Benjamin casually tossed those Dragon-kin into the Internal Grotto-Heaven, then turned and looked down at the land beneath his feet.
Rumble...
The first crack appeared.
Immediately afterward, an unbroken web of fissures spread rapidly outward from the small town, and the entire mountain range began to quake violently.
"I didn't expect you to find the target so quickly."
At that moment, Broadleaf's voice abruptly sounded beside Benjamin. His tone was calm, yet it effortlessly drowned out the thunderous roar of the mountains collapsing below. Benjamin turned his head and saw the veteran wizard stepping slowly out of the void.
An amber gleam of laws spread beneath his feet, condensing into a translucent path of light, as though it had sliced a seam through the night itself. The restless elements around him rose and fell gently with his breathing, as if bowing before a true master.
Broadleaf first glanced at the violently trembling mountains below, then indifferently withdrew his gaze and turned it upon Benjamin. "It seems you have grasped some knowledge related to fate." He spoke slowly, his voice carrying a trace of emotion. "Being able to resist the dimensional disparity when the Reflected Dimension passage opened at your level was already astonishing enough. I never expected you to have attained such achievements in knowledge related to fate as well." As he spoke, a flicker of envy and something more complicated passed through his dark brown eyes.
It was the expression only an old wizard who had remained at the seventh rank for tens of thousands of years, weathered every storm, would reveal upon seeing in a younger generation some rare talent he himself had never managed to touch.
"Truly enviable wisdom," he said softly.
Benjamin gave a slight bow.
He was not at all surprised that Broadleaf had appeared