When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin’s heart dropped with a thump. He turned off his Water Elemental Sensing Technique before he came through the door just in case someone with a keen spiritual energy was able to detect his snooping. He told the System to keep an eye out for trouble, and it did not take long to get back to Benjamin. It was hardly this efficient, you see.

"What’s wrong?" Benjamin asked internally while maintaining his smiles and small talk with the three elders.

"There’s a dungeon under this house, and there were approximately 10 people locked in it," replied the System, "although this wasn’t much, but.... These people seemed to all be mages."

....Dungeon? Mages?

There were so many questions in his heart.

There should not be a dungeon in a secluded village like this. However, it was not unheard of for these three elders to build a secret dungeon for law and order, or for their own personal desires.

It was not in Benjamin’s place to interfere if their mages did make a mistake. He was just an outsider and thus has no business in who they decide to lock up. However, judging from the mages’ attitude and the newly discovered dungeon, the doubts surrounding this village gradually thickens. Benjamin had to be more alert and to study the minute change in expressions and behavior of the mages in detail.

"I heard from Luke that you wanted to go against the church. Is that correct?" The elder finally released Benjamin’s hand in the real world. He asked Benjamin, his tone a touch too friendly.

Benjamin nodded.

"Amazing! Youths nowadays are indeed an ambitious bunch," commented another elder as he patted Benjamin’s shoulder, "Although we hid in this place, we could still give you some support. You lack manpower, right? I’ll ask around in the valley tomorrow to see if anyone is willing to follow your cause."

".....Thank you so much for that." Benjamin inhaled and suppressed his growing suspicion.

If he was reluctant to admit it a moment ago, he was now very sure that something was wrong with this place after he heard what the elder just said.

The elder’s acting was too unconvincing. There was no way that someone’s attitude could have such a drastic change in such a short time! He was aloof just a moment ago, but now his enthusiasm was off the charts; who would believe that he had no ulterior motive? Besides, with how the villagers were behaving, it was basically impossible for them to leave with Benjamin. It was evident that the elder was outright lying to his face.

Still, he had no idea why these people would do that. If they decided to hide within the mountains, then they should just stay low and avoid causing any major issues. However, upon inspection, the ordinary mages behaved oddly, and the elders were hiding daggers under their honey-addled smiles; a veil of secrecy draped itself over this secretive village in the valley.

Are they... Are they really mages who lived in seclusion within the mountains?

"Aside from the dungeon, what else did you discover?" Benjamin asked the System in his heart.

"Don’t rush me, I’m still sorting the information," answered the System, "I scanned every document and book in this place and stored them in the database. I should be able to analyze the origins of these people."

"Okay.... Good luck."

Benjamin continued to babble nonsense with the three elders for another 10 minutes. They did not manage to discuss anything productive, and Benjamin left soon after that. Under Luke’s warm send-off, Benjamin returned to the camp he set up at the side of the village. Immediately, he sent out an order to the mages secretly.

‘Pack up quietly, and prepare for an immediate retreat.’

There was something off about this village, and as the village had a bigger number of mages than them, there was no way to guess who would win if a fight were to break out between them. If something really did happen, it might be the best for them to run.

After sending out the instruction, Benjamin immediately hid inside his tent.

"How was it? Did you manage to analyze anything?" Benjamin asked internally.

"Uh.... Yeah, I think so," the System sounded reluctant, "Just a warning, though; be mentally prepared. The origins of these people..... It is quite terrifying."

Benjamin shrugged. "Oh, come on, what have I not seen? I will not be shocked no matter how surprising the plot twist is."

"Alright then. I’ll start." The System adjusted its tone before it continued slowly. "Truthfully, these people weren’t the mages who came from Carretas to hide over these months. According to the records I acquired from the books, this village hidden within the mountains has existed for almost ten thousand years."

"..."

Benjamin turned and looked at the peaceful village enveloped by the night sky. A chill abruptly crept up his spine.

"....You can continue." After he took a deep breath, Benjamin once again spoke to the System.

The System picked up the tone of a documentary narrator. He spoke in a slow drawl, "The mages who live here were born and raised here, and it is extremely rare for them to leave the Candela Mountains in their lifetime. According to written records, their lifestyle existed tens of thousands of years ago, and it was passed down by intermarriage and capturing slaves externally."

The System paused deliberately. "And according to their records, they called this hiding place of theirs as ‘The Abandoned Valley of the Gods’."

Benjamin had a double take.

.....This is The Abandoned Valley of the Gods?

Immediately, he retrieved the bangle that could be the ‘key’ from his bag, then held it in his hand. With an inhale, he shook the bangle at the sky before gathering some spiritual energy into the bangle. However, the bangle remained its original appearance, experiencing no change despite Benjamin’s efforts.

Benjamin frowned.

"Forget it... You can continue." Benjamin kept the bangle after some thoughts. "If this was just an ancient village of mages, why would their behavior be so fickle? What else did you manage to analyze?"

The Abandoned Valley of the Gods was a legend, where some said it was located at a desert by the edge of the world; some said it was in the mountains where Benjamin was in now; some said it never existed in the first place.... The version of stories differ with their geographical location, and it was completely unnecessary to fixate on any one of them.

It is wiser to instead focus on their present situation.

What Benjamin did not know was that the matters that differ from the original version of the legend was not only the location of The Abandoned Valley of the Gods.

"If that’s how this is going to be, I will need to first explain the origin story of this place for your better understanding." The System struggled to construct its sentences. "The background of the story was the same, where there was a pair of brothers that appeared out of nowhere once upon a time, dreaming to save humankind from its doom. However, in this version, they think that the forefather of magic was not Cain the elder brother, but Abel, the younger brother."

"..." Benjamin had no words for that. It was frankly amazing how they changed everything in the stories. Who exactly was on the magic’s side, and who was on the Divine Art’s side? The next thing someone would tell Benjamin was that both of the brothers would have switched their identities around, really.

The System continued its narrative. "There was no God of Light nor God of Magic in their legends. Instead, there was a devil. In an effort to defeat the devil. Abel sacrificed his brother with his own hands, to exchange for a greater power - magic. After he was sacrificed, Cain became a revenant who also obtained unimaginable power. With that, both Cain and Abel worked together to overthrow the devil and save the world.

"Since then, Abel became the God of the realm. However, he could not tolerate the fact that he sacrificed his brother with his own hands for power, and he gradually became withdrawn from the world, and experienced immense mood swings. At last, Abel’s heart was consumed by his own despair. Deep in grief, he returned to the site where Cain was sacrificed - which is where we are standing now - and ended his life. Since the people made Abel as their God, they see his death as a form of abandonment, which caused this place to be named as The Abandoned Valley of the God."

Benjamin could not help himself but shake his head.

Sacrifices, suicide.... This version of the story was overwhelmingly depressing, which somehow matches the atmosphere around this place. The only uplifting aspect of this story was that there was consent when the brothers were killing each other, which was slightly more humane than the other versions.

Also.... Even if Abel was a God in this version, humanity was still within him as he did commit suicide out of guilt.

Nevertheless, Benjamin would never take the stories seriously; he had listened to so many different versions of this story that it would be foolish to believe them. The mages here wrote that they were the descendants of the story tens of thousands years ago, but does that mean that it must be true? No!

Then again, he had not gotten an answer to the question he posted previously.

"So.... What is the relationship between this weird origin story and their peculiar attitude towards me?" Benjamin asked.

"Of course it’s related." The System’s voice was soft, like a whisper. "In the story, Abel sacrificed Cain by eating him posthumously to obtain the power of magic. Thus, in an effort to follow the footsteps of their God, the mages here would periodically sacrifice people and cannibalize them, and they would always prefer their counterparts - mages. Also, they seem to believe that the stronger the mage is, the greater the effect after they’ve eaten the mage."