Chapter 86: Peace? I Think Not!

Roderic stared at the notification with a huge grin.

’’There’s even an additional reward for breaking through,’’ he said. ’’Aren’t you kind today?’’

There was no way he’d decline a free ten thousand Throne Coins though.

But in reality, that wasn’t at all what he cared about!

At the moment, there was just one thing he wanted to do.

’I need to test this,’ he thought. ’Let’s see how strong I’ve actually become!’

It only took him a minute to get dressed again.

After fastening both Azure Hooked Blades around his waist, he moved away from the river and deeper into the forest.

His eyes quickly swept across a bundle of trees.

’’This should be good,’’ he muttered, pulling out his blades.

The moment his fingers tightened around the handle, excitement rushed through him again.

Blue aura lit up his right blade in an instant.

’Damn...’

Compared to before, the layer of aura was far thicker. Not to mention, it allowed itself to be manipulated much more easily!

Roderic grinned and raised the blade.

’No need to start small then.’

All the aura condensed itself around the sharp side of his blade, its color changing from a deep ocean blue to a bright gold.

’Second movement...’

Roderic swung out instantly.

’Dragon’s Slash!’

SWOOSH!

A massive golden arc shot forth from his blade.

Roderic’s eyes widened immediately.

The aura slash only grew larger as it rapidly tore through the forest ahead of him.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Tree after tree fell down, sending a cloud of dust and pollen into the air.

Roderic watched in stunned silence as the golden arc finally disappeared into the distance.

’Was that... ten meters?’ he thought slowly.

Swallowing hard, he couldn’t help but think back to before his breakthrough.

His Dragon’s Slash had only traveled four meters away from him.

Not to mention, it hadn’t grown nearly as large as this one!

’This... can’t I mow down like a dozen soldiers at once?’

A wide grin slowly began growing on Roderic’s face.

This was only the second movement, after all.

Now that he’d broken through, he could finally start training the third and fourth movements as well.

’The third movement was called the Coiling Dragon,’ he thought, nodding slowly.

Unlike his other movements, it wasn’t focused on destructiveness.

Instead, it was focused on extremely nimble footwork that allowed one to redirect the force of an opponent’s attack back at them.

It was completely different from anything Roderic had practiced until now.

And honestly, that only made him more interested in learning it.

’Then there’s the fourth movement,’ he thought. ’The Dragon’s Roar.’

Unlike the first two movements, Dragon’s Roar barely relied on the sharp edges of his weapons at all.

Instead, the user would reverse one of the blades and strike their opponent with the bottom of its handle.

But the real attack came from the aura.

An enormous amount would be compressed into a single point before violently erupting the instant the handle struck its target.

’It’ll destroy someone from the inside,’ he thought, grinning, ’you know, rupture their organs, pulverize their hearts, all that.’

Roderic chuckled softly before lowering his blades.

There was plenty of time to learn both movements before the war.

For now, Edmund and the others were still waiting for him.

’Probably shouldn’t keep them there all day. We’ve got a few more kilometers to go before sunset, after all.’

With that, Roderic sheathed his blades and started making his way through the forest.

It didn’t take long before the camp came into view once more.

Most of the knights and servants were already eating their lunch, while the horses were grazing beside the three carriages.

Barely a second had passed before Edmund had already spotted him.

’’Young master,’’ he greeted, quickly getting back to his feet. ’’Perfect timing. Your food should still be warm.’’

Roderic’s stomach immediately answered for him.

’’Good,’’ he replied casually, already walking over. ’’I’m fucking starving.’’

Edmund reached for a plate, but Roderic had already grabbed one of the skewers of roasted rabbit from beside the fire.

’’This’ll do,’’ he said, immediately taking a bite.

The meat was still hot enough to burn one’s mouth, but Roderic barely cared.

After everything his body had just gone through, they could’ve handed him one on fire and he’d still eat it.

Roderic quickly tore another piece of meat from the skewer.

It didn’t take him long to finish the entire thing.

By then, most of the servants had already started packing away the remaining supplies.

’’Alright,’’ Roderic muttered, climbing back to his feet. ’’Let’s get moving.’’

Within several minutes, the fires were extinguished and the horses were attached to the carriages once more.

Roderic climbed inside, this time accompanied by Edmund.

Soon after, the three carriages continued their journey.

...

Several hours passed without anything noteworthy happening.

Roderic mostly slept, still feeling utterly exhausted from the intense breakthrough.

By the time the sun disappeared behind the horizon, they had traveled another few dozen kilometers.

Eventually, the group stopped inside a large clearing beside the road.

This time, however, they wouldn’t be leaving until the earliest signs of morning light.

Tents were quickly raised, horses were tied down and several fires illuminated the otherwise dark clearing.

After eating dinner with Edmund, Roderic wasted little time heading towards his tent.

’Damn headache,’ he thought, holding his head. ’Guess the breakthrough really just was that intense...’

He hadn’t felt like this since his time running between three jobs with only a few hours of sleep back on Earth.

’’Goodnight, young master,’’ Edmund said from behind him.

Roderic lazily raised one hand.

’’Goodnight.’’

He stepped inside and dropped onto his bedroll.

Within minutes, Roderic had fallen into a deep sleep.

Hours slowly passed.

The fires outside gradually died down as almost the entire camp fell silent.

Only the knights assigned to the night watch remained awake.

Roderic continued sleeping peacefully.

Slowly, however, faint noises began coming from the darkness surrounding the camp.

Whoosh! Crack!

Suddenly, a loud shout echoed through the entire camp.

’’AMBUSH!’’