Chapter 332: Technique and Breathing Method

Tap, tap, tap.

Gao De's steady footsteps echoed in the art hall, spreading rapidly in the quietness.

The internal space of Collingwood Art Hall is extremely empty, like an indoor training hall. The floor is as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the mottled light coming in from the long and narrow windows high up.

Being able to own such a large art hall in the Vantrolun District, which can be called an inch of land and an inch of gold, besides the deep foundation of the Sea Sentinels, there are also some historical reasons.

——Before the Vantrolun District became the current mage district, when the land price was still relatively cheap, the Sea Sentinels had already established Collingwood Art Hall here.

Because the time was still early, there was no one else in Collingwood Art Hall.

Gao De looked around, confirmed that his guidance mage had not yet arrived, and was not in a hurry. After all, he had arrived early.

Just wait a while.

It didn't make him wait too long. About five minutes later, footsteps rang out in the art hall again.

Gao De looked in the direction of the sound, and what came into view was an old man wearing a deep black robe, with white hair and beard, and a look of exhaustion on his face.

"You are Gao De?" The old man's footsteps didn't seem to be hurried, but his actual movement speed was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, he came to Gao De, looked at him with eyes like torches, and said.

Without waiting for Gao De to answer, the old man had already introduced himself further: "The three mages you chose were all unwilling to be your guidance mage, so Captain Mei Liya designated me to take over this task. Nash Frank, you can call me Mage Nash, or Sub-Lieutenant Nash."

Gao De's heart moved. He was somewhat surprised that his three "choices" were all rejected, but on the surface, he naturally wouldn't let his emotions flow out, but had already bowed slightly to show respect: "Hello, Mage Nash."

Mage Nash's face was ancient and waveless, flatly saying: "From today on, I will guide you in combat mage training."

After saying that, he paused slightly before continuing: "Before guiding, I will ask you a question first. In your opinion, what factors determine the outcome of a battle between mages?"

This is a good question. Gao De thought seriously, organized his thoughts, and then answered: "Power, Magic, Technique, Specialty, Equipment?"

"Oh? Expand on it." His answer was somewhat beyond Mage Nash's expectations and also successfully aroused his interest.

Gao De was not timid and explained according to his own understanding.

Power, that is, strength. Of course, it doesn't refer to physical strength, but a broader own strength, that is, mage level.

This is the foundation of everything.

Just like a second-circle mage, even if other points are poor, in a battle against a first-circle mage, relying on the absolute advantage of mage level, it is basically impossible to lose.

Magic refers to magic power, which is the mage's "blue bar." The more sufficient the magic power, the more spells can be cast in battle, allowing the mage to have more choices in battle and to circle with the opponent more persistently.

It is like a soldier with sufficient ammunition, naturally the winning rate on the battlefield is higher.

Technique refers to the spells mastered by the mage. The more spells a mage masters and the more powerful the spells, the more at ease they can be in battle, meeting moves with moves, occupying all advantages, and changing strategies.

Specialty is the specialty. The blessing and uniqueness of the specialty for the mage are incomparable to all other points.

The cultivation method can be the same, the spells can be the same, the mage level can be the same, but the specialty cannot be replicated, just like everyone's unique genes.

Therefore, when two mages are consistent in all other points, it is often the specialty that determines the final outcome.

Equipment refers to all supernatural equipment including rune constructs. This point doesn't need to be said much, the importance is obvious.

Mage Nash listened to Gao De's description and was slightly surprised, then said: "You summarized it well, but it's not just that."

"There is another very important point that can determine the outcome of a battle, and its weight is not lower than the six points you mentioned."

He said slowly: "This point."

"What is Technique?" Mage Nash asked.

Still without waiting for Gao De to answer, he continued on his own:

"The battle of mages is not about who has more magic power, more spells, and more powerful spell power to guarantee victory. It also depends on the grasp of timing and the application of spells during the battle."

"From a practical perspective, because spells need to be cast through spell models, but this process is invisible, and it is impossible to see from the surface whether the other party is mobilizing the spell model. Plus, the casting of spells is often a matter of the blink of an eye, so it is very testing for the mage's experience and judgment during battle."

"If you can accurately judge whether the other party is casting a spell and what spell will be cast, you can achieve timely interruption, advance prediction and evasion, etc."

"Of course, this is only a small part of 'Technique.' The aspects involved in 'Technique' are very broad."

"It also includes how to quickly adjust tactics in complex combat environments, how to deal with various enemies, how to combine your own spells, and even how to use the surrounding environment to enhance the effect of spells, etc."

"And the significance of initial training is to improve your 'Technique'."

"For this first lesson, I will teach you the most basic and most important point for a combat mage."

Speaking of this, Mage Nash finally stopped, looked at Gao De, and didn't speak anymore.

Gao De hesitated for a moment, and then said hesitantly: "Mage Nash."

Before the word "Mage" was spat out from his throat, Mage Nash's right arm was raised instantly, his right hand clenched into a fist, accompanied by a muffled sound of "boom," carrying a sharp wind, and smashed fiercely toward Gao De's face.

Caught off guard, Gao De's pupils shrank sharply, subconsciously blinked, and made a dodging movement backward.

But Mage Nash's fist stopped straight.

Then, he shook his hand and put his palm down.

"Seeing a fist smashing over, subconsciously closing your eyes, this is a human's instinctive reaction, which is not strange," Mage Nash's voice was steady and low.

"This is just a fist, which doesn't count for much. But what if it were a spell? With the power and speed of a spell, a blink of an eye could put you in an irreparable situation."

"To become a qualified combat mage, the first thing is to ensure that you don't blink your eyes when facing an attack during the battle. You must be able to look directly at any spell cast by the other party."

"Secondly, it is to have the courage to face the other party in any environment and meet any enemy."

"Of course, it is said so, but to fully achieve this step is actually an impossible thing. We just do our best to lean toward this direction."

"The first lesson of combat mage training is to practice courage, to let you overcome the instinctive fear and obstacles in your heart, and subdue distracting thoughts, so that you can exert all your combat power in battle, or even exert beyond normal performance."

"Have you mastered 【Feather Fall】?" Mage Nash changed the subject and asked suddenly.

"Not yet," Gao De was slightly startled and answered truthfully, not understanding why the other party asked this suddenly.

"That's good," Mage Nash nodded, and then said: "You follow me."

After saying that, he turned and took Gao De up along a narrow step on the side.

The walls on both sides of the steps were slightly mottled, and the light was weak, pulling their figures long, swaying on the walls.

Walking to the end along the steps, what appeared in front of them was a dark long corridor.

Walking to the bottom again, Mage Nash pushed open the iron door. Accompanied by a "creak," the sunlight rushed toward them like a tide, making their eyes sting a bit.

This turned out to be a small rooftop.

Mage Nash walked to the edge of the rooftop.

I don't know why, but there is no protective railing set up here.

"Do as I do," Mage Nash said calmly.

He raised his right leg, presenting a posture of "standing on one leg," his body like a straight pine tree, standing steadily on one leg.

Gao De came to the edge of the rooftop and looked down. It was about seven stories high, and below was a bustling street with people coming and going.

He is not afraid of heights. Compared to the forty or fifty-story high-rise buildings in his previous life, this height is not much.

But the problem is, this thing has no protective railing.

However, Gao De finally gritted his teeth, learned from Mage Nash, and started standing on one leg.

At first, he was a bit shaky, but after shaking a few times, he finally found the balance point and stood barely steady.

Just how long he could persist, he didn't know.

"Do you think it's not very difficult?" Nash said in a steady tone after seeing Gao De stabilize his figure: "Now, close your eyes."

Gao De closed his eyes silently.

That is, at the moment of closing his eyes, his body, which had already stabilized, shook violently.

The next moment, Gao De opened his eyes again, and put down his foot, panting slightly.

"Do you need to try again?"

Gao De gritted his teeth and nodded slightly.

Subsequently, he closed his eyes again, but this time it was even worse than the last time. Even before he lifted his foot, his body had already started to sway slightly.

Gao De opened his eyes helplessly.

"What's the feeling?" Nash asked.

"Panic," Gao De answered truthfully.

"Is standing on one leg difficult?"

"Not difficult."

"But why is such a simple thing, after changing the environment, you couldn't do it well?" Nash pointed to his head and gave an explanation: "This is because you know you are in an extreme and dangerous environment, which is the instinctive reaction made by the brain."

His gaze became deep: "Standing on one leg is such a simple thing, and it is still like this. You imagine again, if in a dangerous environment, can you still make the correct choice and thinking like usual, as well as cast spells quickly?"

"I'm afraid it's very difficult." If it were before this, Gao De might still feel that this didn't count for much, and he hadn't experienced battles.

But thinking about it carefully now, in fact, the more reason should be that the battles he had experienced before were not really dangerous, and he had a grasp in his heart, so he could be orderly.

Like just now, before mastering 【Feather Fall】, if he fell from the rooftop, he had no means to avoid injury. In this case, he couldn't help but panic.

"This is instinct. What we have to do is to overcome this instinct through certain training, so that no matter how the enemy and the external environment change, it will not affect our own performance."

"Of course, you have to be clear that what we pursue is to overcome instinct, not to annihilate instinct. The gap between this is also very large."

"Because instinct is very important to us, the benefits that annihilating it can bring you are far less than the disadvantages," Mage Nash hugged his arms, hugged them in front of his chest, and said in a low voice.

He looked at the handsome young man in front of him and said slowly: "Today, what you have to do is to strive to be able to stand on one leg on the edge of the rooftop for more than one minute with your eyes closed."

"Okay," Gao De nodded seriously.

"Then let's start."

Gao De took a deep breath and let his mood calm down.

He lifted his foot again, stood on one leg on the edge of the rooftop, Gao De tried hard to dispel the distracting thoughts and terror in his heart, and tried to close his eyes.

But the feeling of panic followed like a shadow, and his body shook uncontrollably again.

Every second became incomparably long.

After gritting his teeth for ten seconds, his body still couldn't help but shake violently. Under the crisis, Gao De subconsciously opened his eyes.

"Come again," he gritted his teeth and tried again.

"Thirty-nine, forty-four, forty-five." Gao De counted silently in his heart with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, a gust of wind whistled up from below, blowing his clothes to hunt, instantly breaking the stability he had managed to maintain, and also causing him to open his eyes again.

However, Gao De's mood was very excited: "It was just a little bit, if there was no gust of wind, it would have been done."

"Alright, let's stop here for now. For subsequent training courses, you come half an hour early every day, practice this first. Before you can walk on flat ground, you must not stop," the Mentor Nash, who had been observing quietly on the side, spoke slowly.

"Okay," Gao De breathed a sigh of relief and left the edge of the rooftop.

"This first lesson, besides practicing courage, also has to teach you a method of exerting force."

"Method of exerting force?" Gao De heard this term for the first time and couldn't help but be curious.

"It's normal not to have heard of it. This is an advanced technique that only circulates among combat mages, generally not passed on, and only forces with deep foundations like the Sea Sentinels will have systematic methods of exerting force to teach."

"The method of exerting force is its essence, usually also called breathing method."

"If you want to cast a spell, first you need to take the magic power here," Nash pointed to his abdomen, which is the starting place for magic power to gather, and then pointed to his head, "mobilize it to the spell star sea, trigger the spell model, and then release the spell from the spell star sea."

"This whole process, magic power has a predetermined route and loss."

"First, you have to understand that the predetermined route taken by magic power is actually the main magic pulse in your body."

Actually, it is the meridians. It's just that in this world, it is called magic pulse.

Gao De thought silently in his heart.

"The main magic pulse route of everyone is different, but what is the same is that they are all winding, not a straight line, and this process of taking a detour not only extends the casting time but also increases the loss of magic power."

"But in fact, magic pulses are everywhere in our body, but most are too small and fragile to be used as a path for magic power to pass through."

"The role of the breathing method is to open the small magic pulses in your body through the rhythm of breathing, and then induce magic power to penetrate into them, continuously strengthening them, so that it becomes a new route for your magic power to run," Mage Nash explained.

This is equivalent to the original road being too far, and rebuilding a shortcut. Gao De converted the complex concept into an easy-to-understand explanation.

At this time, Mage Nash took out a small medicine bottle from his arms and handed it to Gao De with a mage's hand.

"This is?" Gao De took the medicine bottle.

The medicine liquid in the medicine bottle is dark green, green and glowing, somewhat like some kind of poison.

"Pulse-Opening Tincture."

"The mastery of the breathing method needs to be combined with drinking the Pulse-Opening Tincture. First, use the Pulse-Opening Tincture to stimulate your body, so you have a way to feel those small, imperceptible magic pulses, and then open them through the breathing method, and then continuously strengthen and grow them, gradually transforming new usable main magic pulses."

"However, the Pulse-Opening Tincture has a great stimulation to the body, and the medicinal properties are fierce, and there are more medicinal toxins, so you can take at most twenty bottles a month. Any more will bring harm to the body."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 333 =====