Chapter 153  : Lesson on Magic

“Augustine, strong affinity to the earth element. Spells mastered are Earth Spike, Fire Ball, Earth Wall, and Stone Armour.”

“Varys, strong spiritual energy. Spells mastered are Fire Ball, Water Ball, Wind Blade, Earth Spike, Ice Breaking, and other beginner level attacks.”

“Hannah, no specialty. Spells mastered are Face Washing, Cooling, and Elevated Temperature Baking.”

“Frank, could not properly pronounce spells due to his heavy southern accent. The only spell he knew is the Water of Life.”

“…”

Benjamin finally understood what the lady boss meant by ‘don’t have too high of an expectation’ when he finished listening to her introducing the twenty over mages. He held his forehead in his hands and was silent for a long period of time.

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‘Don’t have too high of an expectation’? This should be ‘don’t have any expectation’ instead!

It was evident from their appearance that their magical level would not be high. However, no matter how hard Benjamin looked, he would never imagined that their level would be this low!

Aside from the few, most of them knew less than three spells, and all of the spells were beginner level ones. You would be considered to be exceptional among them if you could release one or two beginner level spells.

No wonder…… No wonder they never thought of bulldozing their way through the door! Some of their combat prowess could not even match up with a normal patrol guard!

“Actually, we had no choice,” The lady boss’ voice was tainted with helplessness, “We do exchange spells and teach each other how to cast them. However, all of us became mages by chance. So, we didn’t know much, and we had no idea how to teach others either.”

Benjamin was silent for a long time before he could accept this fact. He shook his head and smiled, “It’s fine, there will be a way.”

The lady boss looked confused, “What way?”

Benjamin did not answer that question directly. Instead, he decided to insert some suspense into his reply, “You’ll see it tomorrow. Gather everyone together for a meeting tomorrow. I have an important announcement for you.”

Actually, it was good to have weak abilities. In other words, a weak ability means that there was a greater room for improvement, and thus they would have a higher potential in magic! If they were strong initially, there was no need for Benjamin to be here.

“… Alright.” The lady boss nodded despite still looking dumbfounded.

It was late already, and Benjamin left the hand-knitting shop to return to the tavern. Augustine’s place was connected to the back if the tavern. He arranged a guest room for Benjamin for his stay. Benjamin laid on the bed, but he did not fall asleep.

Now, he was in the Space of his Consciousness with the System, figuring out the best cultivation method for normal mages.

Benjamin knew clearly that the problem these mages faced was not the lack of spells. There were more than twenty mages in the circle, and they could already form an encyclopedia of beginner level spells if all of them stumbled on some spells and exchanged them among themselves. Their problem was they had no idea how to train their spiritual energy and affinity to the elements. Thus, even if they knew the spells, they were unable to learn them.

That was probably the biggest disadvantage for those self-taught mage.

Benjamin relied on the information in the “Divine Arts 101” about the Zone of Prayer and the Crest of Holy Light that he sneakily read it when he first knew magic. He found his own way of cultivation that way. Now, he was still thankful for “Divine Arts 101” because without it, he would never be able to summarize a ‘meditating’ method for these mages.

“Although I didn’t read through the details on those parts, but you did memorise them, right?” He asked as he held the bead that was similar to a fish egg in his hand. He could not stop himself from pinching it as he spoke, “There seemed to be quite a number of ways to train the spiritual energy and affinity to elements written in “Divine Arts 101”.

“… Yes,” The System drawled, losing hope in all of life.

Benjamin was able to adopt the ways of training the Divine Arts into magical training owing to the discovery that the Divine Arts and magic were essentially the same. There was no doubt that the methods of cultivating the Divine Arts will be more advanced than what the mages have due to the long years of pillaging and development from the Church.

Through the recapitulation of the System and the meticulous selection by Benjamin, they found the meditation method that was most suitable for these people.

They would utilize the scattered magical elements in the surrounding, absorbing them into the brain with a special way before releasing them to train one’s spiritual energy and affinity to the related elements.

The other methods were eliminated due to inefficiency or the lack of external instruments as aide. The circumstances they were in were quite harsh; it would be impossible to obtain any useful aide.

After the method was finalised, Benjamin got a notebook and wrote down the general steps and main points. He prepared to pass it to the others the next day.

In this process, he suddenly had the feeling that this was very similar to a lesson preparation.

At this point, Benjamin was no longer sure whether he should laugh or cry.

He spent one and a half hour to complete the preparation for the ‘first lesson’. After that, he mediated for a while before tucking himself under the blankets and was soon fast asleep.

The next day.

He woke up early in the morning and arrived at the hand-knitting shop. The lady boss used a magical instrument akin to a small bead to notify the other mages hidden in the town about the meeting.

When Benjamin first saw this magical instrument, he could not help but recall the God’s Eye, the Church instrument. The lady boss later informed him that this was also produced by Andrew.

Benjamin was amazed at this. This level of workmanship was almost up to the standards of the Church.

Soon, they went into the secret passage and once again arrived at the underground warehouse. Since the lady boss managed to inform the others beforehand, the atmosphere here was different from the last time Benjamin was here with the twenty over other mages. All of them were equipped with pens and papers, and the carpenter even prepared a large amount of stools for seats during the lesson.

They sat in rows, papers or notebooks on their knees, pens in their hands. Once Benjamin stepped out from the opening of the secret passage, they looked at him with faces so serious that Benjamin was slightly taken aback by the scene.

“We heard that you will teach us the way for us to become stronger today. Is that true?” A young girl who sat in the front row stood up excitedly and asked the moment he came in. Her voice was filled with expectation.

Benjamin still nodded even though he found the situation rather awkward, “Yes.”

Immediately, all of the twenty over people stood up and gave him a standing ovation.

“….”

Benjamin was never given this type of treatment even from the world he was at before this. He was more accustomed as the PowerPoint guy instead of the speaking guy. Thus, he was rendered helpless when he was given the crowd’s applause, as if he was shocked by the flattery.

“Uh…. There was no need for this. Just, sit down, it’s fine,” he said as he cleared his throat and scratched his head. He constructed his sentences before he continued, “There was no need to thank me. I just hoped that once everyone became stronger, we will think of a way to break the Crusader Gateways together and leave this Church-controlled kingdom. Am I right?”

Including the few forty-year-olds in the crowd, all twenty plus people who sat on the stools nodded vigorously like chicks pecking on rice.

“That’s right, Teacher Benjamin!” A man in his twenties who sat in the middle row chirped excitedly, “Once we become strong, there is no need for us to be afraid of the people from the Church!”

Teacher…. Benjamin? If Benjamin was drinking when he heard that, he would probably have spat it all over the people. He really could not adapt to being addressed this way.

It did feel quite nice though.

Benjamin looked at this scene before him and could not stop himself from smiling despite the weird sensation he was feeling. Thus, he shook his head, still smiling and felt much less anxious for his first lesson.

“Alright, alright. It is not an easy task to be stronger than the Church.” He waited for the commotion to settle before he continued, “I had a brief understanding of your situation. Although you knew how to use magic, but if we are technical with the definitions, you are all apprentices and not mages.”

Everyone was paying full attention as they listened. Some even started to take notes even though Benjamin had no idea what was worth taking down from his speech. Maybe they were ignorant for too long, and even though they had strong desires for knowledge, no one was there to answer their questions. That was probably why they were so desperate when Benjamin came to them.

When Benjamin thought about this, he lamented.

How many mages lived like this throughout the kingdom?

He opened the ‘lesson plan’ he prepared last night and continued talking. “I know you must be eager to know how to strengthen your magical abilities. But before that, you must first understand the nature of magic.”

“Magic is not a gift from God, nor it is the power of the devils. Most importantly, it is not the power left by Cain in this world. Magic belongs to you, belongs to all of us in this room. Magic is a series of special effects such as attacks, heals, and defences that you achieved by summoning spells that could control the magical elements around you. It is definitely not what the Church called as ‘power of the devil’, or ‘the sign of the Fallen’. Thus, we do not need to feel uneasy about our identity as a mage. It is our natural instinct, just like how some people were born physically strong, or with a loud voice. It is natural.”

“Next, let us learn more about the magical elements……”

All of the twenty plus people stared at Benjamin, their gaze bewildered. However, there was an underlying light beneath their eyes.

This spectacular lesson on magical theory that was based on atheist theories as its guiding ideology carried on in this unknown underground warehouse. It was probably the first of its kind in this world.