Ever since his first S-Class job last week, Ben received a S-Class job once a month. Roubaul had a rule that Ben could only take one S-Class job a month.
S-Class jobs are difficult, so Ben can't take them too often. Besides, Ben was alone, so his job choices were limited. His jobs always involved subduing monsters. He had never gotten a job with human enemies before.
Roubaul personally chose that because human enemies were a lot more difficult for Ben to handle. They can come up with strategies and fighting them alone is disadvantageous for Ben.
Ben accepted that and just did his assigned job. He was happy because his options were limited if he fought humans. He can't kill them even if they're dark mages, so he needed to hold back.
If he fought monsters, he could go all-out and kill them. If he killed any humans without the Magic Council's authorization, he could go to jail and his guild might be penalized for his actions.
Ben can also test all his spells if he fought monsters. He can experiment with them as he pleases and no one would protest. As long as he finished the job, everything would be fine.
Roubaul knew that Ben always wanted to go all-out without having to worry about anything. That's why he chose jobs that involved subduing monsters. He also made sure to pick jobs that Ben could complete with his current level of strength.
Ben also continued training Wendy, Bella and Carla whenever he got the chance. For Wendy, he focused on her spells and fighting skills. For Bella and Carla, Ben focused on raising their magic power capacity and support skills.
They also continued training with their guns even though they weren't used that often. Ben had told them that the guns are only for backup and emergencies. What they really needed to train was their own power, not that of their magic weapons.
During that time, very little happened in the magic world. But the news that got everyone's attention was that Charm Magic was outlawed by the Magic Council and Erza Scarlet became Fairy Tail's youngest S-Class mage.
Fairy Tail is the strongest legal guild, so the news really spread and became a big sensation. Even though Ben became a S-Class mage at 13 years old, Erza was 15, but Cait Shelter is a small guild.
Ben really didn't care about that because it didn't affect him. He didn't really care about fame. He just wanted to become strong enough to do whatever he wanted and protect his loved ones.
Although the outlawing of Charm Magic acquired his interest, Ben learned about that magic, but never used it. He just learned the principle and wanted to add it to his database.
Ben knew that Charm Magic had the potential to be misused. He also didn't really like that magic, so he's glad the Magic Council outlawed it.
Time passed and a year after Ben became a S-Class mage, a big threat surfaced. It wasn't towards Ben or his guild, but their kingdom.
Another nation tried to invade the kingdom of Fiore. The Alvarez Empire attempted to invade Fiore for an unknown reason, but Fiore successfully repelled them using a magic super weapon, Etherion.
Ben was ready to join the conflict if needed. But there was no point after the kingdom successfully repelled the Alvarez Empire. He was glad because war is not a good thing.
War would affect the lives of many people, be it mages or ordinary people. What Ben was worried about was if the kingdom tried to involve Wendy or his ex-students in a war. There's no way he was going to let that happen.
If that happened, he wouldn't think twice about rebelling and destroying the kingdom. He wasn't going to let his loved ones die again. Once was enough for him. That's why he will grow strong to protect them.
Since that time, Ben started to gather information about the world. He wanted to know anything that might be a threat to his side. Ben didn't side with Fiore, but with himself, so the kingdom could be a potential threat.
"I can find information about the countries in Ishgar. But the information about the other 2 countries is very hard to find. I can find some about Guiltina, but Alakitasia is a mystery."
"They're the biggest threat with the Alvarez Empire located there. That's why I need to get more information on them." Ben said while reading through the information that he has collected.
Ben kept trying to gather information whenever he had a chance. The information wasn't just for a precaution, but his own curiosity. This is a new world, so of course he was curious.
There wasn't any more trouble for 1 year. Two years had passed since Ben became a S-Class mage. He did his jobs and finished them well while continuing to train the girls and gathering information on the magic world.
One day, Ben was given a strange job. For the last 2 years he got jobs to mainly subdue monsters as a S-Class mage. But now he received a investigation job from Roubaul.
"Why are you sending me on an investigation job? Am I a detective or something?" Ben asked, curiously.
"Don't be talking nonsense. I didn't choose this job, it was a personal request from the Magic Council. You were chosen because of your great magic sense. An anomaly was detected in the sky above Fiore."
"The natural Ethernano in the atmosphere was reduced significantly. This caused the Magic Council to become worried, so they issued this job. They've chosen other mages with great senses, so you won't be alone." Roubaul said.
"They chose me? So troublesome." Ben sighed in annoyance.
If the job was issued by the Magic Council, he didn't have any choice but to accept it. Refusing this job will get them on the Council's bad side. He wanted to avoid them if he could.
Ben immediately prepared his stuff and called for Bella. Then they head to the location they were assigned to check. They were tasked to check a mountain where many strong beasts resided.
That area is quite dense with Ethernano, so the reduction of it's amount is noticeable. The monsters that resided there might have been another reason the Council chose Ben because he fought a lot of monsters over the last 2 years.
After 3 hours, Ben finally reached the mountain range and almost arrived at his destination. It's noon now, but the sky was very dark. Ben thought that rain would fall soon, so he drove faster.
Suddenly, Ben sensed a strong magic creature with an abnormal magic wavelength. He didn't know what happened, but he knew he needed to check it out. Ben drove towards the source of that magic and was surprised by what he saw next.
Ben spotted a big beast attacking 2 girls with white hair. He recognized them as Mirajane and Lisanna. He didn't see Elfman anywhere, but he couldn't think about that now.
Mirajane was slumped on the ground and Ben could tell that she had run out of magic power. The problem was Lisanna stood in front of the beast while spreading her hands out. It seemed she was trying to protect Mirajane and stop the beast.
The beast raised it's hand to attack Lisanna. Ben immediately left his car and ran as fast as he could to stop the beast. He punched the beast away, but Lisanna was still hit by it.
Lisanna was sent flying through the air even though Ben reduced the beast's attack power. Lisanna flew over to her sister and laid weakly on the ground. The beast stood up again and tried to attack them. So Ben prepared a big spell to kill the beast in a single shot.
"STOP! THAT'S ELFMAN!" Mirajane yelled while holding Lisanna in her arms.
"What?" Ben asked, surprised to hear that he was confronting Elfman.
Ben lost focus for a moment and he then got hit by Elfman who had turned into the beast. Ben crashed into a cliff, but he only took a little bit of damage.
"Did he try to overtake the beast, but fail?" Ben pondered while getting himself out of the cliff.