Dealing with small fries

Magic cultivation was divided into six stages, namely; Origin, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Peak, and Supreme.

Each stage was separated by the number of magic circles one could obtain. For each stage after Origin which had a total of 2 magic circles, the number of magic circles would increase by a multiple of 2 added to the original 2 circles of the first rank.

This meant that the Intermediate stage would have 4 additional magic circles making for a total of 6 and the stage after that which is Advanced would have a total of 14.

The magic circles were used to tell the amount of magic one could contain in their body, as, unlike Ordena cultivation which does not require a container to store the energy, Magic requires a storage unit inside the body.

This allows Magicians to store magic in their bodies and then utilize it when in combat.

Compared to Ordena, the Origin stage for magic would be the training regiment Sages would receive before they attempt to make a breakthrough to the Hermit stage.

This meant that Ordena cultivation was higher than Magic cultivation by one level with Hermit level Sages being comparable to Magicians at the Intermediate level.

This was only natural based on the amount of hard work a Sage had to put in.

Thus, as Max probed everyone present, he found that the strongest magician was actually the helpless girl which made him wonder how she got into such a predicament.

It should be noted though that Magicians were unable to sense the energy fluctuations caused by Ordena unless the phenomenon was too big to go unnoticed.

Of course, this also applied to Ordena being used to sense magic.

But humans are predominantly tagged as living beings not made of magic thus it was easier to sense their life force to make a summary of their power levels, which was what Max did.

He couldn't directly tell their cultivation level, neither could he make out how many magic circles they had, but he could tell one thing… Their life force was too weak!

Max smirked at the thought of that but the barbarians took it as him making fun of them.

"Let me see whether you'd still be laughing after I wipe that smile off your pretty-boy face!" The man with the cleaver roared as he dashed at Max.

He swung his cleaver down after he covered the short distance between them, hoping to behead Max in one fell swoop, but would such a feat be so easy to accomplish?

Max made his move.

In his eyes, the barbarian might as well be running in slow motion, coupled with the fact that he was already aware of how he was going to attack and how much force his attack held, Max decided to make things easy for the buffoon.

He swung his fist.

The barbarian saw the punch coming but did nothing to block it. As far as he was concerned, the distance between the cleaver and his opponent's neck was way lesser than the fist and his face.

But was that the case?

Bam

Before he had a chance to react, he was sent flying before dropping a few meters away. The barbarian with the cleaver was so shocked that he could not help but mutter in disbelief. "How?"

At that moment, a rush of pain went through his brain and he passed out.

Max glanced at him. "One down, two to go."

The other two barbarians were at a loss. What the hell just happened?

They watched everything clearly but still couldn't believe what they saw. Why?

Because they saw the fist that Max had thrown at their brother. They expected the pretty boy's head to roll before his fist even got a chance to connect but what happened was beyond their expectations.

For some reason, the pretty boy's fist did not touch their brother but he suddenly flew up and dropped to the ground before passing out.

How were they meant to explain this?

The first brother shook off his apprehensions. "Buy me some time, I'll summon help."

The second brother nodded as he pulled out an ax. Putting aside his disbelief, he decided to act.

This pretty boy turned out not to be as useless as they thought, thus, he went all out.

Max could faintly tell the changes occurring to his life force. "Is he strengthening his body with magic?... Interesting."

Turning his attention to the guy trying to summon, Max smiled. "So he is a Summoner. Most likely a low-leveled creature will appear."

"Don't forget about me!" the second brother charged forward, brandishing his ax as he tried to take advantage of what he saw as Max's lapse in concentration.

With his body enhanced by magic, he was able to exert strength and speed twice the capabilities of a human in peak athletic condition.

As he swung his ax, hoping to split Max in two, the latter suddenly pulled out a stick and blocked the attack.

They collided but it was the second brother that felt the most pain as he took steps back. His palms were sore and his muscles were aching. With quivering lips, he asked. "Who are you?"

The second brother could tell that this pretty boy was not a simple character at all. They may have just ended up angering someone they shouldn't have.

Max flashed a smile. "Just a friendly Sage with curiosities."

"Brother buy me some more time, I'm almost done." The first brother called out, still going at the hand seals to complete the summoning.

Max was unfazed by this, even feeling expectant at what creature he would be able to summon with his paltry strength.

The second brother saw no other option. They had already angered this strange personage and what's more, he had injured their third brother.

There was no way peace could be achieved, thus, he attacked once more, this time putting even more effort into his strike.

At the same time, the girl they were attacking opened up her eyes just in time to watch a major spectacle occur.

Sidestepping to dodge the ax, Max moved his arms and calmly grabbed the second brother's wrist with his left hand before slamming his right palm into the latter's chest.

Unwilling to kill him, Max applied just enough force, causing the second brother to cough up a little blood before passing out.

"Two down, one left."