold provided by the Church.

Well, Michelle was not one who would throw caution to the wind.

Benjamin could not help but thank his lucky stars. Thank goodness he asked Michelle about this or else he would not be able to find Annie’s remnants.

Thereafter, he bade Michelle farewell after finding out the location of the ‘usual place’. Michelle left abruptly, presumably to uncover the treasury of the Lithur household.

Regardless.... He wished her all the good luck. This was the only thing Benjamin could do for her.

He had more important things to attend to.

After Michelle’s departure, Benjamin turned on the Prison Ruin’s hidden lever in a hurry and the secret tunnel once again appeared before him.

He leaped into the entrance and submerged into the darkness of the secret path.

He had thought about various ways of returning to the inn. In the end, he decided to take the secret path back.

He could return through the outskirts but it would waste plenty of time. And if the men from the Church had already reached, the inn would have been in a lock down. Benjamin would not be able to enter in his rags.

He might be better off taking the secret pathway then.

Of course, taking the secret pathway had its own risks. If the Church were to discover the existence of the pathway, then Benjamin would be walking right into a trap. They might even bump into each other midway.

Taking this route would be advantageous for Benjamin as well.

The secret pathway was pitch black. He could cast the Water Particle Detection to scan his surroundings, in up to twenty meters in distance. If the Church were to find this secret pathway, he could detect those from the Church before they could reach him. He needed not worry about this.

More importantly, the secret pathway conveniently led directly back to the room. He just needed to wait for the room to be vacant prior to entering it and then quickly scour the corpse and returning to the secret pathway. The whole process should not take more than one minute, it would not easily alarm anyone and the success rate seemed high.

He had a slight premonition that he was playing with fire. However, he hatched such a perfect plan, he felt that nothing would go wrong.

He was going to single handedly go through that priest’s corpse or else he would be filled with regret beyond relief.

He closed his eyes and activated the Water Particle Detection spell in the darkness and headed straight towards the inn. Benjamin became more and more accustomed to the spell as he continued to cast it. The feeling was as though the surrounding Water Particles were part of his body, relaying information as fast as the senses of his eyes and ears.

He even felt like he had activated ‘All Seeing White Eyes’. (see: Naruto)

This was his unique ability gifted by the magical runes. He found it odd that no matter how close the other mages’ affinity were with the elements, they did not possess such abilities.

The Fundamentals of Divine Arts did not explain this point. It did, however, mention that after the strengthening of the Spiritual Energy, one’s senses would sharpen to such an extent that they could sense things never felt before. But Benjamin understood well that no matter how refined the Spiritual Energy one could possess, it would not be able to achieve such level of the Water Particle Detection.

Had his Space of Consciousness evolved?

The thought of this made Benjamin smirk to himself.

The existence of the Space of Consciousness itself was a manifestation.

If there was a chance, he would rather acquire more of such Divine Arts from Grant. It would really be helpful if he could find more information on the ‘Zone of Prayer’.

Although he enjoyed the chase on exploration but if someone were to point him in the right direction, who was to say no to that?

He was really curious about the legendary fourth generation Pope. He himself depended on the System’s continuous and repetitive chants for him to be able to breakthrough the boundaries of Consciousness and open up the Space of Consciousness. The Pope that led the Church to its pinnacle... how did he manage it? It was no surprise he became a legend.

Benjamin recollected as he made way to the inn. In about twenty minutes, he finally reached the other end of the tunnel.

He needed not to follow the old geezer from behind, nor did he need to carry the knocked out assassin. Hence, the significantly quicker trip.

He did not hastily open the tunnel’s entry point. Instead, he rest near the entrance and carefully detected its surroundings.

The room’s layout slowly began to form in Benjamin’s mind.

A half-opened closet, an empty bed, three Holy Knights with head wounds, a soaked priest with eyes flipped backwards and foaming in his mouth... The room remained as it was the last time it was left.

Benjamin was filled with glee.

The Church most certainly was preoccupied and could not send its men to investigate.

Though pleasantly surprised, Benjamin could not be certain that the Church had yet to send its men. Out of caution, he decided to wait it out a little longer.

His cautiousness paid off as a low and faint conversation could be heard from afar in less than ten seconds.

"... Who would have thought that there would be a powerful mage hidden within the city? What would His Highness the Pope and the Bishop have to say about this?"

A deep male’s voice slowly emerged loud and near.

Benjamin detected two persons dressed as priests walking towards the room while conversing.

Benjamin could not help but sigh.

In the end, the Church did send someone over. He probably celebrated too soon.

All was not lost yet. As long as he observed the actions of these two, and waited on their temporary departure, he could take the chance to scour the corpse.

Opportunities, they say, come to those who wait.

And so, he kneeled at the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

The conversation between the priests continued to echo across the wood layering of the room.

"Don’t you think that His Highness the Pope who has not appeared in flesh for eight years, and after receiving God’s Will, he is no longer the same as before?" One of the priests suddenly queried.