Mission (3)

[Male Barbarian | Age - 44 Years Old | Race - Caveman

Attributes:

Strength - 2.6 | Agility - 0.8 | Vitality - 0.6]

[Female Barbarian | Age - 21 Years Old | Race - Caveman

Attributes:

Strength - 1.2 | Agility - 1.4 | Vitality - 0.6]

[Male Barbarian | Age - 20 Years Old | Race - Caveman

Attributes:

Strength - 1.0 | Agility - 0.8 | Vitality - 0.6]

'This kid...how did he notice them before I did?', John wondered as he took out a wand.

"Drake, do not underestimate them", John said. His eyes were fierce, and he was completely focused on the one older Male Barbarian who had strength above 2 points.

While it would have been a deadly trap to most travellers, as barbarians possessed enormous strength and experience in brawling, Drake and John were no average men. Actually, they were closer to beasts than these 'cavemen' were.

[Warning! Host's heart rate is increasing by 88%]

[Demonic Raven Eye Breathing Technique activated]

[Host's heart rate is decreasing slightly]

At the sight of blood, Drake felt like he could go on a rampage, unrestrained. However, breathing in a particular rhythm he had been taught, he managed to keep his calm.

John, knowing fully how hard it was to stay sane with such a high bloodline purity, nodded.

'Seems like he is more mature than I thought. It was the right call to bring him with me...'

[Shadow Bolt]

Just as he concentrated, a massive black ball appeared on top of John's wand. As he finished his incantation, the shadow bolt was launched, causing the barbarian's leader to widen in shock.

*BOOM*

Three of his subordinates had been wiped out instantly. As soon as the black bolt came into contact with the ground, it exploded and corrupted everything in a 5-meters-radius area. Even the snow turned black. As for the poor barbarians who were caught in it, their skin dried and their eyes became hallow. Their skin also turned into a dark purple colour. Obviously, they died instantly.

[Beep!]

[Spell similarity with the [Shadow Bolt] innate spell from the Moonfall Family: 98%]

[Estimated damage: 9 Degrees]

Drake smiled. He always knew that his distant uncle was a strong man, even though people gave him less credit than he should. Even if he was just a beginner rank acolyte, his understanding of magic made him respectable already. However, he also possessed a magical artefact.

In fact, owning a powerful magical was just as important as having high cultivation in a duel between acolytes. It could raise the attacking power by a considerable amount, or even double it based on the magical artefact's nature. Uncle John seemed to possess a wand, which could be used for close range fighting as well as empowering his spells. Most likely, it also sped up his incantation speed.

In other terms, a magical artefact was a terrifying trump card for acolytes.

Unfortunately, they were too rare and too expensive for the average intermediate acolyte, not to mention beginner acolyte. Hence, Uncle John probably was as strong as most intermediate acolytes in the family, even if he was not treated as such.

Drake stopped his train of thoughts as he saw the barbarian leader beginning his charge. Even if the barbarian leader was enough to strike fear in most travellers due to his strength attribute, Drake only saw him as a weakling. Preparatory knights would most likely struggle against such an opponent. After all, preparatory knights and knights-in-training possessed a fine swordsmanship and attributes around 1.8. However, they lacked battling experience.

Duels were completely different than life and death battles. The sight of blood, the stench of battlefield, the environment, the number of enemies...They were situations where the average preparatory knight would feel helpless in.

Drake was different, as he had trained against simulations created by his biochip. Among those simulations, he had fought all the individuals he had observed fighting, including knights, beasts and soldiers. Despite his age, his fighting experience probably exceeded that of knights.

Without a surprise, as the barbarian swung his club, Drake skillyfully dodged it narrowly by titling his body to the side. Using the momentum to rotate with even more speed, he then used all of his strength to make a clean horizontal cut. The barbarian leader was cut in half.

[Horizontal Strike...Skill completion: 89%]

Drake smiled upon seeing such a high skill completion in a real battle. The two remaining barbarians, fearful, tried to escape. However, with his high agility, Drake easily caught up and beheaded them with one clean strike.

As he returned to his uncle John's side, he was met with a shocked and genuinely happy face.

'Such strength...Even knights cannot compare to him...', John analysed.

He had seen strong knights, famous knights and even royal knights. And even though acolytes were stronger than knights, he had seen many acolytes fall to knights' attacks. Be it surprise attacks, war of attrition, or just melee brawls, knights possessed an enormous physical advantage in close combat.

Even though bloodline acolytes possessed a stronger body than average acolytes, it would merely increase their physique to the standard of a preparatory knight upon maturity, at least that was the case for Moonfall Acolytes. Perhaps stronger bloodline could have better effects, but in the whole Dalian Kingdom, there was only one bloodline magus family that had survived the passage of time. Unlike other magus families, bloodline path magus households had to face another problem besides the decreasing magical resources available: It was the natural thinning of the bloodline purity.

If not for the high-grade meditation technique that had been created by the founder of the family, the Moonfall Family would not have any heir today.

Many acolytes tried to combine their magical attainments with strong swordsmanship and knight training. However, the benefits were meagre compared to train one path. After all, learning magical theories and meditating was a long process that took years just to master one spell.

Hence, it was common for acolytes to neglect their bodies, and focus on meditating and studying instead. Bloodline path acolytes, however, did not need to study as much as other acolytes. They possessed the blood of magical beasts, thus making the spell casting a natural process, rather than something that required years of studying.