Chapter 309 - Warning, the Restaurant is Under Attack!
Of course, Mag didn’t even have any essential energy yet, so there was no point in thinking about sword projections.
However, as he accumulated more strength points, his essential energy should be able to slowly recover. With the enhancement effects of essential energy, humans would be capable of doing many things that were once impossible to them.
Back then, the purple-striped griffin had been an important factor in Alex’s dragon-slaying quest. However, the key was to strengthen one’s body through the use of essential energy.
With a powerful sword technique as accompaniment, essential energy could unleash devastating power. It would allow one to slice through a giant dragon’s hard scales with ease, thereby inflicting grievous wounds upon them.
Back then, the purple-striped griffin, and the man who wielded his sword with a single arm, struck fear deep into the hearts of the giant dragons. The giant dragons were the kings of the sky, but there was actually a time when none of them could be seen in the air above Rodu.
Battle techniques were methods of utilizing essential energy during battle. Only battle techniques could unleash the full power of essential energy, thereby resulting in a marked improvement in one’s combat prowess.
The last five forms of the Thirteen Swordplay Forms were actually sword techniques, so they could only be used after he reached the 5th-tier.
Mag shook his head to rid himself of those unnecessary thoughts, and continued to focus on his sword practice.
He wasn’t even a 1st-tier knight yet, so sword techniques were things that he only had to think about in the distant future. His current priority was to practice his sword forms, and make himself invincible among beings of the same tier. That would construct a good foundation for him to improve upon in the future.
The practice session lasted an entire hour, and Mag was well and truly drenched in sweat by the end thereof. His wrists were throbbing as he put his sword away in a safe place, and he went downstairs to take a bath.
A short while later, Mag lay down in a warm bath and closed his eyes in contentment. After an hour of painstaking practice, he had unleashed the sword strike 200 times with each hand, which gave him a better understanding of and control over his body. After reaching his exhaustion threshold, he was able to clearly identify his body’s tenacity as well as its potential for improvement.
Of course, an hour was definitely not enough. Mag had already formulated a training schedule that centered around progressive overload for himself. He was going to gradually increase the duration and intensity of his training sessions, which would take place at night, after Amy had already gone to bed.
“She’s progressing in her cultivation at a phenomenal rate; I can’t let her leave me in the dust. That would be way too embarrassing,” Mag murmured to himself as he clenched his fists tightly. His heart was filled with unprecedented motivation.
That night, Mag slept very soundly. However, he wasn’t awoken by his alarm clock the next morning. Instead, he was jerked awake by a dull thump and a shaky bed.
“Hmm?” Mag opened his bleary eyes, but he immediately snapped awake at the sight of the drawing that was hanging from his bed frame, which was oscillating from side to side. He threw off his blankets and threw himself to Amy’s little bed. It was an earthquake!
Right at that moment, the system’s voice suddenly sounded. “Beep, beep, beep! Warning! The restaurant is under attack! The energy level is at the 3rd-tier, and it has yet to break through the restaurant’s defense systems.”
“3rd-tier?” Mag’s stopped cold in his tracks. The tremors had already stopped. There was no damage aside from the fact that his alarm clock had been knocked over, and the drawing on his bed frame was completely crooked. However, the restaurant had been completely unmoved when it had last been struck by a 3rd-tier attack, so he was a little perplexed.
“System, is someone trying to cause trouble again?” he asked.
“Unable to identify the identity of the intruder or the method of attack used,” the system replied in an indifferent voice.
Mag looked at the alarm clock on his table, which told him that it was only 5am. Amy was still sound asleep on her little bed with Ugly Duckling in her arms; he heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing that. He put on some clothes, and quietly went downstairs.
Even though a 3rd-tier attack wouldn’t be able to break through the restaurant’s defense, it was still a little concerning that they were being attacked out of the blue. As such, Mag decided to assess the situation himself.
He opened a set of blinds and looked outside. The sky was still quite dim, and there were no people in the streets. The melee that had taken place the day prior had destroyed the restaurant’s door as well as a few large trees outside. People from the Gray Temple were presumably going to visit later in the day to replant those trees.
There’s no one there. Was it a prank? Mag looked around and confirmed that there was no one hiding in the bushes, either. He became more and more perplexed, and hesitated momentarily before opening the door. His feet remained planted within the restaurant as he poked his head out and surveyed his surroundings. His gaze then fell on the forge next door, upon which his eyes widened. He exclaimed, “Mobai, what happened to you?”
The forge had already been reduced to a pile of rubble. Mobai held a large iron hammer in his hand, and his face had been blackened by soot as he sat at the entrance of the forge. Most of his disheveled beard had been burned away, and he looked like a coal miner who had just returned from a shift.
“Hehe, morning, Mag. I… I accidentally caused an explosion, but it’s alright.” Mobai turned to Mag, and gave him an awkward smile.
“It’s alright?” Mag was a little skeptical as he came out of his restaurant. The forge had been razed to the ground, and all types of weapons were scattered throughout the wreckage. The neighboring shop where no one lived had also been destroyed, and even the shop that was situated an entire block away had collapsed. The situation certainly didn’t look “alright”.
It was possible to imagine just how terrifying an explosion it had been.
A peculiar expression appeared on Mag’s face. An accidental explosion? This is a bloody terrorist attack!
Mobai was still sitting amid the wreckage with a bashful smile on his face. Mag then suddenly figured out where his neighbor had disappeared to for the past couple of days. He had been experimenting with explosives underground!
If Mag wasn’t mistaken, the tremors he had felt in the Mamy Restaurant were most likely a result of that explosion. In the face of a 3rd-tier attack, the Mamy Restaurant would have most likely been toppled like the nearby shops had it not been for the restaurant’s defense systems. He and Amy were still sleeping there, so the consequences would have been dire had they not have been protected by the system.
“Mobai, what you’re doing is not right. What if that explosion had topped the restaurant? If you’re going to do experiments, at least notify your neighbors first.” Mag was a little angry as he appraised Mobai.
He was very sympathetic toward his blacksmith neighbor as the latter’s father had been eaten by a giant dragon, but that wasn’t an excuse for him to experiment with explosives at home.
Furthermore, Mobai hadn’t given any prior notice to his neighbors before conducting his experiments. He was clearly not taking the lives of others seriously, and that lackadaisical attitude left a bad taste in Mag’s mouth.
Mobai stood up with an apologetic expression, and replied, “Sorry, Mag, I didn’t think that the explosion would be so powerful. I used similar ratios of materials for many experiments in the past, and the resulting explosions were only able to blast through the first layer of the magic shields. I only added a pinch of powdered beast core this time. I didn’t think it would make such a drastic difference. I had set up three layers of magic shields in advance, but it still wasn’t enough.”