Ch. 131..140

Chapter 131 Private Lesson

"I am the world's hand?" Shang asked in surprise.

"Not literally," teacher Niria said. "That would make no sense. I was only trying to make sense of everything."

"Does the dean know?" teacher Niria suddenly asked.

"Yes," Shang said. "He is the one that allowed me to unearth my Affinities in the first place."

"That makes sense," teacher Niria said. "From what I can tell, you have absorbed four different Pure Mana Sources, and I don't think you have the money to buy even one of them. Additionally, Light and Darkness Mana Sources are very rare but also relatively worthless. There simply is no demand for them, which means that whoever happens to carry some of them with them doesn't even remotely have to worry about Commander Stage beasts."

"What are his thoughts?" teacher Niria asked.

At that moment, Shang felt a bit uncertain.

Yes, he had decided to trust teacher Niria, but he also hadn't forgotten how the dean had acted.

The dean valued honesty greatly, but he also didn't betray his friend, Duke Whirlwind.

"I don't want to say," Shang said with a sigh. "I don't think it's my place to say what the dean thinks."

Teacher Niria nodded. "That's a good quality to have. If you had told me what the dean has said, my trust in you would have diminished."

"Anyway," teacher Niria said as she walked closer to Shang. "You said you needed two pieces of Middle Rank Two Darkness Affinity ore, correct?"

Shang nodded. "Yes. As you have seen, I have four Affinities, and I want to keep everything balanced. My sword needs seven pieces of ore, which means I need two of each."

"And how do you plan on creating that weapon?" teacher Niria asked. "I don't believe that any blacksmith would know how to fuse four different kinds of Pure Affinity ore together. Additionally, creating weapons out of Darkness and Light Affinity ore is already something nearly no blacksmith can do."

"I have a solution to that, but I can't tell you," Shang said.

Teacher Niria only looked at Shang for a bit.

"Fine," she said. "1,000 gold per unit."

Shang took a deep breath.

1,000 gold?!

"That's a lot," Shang commented.

"It's what you have," she said. "Don't think that I am extorting you. If you were to pay the actual price, you would need to pay over 10,000 gold. I am essentially gifting the ore to you at that price."

"Furthermore, if you acted intelligently, you should have received 2,200 gold from the Curio Trinket."

Shang sighed.

"Thank you. I will accept," he said.

Teacher Niria nodded. "Let's go."

"To where?" Shang asked.

"To your room," she answered. "We can't make such a trade in public. I can hide the effects of the ore, but you can't. If you openly walk around with the ore, you will be caught sooner or later."

"Wait! Does that mean that you already have the ore in your possession?" Shang asked in surprise.

Teacher Niria nodded.

Shang was a bit surprised that teacher Niria already had the ore with her, but he didn't complain.

The two of them walked back to the main building under the gazes of a couple of students.

Hadn't those two already talked to each other a couple of days ago?

What was going on?

Shang felt uncomfortable under the gazes of everyone, and he hoped that they didn't misinterpret teacher Niria's intentions.

But Shang was worrying over nothing.

It was forbidden for teachers to get into a relationship with students, and that rule was ironclad.

If teacher Niria didn't want to be fired, she would never start a relationship with a student.

Because of that, basically no one suspected the two of them of hooking up.

When teacher Niria entered Shang's room, a couple of suspicions appeared in the students' minds.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Maybe teacher Niria was giving Shang a private lesson? Maybe, after taking a look at one of the corpses Shang brought back, she took him under her wing?

Or maybe teacher Niria was trying to deal with Shang's obvious problems? After all, Shang had nearly killed a student recently.

As the two of them entered the room, Shang pointed at his two big sacks of gold.

SHING!

The two sacks vanished, and a small, inconspicuous sack appeared in their place.

Shang immediately felt Darkness Mana coming from them.

"Keep the Light ore and the Darkness ore at separate parts of the room," she said. "You don't want them to consume each other's Mana."

Shang did just that, and after he was done, he looked at teacher Niria again.

"Thanks," Shang said.

Teacher Niria only nodded before she sat down on Shang's bed.

This surprised and confused Shang. "You want to stay?" Shang asked.

"If I leave right now, everyone will get suspicious. I need to appear like I'm giving you a private lesson. I'm already under a lot of scrutiny based on my Affinity, and I can't be careless," she said.

Shang nodded. "That makes sense."

After that sentence, silence returned to the room.

Teacher Niria was seemingly looking at a random wall of the room with concentration in her eyes.

She was probably thinking about something.

Shang noticed that she wasn't interested in talking, and soon enough, he became bored.

'I can't just sit around,' Shang thought as he pushed the bloody face out of his vision again. 'I need to distract myself.'

Shang glanced at teacher Niria. 'However, it would be awkward to train in front of her. The ventilation in the room is horrible, and if I start sweating, it will stink up the entire place.'

'Isn't there something else I can do?'

Shang thought back to what he had thought about while being in the northeastern forest.

'Right! I wanted to try if I could concentrate my Affinity Abilities! If I can manage to release a concentrated beam of fire or ice, I have another way to attack my opponent.'

'Speaking of, do Darkness and Light have something similar?'

'How would I even go about training it?'

And at that moment, Shang glanced at teacher Niria.

"Is there a way to change the way I can use my Darkness Affinity?" Shang asked.

Teacher Niria looked away from the wall and at Shang. "You want a lesson?" she asked.

"No, no!" Shang quickly said. Teacher Niria had already helped him a lot, and he wouldn't want to impose. "I only want to know if it's possible."

Teacher Niria furrowed her brows and looked back at the wall.

"Well, I need to appear like I'm giving you a lesson. Might as well actually give you one," she said.

"I'm sorry," Shang said.

"It's fine," teacher Niria answered. "You are in the academy to learn, and you don't really have any way of learning about the Darkness Affinity without my help. I'm basically the only one that can teach you, and it's my job as a teacher to help you."

"Sit on the ground in front of me," she ordered.

Shang nodded and sat down.

"Concentrate on the Darkness Affinity ore in the corner of the room. Try to feel it, but don't try to manipulate it," she said.

Then, over the next minutes, she slowly guided Shang into a state of meditation.

Over the next three hours, she told Shang how to train his Darkness Affinity and what he could do with it.

 

Chapter 132 Refined Uses

After three hours, teacher Niria left Shang's room while Shang continued sitting on the ground.

'I should have asked the teachers earlier on how to train my Affinities,' Shang thought. 'There are so many applications.'

What had Shang learned about the Darkness Affinity?

Well, there were several things he had learned.

For example, Shang had learned that he could unleash his Darkness Affinity on other parts of his body but with diminished effects.

If his left arm were severely damaged, he could theoretically use his right arm or his legs to absorb the enemy's life force. Of course, the absorption would be far weaker, and the life force would need to travel through the body to the left arm.

Sure, that wouldn't be such a big issue with the Darkness Affinity, but it would be a problem for his other three Affinities. If a line of Ice Mana went through Shang's entire body, for example, he would severely injure his organs. Basically destroying his left arm wasn't such a big issue, but nearly destroying his organs would be.

Shang wasn't certain how to train his other Affinities, but he guessed that he could learn to train them by extrapolating the methods he had used to get in touch with his Darkness Affinity.

The special kind of meditation Shang had entered allowed him to enter a world of darkness. Of course, that world wasn't real, and it was only a representation of his mastery of Darkness Mana.

But in that world, Shang had it way easier to control the Darkness Mana. His sensitivity had spiked, and the Darkness Mana followed his will to a certain degree.

Of course, that was only relative. His control over Darkness Mana was better in that world, but it definitely wasn't good.

But it helped Shang in getting more familiar with Darkness Mana.

What had surprised him was when teacher Niria had told Shang that this was the kind of meditation Mages learned spells with. They entered this world to get more familiar with their Element. Then, they would follow certain guidelines on how to manipulate the Mana.

When the Mage was able to perfectly emulate the Mana manipulation and Mana movement without the meditation, they would have learned a spell.

Of course, that took a long time and a lot of work. On top of that, it needed these guidelines, which were the instruction manuals for spells.

Sadly, Shang couldn't learn any spells. He had a warrior's body, which made his mind far too weak and slow. In a sense, Shang's mind was on the level of an Initial Apprentice, the equivalent of an Initial Soldier Stage warrior.

Apprentices on that level didn't even have the ability to learn spells. Their sensitivity to Mana was just too weak.

But the meditation technique was still useful to Shang since it opened the door to actually controlling his Affinity.

Shang wouldn't be able to do many complex things with his Darkness Affinity for a long time, but with enough training, he could learn additional attacks.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Teacher Niria told him that one of the more common attacks with the Darkness Affinity was an instantaneous burst of absorption combined with a punch.

As soon as the punch hit, the life energy at the spot where the punch hit the enemy would be sucked out, severely weakening their defense. The power of the punch would then have a devastating effect.

Sadly, this more common attack only became common in the General Stage.

There was also a way to infuse one's weapon with Darkness Mana, which would then draw the life energy out of the target it struck.

However, that attack needed three requisites.

First, one needed a weapon that could absorb Darkness Mana.

Second, one needed to have great control over Darkness Mana.

Third, one needed to be in the General Stage since a warrior could only release their inherent Mana into the surroundings at that Stage.

Teacher Niria had said that this was a Mage warrior technique. Getting one's sensitivity of one's Affinity to that level required a lot of work and time, and most warriors would rather do something else.

Shang would have it especially difficult since he had a warrior's body.

Funnily enough, that also meant that Darkness Affinity ore was really not important for Shang.

It wouldn't increase his Battle-Strength since he couldn't use the effect.

Luckily, Shang had a potential workaround. Although, it was questionable if it worked.

At the moment, Shang's Darkness Absorb simply summoned Darkness Mana inside his left arm. Darkness Mana pulled life energy towards it wherever it existed, which was how the Darkness Absorb worked.

The theoretical workaround was for Shang to summon the Darkness Mana and shoot it out of his arm, similar to his Ice and Fire Blasts.

Of course, that would also come with problems.

As soon as the Darkness Mana left Shang, it would pull Shang's life energy with it. That would basically give it the same drawback as Shang's Light Burst.

But if Shang could deal with that drawback, he could theoretically blast his weapon with Darkness Mana and then attack the enemy. That would have a very similar effect to that Mage warrior technique without the troublesome training.

There were also other applications for Darkness Mana. For example, one could also infuse the enemy with Darkness Mana and sabotage their body. That effect was even more destructive than Darkness Absorb.

However, the user wouldn't get anything out of it. Darkness Absorb would give Shang life energy, but if he used that other technique, he wouldn't gain anything. Even worse, he would need to spend his own life energy to infuse his enemy with Darkness Mana.

But the effect would be devastating. It would have a similar effect to a Vanishing Snake's bite. The enemy's body would very quickly fall apart in their insides.

Of course, all of this was far in the future. Right now, Shang didn't even have the ability to shape his Darkness Mana into another shape. He had only just taken his first steps in terms of Mana manipulation.

And all of that was only for his Darkness Affinity.

He had three more.

Shang hadn't received teaching in his other Affinities, but he could guess a couple of things he could theoretically do.

After realizing that Shang could theoretically also expel his Darkness Mana, he used the same logic with his Light Affinity but in reverse.

He normally shot out Light Mana with his Light Burst.

So, what if he absorbed it?

Wouldn't he then get life energy?

That should be possible.

Of course, the density of Light Mana in the surroundings wasn't very high, and during the night, it was almost not present at all.

Shang could probably expedite his healing while sitting in sunlight, but his absorption of Light Mana was definitely lacking.

If he managed to manipulate light with way more skill, he could probably strengthen the absorption of Light Mana by a lot, but just like with his Darkness Mana, it would take a long time of meditation.

Luckily, Fire and Ice Affinities had way more applications.

Fire Blades, Ice Blades, Fire Lasers, Ice Beams, Fireballs, Ice Shields, and so on.

There were a lot of possibilities.

However, there was just one problem.

Basically all of these applications were spells…

And Shang couldn't learn any spells.

Chapter 133 This World

Shang had thought that he could use his Affinity in many different ways, and sure, there certainly were more refined techniques.

Sadly, the very refined techniques were just spells.

The ability to push the complexity of one's Affinity to the peak was literally what a spell was.

At most, Shang could slightly alter the use of his Mana.

With enough training, he could shoot out Darkness Mana.

With enough training, he could concentrate the ice and fire.

With enough training, he could absorb the light.

But that was about it. Anything more complex would be walking into the territory of spells.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Even more, Shang would probably need several months of training just to gain the control to unleash these slightly more refined uses of his Affinities. If he were to attempt to learn the most basic spells, Shang would need literal years to even learn the easiest one.

Why?

Because of his mind.

By increasing the power of the mind, one would gain a far greater connection with their Affinity, and one would be able to concentrate with far more intensity and for longer.

And Shang couldn't train his mind due to his warrior's body.

'At least I now have something I can do in my downtime. If I can't properly train in techniques, I can always focus on my Affinities. It's definitely not my priority since it doesn't increase my Battle-Strength by a lot, but it's better than doing nothing.'

'Anyway, I now have my Darkness ore and Light ore. I'm only missing two units of Fire ore and Ice ore. My priority should be to get those first.'

'Let's see. I have 227 gold and 3,440 Contribution Points. Fire costs 5,500 Contribution Points per unit, and Ice costs 6,750 Contribution Points per unit.'

' 24,500 Contribution Points. That's what I need. Based on my last excursion, that should be three days of hunting in the northeastern forest.'

Shang scratched his chin in thought.

'However, I don't want to buy absolutely everything in the Exchange Hall. Sure, my information is being protected, but if the stuff I'm buying is too strange, one of the clerks might believe that information about me is worth more than their job.'

'The previous clerk probably believes I have a Light Affinity, but that's not enough for him to risk his life. Of course, when I inevitably unveil my Ice Affinity, he might get suspicious, but that doesn't actually matter that much.'

'After all, there is a very easy and logical reason for why I bought Light ore.'

'I have a friend with a Light Affinity, and they don't want to show themselves,' Shang thought with a smirk.

'As long as I'm only buying weird ore once, that excuse works, but that also means that I can only get Ice Affinity ore from the Exchange Hall, which means I have to get the Fire Affinity ore from one of the normal merchants.'

'So, if I only want two Units of Ice Affinity ore, I only need a bit more than 10,000 Contribution Points. That's like five Vanishing Snakes. For the Fire ore, I need gold since I believe that I don't have enough gold right now to buy everything I need.'

Shang nodded as he finalized his plan and stood up.

Night had already arrived. Teacher Niria's lesson about beasts was in the afternoon, and with the three added hours of personal teaching, it was now night.

'No time like the present!'

Shang grabbed an empty beast sack, left his room, and jogged towards the city.

By now, the streets were nearly empty as everyone was finishing up for the day. In just two more hours, the streets would be dead silent again.

Shang just barely managed to get through the big gates before they closed, the guards shouting at him with annoyance.

After leaving the city, Shang accelerated to a full sprint as he ran down the long street.

The wind went through Shang's hair.

He loved that feeling.

Whenever Shang ran, he felt so free. Back on Earth, he had only been able to reach such speeds with a vehicle, but here, he could just run.

Even more, after surviving for months in the wilderness, Shang had learned how to live without society. If he wanted, he could simply continue running and never turn back.

He would be able to survive and still grow more powerful.

He was not bound by the place where he currently was.

This was something unachievable on Earth.

On Earth, one had a residence, belongings, money, insurance, family, a job, responsibilities, and so on.

If one decided to completely abandon society, one would have to live in the wilderness, which would bring a lot of problems.

Unclean water, which would endanger one's health.

Cold temperatures.

Parasites.

Disease.

Food problems.

All of these things were no issue for Shang. His body was powerful enough that all of these things didn't matter.

And even more, on Earth, it was very hard to rejoin society after abandoning it. The paperwork was monumental.

Here, it wasn't very difficult.

This world represented freedom, and only after living on Earth for so long could Shang appreciate the freedom this world provided.

For everyone else, this was just normal, but for Shang, this was special.

Shang loved this world.

At that moment, the image of the featureless, bloody face returned.

Shang only pushed it to the side.

He had gotten used to pushing it to the side.

After running for a while, Shang reached the northeastern forest. He had seen a couple of big dogs on the way, but they only looked at him with a bit of curiosity.

Shang quickly reached the northeastern forest and jumped onto a tree. After that, Shang stopped running on the ground and simply jumped from tree to tree.

He wanted to continue running, but Shang had already learned that he couldn't be reckless inside the northeastern forest.

Shang's excitement made way for concentration and care as his expression changed into a solemn one.

After jumping for a bit, Shang saw a Swamp Millipede in the distance. Without stopping, Shang jumped from tree to tree until he came to the closest one.

Shang directly jumped at the Swamp Millipede.

The Swamp Millipede had felt the vibrations of Shang's jumps since he hadn't been very stealthy at all and looked over.

BANG!

Shang unleashed a Fire Blast to shoot himself at the Swamp Millipede.

SHING!

The Swamp Millipede was decapitated, and Shang quickly cut off its feelers while unleashing a small Ice Blast to slightly heat up his nearly frozen arm again. As long as he didn't force the temperature to jump too wildly, his arm wouldn't be damaged that much.

With that method, Shang could use one Blast per beast without running out of Mana to regenerate his left arm. Each Blast allowed Shang to speed up a lot in the air, essentially making him move even faster than a Soldier Stage warrior.

Every time Shang unleashed a Fire Blast, he reached the speed of an Initial General Stage warrior for just one charge.

Nearly no beast in the northeastern forest could react to that.

Even more, his Fire Blast allowed Shang to reposition himself in the sky. If a beast noticed Shang's jump and moved to the side, Shang could simply charge at their new position with incredible speeds.

The beasts were helpless.

Shang was not fighting.

He was hunting.

Chapter 134 Ice Ore

Shang stood on the ground in the middle of the northeastern forest, his eyes showing a look of concentration.

Silence.

BANG!

Shang unleashed a Fire Blast as he turned around, his sword ready.

Shang's legs parted the grass on the ground, but they weren't touching the earth.

SHING!

A black gleam created a half-moon as Shang swung his sword at seemingly an empty place.

An instant later, the corpse of a nearly translucent snake fell to the ground in two pieces.

'And that's five,' Shang thought with a smirk. 'I knew that traveling along the southern part of the northeastern forest would be profitable.'

Yes, Shang was in the southern part of the northeastern forest, which was a risky zone. Beasts from the Wasteland would come here from time to time to have their young.

Fortunately, Shang knew a couple of the beasts from the Wasteland now. After all, teacher Niria had talked about General Stage beasts one could find in the northeastern forest in her last lesson. She hadn't been able to get through all of them, but she had talked about a lot.

Because of that, Shang felt confident in hunting in this risky part of the forest.

First of all, the beasts of the Wasteland were mostly very direct predators. There were only a few beasts that hunted via ambushes in the Wasteland.

The Wasteland simply didn't have many ways to hide, which meant that there were only very few ambush predators in general there.

On top of that, those beasts only came here to have their young. They generally weren't very interested in Soldier Stage beings since they gave nearly no Mana.

Sure, if they saw something like that directly in front of them, they might as well kill it, but if that thing was very good at running away, they wouldn't bother. At most, they would release one or two casual attacks, and if the target managed to survive them and run away, they would simply stop.

But surviving two casual attacks from a General Stage beast was still very difficult.

That's where Shang's left arm came into play.

By now, Shang had become very good at using his left arm to move around.

And it had already proven to be a lifesaver.

During the night, Shang had seen a big pangolin walking through the forest. When Shang had seen it, he had directly known that it was a General Stage beast.

The pangolin had noticed Shang on one of the trees, and earthen spears appeared around its body, similar to what the Ice Spear Bear had done.

But there were six spears instead of one or two, and they moved with far greater speed.

The pangolin had shot them in a spread at Shang.

Meanwhile, Shang had used his left arm to jump over the crowns of the trees and then used an Ice Blast to shoot into the distance.

The earthen spears missed after destroying a couple of trees.

When the pangolin saw that its prey had fled into the distance at such speeds, it gave up.

Sure, the pangolin was very fast, and it could charge forward, destroying all the trees in the process.

But that was too much effort just to kill something at the Soldier Stage.

It wasn't worth the hassle.

Of course, this maneuver cost Shang a lot of Mana to regenerate his left arm, but it was worth it.

After all, this ability to quickly flee was precisely how Shang was able to hunt in the southern part of the northeastern forest.

Luckily, there weren't that many General Stage beasts, and the pangolin had been the only General Stage beast Shang had seen during the night.

Shang pocketed the corpse of the Vanishing Snake he had just killed and ran towards the west.

Hunting in the southern part of the northeastern forest had been worth it!

Shang hadn't seen many Swamp Millipedes, and even the Pest Cats weren't as numerous in this place. After all, the young of the General Stage beasts walked around this place, and they were generally more powerful than Pest Cats.

But Vanishing Snakes thrived here.

The young of General Stage beasts were great nourishment for Vanishing Snakes, and they loved hunting here.

And that showed once again why the Vanishing Snakes were worth so many Contribution Points. Most progenies of General Stage beasts from the Wasteland were on the blacklist. After all, the Wasteland was the biggest moneymaker for Warrior's Paradise.

Yet, the Vanishing Snakes kept killing these young.

On top of that, the fact that the Vanishing Snakes could kill so many young also showed how dangerous the Empress Cobra Zone actually was, and by extension, the Swamp Millipedes.

If the Swamp Millipedes managed to expand the swamp towards the Wasteland, the Wasteland might actually stop existing.

The Empress Cobra Zone was just very dangerous in general.

After about an hour of traveling, Shang exited the northeastern forest after a profitable night of hunting.

Shang looked towards the east and saw that the sky was a bit brighter than in the middle of the night, but it also wasn't nearly time for dawn.

He guessed that it was probably around 4 am.

Shang ran towards the west and reached the street rather quickly. This time, he wasn't near the Farm Line since he had been hunting in the southern part of the northeastern forest.

On his way, Shang saw another dog that was interested in the beast sack. He simply let the dog sniff the beast sack for a bit. The dog eventually became bored and left.

Shang reached Warrior's Paradise shortly before sunrise. The big gates were still closed, which meant that Shang had to go through a manual inspection.

"Good job killing all these Vanishing Snakes," the inspecting guard said with a smile as he closed the beast sack again. "You're protecting Warrior's Paradise's prosperity and the lives of many young hunters!"

Shang only smiled politely, something he hadn't done in a long while. "Thanks," he said.

The guard nodded and gestured to the smaller door behind him. "Get on it, rich boy," he said with a smile.

Shang nodded and entered the city.

Shang reached the academy rather quickly as the first people started to wake up inside Warrior's Paradise.

"Teacher, I want to enter the academy," Shang said as he saw teacher Loran sleeping near the closed gate.

Teacher Loran lifted his head with boredom. "Just jump over the gate," he said. "I don't want to stand up right now."

Shang shrugged and jumped over the gate. The gate wasn't there to stop people from entering, which was also why it was only two meters high. It only symbolized if the academy was open or closed.

At the moment, the academy was basically empty. Only a couple of students that lived inside the academy were walking around the empty streets as they began training.

Shang walked towards the Exchange Hall leisurely and reached it shortly before the gates of the academy opened officially.

When Shang entered, he saw an older man packing. Apparently, his shift had just ended.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ However, Shang was a bit surprised to notice that the old man was actually at the Commander Stage.

The clerks Shang had seen during the day had all been at the General Stage.

The older man noticed Shang and his beast sack. "Make it quick," he grumbled.

Shang put the beast sack on the counter without saying anything.

The older man went through the contents at record speeds. Obviously, he was very used to doing this.

"Emblem," he ordered.

Shang put his emblem on the table, and he quickly got it back after a short burst of light.

Shang looked at the number on the emblem, and he smiled brightly.

14,760.

"Two Middle Rank Two units of Ice Affinity ore, please," Shang said.

The older man sighed, quickly entered a side room, and came back with two blue pieces of ore.

Shang put the emblem on the table, and the Contribution points went down to 1,260.

Then, the older man left with astonishing speed before Shang could say anything else. Obviously, he didn't want to work anymore.

"Do you need something?" a young woman asked Shang as she had just arrived in the Exchange Hall.

"No, I've got everything I need," Shang answered as he looked at the two pieces of Ice ore.

Shang grabbed the ore and left the Exchange Hall.

'Only Fire ore left.'

Chapter 135 The Other Vice-Dean

'Only the Fire ore is left. I'm so close!' Shang thought with burning eyes.

He was so very close!

'To keep everything about myself hidden, I need to purchase the Fire ore on the market with gold. I can explain the Light ore I bought with a friend, but no one would want to keep a Fire Affinity hidden. It just wouldn't make sense.'

'The merchants are not here yet. They will only arrive near noon. Until then, I should find something to do.'

Shang thought about training, but that wouldn't help much. The last time he had tried to combine techniques, he had seen that there was no way to advance further. He needed practical experience and feedback from a teacher to advance in that department.

Shang could train in his Affinity, but he believed that there were better uses for his endeavor.

So, Shang took out the schedule for the lessons and checked which lessons would take place soon. He could fit in a lesson.

There were only two lessons, which would both start in about half an hour.

One of them was a theoretical lesson for future officers, which was something Shang wasn't interested in.

The other one was a theoretical lesson for the Anti-Mages, the red uniforms.

This piqued Shang's interest.

Shang knew that he would need to fight Mages sooner or later.

However, Shang had only seen a single Mage fight up to now, and that fight had also taken place far away.

'Well, that seems interesting. I should check it out.'

As Shang stood up, he ignored the bloodied face that had appeared in his vision again and left. He didn't have to walk very far since the lesson took place on the third floor of the main building.

When Shang arrived, he noticed that the door was open, and he entered.

It was a normal room for lectures. There was nothing special about it.

Shang saw two students with red robes sitting in the middle of the left half of the room.

They were not talking with each other.

Shang glanced at them, and as if they had felt Shang's glance, they glanced back.

For a short moment, their eyes met.

And then, the two students looked away again with bored expressions.

Shang didn't say anything and simply sat down somewhere in the middle of the right half.

Silence.

No one was speaking.

'I think they recognized me, but they just didn't care,' Shang thought.

The image of the bloodied face returned.

'But that's understandable. The students that join the Anti-Mage Class are the ones living the most dangerous lives.'

'They are not looking at other warriors or beasts, but at the overlords of this world, Mages. They are not planning on fighting the weakest class of people, the warriors. They are also not planning on fighting beasts, which are on average more powerful than warriors.'

'No, they set their eyes on Mages.'

'I guess the politics inside the school and all the social stuff are not relevant to them.'

'I wonder, what would it take for a student to decide to walk such a dangerous path? I'm here because I know I have a high chance of eventually reaching the True Path Stage, and at that point, every dangerous human will be a Mage.'

'My fight with the Mages in this world is already set in stone, but that's not true for them.'

That was also when Shang realized that he had only very rarely seen students with red uniforms, and when he saw them, they were just passing by.

'I guess most of them have a reason to hate Mages.'

Shang continued looking at the front absentmindedly. He was only thinking about random stuff as he waited for the lesson to start.

In this moment of silence and inactivity, the bloodied face had returned once again.

Shang ignored it again and again, but it would just return.

Shang kept pushing it again.

'I am in control.'

'I am in control.'

'I am in control.'

After a while, Shang started to push the side of his head with his fingers, a telltale sign of someone being stressed and having a headache.

Shang didn't notice it.

Did he have a headache?

He was so used to pain that he didn't even know.

He had no idea if he had one or not.

If he were to have a headache, its pain would be so weak that Shang wouldn't even notice.

The constant destruction of his left arm and his suicidal training had made him numb to any pain that didn't reach the extreme.

Slowly over the next minutes, more students came into the hall. Most of them threw a quick glance at Shang, but all of them also quickly looked away in disinterest.

They all had the same thought.

'Another one interested in our class. He won't stay around.'

These thoughts were understandable. After all, who would want to willingly fight a Mage?

That was essentially suicide.

BANG!

Shang was taken out of his thoughts as the door to the classroom was shut loudly. He looked around and noticed that there were nine other students in the class, one of them with a black uniform, which represented a future hunter. Apparently, Shang wasn't the only one interested in the Anti-Mage Class.

That meant that there were only eight students with red uniforms in this Grade, even fewer than the Caterpillar Class.

The person that had shut the door was a rough-looking old man. His face had burns and a couple of cuts, his skin uneven and rough. His hair was wild, long, and silver, and it nearly reached his buttocks.

When Shang saw the teacher, his insides shook.

Powerful!

He felt so powerful!

Shang had difficulties discerning the differences in power between the teachers. After all, they were all many times stronger than him.

However, the power of this person was as clear as day to Shang.

On top of that, he didn't wear the typical silver uniform that other teachers wore. Instead, he wore thick red armor. There were several small holes in his armor, and Shang could feel several different types of Mana coming from those holes, including Darkness Mana.

'Hidden ranged weapons,' Shang realized. 'Every hole can probably shoot out a small needle or something similar.'

As Shang heard the teacher's steps, he realized that his footsteps sounded strange.

It was like there was machinery inside the soles of his shoes.

Shang felt an unreal amount of Fire Mana coming from the teacher's shoes.

As the teacher walked down the stairs at the side of the room, Shang felt like a demon had just passed by him.

Shang could quickly tell the reason for this very special kind of armor.

'He is fully focused on dealing with Mages. As a warrior, he can't close the gap with only his own ability, which is why he has armed himself to the teeth with many versatile weapons. He can probably also use the Fire Mana in his shoes to shoot himself forward.'

'The hidden weapons are probably there to interrupt Mages when they try to cast a spell.'

Shang also noticed that eight of the teacher's fingers had Space Rings on them.

At that moment, Shang realized three things.

First, this was a Vice-Dean, not a normal teacher. Normal teachers had to wear silver uniforms. Only the Dean and the Vice-Dean, Soran, hadn't worn the silver uniforms. This meant that this teacher was probably also a Vice-Dean.

Second, this teacher was the epitome of what it meant to fight Mages. He had many scars from his battles, and his entire being and fighting style revolved around countering Mages. Shang wouldn't even be surprised if this was the greatest specialist in how to deal with Mages in the entire world, excluding other Mages, of course.

And lastly, this teacher was powerful.

In fact, Shang was certain that this was the most powerful teacher in the entire school, except for the Dean.

Soran's power hadn't felt even remotely as powerful as this teacher's.

This was an old man that had gone through many, many battles against Mages, and he had managed to stay alive up to now.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ He had been fighting the hegemons of this world for many years, and he was still alive.

He had probably reached the absolute peak of what a warrior could reach, except for the Dean.

The room was silent as the teacher reached the podium.

"Defensive Spells," he announced.

Everyone listened, deep respect in their eyes.

Chapter 136 Day Of Chaos

Shang listened to the teacher's words.

This was important knowledge!

"Standard spells," the teacher said in his deep voice as he grabbed a piece of chalk.

His arms moved, and in just two seconds, a diagram appeared on the blackboard.

Shang looked with surprise and confusion at the diagram.

It was an octagon, but there were many confusing and senseless lines connecting seemingly random spots inside the octagon.

In the end, a mess of lines and forms could be seen inside the octagon.

Shang had absolutely no idea what this was supposed to represent. He saw no logic in the diagram.

"Mana step," the teacher said as he wrote these two words above the diagram. "As you can see, the V-diagram is in there, symbolizing the access of general Mana. The Lion-Diagram shows a gathering of force. The Z-Diagram shows a transportation of force. The Alpha-Diagram shows the transformation of Mana into physical power. The Side-V shows the release of force."

Shang's eyes widened in surprise.

The teacher explained the confusing diagram in only a couple of sentences and broke it down into something that made sense to Shang.

However, it was still difficult for Shang to discern how the lines were connected exactly. Where do they begin? Where do they end?

"The Mana step is the most common and easiest to learn Element-Neutral Apprentice Rank Spell Mages can learn. It simply gathers Mana and releases it in their feet, allowing them to jump to the side."

"The Invocation of the spell is also counter-proportional, which is the dangerous thing about this spell."

The teacher looked at the two students without red uniforms.

"That means, the quicker the Mage speaks the Invocation, the stronger the Spell. Of course, it also takes more Mana."

"If a Mage takes a full second to speak the Invocation, the effect will be minuscule. They essentially spend no Mana and move only a little."

"The Invocation is…"

Then, the teacher made some confusing sounds with his voice.

Shang's mind returned to the time he had met Duke Whirlwind. He had spoken similar words back then.

Shang also remembered that Duke Whirlwind had suddenly appeared in front of Shang after around a second of him fleeing.

'Had Duke Whirlwind used that Spell back then to catch up to me? Additionally, he has taken nearly a second to cast it, which meant that he was essentially only using the bare minimum of Mana.'

'Yet, that had been enough to jump nearly a hundred meters!'

'And even Apprentices can learn that Spell?!'

"This Spell allows the Mage to reach speeds one level above themselves compared to warriors of the same level. That means that a Peak Apprentice can reach the speed of an Initial General Stage warrior for an instant," the teacher explained.

Shang was reminded of his own ability to shoot himself away with his Ice Blast and Fire Blast.

Mages could do the same thing but without injuring themselves?

Then, the teacher drew another diagram in just a couple of seconds, and this one had way more lines, which were even more confusing to Shang.

"Mana Shield, the second easiest Element-Neutral Apprentice Rank Spell," the teacher said.

Then, the teacher went over all the different patterns inside the diagram, explaining what each of them did.

"As you can see, Mana Shield creates a continuous shield of Mana around the Mage. As soon as it is activated, they don't need to focus on it anymore. It will stay active and counter any outside physical force it experiences. The Mage doesn't experience any knockback or backlash during all of this, meaning that their concentration will not be broken."

"However, it is a double-edged sword. If a hit is too powerful, the Mana Shield might sap all the Mana out of the Mage, making them defenseless."

"Mana Push," the teacher said as he drew another diagram.

Shang's eyes widened as he saw the diagram.

It was insanely complex!

He could barely discern anything!

The teacher had also taken nearly six seconds to draw it with his impressive speed.

Then, the teacher took nearly three minutes to explain all the different diagrams.

Shang's head was thrown into confusion as he tried to keep up with the explanation.

Sadly, he couldn't. It was just too complex.

"Only very talented Apprentices can learn that Spell, and also only in the Late Apprentice Realm or higher. It's very complicated, as you can see."

"It allows the Apprentice to create a force field around a part of their body, which they can use to redirect enemy attacks. You can essentially view it as a very powerful magnet that pushes your weapon away instead of attracting it."

"Element-Specific Apprentice Rank Defensive Spells," the teacher announced.

"Redirecting explosion."

The next diagram was less complex, but it also inherently looked different somehow. Shang wasn't quite sure why.

As Shang listened, the teacher began to list one Spell after another.

In the end, it took half the lesson to explain all the different kinds of Defensive Spells.

After that, the teacher talked about the weaknesses of each Spell, ways on how to discern what spell the opponent was casting, most likely next moves, counters, things to avoid, and many other things.

Shang was basically stunned through the entire lesson.

Mages fought so very differently from anything Shang had ever fought.

However, Shang absorbed the knowledge like a sponge. It was presented and explained in a relatively understandable manner, and Shang could hear the epitome of experience inside the teacher's voice.

He knew what he was talking about.

Near the end of the lesson, the teacher talked about something else.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "The Day of Chaos is in two weeks," he said. "I will decide which of you gets the quota based on how you perform in the practical exam next week. As a Vice-Dean, I can bring up to five people, which means that three of you will have to stay home."

Obviously, he didn't even think about the people not wearing red uniforms.

'Day of Chaos?' Shang thought in confusion.

'What's that?'

Chapter 137 Merchant

Shang wanted to ask what the Day of Chaos was, but for some reason, he felt like he shouldn't ask the teacher.

The entire classroom had been dead silent for the last three hours. Not even the students in red uniforms had said anything.

It was probably better for Shang not to ask any questions.

After the short announcement, the Vice-Dean left the room, and the other students began to stand up from their chairs.

Shang remained sitting on his chair for a bit longer, but not that much longer. He also left rather quickly.

'The Day of Chaos, huh?' he thought as he left. 'I should ask a teacher what that is.'

Shang descended the stairs, but instead of returning to his room, he left the building to go to the marketplace. By now, the merchants should be here.

Sure enough, when Shang arrived at the marketplace, he found several merchants. Shang directly went to the first one that seemed like they were selling ore.

"Hello, how can I help you?" the merchant asked with a polite smile.

"Middle Rank Two Fire ore," Shang said. "How much per unit?"

SHING!

Two pieces of red ore appeared on the table. "As you can see, our ore is of excellent quality. It directly comes from the Volcano Wyrm Zone. The Volcano Wyrm releases a lot of Fire Mana, which makes the ore from that region especially useful for warriors with a Fire Affinity."

"How much per unit?" Shang repeated.

"450 gold per unit," the merchant stated.

Shang's brows furrowed. 'I need two units, which comes to 900 gold. I have a bit more than 200 gold, which means I need around 700 gold to purchase it.'

"Where is the Volcano Wyrm Zone?" Shang asked.

"It's two Zones to the north of the Ice Wyvern Zone, but you can only get there by going through the Empress Cobra Zone and three other Zones," the merchant explained.

"How come?" Shang asked.

"The area to the north of the Ice Wyvern Zone and to the south of the Volcano Wyrm Zone is a beast battlefield," the merchant said. "Humans don't live there since the Ice Wyvern and the Volcano Wyrm have their beasts fight in that zone. Many Commander Stage and even some True Path Stage beasts fight there. The Mana is in chaos, and no merchant dares to travel through that region."

"Because of that, everyone has to walk around the battlefield to get to the Volcano Wyrm Zone. Traveling through the Empress Cobra Zone is also very difficult, but it's manageable."

"However, as you can see, the ore from the Volcano Wyrm Zone is of the highest quality."

Shang nodded. 'That explains the price. Sure, he is also selling it at a premium, but that's still a Zone that's difficult to get to from here.'

'Would it be worth it for me to travel there to buy it locally?' Shang thought as he scratched his chin.

'I guess I would need at least two days to get there and then another two to return. On top of that, I have to find someone that actually sells it at a reasonable price.'

'I'm only familiar with the Storm Eagle Zone and a bit familiar with the Ice Wyvern Zone. If I want to travel to the Volcano Wyrm Zone, I would have to study it beforehand.'

'For what? All that work and time investment for what? To save a couple hundred gold?'

'I can probably earn enough gold to buy the ore here in five days.'

Shang looked at the merchant.

'Seems like it's better to buy the ore here.'

"I'm interested in two units of the Fire ore, but I'm lacking the funds right now," Shang said. "In the next couple of days, I will try to get enough gold to purchase two units."

The merchant was a bit disappointed, but not that much. "Not an issue."

"If I may ask," Shang said, "do you know of a good way for someone like me to earn gold? I'm new here, and I'm only familiar with how to earn Contribution Points."

The merchant was a bit surprised by the question, but he happily answered it. "Go to the Hunter's Guild in the north of Warrior's Paradise. You can accept missions for gold there. Usually, you would need to get through a lengthy process of registering as a hunter, but as a member of the Warrior's Academy, you are automatically a member."

This piqued Shang's interest. "Thank you. I think I will do just that."

"I wish you a profitable hunt," the merchant said with a smile.

"If I may, I have one more question, but it doesn't have anything to do with the ore," Shang said.

The merchant looked interested but also a bit skeptical. "Yes?" he asked.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "What is the Day of Chaos?" he asked.

The merchant furrowed his brows. "You really must be new here," he uttered.

Shang nodded.

"The Day of Chaos is a day that happens once every six months," the merchant explained. "Once every six months, the Storm Eagle leaves the Storm Eagle Zone and flies to the north for a day. No one knows what it's doing in the north since that's outside of Duke Whirlwind's duchy, but it always returns one day later."

"Whenever the Storm Eagle leaves, there's a chance that at least one of the True Path beasts far to the south decide to go hunting in the Canyon or even the Wasteland."

"Well, hunting might not be the correct term. It's more along the lines of a rampage. The Mages believe that the beasts act out when the Storm Eagle leaves because they have been suppressed for a long while. The Mages think that the True Path beasts enjoy venting their frustrations on the weaker beasts."

"This has a ripple effect. Many Commander Stage beasts flee from the Canyon and also kill weaker beasts."

"During the day of Chaos, Commander Stage beasts run rampant in the Wasteland, and General Stage beasts invade the Wild Forest. Of course, Warrior's Paradise also has to endure severe attacks during that period."

"The Day of Chaos is a day of fear, terror, but also prosperity. It's one of the very few times the True Path beasts enter places not filled with other True Path beasts, making this their most vulnerable time."

"But that doesn't have much to do with us little people," the merchant said with a grin. "On the Day of Chaos, Warrior's Paradise is closed to everyone. No visitors are allowed, and the ones living here have to leave."

"All General Stage warriors and Adepts have to defend the Farm Line from the onslaught of beasts coming from the Wasteland. All Commander Stage warriors and Mages have to defend Warrior's Paradise."

"Us? We only retreat to the Farm Line and hide until the next day arrives."

"And then, everything returns to normal," the merchant explained.

Shang had been listening with rapt attention.

The name was very appropriate for the Day of Chaos.

As soon as the Storm Eagle left, the entire Storm Eagle Zone would fall into a state of pure chaos.

But what did all of that have to do with these quotas the Vice-Dean was talking about?

"Thank you for your time," Shang said politely.

"No problem," the merchant said. "In exchange, please purchase the ore from my shop and not one of the others."

Shang nodded. "Will do."

"Then there's nothing to thank for," the merchant said with a polite smile.

Shang said his goodbyes and left the marketplace.

Chapter 138 Hunting Guild

Shang walked towards the exit of the academy. He wanted to go straight to the Hunter's Guild to earn some gold.

But when Shang went past the gate of the academy, he noticed the teacher guarding the gate.

There was always a teacher present. During the night, it was teacher Loran, but during the day, there were always different teachers. It probably depended on the schedule for the day.

This time, Shang recognized the teacher guarding the gate.

"Teacher Mervin," Shang greeted respectfully.

The older man was standing at the side of the gate like a statue. In comparison to teacher Loran, he seemed to take his job much more seriously.

Teacher Mervin was one of the three teachers that had supervised Shang's entrance exam. As far as Shang knew, teacher Mervin was responsible for teaching swordsmanship.

Teacher Mervin looked at Shang, and a small glint of recognition appeared in his eyes.

"You've done something you regret," teacher Mervin commented.

"What do you mean?" Shang asked calmly.

"You are blind to your own emotions," he said. "I have seen many people in similar situations. I know what they look like."

"And what do they look like?" Shang asked.

"Distracted, stressed, active," teacher Mervin answered.

"Active?" Shang asked. The first two made sense, but the third one?

"You can't stand to do nothing," teacher Mervin said. "Whenever you find a moment of calm, your memories haunt you. It's impossible for you to calm down."

"I don't think that's true," Shang said.

"When was the last time you slept?" teacher Mervin asked.

Shang's mind went through his memories.

When was the last time he had slept?

He hadn't slept since he had arrived at the academy nearly two weeks ago.

Normal humans needed regular sleep, while Peak Soldier Stage warriors didn't need much sleep.

However, Peak Soldier Stage still needed around ten hours of sleep per week.

And Shang?

He hadn't slept in two weeks.

"I'm not tired," Shang said.

"The effects of sleep deprivation have already taken hold," teacher Mervin said. "You are already showing signs of having a headache, but you simply don't notice them due to your abnormal resistance to pain and suffering."

"You should try going to sleep. Your concentration is lacking in your current state, making fights many times more dangerous."

Shang's insides were churning in frustration, but his head told him that teacher Mervin's words were the truth.

Shang didn't want to admit that he needed sleep, but he knew that he needed to sleep.

"There's still something I have to do," Shang said.

Teacher Mervin didn't answer as he only looked at Shang with neutral eyes.

Shang took a couple of steps forward.

But then, he paused.

"Teacher Mervin, what's the teachers' quota for the Day of Chaos? What's the quota for?" Shang asked.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "I'll tell you if you promise me that you will go to sleep before you're going to do whatever you think you need to do," teacher Mervin answered.

Shang looked at teacher Mervin for a bit.

Then, he turned around and left for the Hunting Guild.

When teacher Mervin saw Shang leave, he released a sigh.

'He's running from his problems,' he thought. 'Yet, what's the use in doing that? He will have to confront them either way.'

As Shang walked towards the Hunting Guild, he had a couple of thoughts of his own.

'Yes, I need to sleep, but I don't want to sleep right now. I am so close to finally having a powerful weapon. I got my Light ore, my Darkness ore, and my Ice ore. I'm only missing the Fire ore, which should be the easiest and cheapest one.'

'Just one more hunt.'

'I can sleep after that.'

Shang arrived in the north of the city rather quickly. He had been here several times since the gates were also at the north, but he hadn't really looked around here.

Shang searched for the Hunting Guild, and he quickly found a very wide building at the side of the main street.

Shang saw several hunters coming in and out of the building, most of them being at the General Stage.

Some of them were leaving the city to the north, while several others were walking further into the city.

Shang walked into the Hunting Guild.

When he entered, he was a bit surprised.

The Hunting Guild looked very different from what he had expected.

He had expected some kind of big bar with alcohol and music, but none of that was here.

Instead, Shang saw several counters with clerks, lots of paper everywhere, a couple of potted plants here and there, white walls, and some chairs for hunters to wait.

This definitely didn't feel like a Hunting Guild of some fantasy game or something.

'It looks like a mixture of a doctor's waiting room and the DMV,' Shang thought. 'At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if I have to get a number and wait in line.'

This looked far more like a public office than some kind of Guild.

Shang looked to the left and saw a young woman standing behind a counter that had the word reception written on it.

Shang couldn't feel any specific kind of Mana coming from the woman, but he could feel a certain density of Mana surrounding her. She was probably an Adept.

'Well, I guess I should walk over,' Shang thought.

"Hello, this is my first time here," Shang said. "Could you please explain to me how everything works here?"

The woman looked up from the papers in front of her and at Shang. She quickly noticed Shang's uniform.

"I need your Emblem first," she said, extending her hand.

Shang took out his emblem and placed it in her hands.

The receptionist spoke two quick words, and several confusing signs appeared on Shang's emblem.

The receptionist furrowed her brows as she looked at the confusing signs.

Then, she looked at Shang with a bit of surprise.

"Alright," she said, giving Shang his emblem back.

After that, she grabbed one stack of papers and another smaller stack of papers.

"Here you go," she said, handing the two stacks of paper to Shang. "These are your available missions for the day. Read through the mission list and tell me which ones you want to accept. Please keep in mind that the missions you accept have to be completed in less than 24 hours. So, please don't choose too many of them."

"If you have any questions about any specific beasts on the list, you can ask me, but please keep your questions to your mission targets. I'm not a teacher," she explained.

After that, she looked away again as she returned to leafing through another stack of papers with furrowed brows.

Shang felt a bit awkward since the receptionist had explained everything at record speed without even giving him an opportunity to answer.

"Thanks," Shang said absentmindedly.

Shang took the two stacks of papers and walked to one of the chairs at the side. A couple of other hunters were already sitting there as they were looking through several stacks of papers.

Shang sat down and looked at the first stack of papers.

'Missions for Initial General Stage beasts in the Wild Forest,' Shang read with surprise.

'I can choose missions to hunt Initial General Stage beasts?'

Chapter 139 Javelin

Shang was surprised that he got access to Initial General Stage beasts. Why would the Hunting Guild give him access to such strong beasts? Shang knew that he couldn't kill a General Stage beast under normal circumstances. After all, in his battle against the Vanishing Snake, Shang had had several advantages.

It had basically been a unique opportunity.

If Shang had fought a normal General Stage Vanishing Snake, he would have definitely lost. After all, the Vanishing Snake hadn't even attacked Shang with its tail for the first half of the fight, and its attention also hadn't been fully on Shang.

Shang was confident in his power, but he wasn't an idiot. He knew that he had no chance against a General Stage beast.

At least, for now.

With a more powerful weapon, Shang could imagine fighting a General Stage beast.

Shang looked around and noticed that the receptionist was busy doing something else.

So, Shang's eyes wandered to the hunter sitting beside him.

It was a man in his twenties, wearing armor made of brown leather. The leather reminded Shang of the Wasteland.

"Excuse me," Shang said to the hunter.

The hunter looked at Shang with a curious expression. "Yes?" he asked.

Shang pointed at the words on his stack of papers. "Do you think the Hunting Guild made a mistake? I don't think I'm powerful enough to kill General Stage beasts."

The hunter frowned and motioned for Shang to give him the stack of papers.

Shang gave it to him. After all, these missions were public, and everyone basically shared the missions. Shang doubted that he was the only one that had access to over 50 missions.

The hunter looked with furrowed brows at the title of the stack of papers and quickly skimmed through the contents.

"Have you killed a General Stage beast once before?" he asked.

"Yes, but I was lucky, and I had help," Shang said.

Plop!

The hunter threw the stack of papers back to Shang. "Then that's fine. No one is hunting alone anyways. If you killed one, you killed one."

Shang looked with a complex expression at the hunter's nonchalant attitude.

How did the Hunting Guild even know that he had killed a General Stage beast?

At that moment, the image of teacher Niria shot through Shang's mind.

Was it her?

'Anyway, everything seems to be in order,' Shang thought as he looked at the stack of papers.

Shang didn't plan on accepting these missions anyway. After all, he was not planning on dying.

However, he was a bit interested in their contents.

Shang opened the stacks of paper, and the very first page already showed Shang something very familiar.

"Kill adult Vanishing Snakes and document their appearance."

"Reward: 800 gold."

"Corpse: Forfeit."

Shang looked with confusion at the mission.

Then, he looked at the hunter beside him again. "What does corpse forfeit mean?" he asked.

"Means you have to deliver the corpse, and you don't get to sell it," he answered quickly without looking away from his own stack of papers. "Of course, the rewards are also higher. Those missions are generally worth it."

"Thanks," Shang quickly said as he looked back at the piece of paper.

800 gold.

That would be enough for his ore.

Shang took a deep breath and went to the next page.

He wasn't about to look for his death.

"Find clues of the Pest Queen's whereabouts."

"Reward: 500 gold."

Shang looked at the mission with confusion. 'Pest Queen? Does that have something to do with the Pest Cats?'

Shang looked at the hunter beside him but decided against asking.

He wouldn't accept that mission anyway.

Shang went to the next page.

"Kill adult Swamp Millipedes and document their appearance."

"Reward: 400 gold."

At that moment, Shang considered accepting the mission.

How powerful would an adult Swamp Millipede be? It couldn't be as dangerous as an adult Vanishing Snake, right?

But then, Shang remembered two crucial details.

First of all, the Soldier Stage Swamp Millipedes were only in the Mid Soldier Stage, while Vanishing Snakes were at the Late or Peak Soldier Stage. That was one of the reasons why they felt more dangerous to Shang.

Second, Vanishing Snakes were ambush predators while Swamp Millipedes weren't. They definitely weren't the sneaky kind, and it was easy to find them from quite a distance. That probably meant that their direct combat power was probably pretty high.

So, in the end, Shang decided against accepting the mission.

After that, Shang put the first stack of papers away. Obviously, these missions were too much for him.

Shang looked at the other stack of papers, and he quickly found more manageable missions.

Killing Vanishing Snakes.

Killing Swamp Millipedes.

Killing Pest Cats.

After that, Shang saw many, many more missions for killing other beasts. Most of them were completely unknown to Shang.

Shang also found some particular missions that didn't involve killing.

Some of them only wanted Shang to document the whereabouts of certain beasts.

Others asked about surveying an entire area and documenting all beasts that passed by him.

Some other missions wanted Shang to get some samples from soil or certain beasts.

But most missions were still about killing beasts.

After several minutes, Shang was done with looking through the stack of papers.

'The most lucrative mission is killing Vanishing Snakes. Each one is worth 80 gold,' Shang thought with a frown.

'I would need nine Vanishing Snakes, which would come down to over 24 hours of hunting in dangerous territory. Additionally, I have killed a lot of Vanishing Snakes already. I don't think the Vanishing Snakes are as numerous as Pest Cats.'

'On top of that, some Vanishing Snakes might decide against attacking me. I'm not sure if my suspicions are correct, but I feel like there have been fewer Vanishing Snakes attacking me the last time compared to how many there should be.'

'Maybe their instincts tell them that I'm dangerous.'

'If my suspicions are correct, it might actually take me three days to hunt enough.'

Shang looked through the other missions again.

However, they were not even nearly worth as much as the Vanishing Snakes.

For example, a Pest Cat only had a bounty of one gold.

Was he supposed to hunt 700 Pest Cats?

Swamp Millipedes were also only worth three gold, which was ridiculously little.

By now, Shang had realized that the academy paid way more for these kinds of beasts.

Sure, there were other beasts that had a two-digit bounty of gold, but Shang didn't know much about them.

'Seems like I have to work for a couple of days,' Shang thought with a sigh.

"You killed a General Stage beast once, right?"

Shang looked to his right at the hunter beside him. He hadn't expected the hunter to initiate conversation.

"Yes, I did," Shang said.

The hunter nodded. "I can see that you are new here, but I can also see your potential. I saw that you mostly skipped over the General Stage beasts, which is a smart move. It means you know your own limits."

Shang wasn't sure why the hunter was complimenting him. "Thank you?" he answered in confusion.

"How confident are you in fleeing from General Stage beasts?" the hunter asked.

"As long as they don't specifically try to hunt me down, I'm confident in escaping," Shang answered as he remembered how he had fled from that one pangolin.

The hunter nodded again. "Been to the southern parts of any of the two forests before?" he asked.

Shang nodded. "Yes, that's where I escaped from a pangolin that threw earth spears at me."

The hunter snorted. "That's an Artillery Pangolin," the hunter said. "They're very slow, but their ranged abilities can't be underestimated."

'Seems like artillery is a known concept in this world,' Shang thought with surprise.

"Anyway, if you managed to escape from one of those, there should be a rather fitting mission for you in that first stack of papers," the hunter said. "Of course, no mission is without its risks."

"There is one?" Shang asked in surprise.

The man nodded. "Page 49," he said.

Shang grabbed the first stack of papers again and went to that page.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "Break the beaks of any young Javelins you find and mark their heads."

"Reward: 250 gold."

"WARNING: Javelins are on the blacklist! Killing them is strictly prohibited!"

Shang's eyes widened in surprise.

Chapter 140 Environmental Planning

"Javelins?" Shang asked in confusion as he looked at the hunter beside him.

The hunter nodded. "You might think that Javelins are birds, but they are actually a mixture between birds and land beasts. Imagine a wolf, give it scales, put feathers over the scales, and replace its head with a bird head with a long beak. Their front legs have very noticeable feathers."

"They are very quick on land, but they can also expand the feathers on their front legs to create makeshift wings. They are a bit clumsy in the air, but if they jump beforehand, their small wings give them a terrifying short-term control for their jump."

Shang had a hard time imagining such a beast.

A wolf with a bird's head and expandable wings?

"The Mages think that Javelins have once been birds that transitioned on fighting on land," the hunter explained.

"Why?" Shang asked.

"The Wasteland is full of Earth and Wind Affinity beasts, and nearly all of them have some kind of ranged attack. Flying beasts often have issues with dealing with such attacks. Sure, they are fast and nimble, but one good hit with a rock, and they hit the ground."

Shang nodded a couple of times.

This world sure was interesting.

"So, why do we have to get their beaks? Are they worth a lot?" Shang asked.

"No," the hunter answered. "The beaks of the young are worthless."

"Then why do we have a mission to get them? On top of that, the reward is very high for a beast at the Soldier Stage."

The hunter smirked. "Investment and pest control," he said.

Shang looked with a questioning expression at the hunter.

"Javelins are an average General Stage beast when they reach maturity. They're not very powerful but also not very weak."

"That is if we let them grow naturally."

Shang raised an eyebrow.

"You see, Javelins have a peculiarity."

"They are absolutely helpless without their pointy beak. Their entire offensive capabilities revolve around that beak. Sadly, their beaks don't naturally become powerful enough to penetrate heavy armor. Because of that, normal Javelins only hunt other nimble land beasts in the Wasteland," the hunter explained.

"However, if we break their beaks twice when they are younger, their beak grows back with much more power. By breaking it twice, the Javelin's break will become terrifyingly hard."

"Of course, naturally, that won't ever happen. After all, when their beaks get broken, they are essentially already dead since they can't put up a fight anymore."

The hunter leaned back as he put his own stack of papers to the side.

"That's where we come into play. We break the beak of the young Javelins twice, and they grow up to become quite a formidable opponent."

The hunter smirked again.

"But not for us."

"They become a formidable opponent to Earth Affinity beasts that rely completely on defense."

"You see, armored Earth Affinity beasts are one of the most annoying things in the Wasteland for hunters. These beasts just keep on walking around, attacking everything they see, and hunting them is a gigantic hassle. It's easy to escape from them, but they interfere in the work of basically all hunters."

"And now, put yourself in the shoes of a quick Javelin with a powerful spear as a weapon. What would you rather hunt, some nimble humans or a slow fat piece of meat?" the hunter asked.

A glint of understanding appeared in Shang's eyes.

"So, the Javelins deal with all the annoying Earth Affinity beasts?" Shang asked.

The hunter nodded. "Precisely. In the Wasteland, normal Javelins are a bother, but Javelins with a powerful beak are an asset. Normal Javelins attack us. Powerful Javelins attack armored beasts."

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "The Hunting Guild isn't directly earning money from these beaks, but indirectly. Every powerful Javelin increases the overall experience for us hunters in the Wasteland. It makes our lives that much easier."

Shang nodded. "That makes sense."

"The young Javelins are only at the southern parts of the forests," the hunter added. "Since there is a high likelihood of encountering General Stage beasts in that area, the mission is in the stack of General Stage beasts."

"Sadly, not many hunters accept these missions. The reward is too low for General Stage hunters, but the mission is also too dangerous for Soldier Stage hunters. The Hunting Guild just recently upped the reward from 200 gold per Javelin to 250 gold."

"That sounds great," Shang said. "I think that's just the right mission for me."

The hunter nodded with a smile. "That's good. You're making life easier for us General Stage hunters. As a little tip, I would suggest for you to go to the southern part of the northwestern forest. There are far more young Javelins there than in the northeastern forest. You can imagine why."

Shang nodded. He knew why.

The Vanishing Snakes.

They really made trouble for everyone. No wonder they were worth so many Contribution Points.

"Anyway, gotta go," the hunter said as he stood up. "My team's waiting for me."

"Thank you again," Shang said.

The hunter winked at Shang before he went to the receptionist to register a couple of missions.

After the hunter left the Hunting Guild, Shang stood up and also walked to the receptionist.

"This one, please," Shang said, pointing at the mission with the Javelins.

The receptionist took away the stacks of papers and quickly wrote a couple of things down.

Then, she put a long, square-like object on the counter.

"If you kill a Javelin, that's a 1,000-gold fine," she said. "Only break the beaks that look green and greenish-blue. If you see one with a blue beak, it means it has already been broken twice. You won't get any reward for those."

"After breaking the beak, stamp the head of the Javelin with the stamp," she said as she pointed at the object on the counter. "Stamping them shouldn't be an issue once their beaks are broken. At that point, they only want to flee and won't fight back anymore."

"Happy hunting," she said with practiced ease before going back to doing her work.

Shang took the stamp with him and left the Hunting Guild.

'It's impressive how much the Hunting Guild is investing into keeping their hunting grounds fertile,' Shang thought as he jogged to the exit of the city.

'They really have everything planned out to the smallest detail. I expected something like that on Earth, but not in this world.'

Shang exited the city.

'I guess, in a way, I'm doing the very thing to the Javelins what they are going to do for me.'

'Upgrade my weapon.'

'I break their beaks to upgrade their weapon, and by doing that, I can upgrade my weapon.'

'Rather ironic, actually.'

The bloodied face hadn't returned in quite a while, but Shang didn't notice.

He was too preoccupied with thinking about this world.

'I've never been in the forests during the day, which is also probably why I haven't seen any Javelins before. I wonder what differences there are between night and day in the forests.'

'Nearly every hunter is hunting during the day, and only very few are hunting during the night. I wonder why that is.'

'I've also never been to the northwestern forest before. If I recall correctly, there's also one more pest I haven't seen before in the northwestern forest. I think they were called Life Scarabs. Wonder if I will find some of them.'

Shang looked at the sky and noticed that it was only noon.

'I got half the day left to break three beaks. Maybe I can get more. Too much money is never an issue.'

Eventually, Shang reached the crossroads again.

Then, he looked at the distant forest towards the northwest.

'Let's see how this one goes.'