Ch. 331..340

Chapter 331 – Commander Stage

Over the next two months, Shang taught the barbarians quite a bit about fighting in a group to please the Mages. As long as he was in their good graces, nobody would suspect his loyalty.

With Shang's power, it wasn't difficult to gain the respect of all the barbarians.

Just as promised, Shang received one fire beast heart every two weeks, giving him enough resources to increase his power by a lot.

The beast Mana was difficult to deal with, but the Procedure allowed Shang to absorb even more Mana than normal. For the remaining Mana, Shang had to actively drive it out of his body, which took a lot of effort.

However, he still managed to clean himself of the beast Mana just before he got the next heart.

Two months after arriving in the Plague Rat Zone, Researcher Veral began to experiment on Shang. He didn't perform surgeries or anything on him, but he kept testing Shang's threshold regarding strengthening Magic.

Having several strengthening Spells cast on one put a lot of pressure and pain on one's body, and it wasn't any different for Shang. It was normal for his body to bleed or for one or more of his bones to break.

Whenever that happened, Researcher Veral looked with interest at Shang's broken body and made some notes. Obviously, he didn't care even the slightest bit about Shang's health.

Even worse, he was constantly encouraging and complimenting Shang while he was in pain to get him to stay loyal. It was almost like Researcher Veral wanted Shang to get Stockholm Syndrome.

'If you already see me as worthless trash, at least be honest,' Shang thought with annoyance as more Spells were put on his body.

The next couple of months were not pleasant at all. Shang bled on a daily basis, and Researcher Veral got more and more interesting ideas to strengthen Shang.

At some point, he even got the idea to carve Magic Circles into Shang's flesh. Of course, he had to test it immediately after getting the idea.

The constant healing of Shang's body became a problem to Researcher Veral, which was why he designed the Magic Circles to constantly burn into Shang's body.

After a couple of weeks of pain and testing, Researcher Veral realized that this didn't really work, and he got rid of the Magic Circles.

Shang had an incredible tolerance to pain, but even he had problems with those weeks.

'I only have to hold out for a couple more months,' he thought.

His body had already become a lot stronger. He guessed that his body was about 75% as powerful as the body of an equal beast.

Shang kept going through more and more torture in the name of science, but with every passing day, it became easier.

And like that, the eight months Shang needed eventually passed.

By now, Shang's body was about 85% as powerful as the body of a Peak General Stage beast, which was insane.

This meant that Shang could beat a beast on his level with bare hands as long as he didn't fight like a complete idiot. Even more, nearly every warrior could achieve the same. The Procedure was open to them, and the Dean would probably very soon develop something very similar to the Grandmountain Kingdom's barbarian strengthening technique.

Right now, warriors needed to fight in groups of four to kill a beast on their level, and the fight definitely wouldn't be easy.

But with the Procedure and the strengthening technique, they would have absolutely no issues with fighting beasts. One warrior could easily kill one beast on their level, and the fight wouldn't even be difficult. Beasts on the same level would no longer be a problem.

In essence, this was equal to Mages. Mages also didn't have any issues with beasts on their level.

The way was finally clear.

'My body is at its limit. I guess 85% is the maximum I can achieve without Abominations,' Shang thought.

Right now, Shang was being bombarded with strengthening Spells again in the basement of the black castle. However, he didn't pay much attention. He was simply just sitting there, thinking about different things.

"That's it for today," Researcher Veral said with a thoughtful expression. "I need to analyze this data. Come back tomorrow morning."

Shang stood up from the Magic Circle, his body finally healing after the avalanche of Spells had stopped. "Yes, sir," Shang said.

Then, Shang left the basement as Researcher Veral kept focusing on the sheets of paper in front of him.

He had no idea that this was the last time he would see Shang.

It was a day like any other.

Nothing special was happening.

Shang left the castle, the Mages no longer even looking at him. They had become used to Shang constantly walking around the castle. He was the only barbarian allowed to be here.

After leaving the castle, Shang walked towards the north, onto a rather tall hill.

In the middle of a hill was a cave, and Shang entered without hesitation.

The cave continued going down into the hill for about a hundred meters before it stopped.

Funnily enough, this wasn't a natural cave, but one Shang had dug for himself. He said that he was digging this cave so that he had a place for himself, a home.

Nobody thought anything about it.

Down at the bottom of the cave, Shang sat down and put Sword on his legs.

Then, he focused on his Mana.

Shang moved the Mana in his body around and focused on his Affinity.

For the first time, Shang used his Domain while actually having Mana.

Ever since his fight with Vice-Commander Wilbury, Shang hadn't had any opportunity to use his Domain of Entropy.

But right now, he needed it to advance to the Commander Stage.

It was finally time.

As Shang sat on the ground, he heard the sounds of moving sand. This sound represented the walls and ground of the cave turning into sand and then turning into nothingness.

Shang felt a significant drain on his Mana, but he also saw that his body was digging further into the hill without even moving. Everything around him simply turned to Mana.

Under the effect of his Domain, Shang's Mana began to flow smoothly throughout his body while slowly thinning, but that was how it was supposed to go.

The Mana inside Shang's muscles began to be pulled out to supplement the usage of Shang's Mana. Under normal circumstances, the body wouldn't do that. After all, this would weaken the body.

But with Shang's insistence, the Mana inside his muscles stretched throughout his entire body.

And then, Shang used the incredible control he had over his Mana to connect the strands of Mana with different muscles.

It took a couple of hours of intense concentration, but eventually, Shang managed to connect his individual muscles with strands of Mana.

And then, he stopped using his Domain.

WHOOOM!

As soon as he stopped, the muscles pulled back their Mana. Muscle A pulled Mana out of Muscle B, which pulled Mana out of Muscle C and so on.

Every muscle was pulling Mana from a different one, which resulted in the creation of a circle.

As soon as the circle appeared, the thick Mana inside the cave was being pulled into Shang's body. The rotational effect had some kind of pull on Natural Mana.

Over the next two hours, Shang's body pulled in more and more Mana until it finally became saturated.

BANG!

Shang felt some kind of barrier break inside of him, and he felt his strength skyrocket!

It had finally happened!

Finally, Shang was at the Commander Stage!

The images of the different teachers in the Warrior Academy appeared inside his mind.

Their power had always been monstrous to Shang.

But now, he was on their level!

He was as strong as them and probably even stronger than most!

Shang now belonged to the strongest physical fighters in the world!

In fact, Shang was probably even amongst the 50 most powerful physical fighters in the entire world right now!

 

Chapter 332 – Third Question

Since Shang was awake during his breakthrough this time, a scene immediately appeared in his mind.

"My third question," a blonde Shang with a sizable belly said. "What kind of mindset should I assume to become more powerful? What's the smartest way to get the resources I need?"

The present Shang wanted to know this answer desperately.

The God on his gigantic throne only smirked. "Quite a good question. I'm surprised you have asked such smart questions up to now. Did you know that several of your predecessors have asked about Earth at least once by now? They were interested in how to get back or how things would go. But you only ask about your new world."

The blonde Shang looked in shock at the God. "I have predecessors?! I thought I was the only one!"

The God only laughed. "Don't think of yourself as more important than you are. You are not the first one, and you will not be the last one."

Shang didn't answer.

"As for your question," the God said, leaning back on his throne. "There is not one single way that is the best. You have to employ different philosophies based on your surroundings and your current power."

"Of course, as an answer, that's just as helpful as not giving you an answer at all," the God said. "So, how about we go over a couple of cases?"

"Let's assume your power is very low compared to other humans around you. It is very difficult for you to gain resources on your own since more powerful humans will have monopolized them at this point."

"The correct way out of this situation is to join a powerful organization. Their greater power will help you get you the resources you need."

"Of course, there are different organizations with different philosophies. If you find an organization that is similar to an academy, you are in luck. Academies are willing to invest more into you than you can provide to them right now."

"In that case, I would advise you to follow the rules of the organization and do what they want. After all, they don't want you to die. If you don't grow more powerful, their investment becomes a loss."

"Now, if the organization is something like a group of mercenaries or assassins, things become different. They are interested in your current power, and they want you to prove your worth right at this moment."

"In that case, try to take on missions that are dangerous but not too dangerous. Trading with an academy means getting more than you pay. Trading with a mercenary group means getting just as much as you pay."

"It's fine to join these kinds of organizations, but you should not join an organization ruled by an individual desperate for power. They will lure you in with promises of wealth and power but will immediately burn you up before the promised time to pay arrives."

After explaining these things, the God explained how to spot these different organizations, and it took over half an hour.

The God was very thorough in answering the question.

"Now, all of this is only relevant if you are one of the weakest humans in your area. Things become different when you are in the middle."

"When you are in the middle, I would advise you to either create your own small group or join a larger group as some kind of officer or manager. At that point, your priorities of what groups you want to join completely flip."

"You don't want to join an academy. The students need more resources than they bring in, which means that these resources come from somewhere. This somewhere represents you."

"Joining an academy as a teacher or something brings you status and a bit of wealth, but it is only something an altruistic person would choose or someone that isn't interested in becoming much more powerful."

"Becoming a teacher means that you already gave up on the path to power."

"A mercenary group is quite appealing in that scenario. You are already quite useful with a lot of power, and the mercenary groups value their strong commanders."

"Creating your own group is also very lucrative at this point. You are powerful enough to go to places that not everyone can go to, meaning there is less competition."

"The best kind of organization to join is some greedy tyrant. The greedy tyrant will siphon all the wealth of the weak and give it to themselves and the few people he needs to run his organization. If you manage to become one of these people, you will gain far more than you are worth."

After that, the God explained more precisely how Shang could identify a good organization and how he could reach the places he needed.

"Now, what if you belong to the strongest people around?" the God asked with a smirk. "What if you are in the top ten in terms of power for your surroundings?"

"In that case…"

"Don't."

Shang's eyebrows lifted.

"There is no good way to advance when you are one of the strongest," the God explained with a smirk. "Sure, by having thousands of people under you, you can gather a terrifying amount of wealth and somewhat useful materials."

"However, the people under you can never give you the things you truly need."

"What you need is something that can only be found by people on your level. If you are in the Fourth Realm, you need stuff from beasts in the Fourth Realm. Your army of Third Realm followers can't help you in getting that. They can only give you a vast quantity of stuff from the Third Realm."

"When you are the strongest, there is only one thing you can do."

"Travel the land and siphon all resources out of it. Kill the strongest beings around you and take their things!"

"And when you see that there is not much more you can get from this place…"

"You leave."

"You leave this place and go to a place with people more powerful than you."

"Go to a place where you belong to the weaker kind of people and take advantage of everything."

"At that point, the entire thing starts from the beginning again."

"This is everything regarding organizations," the God said. "Now, about friends, family, and personal connections."

"Having a friend means undergoing a symbiosis. You work together you get more than you two can achieve individually. The closer you are, the more trust there is between you, and the better your teamwork."

"However, it is important that your friend is comparable to you. If they are weaker, this is not symbiosis but supporting a parasite. If they are stronger, you will be under their control mostly."

"Of course, there are also friends that simply want to help you, even if they are stronger, but you will eventually need to repay them. It's not that you are forced by someone, but that you are just the kind of person that doesn't want to be in debt."

"To summarize: Join something like an academy, work together with your equals, leave the academy, join a stronger organization, become the strongest, plunder the land, leave the land."

"This is the best way to become powerful!"

The blonde Shang nodded in understanding.

Then, the memory ended, and the real Shang opened his eye.

'This is quite different from what teacher and Duke Whirlwind said.'

'Friends are useful, but the friends have to be useful. Being part of an organization is good, but the organization needs to be more powerful than me. There are times when I need to be alone and times when I need companions.'

'I understand.'

'But first, I have to get out of the Grandmountain Kingdom!'

The memories had appeared inside Shang's mind in just an instant, and he had only been in memories for about a second.

He had barely been at the Commander Stage for a second at this point.

And just when Shang stood up, something happened.

The Mana around Shang began to shift.

Shang wasn't sure what was happening since he had never felt the Mana move like that.

It was almost like the Mana was parting, leaving some kind of vacuum in the middle.

Shang looked with shock at the blank spot of Mana.

And then, several worms seemingly appeared out of nowhere, followed by a black-scaled, muscular body with several arms.

BANG!

Shang looked with shock and terror at the thing beside him.

It was an Abomination at the Commander Stage!

But that wasn't the most terrifying part.

Shang could somehow feel the same thing happening at other places in the distance.

Shang almost couldn't believe what was happening.

Several Abominations were appearing all over the Plague Rat Zone!

 

Chapter 333 – Abominations Everywhere

Shang could barely believe what was happening right now.

Several Abominations were appearing all over the Plague Rat Zone just after he had reached the Commander Stage.

He was certain that this couldn’t be a coincidence.

‘Have I summoned them?’ he thought in shock.

He had thought about a way to summon them, but he hadn’t expected that he could actually do that. Additionally, Shang had summoned multiple.

For just a moment, Shang and the Abomination looked at each other.

Shang didn’t feel any kind of anger or enmity coming from the Abomination.

It felt more like it came here to help him.

BOOOM!

Shang felt the ground quake.

Fighting had broken out!

‘No time to hesitate! It already happened! Might as well take advantage of it!’

Shang extended his hand toward the Abomination. When he extended his hand, the Abomination walked closer of its own free will, extending one of its claws.

Their hands touched, and Shang felt something push into his hand.

Power entered Shang’s left hand, traveling through his arm and into his torso.

Shang’s eyes widened in realization, and he immediately threw all of his own Mana outside, filling the cave with Mana.

The Abomination became smaller and smaller as time passed until it eventually completely vanished into Shang’s left arm.

At that time, Shang’s entire body began to bulge.

BOOOM! BOOOM!

Shang released a powerful Ice Blast followed by a Fire Blast, severely injuring his entire body.

His body stopped ballooning as all the power inside his body was being used up to heal it.

BOOM! BOOM!

Shang released another two blasts, and more of the power inside his body vanished.

‘My power is soaring!’ Shang thought excitement.

Earlier, Shang’s power had been 85% as powerful as a Peak General Stage beasts.

After the breakthrough, his power had grown, but his relative power in comparison to beasts had sunken. After all, if Shang’s body remained as powerful as an equal beast after a breakthrough, there would be no sense in strengthening his body any further.

Because of that, his power had dropped from 85% to about 60%. The only difference was that Shang was not 60% as powerful as a Peak General Stage beast but 60% as powerful as an Initial Commander Stage beast. That was still far more powerful.

But now, by absorbing the Abomination, Shang’s power had climbed to 70% of an Initial Commander Stage beast again.

This was only one round of strengthening!

A couple of seconds later, Shang absorbed every spec of power from the Abomination.

BANG!

Shang jumped out of the hole he had dug with his Domain of Entropy and quickly charged out of the cave.

‘I can’t remain here!’

As soon as Shang came out of the cave, he could see the Plague Rat Zone.

BOOM! BOOM!

The black castle was gone!

All the black stones had vanished, leaving behind a crater!

However, most of the Mages were still alive, and they were currently fighting several Soldier and General Stage Abominations.

But the situation was even worse in the east.

BANG! BANG!

Shang heard and felt terrifying waves of power coming from the east.

Most of the Abominations had arrived near the east, and there were several Commander Stage Abominations among them.

The Mages could kill a Commander Stage Abomination as long as it didn’t convert its existence into Entropy. The Domain of Entropy was scary, but it was not so powerful that it couldn’t be overcome by someone at the same level.

The scary thing about the Abominations had always been their ability to convert their existence into pure destruction.

If a group of Mages decided to fight with a Commander Stage Abomination, it might decide to blow itself up, taking out hundreds of meters of its surroundings and killing everything.

Right now, Shang could feel the Commander Stage Abominations blow themselves up one after the other, which was not normal. Commander Stage Abominations could destroy their surroundings without needing to sacrifice their bodies.

They only converted their existences to destruction if something attacked them that they couldn’t defeat, and Shang knew exactly what was attacking them.

The Plague Rat!

Terrifying and gigantic streaks of black appeared in an instant and vanished just as quickly, which was followed by a terrifying and gigantic explosion.

‘If I stay here, the Plague Rat will definitely kill me! I can tell just by its name that it’s not as friendly as the Thunder Horse.’

BANG!

Shang used a Fire Blast to accelerate towards the northeast.

It was time for him to escape!

Shang’s speed had increased by a terrifying amount after reaching the Initial Commander Stage. He didn’t know how fast he was going right now, but he guessed that it was around 250 kph.

Sadly, Shang didn’t have the time to think about his newfound speed.

The explosions from the east intensified as they came closer to Shang, and he heard more frequent explosions from the west.

However, he also heard a couple of explosions coming from the north, but they were not as numerous.

After a couple of minutes, Shang was close to the border of the next Zone, but of course, there were guards there.

As Shang ran over a hill, he saw a long coastline with two towers standing at the shore. The towers were about five kilometers away from each other, but that was still within their range.

Right now, a couple of Spells were being flung out of the towers by True Mages. Each tower had two True Mages in them. They were responsible for defending the border and sending a signal if the Blackshadow Kingdom tried to attack them.

However, the force stationed on this border wasn’t nearly as strong as the forces stationed near the other borders.

The Zone to the northeast of the Plague Rat Zone was the Tide Serpent Zone.

It was basically a lake over a hundred kilometers wide.

Traveling across the lake was extremely dangerous, and the two Kingdoms avoided entering it as much as possible.

Powerful beasts could attack the Mages from directly below them if they tried to cross it, which made fighting very difficult.

However, this lake was the perfect escape route for Shang. While Mages had huge problems fighting above or underwater, Shang didn’t have it as difficult. He was very mobile, and his mobility was just as useful underwater. Sure, he would be slower due to the higher resistance, and he wouldn’t see as much with the strong prevalence of Water Mana, but he could still deal with these weaknesses.

On top of that, the forces stationed at the Tide Serpent Zones border in the Blackshadow Kingdom also weren’t the most powerful.

This would give Shang an opportunity to enter the Blackshadow Kingdom.

Shang’s gaze wandered over the two towers as they dealt with the Abominations. Luckily, the Abominations were not very close to the towers, and the Mages dealt with them before they could get close.

Dealing with the Abominations wouldn’t be difficult for the two towers.

When Shang saw that, a cold light appeared in his right eye.

‘I don’t want them to know that I have fled. Sure, they probably won’t follow me, but it’s important to be careful.’

After making his decision, Shang charged towards the tower on his left as he lifted the emblem he had gotten from Researcher Veral.

 

Chapter 334 – Controlling

The two Mages on the left tower noticed Shang running towards them with his emblem held high. They were not entirely sure why a weak barbarian came to help them. After all, going into close combat with the Abominations was a death sentence. One explosion and Zero would become nothing.

However, they also didn’t care much. He was a barbarian. If he managed to make one Abomination explode, he would have already contributed far more than he was worth in their minds.

The Mages kept assaulting the Abominations as Shang got closer.

“Why are you running to our tower?!” one of the Mages shouted in frustration as he saw Shang ignore the Abominations and run towards the tower. “Deal with the Abominations!”

“I have special orders!” Shang shouted as he came closer.

At the same time, Shang tried to connect to the Abominations with his mind. There was some kind of connection between them, and Shang was sure that he could communicate with them.

After all, the Commander Stage Abomination immediately strengthened Shang when he wanted it to strengthen him.

Maybe that also worked with other things?

Shang activated his Domain of Entropy a little bit, and the connection strengthened.

It was like Shang was connected to all the Abominations in the surroundings.

Shang imagined a picture of the two towers inside his mind. Then, he associated the left tower with apathy and the right tower with anger.

As Shang was doing that, he entered the tower’s door. There was a powerful barrier around the tower, but the Mages didn’t see him as their enemy. Sure, they were annoyed that Shang was entering the tower, but he also showed the emblem of Researcher Veral. Because of that, he easily passed the barrier.

Also, so what if Shang was here? They were Early True Mages. Shang was some Peak Fighter Stage barbarian. Even the strongest barbarian in the world might not be able to win against them, and Shang was definitely not the strongest barbarian in the world.

As Shang shot up the stairs, the Abominations began to change course. Instead of mindlessly charging at both towers, they focused on the right tower.

They completely ignored the attacks from the left tower, which killed several Abominations, and fully focused on charging to the right tower.

The four Mages on the towers realized that this was a problem.

They could deal with Abominations charging at both towers, but if they focused on only one, that tower might fall, leaving only one remaining!

Shang reached the top of the tower and the two Mages.

One of them glared with anger at Shang. “What are you doing here?! You are supposed to- “

BOOOM!

Silence.

The Mage that had just shouted at Shang aggressively was cut into two pieces by Shang’s gigantic sword!

He had barely noticed the attack before it hit him.

Even with such a heavy weapon, Shang’s speed was absolutely terrifying!

In fact, Shang’s body had become so powerful that he could wield his gigantic sword like a normal-sized one. He could easily swing it with one arm.

The True Mage hadn’t had his Mana Shield active since there had been no immediate danger close to him, which had spelled his doom.

When the other Mage saw that his comrade had died, shock was quickly replaced by rage.

In an instant, he activated his Mana Shield.

BOOOM!

Shang’s legs exploded with ice as his speed reached new heights. The tower was small, and the Mage was very close to him.

Just when the Mage had activated his Mana Shield, Shang had already reached him.

The amount of Mana an Early True Mage had was scary, and they recovered their Mana at insane speeds due to Mana Tranquility. Getting through a Mana Shield cast by such a Mage was beyond difficult, especially if that Mage was a level above Shang.

As Shang reached the Mage, his opponent began to prepare several Spells. Shang wouldn’t be able to get through the Mana Shield in an instant.

Shang swung his gigantic Sword at the Mage’s Mana Shield.

CRRRRR!

Suddenly, Shang’s sword began to release violent black flames, leaving behind a black arc in the air.

The Mage was concentrating on his Spell and didn’t pay attention to Shang’s attack. After all, he was safe behind his Mana Shield.

And then, Shang’s sword hit the Mana Shield.

BANG! CRACK!

The sword was stopped for just a tiny instant before the Mana Shield broke into pieces, sapping the Mage of all his Mana.

It happened so fast that the Mage couldn’t even react.

Shang’s burning sword cut through the Mage’s body, setting his entire body on fire.

Just one second later, the Mage’s body turned to ash and scattered to the winds.

Shang had killed two Mages one level above him in just an instant. It wasn’t a fair fight, but he had killed them regardless.

BANG!

As the second Mage’s Space Ring was destroyed, all his belongings suddenly appeared around the place where he had just been.

Shang immediately shoved all the loot into his inner world. He had no time to look at it, and he also didn’t know if there were trackers on it. Because of that, he put all of it into his inner world instead of his new Space Ring. As long as the loot was inside his inner world, the Mages probably wouldn’t be able to find it.

After pocketing the first Mage’s Space Ring, Shang used some of the leftover flames from Sword to incinerate his body. He didn’t want to leave any trace of his escape behind.

Originally, he had planned on making his escape public. After all, there was no way to keep it a secret.

But now, there was another option.

What if Shang died to an Abomination?

As the attacks from the left tower stopped, the Abominations managed to get closer to the right tower.

The Mages on the right tower fell into a panic.

Why was the other tower not attacking?!

The Mages shouted and cursed at the left tower, but when the Abominations reached the right tower, they jumped out of the tower and fled.

However, there was no place to run.

The Mages shot a couple more Spells, but eventually, a General Stage Abomination reached them and exploded.

BOOOOOOM!

The explosion had been nearly a hundred meters wide, and it had turned the two Mages and all their belongings into nothing.

When Shang saw that the other Mages were dead, he jumped out of the tower with his new sword.

In order to kill the second Mage quickly, Shang had activated Sword’s Entropy, which made it smaller by quite a bit.

The balance of Sword’s components had been askew ever since it had absorbed so much ore at once. It had even said that it could only absorb Fire Mana due to that.

But by activating Entropy, Sword managed to burn off the irregularities inside itself, returning to a balanced state.

Right now, Sword was no longer the absolutely gigantic blade it had just been. Instead, Sword returned to its larger but not gigantic form.

It was about 1.5 meters long, which wasn’t nearly as monstrously large as its earlier 2.5-meter-long state.

After Shang reached the ground, he ordered two Abominations to charge at the two towers.

When the two of them reached the towers, they detonated themselves, decimating the two towers.

At the same time, Shang canceled the Magic Contract inside his mind regarding the special mission. The Mages of the Grandmountain Kingdom would know that the contract had been destroyed and where Shang was, but they wouldn’t know why it had been broken.

Shang could have also just died.

Shang timed the cancelation of the contract just right.

And then, Shang charged toward the huge lake, the Tide Serpent Zone.

BOOOOOM!

Shang heard a rather close explosion of a Commander Stage Abomination, and he looked over.

At that moment, Shang saw a black shadow with red eyes rapidly moving toward the Abominations near Shang.

Shang immediately knew what that was.

The Plague Rat had reached this place!

Chapter 335 – Deep Lake

Things were becoming dangerous right now. Shang was pretty sure that the Plague Rat wouldn’t care about the Thunder Horse’s mark.

Shang immediately ran for the coastline to the Tide Serpent Zone, hoping that he would reach it before the Plague Rat got to him.

The black shadow of the Plague Rat tore through the Abominations at insane speeds. It was probably killing over ten Abominations per second, which was absolutely ridiculous!

BANG!

Shang released an Ice Blast, jumping over the lake in front of him.

At that moment, Shang felt like danger was approaching.

BANG!

Shang released a Fire Blast above him, shooting him into the lake below him.

A moment later, a black shadow passed over him. This had only been a casual attack from the Plague Rat, which hadn’t even been targeted at Shang.

However, that would have been more than enough to kill him.

As soon as Shang’s body entered the water, a bit of lightning shot over his body.

Shang knew what that meant.

Something very powerful had just inspected him.

Shang’s Darkness Vision extended towards the coastline, and he saw the black shadow of the Plague Rat throw a short glance at Shang.

But without hesitation, the Plague Rat turned away again and focused on the other Abominations inside its Zone, leaving Shang in the lake.

When Shang saw that, he released a sigh of relief. ‘Guess I’m no longer your problem, huh?’

‘But honestly, this was way too close!’

Shang heard more explosions coming from the Plague Rat Zone, and he really hoped that no one connected the appearance of the Abominations to him.

‘This time, it can be attributed to coincidence. Nobody will probably connect it to me. However…’

Shang narrowed his right eye. ‘If I keep just randomly showing up at places where Abominations appear, it won’t take some genius to figure out that I am connected to their appearance.’

‘Sure, getting an Abomination to strengthen my body is a great boost to my power, but every time I summon them is playing with my life.’

‘Obviously, the Plague Rat is not the kind of Zone Beasts that is responsible for dealing with Abominations in other Zones like the Storm Eagle. Because of that, it didn’t follow me, and the Tide Serpent might not even have noticed me.’

‘If I had summoned the Abominations in the Storm Eagle Zone and fled to the Ice Wyvern Zone, the Storm Eagle might have chased me. Additionally, the Storm Eagle has gigantic attacks that cover a huge area, while the Plague Rat obviously didn’t have such attacks.’

‘I think I was in luck by being inside the Plague Rat Zone when I made my breakthrough. Not only do I not care about what the Grandmountain Kingdom thinks of me, but the Plague Rat also didn’t bother to chase me.’

‘In the future, I need to be more careful.’

Shang was a little bit under the water, which wasn’t anything problematic for him. After all, he was a Commander Stage warrior. He didn’t need food, water, or air to survive. His entire being completely relied on Mana to sustain him.

However, there was one surprising thing about being above this very deep lake.

An unknown number of powerful beasts could be swimming right beneath Shang’s feet at this moment, and he wouldn’t know it. After all, the entire lake was filled with nothing but Water Mana, and Shang couldn’t use Water Mana to see his surroundings. This meant that he needed to rely on his vision, hearing, and sense of touch.

Yet, surprisingly, Shang wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t even really nervous.

‘Power,’ Shang thought. ‘This is because of power.’

Shang looked into the seemingly infinite abyss below him.

‘On Earth, I felt quite nervous whenever I thought about being in the middle of the pacific. Thousands of meters of water in all directions but up. That’s quite a terrifying thought.’

‘But, right now, I don’t feel so nervous.’

‘That’s because of power.’

‘I might be at a disadvantage when it comes to fighting terrain, but I’m confident that I can kill a Mid Commander Stage beast, even in this environment. A Late Commander Stage beast will probably kill me, but if we were to fight on land, I might have a chance.’

‘How many Late Commander Stage beasts and more powerful are in this lake?’

Shang thought about this for a moment.

‘Not that many, probably. Maybe 300? Additionally, most of them are probably in the absolute deepest parts of the lake. After all, the deeper inside the lake, the denser the Water Mana.’

‘When I was new to this world, I was prey. I was forced to remain on pathways made by humans since nearly every beast posed a danger to me.’

‘Now, I am on a level where it doesn’t matter anymore where I go.’

‘I am not powerless.’

‘I am not the prey. I am the hunter.’

Shang glanced at the Plague Rat Zone, which was still in battle.

Since the Tide Serpent didn’t care about the sky above its lake, the Plague Rat’s domain even stretched over the Tide Serpent Zone, darkening the sky.

Right now, Shang swam inside an endlessly deep lake below the black sky as distant explosions brightened the horizon from time to time.

And then, Shang dove into the lake.

The Grandmountain Kingdom and the Blackshadow Kingdom were extremely dangerous to him right now.

But there were no humans here.

Even though Shang was only about 50 meters away from the shoreline, the lake still seemed bottomless below him. Obviously, the thick Water Mana had aggressively dug out every bit of earth it could get its hands on as long as it didn’t belong to another Zone Beast.

As Shang descended, the darkness of the lake engulfed him. It was so very dark, but there was still no Darkness Mana around Shang.

There was only Water Mana.

As Shang descended, he felt like beasts were watching him from all sides. He couldn’t be sure if this was actually the case or not since he had no way to sense it. However, logic told him that he should have come across some beasts by now.

Yet, no beast showed itself.

The lake was calm.

It was peaceful.

It was deep.

It was dark.

Shang continued to descend.

There was no change to his surroundings.

No ground, no wall, no beasts, no current, nothing.

Shang descended for about five minutes, and he guessed that he had descended over a kilometer by now.

Yet, there was nothing.

Shang didn’t even feel any vibrations coming from the Plague Rat Zone anymore. He didn’t know if the fighting had stopped or if he was simply too deep in the lake.

Shang guessed that even if two Zone Beasts were to fight right above this lake, he wouldn’t notice.

The water isolated him from the world.

Nothing happening above the lake concerned him.

This was a different world.

For some reason, the isolation calmed Shang’s heart and mind.

There was no stress or time.

While Shang had been in the Grandmountain Kingdom, he had felt a bit pressed for time. After all, he wanted to return to his home, Warrior’s Paradise.

But now, Shang didn’t feel that pressed anymore.

At that moment, Shang’s mind turned to the first time he had trained in this world.

He had thought something very similar back then.

No responsibilities. No money issues. No job.

Only power.

That feeling returned to Shang at this moment.

And then, Shang just paused inside the dark lake and closed his eye.

He wanted to enjoy this feeling.

For a long while, Shang didn’t move.

Shang might not be alone here.

There could be beasts around him at this moment.

But, right now, that didn’t matter.

Right now, in his mind…

Shang was alone.

Chapter 336 – Three Months

Shang didn’t know how long he remained here, and he didn’t care.

The stillness of the water around him soothed his mind, and he felt like being here was the right thing to do. He didn’t know why, but that was what he felt.

After an unknown amount of time, Shang opened his right eye again.

He felt like he knew the lake better now.

‘I should continue,’ he thought.

Then, Shang continued descending.

Why was he descending?

There was a reason for it.

After another two minutes, Shang felt something other than water touch him.

He extended his hands and felt the sand.

‘Finally,’ he thought.

‘I’m probably over 1.5 kilometers deep in the lake, but I only feel sand now.’

Shang was sure that the lake had to have a deepest point, and he was also sure that the deepest part would not be that close to the border of the Zone.

The deepest part of the lake would be the most dangerous part, and Shang didn’t want to enter that part.

However, Shang also didn’t want to leave the Tide Serpent Zone. The Tide Serpent apparently didn’t really care about Shang, while other Zone Beasts might care a lot about him, which would be bad.

If Shang decided to dig into the earth right near the edge, the Plague Rat might decide that Shang was inside its Zone again.

Because of that, Shang had swum downward. Right now, he was about 50 meters away from the border, which meant that if he were to dig into the wall now, he would definitely still be inside the Tide Serpent Zone.

Shang’s hands felt the sand, and he noticed that it was a steep wall instead of a floor.

‘It’s like a funnel,’ Shang thought, ‘an incredibly steep one, at that.’

‘If the funnel keeps going at this angle, the deepest point of the lake might be tens of kilometers deep. Maybe even hundreds.’

Shang wasn’t sure if the funnel shape would keep going indefinitely until the walls met, but he didn’t think that it was impossible.

Up to now, Shang still hadn’t seen another beast, but he felt like he had come across some on his descent.

After Shang had reached the sand wall, he extended his arms and buried them in the sand.

Then, he continued swimming into the wall.

Shang’s body was strong enough that he could swim into the sandy wall like it was water. It basically made no difference to Shang.

Shang purposefully didn’t leave an opening while burying himself in the sand, not that the sand would allow him to.

His purpose in coming here was to find a safe place.

After digging several meters into the sandy wall, Shang stopped.

Sand was all around him. In a sense, Shang was buried alive.

The pressure here, especially with the sand surrounding him, would kill a Soldier Stage warrior, but it wasn’t an issue to Shang.

For a while, Shang simply laid motionlessly buried in the sand, feeling the surroundings.

The sand allowed Shang to feel any vibrations much better than the water, and he was using it to scout if something living was nearby.

Shang felt some slight movement come from the lake, but it wasn’t significant.

More importantly, Shang didn’t feel anyone digging in the sand, which he had expected.

Only beasts with Water Affinities were living inside the Tide Serpent Zone, and those beasts definitely weren’t interested in being surrounded by sand, which exhibited Earth Mana.

Additionally, this wall was just beside the Plague Rat Zone, which meant that there were only very few Earth Affinity beasts living there.

This made this place perfect for Shang.

Only Earth Affinity beasts would be interested in coming here, and there were no Earth Affinity beasts around here.

The depths of the Tide Serpent Zone symbolized the greatest danger. No human would willingly come here. After all, an unknown depth filled with terrifying sea creatures would be below them. Even more, there was no place to hide in the middle of the lake.

Which human would willingly descend that far into the Tide Serpent Zone?

Yet, in the greatest danger lay the safest place.

A perfect sanctuary for anything that wasn’t a sea beast.

After several hours of not feeling any kind of significant movement, Shang decided that this place was safe enough, and he entered his inner world.

Shang decided to take his clothes and sword with him. In this lake, clothes were not really useful, and they were rather annoying.

Inside his inner world, Shang put on his nearly destroyed black armor. His real body in the Tide Serpent Zone was naked now, but the body inside his inner world would need protection.

When Shang saw the black armor, he thought that it looked even more damaged than he had remembered.

The scars of battle from his fight with Vice-Commander Wilbury were still visible.

The Magic Runes were destroyed, and the cape could barely be called loose, black streamers.

But it was still better than nothing. The material might still be able to turn a fatal attack into one that only heavily injured Shang.

Shang had never taken off the black wrapping covering his left eye socket, which meant that his look had returned to his old one.

Right now, Shang no longer looked like a barbarian but a warrior.

In a way, he looked a bit like a younger but more injured version of the Dean.

Shang’s inner world was just as dead and lifeless as previously. Yes, the blue sky was beautiful, but the meadow that stretched into infinity made the world feel artificial, barren, and unfinished.

The only thing of note was the black stone beside Shang, and that stone was also the reason why he had come here.

Below the writings on the stone, Shang found it.

The timer.

“86 days and a couple of hours,” Shang said. “It seems like I get three months to adjust to my power this time. Last time I only got one month.”

Shang’s brows furrowed. “But it’s still surprising that there are 86 days now. Did I stay in the lake for four entire days? It didn’t feel that long.”

The reason why Shang had come here was to check the timer for his next trial.

It was important to know how much time he had. After all, the more powerful he became before the trial started, the better.

‘With three months, I can strengthen myself about six times if I operate at peak efficiency. I can only strengthen my body with water beasts, but that doesn’t really make a difference since I can’t use Abominations anyway.’

‘Serpents are known for their magical powers and gigantic attacks. If Abominations were to appear in the lake, the Tide Serpent would probably release one massive attack that takes all of them out, including me. Right now, it might respect the Thunder Horse’s mark, but if it sees Abominations suddenly appear around me, it will probably kill me just to be sure.’

Shang looked at the timer for a bit more.

“Three months, six strengthenings,” he said.

“I should get on it right now.”

After that, Shang left his inner world with Sword and entered his now-naked body.

Then, he dug out of the sandy wall.

Then, he carved the location of this place into his mind and swam deeper into the dark unknown.

He needed to hunt.

Chapter 337 – Blind Fight

Shang left the sandy wall and swam downward in a diagonal way. He didn’t want to get too far from the wall, but he knew that he also wouldn’t find any beasts that close to it.

Shang had no idea how far down he had to go to find a beast appropriate to his level. After all, he hadn’t even found a weak beast up to now.

It was a gamble.

Shang continued swimming down in the dark lake for quite a while.

Everything was silent.

The lake was completely still.

It was almost like it was ancient.

Was this really just a place that a Zone Beast had created, or had the lake been there before the Zone Beast had appeared?

Shang continued descending for about five more minutes before he stopped.

‘I don’t know how deep I have to go to find an appropriate beast to my level. It’s also possible that I might go beyond where I want to go. If I do that, I will die.’

Shang stopped descending and decided to swim further out into the lake from his current depth. He guessed that he was probably nearly three kilometers deep.

The scenery didn’t change.

It didn’t matter if Shang went down, forward, or up. Everything always remained the same.

There was still no movement.

‘I need to do something drastic if I want to gain some intel,’ Shang thought.

Shang readied his sword.

BANG!

Shang released an Ice Blast, turning the water behind him into ice as he shot forward.

The rapid speed at which Shang was moving through the water cooled his heated body very quickly, allowing him to cast another Ice Blast just a second later.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Shang used one Ice Blast after the next to rapidly move around.

He had no idea where he had to go.

He was only blindly moving around.

Eventually, about a minute later, Shang felt a strong current that wasn’t created by him.

BANG!

Shang exploded towards the place where the current had come from.

BANG!

Shang released a second Ice Blast, turning everything behind him into ice.

CRACK!

The blunt side of Shang’s sword had just hit something!

The water around Shang turned red, and he saw something move in the darkness.

Shang extended his hand forward and grabbed the closest thing to him.

It didn’t move.

Blood poured out of the thing Shang was holding, telling him that he had just killed a beast.

It was difficult for Shang to see, but he could still see somewhat. He just couldn’t see very far.

Shang looked at the thing he was holding and realized that he was holding the lower half of a rather big fish.

Shang had killed a beast by ramming into it with his weight.

Shang didn’t recognize the kind of beast since he basically knew nothing about water beasts, but he could still do some basic tests.

Shang tested the resistance of the fish’s muscles and the hardness of its scale.

‘Should be around the Early General Stage,’ Shang estimated.

‘Need to go deeper.’

Shang threw the parts of the fish to the side since he had no use for it and descended further.

The blood quickly vanished from around Shang as he continued going deeper into the lake.

He descended for another five minutes.

Nothing.

Shang continued descending for another five minutes.

Still nothing.

‘I should be nearly five kilometers deep. I can already feel quite a bit of pressure on my body. I think I will reach my limit at around seven kilometers. I can survive even deeper, but moving would become too strenuous.’

‘I don’t think that the water beasts want to go too deep due to the stronger beasts down there.’

‘I’ll descend one more kilometer.’

Moving at such a depth wasn’t very easy for Shang. The pressure was all around his body.

Luckily, Shang didn’t need to go much further.

After about two minutes, Shang felt a strong current coming toward him, and he immediately reacted to it.

BANG!

Shang released an Ice Blast from his legs, charging upward.

CRACK!

The ice below Shang’s feet was broken apart as something smashed through it.

Obviously, something had just tried to kill Shang.

However, Shang couldn’t tell where the beast had gone to. He could barely see a couple of meters in front of him.

‘Vision isn’t very helpful here,’ Shang thought as he closed his eye.

He fully focused on his other senses.

A second later, Shang felt something approaching, but he didn’t open his eye.

WHOOOM!

Suddenly, the water around Shang vanished.

At this moment, Shang was inside a space filled with nothing but Mana.

Domain of Entropy!

BANG!

Shang kicked backward with his legs and released an Ice Blast.

As Shang shot forward, his Mana was being consumed at a terrifying rate due to how much mass the Domain of Entropy was converting to Mana.

The empty tunnel Shang left behind was quickly closed by the water.

Shang opened his eye when he was certain that he was right in the path of the beast in front of him.

Then, Shang struck forward.

CRACK!

Shang was thrown back, but he felt his sword dig into something before being thrown away.

The water drowned Shang again as he deactivated his Domain of Entropy.

He didn’t need it anymore.

Shang’s eye narrowed.

BANG!

He released an Ice Blast, quickly followed by another one.

He shot through a sea of blood.

Shang felt another violent current in front of him.

BANG! BANG!

Shang released two quick Fire Blasts to speed up.

Then, he struck to the side.

CRACK!

Shang cut through something hard, and more blood appeared in front of him.

For some reason, Shang felt that the currents were becoming rough and irregular.

‘I probably got its backfin. It was trying to run!’

BANG!

Shang used another Ice Blast, and he quickly felt the beast again.

BANG!

Shang shot diagonally upwards when he suddenly felt the current stop in front of him.

Then, he pointed his left arm upward.

BANG!

Shang released another Ice Blast and shot down as he struck forward with his sword in his right hand.

CRAACK!

Sure enough, he hit something hard.

Shang’s right eye burned.

BANG! BANG!

He released another two Blasts to increase his power.

CRACK!

And his sword finally broke through the thing he had hit!

Shang paused again and concentrated on his surroundings.

His left side was exhibiting several small currents while his right side was quiet.

BANG!

Shang cut towards his left side and hit something.

Silence.

The lake returned to silence.

Shang quickly grabbed towards his right and his left, shoving whatever he touched into his Space Ring.

BANG! BANG!

Then, Shang released one Ice Blast after the other to ascend again.

He no longer needed to be covert.

About five minutes later, Shang shot towards the sandy wall again and buried himself.

When he felt nothing moving around him, he entered his inner world with his Space Ring.

Inside his inner world, Shang took out the Space Ring and dumped whatever was in there out.

BANG!

The bisected corpse of a terrifying fish appeared in front of Shang.

It was nearly ten meters long and over two meters high. A terrifying amount of teeth came out of its mouth, which then curved around its entire body, creating a powerful armor made of bent teeth.

The fish’s head had a deep cut going through its mouth up to the middle of its eyes.

‘That was my first attack.’

Shang looked at the backfin, which had long spikes on it.

Sure enough, a horizontal cut had separated the upper and lower half of the fin.

The back half of the fish also had teeth armor protecting it, but the teeth between the two halves had been broken apart.

This had been when Shang had bisected the fish.

The last injury was a deep cut at the place where the fish’s left eye had been.

This had been Shang’s killing strike.

Shang looked at the fish for a while.

It looked alien and terrifying.

Its mouth was constantly open due to the teeth that bent over its entire body. There were a couple more teeth at the back of its throat that were not bent. This was probably what it used to kill its prey after ramming into it.

Shang bent down and performed a couple of tests on the fish.

Then, he frowned.

‘Early Commander Stage.’

‘Not sure if I can absorb that.’

 

Chapter 338 – Mind Battle

Shang looked at the fish for some time.

‘It would be a matter of luck to get the right beast, and I don’t want to accidentally run into something too powerful. I think I should try it.’

Shang slowly dug out the fish’s heart and started to consume it.

After he had eaten around half the heart, his brows furrowed.

‘The Mana is not activating. I thought I could eat half of the heart, but apparently, I need to eat the entire thing to strengthen my body. I think it has something to do with the beast’s will.’

Shang looked at the remaining heart, narrowed his eye, and consumed it as well.

When Shang swallowed the last bite, he felt his body heat up.

He was reminded of the time he had consumed the Earth Fruit Hedgehog’s first fruit.

‘Speaking of,’ Shang thought. ‘I think I am powerful enough to fight the Earth Fruit Hedgehog equally now. Duke Whirlwind said that it reached the Mid Commander Stage after consuming the Old Ice Octopus.’

The insurmountable gap of power Shang felt whenever he had looked at the Earth Fruit Hedgehog had vanished.

‘Can’t get distracted now. Need to deal with the Mana.’

Shang decided that he had to take drastic measures. After all, if there were too much Mana remaining inside his body, it would become troublesome.

BANG! BANG!

Shang released two opposing Blasts, one after the other, severely injuring his body.

Shang quickly shoved all his own Mana into healing his body, and his body was consuming the beast’s Mana to regain its old storage.

Shang hadn’t cleared his Mana before swallowing the heart since he didn’t need to. He had already experimented a couple of times. Thanks to his warrior body, he had the ability to use up his own Mana at terrifying rates.

The beast’s Mana was entering Shang’s being at rapid rates, but that wasn’t nearly fast enough.

BANG! BANG!

Shang injured his own body even more, the pain starting to face him.

His body was trying to heal rapidly, but controlling foreign Mana wasn’t very easy.

But Shang noticed that his body was absorbing the Mana a tiny bit faster.

‘I have to try it! It’s too risky having so much foreign Mana inside myself!’

BANG!

Shang released another two blasts, his organs spreading over the surroundings.

He was out of his own Mana, and his natural regeneration might not be fast enough to heal him in time.

Shang gritted his teeth as he tried to stay awake.

The darkness of death was calling for him.

‘If you don’t absorb faster, I will die!’

Shang’s body began to shiver at several places, and he resisted the urge to convulse.

Steam came out of Shang’s body as the Mana got absorbed even faster.

But at the same time, Shang noticed that his Mana had become imbalanced. It was like his body was starting to mutate violently.

His organs were regenerating in the wrong places and in wrong sizes.

BANG!

Shang destroyed parts of the incorrect organs, doing his best not to accidentally kill himself.

It was a constant battle of death on the tiny tightrope above a cliff.

One wrong step and Shang would die.

The beast’s Mana was rapidly being consumed under Shang’s controlled destruction.

It was incredibly painful, but Shang kept an iron grip on his focus.

This was probably one of the most panic-inducing and painful experiences in Shang’s life, only superseded by the Procedure and the time he had consumed the first fruit from the Earth Fruit Hedgehog.

Blood and guts gathered around Shang, and he wanted to do nothing more but lose consciousness.

However, Shang kept going.

Eventually, an hour later, Shang stopped.

The will of the beast had returned, and it became impossible to absorb the remaining Mana now.

Shang allowed foreign Mana to enter his being again and fully focused on recovering.

Shang felt some kind of foreign will attack his mind. It felt very similar to fighting unconsciousness.

As he fought against the foreign will, Shang sat down and closed his eye, focusing on the mental battle.

It was like he was desperately leaning against a door as someone tried to open it with force.

It was a battle of attrition.

Shang had to put his full focus on resisting the enemy’s will.

Every moment was difficult.

Shang didn’t know how long he kept fighting off the will, but he was sure that a long time had gone by.

At some point, the assault grew weaker, and Shang could actually relax a little.

Some more time later, Shang didn’t need to focus on the battle anymore.

The beast’s will had grown so weak that it was no longer a threat.

For the first time in a long while, Shang opened his eye.

The first thing he did was look at the big stone in his inner world.

“73 days remain,” Shang read in shock.

‘I have been battling the beast’s will for 13 days?!’

Shang took a deep breath.

Right now, the will was only slightly more powerful than when he had strengthened himself the normal way.

‘With enough work, I can clear the beast’s will in about twelve days.’

‘It seems like it’s possible to strengthen myself with a beast heart a level stronger than me, but it will take longer to recover in total.’

Shang took out his sword and tested his power.

After a bit of testing, he could estimate his newfound power.

It wasn’t as good as he had hoped.

He had hoped for some kind of boost after going through so much danger, but the efficiency seemed to only be a little bit better than if he were to do it the normal way.

‘If an Initial Commander Stage beast gives me one unit of power, this one gave me 2.4 units. A normal beast takes me about twelve days to recover, while this will take me a total of about 26 days. It’s a net gain of about 0.2 units, but it’s extremely dangerous, and I am essentially completely helpless for two weeks after consuming one.’

‘It’s not worth it.’

‘If I have a normal one, I should use the normal one. I should only go for Early Commander Stage beasts if I don’t find anything else.’

Shang remained sitting for some time longer to relax.

His mind had been strained for a long time.

Eventually, Shang stood up.

“I have about twelve days to kill,” he said as he looked at Sword. “I think we need to strengthen you. How about I dig into the Plague Rat Zone deep underground, and you tell me if you feel any useful ore? I think the Plague Rat should have calmed down by now. On top of that, it lives many kilometers to the east.”

“I’m fine with that,” Sword answered.

Shang nodded.

Then, he left his inner world and went back into his real body, which had been buried inside the sand for nearly two weeks.

Shang’s real body felt quite stiff, but that wasn’t really an issue.

After opening his eye, Shang continued digging deeper into the wall.

About a minute later, he felt the earth becoming harder.

Then, he continued digging through the hard earth.

And just three hours later, Sword told Shang that it felt something useful.

This would be Shang’s new life for the next three months.

Strengthening and digging.

Chapter 339 – Trial Starts

Over the next three months, Shang kept strengthening his body and digging for ore.

Digging for ore wasn’t as straightforward as he had thought. Sure, Sword was finding a lot of ore, but not every piece of ore was usable by them.

Some had the wrong Affinity.

Others were either too weak or too strong.

However, after several months of nearly fully focusing on mining ore, Shang had gotten enough to boost Sword to the Late Commander Stage.

Yes, he had found enough to boost it to the Mid Commander Stage and then to the Late Commander Stage.

Sword’s shape hadn’t changed, but it had become quite a bit heavier. Now, it no longer felt like Shang was swinging a small stick around.

Shang’s sword was already quite big, even if it was not as big as when Shang had been in the Grandmountain Kingdom. This also meant that it was quite heavy.

Usually, only a Late Commander Stage warrior could wield the current Sword, but they would only be able to move slowly.

But Shang could swing Sword with only one hand.

This spoke volumes about Shang’s physical strength.

Right now, Shang’s body was a bit weaker than the body of a Peak Commander Stage warrior, which was a terrifying gap in power.

Honestly, at this point, it became almost pointless for Shang to compare himself to warriors. There were so few warriors left in the world with a body more powerful than him, and the warriors had also fallen off by a lot when compared to beasts and Mages.

From now on, Shang could only adequately compare his physical strength to beasts and his actual power to Mages.

So, how powerful was Shang’s body when compared to an Initial Commander Stage beast after three months of strengthening?

Shang had just finished his most recent strengthening. Originally, he had killed another Early Commander Stage beast, but if Shang decided to use its heart, he would miss the deadline for the trial.

Because of that, Shang had gone out again to hunt an Initial Commander Stage beast, and he eventually got it.

Shang clenched his right fist and swung Sword a couple of times.

‘The further I advance, the slower the strengthening process. It’s like a hyperbole.’

‘Right now, I should be about 75% to 80% as strong as an Initial Commander Stage beast. I managed to absorb one Abomination, which heightens my starting point. I believe, while I only managed to reach about 85% at the Peak General Stage, I should be able to get up to 90% this time.’

At that moment, Shang frowned.

‘However, that also means that it will take quite a bit longer to advance. Sure enough, the stronger I get, the harder it gets to advance.’

‘At the rate I am advancing right now, it will probably take two entire years for me to reach the Early Commander Stage, and after that, it will become even slower.’

Shang looked at his hand. ‘But I shouldn’t use normal human standards for time anymore. Commander Stage warriors often live for 250 years, which is around three times as much as normal humans on Earth.’

‘Reaching the True Path Stage in my 40s would be like reaching it in my teens if I were to use the standard longevity from Earth.’

Shang looked away from his hand and to the side as he remembered something.

‘Speaking of, I think my body should be about 22 years old now. That was also my age when I left Earth, right? Or was it 23? Honestly, I can’t really remember anymore. My life on Earth has become more and more distant as time passes. It’s almost like my previous life was nothing but a dream.’

‘I don’t know how I should feel about this.’

Shang didn’t think anything for a couple of seconds as he tried to discern what he was actually feeling.

Sadly, he wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about this particular topic.

‘The past is in the past. To be frank, it doesn’t even really matter.’

Shang stood up from the ground inside his inner world. He still wore the damaged armor since he felt a bit uncomfortable about being naked outside of water. He had gotten used to swimming around naked in the Tide Serpent Zone but being naked on land was a bit weird.

Shang cracked his neck and did some stretches. He wasn’t really doing that to warm up but to heighten his focus.

After some seconds, Shang’s right eye narrowed, and he looked at the big stone in the middle of his inner world.

Only a bit more than a day was remaining on the timer.

‘I’ve been gone from the Skythunder Kingdom for a bit more than a year, huh,’ he commented to himself inside his mind.

‘The last trial happened when I was about 16. That was six years ago.’

‘Six years to go from the General Stage to the Commander Stage.’

Shang took a deep breath and focused his mind on the task at hand again.

“Let’s start the trial,” Shang said, Sword in hand.

CRRRR!

The huge stone vanished into the ground, and something familiar returned.

The wheel.

The wheel came down from the sky, and just like before, the jester sat upon it.

But this time, the jester had some light in his eyes.

The God was no longer keeping it a secret that he was inhabiting the jester.

“Don’t disappoint me,” the jester said in his mechanical voice.

“Just send them in. The first few levels won’t take long,” Shang answered.

The jester only grinned widely, and the wheel began to spin.

“Level one: Weak Initial Commander Stage beast,” the female mechanical voice announced.

Shang didn’t even look at the wheel.

Nothing that the wheel could land on was a danger to him.

A couple of seconds later, Shang’s opponent appeared.

It was a silver wolf with horns.

Shang only waited.

The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.

DING!

BANG!

Shang immediately exploded forward as the bell rang.

The wolf opened its eyes and focused on Shang, but Shang’s speed completely took it by surprise.

Out of reflex, it tried to dodge to the side, but Shang was just too fast.

BOOOM!

Shang’s sword easily cut through the wolf, the two halves shooting in two different directions.

The old familiar applause returned as Shang looked forward, his right eye narrowed.

“Next,” he said.

The jester only grinned.

 

Chapter 340 – Level Six and Seven

The second beast appeared after another couple of seconds, and Shang killed it.

The third one died just as quickly.

The fourth one also wasn’t an issue.

The fifth one needed Shang to release two strikes instead of one, but that was about it.

“Level six: Powerful Early Commander Stage beast,” the mechanical voice announced.

The wheel spun, and this time, Shang actually looked at what the wheel would land on.

He still remembered the last time he had been on level six in the beast category.

He had fought a powerful tiger with insanely hard metal armor.

That fight hadn’t been easy.

Eventually, the wheel stopped, and Shang saw the image of his opponent.

Just like last time, the beasts were depicted like they were mascots from a cereal company.

The image of his next opponent was a smiling, long, green snake with a large wizard hat.

‘That’s probably a Serpent,’ Shang thought.

Sure enough, Shang’s opponent appeared, and it was a Serpent.

It was about two meters wide and nearly twenty meters long. It had four claws at different parts of its body, and it hovered in the air. Wind Mana was constantly swirling around it, keeping it afloat.

The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.

DING!

The Serpent opened its eyes, and it quickly spotted Shang.

BANG!

Shang immediately exploded forward with an Ice Blast. He knew that Serpents were basically the Mages of the beast world. They excelled in ranged combat.

WHOOOM!

The Wind Mana around the Serpent exploded, and the Serpent went into the air without any difficulty.

After it reached a height of about a hundred meters, it focused on Shang again.

Lots of Wind Mana gathered around it as it was preparing something akin to a Spell.

SHING!

An instant later, a transparent blade shot through the air at incredible speeds, right at Shang.

BANG!

Shang evaded the blade by jumping, the blade exploding on the ground and destroying the surrounding ten meters.

Shang quickly reached a height of 25 meters, but at that point, the Serpent had another attack ready, which directly shot at Shang again.

BANG!

Shang released a Fire Blast, diagonally evading to the side while gaining more height.

The Serpent readied another attack, but something happened before it could launch it.

Shang put his left arm over his sword, his left arm shriveling up.

Then, he released a quick slash with his Sword from a distance.

A black beam left Shang’s sword, and it reached the Serpent in nearly an instant.

If the Serpent had known that Shang had a ranged attack, it might have been able to evade, but nothing about Shang told it that he could launch an attack from a distance.

BANG!

The black beam hit the Serpent, but it wasn’t injured.

Then, the Serpent realized in horror that it was uncontrollably falling!

Why couldn’t it fly anymore?!

BANG!

Shang released another Ice Blast and shot at the descending Serpent.

A second later, the Serpent managed to regain control over its Wind Mana and halted in the sky.

BANG!

Shang released another Fire Blast, a bit of blood coming out of his body as he shot upward.

The Serpent tried to evade with its slender body, but the reach of Shang’s sword was just too long.

BANG!

Shang’s sword bisected the Serpent in the middle.

A shrill screech of pain came out of the Serpent’s mouth, and its body began to move around violently, out of control.

Shang grabbed the front half of the Serpent and used Darkness Absorb.

Usually, the Serpent would be able to release a devastating attack at Shang from this range, but its heavy injury made it impossible for it to focus.

The two of them began to fall to the ground as the Serpent grew weaker and weaker.

Shang’s body began to balloon as he absorbed a bit too much, and he stopped absorbing more.

BANG!

Shang cut away another part of the Serpent.

BANG!

Then, he used an Ice Blast to slow his fall and lightly landed.

BOOOOOM!

The three parts of the Serpent hit the ground, the Serpent dying from it.

Shang cleaned his sword on the grass of his world and stepped away.

At that moment, the cheering returned.

‘Sure enough, that was a powerful beast. I can’t compare the last beast I fought to this one.’

For a warrior, this was the worst matchup.

The Serpent had been over a hundred meters in the air, and it could release one devastating Spell after the other. A normal warrior would have easily died to it.

Of course, there were ways around it.

For example, Shang could fight very well in the air due to his Affinity, but other warriors had similar weapons.

They could release the ranged attack Shang had gotten from the last trial, for example.

Maybe they had a great number of disposable, throwable spears? Shang remembered fighting a couple of warriors that used these spears.

There were ways to counter a flying opponent, but it wasn’t easy.

Shang felt a bit of pressure as his armor pressed onto his swollen body, but it wasn’t a big deal.

“Level seven: Weak Mid Commander Stage beast,” the mechanical voice announced.

Shang looked at the spinning wheel, and his next opponent was unveiled.

The last time he had been at the seventh level, he had only won due to the inexperience of his opponent.

The white dog had had quite a terrifying defense, even though it was definitely not known for its defense.

But this time, Shang’s body was quite a bit more powerful.

The wheel stopped at a smiling, burning ant with spiky red hair.

Young kids would probably say that it looked cool.

The ant appeared, and Shang looked over.

It was about five meters long, which wasn’t very big for a Mid Commander Stage beast.

Except for its crimson red color, there was nothing really special about it. Sure, its pincers were huge and terrifying, but basically all such pincers were terrifying when magnified by that much.

The jester lifted his hammer and hit the bell.

DING!

The ant turned to Shang and charged at him.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t very fast, and it moved almost like a robot, very mechanically.

Since the opponent was coming to him, Shang didn’t immediately charge in. Instead, he ran at the ant without releasing his full speed.

When the two of them were about ten meters away from each other, Shang saw fire gather around the ant’s pincers.

BANG!

Shang used a Fire Blast to jump upward.

CRACK!

The pincers of the ant clamped together below him just an instant later.

They had elongated, and they were completely on fire.

‘Quite a devastating and dangerous attack,’ Shang thought. ‘However, this ant counts as a comparatively weak beast. If it has such a devastating attack, it probably means that everything else about it is trash.’

BANG!

Shang released an Ice Blast above him and shot directly at the ant’s back, his sword pointing forward.

CRACK!

Sword broke through the exoskeleton of the ant, but it didn’t get very far. Some blood was pouring out of the ant’s back, but it hadn’t received a fatal injury.

‘I used a lot of power with that attack,’ Shang thought calmly. ‘Seems like its defense is also not bad.’

Shang jumped off the ant shortly before it fell onto its back.

It had no way to properly attack something on its back. The best thing it could do was fall to its side and awkwardly rollover.

BANG!

Shang used another Fire Blast with his left arm and landed behind the ant.

CRACK!

One of the ant’s legs fell off.

‘Sure enough, its legs are too thin to resist my attack.’

The ant scrambled to get back up.

CRACK!

Shang destroyed another leg.

Then, Shang jumped back and watched the ant.

The ant looked like it hadn’t even felt its legs being cut off and began to awkwardly advance toward Shang like a robot.

It was quite a bit slower due to it missing two legs.

‘So, that’s it, huh?’ Shang thought as he watched the ant.

‘This is why it counts as a weak beast. It has one powerful attack and good defense, but that’s all. It doesn’t have variety, it’s very slow, and there are several blind spots in its defense.’

Shang retreated from the ant with a couple of light jumps.

The ant was so slow that it was even slower than Shang, someone with a much weaker body.

‘Well, it’s an ant. They don’t normally fight on their own. If there are ten such ants, these weaknesses are no longer such a big problem. After all, they can cover each other’s backs with their devastating attacks.’

‘Ants are dangerous and incredibly powerful, but one ant is weak.’

Shang danced around the ant and cut its remaining legs off just to be on the safe side.

Then, he killed it with several strikes to the head.

This fight had been even easier than the previous one.

The cheering returned, and the wheel returned.

“Level eight: Average Mid Commander Stage beast,” the mechanical voice announced.

Shang still remembered the last time he had been at the eighth level.

His enemy had been a porcupine, and he had needed to unleash Entropy to win back then.

One could say that Shang had never beaten the eighth level fairly.

‘But this time, things will be different,’ Shang thought.

‘I have a ranged attack, a domain, more control over my Mana and my Affinity, and my body is even more powerful in relation to beasts than back then.’

‘All in all, my power is much greater.’

‘It’s time to beat my old record!’