Hearing this name, Benjamin slowly remembered, before this, he saw something like this in a book.
It is a valley at the borderlands of Ferelden, the surface wasn't big but it was famous, like the Bermuda Triangle. Choosing "Abyss" to name the valley was not because of any magical creatures, but to many people, there was a strange power there.
There weren't many magical creatures in here, so in the beginning, many people still travelled through this place. But soon, people were starting to notice that the rate of people who took this route and going missing was too high.
According to rumors, there was a team of mercenaries who went missing while travelling through the Valley of the Abyss, so the Mercenaries Association sent people in to search for them. After looking for a long time, they could only find their missing weapons, clothes, their dry foods and other ingredients that were all still well preserved, they were even fresh. In the end, no one knew where the mercenaries went. From that missing team, only one living thing survived, and that was a half-starved dog, its leash still attached to the bag but its owner was nowhere to be found.
From then on, the rumor that the Valley of the Abyss "consumes people" was born.
When he realized that they were about to enter the Valley of the Abyss, Benjamin couldn't help but exclaim at his own bad luck. He fell randomly and he managed to land into this godforsaken place.
But he wasn't very worried.
There was never any proof that the people went missing without any rhyme or reason, people always love spreading this kinds of stories, and it gets wilder and more farfetched with each retelling. From what Benjamin could tell, the Valley of the Abyss was just an old wives’ tale.
Glancing at his surroundings, it did feel a little gloomy. And being affected by the gloomy forest, any story can be made up.
With this train of thought, Benjamin conjured a huge healing water sphere, and hit the other mages. The mages were only a little "sea sick" but after being hit by the healing water sphere, they all became better.
"What is this place?"
The mages looked around with puzzled expressions, and Benjamin explained the situation to them. Luckily, after hearing about the Valley of the Abyss, most of them did not look panicked, but excited.
"I was always curious about this place, who knows, maybe we can discover the valley’s secrets!"
Hearing this, Benjamin couldn’t help but shake his head.
Even though he had a curious streak, but regarding these weird metaphysics, he didn’t know why, but it did not interest him much. Moreover, he felt that it would be better if they reach the city faster.
Since they weren’t here for an adventure.
Because it was already late, under Benjamin’s instruction, the mages collected their scattered belongings, found a nearby place, and set up camp to prepare for the night’s rest and tomorrow’s departure. Instead of travelling in the dark at night, they might as well travel during the day when it is safe; moreover, this valley was not small, one whole night of hiking might not be enough to find their way out.
Just like that, after an hour, while lying in the tent, Benjamin used the Water elemental sensing technique and swept through the surrounding area, making sure there was nothing out of the ordinary. Only then did he close his eyes, and started on his pre-sleep meditation.
In the space of consciousness, the three runes were closer compared to before, he also felt that the blue light was slightly brighter compared to before. Benjamin was curious, but he continued to strengthen himself, was it possible that the runes will be as bright as the sun, and maybe blind someone.
While gathering the water in empty space, letting them seep into the three runes... this process was repeated countless times, and Benjamin just obsessed over completing it.
After meditating for over an hour, Benjamin left the space of consciousness, and slept deeply.
The night passed without a word.
The next morning, Benjamin woke up and went to patrol through their entire campsite. Good, everyone was still here, no one was missing, the weird legend did not prove itself through them. After asking the mage on guard duty last night, the entire night passed peacefully, not a single magical creature was seen, neither did anything weird happen.
So, after eating their breakfast, everyone cleaned up the campsite, confirmed their direction, and started their journey.
"Teacher Benjamin..." while on the road, Andy suddenly tapped Benjamin’s shoulder and said, "That... the ingredients for the practice potions are almost depleted, we will soon have nothing to practice with anymore."
Hearing this, Benjamin turned his head and asked: "What about those beginner potions, how has those been coming along?"
Andy looked to the sky, and reckoned on his fingers and answered: "The healing potion’s success rate are at a hundred percent, the agility potions and strength potions have a seventy to eighty percent success rate. The potions we made are all with Varys, there is quite a number of them, we should be able to sell them for a lot of money."
Hearing this, Benjamin nodded his head in satisfaction.
Now that they were in Ferelden, to be able to reside in this country permanently, they had to have a steady income. According to the introduction in Introduction to Magic Potions, to have this kind of success rate, they were two qualified potions mages already.
But...just studying entry level potions was not enough.
Benjamin was very clear, if there was Introduction to Magic Potions then there will definitely be Advanced Magic Potions. There won’t be enough profit with these kinds of simple potions, and he would also be unable to gain respect from the other disciplines. So, for both Andy and Hannah, Benjamin was still trying to get them to improve.
They should have the appropriate books in Ferelden. There isn’t anything like the Mages Guild here, so to get it, should not be too difficult, right?
He should really put in the effort to understand this country’s magical community.
"Then you should rest a while first." So, Benjamin said, "until we reach the city, I will think of a way to fill in the order, or else you will only be playing with those particular potions only."
Hearing this, Andy finally smiled and said, "Teacher Benjamin, then I’ll leave it to you then."
And so after dealing with the team’s production problem, Benjamin couldn’t help but start thinking about the economic ability of the team.
They just received a number of gold pieces from the river pirates, they were still doing well. Only, once they are residing permanently in Ferelden, they would definitely be using the money in more places than before.
Aside from clothes, food and lodging, all these basic necessities, to improve the entire mages team, to get the magical creature ingredients, and, Benjamin expanded the team, to attract new ideas from the mages. After all, they were able to discover a new way of meditation which was considered very good, having their own theories on magic, Benjamin was very unsatisfied with the thinking that "magic should be the replication of the abilities of magical creatures", and he really wanted to change it.
Honestly, he was slowly noticing that they weren’t on a safe and stable path. The imperial country was recently divided within the last ten years, the three countries were fighting, the church was also too ambitious, seeking expansion on the external and seeking religion internally. In short, they were living in transitional times, as for the future, it will be transformed into the unified world of the church, or be under the control of independent warlords, everything is still uncertain.
So, to keep up with the times, Benjamin had to continue improving himself, and more importantly, increase his circle of influence.
He had to be part of the game.
About how to do things, no one taught him anything, Benjamin could only learn as he went.
It gave him a headache.
And so, he thought about these problems as he led the team out of the valley.
Suddenly,
"What was that noise?"
A sudden sharp noise, came from somewhere in the woods, interrupting the sound of his people’s footsteps. At that moment, the mages stopped, and Benjamin came to his senses, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
Then, just when he was about to use the water sensing technique to investigate, a few human silhouettes, suddenly came running out.
"Help!" the panicked person yelled, giving the mages a fright.