When A Mage Revolts

Even though the map on the sheepskin still looked like a regular map, the mountains were no longer there. Instead, there were streets and buildings in its place; it was as though it became the map of a city.

Benjamin thought that it looked familiar.

"Isn’t this the map to the underground city?"

The System confirmed his hunch, "This map shows the streets and the buildings that you just passed. It is a map of the ruins."

Benjamin scratched his chin. What was going on here?

Was this parchment possessed? With just a drop of blood it had showed him the entrance to the underground city. And now that the entrance had been sealed, it now showed the map to the city.

Benjamin didn’t understand what it at all.

What was the use of the map when all he wanted to do was leave?

He put aside the sheepskin map. Instead, he conjured densely packed ice arrows with a quick incantation, and he aimed them at the stone wall before him, with the intention of creating a new road.

For three minutes ice struck stone, and the sound it made was enough to make anyone deaf. By now the entire cave wall was covered with a layer of ice, and yet, the wall didn’t budge; there wasn’t even a scratch.

Benjamin eventually gave up.

Benjamin knew that it was going to be impossible for him to break through the wall, so he simply picked up the parchment again. If the map of the underground city appeared at such a coincidental time, there must be something to it.

Maybe the map will show him the way out of here.

Just as he had thought this, the contents of the map changed again. But instead of the details disappearing, this time it developed even more details with a faint, glowing green light. The few dots of light slowly moved across the map.

What did the glowing dots mean?

Benjamin decided he needed to check it out for himself.

With map in hand, he followed the tunnel and went back the way he came. Luckily, the entrance to the cave was not sealed and he managed to emerge in the underground city again.

That was when he noticed another glowing dot appearing at the edge of the map. It happened as he reached the city.

Benjamin was taken aback.

He finally solved the mystery, a glowing dot represented a person.

And so, he turned to look at the other glowing dots on the map.

A quick count showed four other glowing dots besides himself. Three of the dots were close by and if his hunch was correct, those would be the three mages from the Mage Freemasonry.

But has someone else manage to run in through the entrance before it sealed up?

Benjamin remained calm and didn’t act rashly, instead he studied the map even further. It was then that he noticed that the glowing dots were moving towards his direction, slowly coming closer together.

Did they want to escape because they knew that something was up?

It wouldn’t be impossible.

With that in mind Benjamin decided to put his attitude aside and try to work together with them in order to finally leave this godforsaken place.

Now that they were stuck in this situation together, whatever conflict that occurred before was now irrelevant. With the few of them working together, the chances of them figuring out a solution would be much higher.

The strange nature of the situation made him cautious of running around alone. He waited for them, vigilantly watching for the only other people in the ruins with him.

Three minutes later.

"Isn’t their speed a little strange? Benjamin frowned at the glowing dots that were moving across the map, "Considering the scale used by the map, I can roughly estimate the speed that they are moving…"

The glowing dots were moving at a faster pace than they should be.

"You really are very troublesome." The System was reluctant, but Benjamin was adamant on his request and it couldn’t deny him.

Ten minutes later, it had the results.

"They are moving very quickly, surpassing the world record by god knows how many times." It continued, "They must be using the Flying spell, but then again the average Flying spell is hard enough – they look like they are in a hurry."

Benjamin’s heart thumped when he heard this.

They look like they are in a hurry.

Why is that?

As he looked at the unknown glowing dots that were following him Benjamin had a bad feeling.

The three people were really close to him now. Benjamin looked up and saw three people flying in the air above him - clearly in panic. One of them shouted out in fear.

"Help! Help us!"

Benjamin took a deep breath and conjured an ice fog - wrapping it around himself for protection.

The entrance was sealed and since they were like rats trapped in a cage, he might as well prepare to observe the last person’s intentions.

Throughout the time the three youths rushed towards him, Benjamin did not stop conjuring magic; he now had about five hundred ice arrows floating about his head. As the three people drew closer, the unknown figure chasing them finally showed itself.

It was a bull.

That’s right, it wasn’t a person that sneaked in, it was a living thing that had the appearance of a bull. Except for the fact that it was about three times bigger than a regular bull.

The bull had a murderous air about it, some parts of his skin had rotted away, and they could now see the white bone beneath and its skin shook as it ran.

What was strange was that the bull looked as though it was dead, and yet it was running incredibly fast. Its body was enveloped in a green light; it gave off a similar feel as a magical beast but not quite the same.

Benjamin did not panic.

And here he thought it was something worse! Could a zombie or magic bull really scare the mages from the Mages Freemasonry so badly? Could these mages be any more useless?

With an eye on the zombie bull charging at him, Benjamin waved his hand forward. Five hundred ice arrows flew towards the bull in unison. It looked like an avalanche that wanted to bury its enemies in snow.

The three mages stopped in their tracks when they saw Benjamin’s attack and looked at him in surprise. Maybe they were shocked that Benjamin would use such a massive attack.

The green light that enveloped the entire underground city suddenly rippled like a rock breaking the surface of the lake. At the same time, the zombie bull was pierced with countless ice arrows, shredding it’s rotting flesh off and smashing its bones into thousands of shards. The bull that was charging at top speed just a second ago was now a pile of dust and flesh on the floor.

Benjamin frowned at the scene before him; this felt strange.

Even though he would admit that he did not think much of his opponent, but it’s defeat was too easy.

"Why would you do that! Don’t attack it!" Tony who was still flying yelled at Benjamin.

Benjamin stood there in shock.

Could it be?

As he was still overcome with shock, a green light pulsed from the remains of the bull. Then, as though controlled by somebody, the green light gathered together and rose up, changing into something that resembled a flurry of five hundred ice arrows.

"Fuck."

Now that was unexpected.

The green infused ice arrows ignore the others and went straight for Benjamin.

At the same time, the flesh and bone that laid scattered everywhere knitted itself together to form the zombie bull. In the blink of an eye, the bull was whole again, not a scratch on him.

Suddenly, a low voice groaned from the green ice arrows, as though the ruins had awakened to warn Benjamin,

"Rabkauhalla."