“I see, the Dark Guild is it?”

Chris muttered after listening to the recollection of my visit to the guard’s post.

“Still, why did they target Harry?”

“It must be because of the dantian discovery. Since the Hales must likely have the knowledge on how to cultivate qi we’re seen as a threat to the current world balance. Harry whom the public knows as the head of the research naturally becomes the main target. They might be aiming to get the cultivation method out of him too.”

I was stupid. I never thought they could have hurt any of us. I’ve overestimated Harry’s capabilities in combat since he’s a 7th circle mage and suggested doing our missions separately. They must have been confident since they went after Harry knowing his level as a mage. However, they couldn’t have known my abilities and Chris’; we shouldn’t have split up. In other words -

“It’s my fault.”

Chris looked down and said nothing to that. He must have agreed too.

“It’s not your fault.” a familiar voice uttered from behind me.

I turned to see Harry covered in bandages standing by the door before trudging towards me. I tried to assist him while scolding him for walking right after waking up but he stopped me and grabbed my shoulders while looking at me straight in the eyes.

“Don’t blame yourself, young master. I was the one who agreed to your suggestion, and I was the one who’s too weak to defend himself. Besides, I’m fine; it’s just a few bruises. Don’t worry about me too much.”

“He’s right. It’s not really your fault. Don’t feel too down.” Chris chimed in.

Good grief. What’s with this atmosphere? I smiled slightly.

“Forget about it. Let’s go get lunch.”

“Yeah, let’s eat.”

“Ahh~ I’m getting hungry too. What should we eat? Is Richard paying?”

“Pay for yourself.”

“Tch. So stingy.”

Laughter rang out as the three of us strolled to the restaurant that sells rice bowls.

***

Harry’s injuries weren’t that serious and High Heal had been cast on him so he could resume activities as an adventurer after just a few days of rest. Harry told us that his attackers said that they won’t kill him yet before he fainted. Which confirmed my conjecture that the people that hired the Dark Guild or the Dark Guild itself were trying to dig out information about the qi cultivation method from Harry.

I expected spies and assassins but they’re more powerful than I thought. I was too arrogant just because I easily killed the assassins sent to the mansion. The way those mages that attacked Harry used magic was too different than a typical mage. They’re mages who are proficient in close combat. Which meant that swordsmen were never actually inferior to mages. Although, that’s only if they could use magic.

Now that I think about it, the high-ranked adventurers are also said to wield magic differently. Is it similar to that? This is interesting. I have never met any high-ranked adventurers but I’m looking forward to it now.

Currently, I’m at the Adventurer Guild’s training ground with Harry and Chris. There were only the three of us here right now. I’m going to train them so that Harry’s incident doesn’t repeat. By the way, since I was enlightened during the fight with that bald guy I achieved a breakthrough in my training. I’m now a 3rd circle mage and my control over qi had evolved.

Anyways, let’s start with Harry.

“Harry.”

“Yes.”

“You’re too weak.”

I said bluntly.

“You didn’t have to say it that way.”

Chris comforted the dejected Harry. I ignored them and kept going.

“Even at the 7th circle you lack battle experience and you have the same weakness that every typical mage has. You are easily beaten in close combat. Your opponents this time were seasoned fighters, they didn’t let you cast any high leveled spells and you had to stick to basic spells. However-”

Harry was listening with full attention to my explanation.

“Why didn’t you think of combining spells to produce a stronger effect?! Is magic so linear to you? You called yourself one of the greatest mages on the continent excluding the Great Mages but you were so easily beaten? Have you never been in a fight before?”

Harry flinched at my harsh words. He’s indeed a genius for being able to complete the breathing method from my vague hypothesis but he couldn’t even be called good when it comes to real combat. The sight of a child scolding an adult must have been confusing to bystanders. The three of us were alone, however.

“How the hell did you reach 7th circle like that? Have you ever fought any battle before?”

“Mages like me usually fight in wars. Besides, I’ve always spent my life studying instead of fighting in wars.”

“Ah~ So it’s like that.”

Besides the fact that Harry had been stuck in the tower at home his whole life, the typical mages who fight in wars don’t actually ‘fight’; they just spam spells on the battlefield from the rear side. If they fight other mages it’s just long distance. That’s why they’re so weak at close combat. I wonder if father fought like that too? This is worrying.

That said, a normal swordsman or melee fighter can’t hurt them either. Harry lost so miserably this time because he fought other mages in close quarters, not just any normal group.

“Geez, those same mages who are so weak are also so arrogant. Harry look closely.”

I decided to demonstrate the culmination of battle magic theories from fantasy novels and the science subjects I learned in school to Harry.

“[Golem Creation: Earth]”

Huge golems rose from the ground and stood still in the middle of the training ground.

“[Fireball]” “[Air ball]”

A fairly small ball of fire and air took shape separately in front of me and flew towards the golem. As the two balls of fire and air combined when it hits the golem a huge explosion ensued followed by a hot blast of wind. The golems were subsequently destroyed.

Harry and Chris were aghast at the power of my spells. I proceeded to lecture Harry.

“Air expands when heated, therefore compressing air with Air Ball and rapidly heating it with Fireball could result in a stronger explosion compared to using only Fireball. Knowing these kinds of effects helps in using different spells to produce a stronger effect during combat. Your enemy won’t only sit still, so blindly spamming spells won’t do anything. But what if you had firepower so large that your opponent couldn’t dodge it?”

“Of course! You’re a genius, young master!”

“What do you mean genius. This is basic stuff, it’s embarrassing that you don’t know this.”

I raised my fist as if trying to hit him and he flinched.

“Chris, now you look closely.”

I unsheathed Night and pointed it forward.

“[Golem Creation: Earth]”

I chanted shortly and a new batch of golems rose from the ground. I breathed slowly and focused on my sword.

“[First Swordsmanship: Second Form]”

Boosh

Night’s blade burned brightly and I swung my sword towards the golems.

“[Burning Sun]”

Qi is a form of energy, just as much as mana; as I injected qi into my blade, the fire blazed stronger and followed the trajectory of my swing.

Boom!

The golems were sliced in half and exploded simultaneously. The two idiots grew even more shocked by the demonstration.

“This is the potential of swordsmanship. Although, I did use magic a bit.”

Never mind, the first form uses purely qi after all.

Chris doesn’t have any problems with his abilities but I just wanted to show him the potential of the path I pioneered.

“No, young master, wasn’t that just an explosion. You’re only throwing a bomb with your sword.”

Harry started speaking nonsense again.

“Anyhow, you guys train until you could reproduce what I demonstrated. Harry, spar with Chris during your training and get used to close-quarters combat.”

“Yes.”

“Great. Let’s start.”

“Richard! What was the loud explosion just now!”

Rebecca entered the training ground and saw the huge scorch marks I made on the dirt ground and pieces of destroyed golems all over the place.

“What is this mess!”

“Sorry, I’ll clean this up.”

I scratched the back of my head while chuckling. I made the other two clean the training ground with me before going out to the forest for training.