Chapter 4 - Ancient Secrets

After Benjin left the trio, he could only stare at the ground. They still have each other… Seeing the three care for each other, reminded him that he was alone. Benjin sighed as he looked up towards the sky. Light's on my side my butt…

While being lost in his thoughts, Benjin did not notice the crowd of villagers until they began murmuring at him. Raising his head up, he looked at the villagers with an expression filled with fatigue and annoyance.

"If you are wondering about the 'demon', I punted it in the face many times and is now dead." What the hell am I even saying?

A man dressed in a long brown robe walked forward with a slight smile. "Wonderful! The demon attacked our village and possessed a girl!" he extended an arm up and tried to shake Benjin's hand. "We could not thank you enough for getting rid of her!" Did he just say her?

Wow. Just wow. He didn't think it was possibly to eclipse the asshole scale to this degree, but wow. Screw it. He was done here, and never coming back.

"If there's anything we can do for you, just say!" Benjin sighed, before his eyes landed on a cart of food.

He pointed to the stack, a grin on his face. "Can I have that?"

The man looked at the wagon, before shrugging his shoulder. "Our extra potatoes?" He looked back at Benjin, who was still grinning. "Sure, it's probably going to go bad anyway, it's the least we can do for our little junior exorcist!" The blonde felt a hand ruffle his hair, to his dismay.

"…Thanks." Benjin walked towards the wagon before focusing his magic. After about thirty seconds, a golden rippling portal appeared above it, descending and taking the entire thing into his storage dimension. A bit draining, but nothing too serious. Once he finished, he walked past the crowd of gossiping men and women and made for the edge of the village.

On the corner of his eye, he could see three familiar tufts of white hair entering the forest to the West, bringing a smile to his face.

Good Luck.

Mountain Path - North West of Citrus

His experience at Citrus village left a sour frown on his face. Everything was so backwards that it gave him a headache just thinking about it. Really, they should have gave her a bunch of chocolate, flowers - or whatever girls liked - not shun them then break their house! I should have kicked that man's shin before I left.

Sighing, Benjin looked up towards the western forests; he could not help but think what happened to the three. Were they okay? Did they get eaten by a bear? Hopefully, wherever they decided to go, it would be better than the garbage can of a village back there.

Looking back towards the path, Benjin noticed that the way towards the 'call' was becoming increasingly difficult. What used to be a relatively flat plain quickly became mounds and mounds of rock with no clear way in sight. If he wasn't careful, he probably could have plummeted into a cave or something, and that would be REALLY bad. Also, moss, can't forget moss because apparently his path wasn't already hard enough.

It's good exercise at least… I think.

If anything, it did help him keep his mind off things.

After ascending to a relatively flat plateau, Benjin looked to see an actual road built into the mountain. It was wide enough for maybe like ten people to walk side by side, and it was long enough to reach around the mountain as far as he could see. The boy looked from one end of the road to the other, noticing that the East side actually went towards the ground. That's gotta be like 10km! That would have taken him hours just to get to.

Screw it, magic time.

"Light-Make: Scythe!" From his hands, two magic circles appeared, each expelling a construct. The blonde looked at his creation with a confident smile. This shall be good! With a magic-boosted leap, the boy began ascending the rock face, using his spell to pull himself up.

Ah ha! Probably saved like four hours just doing a bit of climbing!

Alright, time to go! Benjin dispelled his constructs and began walking at a leisurely pace towards the west.

Hours passed; Benjin perked up as he heard commotion from around the mountain. As he neared the source of the sound, he saw that there were multiple wagons lead by a blue-haired man wearing a purple cloak on horseback. Travellers!

The boy took a closer look at the group; the man had a weird curved 'X' tattooed above his right eye while a smug smirk was plastered on his face. Benjin looked away nervously. This guy looks kind of sketchy… Might not be a good idea to talk to him. One more look. Yep, definitely not.

As the twelve-year-old walked past the wagon, Benjin frowned from the men slowing down in front of him. Darn… now I'll HAVE to talk to them otherwise it would be rude. Please don't talk to him, please don't talk to him, please don't talk to him, please don-

"And just where do you think you're going?" Shit!

Breathing in deeply, Benjin responded, "Nowhere." The blonde tried his best to hide his own anxiousness. I mean, I'm not exactly lying, I don't exactly know where I'm going right now.

The blue-haired man's grin widened further and smugger. "Look at what we have here men! Some kid thinks he can look down on us!" His followers began chuckling darkly at his proclamation. "You guys know what to do." Wait what?! Benjin widened his eyes and the man covered his hands in some sort of dark blue flame; followed by the others drawing weapons and readying their own magic.

Holy Shit are they actually going to try and kill me!? Okay, okay, no big deal. This is what he practiced for: situations just like this one! Random men wanting to hit you. Benjin took a deep breath, narrowing his eyes. You know what? I don't have to be scared of these guys; they look like idiots anyway! With a defiant glare, a rippling portal formed in front of the boy, a wooden pole equal in length to his height slowly exiting.

"You want some of this?" He gripped the staff, twirling a few times before pointing it at the increasingly annoyed man. "Well come and get some!" A golden aura flowed out of the young mage, the sight of which cause the opposing men to open their mouths agape.

"Why are you all just standing there!" The leader turned towards his men with a scowl, pointing at Benjin. "He's just a dumb kid, attack him!"

The men looked at each other, deciding whether or not attacking and robbing the kid was worth it. After they shared a silent look, they looked forward, unanimously deciding.

"Right away! Lord Bora!" Here they come!

Right away, the five men charged Benjin in a spearhead formation; the one in front attempted a strike to his head, only to be dodged and met with a staff to his midsection. The second and third shared a look, rushing him together after the first was knocked into the cliff side. One went for a low kick while the other attempted to launch a fireball to his chest.

Wait these guys kind of suck.

Benjin's confident grew, returning to his stance. "Nice try, Slowpoke!" He spun his staff around to sweep the one going for the kick and he used a magic-infused backfist to rebound the fireball towards the attackers. These guys REALLY suck.

"You know," Benjin raised a brow, "I was actually kind of scared when you all attacked me but damn! You guys are pretty bad at this!" The men all glared at the boy; none were very happy about being belittled by a boy. The rest all aimed at Benjin while firing simultaneously, an array of spells all made their way towards their target, only to be met by a translucent golden barrier.

"Holy Barrier," Benjin said dismissively. He expected more from these guys… although it was probably for the best, they weren't that strong, or otherwise he might be the on in the wall right now. Thankfully, the barrier did not show any signs of damage from being hit the spells. Really, the big-ass pig he had to fight last week was probably stronger than these losers.

"He's not human!" Benjin turned one of the men, who was frozen in fear from his 'strength.' Wow. Benjin then turned towards the leader - Bora, who had a waterfall of sweat vigorously dripping down his chin. Really… wow.

Benjin actually began to feel a bit of pity for these guys, actually no, they tried to kill him! The boy furrowed his brows, giving the men a glare. "It's not like I'm a monster or anything, all of you are just straight bad." Dispelling his barrier, the blonde focused his magic towards his palm, small particles of light coalescing to form a small magic circle.

"Light Chains," Within mere moments, a dozen of light constructs shot out from his palm towards the men.

"AUUUGGGGHHH," they began screaming as Benjin's spell quickly wrapped towards their arms, legs, torsos… and face for one unfortunate mage.

"ARGH MY FACE." AND I'm covering his mouth too. Freaking idiot.

He slightly strained when he lifted all of them into the ground. Take this! With one swift motion, all the men, with the exception of Bora, were slammed violently into the ground, cracking it. All the henchmen were now lying in their craters, defeated and unconscious - leaving only their esteemed leader to fight.

Bora, while still on his horse, backed up and put a hand in front of him. "Hey… can't we talk about this," the man took out a large bag filled with colourful spheres, "I'm sure we can work something out, right? Maybe I can give you some candy?"

Candy? That actually sounds pretty awesome! Bora was just about to turn tail and run before being forced off his horse, with said horse galloping away. He looked towards his midsection only to have his movements restrained by six constructs that looked like leaves.

"Six light rods." I'll be taking that. Benjin snatched the bag out of the leader's hands, before inspecting one of them. Ooo! Chocolate! He popped one in his mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing. Not bad.

Anyways, did any of them know how to dodge? What was the point of attacking him anyway? He was quite literally a twelve-year-old kid with nothing valuable. It's not like they decided to beat up a kid just for fun, right?

Benjin rolled his eyes, before stepping in front of Bora. He shot out a chain to wrap around him, raising him to eye level. With narrowed eyes, Benjin focused magic down to his palm, readying another spell, "So, why'd you decide to attack me?" This brought a chuckle to the older male's lips.

"As if I'm afraid of some dumb kid," Bora shot back with a sly grin, causing a vein to bulge from Benjin's forehead.

"…"

This guy looked like an idiot among idiots and he had the balls to call him dumb? Really? Not wanting to deal with this, Benjin aimed towards the mountain and shot a light blast, destroying some of the rock in a concussive explosion. The very instant that happened, the blue-haired man dropped his bravado and looked away in nervousness.

"We-were-traveling-back-from-selling-some-slaves-and-you-looked-like-a-good-sell-so-we-wanted-to-kidnap-you-and-" the man got out before Benjin maneuvered the chains and slammed him on the ground, knocking him unconscious.

Asshole! An asshole of assholes! Benjin dispelled his technique restraining Bora and looked towards the wagons. Selling slaves? Kidnapping children? Was today the universal asshole day? Was he travelling on the road of assholes in the country of cunts? My GOD! Benjin breathed in heavily through his teeth, before shaking his head to calm down.

Okay, I'm good.

Exiting his thoughts, the blonde boy looked back towards the wagons… maybe there was something cool in them. With another light chain, he ripped off one of the doors off its hinges and revealed many boxes of different shapes and sizes. Benjin looked at the unconscious men, grinning slyly. Well, looks like these are all mine now!

The blonde pried open a locked chest with constructs of gauntlets. It revealed an entire box of gold, jewels, and weird coloured metals. Yes! Jackpot! Being quite satisfied with what he found, Benjin put back the chest and put his palm on the side of the wagon. He stayed there for a minute with his eyes closed before the wagon disappeared into his storage dimension. Okay, in the future I GOT to make that faster.

Begrudgingly, the blonde did the same for all the other wagons, leaving the men with nothing but the clothes on their bodies. Hmmf, idiots.

And with that, he left the unconscious men, and continued on the mountain path.

It would be another three hours before Benjin reached the other side of the mountain. What was once hundreds of rocky peaks were now replaced with a large lake guarded by tall mountains on all sides. Grassy terrain blanketed the lake, mimicking a desert oasis. There was a small stone path leading to the center of the lake which housed a small island in between. In the interior, the island was outlined by a circle of trees on its coast; a large structure taking the shape of a reverse 'U' stood in the heart of the isle.

Benjin raised his brows, whistling in amazement as he took in the sight.

Maybe a detour wouldn't be that bad… something feels off around here though. Benjin shook his head. It's probably nothing.

Continuing, Benjin quickly made his way down by skillfully jumping from rock to rock, using light constructs to hasten his descent. What's this?! Benjin narrowed his eyes and looked around the valley. The 'call' is stronger here, but for some reason… it's muddied. Reaching towards his pendant, he felt a pull in place of the usual beacon. The boy widened his eyes in realization. I don't how and what, but whatever I've been following, it HAS to be somewhere here!

Benjin made his way towards stone passage, taking in the building in detail as he did. The massive structure had rings of trees surrounding the island. Where he was walking on, the stone path, was easily five times the size of the mountain pass he came from and was laid brick by brick with textured swirls on each. Multiple lamps lined the edges of the path, each of them emitting a dull glow, enhancing the already present light of the sun.

Damnnnnn!

Benjin poked his head over the edge of the path, noticing that the water making up the moat was almost completely clear. The afternoon sun shined brightly upon the water surface, illuminating the depths below. The boy was never really a sightseer, but this… was something else. There were no fish in the water, no birds in the sky, only the orchestra of nature that seemed to embody what it means to be 'peaceful.'

As he walked through the small opening within the ring of trees, he saw that the structure had five levels, each was decorated with massive marble pillars easily towering over him. The long line of pillars led to a herculean temple-like structure with a grand set of staircases that stretched from one side to the other.

This isn't a normal building… whatever was calling me, MUST have been here.

Benjin smiled, his attention turning towards another thing of interest; it was a statue that reached to the third level of the library made to the image of a woman wearing a dress, shoulder plates, and a cape that reached to her lower back. She was holding multiple scrolls with one hand while the other was extended for an owl that perched itself on top.

The boy had his mouth agape, taking in the beauty of everything around him. Slowly, he stumbled his way to the top of the stairs, continuously glancing back and forth to the statue as he did so. Were there many other places like this… rr was I just REALLY lucky?

True to that thought, all the tiny wooden villages he saw was nothing compared to what this was now.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Benjin looked into the entrance to see ornament shelves reaching all the way up to the fifth floor, books of all shapes and sizes were neatly tucked away into each. Wait, the boy furrowed his brows, glancing around in confusion, is this a library? From the side he noticed a spiral staircase connecting the floors in the middle. Focusing his eyes, he could make out two other auras inside the library.

Benjin smiled. One of them HAD to be the librarian. Perhaps if he asked them, he would be closer to figuring just whatever this 'call' was. Switching his attention to the closer aura, he made his way towards the mixture of colours and shapes that made it up; he came across a bunch of books hovering around a purple-haired woman that looked maybe in her thirties. She had white streaks on her hair that trailed down to some kind of suit with a knee-length skirt.

"Hello, do you work here?"

The woman jumped in surprise from his greeting, snapping out of her heavy concentration as she dropped the book she was holding. "Who's there?!" she abruptly turned around to face him, revealing sky-blue eyes filled confusion.

Benjin gave a wave to her and put on the friendliest smile he could. "Hey, I'm just wondering if you could help me find some uh… books," he glanced back and forth to the books on the ground and the woman. Great now I feel bad.

The woman bent down to retrieve her items on the ground while adjusting her glasses - causing a glint of light on her frames. Smiling back, she perked. "Why of course little one! No one ever comes here to read anymore. In fact, two people including yourself came in looking for books today! The last time there were any visitors was just over a year ago!" She got more and more excited as she continued.

Wait, over a year ago? She was by herself for more than a year? Imagine the amount of cleaning she had to do! He was basically done just sweeping his tiny house - in comparison at least - for just a single day! Benjin chuckled sheepishly. Imagine doing that for this whole friggin' building!

Snapping out of his thoughts, Benjin returned his attention to the woman. "Doesn't it get lonely in here by yourself?"

She giggled slightly, sorting books around the shelves by levitating them around. "Oh, heavens no! I'll go crazy here if I were to be by myself. I have my daughter to keep me company!" I guess that's not TOO bad. Considering he basically lived with his mom and dad for eleven years.

Benjin put a finger to his chin. All these books here and it's impossible to know where to start; history, general knowledge, an encyclopedia about magical pendants? Maybe something explaining about the symbol on his pendant? Hmm, alright I know where I could start.

"Okay uh…" Benjin finalized the sections he wanted in his mind, "would you mind taking me to where the books on: Mythology, History… and Lost Magics are?" He added that last part just now as he was interested if there was something new, he could add to his own repertoire of magics. If nothing else, magic stuff is ALWAYS fun.

The woman widened her eyes and had her mouth in a 'O' shape. "What a coincidence! The other person who came in was looking for similar things," she quickly moved all the books she had in the air into their proper places, before skipping towards the center staircase.

"Follow me! The Mystical section is all the way at the top!" The librarian seemed to be in a good mood - scratch that - a very good mood. What does she even read about? Glasses and flowers? Glasses made from flowers? Heh, flower glasses.

As the two made their way up the hundreds of flights of stairs, Benjin took note of the slight change in layout for the sections. The first to third floor were all the same. Rows upon rows of shelves lined the library's great halls, while large signs hung from the top indicating the section and category.

Suddenly, Benjin stopped as he passed the fourth floor, a wave of unease washing over him. This sensation… it's like the books have their own presence. Despite the similar designs in terms of structure, there were very faint auras hidden on the higher floors that became more prevalent the closer he got. The boy's gaze fell on the highest floor, his eyes widened in curiosity. Just what do they have here?

Reaching the top, Benjin continued to follow the librarian towards a dimly lit section far in the interior. A sign was placed right above the entrance… Mystical.

Within, there were two hallways connected to the center that lead to different areas within the section. The center room had multiple circular shelves around outer edges and had four tables in the center. A spherical design of intersecting shapes and symbols covered the grounds and the dome-like ceiling.

Benjin turned away from the sight, addressing the librarian. "Thanks, Miss um…"

"Velvet," She smiled, gesturing to the right. "The hallway to your right leads to history of mythology and one to the left is where we have on ancient magics. Can't call a section 'Lost Magics' if we have books on it after all! Hehe!" Funnily enough, she bounced in place from her joke, causing Benjin to deadpan at her.

Well, okay then?

As Velvet left the room, Benjin began to look around all the books, each emitting varying degrees of presence. You know, I could probably just 'borrow' as many books as I want and NOT return them. There was no security in here- ow! The boy suddenly felt a prick at the top of his head, only to turn around and see nothing. What the hell was that?!

He rubbed his head, before continuing reluctantly; he noticed a hooded figure with a large book in front of him. That aura… I feel as if I've seen it somewhere before.

Right when he walked passed the figure, he took a glance at one of the larger texts on the page; 'Kairos Fernandez' Hmm, he had no idea who in the world that is.

The mythology and history section felt different from the other parts of the library. Wherever he looked, it was as if everything had an otherworldly feel. They all looked like normal books, but still.

Now, how would he go towards finding what he wanted? Everything was neat and tidy sure, but there were probably still upwards of a thousand books in this section. Not only that, he had zero idea of what he was looking for. There could have been hundreds of years worth of history that was completely irrelevant to him!

Benjin sighed, his shoulders slumped forward in defeat. Might as well get started. From the side, he grabbed a random book and began his search.

Hours passed, stacks of books surrounded him as he became more and more tense.

"Damn!" he threw the blue book he was reading away from him. This is taking too goddamned long! Looking to the side, he noticed the skies began to dim from the gothic-style window.

Has it really been that long? It felt like he was only here for an hour; by the looks of it, half a day could have passed just like that. Standing up, he walked to the middle of the hallway and began looking towards the books located on the higher shelves. He would be here for months doing this the hard way, and he would sooner give up from frustration than find any semblance of what he wanted… and his dumb pendant wouldn't stop 'calling!' It was so freaking annoy- Suddenly, Benjin widened his eyes in realization.

Wait, that's it! A smile graced his features; he was confident in his new 'brilliant' plan. If this doesn't work, I swear I'm jumping out of the window.

Focusing his senses, he saw many different auras of all sizes and colours emit from different books. Furrowing his brows, he sharpened his concentration and began to filter out ones unlike the one emitted by his pendant. One by one, Benjin eliminated unlike auras, and through nearly an hour of repeating this process, he had managed to narrow it down to just one book. Hopefully, that book had actual useful information and it just wasn't some crap about the writer of the book being related to the guy who forged his pendant or something.

Benjin looked up to the source of the aura. Of course, it HAD to be all the way up there. From far away it seemed the book was half the size of his body and probably weighed twice as much. Should I climb up or just chain it? Screw it.

"Chains!" A single chain shot out of his hands, a magic circle indicating his cast. The construct extended towards the book, easily wrapping around it, pulling it down to the ground. Smiling, Benjin approached the result of his handiwork.

Let's take a look at what we have here. He brushed the dust off of the book to reveal the title 'Lords of Empyrean.' The book was relatively thin despite its width… which is honestly weird because they could have made it MUCH smaller. As he cleaned the top of the book, he noticed the front cover had the same symbol as the one on his pendant with many golden lines zig-zagging towards the center.

An accomplished smile creeped up to his face. Yes! This ought to be useful!

Such a huge time-saver deserves a nice big pat on the back. There was no need to read another hundred books all because of his wonderful plan. Despite finding such a good lead, he hoped from the bottom of his heart that its contents would continue his so-far winning spree.

The blonde took a deep breath, the rapid beating of his heart causing his hands to tremble as he reached towards the cover.

Here goes nothing.

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Chapter 4 finished! Next Chapter: The one who called.

Can you guys guess who the librarian is?

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