The time was already twilight and the entire forest was now bathed in a quiet, dusky atmosphere. Some rays of light shone through the branches and leaves, creating a myriad of moving shadows. To see a pale, white face suddenly appear in this kind of creepy atmosphere was too much of a jolt.
Without thinking, Benjamin acted.
Hundreds of ice blades were summoned and started floating above his head. He instinctively used magic and sent the ice blades out to attack!
Only then did he clearly see what the thing opposite him was.
It looked like… a person?
"Hey hey hey! What are you doing? Help, I’ll get killed!"
The pale, white face suddenly moved, revealing a panicked expression. He came out from the shadows and started scrambling backwards.
Everything happened suddenly. The ice blades flew fast, and the man staggered and stumbled to the ground, desperately trying to dodge it. But it looked like it was futile, there was just too many blades.
He could only watch in horror as an overwhelming number of ice blades flew straight at him.
"Stop."
Right at that moment, Benjamin came to his senses and lightly clapped his hands.
The ice blades stopped in mid-air as though somebody had pressed the pause button. The pale man was dripping with a cold sweat, but he was grateful that it was just sweat and not blood.
"Who are you?"
With a wave of his hand, Benjamin dispersed the ice blades, before asking hesitantly.
"Good… good sir, how do you do? I am Luke. I am really, really thankful for your mercy." The man was dumbfounded for a moment, but eventually stood up and stammered a reply.
Benjamin took this time to look at him clearly.
He was a commoner, about thirty years old, and was extremely skinny. He wore a black gown which made his already pale, white face appear even more ghostly. His entire body had a sickly, sullen feel to it; he looked extremely fragile.
Nonetheless, Benjamin could feel a special spiritual energy and elemental oscillation emanating from his body.
"Are you a mage?" Benjamin curiously asked.
Luke nodded his head.
Benjamin continued asking, "Why have you appeared here? Are you alone? Are you one of the mages who had come to Candela Mountains a few months ago?"
Luke was stunned, the non-stop questioning made it a bit difficult for him to answer. After thinking for a moment, he opened his mouth to reply, "How did you know about us? After the Mages Freemasonry collapsed, we felt that living in the country was becoming more and more difficult, so my companions and I moved into the mountains."
Hearing this, Benjamin released a sigh of relief.
It seemed that he had found them.
"How many of you are there?" He asked again.
"Not too few, just a few hundred." Luke stretched out his hand, pointing behind him, "We live to the north of that hill in front. Sir... Are you here to visit us?"
There were so many of them?
Benjamin was confused. A few hundred of mages was already a force that could not be overlooked, and could easily take the Church in a fight; there was no need to hide in the mountains.
However… thinking about it carefully, they did not seem to know about the existence of the Church.
These people were likely to have been led astray by the Church without their knowledge, and felt that there was no more point staying amongst the regular townsfolk and so had run off to live deep in the mountains.
Regardless, it was good news for Benjamin to be able to find the mages in the mountains – even more so to find such huge group of them.
Benjamin nodded his head and replied, "You could say that. I’ve even brought some companions. May we come and see where you live?"
Luke immediately agreed, "But of course. Recently there has been quite a few new mages coming into the Candela Mountains and looking to join us."
Just like that, although the circumstances under which they had met were questionable, Benjamin had finally found the local mages of Carretas. He quickly returned to the camp and shared the good news.
When they heard this, everyone was very happy— having found the battalion, they no longer had to camp around on the hard ground. Everyone began to move, they packed up their gear and following Luke, walking towards the base of the mountain.
"What was the reason behind your initial decision to come to Candela Mountains?" On the way, Benjamin asked Luke.
"There wasn’t any particular reason. It was mainly because there are very few people here and the resources are plenty." Luke answered. "At first, I had followed about ten people in here. But after that, we found out that there were actually a ton of mages hiding in and around the area. So, we eventually gathered together so that we could easily take down magical creatures. Everyone here is a mage and we live very freely. We don’t need to care about how those wretched commoners see us."
Hearing this, Benjamin shrugged his shoulders and did not reply.
Wretched commoners… Did all the mages here have this mindset?
No wonder they wanted to live in seclusion, they were being wholeheartedly ignorant of anything in the secular world. In that case, it would not be easy for Benjamin to change their minds and ask them to leave the mountains to fight the Church.
What should he do…
He kept thinking all along the way. After approximately two hours, Benjamin finally arrived at the resting place of the mages in the mountains.
The location of the dwelling place was very well hidden. They followed Luke through a cave covered by foliage, and after making quite a few turns emerged from the other side of the cave. Only then did they see the magical village obscured in the mountains.
Although it was hidden in a mountain, the terrain of the village was still somewhat spacious; the buildings were properly distributed and built rather roughly. At the top of the mountain, wall was a huge opening, through which the light from the outside world shone in, providing this place was a very important light source.
Benjamin could not help but be impressed; to find such a utopia to live in was incredibly lucky. He did not know how these people could find such a perfect location.
It was very obvious that if no one had led the way, they would not have been able to find this place.
The village was not very lively, and there were not many people walking about It was probably because these mages did not like leaving their homes, and preferred to stay indoors. The few mages who were outdoors also shared the same white and pale look. They probably had such a sickly look due to the lack of Vitamin D from the sunlight.
"You really do have a lot of people with you, I’m afraid we might not have enough empty houses for you to stay in." Luke said while leading the way, "I will ask the elders for instructions and see if we can find enough space for you."
"It’s alright, the empty spaces beside the village are plenty, we can set up camp there," Benjamin answered.
"That… as long as you are okay with that, sir, then I have nothing more to say." Luke nodded his head and turned to speak, "So… is there any particular reason why you and your men have come to the mountains to visit us?"