At the capital of Ferelden, the city of Snow.
In a sunlit afternoon, Benjamin lifted his head and walked towards the huge gate of this city.
These few days, he had taken care of countless of small things, like dealing with visitors, helping the female boss handle the problem with creating magical tools-----for magical tools, he had a plan, but he wanted to leave it aside first and talk about it later.
In his business, the time passed really quickly, and the King’s banquet date drew closer.
The King’s invitation, Benjamin did not dare to turn down. He even took the presents and fitting clothes he bought at an earlier date as presents and hurriedly left.
The location of the banquet-----Snow, was a few hundred kilometers from Rayleigh, Benjamin had to rely on his flying to reach the place on time.
Before the kingdom split, Snow was one of the largest cities in the empire. At that time, most of the second prince’s supporters were stationed here. Thus, when Icor became independent, the second prince came to this city and established Ferelden, and made this city its capital.
When he walked into this city, Benjamin had to admit this city was much more organized compared to Rayleigh.
There were no narrow gaps between the buildings, and there were no unknown roads that led to strange alleys. The roads were wide, and most of them were covered with lightly toned stone tiles which were laid straightly along the road.
Benjamin could feel the citizens give off a feeling of "I live in the capital" kind of feel as he walked on the street.
Before the kingdom split, Snow was famous for its growth and expansion. Benjamin could feel that the merchants here were way more numerous compared to Rayleigh. But, maybe for the sake of safety, when he walked for a bit, he could not see any signs of mercenaries.
This surprised Benjamin.
Banquets were normally held at night, but it was still noon, thus, he did not register himself at the palace but prepared to stroll around in the city first.
He had prepared a map before this, thus, the System had to hold its responsibility as a GPS once more.
"Turn left in front, the Mages Freemasonry will be located there, it is said that this is the headquarters of the Mages Freemasonry, if you’re interested, you can go take a look." As he walked it talked, the System was like a tour guide, and very quickly, he said so.
Benjamin heard this and raised his eyebrows.
The headquarters?
Even though he did not like this organization very much…...but might as well go take a look.
After turning left, very quickly, Benjamin arrived at a majestic building that looked like the city library.
"Greetings, what do you require?"
When he wanted to walked in, a servant-like person stopped him by the door. Plus, the person spoke with a tone as if he did not welcome Benjamin as he walked in front of him.
"What’s wrong? I’m a mage, can’t I just drop by the headquarters of the Mages Freemasonry to visit?" Benjamin kept his hands behind his back as he spoke.
"You’re a mage?" Suddenly, the person showed a confused look and took out a crystal ball-like item from the nearby beside him and used it to scrutinize Benjamin.
Benjamin frowned.
What was the meaning of this?
Very quickly, the person put down the crystal ball and said to Benjamin in an annoyed tone: "Mister, stop your pranks. We won’t allow non-mages to enter this place under normal circumstances."
What the hell?
A crystal ball that can tell who was a mage?
Benjamin felt that it was ridiculous. Thus, he put out his hand and chanted. Following that, a piece of ice appeared in his hand as he moulded it into the shape he wanted.
"With this, I should be able to prove my identity right?" He scowled.
"What…..how?" The person was in disbelief, and took out the crystal ball to shine it on Benjamin again, the more he shone it, the weirder his expression became.
Benjamin took this opportunity to examine the crystal ball.
There was dim magical energy emanating from it…..that is right, it was a magical tool. As for its usage, Benjamin figured it could tell who was a mage or not.
But, why did it not say Benjamin was a mage, no one knew why.
"What happened? Why did I feel the energy of magic?" Suddenly, a frail old voice came from behind the door.
The two of them turned to the voice. They saw a white haired mage that wore a giant black hat and was fully robed, slowly walking towards them.
Through his mental energy and the way the elements reacted around him, Benjamin could tell that this mage was a high leveled one.
The servant turned over and bowed at the frail old mage. As for the crystal ball in his hand, it shone as it was pointed at the old mage.
"Lord Mage, this…...I have no idea why, the crystal ball did not react towards him, but he is able to use magic. I do not know if I should let him in."
The old mage laughed and looked at Benjamin, saying: "It’s fine, the crystal ball is probably malfunctioning. Follow me in, you."
Benjamin heard this and nodded, not caring about what happened and followed the old mage in.
The doorman looked at them as they walked in, then looked at the crystal ball, then he took out a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat on his forehead.
With this, Benjamin entered the headquarters of the Mages Freemasonry.
There was a hall after entering, the white walls and red carpet made the place look classy. There were a few mages walking here and there, but in totality, it was a quiet place.
"Sorry about what just happened." After walking through the door, the old man turned around and smiled towards Benjamin, saying: "Greetings, I am Aldrich. You don’t look familiar, are you a newcomer mage?"
Benjamin smiled and said: "That’s alright, it’s no problem. I am Benjamin, I come from Rayleigh, nice to meet you.
"Rayleigh..." Aldrich’s faced looked as if he just understood something, and nodded, then said:" Is there anything you require for your visit to the Mages Freemasonry?"
Seeing the other person’s expression, Benjamin felt that he had been recognized.
Was the sect thing in circulation here?
But, he did not care and replied:" Nothing much really, I heard that this was the headquarters of the Mages Freemasonry, thus I came here to just take a look to see if there was any book I could borrow."
"Looking for books? You’ve come to the right place." Aldrich patted Benjamin on the shoulder and smiled, "What kind of books are you looking far? We have disrespected you, thus we will give you the benefit of borrowing books at a discounted rate."
Benjamin did not feel strange, the Mages Freemasonry worked this way, he felt that their only source of income was through lending and selling books.
He thought of the crystal ball at the door, then suddenly said: "I’m looking for books about magical tools."
At the same time, Aldrich showed a surprised expression.
"Why would you assume that we would have such books in store?"
Benjamin answered:" Because you already started using magical tools to tell if someone was a mage or not."
"An interesting young man." Hearing this, Aldrich laughed, and suddenly changed the topic, saying: "How about it? Do you have interest in joining our Mages Freemasonry?"
....What?
Benjamin did not know why the other person mentioned this, but he shook his head without hesitation.
"Why? The Mages Freemasonry is joinable if a person wished to." Aldrich narrowed his eyes, his white beard swung a little," As for now, we have yet to allow the borrowing of books on magical tools to the outside world."
"Really?" Benjamin shrugged, and said, "That’s alright, I’ll see if there is other stuff."
It was just a book on magical tools, plus, he did not even know the name, who knew if the content inside was of use? What if it was of little value, what could he do?
If he was unable to read it, it was fine, he was not willing to go that far.
Hearing this, Aldrich did not say anything. He smiled and turned around, leading Benjamin towards the front desk and introduced him to other books.
With his introduction, Benjamin found that the headquarters was really different from the branches. The books here could not be compared by the books they had in Rayleigh. Benjamin saw many books on magical theory, and even theoretical books that gave instruction on crafting potions.
He was just planning to stroll around, who knew, he managed to have a huge harvest.
"These books, can I borrow them?" Benjamin picked a few that he was interested in and said this.
"You really know how to pick, sir." Aldrich glanced at the books and smiled, saying, "These books are not allowed to be borrowed by the public, you can only read them here. But for non-members, even after paying, you can only read up to an hour."
Benjamin heard this, but was not disappointed, but showed a satisfied smile.
"One hour is enough."
One The Secrets of Mental Energy, one Elemental Research, one Probabilities on Storing Elemental Energy, and one Advanced Potions. If the System could record all of them down, him coming here on a whim was really a fantastic idea.