Ch. 351..360
Chapter 351 – Five Years
It took Shang a while to calm down, but there was still a certain feeling of emptiness and regret inside of him.
Yet, this was what he had chosen.
For his goal, any kind of sacrifice was worth it.
Surprisingly, no new opponent had appeared in the last couple of minutes, even though Shang had already “won” against his previous one.
Shang slowly stood up and gripped Sword tightly.
Even if everything else vanished, Sword would be with him until the end.
The two of them didn’t need to exchange words to make their feelings known.
“Took you guys long enough,” the jester said with a grin.
Shang didn’t look over.
“How long have we been training?”
The jester’s grin widened.
“Five years.”
Silence.
Five years.
They had been training for five full years.
That was so long!
For a second, Shang couldn’t believe what he had just heard, but then he remembered how endlessly time had dragged on.
Five years actually made sense.
“And even after five years,” Shang said, “I still couldn’t beat him fairly.”
The jester’s grin didn’t vanish. “Of course not,” he said.
“His kind are the very reason why I sent you guys into my main world in the first place.”
Shang looked over at the jester.
“Hardworking geniuses,” the God said. “They use whatever they can get and perfect it. Yet, his body is weak. He is one of the very rare true geniuses, but his lack of a powerful body makes it impossible for him to fight any Mage or beast that is not completely worthless.”
“The path of the warrior has deteriorated to a degree where mastering the entire thing only makes you equal to the worst Mages in the world.”
“It is your duty to expand the warrior’s path. Give the geniuses more to master, and they won’t disappoint you.”
“Your predecessor accepted the first Path he found, not trying to strengthen or widen it.”
“Without outside help, he will never reach the Fifth Realm. His Path is just too weak.”
Shang took a deep breath when he heard that.
The God was obviously talking about the Dean.
Without the aid of someone far more powerful than him, the Dean would never reach the Fifth Realm.
“However, his advancement allowed this other warrior to reevaluate himself,” the jester added. “He saw that your predecessor couldn’t rival the Mages or beasts, and he realized that there is more to it.”
“Without your predecessor, he would have advanced immediately, wasting his talent.”
“Sadly, this warrior came too early. If he had been born just fifty years later, he would have a shot at transforming his body and become truly powerful.”
“But he has already condensed his Path, and even if he is still working on it, there are no fitting beasts for him anymore.”
Shang remained silent for a bit.
“Is there really no way?” he asked.
The jester smirked. “There is always a way,” he said with a laugh. “I designed this world to always have a way. The different ways just have different requirements.”
“The thing you call the Procedure is only one of many ways to strengthen your body. Back when warriors were still powerful, they simply ingested a pill to achieve such a powerful body. Such a pill would work on this warrior.”
Shang looked at the jester. “Are there any left in the world?”
“No,” the jester answered. “The Mages destroyed everything. You won’t find a single inheritance regarding physical fighters in the entire world.”
“But, as I’ve said, there are ways.”
“And it’s your duty to find them,” the jester said with a smirk.
Shang remained silent as he just took a deep breath.
He wanted to repay Teacher Mervin, even if the Teacher Mervin that helped him had not been the real one.
‘As long as there is a way, all hope is not lost.’
Shang strengthened his grip on his sword.
“I’m ready for the next fight,” he said.
The jester didn’t answer.
Instead, the wheels began to spin again.
“Level thirteen: Weak Peak Commander Stage warrior,” the mechanical voice said.
At that moment, Shang remembered something and looked at the jester again. “You don’t count the last fight as cheating, right?”
“No,” the jester said. “You didn’t rely on my power. Also, your progress pleases me, and I don’t want to punish you for living up to my expectations.”
‘Progress, huh?’ Shang thought.
‘Did I make any progress? Honestly, I don’t know.’
SHING!
At that moment, Shang’s opponent appeared.
It was an older man wearing leather. He carried a long sword in his hands, just like Teacher Mervin. Surprisingly, he wore clothes made of fur and no armor.
For a second, Shang thought that this was a barbarian, but he knew that wouldn’t make any sense.
First of all, the man wasn’t carrying a heavy weapon but an elegant and long sword.
Second, barbarians basically didn’t qualify as opponents in this trial. They were neither warriors nor beasts, and they were worse than both of these things.
This meant that the person in front of Shang was probably some kind of hermit.
Someone that lived on their own, only working on their power.
‘Interesting. I assumed that some hermit warrior would be among the more powerful warriors, but this one is apparently weak.’
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The warrior opened his eyes and looked at Shang with narrowed eyes.
Then, he swung his sword to the side, creating a screeching noise by cutting the wind apart.
His movements had been incredibly fast.
The warrior entered a battle stance.
BANG!
And suddenly exploded forward.
Shang narrowed his right eye and also exploded forward with an Ice Blast.
The two of them charged at each other, and Shang readied his sword.
Suddenly, the warrior’s sword seemed to bend in the air and move to the side.
It was almost like his sword was made of a piece of rubber.
It moved in unpredictable but fast ways as it shot right at Shang’s chest.
Shang looked into his opponent’s eyes.
‘I’m not sure what kind of technique he will use. I should be careful.’
Then, Shang carefully moved his sword forward.
DING!
His sword hit the enemy’s sword lightly at its side to disrupt the enemy’s attack.
The sword bent away from Shang, and Shang’s sword stabbed forward.
CRACK!
Sword stabbed through the warrior’s chest.
At that moment, terror and shock appeared on the warrior’s face.
Shang’s expression looked unsure, and he moved his sword upward.
SHING!
The warrior was cut in two.
And he died.
…
The cheering returned, but Shang only looked with shock at the warrior.
‘Where was his technique?’ Shang thought in shock. ‘Warriors fight with finesse, but he only moved his sword around a bit.’
Shang blinked a couple of times.
‘Wait, was that actually his technique?’
Silence.
The warrior’s corpse slowly vanished as Shang looked at it.
Sure, this was a weak warrior, but this fight shouldn’t have been that easy!
Shang scratched the back of his head as he replayed the battle in his mind.
His opponent moved his sword in some kind of dance, which would disrupt one’s rhythm. Then, it had suddenly homed in on Shang’s vitals.
‘Sure, that’s a good technique,’ Shang thought. ‘It can definitely catch a lot of warriors off guard.’
‘But that wasn’t everything, right?’
‘Right?’
At that moment, the two wheels returned.
“Level fourteen: Average Peak Commander Stage warrior.”
Chapter 352 – Warrior Category Over
The wheels began to spin again, but this time, the fields on the wheels were bigger, which meant that several fields had vanished.
There were not that many Peak Commander Stage warriors in the world.
Eventually, the wheels stopped, and Shang’s opponent appeared.
It was a male warrior with long brown hair, wearing golden armor and carrying a spear.
‘That’s the armor of Commanders in Duke Whirlwind’s territory,’ Shang realized.
‘However, I don’t know him. That probably means that he is the Commander of Swamp Lake City.’
There were only three big cities in Duke Whirlwind’s territory.
Shang had met the Commander of Warrior’s Paradise, and Ice Heaven didn’t have any powerful warriors since that was where most of Duke Whirlwind’s powerful Mages lived. Ice Heaven was filled to the brim with True Mages. They didn’t need any warriors to protect them.
Which only left the Commander of Swamp Lake City unaccounted for.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The Commander opened his eyes and looked at Shang.
SHING!
Shang immediately jumped to the side when his instincts were screaming at him.
A powerful and thick needle barely passed by Shang’s body!
‘This is what they use to kill flying beasts!’ Shang remembered.
Shang turned toward his opponent and realized that he had already closed the gap.
The Commander’s spear quickly stabbed forward.
Shang quickly saw the purpose of the attack and how it was performed, but that didn’t always help.
The Commander had a stronger body than Shang, and there was simply no good way to deal with that attack.
So, even though Shang knew exactly what the opponent was doing, he had no chance but to comply.
BANG!
The spear hit Sword’s side.
CRK!
A crack appeared on Sword, and Shang could feel the pain Sword was feeling.
Sword was only at the Late Commander Stage, while the Commander obviously had a weapon that was at the Peak Commander Stage.
One or two more unfavorable clashes, and Sword might break completely!
Shang gritted his teeth as he jumped back.
‘I totally forgot about that!’
For a second, Shang felt like he was back in his first lesson in the Caterpillar Class.
Back then, every single attack had threatened Sword’s life since it had been too weak at the time.
The Commander quickly shot after Shang and readied another strike with his spear.
Shang quickly thought of a countermeasure.
BANG!
Shang punched the tip of the spear with his left hand, the spear piercing through Shang’s left arm.
Shang’s right arm swung Sword forward.
At that moment, the earth around the warrior transformed into spears, which all pointed at Shang.
If he decided to go through with that attack, Shang would definitely die.
Then, the spears shot at Shang, and Shang gritted his teeth.
WHOOM!
The earthen spears turned into Earth Mana as Shang activated his Domain of Entropy.
He lost all of his Mana with that single use.
The attack was just that powerful.
The Commander’s eyes narrowed, and he moved his head towards Sword.
That seemed like a stupid idea, but the Commander was obviously wearing extremely powerful armor.
The Magic Circles would activate, block the attack, and throw Sword backward, leaving Shang open.
Then, the Commander would cut through Shang’s body with his spear, which was already embedded in Shang’s left arm.
Shang didn’t like it, but he knew that there was only one way out of this situation.
Sword was engulfed in black flames, and it hit the warrior’s head.
BANG!
The black flames destroyed the Magic Circles and killed the Commander.
The Commander’s spear had already left Shang’s left arm and had already dug into Shang’s torso.
A bit more, and Shang would have been cut in two.
The black flames vanished, and Sword had shrunken to its original form again.
At that moment, the cheering returned.
Shang took a deep breath and summoned his last pieces of ore.
Sword consumed the ore and grew to its bigger size again.
However, this was all of Shang’s useful ore.
The next time Sword used its ability, it would stay in its smaller form until Shang got some more ore.
The crack on Sword also vanished after absorbing the ore.
Shang looked at Sword with furrowed brows. “A fight with a powerful Peak Commander Stage warrior might help me a little bit with my power, but I can’t risk you.”
“I’m sorry,” Sword said.
“There is nothing to be sorry for,” Shang said. “I didn’t have the time to search for better ore, and even if I found some, your added weight would slow me down. My body is not yet as powerful as the body of a Peak Commander Stage warrior.”
Sword didn’t answer.
Shang took a deep breath and sighed.
Then, he looked at the jester.
“That’s it for the warrior category,” he said.
The jester didn’t seem perturbed. “The fight would have been boring anyway,” he said. “You know all three powerful Peak Commander Stage warriors, and you wouldn’t have had a chance against any of them.”
Shang nodded.
Yes, he had trained with Teacher Mervin for five years, but that was still not enough to close the gap.
Shang was pretty sure that he knew which opponents would have awaited him.
Vice-Dean Ranos was definitely the most powerful of the three.
Vice-Dean Soran was another one.
And the last one was probably the Commander of Warrior’s Paradise.
The youngest amongst them, Soran, was already incredibly powerful.
His Path was probably not as powerful as Teacher Mervin’s Path, but with Soran being a level stronger, he could probably fight Teacher Mervin equally.
The other two were not any weaker.
This meant that Shang would be fighting another Teacher Mervin, and he knew how that would turn out.
Additionally, even if these three decided to teach Shang something, they definitely wouldn’t give their lives for him. Even though they were copies, they still wanted to live.
Lastly, Shang had been fighting against nothing but warriors for the last five years, and he needed to fight something else.
So, even if the fight might have helped with his power, it wouldn’t have been much.
“Ten points in the beast category and fourteen points in the warrior category,” the jester said. “Your score is already higher than your cheated score from the last trial, and you haven’t even fought the Mages yet.”
“Seems like you will get quite a good reward.”
Shang nodded.
At that point, the wheel with the weapons vanished, leaving only the wheel with the Affinities behind.
“Let’s get to the last category.”
“The Mages.”
Chapter 353 – Darkness
The Affinity wheel began to spin, but Shang didn’t pay any attention to it.
Just like with the previous categories, the first opponents wouldn’t be an issue.
“Level one: Weak Initial True Mage.”
After some seconds, Shang’s opponent arrived.
It was a beautiful girl with ocean-blue hair.
Shang could already tell that she was a Water Mage.
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The girl opened her eyes and calmly looked at Shang.
However, her expression immediately turned to horror when she noticed that Shang was already beside her.
In her shock, she couldn’t react.
BANG!
She was quickly bisected by Shang’s sword, and he absorbed some life energy from her corpse.
The cheering returned.
Shang looked at the vanishing corpse without any emotions inside his eyes.
The wheel returned, and Shang waited for his next opponent.
“Level two: Average Initial True Mage.”
His next opponent appeared, but Shang didn’t really pay any attention to them.
DING!
When the bell struck, Shang charged forward again.
That’s when Shang saw that his new opponent was a young man with red hair, wearing red robes.
The Mage immediately activated his Mana Shield.
BANG!
Shang’s sword hit the Mana Shield, and the Mage was thrown into the distance by Shang’s attack.
The Mage’s eyes widened in shock.
That attack consumed over 50% of his Mana!
He quickly summoned his Focus and prepared two Spells.
However, before he could finish the Spells, Shang appeared before him again.
BOOOM!
The Mage was flung into the distance again, his Mana Shield broken.
The Spell the Mage had been preparing fizzled out since he was out of Mana now.
Shang immediately appeared in front of him again with his sword.
In panic, the Mage unleashed the Spell that his Focus had prepared. Luckily, Foci didn’t need the Mana of their Mages.
WHOOOOOM!
A wide beam of unreasonably hot fire violently shot out of the Focus, right at Shang.
BANG!
Shang released a simple Ice Blast to sidestep the Spell. In his panic, the Mage hadn’t been able to aim at Shang properly.
And then, Shang’s sword came down on him.
BANG!
The Mage was cut apart, and Shang absorbed some more life energy.
By now, Shang’s body was slightly swollen due to all the life energy.
The cheering returned, and the corpse vanished.
But this time, when the wheel returned, Shang actually looked at it.
Shang knew that he would win against his next opponent, but it wouldn’t be easy.
These were Mages, the hegemons of the world.
Fighting a Mage on his level was already beyond impressive for Shang.
“Level three: Powerful Initial True Mage.”
The wheel slowed down, and it eventually stopped on one of the smaller fields.
Shang’s brows furrowed.
‘I’ve never fought such a Mage before.’
SHING!
Shang’s opponent appeared, and he looked over.
His opponent was a taller woman with long, black hair, wearing expensive, dark robes.
Her black Focus was already hovering beside her.
Shang could feel quite a bit of Darkness Mana come out of her.
Yes, this was a True Mage with a Darkness Affinity.
Shang had fought Poison Mages before, but not Darkness Mages.
They were not really common in the Skythunder Kingdom, but there were a lot of them in the Blackshadow Kingdom.
Shang guessed that this woman probably came from there.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
Shang exploded forward as the woman opened her eyes.
In an instant, she had already prepared her Mana Shield.
Her eyes quickly darted around the battlefield, but her brows furrowed when she saw it.
Shang’s inner world was brightly lit like it was the middle of the day.
There were no caves, no trees, no big rocks, no structures.
This meant that the only places of darkness in Shang’s inner world were the tiny shadows of the blades of grass and the shadows of the two opponents.
The battlefield couldn’t be worse for her.
She quickly noticed that Shang had already arrived beside her.
In an instant, she cast Mana Step, appearing over 300 meters away.
Shang couldn’t even land an attack.
BANG!
Shang immediately exploded after her with an Ice Blast, his speed way too fast for someone at the Initial Commander Stage.
The Mage narrowed her eyes when she noticed that Shang was close to her again.
SHING!
She unleashed another Mana Step, and Shang followed her.
‘She definitely has undergone Mana Tranquility, which means that she is rapidly recovering her Mana. Even though these quick Mana Steps cost about 20% of her total Mana each, her rapid absorption essentially means that she only loses 10% of her total Mana per cast.’
‘And even more, she hasn’t unleashed any Spell yet.’
As Shang approached the Mage again, her black Focus suddenly began to shine in some kind of black light.
Shang knew a lot of Spells, but he knew basically nothing about Darkness Spells.
Shang readied himself to evade.
The Focus floated into the sky.
And then, several beams of black light gathered above it.
Shang’s surroundings turned dark all of a sudden.
‘That’s not an attack!’
Shang looked up and saw that some kind of black shield had gathered above them. It was about a hundred meters wide, and it blocked out all the light.
Darkness Mana quickly filled the area below the black shield as all the previous Light Mana switched to its other extreme.
This was the worst battlefield for her?
So what? She only had to transform it into the best battlefield!
However, this Spell was very draining on one’s Mana, which was why she had made her Focus cast it. Of course, in exchange, her Focus had needed quite some time to ready the Spell.
But now, it was active.
Darkness completely consumed Shang’s surroundings, making him essentially blind.
‘But I didn’t rely on my eye anyway,’ he thought.
Shang activated his Darkness Vision, and he very quickly found her.
She had suddenly left her earlier spot without a sound and appeared a couple of meters beside him.
It was like she had vanished from one point and appeared at another.
Without his Darkness Vision, it would have been basically impossible for Shang to find her.
BANG!
Shang unleashed a Fire Blast, directly charging at her.
At that moment, the woman narrowed her eyes.
How had her opponent found her?
Nevertheless, she already had her Spells prepared.
She very quickly spoke several words.
Over the last couple of seconds, she had prepared several Spells.
After all, she wouldn’t just do nothing while retreating from Shang.
Everything had been prepared.
Suddenly, in the air in front of Shang appeared a dark and gigantic maw. It was invisible to the naked eye, but Shang’s Darkness Vision could see it.
It was like a giant worm had opened its maw and was currently falling towards the ground, mouth first.
If Shang continued running, he would be consumed.
BANG!
Shang jumped.
The maw landed in front of Shang as he flew over it. Even though it looked like a worm’s maw, there was no actual worm here. It was only the maw.
But at that moment, some kind of wall appeared in front of Shang.
Shang hadn’t been ready for it, and it had appeared too close to him.
Shang hit the wall.
CRK!
In an instant, Shang felt like everything around him tried to crush him.
It was like he was a ball that had just landed in the palm of someone’s hand!
As soon as the ball touched the palm, the surrounding fingers would clamp down!
Blood exploded out of several places on Shang’s body.
BANG!
At that moment, Shang’s body suddenly exploded with light.
The Mage’s eyes widened in horror.
Light Affinity?!
The crushing force was dispelled around Shang, and he exploded towards the Mage.
But at that moment, another maw appeared in front of Shang.
He wouldn’t be able to evade this one.
Chapter 354 – Underestimated
BANG!
Shang exploded with Light Mana again, and the maw vanished.
However, Shang had used up more life energy than he had absorbed from the previous fights, and his body had withered a bit.
The Mage narrowed her eyes.
Her opponent was far stronger than she had anticipated.
Shang was already approaching her again, and at this moment, her Focus began to shine.
Three balls of darkness shot out of the Focus, right at Shang.
Shang’s right eye also narrowed, and he put his sword in front of him to block.
The Mage prepared another Spell.
The Ghosts of Darkness would push Shang away, even if he managed to block them perfectly.
The Ghosts of Darkness reached Shang’s sword.
WHOOOM!
But at that moment, the Ghosts of Darkness suddenly vanished, reduced to nothing but normal Darkness Mana.
Domain of Entropy!
Shang had used nearly 50% of his Mana to cancel the Spell, but it was worth it.
As soon as the concentrated Darkness Mana reached Sword, it got absorbed.
Sword began to darken and left behind shadows in the shadowy surroundings.
BANG!
Shang exploded forward with another Blast and reached his opponent.
The Mage hadn’t been ready for Shang to just shrug off her Spell like that.
BOOOM!
Sword hit the Mana Shield, its Darkness Mana destabilizing it, which required the Mana Shield to waste even more Mana.
Even though the Mage had a Darkness Affinity, Mana Shield was an Affinity-neutral Spell.
Darkness Mana was still devastating to it.
The Mage’s eyes opened in shock as she felt that over 60% of her Mana had just vanished.
How had she lost that much Mana?!
How could one strike of someone at her level be so powerful?!
She was thrown back by Shang’s force, but before she left the area filled with darkness, she suddenly vanished.
Shang’s Darkness Vision immediately told him where she was.
She was on the other side of the darkness-filled area, preparing her next Spells.
“Ishah!”
BANG!
A black strike stretched through the darkness-field surroundings.
CRACK!
The Mana Shield broke apart as the Mage was flung out.
BANG!
Shang exploded after her and appeared above her as she flew backward.
Her eyes were opened wide in terror and shock.
BANG!
Shang’s sword cut through her, killing her.
Shang quickly absorbed the remaining life force in her corpse. His Mana was refilled completely, but his life force wasn’t completely recovered.
After using his Mana to recover his body, Shang was fully healed but only at 80% of his Mana.
However, his Mana would recover before the next battle started.
At that moment, the cheering returned, and the Mage’s withered corpse vanished.
Shang only looked with narrowed eyes at the vanishing corpse.
‘This was harder than I had anticipated,’ he thought.
‘I thought fighting a powerful Initial True Mage would be hard, but not that hard.’
‘I wasted a lot of Mana, and I used quite a bit of my life force. Sure, I still had a bit of both remaining, but I used far more than I had anticipated.’
‘I didn’t use Sword’s power, and I could have still used my Domain of Entropy two times, but that was about it. There wasn’t much that I didn’t use.’
‘Sure enough, Mages are definitely the hegemons of this world.’
This Initial True Mage had been more difficult for Shang to beat than the lioness, which had been an average Mid Commander Stage beast.
This meant that this Mage could have probably killed the lioness, an average beast two levels above her.
At that moment, Shang realized the true power of the Mages.
‘A powerful Early True Mage can probably even fight the Ice King equally,’ he realized.
‘And a powerful Mid True Mage…’
‘The Ice King would be decimated.’
‘The Ice King was outstanding because it could fight average Mages on its level, but a powerful Mage on its level is still on another level.’
Shang thought about his earlier expectations.
‘I thought I would have to stop before fighting a powerful Mid True Mage, but as it stands right now, I might not even win against a powerful Early True Mage.’
‘I’ve underestimated the Mages.’
‘I can walk over warriors and destroy beasts, but the Mages are still dangerous.’
‘Sure enough, all my advantages only put me at the same base level as Mages. Everything else depends on me.’
Shang had gone through so many dangerous battles, and that was the only reason why he could win against a powerful Mage on his level without completely going all out.
But jumping levels against these rare geniuses that jumped levels themselves was something entirely different.
Shang took a deep breath as the wheel returned.
The wheel began to spin.
“Level four: Weak Early True Mage.”
Shang didn’t look at the wheel, and his opponent appeared a couple of seconds later.
It was a tall man with long, brown hair. He wore earthen brown robes, and his Focus was just as brown.
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
Shang exploded forward, and the Mage opened his eyes.
The Mage noticed Shang’s rapid approach and hastily cast Mana Shield.
BANG!
Shang’s sword hit the Mana Shield, throwing the Mage into the distance.
The Mage fell into a panic as he felt a huge chunk of his Mana vanishing.
He had never been in such a situation before, and he had no idea how he should recover.
He knew that his opponent would very quickly appear in front of him.
Would he be able to prepare a Spell until then?
What if he failed?
Should he cast Mana Step?
While the Mage was thinking of a plan, Shang already appeared above him and struck him with his sword again.
BOOOOM!
A crater appeared below the Mage as he and his Mana Shield hit the ground.
He was a level above Shang, which meant that two strikes were no longer enough to break the Mana Shield.
BANG! BANG!
Shang rapidly unleashed another two devastating strikes, and the Mana Shield finally broke.
At that moment, the Mage’s Focus finally prepared its Spell, but it was already too late.
BANG!
Shang killed the Mage with the next attack and absorbed his life energy.
Now, Shang was at his peak again, and he even had extra life energy stored away.
And then, the cheering returned.
This fight was nothing compared to the last one.
A second later, the wheel came down again.
“Level five: Average Early True Mage.”
Chapter 355 – Difference in Growth
Shang looked at the wheel. His next opponent wouldn’t be a big issue, but he also couldn’t take them as lightly anymore.
The wheel eventually stopped at the Lightning Affinity.
SHING!
Shang’s opponent appeared, and he looked over.
It was a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She had long silver-whitish hair, and there was a serious expression on her face.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The Mage opened her eyes and saw Shang quickly charge at her.
She immediately cast Mana Shield.
SHING!
And then, she used Mana Step.
Shang’s attack missed, but he quickly charged after her again.
When Shang was only ten meters away from her, her Focus lit up.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lightning gathered around her Focus, and it looked like it was ready to attack Shang with lightning.
However, no lightning actually shot toward Shang.
It simply continued exploding around the Focus.
At the same time, the Focus moved between the two, standing in Shang’s way now.
Then, the Mage finished her Spell and pointed at her Focus, which was between the two opponents.
A gigantic bolt of lightning shot from her hand towards her Focus.
BANG!
Shang quickly angled his body, jumped, and put his wide sword in front of him.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Focus released several beams of lightning, all shooting in random directions.
It was like a disco ball that shot lasers out of every surface!
The clouds in the sky were split apart, and destructive, burned lines were left on the ground all around Shang.
This was the perfect Spell against a very fast opponent.
The Focus shot the beams of lightning at random, which made it impossible for the opponent to predict.
SSSSSSS!
One of the beams cut through the place where Shang currently was.
Shang wasn’t entirely thin enough to fit behind his sword, which meant that two holes were left behind at the sides of his torso, which hadn’t been covered by Sword.
Even worse, Shang was thrown back by the force.
BANG!
But he immediately charged forward again.
Surprisingly, the Focus was still filled with lightning.
At that moment, Shang realized what his opponent’s plan was.
Shang reached the Focus before the Mage could ready another Spell.
The Mage wasn’t in a panic since she knew that Shang had to get past her Focus first.
Shang’s left arm touched the side of Sword, and it quickly withered into a nearly useless state.
And then, Shang attacked the Focus with his sword.
BANG!
The aggressive lightning on the Focus finally found a target. All the lightning around it immediately homed in on Shang’s sword.
Getting hit by that much lightning wasn’t much weaker than getting hit by an actual Lightning Bolt Spell.
This Spell could severely injure Shang.
The lightning entered Sword and rapidly moved towards Shang’s body.
But then, it vanished.
The Darkness Mana inside Sword nullified the lightning!
CRACK!
Sword hit the Focus with full force, and it exploded into many pieces.
When the Mage lost her connection to her Focus, her eyes widened in horror.
How?!
How did her opponent survive being hit by that much lightning?!
After that, the fight was basically over.
An Early True Mage without a Focus was no threat to Shang.
Maybe if the True Mage was a Late True Mage, but not an Early True Mage.
The Mage released several Mana Steps, but without her Focus, it became very difficult to create attacks that would threaten Shang.
After two strikes, her Mana Shield broke. Her constant usage of Mana Step had used up the remaining Mana.
BANG!
Shang killed her, and he absorbed her life energy.
The fight had been so long that Shang’s left arm had already recovered via his passive regeneration, but he still wanted to have more life energy for his next fight.
Right now, Shang was at his absolute peak. He was fully healed, his Mana was full, and he had more life energy than normal.
He couldn’t enter the next fight in a better state.
The cheering had already passed, and the wheel returned.
Shang looked at it as it began to spin.
“Level six: Powerful Early True Mage.”
‘This is it,’ Shang thought. ‘This fight will determine how many points I get.’
At that moment, Shang remembered his last trial.
Back then, Shang had barely won against an average Mage one level above him.
The same fight had been relatively easy for him this time.
He had definitely grown more powerful.
Yet, the Mages had also grown more powerful.
In the last trial, Shang had only gotten seven points against the beasts and warriors without using Entropy.
This time, Shang had gotten ten and fourteen points.
This was an insane difference.
But against Mages?
Shang could count himself lucky if he got six.
Right now, Shang was at the same place he had been the last time.
The powerful True Mage would be his next opponent.
The last time, Shang knew that he had absolutely zero chance at victory.
But this time, he had a shot.
Yet, the difference between how much the Mages had grown and the others was insane.
Shang had gotten several more points in the other categories, but he would be happy if he got a single point more than last time in the Mage category.
The Mages were truly powerful.
And Shang knew that this wouldn’t be where their escalation of power stopped.
They would grow more and more powerful in relation to other beings on their power.
Shang was growing at unimaginable speeds when compared to warriors and beasts, but when compared to Mages, he was growing only a little faster than them.
Shang closed his right eye and took a deep breath.
He knew that this fight would be brutal.
When he heard that the wheel had stopped spinning, he looked over.
When he saw the Affinity, Shang grew a bit more confident.
The Affinity of the powerful Early True Mage was…
Fire.
Chapter 356 – Fire
When Shang saw that his opponent had a Fire Affinity, he knew that he had a chance.
‘If they decide to heat up their surroundings, I can release far more Fire Blasts without injuring my body!’
SHING!
Shang’s opponent appeared, and he looked over.
It was a young man with short, fiery-red hair. He wore simple red robes, but for some reason, the robes didn’t feel as simple as they appeared.
However, when Shang looked beside the Mage, his eyes narrowed.
‘His Focus has two Amplifiers.’
Beside the Mage hovered a Focus with two circlets rotating around it.
Shang had never fought a Mage that had a Focus with two Amplifiers.
The Amplifiers decided the cast speed of a Focus. Higher leveled Spells needed more complex chants. Of course, as the Mages got more powerful, their mastery over their Mana and Affinity allowed them to cast faster as well.
However, a Focus was only a tool, and it couldn’t cast faster as the Mage progressed. In order to allow a Focus to cast faster, one needed to add Amplifiers.
An Early True Mage with such a Focus could essentially cast at double their speed.
‘Even though he has a Fire Affinity, I’m still not sure if I can win. His Focus took me a bit by surprise.’
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
Shang immediately exploded forward with a Fire Blast.
The Mage slowly opened his eyes and noticed Shang.
His eyebrows furrowed, but he immediately began casting.
As Shang approached, he noticed something.
‘He isn’t casting Mana Shield!’ he thought with furrowed brows. ‘Usually, I would think of my opponent to be stupid if they did that, but the God judged this Mage to be extremely powerful in his Realm.’
Shang quickly closed in on the Mage, but when Shang was only fifty meters away from him, the Mage’s Focus suddenly began to burn violently.
‘Focus Fusion!’ Shang thought.
Focus Fusion meant that a Mage and their Focus cast the same Spell. With that ability, they could cast very powerful Spells in a very short time.
Shang knew that the Spell the Mage had prepared had to be insanely powerful.
The Mage extended his hand towards his Focus and touched it.
After that, the fire from the Focus suddenly vanished.
Then, the Mage looked at Shang.
At that moment, Shang felt like time had frozen.
For an instant that felt like an eternity, the Mage only looked at Shang.
Yet, in that instant, Shang felt like he was about to die.
His instincts were screaming at him to run away.
And then, Shang saw the young man’s lips move with a familiar word.
Shang’s hair stood up, released a powerful Fire Blast to his front to stop himself, and lifted his sword to block.
“Ishah!”
This was the word the Mage had spoken.
And as soon as he had finished the word, he vanished.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Something impossibly powerful hit Shang’s sword, and the power threw him over a hundred meters away, breaking his arms.
CRK!
At the same time, some small cracks appeared on Sword’s body, and Shang could feel its pain.
Sadly, that wasn’t even everything.
Whatever had hit Shang had exploded with violent fire, and Sword hadn’t been wide enough to block Shang.
The sides of Shang’s body had turned to ash.
His organs were safe, but his arms and shoulders had effectively become useless.
Shang had no choice but to quickly heal his body with his life energy.
And with that, all the extra life energy Shang had stored up was gone.
But the biggest thing Shang was concerned about was Sword’s crack.
Shang could be resurrected in the trial, but he didn’t know if Sword could.
If it broke, Shang might lose his lifelong companion.
Shang managed to regain control over his body by using a Fire Blast and looked at the Mage.
The Mage stood at the place where Shang had just been. However, his entire body was encased in violent fire.
The ground around him for over ten meters had turned into nothing but a blackened crater as the Mage stood in the middle.
BANG!
Shang released another Ice Blast and shot towards the fiery figure.
There was no retreat in this trial!
The violent fire around the Mage seemed to grow as Shang approached, and when Shang came close to the Mage, he realized that the fiery figure had grown to a size of ten meters.
Another foreboding feeling entered Shang, and he felt like it was a terrible idea to come close to the Mage.
But what was he supposed to do?!
He had to get close to kill the Mage!
Shang gritted his teeth and continued running at the gigantic figure. At the same time, his left arm withered as he filled Sword with Darkness Mana.
The figure slowly crossed its arms.
It was like it was preparing itself to push the entire world away from itself.
By now, Shang’s instincts were screaming so loudly that he stopped.
BANG!
Shang released a Fire Blast to flee again.
Ignoring his instincts had been a bad idea!
‘I should have never ignored my instincts!’
For a second time, one moment seemingly stretched into eternity.
And then, the fiery figure explosively extended its arms.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Shang threw himself to the ground and activated his Domain of Entropy.
He saw an unimaginably hot wave of fire consume everything around him. Even the earth around Shang had vanished.
After what felt like an eternity, the fiery wave finally ended.
However, Shang was shocked to see that over 90% of his Mana reserves were gone!
Shang’s Domain of Entropy had never consumed so much Mana to block a single attack before!
Shang quickly stood up when he saw that the fire had ended, but when he saw his surroundings, cold shivers ran down his spine.
The crater the Mage had created was nearly 50 meters wide!
No wonder his Domain of Entropy consumed so much Mana.
And then, Shang saw the Mage, and his eye widened.
The Mage’s red robes were on fire!
Yet, the Mage seemingly didn’t care.
Instead, his previously neutral expression had transformed into a smirk.
“You’re still alive!” he shouted from a distance.
“Good!”
Then, the Mage opened his arms and pointed his palms upward beside him.
BANG!
The fire disappeared from his robe and appeared on his hands as two flames, burning violently like they were flames of a gigantic welding torch!
His smirk transformed into a maddened grin.
“Finally, a good fight!”
Chapter 357 – Different Mage
Shang only narrowed his right eye and shot towards the Mage.
He wasn’t someone that wanted to talk during a fight.
The less he knew about his opponents, the easier it was for him to kill them.
As Shang approached, the Mage only grinned widely and pointed one of the two flames at him.
BANG!
Shang shot to the side with a Fire Blast.
BOOOOM!
A beam of searing fire shot past Shang and exploded on the place where he had just been. The powerful explosion burned his skin in several places, but with another Fire Blast, Shang managed to protect himself from the worst of it.
At the same time, Shang noticed that the Mage’s robes were slowly starting to catch fire again.
‘The density of Fire Mana in the surroundings is rapidly shrinking. It seems like his robes can absorb the Fire Mana from their surroundings.’
‘Well, he isn’t the only one that can do that.’
In Shang’s hands, Sword was also burning violently.
When Shang had used his Domain of Entropy to turn the explosion into Fire Mana, Sword had absorbed as much Fire Mana as it could.
The Mage’s grin only widened when he saw Shang evade his attack.
The more powerful his opponent, the better the fight!
Shang quickly reached the Mage and prepared a slash, but the Mage only angled the other flame towards the ground.
BOOOM!
The ground below the Mage exploded, and Shang had to protect himself from the heat with another Fire Blast.
The Mage shot into the sky, his Focus following him.
BANG!
Shang quickly shot after the Mage and also flew into the sky.
A moment later, the Mage’s Focus began to burn again.
“This Spell is called Spark Shower!” the Mage said with a grin.
Shang didn’t know the Spell, but he could imagine what it did.
Sure enough, after pointing his hand at Shang, several pellets of fire shot at him.
It was almost like someone was shooting at Shang with a shotgun!
BANG!
Shang quickly changed his trajectory with another Fire Blast, his body leaving icy mist behind. He was already at his limit in regards to his body’s temperature.
It was rather ironic that Shang’s body was beginning to freeze while fighting a Fire Mage.
Shang managed to evade most of the pellets, but a couple of them would still hit him.
BANG! BANG!
Shang blocked two of the pellets with his sword, but he had to block the last of them with an Ice Blast.
On one hand, Shang didn’t get injured, but on the other hand, the angle at which he had released the Ice Blast threw him further away from the Mage.
Due to the recoil of the Spell, the Fire Mage rose higher into the sky as Shang approached the ground.
BANG! BANG!
Shang quickly released two Ice Blasts to shoot towards the Mage in the sky again, his body no longer on the verge of freezing.
But just a moment later, the Mage had prepared his own Spell.
“Searing Cross!” he shouted.
‘Why is he shouting the names of his attacks? Doesn’t he know that this makes it easier for me to evade them?’
Sure enough, just an instant later, a cross made of white fire shot towards Shang.
BANG!
Shang shot to the side, and the cross barely missed him. However, the surrounding temperature still increased Shang’s temperature by a lot.
BANG!
Shang shot towards the sky aga-
BANG!
Shang’s right eye widened when he saw an explosion of fire appear behind the Mage.
And an instant later, the Mage appeared right in front of Shang, a maddened smile on his face.
He had done the same thing as Shang!
Even more, instead of retreating, the Mage had come towards Shang!
He had never fought a Mage before that wanted to get close to him during a battle!
And then, Shang noticed the violently burning pillar of flames in one of his hands.
The pillar almost looked like a spear or a sword.
And just like a sword, the Mage slashed towards Shang.
As Shang saw the attack, he noticed all its secrets. His long training with Teacher Mervin wasn’t for nothing.
Shang knew exactly how the attack would move and what it would do.
Shang moved his sword towards the side where the attack came from.
And then, the fire hit Sword.
CRRRR!
The violent flame hit Sword like a concentrated beam of water hitting steel.
And then, Shang moved Sword along the slash.
He knew that this was not a real weapon, and he also knew that the attack wouldn’t follow the rules of a real weapon.
CRRRR!
Sure enough, as the slash continued, Sword stayed in the fire’s path. If this were a normal weapon, the weapon would have bounced off.
A Sword made of fire couldn’t just block something. It would continue unabated.
If Shang had simply blocked the attack, the fire sword would have burned his body into several pieces.
When the slash passed by Shang, he released another Fire Blast.
BANG!
Shang shot forward with his extended elbow.
From such a distance, the Mage wouldn’t be able to evade.
Even more, the Mage had never activated his Mana Shield!
Shang’s elbow hit the Mage’s chest, but his right eye narrowed when he saw Magic Circles appear on the robes.
‘His robes have the same defense as my armor!’
Usually, Mages didn’t buy these kinds of armors. After all, if someone actually managed to hit their body, it meant that their Mana Shield was broken, which meant that they were out of Mana, which meant that they were about to die anyway.
Normally, Mages bought robes with Magic Circles that expedited their Mana regeneration.
Yet, this Mage had bought exactly such a piece of armor!
The Mage and Shang were blasted apart by the force of Shang’s attack.
The Mage coughed a bit due to the force his body had just experienced. Even though he was a powerful True Mage, his body couldn’t be compared to Shang’s. If Shang’s attack had actually hit him, the Mage would have been blasted into several pieces.
“That’s what I get from fighting in close combat with a physi,” the Mage grumbled to himself.
At the same time, his arms extended again.
His robes were already burning violently again.
Chapter 358 – Universe
The Focus of the Mage started to burn fiercely again.
“Fireball!” the Mage shouted.
An instant later, a huge fireball shot out of the Focus, right towards Shang.
BANG!
Shang evaded to the side with a Fire Blast.
“Remote version!” the Mage added with a smirk.
BOOOOOOM!
Instead of continuing, the fireball exploded just as it passed Shang.
Shang’s legs became severely burned, and the skin on the rest of his body didn’t have it any better.
He hadn’t expected that the Mage could detonate his fireball from a distance!
Luckily, the bit of Mana Shang had regenerated over the fight allowed him to heal his body, but he was out of Mana yet again.
BANG!
Nevertheless, Shang continued shooting at his opponent again.
By now, he had gotten rather close. Only twenty meters were between them.
BANG!
The Mage also released his own version of a Fire Blast to escape, but Shang kept charging after him.
In comparison to Shang, the Mage had to use his own Mana every time he did that.
Several small embers were left behind as he retreated.
As Shang shot after him, the Mage turned around with a grin.
“Fire Mine!”
Then, he snapped his finger.
BOOOOOM!
One of the small embers exploded violently just as Shang passed it.
The right side of Shang’s body turned black, and his right arm essentially became useless.
Shang could only grit his teeth.
He didn’t have any Mana to heal himself anymore.
The Mage gained a couple of meters due to this attack.
“You know, it’s kind of unfair that you can control the temperature of your body!” the Mage shouted at Shang while retreating. “I would have used my Fire Domain otherwise!”
Shang’s brows furrowed. “You have a Domain?” he asked.
This had been the first time Shang had spoken during the fight.
BANG!
Shang moved to the side again as he barely evaded a concentrated beam of fire. Yet, his right arm was now completely burned off.
He knew that True Mages had a terrifying ability to regenerate Mana thanks to Mana Tranquility, but this Mage had been throwing a rapid avalanche of attacks with intense power at him.
Shang was certain that the Mage was using way more Mana than he was regenerating.
“Not your kind of Domain,” the Mage shouted back. “It’s a Spell I invented! It makes the surroundings very hot!”
“Anyway, it’s time to end this fight!” he shouted with a smirk.
Shang didn’t answer.
By now, three fireballs were floating around the Mage. He had been preparing them while he was retreating from Shang.
And then, the three fireballs shot at Shang.
BANG!
Shang shot upward, leaving only one fireball shooting directly at him.
Then, Shang swung his sword, and a wave of fire left it.
BOOOM!
The fireball in front of Shang exploded as Shang’s ranged attack hit it.
BANG!
Shang released another Fire Blast and charged right towards the explosion.
It was almost like he wanted to die!
BOOOOM! BOOOOM!
The other two fireballs exploded diagonally behind him, severely burning his body and blasting him even faster into the explosion.
Shang entered the explosion.
But a moment later, a bloodied figure came out of the explosion.
Shang had activated his Domain of Entropy again, and he had sacrificed his skin to survive the explosion.
Shang was now very close to the Mage.
His expression?
The Mage only looked with disgust at Shang.
“Ew,” he said.
BANG!
And then, a spear of fire shot out of his robe, right towards Shang!
Shang’s right eye narrowed, and he shot another wave of fire at the spear. Sword had absorbed a lot of Fire Mana just now.
BOOOOOM!
The two attacks hit and exploded.
Behind the explosion, the Mage only smirked and lifted his hand again.
There was another fireball in it.
But then, his eyes widened.
BANG!
A black beam shot out of the explosion and hit the Mage’s chest.
The Magic Circles on his chest activated again, but this time, they broke.
His robes would no longer protect him from now on!
The black beam had been Sword.
Shang had thrown it towards the Mage.
Normally, Shang wouldn’t throw his weapon at a Mage. After all, their Mana Shield would just block it by using up a negligible amount of Mana.
But this Mage didn’t have a Mana Shield.
The power of this throw was even stronger than when Shang had hit the Mage in the chest with his elbow.
The Mage was thrown back and flew towards the ground, not being able to control his trajectory.
BANG!
His body hit the ground.
CRACK!
Several of his bones broke, and blood leaked out of his body as he rolled across the ground.
Eventually, his body stopped, and he could see Shang approaching.
The severely burned, skinless figure looked scary and simultaneously disgusting in his eyes.
Sword returned to Shang, and he would soon reach the Mage.
“Hey, is the Soma Universe X7 out yet?” the Mage suddenly asked.
Shang’s world stopped.
What did he just say?!
Did he hear that right?!
But… how?!
‘A smartphone?! He knows about smartphones?!’ Shang thought in shock.
Yes, the Soma Universe was a smartphone.
Shang paused in his attack due to his shock.
And then, the Mage only smirked.
The fireball he had prepared earlier was gone.
An instant later, his chest became red and then black.
“You don’t get my points! Fuck you!” he shouted with a laugh.
Shang’s instincts were screaming at him.
However, there was nowhere to go.
And then…
BOOOOOOOOM!
The Mage’s body exploded with a violent explosion, and Shang was in the middle of it.
Shang activated his Domain of Entropy by sacrificing his bones.
This explosion seemingly took forever, and Shang’s body slowly collapsed onto itself.
When Shang ran out of bones, he had to sacrifice his flesh.
And eventually, the explosion passed.
…
The cheering returned.
However, Shang was injured too heavily, and he died just a minute later.
He got the points, but he wouldn’t get the points for the next two levels.
The trial was over.
Chapter 359 – Strange Mage
Shang slowly opened his right eye.
He had died in the trial, but sure enough, his left eye hadn't recovered.
He looked to his side and saw Sword lying just beside him. As always, it wanted to stay by Shang's side.
Instead of standing up, Shang only continued lying on the ground, looking at the plain sky of his inner world.
The entire fight went through his head.
'If I had a working set of armor, I would have won,' he thought as he remembered the robes of the Fire Mage.
The robes had blocked two fatal attacks. A luxury Shang didn't have.
'Instead of overusing my Domain of Entropy, I could have used my armor to take a fatal attack. With that, I would have been able to survive the last explosion and continue. The next opponent wouldn't have been a problem, even in my injured state. That would have given me an opportunity to regenerate.'
'Sure enough, equipment is also a part of power.'
And then, Shang's mind went to the last few words the Fire Mage had said.
The Fire Mage had managed to shock Shang by saying something that only someone from Earth could know.
However, the God specifically brought people to this world to stop the Mages from being too powerful, and that Fire Mage had definitely been someone that was fully focused on the path of Magic.
If the Fire Mage hadn't said something like that, Shang would have killed him before the explosion became too dangerous.
Shang furrowed his brows as he thought back to how the Mage behaved during the fight.
He was very different from all the opponents Shang had faced before.
He had even called out the names of his attacks.
Additionally, he liked to talk during a battle.
His behavior was unusual.
Shang looked to his right and saw the jester looking at Shang with a grin.
"Mind explaining what was up with that guy just now? I thought you didn't want the Mages to become even more powerful," Shang said.
The jester only snickered. "You're right," he said. "However, he is… unusual."
"In what way?" Shang asked.
"His thinking process is very impulsive, sometimes irrational, and even random at points," the jester explained. "I try not to read the minds of you guys, but I can't help to just subconsciously combine all the clues you guys show into a picture that perfectly represents the current you."
"However, when I really talked to him, I was surprised more than once. Instead of going with the flow, he immediately complained several times and told me that he wouldn't do what I wanted."
The jester snickered. "Of course, I showed him that he had no power, and he eventually complied."
The jester laughed some more as he remembered his interaction with the Mage.
"After he arrived in my world, he immediately searched for a way to get rid of his warrior's body."
The jester's grin widened. "And, surprisingly, he managed to gain the attention of a High Mage that also became interested in that idea. Together, they managed to find a way, and he managed to get rid of his warrior's body."
Shang was quite surprised when he heard that.
This guy managed to get his of his warrior's body?
"Don't get your hopes up," the jester said with a sneer. "I learn from my mistakes. You need, at least, a Mage King if you want to get rid of your warrior's body."
"Mage King?" Shang asked. "Like King Skythunder?"
The jester only smirked. "They are Kings, but they are not Mage Kings."
'King, huh?' Shang thought as he remembered something.
"So, like the Ice King?" he asked.
"Like the Ice King," the jester answered.
Shang only nodded. "And you let him just do what he wants?"
The jester snorted. "Of course, I wasn't really nice when I talked to him again, but wouldn't you know, he managed to convince me to let him live as a Mage."
"He knows that I want entertainment, and he offered something very interesting to me."
"He argued that there were numerous paths in the past, which is true. So, there also had to be a path that was closer to Magic, interesting to watch, and also different."
"Instead of going with the warrior's path, he wants to create a more interesting path for Magic. Instead of increasing the diversity of the entire world, he wants to make the Mages more diverse."
The jester leaned on his hammer. "He actually had a point, you know? That does sound interesting."
At that point, the jester's grin widened. "But in order to keep him to his promise, I made it impossible for him to use Mana Shield."
Shang's brows furrowed.
'That explains a lot.'
"Mana Shield is the very reason why the world is so boring. The Mages don't need to move a lot while fighting other Mages. They only stand there and bombard their opponent while their opponent does the same."
"As the Mana Regeneration becomes stronger and stronger, the fights become longer and longer."
"But without Mana Shield, they are forced to get more creative."
"So, to facilitate this creativity, I made it impossible for him to use Mana Shield."
"And he made quite some interesting innovations. Necessity is the mother of invention, you know? Why change something that works? But if it doesn't work, you have to change it."
Shang understood where the God was coming from.
That Fire Mage had fought very differently from all the other Mages. Most notably, his movements. Instead of only using Mana Step and standing in place, he charged toward Shang and even somewhat flew around in the sky.
Additionally, he was also using trickery, like the Fire Mines or the remote explosions.
At that moment, Shang realized something else.
'I didn't have a chance to use Sword's Entropy or Mana Step. There simply was no good opportunity.'
But then, Shang also remembered that the Fire Mage had said that he wanted to unleash his Domain of Fire but couldn't.
It seemed like both of them had fought an opponent that disabled one of their weapons.
Shang's control over temperature made the Domain of Fire unusable, but the Mage's ability to fight in the sky and his lack of Mana Shield made Shang's Mana Step and Sword's Entropy useless.
It was a strange fight.
"I got the points for that fight, right?" Shang asked.
"You did," the jester said with a grin. "30 points in total. That's a new record, you know?"
"I have two options for your reward."
"Want to hear them?"
Chapter 360 – Star Map
Shang only nodded.
The jester put his hammer away and lifted his two hands.
SHING!
Two books appeared in his hands.
First, he looked at his left hand.
"Something that significantly increases the base strength of about 90% of warriors," he said.
Then, he looked at his right hand.
"Something that makes creating your own Path far easier and faster," he said.
Shang hesitated for a bit.
"Am I among those 90%?" he asked.
"No, but your Teacher Mervin is," the jester said with a grin.
Shang took a deep breath.
He felt indebted to Teacher Mervin. After all, he had just spent five years training with Shang.
Shang really wanted to help Teacher Mervin.
However, the lesson Shang had learned came to his mind again, and he remembered why he had cried after Teacher Mervin left.
His future.
Right now, Shang had an opportunity to repay Teacher Mervin, but he also had the opportunity to help himself.
This choice really was cruel.
'I'm already indebted to Teacher Mervin. Am I supposed to throw this opportunity away?'
Shang really didn't feel great about that thought.
It took over two minutes for Shang to make his choice.
"I choose the True Path option."
The jester only grinned and handed the book over to Shang.
"Don't forget to bring this knowledge to the world. You are here to help all the warriors, not only yourself," the jester said.
And then, he vanished.
And Shang was alone again.
Clink!
Shang's finger touched Sword.
'Well, not completely alone.'
Shang stood up and opened the book the God had left behind.
It didn't take long for him to finish the entire book. Just like with the ranged attack, the concepts inside the book were not incredibly complex but far outside the norm and very unusual.
Shang would have never even thought of such a method to utilize his mind and Mana.
After Shang finished the book, he had already fully learned the concepts. Usually, it would have taken him months to apply this knowledge, but these books directly implanted the knowledge in his head.
Shang sat down and closed his eyes.
Then, he moved his Mana around and began to chant to himself as he gathered different concepts and memories.
Like he had done this thousands of times before, Shang suddenly saw an image in his mind.
There were two stars in a night sky.
One was below, and the other was above.
Between the two stars were white, differently shaped things that looked like shards of glass.
Some of them were round and thick. Others were thin and long.
In a way, it looked like a long, white line had been smashed into pieces.
However, even if one used all the shards, the white line would look very crooked and unpleasant. The line would be thicker in some places and would make curves in others.
But they would create a path.
Shang already knew what all of this symbolized.
'Every shard is something I have full control over. It represents my knowledge, my skill, and my mastery over this subject.'
Someone that would look at this image for the first time would have no idea what shard represented what, but the book had made Shang into a master regarding this technique.
Shang looked at the biggest shard.
It was a gigantic square, nearly as wide as 30% of the distance between the two stars.
'That's everything that Teacher Mervin has taught me in the last five years.'
'I think this represents the Path Teacher Mervin is trying to build.'
Shang imagined the square extending towards the other star.
It would be a powerful, strong, and wide Path.
Then, Shang looked at the smaller shards and focused on the ones related to the Dean.
In all this cluster of shards, Shang hadn't noticed that the things he had learned from the Dean also fit onto a path.
It was a sine wave.
It started at the bottom star, curved to the left, curved to the right, passed the middle, went further right, curved to the left, and ended up at the upper star.
It was a uniform Path.
His Path would be longer than Teacher Mervin's Path, but it wouldn't be nearly as wide.
In terms of area, Teacher Mervin's Path was probably thrice of the Dean's Path.
Shang imagined some other patterns.
A spinning Path.
A zigzagging Path.
A narrowing spear.
There were innumerable ways one line could look like.
Then, Shang looked back at the shards he was able to see.
He could create a Path with them, but the path would be incongruent, horrible, and unstable. It would be like someone was welding stuff together that didn't belong together.
Shang looked at the square that represented Teacher Mervin's teachings.
If all of his shards were thrown together, this shard alone would take up half of the combined area.
Teacher Mervin's lesson was invaluable for Shang.
The things Teacher Mervin had taught him didn't increase Shang's power by much while fighting Mages, but Teacher Mervin also couldn't teach these things to Shang.
He could only give Shang a big part of his knowledge regarding fighting warriors.
'Even after five years, I only barely understand 20% of the things Teacher Mervin knows.'
For the next two hours, Shang continued inspecting the different shards he owned and analyzed what part of his knowledge they represented.
Some people might believe that this was a bit underwhelming for a 30-point reward.
Yet, this couldn't be further from the truth.
This was a visual representation of the very thing all warriors wanted to achieve.
As long as they had a shape in mind that conformed to their unlocked shards, they could find out what they were missing.
For example, Shang knew that the mastery over his Affinity represented different shards that went in five different directions.
Some of them weren't even leading to the star Shang was aiming toward.
Right now, Shang's vision was essentially zoomed in on the place between these two stars, but if he zoomed out, he could see many different stars all around the lower star.
The lower star wasn't actually on the bottom but in the very center of a vast map of stars.
However, only one star interested Shang, which was why he was only focusing on it.
The other stars represented other weapons, other fighting styles, other Affinities, and some other things.
Just by watching this picture, Shang could learn so much about the things he knew and the things he didn't know.
Instead of blindly having to train and finding some inspirational spark, Shang could watch his progress and adapt his training.
Sure enough, if this technique was available to all the warriors, the number of True Path Stage warriors would increase very quickly.
After several hours, Shang finally deactivated the image, and his consciousness returned.
"Sure enough, the Star Map is worth the 30 points," he said to himself.
Shang took a deep breath and stood up.
Then, he took hold of Sword.
"Are you ready to return to the real world after five years?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter where I am," Sword answered. "As long as I am by your side."
Shang only smiled.
And then, he vanished from his inner world.