Chapter 159: Re-condensing Water Runes
Varys’ jaw dropped.
"What? Did... Didn’t you say your name was Benjamin?"
Benjamin let out a bitter smile, "I don’t know where to begin. Believe me, you wouldn’t want to hear
the whole story. Just called me ‘Benjamin’ like before."
"This..." Varys massaged his forehead heavily, trying to digest the news.
Benjamin could only shrug his shoulders.
He regretted it a little. After all, news does get spread out rather perversely. Who knew what would
become of the news about huge Water Ball once it had travelled to the borders of the kingdom.
Sky bestowed flood? Sky bestowed meteor? The war between the gods and the devils? What
would the people describe him as?
He should have gathered intel prior to revealing this.
Having said that, seeing Varys in a state of shock, Benjamin couldn’t help but feel... an odd
sensation of accomplishment?
"I apologise, I... I must have been impolite." After a long pause, Varys managed to take a deep
breath, "I really didn’t think that the rumoured Water Ball demon would be someone like you... I-I
was out of line."
Water Ball demon...
Benjamin felt a slight helplessness.
What the hell was that?
"So... What kind of person was I rumoured to be?" He couldn’t help but ask.
"People were saying that after the fall of Grant, the Divine Arts genius, he grew a third eye and
lived on human blood. Whoever he gazes at will be frozen into ice sculptures and he drains your
blood as though drinking ice milk." Varys responded.
"..."
Benjamin was speechless.
The imagination of the people was really... creative.
Varys was uncomfortable to the point that he could no longer look Benjamin in the eye. However,
he slowly adapted and agreed to Benjamin’s plan without protesting stealing the cross.
Now that the initial plans were established, he could take care of all the intricate details.
Benjamin’s initial thought was to hide in one of the food sacks and have Varys hand him over to
the people at the gates. Once he was moved to the kitchen or pantry area, he would sneak out of
the sack.
It was a good idea but the issue was that the people tend to check the food when received. So how
he could hide in the sack without being noticed was the question they had to solve.
As for escaping from the gates after stealing the cross, it wasn’t that big of a deal. There were two
thousand over people living there which would obviously produce a lot of waste. The waste is
packed in a huge cloth bag and thrown to the townies to dispose of.
Although it did sound a little disgusting, one had to admit that it was a great idea. Nobody would
actually check garbage, especially those in huge bags. Benjamin could easily be return to town by
hiding in the garbage bags.
The hardest question would still be whether he could get pass the food supply checking process.
Benjamin and Varys spent a lot time debating on this matter.
"To be honest, they don’t inspect the food supply strictly. They would only open a couple of bags to
inspect and check its quality." Varys said, "However, if they think we were cutting corners, they
would inspect in detail during weighting. If there was a bag whose weight was out of the ordinary,
they will open it up to investigate."
A person’s body was a lot lighter than wheat. If a person were to smuggle into the sack of wheat,
they would definitely be found out once if it was weighed.
"That’s true..." Benjamin nodded, "But I’m sure you have experience in deceiving them."
Varys was stunned for a moment but nodded without denying it.
In the end, they devised a plan to use a larger sack and increase the food supply ratio. Then, they
would fill the sack with denser wheat to allow Benjamin to hide in the sack, without letting the
weight differ with other sacks, thus allowing Benjamin to slip through the inspection process.
The plan was now roughly laid out, and just required a few tweaks to refine it. Benjamin left it to
Varys. After all, he had been in the business for a long time and had a wide range of experience –
he shouldn’t have any problems. It wasn’t as though Benjamin could be of any help anyway.
Benjamin then left Varys’ home and returned to the inn to meditate.
The nit and grit of the work was getting done by one by one as time went by. Varys was busy
preparing bigger sacks and better-quality wheat. The overall ability of the Mage guild was also on
the rise. Benjamin was also returning to his original abilities before the rift, through meditation.
Most importantly, the Water Runes that had exploded had been re-condensed by Benjamin four
days ago.
It was complete darkness, as always, in the Space of Consciousness. Three magical runes were
floating in the air, forming a triangle and shining a beam of magnificent blue light. There were
countless active water particles surrounding them, like a school of fish swimming around.
Benjamin felt a sense of what have been lost had now returned and felt grateful.
Finally... He could use the Water Ball spell.
It was the first spell he mastered after all. It was also the spell that he understood the most.
Although its damage was incomparable to the Icebreaking spell series and its flexibility as well as
functionality could not compare to the Pillar of Steam, this was still, without a doubt the spell he
was most adept at.
It was useful in both defence and offence and could create the best-case battle scenario for him. It
could be that due to the fact that he was highly skilled in the spell that his consumption of Spiritual
Energy when using Water Ball was less than the other two spells — In order to create the giant
Water Ball in the Imperial Capital, he must have used the Water Ball spell at least a few hundred
thousand times.
"Erm... Con-congrats! You’ve recovered your abilities and I-I’m really happy," The system
cringingly bounced forward.
Benjamin almost laughed out loud.
Oh, System.
Ever since System was trapped inside a "roe" looking marble, Benjamin found a way to tackle it.
He could use System as a bouncy ball or as a punching bag. Its elasticity was so good that it
wouldn’t break no matter how he toyed with it. As such, Benjamin did not hold back on teaching the
System a lesson.
The System was no longer as puffed up with arrogance as it once was. He no longer dared to talk
back to Benjamin. In fact, it sounded like a weakling, as if afraid to provoke Benjamin lest face
another "beach volleyball competition".
Benjamin was quite satisfied with the state things were now.
"When will you change from this roundish thingy?" Benjamin thought about it and asked, "I don’t
expect you to hatch into a high levelled pet monster but if you stay in here, you’re pretty much
useless. Wouldn’t that be a shame?"
"I have no idea..." The System now spoke with a tearful voice, "I can feel something happening
but each time I scan, the insides of the marble is empty - nada."
... Nothing could be done.
Benjamin could only shrug it off.
It should be something big, seeing that it came exploding from the Pure Blue world. Since the
System said some change was happening, they should just wait. One day, the change would
eventually be visible. It wasn’t as though he depended on it to hatch into a dragon and ride him to
conquer the world or something.
He had previously tried to, but couldn’t, bring the little thing out of the Space of Consciousness.
Breeding a pet monster with fighting abilities would have been a great idea.
Benjamin quickly left the System who was resentful and filled with dread to meditate.
Time went by.
Everything was peaceful right up to the afternoon of the fifth day, when he suddenly received news
from a fellow Mage.