Chapter 196: Hurrying On
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"According to our current progress, how long till we reach the border?"
Benjamin had just finished lunch and was sitting outside his tent on a mountain road in Icor, staring at the clear blue sky, before suddenly asking the System this question.
"I can’t really say, the shortest would be half a month, longest could possibly be a month or two." The System answered, "the number of monsters we meet each day is also increasing; our journey has had too many unexpected stops, I am struggling with the estimation."
Upon hearing this, Benjamin nodded his head thoughtfully. After leaving the Town of Hank, they had hurriedly headed towards the border of Icor and Ferelden, at this point, they have been on the road for two days.
They planned to quickly leave Icor, and not to pass the Capital City.
The note that they accidentally got from Hawk did not change Benjamin’s mind. The Mage Guild would send a representative to invite him to Regina, then send a message to the selected mediator not to let Benjamin near Regina. The constant twists and turns made it hard for Benjamin to understand what was going on.
He didn’t know what the Mage Guild’s exact intentions were, but it was clear that the other party had definitely learnt of his identity – a mage who can conjure a water sphere as big as half a town. From this angle, Benjamin’s existence could be a threat to them, it was perfectly normal for them to want him to leave.
But... how did they discover his identity?
From what happened at the gateway, the Queen did not know that he was the mage who conjured the giant water sphere in the Imperial Capital. If she did, they would not have been able to leave so easily.
Whatever the Mage Guild knows, the Queen does not know. In other words, there must be some sort of a rift between them.
This made the situation in Icor less transparent.
Of course, there was a possibility that the rift wasn’t from the Mage Guild and the Queen, but within the Mage Guild itself. This note was discovered in Hawk’s pocket - the author’s identity unknown. At the same time, the other mage, Richard definitely had no knowledge about the note’s existence.
If Richard knew Benjamin was the infamous "Water Demon", he would not have hastily challenged him to a competition and have the confidence to bet on his victory.
Thinking about it now, the two people were from the Mage Guild and they look like they were carrying out the same task, but their individual motives could be totally different.
This was so complicated... The more Benjamin thought about it, the further he felt he was from an explanation.
And so, in the end, he decided to ignore the matter. No matter what the people from the Mage Guild wanted to do, it didn’t matter as long as it didn’t affect Benjamin. The only thing he had to do was to leave Icor without turning back. This entire pool of muddy water, why was he getting involved?
If the people didn’t want him to go to the Capital City, that was fine as he didn’t want to go either. He kept the note, continued his journey, and didn’t take it out again.
This road that lead from one end of Icor to the other was carefully selected by Benjamin and the System after much consideration. By using this road, they could avoid all the towns and main roads, keeping contact to a minimum. Without anyone predicting their next move, they could easily reach the border of Icor.
Of course, the cons of choosing this concealed route is that there was an increased chance of encountering Magical Creatures. They did not have to worry though, as they had already prepared before they left. But still, the number of Magical Creatures that live within Icor’s territory were much higher than in the Kingdom of Helius.
They had only been on the road for two days, and yet they had already met four to five groups of Magical Creatures.
Fortunately, the Magical Creatures they met were not powerful, and the numbers were not great, so the mages were able to easily defeat them, Benjamin did not have to raise his hand as there was no real threat so far.
For example, just half an hour ago, they were attacked by a pack of wind wolves.
At the time, the overwhelming winds rushed towards them, but the group of mages were already ready. Everyone gathered together, and released their magic together to create a shield. After blocking the first attack, they fought back fiercely. Fireballs, ice, earth needles, around twenty mages all released their magic together. Even though some of them had only low or even entry level magic, but given the circumstances, they seemed more than capable.
After two days of experience fighting Magical Creatures, they were familiar with their movements. With the many fireballs, the pack of wolves was obliterated in the blink of an eye. After seeing this, Benjamin couldn’t help but feel that the little fighting experience had been beneficial to everyone.
During the first Magical Creatures’ attack, everyone was confused, some even got hurt. But, after only two days, there was already some levels of teamwork and understanding among the mages. Some oversaw control, others were in charge of attacking, and some were responsible for replacing the knives...
Everyone could use their respective talents according to their different styles of magic, and as a result, the fighting wasn’t as messy anymore.
Of course, this didn’t mean they were experts. During the fight with the wind wolves, there was nothing weird like them moving in sync or anything of the such, but they still used each other’s strengths and fighting experience to coordinate the attacks.
Benjamin thought about it and smiled as he shook his head.
There was no need to rush these things. It wasn’t as if they had a master tactician in their group. All of this was learnt in combat. To have improved so much through pure combat experience, was incredible.
Turns out the choice to use the concealed route could also train their fighting skill and compatibility from providing them worthy opponents. If this keeps up, it won’t be long before they become a formidable Mage Group.
However, to improve their compatibility, there is something they had to do.
There was no other way a group of mages who do not want to rely on each other could survive; the ability to work together is the deciding factor in a battle. Benjamin believed, if they worked together they could train better – keep it up and there would be nothing to be afraid of even if they face the gateway’s Bishop.
Still... Benjamin couldn’t help but think about the church’s underlings.
It didn’t matter if they were the Cleaners, or the three priests he met before, they seem to have mastered a skill that combined their powers. They can chant a spell with a few people together, or use the same divine charm, and the power of the divine charm will be abnormally stronger.
Benjamin naturally became a little green eyed.
How strong they would be if they could learn this skill. Since they had about twenty mages, their combat effectiveness would absolutely soar.
While Benjamin’s thoughts were running wild, the mages were destroying the attacking wind wolves.
When the last wind wolf died, they relaxed and left their combat mode, joking with each other as they cleared the battlefield – the corpses of the wind wolves and all traces of the fight had to be gotten rid of so they would not leave a single trace.
At the same time, studying the Introduction to Magic Potions book had allowed Benjamin to slowly understand the different ingredients that each Magical Creatures had. For example, the wind wolves flesh can be used to make a potion that enhances one’s agility, it is a common ingredient though, and it was not worth much money; but it still had its uses.
And so, every magical creature they encountered on the road would brought them some form of income. Their storage of ingredients from magical creatures was enough to make countless potions.
Regarding the art of magical potions, they finally showed some improvement while they travelled. Originally, Benjamin thought that if he gave out the Introduction to Magic Potions book, someone would immediately come to Benjamin for ingredients, eager to try out a spell. Surprisingly, not a single soul looked for him.
This made Benjamin a little worried.
To learn the art of magic potions, some amount of talent and interest is needed, but he didn’t know anybody among the twenty mages who had interest in the art and could really learn something.
If there were no one who wants to learn, did they conduct the exchange for nothing?
Benjamin was worried and started to think: should he get a potion mage who was talented in this art, to fill in some of the gaps that the group had? Or should he just let all their precious ingredients harvested from magical creatures go to waste?
Luckily, his worries were alleviated, because that morning, a mage came up to him with the Introduction to Magic Potions in his arms - seeking help.