#311 - Violent Moody

Moody, leaning on his cane, strode purposefully towards the training dummy, authoritatively drawing his wand. Without uttering a spell, he raised his hand and unleashed a powerful curse.

“Bang!”

The dummy, struck by the curse, reeled backward like an overturned Weeble, slamming against the ground with a ‘thwack’ before bouncing upright, then swaying violently.

Once the dummy stabilized, a numerical value appeared.

358!

“Wow!” The onlookers gasped, even the department heads and Minister Bardoe exchanged surprised glances.

They knew Moody was strong, but lacked a concrete understanding of his power. Perhaps he was equal to three Aurors, or four, but no one could say for sure.

Presenting his power as a standardized value highlighted his strength. An average employee scored 40, making Moody nine times stronger.

“Haha, Anduin, I wasn’t even trying hard. Your little target can handle that, right?” Moody chuckled, playfully teasing Anduin.

Anduin secretly wiped his brow. Minister Bardoe only asked for a product test, why the full force? Luckily, this was his improved second-generation dummy, tested to withstand curses up to 500 points. He wasn't sure about anything exceeding 500, as even he couldn't muster that much power.

“Don’t worry, the dummy has excellent self-healing. Unless you use dark magic like Fiendfyre to completely incinerate it, it'll be fine.” Anduin forced a confident tone, unsure if excessive force would cause problems.

“Good. Then I can really cut loose. ‘Diffindo!’” Moody grinned, turned, focused his energy, and unleashed another powerful curse.

“Boom!”

The deafening roar echoed through the training hall, causing some wizards to cover their ears.

The dummy, fully absorbing the curse, didn't fall backward, as Diffindo's power wasn't about impact.

Instead, the dummy was covered in jagged cracks, as if about to explode.

The onlookers assumed it was destroyed, turning to Anduin. Even Moody looked embarrassed, as if to say, 'Didn't you say it would be okay?'

Amelia stepped forward, ready to negotiate with Anduin. If the dummy broke during the demonstration, they wouldn't pay.

Before Amelia could speak, a sharp-eyed Hit Wizard pointed at the seemingly ruined dummy and shouted:

“Look, it's… it's slowly recovering! The value is showing up!”

The crowd turned to see the cracks from the Diffindo curse disappearing at a moderate pace. A bright red number appeared.

489 points!

“Gasp…”

The crowd gasped, astounded. They were amazed by Moody's power, already impressed by the previous score, but now witnessing an even more outrageous number.

They were equally impressed by the dummy's durability. It withstood such a powerful curse and continued to function, seemingly undamaged after a short recovery.

Anduin was also startled. Moody's power was truly astonishing. He needed 'Godly Destruction Slash' to reach that level during his tests.

Moody, seeing the dummy's performance, laughed and gave Anduin a thumbs up. “This training target is excellent. Remember to sell me one after the demonstration.”

The crowd, seeing even Moody impressed, clamored to test their own abilities, but Minister Bardoe stopped them.

“Quiet. You'll have training opportunities later. Let us discuss prices with Anduin first.” Minister Bardoe dismissed the crowd, turning to Anduin.

Bardoe's interest showed her satisfaction with the dummy and her intention to buy at least one.

Thanks to Moody's demonstration, Anduin realized the dummy's performance exceeded expectations. He needed to raise the price. He initially planned to sell them for 500 Galleons each.

“These dummies last at least five years, and as you've seen, they withstand powerful curses. With the highly accurate power statistic system, each dummy costs 800 Galleons, and requires a week's advance order.” Anduin smiled.

The advance order was necessary because he couldn't mass-produce them with a lathe. Each one needed to be hand-crafted, and lathe-produced versions wouldn't be as effective.

Hearing Anduin's price, Minister Bardoe and Amelia didn't haggle much, settling on 750 Galleons each. The demonstration had clearly raised their expectations.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have two more newly developed magical items to introduce, which I believe will assist you in your front-line duties.” Just as everyone thought Anduin had finished his presentation, he spoke again.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the two items Anduin produced: two meter-long metal rods, the semi-finished products he'd extracted during the lathe experiments, now completed.

“Oh? What surprises do you have for us now?” Minister Bardoe was increasingly impressed with Anduin. Despite his young age, he kept producing impressive items.

“I call these two items Interference Generators.” Anduin placed the items on the table.