At this moment, Benjamin was walking in this particular forest.
The old man has promised to give him the two books, but in return, he had to first gather a special kind of magical beast material. Thus, after bidding farewell to the rest of the mages that were resting, he went to this place alone in search of a creature called the "Dark Snake".
According to the old man, this kind of magical creature had a transparent body, a normal person would be unable to see it, only those mages that had heightened senses and mental energy could find them. Thus, the mercenaries that the old man hired could not help him, so he had to rely on Benjamin.
In this forest, there were many kind of strange magical beasts, the old man and the roaming mages that he knew were all potion mages, and could not deal with the creatures at all. As for the adventurer mages in Icor, all of them had joined the Mage’s Guild, and the old man did not want to deal with anybody from the Mage’s Guild. Thus, he has been unable to acquire these materials, an important piece of research that he has undertaken was unable to continue due to this.
Potion mages and adventurer mages was a concept that was invented by someone a long time ago.
It seems that it was before the kingdom of Helius was even established, the Church and the mages had a great war, and the books on how to create magical equipment were all lost, and those that had the skill ended up dying out mostly. As for this kingdom, the potion magic that has been rather unknown then grew and expanded greatly, achieving skills like curses, enchantments, and it was equipped with great functionality.
Thus, a group of mages that specialized in potion magic had to survive using these. Their combat capabilities were low, and they did not know much about magic, but their mental energy was extremely honed, and they could use all sorts of strange plants and magical beast materials to create potions that were very potent.
With this, the difference between the potion mages and the adventurer mages could clearly be seen now.
To this, Benjamin felt that it was normal, this was a way for society to divide work as magic continued to progress. Everyone had things they were good at, some of them were good at battling, and some of them were good at creating potions. With this difference, those that fought could focus on fighting, those that made potions could focus on making potions, there would be a great increase in efficiency.
Who knew, in the future, if he started learning potion magic, he would find that he had no talent in that at all, or, he would be like those in the novels, skilled in both.
Looks like he was thinking too far...
Benjamin laughed at himself, shook his head, and recollected his thoughts, and returned his gaze unto the forest that was said to have a lot of magical beasts living inside.
From the moment he entered the forest, he released his water elemental sensing technique to observe his surroundings. Thus, he noticed there were all sorts of strange creatures: a fire breathing fox, a wolf that was armored with scales, and squirrels that were flying... but to be honest, up to now, he has yet to see any giant magical beast that posed a threat.
This made his estimation of the danger of this forest to drop by a few hundred points.
If he knew that it was not so dangerous, he would have called along a few of the mages from his group to help him. He ended up having to find it alone now, and that would probably take a lot of time.
In reality, towards beings like magical beasts, Benjamin was curious. After his transmigration, most of his time was spent in places near the cities, and it was hard for him to come by any magical beast, the only time he made contact with any was when he used griffins to launch an assault on the troops at the gates. Other than that, he has never fought a magical beast before.
Using this opportunity, he wanted to see how it would be like to hunt a magical beast.
But, even while he was thinking of this, Benjamin did not let his guard down. He continued to use his water elemental sensing technique to search for the "Dark Snake" as he continued wandering deeper into the forest.
Very quickly, he bumped into the first magical beast.
----A rabbit.
"That rabbit is quite ugly isn’t it?" Suddenly, the System spoke and with a tone full of contempt, commented.
But, hearing this, Benjamin made a confused expression.
The magical beast that appeared in front of him, was just a magical beast in the form of a rabbit, but, it was no different from a white rabbit. It had fluffy ears, red eyes, and both of the ears were loped, it looked rather cute.
How is it ugly? Rabbits all looked like this right?
Benjamin knew that it was a magical beast from its surrounding elemental energy, and not just a normal rabbit.
"It looks like it avoided your eyes and the surrounding water elemental energy, but it did not avoid my "eyes"." Benjamin did not agree, the System was silent for a while, and suddenly said this.
…...Avoided the water elemental energy?
Benjamin suddenly had a bad feeling.
During his conversation with the System, the rabbit that looked like a normal rabbit which emerged from the bush attacked Benjamin.
It stood upright, and its movements felt robotic, its red eyes suddenly turned blue.
Following that, not knowing from where, two icicles appeared and hurled towards Benjamin.
"Fuck..."
Seeing this, Benjamin could not help but curse.
He could not think that such a harmless looking rabbit was actually a dangerous life form that could utilize magical attacks in an instant.
Before the icicles could reach him, he quickly chanted a spell and condensed a few water bombs and threw it toward the icicles-----it was obvious, he wanted to fight fire with fire to block the attacks from the "rabbit".
But, something unexpected happened.
When the water bomb and the icicle collided, it was like they did not meet at all, the water balls passed straight through the icicles, and continued forward. As for the icicles, it was like they cut through air and was not affected at all, and continued towards flying towards Benjamin.
Benjamin was shocked.
What the hell?
Seeing the icicles about to hit him, he dove to the side, and managed to dodge the attack. As for the water bombs that shot out, they flashed through the air and hit the strange rabbit directly.
The water dispersed, and the rabbit disappeared.
Benjamin was confused.
"What are you doing? Why did you dodge? And why did you use water balls to attack the ground? Wasn’t the rabbit squatting on top of the tree all the while?" The System spoke again, and with a chain of questions were flung out by him annoyingly.
Hearing this, Benjamin was even more confused.
Hitting the ground? Squatting on top of the tree?
This…..something was not right.
After being stunned for a while, Benjamin quickly realized what was going on.
-----He was looking at illusions.
It was as the System said, this rabbit demon had some sort of strange power and could deceive his eyes and the water elemental energy, making him hallucinate.
Who knew that amongst the magical beasts in this forest, there was one with such an unimaginable power.
It was eerie...
Quickly, the rabbit that vanished appeared on the other side of the ground, at that moment, its eyes went from being blue back to a maroon red, as if it was a light bulb giving off red light.
Following that, a blazing fire started around Benjamin, and slowly, it advanced towards Benjamin.
"Another illusion….." Benjamin saw this, shook his head, and said this.
As for his expression, he wasn’t surprised anymore.
He already knew that it is illusions, he should just quickly finish off this thing.
Thinking of this, along with the Icebreaking Spell incantation, a longsword made of ice that gave off freezing power condensed in mid-air. Benjamin looked at the floating ice sword, then lowered his head, and quietly told the System: "Tell me the exact location, I will kill it."
But, the System replied with a rather unusual robotic tone:
"Hello, if you require human assistance, please press zero."
Following this, a familiar screen of digits appeared in front of Benjamin.
…...Oh?
Benjamin gave a sly smirk.
Without hesitation, he raised his head, ignored the surrounding fire, and positioned the floating ice sword and aimed it towards the "0" on the digital screen, it tore through the air and flew quickly towards its target.