When A Mage Revolts

When he heard the question, Benjamin began to panic.

Damn!

Before he could hesitate, he started an incantation so he could be ready to subdue the knife-scarred man with magic in the shortest time.

What the man said was enough to ruin the whole plan.

Actually, regardless of what the knife-scarred man found out, Benjamin should be able to deal with it. For him to discover the gun was part of Benjamin’s plan, since it will lower the man’s suspicion.

But the knife-scarred man somehow found out that he was a mage.

Magic was Benjamin’s trump card, if it was revealed, Benjamin’s situation would be reduced from infinite possibilities to him just hanging onto a single thread of luck. At this moment he could only start an incantation and pray in his heart that the knife-scarred man would not have time to react just after discovering his identity. Otherwise, he might have fallen directly for that man’s trap.

Luckily, it looks like the knife-scarred man had only just found out the truth.

He did not react in any way that was effective. When he heard Benjamin start chanting, his face changed, and immediately reached for his gun.

But once his fingers touched his gun, he was already unable to move.

Benjamin’s right hand held onto the knife-scarred man’s shoulders. His thumb and index fingers were holding onto a thin ice needle that was already halfway into the man’s arm, the other half was being held tight by Benjamin’s fingers while being continuously forced in deeper.

The moment the knife-scarred man was pierced, a coldness spread through his whole body, freezing him. He could not even struggle, his breath created white fog in the air.

Seeing his, Benjamin calmed down.

"Luckily, before I came, I managed to finish learning this second magic spell, or else this would be troublesome." He could not help but mumble.

That’s right, before he left for the outer city, Benjamin already condensed the second magical rune and learned his second spell: Icebreaking.

The water elemental crystals he used up previously made the water element in his consciousness form much faster than before. The newly condensed runes were also quickly absorbing the water elements. Finally, last night, following a "ding" sound, the task was completed.

Benjamin turned back to look, and in the darkness, the water ball shone brilliantly. The light was equivalent to the light that split the darkness when he excavated his new dimension of consciousness.

He had a feeling that he was blessed.

After he walked to the side of the water ball, he reached out his hand towards the water ball while chanting the Icebreaking spell’s incantation -- between Icebreaking and the Pillar of Steam, he chose Icebreaking. Ice was a solid object and had offensive capabilities. At the same time, the coldness that came with it was also good for controlling, so it was much more useful than the gaseous form of water.

At the moment he said the incantation, the shining water ball froze rapidly, as if it turned into a bright crystal ball.

Then, cracks formed on the ice ball.

Very quickly, following the cracks on the outside, more formed within, as if something was happening in the center of the ice ball. It started shaking as its light grew more intense.

"It’s coming!" Benjamin said with strong anticipation.

Finally, the ice ball shattered, the light died out, and a blue triangular rune that looked that same appeared.

Once the triangle was formed, it started trembling, making a "ding" sound of its own.

Ripples swept through the whole dimension of consciousness. Benjamin felt like something has changed once again.

Even though he regretted not being able to enter that pure blue space again, he also quickly moved on from his joy at successfully condensing a new rune to begin testing his new spell – Icebreaking.

Of course, through his experimentation, he found even more surprises.

He found that his new rune did not need further strengthening, it was as powerful as the previous one. Under its influence, Benjamin could conjure a giant block of ice with the Icebreaking spell and he could control it freely.

He could break the ice into arrows, or he could condense it to farm a sturdy shield... he seemed to have become the world’s best ice sculptor, and could manipulate the ice and turn it into whatever he wanted.

Of course, the time needed for the ice to change form would be longer compared to the Water Ball.

But Benjamin was not discouraged, as he found out that the limitations for the compression of ice was beyond water. He could change his washing machine sized ice block into just a needle.

A needle which with one look was enough to freeze your heart.

This needle replaced the blessed bullets, and become his newest killing tool. He believed, even with that elderly mage’s water sheet, once his needle pokes it, it would freeze over and break apart.

Sadly, Benjamin found out that the ice needle could not leave his hands. Once it left, the needle would disappear and turn back into water elemental power.

Thus, his killing tool could only be used in proximity.

When he was experimenting with his technique, he did not expect his ice needle that was learned under harsh conditions would be able to be used so quickly.

In the sewers, when the knife-scarred man asked "Are you a wizard", and was grabbed him by the collar, the two were very close. It was not suitable to use the Water Ball in this situation, so he chose Icebreaking .

He started chanting, and an ice needle formed in his hands. The moment the knife scarred-man was about to pull out his gun, he stabbed his shoulder.

In this moment, he was not sure how strong the ice needle was, what if it could not control the man? Therefore he used all his might to jab it in.

Luckily, its strength was far more than Benjamin expected it to be.

The knife-scarred man still held onto his collar, but could no longer move. His face was coated in frost, his eyebrows had ice and his whole body was emanating a white mist, he could not even twitch. Benjamin felt like he was facing an ice sculpture.

With just his jab, did he die from freezing?

"My God, so powerful!" Even the System emerged and exclaimed.

After some thought, Benjamin quickly pulled out the ice needle to disperse the magic, the frost in the man’s body also dispersed.

He did not want the knife-scarred to man die just like his, he still had questions.

Luckily, the knife-scarred man did not really die. When the magic was gone, the knife-scarred man was still frozen for a while, but he suddenly let go of his grip on Benjamin’s hand. He fell to the ground and started coughing furiously, coughing out some blood colored ice. His whole body was quivering, as if he was just rescued from the South Pole, which filled Benjamin with sympathy.

"I…...I...." He made some sounds which did not form into a sentence.

Seeing this, Benjamin took back his gun, and started chanting, conjuring a healing water ball, which he used on the knife scarred man.

"I…...Thank…...Thank you."

The knife-scarred man’s condition improved, and he could finally talk. But his whole body was still frostbitten and he could not stop shivering. He laid on the floor, unable to move.

Benjamin was satisfied. This guy could finally answer his questions.

He pointed his gun to the knife-scarred man and asked: "How did you find out I was a mage?"