Just as Benjamin started getting creeped out under scrutiny, the owner of the pair of blue eyes spoke behind the steel door.
"Keep quiet! I managed to send Jessica away temporarily but she would be back any second now. I wouldn’t be here for long."
It was the gentle voice of a woman, that sounded rather familiar, but Benjamin could not recall who it belonged to.
"Who is this person?"
He asked the System by telepathy.
"Your mom." The System deadpanned.
"...."
At the ‘friendly’ reminder of the System, Benjamin finally remembered whose voice was that. It was the voice of Mary, the one who spoke once in the living room - wife of Claude, daughter-in-law of the madame, mother of Benjamin. His mother sent the guarding maid away on some errands, and sneaked in to visit him.
According to the summarized memories given by the System, Mary was a good wife and a loving mother. Her pleasant personality was well-known in the kingdom. Since young, Benjamin never saw her lose her temper at anyone, and she always had a good relationship with everyone - excluding the madame, of course.
Even though the madame never liked Mary and always picked on her, she never actually retaliated. Instead, she quietly accepted the madame’s harsh treatment. Mary could be considered a role model for daughter-in-laws for the century, really.
When she was with Benjamin, she did not treat him coldly or disappointingly despite the fact that he was a hopeless case. She treated Benjamin how she treated Grant, and both of them were well taken care of. This was almost unheard of, as it was normal for people to favor one child over another even though there was not much difference between them, what more in Benjamin’s family, where the children differed vastly in their achievements.
Benjamin considered all this and stopped hesitating. Immediately, he pleaded pitifully.
"Mother, you’re finally here."
Although he did not complain, but his woeful and feeble voice alone could convey how absolutely miserable he was feeling.
He hoped he could trigger his mother’s unending sympathy.
"Yes. I could only visit you after your father left the manor. Here, you must be starving now, I got the chambermaid to make some extra bread so I could bring them to you. Have some to lace your stomach so you could get through this," Mary did not disappoint Benjamin’s expectations as she passed him a small paper package through the opening of the door while she talked.
Benjamin felt a sudden rush of excitement. He took the package and opened it with trembling fingers. There were two pieces of warm, soft bread, and they lied quietly in the package. The scent of wheat and milk wafted through the air.
Ah, this…. Food!
Benjamin nearly broke into tears.
The best person in the world is a mother. Every child with a mother is treated like treasure.
Although he had the urge to chow down on the bread immediately, he endured his starvation and gazed thankfully at the blue eyes by the door, "Thank you, I nearly starved to death here."
Mary stood by the door, chuckled and said, "Don’t worry, I will try and talk to your father tomorrow once his temper is gone. He would let you out by then. Be calm, as your father would never hold you here for long."
Benjamin was relieved like he just ate an anti-stress pill upon hearing that. If he was locked here for too long, it would disrupt his plans of learning magic. He could only let Jeremy dig out Annie’s effects if he got out of here soon.
Also, he had no intentions to stay in the cellar for too long. It was great to have some rest, but once it became too long, it would be extremely boring. Now, he was already fed up with potatoes even though he was only here for less than 2 hours.
If he was here for a few more days, he would probably start sprouting on the top of his head.
"Right, Jessica is coming back soon, I need to go now. You be careful, don’t let them know that someone was here." The eyes at the opening of the door averted for a moment, as if they were observing the surroundings. Mary’s eyes were quickly back on him, as she spoke to Benjamin.
"Okay, goodbye mother," Benjamin replied with utmost sincerity.
"Goodbye, darling."
Accompanied with the quiet shuffling of her steps, Mary closed the steel door and left the cellar. After watching Mary left, Benjamin started to eat the bread that he was holding.
The portion of bread was not small, but he was so hungry he could even take a bigger portion. In a blink of the eye, there was only an empty paper package and some bread crumbs on his palms. Benjamin rubbed his tummy in a gratifying manner, and burped in content.
He rolled the paper into a ball and hid it in the sea of potatoes in order to avoid detection.
Then, he sprawled lazily on the floor among the potatoes, closed his eyes, and dived into the depth of his consciousness.
He never planned to waste his time sitting around in the cellar. Since he had nothing to do, he might as well investigate the space of his consciousness and the blue triangular symbol in it. It was not impossible for him to self-learn magic without guidance.
In fact, his way of learning magic so far has been by way of self-taught, wasn’t it?
Of course, he also considered practicing the only spell he knew - the Waterball Spell. In the common novels, the way to train your special abilities was to use them repeatedly. However, his present location was too close to the chapel, and if Michelle was telling the truth, the Cleaners could detect magic from a certain radius. If the church was alerted, his death would be imminent.
Thus, even if he wanted to practice magic, he could only do it within the space of his consciousness.
When he previously used the Waterball Spell there, Michelle was unable to detect that despite standing right next to him. Thus, the chapel that was situated a few streets away probably would not feel this.
The space of his consciousness…..It was really a mysterious existence.
Although he had no idea how Michelle and the others learnt their magic, his instinct told him that they did not possess a space of their own consciousness. They did not have this magical space, and also never had such a literal magical emblem like the blue symbol. Their road to becoming a mage was most probably different from Benjamin’s.
It is as if he had stumbled upon an extraordinary route by mistake.
This made him even more curious towards the space of his consciousness. Hence, Benjamin, who was confined within the cellar with nothing to do, went back into the space of his consciousness.
In the boundless space, everything was unchanged. The infinite darkness, the pale blue triangular symbol…. Everything seemed to be set in stone the moment it was formed, and would not change with time.
The changed person was Benjamin.
When he met the assassin, he learnt Water Detection, and he could feel that he was more sensitive towards the water element than ever before. Thus, he could see the floating water particles in this space clearer than he could previously. After some contemplation, he left the space and returned to the real world. He started to observe the water particles in real life.
Based on his observation, the water particles in the space of his consciousness was more concentrated than it was in real life.
He then returned to his space. He paused momentarily, and suddenly took off towards the opposite direction of the blue symbol. He sprinted towards the endless darkness in the space of his consciousness, and as the blue light became further, he was certain that the water particles around him decreased sharply. The contrast was just like a blue tie-dye shirt, it went from dark blue to a very light blue.
Soon, there was nothing around him but total darkness. He could not even see his own fingers.
This darkness did not scare Benjamin, though. Instead, he was weirdly comfortable with it.
He did not stop running either. Although his theory about the water element was confirmed, a new thought emerged: Was there a boundary for this space? What would happen if he continued running? What was behind this deep darkness?
To investigate the unknown is the nature of mankind. No matter if it is exploring the world beyond or delving into the profound heart, people always want to know what lays beyond.
Hence, Benjamin ran towards the darkest part of his space.
Then, he ran until he became an idiot.
"Where the hell is this god-forsaken place?"
After experiencing an extremely long marathon, Benjamin had to stop and pant while supporting himself with his knees. He stared aimlessly at the boundless darkness beyond.
He thought there was no physical exertion in the space of his consciousness. It was reasonable to assume that, as stamina was an actual thing. In the spiritual world, how could stamina manifest itself? Unfortunately, he was wrong.
He should have listened to Karl Marx. Matter is prime, mind is secondary; and when the mind was drained to its limits, it would also affect matter and drain it too.
He ran for God knows how long in this endless space, conquered a few thousand meters, but he still could not see a boundary. There was no change in his surroundings, and what was left was an eyeful of darkness, and more darkness….
He ran until his limbs was numb, but he still could not see any signs of his destination.
Thus, he halted his steps, exhausting himself until he almost collapsed after that.
"The mind of man has no boundaries. If you aim to find an end here, you’re basically wasting your energy," the System appeared, its monotonous voice echoing in the darkness.
"I was curious," Benjamin answered.
"You’re just too free after being fed," the System retorted with a tone that it was not supposed to have.
"...." Benjamin had no idea how to retort.
He did finish eating, and he did have nothing else to do.
Benjamin finally gave up on the idea to explore the space of his consciousness. He returned briefly to the real world before diving back into his space, and his location was once again near the blue symbol. The blue light shone brightly, and the water particles around him became concentrated again.
His effort on running for such a long time went to the drain with a snap of the fingers. He still felt some remorse for it.
His attention diverted quickly afterwards.
He was still an optimist, and if an experiment failed, he would just move on to another.
He reached out with his arm, and chanted the Waterball Spell with his arm aimed at the blue symbol. As the symbol vibrated and the water particles gathered, a water ball formed above his palm. Without hesitation, he diverted his attention and dispersed the water ball. Then, he once again chanted the Waterball Spell….
Again and again, he used the Waterball Spell in the space of his consciousness. The light blue waves spread just like ripples on a lake, causing the water particles to gather and disperse like tidal waves.
Soon, he felt that the water concentration in his space dropped drastically. However, he did not stop chanting the Waterball Spell; instead, he became faster in his actions.
At the 45th attempt in chanting the Waterball Spell, he realised that no water ball was forming in his palm anymore. Aside from that, he was assaulted with a sudden headache, and was then promptly ejected from the space of his consciousness.
This was the first time he involuntarily returned to the real world.
Although his head was pulsing with pain, Benjamin could not hide his excitement from his voice.
"I get it now!"
".... What did you understand?" The System unwillingly spoke after a long silence, "Although I didn’t want to continue this conversation, but I’ll still play along."
Benjamin ignored the sarcasm from the System. He was deep in the happiness of a revelation, as delighted as a toddler taking his first steps, and as ecstatic as a student seeing a 61 on his paper after failing the same test 3 times in a row.
He exclaimed loudly in his heart, "I finally understood the way to train myself to be a mage!"