Chapter 182: Mage Guild
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hearing this, Benjamin frowned.
"An adventuring mage? What is that?"
The old man replied: "A mage that has combat capabilities."
Benjamin’s confusion lessened by hearing this. In what ways did the mages outside the kingdom progress, why were they so many strange categories?
A mage that had combat capabilities? If one was a mage, they should already have combat capabilities right?
Seeing this, the old man could tell that Benjamin has still not fully understood the situation, he frowned a little, then explained: "Mages, if you were to know how to throw a fireball, you would appear to be better than another mage by just a little bit, thus, all these categories would seem strange. But you must have seen that many people that knows magic, a lot of magic, some of them would start shivering like crazy the moment they fought someone, they can’t even aim properly. In terms of fighting power, they are not much different from a woodcutter with an axe. These kind of mages did not have any combat aptitude, thus, we ended up coming up with the terms, adventurer mages and potion mages."
Hearing this, for some reason, Benjamin just thought of the two second-class mages at the Academy of Silence.
Looks like…..those two really fit into that category.
So, not all mages actually have the natural aptitude for "Battle". As to why this term did not appear in the kingdom, it was probably because those without natural talent for battle has probably died by the hands of the Church a long time ago.
Thus, with some hesitation, Benjamin nodded and said, "I guess so."
"It’s not easy…..escaping from the holy dogshit kingdom. Your level should be quite high, if not you would not have survived the mad dog-like pursuit of the Church. "The old man scratched his head, then continued, "Did you say that you want books dealing with magic? Help me with a task, and if you succeed, I will give the book to you."
Hearing this, Benjamin thought for a while. He did not agree right away out of caution, but asked: "What books do you have?"
If the books the old man gave him were useless to him, it would be a waste of time.
"Be at ease, I know what a person like you needs the most right now." The old man turned around, and dug two thick books from under the bed out, and shook it in front of Benjamin, "One Introduction to Magic potions, One Probabilities of Magic, if should be enough for you to be well versed with magic and not just be like an ignorant savage."
Benjamin did not have the time to study the two covers of the books properly before the book was put back under the bed by the old man.
Based on the names, it was indeed what he really needed right now, but not knowing why, he had a feeling he was being cheated due to his lack of knowledge.
"Your books wouldn’t be simply be found elsewhere right?" he asked.
Hearing this, the old man "hmphed."
"Elsewhere? You think this is watered beer?" He proclaimed arrogantly, "I bet other than the ones at the Mage’s Guild, these two books would only be one of three copies in the whole of Icor."
Benjamin wanted to bargain, and shrugged, saying: "Then I should just go straight to the Mage’s guild, why should I trade with you?"
"The Mage’s Guild will not lend their books to a non-member." After saying this, the old man laughed coldly, "I’m advising you with good intentions, don’t join the Mage’s Guild, you will regret it."
....Oh?
At that moment, Benjamin sensed some sort of conspiracy.
The old man’s hatred towards the Mage’s Guild could be felt from the beginning. At first, he thought the old man was just introverted, but now, there seemed to be other reasons.
The young man previously has mentioned the Mage’s Guild before, and even spouted a bunch of inside information that couldn’t be confirmed to be true yet...
"How about this, I’ll help you, but you have to pay me a small deposit." Thinking of this, he suddenly made this decision, "The deposit is everything you know about the Mage’s Guild."
"No problem." The old man promised immediately, "As long as you get what I need, everything bad about the Mage’s Guild, I could end up talking for a day and night about it."
Seeing the old man relax suddenly, Benjamin started to worry, how hard…...would this favor be?
But, he has already promised, he would not regret anything.
After half an hour, Benjamin left the shop.
He returned to his room in the hotel, firstly, he recounted all the stuff he obtained from "Mor’s Magic Store", then, he planned his next course of action.
Firstly, it was information about the Mage’s Guild. The old man told him, the Mage’s Guild had a lot of history, and has existed even longer than the Church. Before the first pope built the Church because of the "Will of God", the mages that existed had formed a group for the purpose of trading items, but at that time, the whole organization was rather scattered, there was no form of unity or effectiveness because of that, as a result, it was like inner chaos.
Very quickly, the Church dawned, in the warring period they could win over the hearts of men, alongside their zeal and fanaticism, they received a lot of support from the noble dukes, thus, they began their plan to suppress all mages. The mages at that part of the kingdom were not united enough, and ended up being suppressed, but the mages on this side ended up banding together, and forming the first Mage’s Guild.
At the beginning, the Mage’s guild was a rather relaxed organization. The mages that joined would not be forced on missions unless it was related to the Church. The whole ideal of the Mage’s guild was to rebel against the Church, and the members had absolute freedom.
But, with the passing of time, the nature of the guild started the change. The guild master’s position went from being appointed by every member to being appointed by the previous guild master. The whole guild became stricter in terms of structure, the members that joined could enjoy the benefits of the guild, but had to give their services in return.
When he revealed all these, Benjamin thought that it was nothing much. Benefits had to be earned, even though the ideals of the Church were different from the beginning, and there was some corruption in the higher-ups, but these could not be avoided, there were not living in a fairytale.
But, the kingdom’s schism ended up changing everything.
Under the protection a huge number of troops and mages, the kingdom’s princess, who was now the Queen of Icor, made herself queen at the west side of the kingdom, and ended up cutting ties with her elder brother. Following this, there was a divide in the Mage’s Guild as well. The guild master at that time followed the queen, and ended up cutting off the remaining mages. He brought most of the Guild’s resources and books to Icor, then, he formed a new Mage’s Guild.
For those that did not want to follow the Queen, they remained in two separate countries, which they had tense relationships with, the old man who remained here did not know much about what happened afterwards.
He only talked about the Mage’s Guild in Icor, their headquarters is located in the capital city, Regina, the other few larger cities also had branches. Their membership is really strict, once you enter, there was no way to leave. They will provide resources for the members, but the service you had to give in return was a lot. What was a bigger pain was that they may or may not have intentionally ended up taking away the survivability of those mages that were not bound to any organization, they ended up searching fanatically for books on magic, and even built a relationship with the army of the kingdom, reserving all the missions that needed mages, as if they wanted to monopolize the magic market.
Because of this, a person like the old man would not enter the Mage’s Guild, his life ended up having more to worry about. The old man has already lived here before the divide of the kingdom, plus he was very skilled in making magical potions, so he opened a shop and managed to live here for the rest of his remaining days. But because of this, his impression of the Mage’s Guild ended up becoming really bad.
With this, after understanding the Mage’s Guild better, instantly, Benjamin’s impression of Icor worsened.
An autocratic Queen, and an autocratic Mage’s Guild following behind, he and the twenty plus mages wanted to settle down in Icor, it was like not choosing to play on easy mode but the hardest difficulty.
Should have just went to Ferelden instead.
Even though he did not know about the situation there, but matter what, it should be better than here. This power here is held completely by the Queen and the guild master, and there was only one guild master. In the other countries, without the monopoly of organizations, it should be better for mages to live in.
Thinking of this, Benjamin made a decision.
Even if the rest of them ended up falling in love with Icor and wanted to stay in this country, he would drag them out with him.
Thinking of this, Benjamin stood in the middle of the room, after finding a bag that was lighter and more convenient to bring around, he put in some dry food and water, and start preparing for what he was about to do next.
The old man has given most of the information to Benjamin, and Benjamin, for the sake of the two books, had a promise to fulfill with the old man.