Chapter 269: Handing Matters Over to the Country
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The moment he saw the hand, Benjamin got gooseb.u.mps.
It was not because he was a coward, but, after thinking about his current situation … This was an underground city that had been buried for countless of years, with no living person. It was as quiet as a graveyard, except for a bunch of robots walking around, and skulls were piled high outside. What made it even more terrifying was that the place was filled with an eerie green light.
No matter how brave a person, under these circ.u.mstances, if they were suddenly touched by something, their t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es would shrink and hide inside their body.
When he was initially touched, Benjamin wanted to retaliate.
But, he was surprised when the hand that touched his shoulder made a sound – shocking Benjamin and interrupting his train of thought.
Alright, it was not the hand that made the noise. Upon closer inspection Benjamin realized that there was actually a person behind him.
"Don’t be rash, sir. We have no harmful intent."
Benjamin jumped back to gain some distance from the strangers. He carefully turned around and looked at them.
There were three people facing him.
They were not statues or ghosts, but regular humans. In the eerie green light, Benjamin could see that they were youths - two boys and a girl. They looked at Benjamin curiously.
"..." The situation was awkward.
"Who are you people?" Benjamin took a deep breath, composed himself, and asked.
Even if they were not some alien life form, the few of them suddenly appearing was very strange. It was not a time for him to let his guard down.
"Apologies that we have yet to introduce ourselves." The three youths looked at each other before the one who was most likely the leader stepped forward. He spoke politely, "My name is Tony, we are from the Mages Freemasonry. Are you the one that discovered this ruin?"
…...Mages Freemasonry?
Thankfully, Benjamin could now loosen up a little.
He relaxed his battle stance, but maintained his distance. "What is the Mages Freemasonry doing here?"
Tony hesitated for a while before replying, "We received news that there was a change in elemental energy to the south of Rayleigh, so we came to check it out and found a giant hole. We followed the hole into the ruins, before spotting you."
Benjamin recalled that when he first opened the cave, green light had exploded everywhere.
This place was indeed close to Rayleigh, and if people were alerted, then coming here would be the natural reaction. But he was still surprised that even the Mages Freemasonry sent people.
He did not think that his first meeting with the Mages Freemasonry would be under these circ.u.mstances.
"Do you have anything to prove your ident.i.ties?" After some thought, he cautiously asked.
The three nodded, and took out badges from their pockets before tossing them to Benjamin.
Benjamin heard that Mage Freemasons would have badges. After inspecting the badges and using the water particle sensing technique to double check his surroundings, Benjamin relaxed.
"h.e.l.lo, I am Benjamin. I recently settled down in Rayleigh." He said.
The three pleasantly smiled at Benjamin.
"We have heard of you before – you made a name for yourself at the Vinci Mage Gathering. We did not expect to meet you here." Tony laughed, "In that case, the ruins must have been discovered by you, correct? How admirable."
Even though it was a compliment, Benjamin’s mood did not improve, he merely nodded emotionlessly. He actually felt slightly annoyed.
He paid for the parchment in blood, and excavated the cave all alone. Even though he technically had no right to be, but his search for treasure had been interrupted by some strangers asking all sorts of questions – Benjamin was p.i.s.sed.
If the three tried mentioning anything about ‘Handing matters over to the country’, Benjamin would definitely fight.
"When did you discover this place, sir?" Tony continued.
Benjamin thought for a while and replied, "Today. Just a few hours ago."
"What did you discover here, sir?" Tony asked again.
See, here comes the interrogation.
Benjamin remained calm and answered, "I did not discover anything. I did not dare touch the moving statues, and continued walking until I reached this area. All I found were these stone tablets. There are some writings on them, but I can’t seem to understand what it says."
After speaking, he stopped for a while, then added: "Did you discover anything?"
Tony shook his head and turned his gaze towards the stone tablets in Benjamin’s hand.
"Could you let us see the stone tablets you are holding? Maybe we have sufficient information to decipher them."
Benjamin looked at the stone tablets, and whilst hiding his annoyance, handed them to them.
No matter how hard he thought, the only thing he could understand was the triangle. The stone tablet was just a normal stone tablet, it did not have any special function. He was sure of this. Him entering the pure blue s.p.a.ce earlier had nothing to do with the stone tablet, so he willingly handed them over.
Plus, he was also curious to know if people from the Mages Freemasonry could decipher the content on the tablets.
"Let me see, this is…" Tony took the tablets and looked at them. The more he looked, the harder he frowned.
"How is it? Can you translate them?"
After some silence, Tony shook his head, "This seems to be an ancient and foreign language, there is nothing like this in our records. I…...might need to hand it over to my superiors, maybe they can recognize the words."
Benjamin frowned.
"I discovered this place, the stone tablets belong to me. The Mages Freemasonry should respect every mage’s property. You cannot simply take my things away from me."
Tony saw this, and quickly chuckled, "I am sorry, you have misunderstood. We have no intention of violating your rights."
Benjamin spoke coldly," This stone tablet could be an ancient relic. If you people take it away, I might never see it again."
The stone tablet was not really useful to him, the System had already memorized all of its contents. But, if these people were intent on taking it away, Benjamin wanted something good in return.
If he did not show his stubborn side now, it could be difficult for him to negotiate with them in the future.
"We would never steal from you; you have misunderstood us, sir!" Tony waved his hand and exclaimed, "How about this, we will trade these two forbidden spells for these stone tablets. How about that? This trade should be sincere enough, right? Please don’t get mad, sir."
Benjamin laughed coldly in his heart.
At the mage gathering, he had heard many things about the Mages Freemasonry. They had many forbidden spells, but most of them probably could never be used. If Tony came up with such terms, it was obvious he was trying to take advantage of Benjamin’s lack of knowledge as a foreigner, thinking that he could trick him with a sweet-sounding deal.
Benjamin knew then, even though Tony looked to be a good person, he was full of deceit.
"Two forbidden spells…" Benjamin did not show his true emotions, and just played along," Such a precious stone tablet would cost at least five forbidden spells. That is the minimum."
They were both trying to take advantage of each other, so he had to try to outdo Tony. He still hoped that one-day Lady Luck would favor him, and his disciples could end up learning a forbidden spell. That would be worth a fortune to him.
He felt that he no longer had any use for the stone tablet, but the Mages Freemasonry had great influence. Therefore, he did not want to have direct conflict with them.
"Five forbidden spells…"
Tony showed a troubled expression, his two companions also followed his act. It was probably a bartering technique, but Benjamin was not fooled. Finally, after much bargaining, he managed to get six forbidden spells in exchange for the tablets.
The Mages Freemasonry recorded forbidden spells in the form of books. After the deal was agreed, Tony took out six books and handed them over to Benjamin. With a pained expression, he spoke," Here are six forbidden spells. We respect all mages, please don’t get angry at us, sir."
Benjamin nodded whilst pretending not to know of the forbidden spells’ uses. Inwardly, he was overjoyed.