Ch. 291..300

Chapter 291 - Slide

Shang entered the eastern wall in the morning.

For the last ten months, he had focused on increasing the power of his body, and he was now at the Peak General Stage.

Today, he would test his power against an Early Commander Stage beast. At least, that was the plan.

At the moment, Shang's body was just as powerful as the body of an Early Commander Stage warrior. In a way, by fighting an Early Commander Stage warrior, Shang was not jumping any levels.

However, the physical powers of beasts had become far more powerful than back when Shang had only been at the Early or Initial General Stage.

There wasn't a single warrior in the world that could defeat a Commander Stage beast alone while being at the same level.

Shang quickly purchased a couple of talismans and jumped down the wall.

Even though Shang had gotten used to running very fast, flying was still something new to him, and he enjoyed the solitude in the air.

A couple of minutes later, Shang landed near the entrance to the Caves.

It was the same one he had used three years ago with Astor, Sarah, and Elver.

Then, Shang sighed.

'I haven't thought about them in forever. Originally, I wanted to make some friends, but then this entire Wilbury thing started. I was so focused on becoming more powerful that I didn't even talk to them once.'

'Friends, huh?' Shang thought as he looked at the sky. 'I think I want friends. I've gotten used to the loneliness, but I still wonder from time to time how it would be to have a friend in this world.'

'But what am I supposed to do with them? I'm being targeted by people way more powerful than me. The last time it happened, the three of them also nearly died.'

'On top of that, what if the enemy wants to use them as hostages? I won't walk into an obvious trap, which means that my hypothetical friend will just lose their life for nothing.'

'I guess I should put this entire friend thing on hold.'

Shang jumped into the Caves.

BANG!

Shang landed on the ground without any issues. This time, not even his joints hurt.

After looking around for a bit, Shang charged down one of the tunnels. The beasts around this place weren't a danger to him.

At the first intersection, Shang went down, deeper into the Caves. Just like Sarah, Shang had purchased a map for the Caves, which basically cost him nothing due to his substantial wealth.

Shang had already sold four Foci with one Amplifier each, which came to a total of four million gold.

Together with all the other gold he had earned, Shang had the net worth of a Mid Commander Stage warrior.

Not everyone had the luxury of having several Adepts come after them. Killing Mages was far more profitable than killing warriors or beasts.

Shang saw a couple of General Stage beasts while passing through the Caves.

He saw some spiders, pangolins, moles, and even a centipede.

Of course, none of them were interested in attacking Shang. He was running too fast, and he was giving off quite a strong feeling of danger.

Shang came to a large hole in the ground that had several tunnels connected to it. The hole was nearly an entire kilometer deep.

From time to time, Shang could see beasts leave one tunnel and go to a different one. In a way, this tunnel was quite busy.

After a running start, Shang jumped off the edge and fell down the hole.

As he was falling, Shang broke one of the talismans he had purchased. A second later, Shang's body vanished and was seemingly replaced by some green wind.

This talisman was specifically designed to allow someone to descend this hole without any beasts annoying them.

About a minute later, Shang silently and lightly landed on the ground, and his body reappeared.

He looked around for a bit and walked down one of the tunnels. By now, his mind had reached the power of a Peak Apprentice, allowing Shang to memorize the entire map he had bought.

After a couple of minutes, Shang took a left, which led him further down.

Then he took a right, went straight, took another left, and eventually, he arrived at a peculiar tunnel.

This tunnel was quite steep but not steep enough to fall down completely.

This specific tunnel was called the "Commander Slide".

It was named as such because, after arriving at the slide's end, one would enter the part of the Caves where Commander Stage beasts lived.

The Caves were far better than the Canyon for a new team of Commander Stage warriors. In the Caves, the deeper one went, the stronger the beasts. This meant that, as long as one remained at the upper parts of the Commander Stage part of the Caves, one wouldn't meet Mid, Late, or Peak Commander Stage beasts.

In the Canyon, the Commander Stage beasts were all mixed. One could meet an Initial Commander Stage beast and then meet a Peak Commander Stage beast just a hundred meters further.

Something like this wouldn't happen here.

Luckily, this slide was also only very rarely used by beasts. Commander Stage beasts had no reason to ascend the slide, and General Stage beasts had no reason to descend it unless they had just reached the Commander Stage.

Shang jumped onto the hard slide and slid down with his feet.

The slide wasn't as even and smooth as the other parts of the tunnel, making it rather dangerous.

SSHHH!

Some ice appeared on Shang's feet, which smoothened the ground below him, allowing him to slide down without any issues.

Just a couple of seconds later, Shang's body had reached quite a lot of speed.

'This is probably as fast as I have gone with the sled wagon back then,' Shang thought.

A bit later, a stone appeared in Shang's way.

Shang jumped over the stone without any issues and lightly landed on the slide again.

'Sure enough, without a Domain, sliding down here is quite dangerous. Fortunately, my Affinity is a bit different.'

If someone lost control over their Affinity while sliding down, they might hit one of the very hard stones with their head or back. In a way, this slide acted just like the entrance to the Caves themselves. It was a filter for people that were too weak.

The slide was quite long, and Shang continued sliding for nearly five minutes.

'I have no idea how deep down I am right now,' Shang thought. 'I'm at least several kilometers deep in the ground.'

After sliding past a corner, Shang saw something, and he lifted an eyebrow.

'Really? An Initial Commander Stage Crack Spider is hunting here?'

A couple hundred meters to Shang's front, he could feel the gigantic Crack Spider. By now, Shang's Darkness Vision had become even better, and it was no issue for him to feel everything clearly for a couple hundred meters as long as there was enough Darkness Mana around.

The Crack Spider was nearly twenty meters wide and long, and it was sitting on the ceiling.

It obviously was there to catch any newly advanced Commander Stage beasts.

Chapter 292 - Bottom

Shang saw the Crack Spider and readied his sword.

BANG!

Shang shot forward after unleashing an Ice Blast.

The spider quickly noticed that Shang was attacking it. It didn't matter that Shang moved quietly in the air. The spider only looked in one direction, and when something came from there, it would notice.

BANG!

Several spires came out of the ceiling around the Crack Spider, blocking Shang's approach.

But Shang didn't stop.

BOOOOM!

Shang kicked the stone, blasting it apart. Of course, his leg also broke into pieces.

The spider behind the wall lost its balance. Shang's body wasn't nearly as powerful as its body, but Shang had gone over 300 kph just now, and there was a lot of force behind his attack.

Several of the spider's legs reared back, and it barely kept itself on the ceiling with its remaining legs.

CRK! CRK!

However, having such a huge amount of weight hanging from only so few points was very strenuous for the ceiling, making it crack in many places.

BOOOM!

Shang's other leg kicked the ceiling. If he continued forward, he would jump right into the spider's teeth.

CRACK!

The ceiling above Shang cracked, and Shang was flung towards the ground thanks to his kick. However, the Crack Spider fell along with him.

The Crack Spider quickly realigned its body so that it wouldn't land on its back but on its leg.

BANG!

An Ice Blast left Shang's left hand, and he shot at the ceiling again.

BANG!

Shang violently landed on the ceiling of the slide, the stone cracking beneath his feet. His body even got buried up to his waist.

At this moment, time seemingly stood still.

The Crack Spider was falling to the ground with its legs first, and Shang's body was stuck in the ceiling.

From Shang's perspective, he was looking up, right at the spider's back with shining eyes.

BOOOM!

The stone around Shang exploded as Shang released a powerful Fire Blast from his healed legs.

Shang's speed overtook the spider's falling speed by many times.

CRK! BANG!

Shang's sword pierced through the middle of the spider's back, and it came out of the front.

A screeching noise came from the spider.

BOOOOM!

The spider violently hit the ground.

Its legs were flailing around in panic, but its body was nailed to the ground by the humongous sword coming out of the bottom of its thorax.

Shang stood on top of the spider, and his hands touched its body.

Darkness Absorb.

The spider tried to flee in panic, but it could only watch helplessly as all its life energy left its body.

But then, the absorption suddenly stopped.

On top of the spider, Shang's body had swollen a lot, and he looked like he was ready to explode. 'Too much life energy,' he thought.

The spider was still alive, but it had been weakened severely.

Shang grabbed his sword and moved it through the weakened and frail body, cutting its head in two.

The spider very quickly died after that.

Shang put his sword away again.

SSSSHH!

Shang heard and felt the earth moving, and he looked down.

The corpse below him was starting to slide down the steep slope.

For a second, Shang wasn't sure if he should put the corpse away or not.

'Kind of reminds me of that time I rode the sled wagon,' Shang thought as he saw the corpse below him accelerate more and more.

In the end, Shang decided to leave the corpse outside.

Why not ride on the spider?

Shang decided to remain standing on the spider since he didn't want to suddenly be flung off if the spider hit something.

But he wouldn't continue sliding for long.

Just a minute later, Shang saw a hill of sand and stone at the end of the slide.

Shang went to the back of the corpse and jumped off with all his power.

BANG!

The corpse accelerated even more as Shang's speed slowed down by a lot.

BOOOOM!

The corpse hit the hill of sand and stone, scattering debris over the entire cave.

Two seconds later, Shang loudly landed on top of the spider's corpse again.

This time, his joints cracked, but that wasn't really an issue.

After landing, he looked around the cave.

It was rather big. It was probably around 200 meters high and a hundred meters wide. The hill made of stone and sand was nearly as high as the entire cave.

'I guess this is all the sand and stone that slides down the slope,' Shang thought as he looked below him.

Then, Shang looked at the hole he had come out of.

The hole was at the ceiling of the cave, and Shang could see the slide clearer from here.

'It looks far steeper than when I looked down,' Shang thought. 'I think that slide was on an angle of around 60° to 70°. Not sure if I can call that a slide.'

Shang looked back to the cave. 'But that doesn't matter. I have arrived at my destination, and that's all that counts.'

Shang put the corpse of the spider into his inner world and slid down the small mountain of sand and stone.

'I should be more careful from now on. I can deal with Initial Commander Stage beasts without a problem, but if an Early Commander Stage beast ambushes me, I might get into trouble.'

Shang checked the map he had remembered. 'I should be at the border between the Storm Eagle Zone and the Empress Cobra Zone. According to the map, this place is about six kilometers beneath the surface.'

As Shang thought about this, he also realized something else.

He looked at his left arm and moved it up and down a bit.

Then, he slightly crouched and stood up again.

'It's very subtle, but I think I feel heavier,' Shang thought. 'Is this the effect of a large amount of Earth Mana?'

Shang couldn't feel Earth Mana, but he knew that he was practically bathing in it. Earth Mana was very heavy and traveled down, just like water. Additionally, the more earth there was around someone, the denser the Earth Mana in the surroundings.

'I have read that Earth Mana is related to gravity. Mages that use Earth Mana can't control this gravity aspect, but it doesn't change the fact that Earth Mana has a slight effect on gravity.'

'I mean, it makes sense. On Earth, the more mass, the stronger the gravity. Earth Mana is known for being very heavy and having the ability to make stuff heavier. In a sense, it should have some connection to the force of gravity.'

'Not sure if a depth of six kilometers would make a noticeable difference in terms of gravity on Earth, but I can definitely feel it here, even if it is very subtle. I guess the Earth Mana has an amplifying effect on gravity.'

Then, Shang looked forward, and he saw a rather big tunnel, but when he saw it, he raised an eyebrow.

'The tunnel isn't smooth and circular,' he thought. 'It looks more like a natural cave. One I would find on Earth.'

Shang walked up to one of the walls and touched them with furrowed brows.

'Yet, the walls are very hard. I would probably need to strike it with my sword with all of my power if I wanted to damage it.'

'Is that one of the reasons why beasts keep going further down? I mean, sure, the main reason is that they are Earth Affinity beasts and that the Earth Mana becomes more and more abundant, but what if the beasts also don't want to accidentally bury themselves while fighting?'

'Could be. Don't know.'

Shang looked at the dark tunnel for a bit more.

And then, he walked forward, his sword ready.

He had finally arrived at a place that was dangerous to the current him.

Chapter 293 - Calm Area

Shang traveled through the tunnel at a slow pace. In comparison to the upper Caves, this place was far quieter since there were far fewer beasts running around.

Just like with warriors and Mages, the further one traversed on the path to power, the fewer beings on the same level one would find.

There were probably over ten times as many General Stage beasts than Commander Stage beasts. So, while the upper Caves had the occasional beast running around, the deeper Caves felt empty.

But this couldn't be avoided. In order to advance on the path to power, one was required to consume more and more resources. Every Commander Stage beast had probably killed hundreds of other beasts in their lives.

Shang didn't find any other beast for several minutes, even with the help of his Darkness Vision.

But after 30 minutes, Shang finally felt something of interest.

However, it wasn't a beast.

Shang looked towards the north with interest.

He wasn't sure what he was feeling, but this feeling felt strange.

'Am I imagining things?' Shang thought as he looked to the north. 'I can't see anything in my Darkness Vision, but I somehow feel like I should go to the north.'

For a while, Shang wasn't sure if this feeling was real or not.

'I should investigate. If I get closer and the feeling is real, it should become stronger.'

Shang walked down one of the northern paths and consulted his map again when he came to an intersection.

For a couple of minutes, Shang chose paths that led further to the north, but it wasn't that easy to navigate, even with a map.

Shang went a bit deeper into the Caves, but he didn't descend too much. After all, he didn't want to meet Mid Commander Stage beasts.

"I can feel ore," Sword suddenly said.

Sword very rarely spoke, and Shang looked at it in surprise. "What kind of ore?"

"Entropy Ore," Sword answered. "It is the same feeling as back when we were in front of the Old King's Trial, but this time, the feeling is incomparably stronger."

"Does the feeling come from the north?" Shang asked.

"Yes," Sword said.

Shang furrowed his brows. 'Weird, I couldn't feel the ore in the Old King's Trial. As far as I know, I can only-'

And then, Shang's eyes narrowed. 'Could it be?'

Shang remembered the last Day of Chaos he had participated in. Back then, Shang had felt very similar to now.

During the last Day of Chaos, Shang had felt the Abomination in the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.

Shang looked to the north. 'Am I feeling an Abomination? But how? Abominations are only supposed to appear during the Day of Chaos, and that is still about two months away.'

'Even more, I'm not the only one hunting down here. If there were an Abomination here, the other warriors and Mages would have already found it.'

Nevertheless, Shang decided to investigate. Even if there were no Abomination, the ore would still be useful.

Shang continued traveling to the north, consulting his map several times.

When Shang entered a particular tunnel, he noticed something on the map that he hadn't noticed before.

'The Calm Area?' Shang thought.

The area where Shang had just entered was colored in a slight blue hue. The blue hue stretched for about five kilometers and was round.

This area was called the Calm Area, and there was a short note beside the name.

'Nearly no beasts,' Shang read.

At that point, Shang realized why there were so few beasts. Sure, there were fewer Commander Stage beasts, but traveling 30 minutes without seeing one was still a bit weird.

Additionally, even though Shang had traveled for 30 minutes, he wasn't walking very fast, and he was walking in circles at different depths. He hadn't been inside the Calm Zone until now, but he had been rather close to it.

'Beasts can feel Abominations. Usually, they attack them when they see them, but if an Abomination is far above their level, they probably avoid it,' Shang thought.

'I feel an Abomination from the north, and the center of the Calm Area also happens to be to the north?' Shang thought with furrowed brows. 'This doesn't seem like a coincidence.'

Shang continued walking to the north in as straight of a line as possible.

He didn't meet any beasts.

Eventually, Shang reached a dead end and had to go around it.

Shang traveled to the northeast for about two kilometers before he stopped.

'Okay, the direction has definitely changed,' Shang thought.

Right now, Shang was to the east of the center of the Calm Area.

And where did the feeling come from?

The west.

At that point, Shang decided to grab one of the many pieces of coal and took out his map.

Shang closed his eyes and focused on the feeling.

Then, he drew a straight line through the entire Calm Zone on the map according to his feeling.

After that, Shang went to the southwest again.

Every kilometer, Shang drew another line according to his feeling.

Lastly, he traveled to the western side of the Calm Zone.

And then, Shang stopped and looked at the map.

Five black lines of different directions went through the entire Calm Zone…

And all five lines met at the same spot.

However, the point where they met was in the middle of nowhere. There were simply no tunnels or caves in that area.

Shang took out the next map, the one for the even deeper Caves.

He put both maps above each other and compared them.

Shang's eyebrows rose when he saw the maps.

'The upper and lower areas in the Commander Stage part of the Caves both have an about two-kilometer-wide circle with no caves.'

'All the caves avoid this circle, and in the middle of that circle should be my target.'

One had to remember that the Caves were over a hundred kilometers wide. A two-kilometer-wide circle wasn't very noticeable on a map covering such a huge area.

Lastly, Shang took out the map for the General Stage area of the Caves.

However, this time, there was no circle.

The General Stage area was completely normal.

'This means that this entire thing only starts at about this depth, which should be six to seven kilometers deep.'

By now, Shang was certain that there was something here, but he also realized several other things.

'Such a strange area as the Calm Area obviously didn't go unnoticed,' he thought as he scratched his chin, looking at the map. 'The Mages definitely thoroughly researched and analyzed this area, and they definitely noticed this empty circle.'

'I refuse to believe that they didn't try to dig to that location.'

'Yet, the maps say nothing about this place. If there is something threatening this place, the maps would say so.'

Shang looked more closely at the map. 'If I were a team of researchers, I would get to the closest location to the center and dig from there, which would be… there!'

Shang noticed one small cave that ended in a dead-end, pointing at the circle. It was to the southeast of the circle, and it was around another 500 meters further down, which should still be safe for Shang.

'Let's check it out.'

 

Chapter 294 - Black Wall

About 20 minutes later, Shang reached the tunnel and entered it.

As he walked further, he noticed something. 'My Darkness Vision stops at a certain point, but this is somehow different. Usually, I can feel the Darkness Mana stop at the walls and remain near them, but this time, it feels like the Darkness Mana is being swallowed by something.'

'It's almost like it simply stops existing at some point. It's like being on a boat and looking at a waterfall. The river simply seems to vanish at that point.'

Some seconds later, Shang noticed that the tunnel was getting wider, contradicting the map. The map showed a natural dead-end, but instead of becoming narrower, the tunnel widened.

Eventually, Shang could see the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel had widened to a width and height of over a hundred meters, but everything stopped at the same point.

Shang could see in the dark, but he felt like he couldn't see the thing at the end of the tunnel.

However, just as expected, the feeling Shang was feeling was becoming more intense.

Eventually, Shang stopped just a meter away from the end of the tunnel.

In front of him, he could only see black.

Shang extended his hand.

And he felt a wall.

The wall was cold to the touch, but it wasn't freezing.

'Strange. This wall is so black that I can't even see it,' Shang thought as he rubbed his hand on the wall.

"That's the ore," Sword said.

Shang looked at Sword with furrowed brows. "What is?"

"The wall," Sword said.

Shang's eyes widened in shock, and he looked at the wall. "You're saying that this gigantic wall is all made up of Entropy Ore?!" he asked.

"Correct," Sword answered.

Shang could barely wrap his mind around this fact.

So, the two-kilometer wide and however-many-kilometer high circle was entirely made up of Entropy Ore?!

How much ore was that?!

At that point, Shang noticed something.

There was a tiny cut in the immaculately flat and smooth wall.

Shang's hand went over, and he could barely feel the cut. Without his Darkness Vision, he would have never found it.

'I guess this is where they tried to break through the wall,' Shang thought.

'Sadly, they failed.'

Shang looked at the wall for a while longer. 'But how could they? If a team of True Mages failed to get through there, it means that this ore is exceptionally hard and, therefore, quite valuable. Instead of just giving up, they would surely call the Duke, right?'

'And the same thing would be true for the Duke, which means that eventually…'

Shang looked closer at the cut.

'Was this cut left behind by King Skythunder or one of his predecessors?'

'That would also explain why nobody marked this spot. If not even the King could get through there, nobody else could.'

"How powerful do you think the ore is?" Shang asked Sword.

"I don't know," Sword answered. "I only know that it is far above my current level."

"Can you absorb it?" Shang asked.

Sword remained silent for a couple of seconds.

"I definitely can't absorb it permanently, but maybe I can absorb it temporarily and disperse it."

Shang scratched his chin. "So, you can absorb a small part, release it in an attack, and then absorb some more?"

"It should be possible," Sword answered.

"Which means you can create a hole," Shang said.

"Maybe," Sword answered.

"Want to try?"

"Yes."

Shang nodded, but he didn't immediately start digging.

Instead, he was thinking about what consequences this action could have.

'There's definitely an Abomination or something similar beyond this wall.'

'What would happen if I made a hole?'

'Should I contact Duke Whirlwind or teacher?'

For a while, Shang weighed his options.

He looked at the wall and back.

'They wouldn't know what's behind it,' Shang thought. 'That means they also wouldn't know if it's a good idea to dig through this or not.'

'Additionally, if they knew that there might be an Abomination behind it, they may be afraid of me opening it.'

'However,' Shang thought as he looked at the ceiling. 'If there is an Abomination in there, the Storm Eagle would kill it, right?'

'And even if the Abomination is more powerful than the Storm Eagle, the more powerful humans I have never met would kill it, right?'

Shang felt a bit nervous as he looked at the wall.

'But even if that happens, I don't think I'm in danger. As far as I have seen from meeting that one Abomination, Abominations don't want to attack me.'

At this point, Shang thought about the path he wanted to go down.

'By opening a hole, I am potentially endangering everyone I know.'

'But at the same time, there might be something in there that could help me with my Affinity.'

For a moment, Shang wasn't sure what he should do, and he thought about what the people he knew would do if they were in his position.

The Dean? He would open it without a second thought.

Duke Whirlwind? He might decide against opening it, but there was also a possibility that he might open it.

King Skythunder? He would definitely open it.

'What about the God?' Shang thought.

At that moment, a scene appeared in Shang's head. In that scene, a teenager with red hair dug at the wall with a mad grin with his sword.

Eventually, Shang took a deep breath.

'No matter which path is correct, I think nearly everyone in my stead would decide to open it.'

'High risk, high reward.'

'I just hope this doesn't endanger everyone above me.'

"Let's do it," Shang said.

Shang took out Sword and held it to the wall.

A second later, violent black flames appeared around Sword, and Shang immediately let go of it, jumping away.

The flames had been so powerful that they even injured him.

Sword fell to the ground, and Shang looked at his right hand.

His right hand had completely vanished.

For a moment, Shang feared that he had lost it forever, but his warrior's body quickly recovered it.

'Luckily, this isn't like the backlash of Entropy.'

"Sorry," Sword answered as it stood up. "Seems like I have to do this one solo."

"It's fine," Shang answered.

After that, Sword fell to the ground again, and its tip pointed to the wall.

And then, it touched the wall.

CRRRRRRR!

Sword broke out into violent fire again, and everything around it turned into nothingness. Luckily, it managed to hold itself to the wall by its very tip.

Yes, Sword had managed to dig into the wall ever so slightly.

The little hole was barely a couple of millimeters deep, but it was there.

"Everything okay?" Shang asked as he saw Sword continue to burn.

"It's very exhausting," Sword answered, "but I can keep going."

Shang watched Sword continue. 'Sword is directly converting the material of the wall into fuel for its Entropy Ability. It's acting as a spark to light the wall on fire.'

A couple of minutes later, Sword suddenly shot into the wall.

"I'm through," Sword said. "The wall is only about a meter thick."

"Do you feel anything on the other side?" Shang asked.

"More ore," Sword answered. "This wall is only one layer, and I think there's another layer about ten meters further away, and that one feels even thicker and stronger."

When Shang heard that, he actually sighed in relief.

'If this were the only layer, the Abomination would be directly in front of it, but since there's a second one, there shouldn't be any risk in opening the first layer,' Shang thought.

'Seems like the others aren't in danger.'

Waiting became far less stressful from that moment onward for Shang.

After managing to get through the first layer, Sword continued cutting to the side. Shang's sword could fit through this tiny slit, but he definitely couldn't.

Shang waited at this spot for over two hours.

The digging was simply far too slow.

Eventually, Sword managed to create a two-by-two-meter wide cutout on the wall and came out again.

Shang took hold of it and put it on his back again.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Just tired," Sword answered.

"Thanks," Shang said.

Sword didn't answer.

Then, Shang moved forward and pushed on the wall.

It took a lot of effort, but eventually, the wall began to move.

And after a couple of seconds, the wall fell over and down.

There was no floor behind the wall.

But as soon as the wall was pushed away, the Darkness Mana from the outside washed into the area behind it like a flood.

Finally, Shang could see what was in front of him with his Darkness Vision.

And what he saw made his eyes go wide.

BANG!

The Magic Circle on Shang's armor activated and blocked an attack from his back.

This meant that this attack would have killed him!

Shang's body was thrown forward, but out of reflex, Shang grabbed whatever had attacked it and pulled it with him.

It was a spear!

And then, Shang and the assailant both fell into the area behind the wall.

 

Chapter 295 - Falling

Shang and the mysterious assailant were thrown into the space behind the black wall, and they all began to fall.

Just mere moments ago, Shang had seen what was behind the wall, and he knew what was waiting for him…

And on what kind of strange battlefield he would have to fight for his life now?

After the first wall was an empty space, about ten meters wide. As soon as the Darkness Mana had flooded the space, Shang’s Darkness Vision had expanded by a lot.

And this was all he could see.

There was a second wall after the first one, and that was it.

There was no floor, and the ceiling was over two kilometers higher than Shang’s current location.

So, as soon as the two of them burst through the first wall, they began to fall into endless darkness.

CRK!

Shang’s fingers nearly broke as the assailant violently pulled his spear back.

‘His body is stronger than mine!’ Shang realized. ‘This means he is, at least, at the Mid Commander Stage!’

By now, Shang had also gotten an opportunity to look at his opponent with his Darkness Vision, and he also realized how his opponent had managed to get the drop on him.

If Shang weren’t perfectly focusing on the assailant right now, he wouldn’t even notice him. He was almost as imperceptible as a ghost!

His body blended into the darkness, and Shang couldn’t even fully see his appearance.

Shang only knew that he was a warrior, about 190cm tall, and he had long black hair. He carried a long, thin, and black spear, which almost resembled a long needle..

SSHH!

The darkness around the assailant shifted, and his body moved to the first wall.

CRRRRRRRRRRR!

He tried to stop his fall by ramming his spear into the wall, but the wall was far too hard.

Shang quickly took out his sword and narrowed his eyes.

BANG!

Ice exploded out of Shang’s legs, and he shot at the assailant.

CLINK!

But Shang only hit the wall. The warrior had dodged to the side by kicking himself off the wall.

In the air, the man readied his spear and attacked Shang!

CRRK!

Shang parried the spear by angling his sword, making it miss.

Shang’s sword moved along the spear towards the warrior.

BANG!

Shang missed!

The warrior had put more power into his spear and hit the wall with it, throwing his own body back.

The warrior landed on the second wall while Shang slid down the first one.

BANG!

Both combatants jumped off their walls, directly at each other.

BANG!

Ice came out of Shang’s left hand, slowing his fall.

However, his enemy had only used a feint, and his spear already pointed at Shang, who was above him right now.

When Shang saw that, he changed his plan and stopped attacking.

Due to their different speeds, the distance between them would widen soon.

But mere moments later, Shang’s eyes widened, and he put his sword in front of him to block.

BOOM!

A wave of Darkness Mana hit Shang’s sword, and like a wave hitting a stone, it split apart, washing over him.

The outer parts of Shang’s body deteriorated slightly, but he quickly recovered.

‘That explains why I couldn’t find him in the darkness.’

Of course, the force of the ranged attack accelerated the warrior’s fall even more, creating more distance between him and Shang.

Shang looked down with narrowed eyes. ‘He even knows the ranged attack. Not many warriors know about it, which means he is quite talented and experienced. Together with his Darkness Affinity, he has probably gained some special training in his life.’

‘This is not an average warrior!’

BANG!

Shang’s back exploded with Ice, and he accelerated even more.

‘If I want to win, I have to end the fight during the fall. With my abilities, I have a huge advantage in the air!’

The two of them accelerated more and more, and the deeper they got, the stronger gravity became, which increased their speeds even more.

Darkness washed over the warrior, and he moved to the second wall again.

Shang readied his sword and slashed in the direction of his opponent.

A huge wave of Darkness left Shang’s sword and shot at the warrior with blinding speed.

There was so much Darkness Mana around them that Shang didn’t even need to load his sword with his own Darkness Mana. Sword just passively absorbed the Darkness Mana in this place.

BANG!

Suddenly, a pulse of darkness came out of the warrior’s body, and Shang’s attack was destroyed.

WHOM!

A second pulse left the warrior’s body, and he shot towards Shang, similar to the way Shang used his Ice and Fire Affinities to move around in the air.

The attack was so sudden and fast that Shang could barely react.

BANG!

The warrior didn’t stab towards Shang but attacked him with a sideways slash. It was almost like he was attacking Shang with a long stick.

Shang blocked the attack, but due to the difference in their physical strengths, Shang was shot at the wall.

BANG!

Shang’s back hit the wall, but the impact wasn’t powerful enough to injure him by much.

But that had never been the opponent’s goal.

As soon as Shang’s back hit the rapidly passing wall, the force of his fall made Shang rotate violently. It was like someone was jumping out of a race car and hitting the ground. Their body would also violently spin like a ragdoll.

In such a state, Shang could barely defend himself.

At the same time, the warrior lightly tapped the second wall with his feet and pushed himself at the rolling Shang.

Shang had no idea where he could retreat to. He was simply spinning way too fast!

So, Shang let go of Sword.

BANG! BANG!

Sword had quickly stabilized itself in the air and flew between Shang and the warrior, blocking the strike.

However, the power of the strike pushed the side of Sword into Shang, who was then pushed against the rapidly moving wall.

CRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The sound of the armor on Shang’s back grinding against the hard wall echoed throughout the entire area. His armor was damaged quite a bit, and Shang felt his back heat up.

But his body had stopped spinning!

Shang grabbed Sword again and violently pulled it to the side.

The tip of the spear that was still touching Sword was pushed upward.

Shang let go of Sword again and grabbed the pole of the spear with both of his hands as his back continued grinding against the wall.

Then, Shang pulled himself forward and kicked at the warrior’s chest.

BANG!

Shang’s eyes widened.

The warrior’s knee had pushed Shang’s kick to the side, leaving him open!

Then, from this position, the warrior kicked forward with the same leg.

BANG!

Shang’s armor cracked in several places, and the force even broke several of his ribs.

His back was pushed even harder against the wall, and the back of his armor began to glow in heat as it burned itself into Shang’s back.

An instant later, the warrior slashed down with his spear again. This time, Shang wouldn’t be able to block the attack!

 

Chapter 296 - Danger

BANG!

Shang’s back exploded with an incredible amount of fire, the countereffect of his Affinity cooling his back.

BANG!

Shang’s body was flung forward, and his shoulder hit the warrior in the chest, throwing both of them at the second wall.

BANG! CRRRRR!

Now, the warrior’s back was grinding against the wall.

At that moment, several Magic Circles appeared around him, and they began to warp and distort.

CRACK!

And then, they broke apart.

The warrior wouldn’t have died from that attack, but the armor needed to be intact to use the Magic Circles. The back of the armor had most of the Magic Circles, and they were essentially ground off by the hard wall.

As the two of them hit the wall, Shang quickly grabbed his opponent’s body and put the warrior’s arms below his.

Shang was treating this like an MMA fight on the ground.

The warrior quickly used a headbutt to get rid of Shang. He knew that his body was more powerful than Shang’s.

Shang’s head evaded the headbutt.

BANG!

And Shang butted the warrior in the side of the head!

Shang’s own head hurt a lot, but he knew that his opponent’s head hurt even more.

BANG!

Shang kneed the warrior in the chest while keeping his arms pinned. Due to the enemy’s armor, Shang’s knee broke, but the force pushed the enemy even more against the wall.

Just like Shang’s armor, the enemy’s armor was now also heating up and burning his back.

But then, something happened..

BOOOOM!

The enemy’s body exploded with Darkness Mana, and Shang was flung against the other wall.

Shang managed to somewhat keep his body in control after hitting the wall, and he looked at his opponent.

‘He used his Domain!’ Shang thought with narrowed eyes.

The enemy had unleashed his Darkness Mana into the surroundings, and it had consumed a lot of Shang’s life energy and Mana.

Healing became much more difficult for him now.

‘But every time he uses his Domain like this, he wastes a lot of his Mana. In comparison to me, he can’t use the Mana of his surroundings. At best, his Mana regenerates faster in this environment.’

As soon as Shang was flung away, the enemy’s body began to spin chaotically since he was no longer pinned against the rapidly moving wall.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Shang just wanted to attack his enemy again, but he stopped with widened eyes.

The warrior had just hit the wall three times with different parts of his spear, which had completely negated the spin of his body!

He was in full control of his body again!

‘How is that possible?!’ Shang thought.

BANG!

Nevertheless, Shang exploded forward again.

BOOM!

Shang only hit the wall.

The warrior had used another pulse of darkness to slow his fall and pass over Shang.

And as soon as he was above Shang, he began to spin his spear at incredible speeds.

The spear became even darker as it was filled with more Darkness Mana.

And an instant later, five black balls shot out of the spear, which directly shot toward Shang.

‘This is the attack the Pest Queen used!’

Shang quickly threw himself off the wall again to evade the strikes…

But they were following him!

They passed Shang and curved towards him again!

At that moment, Shang gritted his teeth.

And the five bolts hit him!

However, just when they hit Shang, a burst of light came out of his body.

For the first time, there was a use for Shang’s Light Affinity!

It might not have the ability to injure someone, even if they had the Darkness Affinity, but it could deal with attacks made out of Darkness Mana!

Shang’s body lost a bit of its volume as Shang used the Light Mana since he had to sacrifice his life energy to use it, but he quickly recovered everything with his Mana.

But after that, Shang was completely out of Mana.

He wouldn’t be able to use his Warrior’s body to heal again in this fight.

BANG!

Ice Mana exploded out of Shang’s legs, and he directly shot at the warrior above him.

The warrior readied his spear, and a pulse of darkness left his back, his body now also accelerating towards Shang.

Shang extended his arm above him.

At this moment, time seemingly stood still.

The warrior was piercing towards Shang with his spear as Shang’s hand was extended above him.

And at that moment, a sword burning with black flames appeared in Shang’s extended hand!

Earlier, Shang had let go of Sword, and it had been gone all this time. During that time, Sword had moved closer to Shang, and it had finally arrived.

Even more, it had activated its Entropy Ability!

The enemy hadn’t noticed that Shang’s sword had returned to them, and he wasn’t prepared.

The sword burning with black flames struck down.

WHOOOM!

A black wave of black fire left Sword, shooting directly at the opponent. At the same time, Sword was burning away as it was using up its own mass.

The enemy released his Domain of Darkness again and used his spear to block.

BOOOOOM!

The black fire destroyed the Domain of Darkness, and even the spear vanished into thin air a moment later.

The black fire vanished, and Shang could see his opponent again.

His armor was completely destroyed, and all his skin was pink and red, which meant that the Entropy Ability had destroyed a huge layer of the opponent’s skin.

A couple of parts of the enemy’s body were even leaking blood, but it wasn’t too bad.

With his Domain of Darkness and his spear, the enemy had managed to survive the attack.

SHING!

And then, a new spear appeared in the opponent’s hands.

Someone as powerful and talented as this warrior had more than one weapon.

At that moment, the warrior saw Shang approach and put his spear in the way of his sword.

However, his eyes widened the next moment.

Why was Shang’s sword faster?!

Why was it smaller?!

Sword had sacrificed a huge part of its mass, but that didn’t mean that it became useless.

After all, Shang and Sword had planned for this event ever since they had received the Entropy Ore.

Back then, Shang had wanted Sword to remain bigger for exactly this reason.

Shang’s huge sword had become smaller and thinner.

It had nearly no handguard, and it was long and straight as a nail.

Yes, Sword had taken its original form again by burning away the excess mass!

The warrior had fought against Shang’s old sword all this time, and when it had suddenly changed shape, he had been taken by surprise.

Sword managed to bypass the spear, and it was about to strike the enemy’s torso.

But at that moment, the enemy’s experience kicked in, and he angled his body to the side.

Sword missed the enemy’s torso, but it got something else instead.

SHING!

The enemy’s left arm was cut off!

The enemy was thrown away, and Shang grabbed the arm.

An instant later, the arm turned into dust as Shang absorbed the remaining Mana and life energy.

The enemy hit the wall again with his feet, leaving behind a bloodied footprint.

And then, another pulse of darkness left him, and he shot at Shang again.

BANG!

Shang released an explosion of fire to evade the attack.

But then, the stump left behind on the opponent’s body pointed at Shang, and a bolt of darkness shot at Shang.

The attack had come so suddenly that Shang couldn’t react.

BOOOM!

Shang was hit in the chest and flung against the wall.

BANG!

Shang’s back hit the wall, and the front of his chest lost all Mana and life energy.

Shang’s freshly recovered life energy and Mana went to that spot and healed it, but Shang was left empty yet again.

A moment later, Shang blocked with his sword.

BANG!

The opponent had arrived again, but this time, he wasn’t striking at Shang.

Just like Shang, he had jumped towards him with his spear in a blocking position.

Shang’s back was grinding against the wall as the two weapons ground against each other.

And a moment later, the enemy activated his Domain of Darkness again!

At that moment, time seemingly froze for Shang, and he was thrown into an abyss of horror.

‘I have no life energy! I have no Mana! I can’t retreat!’

‘His Domain will kill me!’

In this moment of panic, Shang’s mind was as focused as never before.

It went through everything he knew, and it tried to come up with any kind of solution.

And at that moment, Shang finally comprehended something he had tried to understand for a long time.

The Domain of Darkness activated.

But just as it was about to consume Shang, it vanished.

It was almost like the Darkness Mana had stopped existing.

At the same time, the hair on the enemy’s head began to slowly turn into dust.

Shang had finally done it.

He had finally comprehended his own Domain!

‘This fight isn’t over!’

Chapter 297 - Price

The Domain of Entropy had stopped the Domain of Darkness.

The enemy realized that something strange was happening, and he immediately pushed himself away from Shang.

A moment later, Shang stopped his Domain of Entropy.

Just like the opponent, Shang had lost a bit of his skin, but not nearly as much as him.

‘My Domain needs an energy source,’ Shang thought. ‘Usually, it would use the Mana inside my body, but since there is no Mana, it uses my own body. Luckily, I don’t feel like I lost my skin forever. This should be recoverable.’

Then, Shang looked at his opponent with narrowed eyes. ‘I might be able to counter his Domain now, but nothing else has changed. Without Mana, I can’t use my Domain to injure him!’

BANG!

Shang exploded with fire again, and he shot at his opponent with his sword.

The warrior released another pulse of darkness and retreated from Shang. At the same time, he began to rapidly spin his spear again.

Shang knew what that meant.

An instant later, three balls of darkness shot toward Shang.

‘He is low on Mana!’ Shang realized.

Shang threw his sword forward.

BANG!

The sword punched through one of the balls without any issues, but before it reached the opponent, it began to fly towards Shang again.

Right now, Shang was below his enemy, and gravity was on his side when it came to this throw.

The other two balls shot at Shang, and he punched both of them with his fists..

BANG! BANG!

A small explosion of light left Shang’s fists, neutralizing the balls. However, Shang’s hands lost a bit of their muscles.

BANG!

Shang exploded with ice and shot toward the warrior above him.

On his way, Shang took hold of Sword and readied it for a strike.

The warrior readied his spear again and pointed it at Shang.

Shang came closer to the enemy, but then something happened.

Shang noticed that a small ball had appeared beside him.

And in the next moment, Shang’s eyes widened in shock. He stopped his attack and curled into a ball.

He had recognized this ball!

It was a firebomb!

BOOOOOM!

The firebomb exploded beside Shang, flinging him at the second wall.

BANG!

Shang hit the wall with his back, breaking a couple of ribs. Thankfully, his spine was still in one piece due to the transplanted beast bones.

Unfortunately, Shang’s body began to rapidly spin again as he lost control.

During his spin, Shang felt another pulse of darkness, and he knew that his opponent would arrive very quickly.

Right now, Shang couldn’t care where he would end up, and he made his left hand explode with fire.

BANG!

Shang heard an explosion come from somewhere.

BANG!

And then, Shang felt an impact.

He had hit the other wall!

Luckily, since the walls were opposite of each other, the spin was reversed by the impact, and Shang could regain control over his body.

He quickly spotted his opponent again and readied his sword.

BANG!

Shang exploded forward again.

Instead of retreating, the warrior stabbed forward with his spear.

‘He should be out of Mana!’ Shang thought.

Shang knew that his opponent only had one arm, and he was planning on taking advantage of that.

Shang pointed his left hand towards the spear as his right hand held his sword.

He would let the spear pierce his hand and kill the enemy with his sword!

The two reached each other.

BANG!

The spear pierced through Shang’s left hand, and Shang moved his hand to the side.

The tip of the spear went past Shang’s torso and missed.

But then, Shang’s eyes widened in horror.

Why was the spear only half as long as previously?!

At that moment, Shang saw that the spear had turned into two pieces!

The front piece was currently stuck in his left hand.

And the bottom?

Another pointy tip was revealed at the bottom part of the spear.

It was designed to be split into two!

The warrior currently used the other tip on the bottom half of the spear to strike Sword’s side.

CRACK!

Shang’s eyes widened.

A crack had appeared in Sword, and he could feel Sword’s pain.

This was a serious injury to it!

BANG!

Sword was thrown to the side, and Shang tried to keep hold of it.

However, the earlier price he had paid now came to haunt him.

In order to block the balls of darkness earlier, Shang had weakened his hands, which had weakened his grip.

Shang couldn’t keep hold of Sword, and it left his hand.

BANG!

Sword hit the wall, making it spin and slowing its fall.

This meant that Sword was now far out of Shang’s reach.

Shang had no weapon left!

His left hand was behind him since it had blocked the spear’s tip!

His right hand was flung to the side by trying to keep hold of Sword!

Shang’s torso and head were completely open!

And then, Shang felt and saw the pulse of darkness and the enemy’s spear rapidly growing in his vision.

Apparently, the enemy still had enough Mana to release one last pulse.

At that moment, time seemingly stopped for Shang again.

The enemy was too close and too fast.

He couldn’t escape with any of his blasts.

His legs and arms were not close enough to block.

He couldn’t evade.

And the spear was rapidly approaching the middle of his forehead.

After nearly three years, this peculiar feeling had returned.

The feeling of powerlessness.

Nothing Shang could do would save him.

He had lost.

Even though he had comprehended his Domain, he had still lost.

But at this moment, Shang’s mind suddenly calmed down.

It was almost like he had been lifted of a burden.

‘Fine,’ Shang thought. ‘To think that the first use of Entropy wouldn’t be against a Mage but against a warrior.’

‘What irony.’

At that instant, Shang’s body began to deteriorate rapidly.

His entire being was concentrated on his left eye.

And then, Shang’s left eye turned into dust and vanished.

 

Chapter 298 - Death and Hope

The left side of Shang’s vision vanished, leaving nothing but darkness behind.

But at the same time, Shang could see his opponent vanish with his right eye.

In but an instant, his opponent stopped existing.

It was almost like he had never been there.

However, the walls didn’t even react.

Apparently, Entropy had no effect on them.

Shang’s desecrated and frail body was falling at unimaginable speeds, and he didn’t even have the strength to move.

BANG!

At that moment, a mountain of different objects appeared above Shang.

Entropy had destroyed not only the opponent but also his Space Ring.

When a Space Ring was destroyed, all the things would appear in the real world again.

Shang couldn’t possibly survive the fall like this. After all, he had no Mana, and he couldn’t even unleash any of his blasts. If he did, the resulting blood loss would kill him.

With a weak and panting expression, Shang scanned the objects falling above him.

He saw spears, armor, tons of gold, Mana Crystals, bombs, and…

Pills!

Thanks to the Warrior’s Academy, Shang knew about the commonly used pills..

‘A Recovery Pill!’ Shang thought with panic, hope, and desire.

Recovery Pills were mainly used by soldiers that had to fight several times in rapid succession. It couldn’t be used in a fight, but it helped in recovering Mana and healing injuries.

‘As long as I get the Recovery Pill, I have a chance!’

Shang used all his power to barely slowly move his right arm towards the pill.

Shang felt like he was lifting a mountain as he moved his arm.

The Recover Pill was so close!

Shang closed his hand.

But he missed.

With horror, Shang saw how the Recovery Pill got further and further away!

It wasn’t nearly as heavy as Shang, and it had already reached its terminal velocity!

Shang felt his world break down, and he quickly looked at the other belongings.

Several of the lighter things had already slowed down, and Shang even saw a bright crystal leave him.

‘Light Mana Stone!’ Shang thought in panic as he looked at the vanishing crystal.

A moment later, everything useful was out of reach.

‘No! I can’t die here! I can’t!’ Shang thought in terror.

However, no matter how much he willed it, he couldn’t get closer to the things he needed.

At that moment, Shang knew that he would die.

He had killed his opponent, but the fall would kill him.

Shang had no idea how fast he was falling right now, but the entire world had turned into a blur.

He didn’t even know how far he had fallen by now, but it had to be at least ten kilometers.

‘So, this is how it ends, huh?’ Shang thought. ‘I will die as a puddle of guts and blood, killed by a fall.’

‘For years, I felt most comfortable fighting in the air. My opponents couldn’t rival my agility and speed in the air.’

‘But now, I’m falling to my death.’

‘I guess that’s it for my path to power.’

Shang took a deep breath as he tried to come to terms with his death.

‘Do I regret how I lived?’

Silence.

‘I regret a couple of things, but overall, I think I did rather well.’

Shang thought back to his journey in this world.

He had gone through a lot in only six years.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

At that moment, Shang felt like he saw a distant light appear above him.

For a second, Shang believed that this was something that appeared when one died, but then he remembered that he had died a couple of times before, and he had never seen something like that.

And then, Shang’s remaining eye regained life and hope.

It was the Light Mana Stone!

It was coming towards him!

A second later, Shang saw the reason.

“Sword!” Shang shouted in his raspy and weak voice.

The cracked Sword was pushing the Light Mana Stone towards Shang!

Shang extended his right arm…

And the Light Mana Stone landed in it.

“Don’t die,” Sword said. “I don’t want to be alone.”

These words hit Shang in the heart, and he was as thankful as never before that he had Sword in his life.

When Shang touched the crystal, he absorbed all the Light Mana inside it.

Light Mana Stones were generally used to help warriors recover faster while training, but since Shang had a Light Affinity, he could also directly absorb them.

Sword hadn’t known about the Recovery Pill, but it felt the Light Mana in the crystal.

Three seconds later, the crystal lost all its Mana, and Shang recovered a slight bit of his Mana.

SHING!

With this bit of Mana, Shang could access his Space Ring. Since his inner world couldn’t be properly used during battle, Shang kept all of his immediately useful items in his Space Ring. Sadly, one needed a bit of Mana to access it.

At that moment, Shang finally felt the end of the fall with his Darkness Vision.

An instant later, a talisman appeared in Shang’s hand, and he activated it.

Wind Mana appeared around Shang, and it slowed his fall.

This was the talisman that Shang would have used to get back to Warrior’s Paradise!

The Wind Mana violently moved against the rapidly passing air.

The heavier items passed Shang, and he soon saw the lighter items again.

The talisman had slowed Shang’s fall by a lot, but he was still falling at fatal speeds.

Eventually, Shang reached the Recovery Pill, and he quickly consumed it.

And then, Shang waited.

It took a couple of seconds, but eventually, Shang’s Mana began to slowly refill even more.

The ground came closer.

Shang didn’t move as he concentrated on absorbing the Mana.

Eventually, the Wind Mana vanished as the talisman got used up.

Shang opened his remaining eye, a fire burning inside it.

BANG!

Ice exploded out of his back, slowing his fall even more.

BANG!

Fire exploded out of it, and Shang’s position was changed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Shang exploded several times with fire and ice.

All the items had passed him at incredible speeds.

And eventually, the ground arrived.

BOOOOOOM!

Shang landed on some pieces of ore and armor with his legs, which quickly crumbled into pieces.

Shang’s torso also collapsed into a mess, and blood exploded out of his body.

And then, Shang used all his recovered Mana to heal his torso and head.

‘I survived!’

That was the last thought before Shang lost consciousness.

Chapter 299 - One Eye

Shang slowly opened his remaining eye, and control came back to his mind.

‘Sure enough, I survived,’ he thought.

Shang noticed that there was something heavy lying on top of his chest.

It was Sword.

“You survived,” Sword said.

“I did,” Shang answered. “Thanks to you.”

Sword remained silent for a second.

“No problem,” it said.

Shang only smiled when he saw Sword.

‘While facing death, I was thinking about who would miss me when I died. I was under the impression that no one would miss me,’ Shang thought.

‘But I was mistaken. There’s at least one being that would miss me.’

“How long was I out?” Shang asked.

“I think five minutes,” Sword answered.

Shang nodded and slowly stood up. His passive regeneration had already fully healed him..

At that moment, Shang felt a cold wind near his left eye, and he touched it with his hand.

There was only a hole.

‘Right, I lost my eye,’ Shang thought with a frown. He was happy to be alive, but the loss of his eye weighed heavily on him.

“There’s no way of getting that eye back, right?” Shang asked.

“I don’t know,” Sword answered, “but I think chances are slim. When I use my ability, I can regain the parts I’ve lost by assimilating more ore, but your body is different.”

“I think regrowing your eye would be just as hard as growing a fully functional third arm.”

Shang thought about Sword’s words.

‘That definitely isn’t easy. How would I go about growing a third arm? What would I do?’

‘Is there a Spell for that? Not sure, but if there is one, it’s probably a very powerful and advanced one. After all, I’ve never seen or heard about a human that gained new appendages, even though having more arms would probably be quite useful to warriors. If there were an easy way, warriors would already use it.’

Right now, it was difficult for Shang to see much due to the darkness, but he could still feel the difference between the two sides of his vision.

‘Huh, I’ve actually never thought about it, but losing one eye doesn’t actually mean that I only see half. The only thing I can’t see is everything left of my nose, and due to the angle, I can still see a lot of the left side, assuming the thing I want to see isn’t directly in front of my left eye.’

‘I think I still see around 70% of what I’ve previously seen. That’s actually not that bad.’

“Sword, I want to try my depth perception. Please go to my front and attack me from different angles while I try to block you with one of my fingers,” Shang said.

“Alright,” Sword answered before jumping up and stopping in front of Shang.

Shang concentrated on Sword, and Sword began to slash forward.

Shang was surprised by Sword’s speed. It wasn’t as slow as he had imagined.

Clink!

Shang pushed Sword’s tip to the side with ease, which even surprised him.

He had expected that his depth perception would have suffered, but he felt like nothing had changed.

Sword quickly unleashed another attack, and Shang also blocked it.

The next ten attacks also were no problem.

“I don’t see any problems,” Sword said.

Shang’s brows furrowed. “It’s strange. Logically speaking, since I have relied my entire life on having two eyes, my depth perception should be completely off, but it isn’t.”

“I think I know why,” Sword said. “Try blocking again but close your eye.”

Shang raised an eyebrow. Even though he was now missing an eye, his left eyebrow was still there.

However, Shang complied and closed his right eye.

Sword struck again.

Clink!

And Shang blocked it easily, just as before.

Shang’s eye opened again, and it widened in surprise.

“My Mana Sense!” Shang said. “You exhibit Mana, and by moving, you also displace all the other kinds of Mana! That’s how I can always accurately tell where you are!”

“That’s what I’ve thought,” Sword said as it slowly placed itself on Shang’s back. Even though it wasn’t huge anymore, it was still quite long.

“That’s good,” Shang said with a sigh of relief. “I feared that my Battle-Strength would have been compromised with the loss of my left eye, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. This also tells me that I have long relied on my Mana Sense far more than my sight. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so easy.”

Sword didn’t answer. The fact that it said so much was already very unusual.

However, Shang didn’t need Sword to answer to know that it cared.

Being by his side was enough.

After that, Shang checked his current condition.

His armor was completely ruined.

The back had completely deformed, making it extremely uncomfortable. The Magic Circles on it had been ground off. The front was also quite deformed, and the black cape was barely there anymore. There were only some loose, black streamers remaining.

Shang decided to take it off, which wasn’t easy in its deformed state. Without the Magic Circles, the armor barely gave any protection.

He threw it to the side and looked at it.

At the same time, he felt a cold wind go into his left eye socket.

Shang bent down and ripped off one of the black streamers.

Then, he wrapped the streamer several times around his head, covering his left eye.

He had no intention of walking around with an empty hole in his head.

A black band now covered Shang’s left eye.

A second later, Shang took out one of his old black shirts and put it on. Luckily, Shang’s armor had never covered his legs since he wanted his legs to remain mobile. Additionally, Shang didn’t want to empty the metal shoes of a puddle of blood whenever he decided to use a Fire and Ice Blast in quick succession.

Shang threw one last look at his old armor. ‘Well, there goes that look. Sword is now smaller again, and I am back in my black pants and shirt. It’s almost like I’ve traveled back in time, except for that I’m an adult and… well…’

Shang touched the black band hiding his left eye socket.

“What about your damage, Sword?” Shang asked.

“My crack will recover in time,” Sword said. “If I weren’t made of Early Commander Stage materials, I might have died.”

“Can you die?” Shang asked.

“Yes,” Sword answered. “If I break, I die.”

Shang nodded.

After dealing with the loss of his eye, his condition, and Sword, Shang focused on his surroundings.

The two walls were still there, and the area below Shang was also made out of the same material. Right now, Shang was essentially in a very, very high hallway, which was about ten meters wide.

‘Speaking of, how far did I fall?’ Shang thought as he looked up. ‘That must have been over 15 kilometers at least, right?’

Then, Shang looked at the first wall. ‘Which means that I am probably near the deepest part of the Caves, the part where the True Path Stage beasts reside.’

After that, Shang focused on the miscellaneous items around him.

A lot of the stuff hadn’t survived the fall, but Shang could still make use of the pieces of ore and the gold. Sure, the gold had also been blasted into pieces, but it was still gold.

After riffling through most of the things, Shang found an emblem, which had also shattered into pieces.

With Shang’s Darkness Vision, he found the pieces and rearranged them. A person from Earth might have trouble rearranging something like that, but with Shang’s powers, it was quite easy.

About two minutes later, the complete emblem was in front of Shang, and he read what was written on it.

‘Just as I’ve expected,’ Shang thought, his eyebrows furrowing.

“Vice-Commander Wilbury.”

Chapter 300 - How Did He Do lt?

Shang looked for a while at the cracked emblem. ‘Sure enough, it was Vice-Commander Wilbury. I’ve had a feeling that it was him when such a powerful warrior suddenly attacked me.’

‘So, this is the power of a Vice-Commander over a big city like Swamp Lake City.’

At that moment, Shang remembered his first Day of Chaos.

Back then, Shang had followed an officer in golden armor, and Shang had felt like the officer was about as powerful as Vice-Dean Soran.

‘That officer was probably on the level of Swamp Lake City’s Commander,’ he thought. ‘And the person I just killed was one level lower.’

‘Interesting. Originally, I thought that Late Commander Stage warriors were Vice-Commanders, but Wilbury was at the Mid Commander Stage.’

Shang’s brows furrowed. ‘However, he was also very powerful, and his techniques were varied and flexible. He didn’t seem to be at a disadvantage in the air, but he definitely was. He needed to waste Mana to move, while I didn’t need to. Even more, I can move several times in quick succession while he had to gather his Mana.’

‘Additionally, he has a Darkness Affinity, which means that he has probably received special attention and training. I think the reason why he was a Vice-Commander is that he can fight a warrior at the Late Commander Stage.’

‘His dead son was also only in his teens, and I don’t think they had an older child. It might very well be that Vice-Commander Wilbury was only in his forties or fifties.’

‘I think he had quite a bright future ahead of him. With his power, he would have definitely reached the Peak Commander Stage, and there might have even been a chance that he could have reached the True Path Stage.’

‘My physical power is equal to someone at the Early Commander Stage, and usually, it isn’t very difficult for me to kill an average warrior one level above me.’

‘Yet, I had to use Entropy while fighting him in an advantageous battleground for me. He definitely wasn’t an average Mid Commander Stage warrior.’

Shang only looked silently at the emblem..

‘And yet, he came for me personally. Why? I mean, sure, the reason was because of his son’s death, but I’m certain that he knew that he could never keep his excursion a secret. If he went to the Wasteland in the Storm Eagle Zone on the same day as when I died, he would be the prime suspect.’

‘Additionally, how did he even find me? The Caves are gigantic, and I could have been anywhere.’

‘What would I have done in his stead?’

‘He had several months to anticipate my next move and plan accordingly. That was definitely enough to set things up.’

Shang scratched his chin in thought. ‘But how did he do it? How would I have done it?’

‘Well, if I were in his shoes, the first priority would be to guess what my opponent would do next, which isn’t difficult in this case.’

‘He knew that I was holed up in Warrior’s Paradise without a way to truly fight. He was probably quite sure that I would go to the Caves next.’

‘After knowing where my opponent would go, I would set up a way to track them. On top of that, the way should be untraceable and unnoticeable.’

‘I wouldn’t trust that someone following my opponent wouldn’t be noticed, which means that it must be some kind of tracker.’

‘So, how would I get this tracker to my opponent? Placing something like this on their body would be difficult since Duke Whirlwind and the Dean know my opponent. They would notice this very quickly.’

‘Which means that the tracker has to be somewhere they can’t see.’

Shang’s right eye went to his Space Ring.

‘Like a Space Ring. However, I can’t access someone else’s Space Ring, which means I have to make someone do it for me.’

‘What have I put into my Space Ring recently that came from someone else?’

And then, a light of recognition appeared in Shang’s eye.

‘The talisman!’

‘Since my enemy would go to the Caves, and since my enemy doesn’t lack any money, I would assume that they would use a talisman to get back. So, I would bribe one of the guards handing out the talisman to give the talisman with the tracer to my enemy.’

‘That way, I would find them!’

‘And lastly, I need a way to get to them without being noticed. I might be gone for several hours, and my absence can’t be seen by anyone, which means I can’t leave the Empress Cobra Zone, and I might not even be able to leave Swamp Lake City.’

‘That sounds impossible at first glance, but with several months of preparation, there might be a way.’

Shang remembered where he was currently.

The Calm Zone was at the border between the Storm Eagle Zone and the Empress Cobra Zone.

Shang took out his maps and looked at the most eastern tunnels.

There were a couple of tunnels entering the Empress Cobra Zone, but they were still a couple of kilometers away from Swamp Lake City.

‘I could buy or build a vacation home in the swamp. As reason, I could say that, since I have a Darkness Affinity, I wanted to be closer to the poison swamp. After all, the Poison Affinity includes the Darkness Affinity.’

‘Then, I would dig a hole for a couple of kilometers. Something like that should be impossible for someone on Earth, but with incredible physical power and a Space Ring to transport the dirt, this should be possible.’

‘I think I know what happened.’

‘In chronological order:’

‘Buy a vacation home.’

‘Dig a tunnel.’

‘Prepare a talisman with a trace. With a True Mage as a wife, this shouldn’t be difficult.’

‘Continue my day as normal until my contact in Warrior’s Paradise contacts me.’

‘After that, give any reason to go to my home in the swamp and enter the tunnel.’

‘Follow the trace until I reach my opponent.’

‘The journey, by itself, shouldn’t take more than an hour.’

At that moment, Shang realized that Vice-Commander Wilbury had probably watched Shang for quite a while.

He had probably wanted to kill him as soon as he found him, but when he found him, Shang was currently opening a mysterious black wall.

At that moment, interest and greed appeared in his eyes.

This was a place that nobody had entered before, and there could be incredible wealth stored in this place.

So, he let Shang finish creating the hole.

And when Shang looked with wonder and shock at the place behind the wall, he had also been too distracted to notice Vice-Commander Wilbury’s approach.

Everything would be over in one strike. A Peak General Stage warrior couldn’t possibly wear armor that could protect them from a fully powered strike by a Mid Commander Stage warrior.

And he had been right…

If it had been a normal Peak General Stage warrior.

However, Shang’s body was far more powerful due to the Procedure, giving him the necessary physical strength to carry the armor, and he had also received an amazing set of armor from Duke Whirlwind.

Without Duke Whirlwind’s little present, Shang would have died to the first strike.

‘So, that’s what happened,’ Shang thought. ‘I might not have all details correct, but I believe it went down somewhat like this.’

Shang looked at the emblem. ‘You invested quite a lot to get rid of me.’

‘I’m not sure if all of this was for your son or if fear and the bounty were included in your reasons.’

‘Maybe you were scared that I would find revenge?’

‘Maybe you simply wanted the 20 million gold?’

‘I don’t know, and I might never know.’

‘But you failed, and now, you’re dead.’

‘And with you dead and your emblem as proof, I can contact the Inquisitors. They will enter your household and perform Mind Searches on your family, which will bring everything to light.’

‘This time, the matter with the Wilburys is truly over.’

Shang put the emblem into his inner world, and while he was at it, he also transferred some useful items into his inner world.

He didn’t want to find himself in this situation again, unable to access the items he needed because he was out of Mana.

After cleaning up the place and dealing with the Wilbury matter, Shang looked around.

‘And now, I should check this place.’

Shang left the useless items behind and wandered down the hallway.