Chapter 3 - A Tragedy and Choice

Ben made it to the forest within thirty minutes as he was sightseeing and began looking for a palm sized red clover. Sending a wave of mana throughout the forest, covering ten kilometers, Ben found many beasts and animals. The animals ran away after feeling Ben's mana wave as they were more sensitive to mana, as for the beasts, they began to grown and run over to Ben. At least until Ben sent a second stronger wave of mana, causing them to run away in whimpers.

"Huh, they're weaker than I thought. Then again, they're no monster so I guess it's expected." Ben said as he walked over to the closest herbs he had located.

Within ten minutes, Ben had found five of them and smiled at this accomplishment before he went back to the city. Following the directions to the quest giver's home, Ben found himself in an alley instead of a house.

"I'm not going to get jumped am I?" Ben couldn't help but ask.

Sighing to himself, he walked inside as he had a quest to finish. There were homeless people sitting on the ground, some shaking from the cold and some from sickness. Ben wasn't worried much about catching anything though as his body was stronger than normal people and his bodies mana reserves killed anything harmful within himself. A fact he learned and experimented with when his dad took him to go drink for turning fourteen, and he didn't feel drunk, let alone buzzed.

After a while of looking at the homeless people, Ben walked up to a stable looking man and asked him. "Do you know a person by the name of Gwen?"

The man stared silently at Ben and held his hand out. Ben sighed at this before he pulled out a silver coin and flipped it towards the man. The man dropped it and began to stumble around looking for it. Once he found it, he held it like it was his wide or daughter before he pointed to a small tent further down the alley.

Leaving the man to his coin molesting, Ben walked over to the ten and coughed as he asked. "Is anyone named Gwen in this tent?"

Ben heard a gasp before the tent opened up to reveal someone he wasn't expecting. The very same girl who sold him her flowers was in front of him and also had a look of shock. Ben chuckled awkwardly as he had a feeling it might've been the girl after seeing the new looking quest along with the objective and reward.

"Are you Gwen?" Ben asked, to which the girl nodded.

"Well, I have your herbs." Ben said and was about to pull out the herbs, but was then pulled inside of the tent.

Once inside, Ben looked at the body laying on the ground, not person, but body as it had no pulse and seemingly died a couple of hours ago. Ben looked towards the girl with a sympathizing expression but was shocked when he saw her smiling.

"The herb can heal mother right? That's what the others said." The girl most likely named Gwen stated.

Ben was silent as he heard this and was speechless, he had no words to say. Instead, he just hugged the girl close to him and kept on apologizing.

"Why are you saying that? Mother's still alive. I spoke to her this morning when I got some coins for the quest. So why are you apologizing!" The girl yelled, crying and struggling.

Ben held her tightly as she slowly lost her energy and began to silently weep. Memories he didn't wish to bring back surfaced as he caressed the girls head.

"It's going to be alright." Ben said, speaking words that his mother had spoken to him when she died. "Let it all out right now, and never cry for your mother again after this. Your mother raised you with love and would want you to live happily. You don't want to make your mom sad do you?"

The girl sniffled and shook her head. "No..."

Ben nodded at this and then said. "That's good."

"Why did mother have to die?" Gwen then asked, repeating it several times.

Ben wondering how to answer this question felt anger come out of him as he said. "It's because this world is cruel, and you need power to take destiny and fate into your own hands."

Calming himself, Ben then heard Gwen ask. "How? How do I get power?"

Sadness, fear, and anger filled her voice as she asked this. Ben knew that being homeless without a family would mean finding power would be a lost cause. No monetary power, no political power, no connections, and no physical and magical power. She would gain no power in her lifetime as she currently was, that is, if no one interfered. Ben contemplated helping her but what he had just seen and how this scene resonated with him, he couldn't help but sigh.

"If you want to become strong, to control your own fate and protect those you care about, follow me and become my mage. I will teach you how to destroy mountains and split oceans with time and training. So what will you do?" Ben said, using the excuse of needing a mage to take her in.

"Will you?" The girl asked as she looked up at Ben.

"Only if you accept my offer to become my mage." Ben promised.

----- -----

The first day in Capital City was spent rather boring in the beginning and tragically in the end for Ben but this wasn't the normal world anymore. Death, mistreatment, and segregation were a serious problem in the current world. Ben was expecting this when he learned of the era he lived in but he supposed his hometown was just one of the better settlements.

The clothing shops didn't allow Gwen inside due to her homeless nature but throwing a couple silver coins shut them up quickly. Ben had wanted Gwen to pick out the clothing on her own but was forced to pick for her at her request. So, looking at the clothes, Ben picked out a white sleeping gown, a sundress with sandals for the normal day activities, and adventure clothing consisting of brown trousers, a white shirt and boots.

The next stop was reporting on the completion of the quest which was technically completed, but Ben still felt like it was a failure as Gwen's mother died. This granted him the reward money and he couldn't help but sigh. After that little trip, Ben was now holding five silver coins, just enough for two meals and a one bed room at an inn. Ben sighed internally as the silver was supposed to last him about four days if he couldn't find any good job, but now it was all gone.

Together, the two ate their dinner silently before they got to their rooms. There was a smaller space for bathing but the bucket was empty, not that it mattered to Ben as he cleaned and filled it with warm water.

"You, do know how to shower right?" Ben asked Gwen after sanitizing the bathroom.

Gwen nodded and Ben was about to leave her alone until she grabbed onto his sleeve and began to shiver. "Please don't leave me."

Ben sighed once more internally before he looked at her and guessed her age to be around seven or eight.

"Well, it should be fine." Ben said.

Ben used magic to create warm water that sprinkled above them which caused Gwen to become amazed. Cleaning Gwen's hair as the water drizzled with homemade liquid soap he had made, Ben found that Gwen's hair was actually dark blonde, covered by all of the dirt. After the two were finished bathing, they both changed out of their clothes and laid on the bed.

"Well, at least tomorrow will be better than the first day." Ben thought while also wondering if he just set a flag on himself.

"Ben?" Gwen suddenly said while holding onto Ben's arm.

"Yes?" Ben said with his eyes still closed.

"Can I stay with you forever?" Gwen asked.

Ben pondered over this question before he answered. "As long as you like."

He heard giggles from Gwen and then silent sleeping afterwards. Thinking about his goal to become the strongest being in the world and completely explore the Continent of Monsters, Ben knew Gwen needed to become stronger to keep up. Her mana reserves were quite large for someone her age, about as much as Ben's mother had. That plus the fact that she still had time to expand her mana reserves meant she would become a great mage since mana stopped developing after the age of fourteen.

The world already apparently knew about training younger to increase mana reserves but since their mana flow were chaotic and unstable, Ben theorized that this was the reason why no one had the same amount of mana as he did. That and Ben had been training since infancy, along with his otherworldly knowledge.

"But how should I teach Gwen?" Ben thought.

He had thought about teaching her how to stabilize her mana and allow it to flow smoothly alongside her circulatory system, but decided against it. It would take too long to teach her how to control and hide her internal mana from others. So instead, Ben decided he would teach her his new magic he had developed that was slightly different from this worlds magic.

Magic in this world used chanting to create a more stable image of the spell and used a god to create a belief of the power behind the spell. Since Ben didn't know any of the chants for elemental magic, he decided to create his own. He called this magic, Olympian Magic and used the names of the gods of his old world. Since Ben had a great imagination alongside knowing many myths and stories behind these beings, the magic chants came out great. He just didn't know if it actually worked on others since Ben didn't need chants to use magic.

"We'll find out tomorrow."