When A Mage Revolts

With that, after a span of more than a month, Benjamin traveled both nations thoroughly to spread the news about the magic academy. Finally, he brought the old man back to Carretas.

No... This piece of land did not belong to Carretas any longer. This piece of land where the three nations met now belonged to Benjamin as well as to all mages who craved knowledge and freedom.

"It’s here."

While flying, Benjamin pointed at blocks of miniature buildings from afar, "The academy will be completed within less than half a month. More and more mages will graduate from this academy."

The old man took a look and snorted expressionlessly. He did not say more.

The two flew near and slowly entered the town surrounding the academy. The town did not take much space and was completed months ago. Residential, shops, traffic… Although this was a new town, all facilities were complete. Most of them who stayed here were mages and workers, but slowly there was an increase of mortals moving in.

The town that circulated the academy was separated by a wall and many trees, seemingly a preparation done for the magic academy’s future endeavor. The academy naturally already had its daily living facilities, but it was necessary for an erection of new towns to accommodate any exits or new entries.

Once in a meeting, Benjamin named this little town "Academy".

It was a formal name for a newly born little town. But he believed that as the academy developed, it would bring in a stream of people. The town would grow larger and even become a world-renowned city.

Of course, that should only be a concern later. Benjamin brought the old man into the little town that was already built.

"Hello, Teacher Benjamin."

"You’re back? We thought you’d need a few more days..."

His subordinates were currently living in the town. Since it was in the morning, many of them were coming and going and Benjamin bumped into many of them. He greeted them one by one.

"Andy and the rest are here, right? Inform the potion mages to gather in the meeting room. I have something important to announce." Benjamin told the mages who welcomed him.

The mages nodded and turned to inform the potion mages under Benjamin.

"Wait... I am only here to research the potion. I never said anything about teaching a bunch of students." The old man felt something was not right and stopped his tracks. He spoke with knitted brows.

"No, no, no. I’m afraid there is a misunderstanding." Benjamin smiled, "I do not want you to overwork yourself and so I took the liberty to assign a few assistants to you."

"…"

Judging by the old man’s expression, he knew something was up but could not pinpoint what exactly. He could only follow Benjamin onward.

Benjamin hid his sneaky smile.

He finally managed to invite a superb potion mage after much difficulty, how could he not take the opportunity to nurture his mages? The old man would definitely refuse to teach. However, in the name of an assistant, his subordinates would surely be able to learn a lot.

He got the old man into a residential unit to settle down. Benjamin had also given him the permission to obtain blood samples of the few captured mages locked in an underground secret prison for research.

In short, he had settled the living quarters, materials and assistants… He spent more than an hour fixing up the old man’s research environment before tossing this matter aside in wait of the research result.

As for himself, he immersed himself in the building of the academy.

"This is the students’ accommodation, that is the teachers’ quarters. The magic practice hall for daily use is completed. The potion laboratory still needs a little twerk and the completed hall has yet to be decorated…"

Listening to Varys’ report, Benjamin nodded as he painted the walls using magic.

This progress was considerably fast. However, the expenditure in the past few days had left him in horror. Building materials, labor, meals… Although they had obtained much funding from the merchants, they still owed a large debt.

A six-figure gold coin debt would have to depend on the operation of the academy.

Hence, the matter at hand was to promote the magic academy and recruit many students.

"We will be complete in another two weeks. Fix the opening ceremony two months later then." Benjamin turned to ask Varys, "Has the recruitment in Carretas and Fereldan been set up?"

Varys nodded, "There are a total of twenty recruitment bases that had already been set up. Honestly speaking, there are a few hundred that have signed up, but the sifting structure has yet to be discussed so we can’t give them a definite answer yet."

Benjamin nodded as he fell deep in thought.

They should really discuss on how to sift through the students.

What kind of students were they recruiting? Were they without any magic foundation, or were they mages at a certain level? How high should the magic talent threshold be? And… How was one’s magic talent be measured?

Benjamin couldn't help but feel a headache coming once his thoughts reached here.

The scale of the academy could fit five thousand students at most. His plans were to fix the first batch of students at one thousand, but the numbers would hit the roof from the number of people gathered in these three nations.

There had to be a sifting standard.

However, the most troublesome step of standardization would be the magic talent that had not had a form of definite numerical value system yet. Everything was based on arbitrary discretion. If they wanted a fair screening, they needed to build a mature system.

Mm, there was still plenty to work on…

Benjamin helplessly shook his head.

After a day of labor, he brought the mages back to the town. Without an hour of break, he started to discuss the details with a few of the management in the meeting room.

"We can’t just recruit anyone. Why not come up with a test and set up a few checkpoints. Those who pass the checkpoints can become official students."

"I don’t think that’d work. Those powerful mages would pass the test without a cinch. But once they enter the academy, what can we teach them? What about those who have talent but are lacking in foundations? Those should be the ones we nurture, no?"

"Right! Screening talent should be the point! I think we have set up two targets, Spiritual Energy as well as Affinity to Elements. Admission would be concluded once their overall reached a certain target."

"Spiritual Energy and Affinity to Elements? How do we determine the targeted threshold? You would need a numerical value…"

These issues could not be resolved in a night. It was fortunate that the building was almost completed, Benjamin could allot more time into discussing this.

In the end, they had reached a verdict.

— Those above twelve years old and below twenty years old with Spiritual Energy at a C level in addition to an overall Affinity to Elements at a C level or an Affinity to a Single Element at a B level.

The age limit was meant to recruit those without foundation and the defined level of Spiritual Energy and Affinity to Elements was something they had researched for a while, combining all kinds of references and books. In the end, they used letters to grade the level of magic talent.

"Everyone, this is an unprecedented feat." Once these were defined, Benjamin stared at the few mages who had collapsed in the pile of books and said in an encouraging manner, "Magic, as we know it, may change because of what we have concluded today."