When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin did not stop by for long at the mage’s freemasonry. It was about a little past half an hour before he left the quiet library-structured-building to head home.

While on his way, he kept thinking about Tony’s last words to him.

"Did I accidentally offend that tycoon mage?" He whined.

"You humans are just too complicated, I can never comprehend." The System casually remarked, "but those who are rich are always weird. Perhaps he just saw you as an eyesore, you don’t have to take it to heart."

Benjamin shook his head.

Whatever.... What was the point of saying this to System anyway?

It was better to figure it out himself.

Before he left the mages’ gathering, mage Vinci was indeed looking for him and spoke with a sting in his words, which made Benjamin paranoid. He even had the mages keep watch at night on a rotational basis. However these days, everything was peaceful and no one came to bother them. That is why he thought that mage Vinci would not bear that much hatred towards him.

Obviously now, he was wrong.

If it weren’t the fact that he rescued Tony’s life by fate, he probably wouldn’t have known that someone stabbed him in the back. What did he mean by people having to watch their backs from him?

Benjamin felt that he was pretty friendly. He even explained about him being on a wanted list. Why was he made to look like an arch nemesis, secretly devising his own devious scheme and others were to watch their back?

All he wanted to do was eliminate the Church, which was also beneficial to mages alike.

Benjamin scratched his brain and could not quite figure out Mage Vinci. But since he was already poked from behind, he should return the favour.

After giving much thought, he changed his course of direction to head to the Mercenary Association.

He wanted to collect some data on Mage Vinci. From a mage’s perspective, he did not see a point to Mage Vinci’s hostility but if it was some special connection or purpose behind this rich fella, it would make a hell lot of sense.

Ultimately, it boiled down to knowing your enemy and thyself.

He disguised himself in a remote alleyway before entering the Mercenary Association to post a task to dig some dirt on him. It could be some dirty tactics he used in his business dealings or any peculiar rumours. Anything that was about Mage Vinci negatively, he was all ears.

Surely there would be some blot on everyone’s favourite magic potion tycoon.

In the mix of numerous rumours, of one that may seem absurd, could be an actual clue.

After posting the toast, he quietly made a move home.

There could be people watching them. It was better they stay low in the days to come.

He decided to meditate in seclusion for the time being.

He sat in his room and meditated until he finally filled up the little bubble in his space of consciousness. He poked the bubble with anticipation, and the water elements turned into drizzles of rain, showering the entire space.

He opened up his arms under the rain and felt his quickened growth of his Spiritual Energy that left him with a sense of utmost satisfaction.

Even the System was jumping around the rain excitingly like a big yellow ball.

But...

"Don’t you think that it was bigger than the first, this time around?" At the end of the water element rain, Benjamin suddenly frowned as he looked on at that fidgety comical face.

The System halted and innocently responded, "Oh, really?"

Benjamin went over and scooped the System. He flipped the System left and right in his hands. That’s right, the System has evolved again. After the "birth", it must have received some benefits from the meditation. That little taunting face was fat.

It must have absorbed some from that water element rain.

"You little rascal, you have gotten some benefits. Don’t you have anything to show? Or some evolution, anything?" Benjamin rubbed that fat little face and teased it discontentedly.

"Hey hey hey... The signal isn’t very good, I cannot hear a word you say."

"..."

Benjamin did not speak but there was a murderous gleam in his eyes. He added more force in his rubbing, it escalated to squeezing and tearing.

"My bad." The System finally admitted defeat half a minute later and obediently answered, "After the birth, I realised I could absorb the water element and slowly grow bigger. Although I don’t have a clue on any new powers, I could extend your intangible form by two seconds."

It seemed like it was possible to evolve...

Benjamin then nodded and let go of the System.

Once the System broke away, he skedaddled over ten meters apart and looked on from way over there. It went from being "comical" to "scared".

Benjamin laughingly shook his head at that sight.

The water element that the System absorbed was not much. He felt that it could take no more than 1% on one water element rain.

If that was the case, then he would let it absorb the water element rain. Who knows where this could lead to in the future?

He then left his space of consciousness and took out six books from his bag.

Spending those long hours absorbing the water elements could be tiring. He should have a change of scenery and do something else instead.

The forbidden spell that he exchanged from the mages freemasonry was mostly thought by others as useless and was only kept as a memento. However, that sparked Benjamin’s interest to take a look at it.

The six forbidden spells were the Fire of Hell, the Descent of Glacier, the Uprise of the Shadow, Sky-ripping Wind, Earthquake Spell and Erupting Volcano. These were the standard explosive magic. During the selection, Benjamin intentionally chose an all-rounder, making sure he had one forbidden spell from each element.

Without a doubt, he picked up the Descent of Glacier first.

To a mage, the meaning of forbidden spell was self-evident. Not only could it cause a huge impact but in fact most of the time, it was a symbol of a mage’s dignity that represented the deterrent forces of magic.

Benjamin was curious as to how such an existence ended up in such an awkward stage.

He flipped the page and the first thing he saw was the dense incantations. He did not go through it but instead flipped the book to the back.

What didn’t cross his mind was that by flipping through a number of pages, all he saw were only incantations.

Benjamin couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

Such a deserving title for forbidden spell...

After a brief hesitation, he decided to skim through the entire book before choosing a section to read.

He realised that, through the skimming, it was mostly on incantation in the Descent of Glacier. The incantation itself was more than ten pages- there were annotations on the pronunciations, the placement of a break or accent... Right up to the last page, Benjamin felt like he wasn’t reading a magic book but instead an extremely long-winded foreign thesis. He was in a daze.

Based on his calculation, even those with a slick tongue needed half an hour in order to recite the incantation without accounting for the tongue slips, wrong rest breaks, swallowing of saliva, etc. Once there was a mistake, the whole incantation had to go from the beginning again.

Terrifying...

Just the thought of it made Benjamin light headed.

The reason a forbidden spell became a forbidden spell has its reasons after all.