Ch. 461..470

Chapter 461

Shang had transformed Sword into its Colossal Sword State again, but due to the God's answer, he had decided to stop with the beast category.

Shang quickly transformed Sword into its Saber State for the Mage category. He didn't really mind all the ore he had wasted by doing that. He had more than enough ore.

The wheel began to spin, and just like last time, there were now Affinities on the wheel instead of pictures.

Shang didn't really care about what Affinities his first few opponents had, and he simply waited for his opponent.

The first Mage appeared, and Shang simply looked at them without any changes to his expression.

The bell rang, and the Mage opened their eyes.

They were immediately greeted by a Shooting Star.

BANG!

Surprisingly, even the weak High Mage managed to get their Mana Shield off before Shooting Star hit, surprising Shang by a little.

However, Shang just continued unleashing Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns one after the other, and before the Mage had even readied their first Spell, their Mana Shield already broke.

It took three attacks to break the Mana Shield.

The Mage couldn't even comprehend what had happened before the next attack blew them apart.

And that was level one.

Level two literally wasn't any different.

Level three, on the other hand, saw some slight changes.

The Mage managed to get Mana Shield plus Mana Step off very quickly, and their Focus was already condensing a Spell.

However, Shang only needed to angle his new attacks to the Mage's new spot.

The Mage used Mana Step once again, and Shang continued shooting at their new location.

Obviously, the Mage was trying to exhaust Shang's Mana. After all, such an insanely powerful offense had to cost a ridiculous amount of Mana, right?

With every Mana Step, the Mage managed to evade about five attacks.

In the Mage's mind, the cost of Mana Step had to be lower than what the opponent was using with these five attacks.

But eventually, Shang's attacks began to connect again as the Mage grew more worried with the increasing expenditure of Mana.

The Mage's Focus even managed to shoot two Spells at Shang, but with the distance between the two of them and Shang's speed, those weren't exactly hard for Shang to evade.

And then, the Mage died.

While the first two fights couldn't even be called fights, the third one at least gave the opponent an opportunity to somewhat resist Shang's assault.

That showed the sheer difference between an average Mage and a powerful one.

With level four, the fight returned to its previous state.

The Mage couldn't even get one Spell off except Mana Shield, and they died within ten attacks.

The difference in terms of Mana became apparent at this point.

Shang had needed three attacks to destroy the Mana Shield of an Initial High Mage, but he needed nine attacks for the Mana Shield of an Early High Mage.

Things would only become even more terrifying as the levels of Shang's opponents increased.

Luckily, a Mage's defense was fundamentally different from a beast's defense.

One could look at a beast's defense as a threshold one had to break.

If a beast theoretically had a defensive rating of 100 and one unleashed an attack with 100 power, the beast wouldn't receive any damage, no matter how many attacks of that power were unleashed.

If the attack had a power of 101, the beast would take damage with every attack.

This meant that a beast had a defense that needed a minimum amount of power to be pierced.

With Mages, that wasn't the case.

Everything that hit a Mage's Mana Shield would consume the Mage's Mana.

If the Mana Shield had a defensive rating of 100, and one attacked it with an attack with 1 power, the shield's defensive rating would drop to 99.

However, a Mage also regenerated Mana at a terrifying rate, which meant that the Mana Shield would also regain its power very quickly.

This difference in the kind of defense made the Saber and Long Sword States so terrifying against Mages.

They unleashed comparatively weak attacks but with insane attack speed.

Speaking more of hypothetical numbers, it would take an insane amount of concentration, preparation, and power for Shang to unleash an attack with 200 power, and that attack would probably also be very slow and a one-time thing. Shang definitely couldn't use such an attack in rapid succession.

However, it would be incredibly easy for Shang to simply unleash 20 attacks with 20 power, creating a collective offensive of 400 power.

It would take less time.

It would be faster.

It would deal more damage.

It would be easier.

With such an offensive, a Mage with 400 defense would crumble in only one wave, while a beast with only 30 defense wouldn't even receive a scratch.

This was the very difference in defense between Mages and beasts.

Level five wasn't very difficult for Shang. The Mage managed to release a Spell and perform Mana Step, but the fight only took something like three seconds.

As the corpse vanished, Shang furrowed his brows.

He knew that he would reach the ninth level, but the sixth level would still not be easy.

Shang was sure that he would win, but the next fight would require Shang to at least pay attention.

The wheel returned, and Shang looked over.

This time, his opponent's Affinity might be relevant to how the fight progressed.

The wheel began to spin, and Shang watched it. In comparison to the beast wheel, the pictures on the Affinity wheel were easy for Shang to discern.

And as Shang looked at it, he also realized that he could discern some of the smaller fields now that he hadn't been able to discern before.

There were a couple of rare, mixed Affinities that Shang didn't know about.

For example, there was a Blizzard Affinity and even a Twilight Affinity.

However, the most interesting things were the three new Pure Affinities.

Shang already knew about Space, but there was now also Time and Gravity.

'So, there are also Time and Gravity Affinities, huh?'

However, that wasn't even everything.

There was one spot on the wheel.

The spot was so insanely small that it looked like a slightly bigger black line, even with Shang's powerful Spirit Sense.

If Shang hadn't focused on the wheel that much, he would have missed it.

The collective size of the Space, Time, and Gravity Affinities was already so small that Shang needed to be at the True Path Stage to even see them.

The wheel was several meters wide, but the collective width of these three Affinities was probably in the range of single or double-digit micrometers.

And that slightly bigger black line?

Probably nanometers.

These Affinities were ridiculously rare.

It was so rare that it was impossible to visualize.

Getting one of the three rare Pure Affinities was probably one in several million.

But getting whatever was in that black line was probably one in several billion if not trillion.

At that point, the wheel stopped spinning, and Shang finally saw what kind of opponent he would be facing now.

The Affinity of his new opponent was…

Earth.

 

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Shang didn't remember the last time he had fought an enemy Mage with an Earth Affinity that wasn't a complete pushover.

'A powerful Early High Mage with an Earth Affinity, huh? I wonder how they fight.'

SHING!

Shang's opponent appeared.

It was a tall man with brown hair and a rough, long beard. He looked a bit like a barbarian.

Shang didn't enter his Colossal Sword State. For now, the Saber State should be enough, and the Colossal Sword State was not as great when it came to dealing with Earth Mages.

The reason was that Refraction and Reflection didn't work that well against Earth Mages.

Additionally, Shang didn't think that it was necessary to enter his Colossal Sword State yet. The Saber State should still be enough.

The jester slowly lifted his hammer and hit the bell.

DING!

Shang immediately unleashed his Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns at the Mage.

When the Mage noticed the assault, his eyes narrowed.

In an instant, he had already created his Mana Shield.

SHING!

He also used a Mana Step immediately to gain some distance from Shang.

When Shang saw that, he blasted forward with an Ice Blast while continuing his assault.

CRK!

At that moment, two huge claws shot out of the earth around the Mage, and they grabbed the Mana Shield.

Then, they moved the Mana Shield to the side, making Shang's attacks miss.

The claws could move through the earth, and they pulled the Mage with them.

Shang got reminded of the first talented Mage he had ever fought back in the first trial. That Mage had been a Lightning Mage, and he had surrounded his Mana Shield with lightning to achieve a similar effect.

Shang didn't know how much Mana it cost to move the Mana Shield around with the claws, but he assumed that it was probably cheaper than Mana Shield.

Additionally, moving the claws probably didn't count as using a Spell. The Mage could probably just move them as long as they existed.

The Mage wasn't moving particularly fast with the earth claws, but he was very good at moving them, just barely enough to avoid Shang's attacks.

'Interesting. An Earth Mage with a lot of mobility. That's usually the weakness of Earth Mages.'

Shang continued blasting toward the Earth Mage while he continued unleashing his barrage of attacks.

The Mage had to move from side to side to avoid the attacks, but he also had to move away from Shang.

The Mage wasn't stupid, and he knew that it would be a bad idea to let such a powerful warrior come close to him.

However, that made it more difficult to avoid Shang's attacks. Whenever the Mana Shield was moved to the side, its retreating speed from Shang slowed down, allowing him to catch up.

When there was only a kilometer left between them, the Mage used his first offensive Spell.

WHOOOOM!

A huge wave of earth suddenly appeared between the two, and it was moving right toward Shang.

When Shang saw the wave, a bit of surprise appeared inside his right eye.

'His wave is cutting off my Spirit Sense. I can't see anything behind the wave.'

Shang continued releasing his attacks, but this time, they hit the wave between him and his opponent.

After three attacks, a hole opened up inside the wave, and Shang's Spirit Sense could finally see what was behind it.

And he immediately blasted to the side.

SHING!

An earthen spear, cloaked in green Mana, shot past Shang at speeds that should be absolutely impossible for an Earth Affinity Mage to achieve at this level.

If Shang hadn't already expected that attack, he would have been hit.

The Mage narrowed his eyes when he saw that Shang had evaded his attack.

If Shang had been in the Mage's place, he would have done the same thing. Make the opponent expect one attack with a certain speed, but then release an even faster one behind the first one.

Shang knew that the Mage had been judged to be powerful, and Shang had immediately assumed that the Mage would choose the best course of action based on what he would do.

That was how Shang had known that this attack would come.

He hadn't known how the Mage would manage to release such a fast attack, but he assumed that the Mage had a way to achieve that.

But after seeing the attack, Shang realized what the Earth Mage had done.

'Sure enough, this is a genius.'

The green Mana around the earthen spear had been Wind Mana, and the way the Wind Mana behaved was very, very familiar to Shang.

This was the Concept of Wind Movement.

Jerald knew the same Concept.

'The Earth Mage's main Concept is probably some kind of connection to the ground. The wave is humongous, and moving the claws that quickly through the Earth also can't be easy. But as a powerful Early High Mage, he already comprehended a second Concept from a different Affinity and incorporated it into his Main Concept.'

'If I remember Jerald's words correctly, most Earth Mages go for the Concept of Base, a Concept that allows them to control the Earth around them with incredible skill as long as they have physical contact with it.'

'The claws around his Mana Shield keep him mobile, but they also keep the connection with the ground. By using the Earth Claws, he has essentially entered a continuously based state.'

Shang had analyzed everything in the blink of an eye, and he had already continued his assault.

The secondary plan of the Mage had also failed since Shang had already seen it coming.

If the opponent somehow managed to avoid the attack, they would have moved to a place where there was no hole inside the Earth Wall. At that point, the Earth Wall would hit them.

But Shang only evaded to the side and then evaded back again, the wave harmlessly passing by him.

Shang's speed increased as he released more Blasts, and the Mage had to use another Mana Step to gain distance.

Every usage of Mana Step was expensive and would exhaust the Mage's Mana by a lot.

When Shang saw that his opponent had used Mana Step, a fire appeared in his right eye.

BANG!

Instead of releasing another Shooting Star, Shang threw his Saber forward.

The speed of the Saber was far higher than the speed of Shooting Star, and Shang was betting on the fact that the Mage wouldn't be ready to use another Mana Step immediately after using the first one.

He would feel safe with the additional distance, and he would be planning his next offense.

The Mage's eyes widened as he saw the ridiculously fast black beam shooting at him.

BOOOOOM!

The black fire around Sword exploded as it hit the Mana Shield, and the Mage realized in terror that he had just lost 50% of his Mana!

How powerful was this attack?!

WHOOOOM!

In the next instant, the area around the Mage turned pitch black, and not even his Spirit Sense could properly make sense of his surroundings.

Then, he saw an eye in the darkness, and his hair stood up.

How?!

How had his opponent already arrived in front of him?!

There had been nearly two kilometers between them?!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

In just an instant, four black bolts of lightning hit the Mage's Mana Shield in different places.

The attacks had been so fast that the Mage hadn't even been able to react with Mana Step!

The Mage finally used Mana Step, but…

He had no more Mana!

He didn't have enough Mana to use Mana Step!

A black edge grew bigger in the Mage's vision.

Shang's body passed the Mage.

And the Mage fell into multiple pieces.

 

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As the Mage died and the cheering returned, Shang took a deep breath.

His body had become smaller by a bit.

His Long Sword State could be likened to a meteorite. It had incomprehensible offensive power, but every single action sapped Shang of his Mana and life energy.

If the offensive power in this State weren't enough, Shang would vanish.

The opponent wouldn't even need to kill him since his own powers would do that for them.

Shang recovered the lost life energy by absorbing the corpse. Luckily, the Mage's meager life energy was just enough to recover the bit of life energy Shang had used.

Shang summoned some more ore and returned Sword to its Saber State before the wheel appeared.

"Level seven: Weak Mid High Mage."

'This is the first time I've reached level seven against the Mages. On my first time, I used Entropy on level six, and during my second time, the fight on level six ended in a draw.'

This represented a major step in Shang's growth.

He could now defeat nearly every single Mage that was one level above him, except for the very select few that had created a similarly impressive path as Shang.

Finally, Shang had reached the power necessary to jump two levels against Mages.

Shang wasn't certain if he could win against a powerful Mid High Mage, but he was confident in fighting an average one.

The wheel stopped, but Shang didn't look at it.

The Affinity of his opponent wouldn't matter.

SHING!

Shang's opponent appeared, and the bell rang.

Shang immediately unleashed Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns, and his opponent summoned Mana Shield and retreated with Mana Step.

Then, Shang's opponent unleashed an illusory hand that swatted some of Shang's attacks to the side, but some of them still got through.

Every Mage had access to this kind of Spell, but only the prideful and arrogant ones actually used it. They believed that they were good enough to block all the Spells with this Spell, but that very often wasn't the case.

When the Mage realized that they couldn't block all of Shang's attacks, they stopped and looked at him with venom in their eyes.

SHING!

And they used a Mana Step to arrive directly in front of him!

At the same time, they used the same Spell again to attack Shang.

This Spell created some kind of forcefield that mimicked the shape of a gigantic, illusory hand.

The Mage probably wanted to slap Shang away for his disrespect of hitting them.

When Shang saw the Mage getting close to him, his expression didn't change.

BOOOOOM!

Star Shatter!

The Mage was thrown back with incredible force and lost nearly 20% of their Mana!

While they were still being thrown back by their opponent's attack, Shang had already arrived in front of them.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

An incomprehensibly fast barrage of attacks hit their Mana Shield, and their Mana dropped at astonishing speeds!

For a second, the Mage fell into a panic, and they didn't know how they should react to such an assault.

They had never fought a physical fighter before!

What were they supposed to do?!

Then, they decided to use Mana Step.

In an instant, they appeared a kilometer away from Shang.

WHOOOOM!

But Shang had also appeared there!

It was like the two of them hadn't moved!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! CRACK!

The Mage's Mana Shield cracked, and an instant later, the Mage was cut into pieces.

Shang took a deep breath and refilled his exhausted life energy with his Mana. Then, he absorbed the corpse and regained some of it.

This time, there wasn't enough to refill all his wasted resources, but the waiting time between levels would give Shang enough time to return to his peak.

As the wheel returned, a long black streak in Shang's inner world started to dissipate.

The black streak had led from Shang's original spot to his current one.

This was one of Shang's new techniques for his Long Sword State.

Shang had used Mana Step quite often in the past, and it had saved his life many times.

However, from this point on, Shang wouldn't use Mana Step anymore unless there was some kind of fringe case where it would actually be useful.

Just like Shang had found new ways to incorporate his Light Affinity into his fights, he had found new ways to use his Darkness Affinity.

This technique was created by supplementing Mana Step's significant Mana cost with life energy.

The effect of this technique was nearly identical to Mana Step, but instead of consuming 100% of the Mana inside his mind, Shang now only used 20% of the Mana in his mind and about 5% of his life energy.

Mana Step left no traces, but this technique left a black trail behind due to the life energy that had been turned into Darkness Mana.

Shang called this new technique Shock.

Shock's purpose was to get close to his opponents, and it could be used up to five times in a single fight.

Shock was the main reason why Shang's Long Sword State was so fast.

The barrage of attacks that had killed his last two opponents used a similar principle.

To create this never-ending assault of attacks, Shang was continuously consuming his life energy to increase the speed of his sword.

At the same time, Shang would load his sword with a significant amount of Darkness Mana with every attack, consuming his life energy even more.

This created a rapid explosion of powerful attacks in a tiny timeframe.

Shang called this technique Anger.

Shock and Anger were Shang's two main techniques inside his Long Sword State, but he had a couple more.

The Earth Mage had been buried in darkness nearing the end of their battle, clouding his sight and Spirit Sense.

The technique Shang used to accomplish that was similar to New Moon, the icy domain during his Great Sword State.

However, the domain was a lot smaller than New Moon, and it didn't grant Shang any additional offensive power.

It simply clouded his opponent's senses, making it more difficult to foresee what Shang would do next.

The Darkness Mage Shang had fought in the last trial had used something similar but on a much grander scale.

If Shang were to do that, he would need to kill himself to get enough life energy.

That was obviously not a very good idea.

However, he could keep a little domain of darkness around him without using much of his life energy.

Shang called this domain of darkness Isolation.

There were two more techniques for Shang's Long Sword State, but they hadn't been necessary yet.

As Shang was recovering, he looked at the wheel.

"Level eight: Average Mid High Mage."

 

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Shang watched the wheel while Sword recovered to its Saber State.

The wheel stopped, and the Affinity of his opponent was…

Metal.

SHING!

Shang's opponent appeared, and Shang looked over.

It was a woman with silver hair and sharp eyebrows. In a way, she looked a bit like Sarah.

The Mage also had this aura around her that pushed people away from her.

The jester slowly lifted his hammer and hit the bell.

DING!

As always, Shang started his assault of Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns.

The Mage activated Mana Shield and used Mana Step, as always.

Shang's attacks continued as he blasted toward his enemy.

At that moment, the Mage narrowed her eyes and moved her fingers to the side.

SHING! BANG!

A small needle made of metal left her hand and hit a Shooting Star, making it explode prematurely.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The same thing happened for all of Shang's other attacks.

'Seems like my basic assault won't get me very far against this opponent.'

Shang switched his offensive style and only unleashed Hidden Suns.

The Mage used another needle to stop Hidden Sun.

Whoosh!

Yet, the needle missed!

Hidden Sun had suddenly collapsed into a Shooting Star at a random spot.

This was the same thing Shang had used against that one spider on level nine in the beast category.

It was the bane of people that could block his attacks with precise strikes.

BANG!

The new Shooting Star hit her Mana Shield, and she lost about 4% of her Mana.

She tried to parry the next two attacks again, but they just collapsed at random places, making it impossible for her to foresee where she had to throw her needles.

After getting hit by three attacks, she decided to change her approach.

Instead of only shooting one needle at a time, she shot a bunch of needles at once.

That did the trick, but it also required her to use more Mana.

Although she was still recovering more Mana than she was using, she wasn't recovering much.

Then, her Focus lit up.

SHING!

Space in front of her seemed to warp as a nearly imperceivable cut traveled across reality toward Shang.

This was the same attack that one High Mage had used while Shang was assaulting one of the camps of the Grandmountain Kingdom.

BANG!

Shang used an Ice Blast to jump over the attack, but a second slice quickly shot at Shang's new location.

BANG!

Shang blasted toward the ground again, avoiding the second one.

A powerful High Mage would have probably timed that attack better, but a powerful High Mage also had the ability to foresee their opponent's attacks to a certain degree.

As an average Mage, Shang's opponent didn't have that ability. She had to act according to what Shang did, giving him more space to avoid her attacks.

Then, Shang started to alternate his attacks.

Sometimes, he was using normal Hidden Suns.

Sometimes, he was using normal Shooting Stars.

Sometimes, he was using collapsing Hidden Suns.

This increased Shang's attack rate while still being very difficult to foresee.

Instead of risking getting hit, Shang's opponent decided to use the Needle Array to block every Spell.

Now, she was using just as much Mana as she was recovering.

Shang had a pretty good grip on his opponent's fighting style by now.

'She can use these needles whenever she wants, and even though they don't take much Mana, getting hit by one will still be troublesome enough to force my armor to use its Magic Circles.'

If this Mage were on Shang's level, he could probably just walk through these needles. The most they would do would be to draw a bit of blood from Shang.

These needles used very little Mana, but for a Mid High Mage, very little Mana was still enough to threaten Shang.

'Seems like I have to enter my Long Sword State again.'

Shang came closer to the High Mage until only 800 meters were between them.

Then, just when Shang was about to unleash a normal Shooting Star, he threw his Saber instead.

The Mage's eyes widened, and she shot a Needle Array at Shang's Saber.

CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!

The needles harmlessly bounced off Sword, and it reached her Mana Shield.

BOOOOOM!

Star Shatter!

She lost a lot of her Mana, and she was thrown into the distance.

SHING!

But Shang was already in front of her!

Shock!

Then, the world around her turned black.

Isolation!

But in comparison to the last Mage Shang fought, this one knew what to do.

A Needle Array appeared in her hands.

But then, her eyes widened.

Four other Shangs had appeared around her, and all of them looked real!

They all lifted their swords with impressive speed.

At that moment, the Mage narrowed her eyes.

She would let the attack hit.

She knew that four of the five Shangs had to be illusions, and she knew that she would only get hit by one of them.

At that point, she would know who the real one was.

All five Shangs struck forward.

At that moment, she realized that they wouldn't strike her at the same time. There was a tiny gap between whenever a strike would hit.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The Mage took a deep breath in terror.

All five attacks had sapped her Mana!

And she still didn't know who the real one was!

This was another new technique for Shang's Long Sword State.

In the Commander Stage, Shang had created Shadow Image and Vanish, and this technique was a more refined fusion of these two.

Isolation already made it easy for Shang to use Vanish due to all the Darkness Mana around him, and creating a couple of Shadow Images was also easy inside Isolation.

When Shang used this technique, he would quickly move around in an invisible state and hit wherever one of the Shadow Images would hit their opponent.

This meant that Shang's opponent wasn't surrounded by four illusions but five!

This technique was designed to throw the enemy into a panic. They would be unsure what they should attack, and they were more likely to make mistakes due to the high pressure this technique put on their mind.

They would believe that they would be attacked by everyone around them.

Shang decided to call this technique Paranoia.

And Paranoia did its work.

The Mage fell into a panic, and she decided to attack all five Shang's with a Needle Array.

But the needles shot through all the Shangs without injuring them!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Another five attacks hit.

Then, the Mage's terror exploded.

A humongous amount of Metal Mana gathered around her, and an instant later, it exploded outward.

It seemed like the reality around her was cut apart by hundreds of cuts spreading out from her location.

She would destroy everything around her!

Sure enough, the darkness around her vanished, just like the five Shangs.

SHING!

And then, the darkness returned, just like the five Shangs.

When Shang had seen her prepare her attack, he had used Shock to retreat into the distance.

Then, he had used another Shock to come close again.

Shang's attacks were too fast to react for her in her current state.

BANG! BANG! CRACK! SHING! SHING!

And she was dead.

The third attack broke her Mana Shield, and the last two split her into pieces.

Shang's body had shriveled up by quite a bit, but he could probably recover before the next fight started.

He knew that the next opponent would not be easy.

 

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The corpse vanished, and the cheering returned as Shang took a deep breath.

Additionally, Shang summoned some ore to make Sword return to its Colossal Sword State. The next fight would be very difficult, and Shang had to be in his strongest form if he wanted to have a chance.

Shang looked at the wheel, which had just returned.

"Level nine: Powerful Mid High Mage."

The wheel began to spin, and Shang waited.

Eventually, it settled on one of the rarer Affinities.

It was Light.

'A powerful Light Mage?' Shang thought with furrowed brows.

Shang hadn't fought a Light Mage before. The Light Affinity was rare, and Mages that had it generally weren't the biggest fans of directly fighting against their opponents.

However, Shang was no longer fighting new or average Mages.

No, he was fighting a genius High Mage with a Light Affinity.

If Shang managed to make Light usable in a somewhat offensive manner, a High Mage could accomplish the same thing.

Shang also remembered the Archduke. The Archduke also had a Light Affinity. If she didn't have a lot of power, she wouldn't be the Archduke.

Shang knew how Light Mages could fight. After all, he had received many expensive Spell Compendiums from Jerald back then.

Not much was known about how Light High Mages fought since the Affinity was so rare, but Jerald had also told Shang about how the Archduke actually fought.

The Archduke's main Concept was Illumination. Based on the name, the Concept felt weak and unusable during a battle, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Shang's Brilliance and Distortion were related to the Illumination Concept.

SHING!

Shang's opponent appeared, and he looked over.

It was a young woman with white hair, a peaceful smile on her face.

Shang readied himself.

The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.

DING!

Shang immediately exploded forward in his Colossal Sword State.

He also activated Distortion, but he wasn't very confident if it would work against a Light Mage or not.

The woman opened her eyes, and she looked in Shang's direction with an interested gleam in her eyes.

She was surprised that there was actually a physical fighter in the world that could fight her. On top of that, the physical fighter actually used Light.

This definitely interested her, but she didn't lose her cool.

She had been in many strange battles, and she could very quickly adapt to a new situation.

In an instant, her first Spell was already finished, and it actually wasn't Mana Shield.

She smiled a bit at Shang before everything around Shang vanished into a domain of pure Light.

This was very similar to Isolation, but instead of Darkness, Shang's enemy was using Light to achieve a similar effect.

While Isolation used the principle of nothingness and solitude in Darkness to get rid of the world around a person, the Mage achieved the same result but with the polar opposite.

Instead of making the world around Shang feel empty, it felt too full.

It was like there was so much stuff around Shang that he couldn't see past any of it.

His right eye didn't help, and his Spirit Sense was obviously also completely useless.

Even more, Shang didn't know how this Spell worked exactly.

Did she cast a Spell on his mind? After all, it was possible that this domain of Light actually didn't exist in reality. Maybe it only existed in Shang's perception?

Did she cast everything in her surroundings in this domain of Light?

Did she only create a small area of Light around Shang and move it along with him?

Shang furrowed his brows and deactivated his Spirit Sense.

Then, he focused on something he hadn't used in a long time.

Mana Vision.

A Spirit Sense was strictly superior to Mana Vision, and Shang hadn't used Mana Vision in a very long time due to that.

Shang still couldn't see his opponent, but he saw something else.

He could finally tell how the Mage had used the Spell.

Even though Shang couldn't see out of the domain, he could tell how big it was due to the density of Light Mana around him.

Right now, the domain was about ten meters wide, and it surrounded Shang as he kept running forward.

Shang tried to absorb the Light Mana around him, but there was actually a will on it, making it impossible.

BANG!

Shang suddenly blasted to the side.

The domain perfectly followed him.

There wasn't even an instant of hesitation.

This told Shang something else.

'There is a will on the Mana, and it perfectly keeps following me. Controlling this domain to such a degree makes it impossible for it to have been passively cast on me.'

'If it were passively cast on me, it would either grow weaker as I move, or there wouldn't be a will on it.'

'That means she is actively channeling the ability, making it impossible for her to personally cast any other Spells.'

'Additionally, the Mana usage of such a Spell has to be high.'

BOOOOOOOOM!

Shang was thrown back, and the Magic Circles on his armor activated.

Just now, Shang had only seen one side of his surroundings suddenly turn dark, and the next moment, he had been hit by something massive, fast, and heavy.

If Shang's armor hadn't activated, he would have transformed into a blood splatter.

Even though the Mage herself couldn't cast any other Spells, the same thing wasn't true for her Focus.

While she kept the domain of Light alive, her Focus would create one offensive Spell after the other.

The Spells of a Mid High Mage were already insanely fast and quite hard for Shang to dodge. Without being able to see the Spell, dodging became completely impossible for Shang.

He couldn't even block this fast.

The Magic Circles on Shang's armor deactivated again, but the armor could still block one more attack.

Shang's spinning body quickly righted itself, but Shang had lost all sense of orientation already.

Shang knew that he had been hit by a humongous boulder.

If it had been a Fireball or a Lightning Bolt, Shang would know where he would need to run to find the Mage.

However, the humongous boulder had thrown Shang away and had made him spin wildly, making it completely impossible to judge from where the attack had actually come.

'Not surprised that she's a powerful Mid High Mage. The ability to isolate an enemy from a distance is terrifying.'

'I need to do something before she fires another boulder.'

Shang's right eye narrowed.

His hair stood up, and parts of his body began to vanish.

There was only one thing that could get rid of this Spell.

Domain of Entropy!

 

466 Chapter 466

As Shang activated his Domain of Entropy, the Light around him began to vanish.

At that moment, Shang managed to get a glimpse of the outside world, and he could finally see where his enemy was.

The Mage was about to fire another boulder, but she stopped as she realized that part of her Spell had been broken.

She furrowed her brows and intensified her chanting.

WHOOOM!

More Light Mana buried Shang, cutting him off from the outside world again.

Right now, Shang was using up the Mana inside his body to keep the Domain of Entropy going, but the added amount of Light Mana was consuming Shang's Mana like crazy.

BANG!

Shang exploded forward and lifted his Colossal Sword.

Then, he swung.

WHOOOOM!

A gigantic wave of black fire came out of the Colossal Sword, and it charged directly at Shang's opponent.

The young woman furrowed her brows.

She wouldn't be able to evade this attack while keeping her domain active.

Her Domain of Light had to be channeled by her, and if she wanted to use Mana Step, she would need to stop her channeling. A Focus couldn't channel Mana Step for a Mage.

In the end, she continued channeling.

BANG!

The gigantic black wave hit the Mage's Mana Shield, consuming a lot of her Mana.

However, she was a Mid High Mage, and this wasn't nearly enough to break her Mana Shield.

Then, she unleashed the boulder she had just prepared and threw it at Shang.

SHING!

A black streak appeared, and her Domain of Light moved nearly a kilometer to the side.

The boulder missed the target by a lot.

SHING!

With closed eyes, Shang immediately used Shock again to get to the Mage.

With the previous glimpse of the world, Shang had remembered where he was and where his opponent was. As long as his opponent didn't move, he knew exactly where she was.

Shang released Anger as soon as he arrived.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Five quick and powerful attacks hit the Mage's Mana Shield, and Shang's body atrophied by a bit.

When the Light Mage realized that Shang had arrived in front of her, she grew a bit panicked.

He had just destroyed a lot of her Mana!

A moment later, the dense Light around Shang vanished, and he could finally see the world again.

His opponent had just used Mana Step, and she was around a kilometer away.

SHING!

Shang used another Shock.

But his opponent used Mana Step again.

Shang's brows furrowed, and he blasted forward with his Ice and Fire Blasts.

He only had a limited number of Shocks available, and if his opponent kept using Mana Step, Shang would lose access to his movement skill.

A light appeared in the Mage's eyes.

Just as she had thought, her opponent was injuring themselves with these powerful techniques.

The Mage knew a bit about the Darkness Element, and she knew that some Darkness Mages could sacrifice their life energy to explode with terrifying power.

When she saw that Shang didn't use Shock anymore, she stopped using Mana Step.

An instant later, the Light Domain around Shang appeared again, cutting him off from the outside world.

However, he still knew where his opponent was.

BOOOOOOOM!

At that moment, Shang was hit by another gigantic boulder, and his armor activated again to block the attack.

Shang had thought that he had more time, but he had been mistaken.

Shang activated his Domain of Entropy again to gain a glimpse of the surroundings.

But as soon as he activated it, a terrifying torrent of Light Mana assaulted him.

Shang felt over 50% of his body's Mana drain in the blink of an eye.

'She's trying to exchange her Mana for mine since she knows that she has more Mana!'

Shang still couldn't see the surroundings, and his Mana was vanishing at rapid rates.

'Sure enough, I can't win against her without sacrificing everything.'

Shang took a covert, deep breath.

'I only hope that I can still beat the Weak Late High Mage after that.'

'I won't be recovered for my battle with the average Late High Mage.'

Shang clenched his fingers around Sword's hilt.

Sword knew what Shang had planned.

"I'm ready," it told Shang.

"I'm sorry," Shang transmitted.

Then, Shang used up all of his body's Mana and life energy in one explosion.

WHOOOOM!

Domain of Entropy enlarged and consumed the entire Domain of Light.

Time seemed to stop.

At that moment, the eyes of Shang and the Mage met.

At that moment, Shang's body and hair seemed to slowly vanish and turn into nothing.

For some reason, the Mage felt like she was looking into the face of death.

However, everything happened too quickly.

She couldn't properly react to the changing circumstances.

BANG!

Shang released Shock to get to his opponent, but this time, no Darkness Mana was left behind.

Shang kept his Domain of Entropy active, and it consumed the earth, air, and darkness around him as he arrived directly in front of his opponent.

Some slight black flames appeared around Shang's body, and even Sword burned with them.

And then, Shang struck forward.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Five very fast attacks were unleashed, and the Mage's eyes opened wide in absolute terror.

Her opponent had just consumed over 50% of her Mana!

In comparison, the earlier barrage of Anger had only consumed 15% of her Mana in total.

This attack was on a completely different level!

However, Shang had paid an equally heavy price to unleash that technique.

Sword had transformed from its iconic, long shape into the shape of a slightly bigger short sword.

Additionally, Shang's skin had vanished, and his muscles looked incredibly atrophied.

In her terror, she released another Mana Step.

Yet, she didn't move!

She had used her Mana Step, but her body didn't move!

At the same time, Shang's body atrophied even more. He now looked like an undead husk.

Shang had used his Domain of Entropy to destroy the Mana Step Spell in the atmosphere.

However, that had cost Shang a lot of his body.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! CRACK!

Shang quickly attacked five more times, and the fifth attack destroyed his opponent's Mana Shield.

Yet, Shang had lost his legs and looked like a person drawing their last breath.

Additionally, Sword's shape had changed into nothing more than a dagger.

Time seemingly stood still again.

Shang didn't move.

He couldn't move.

He was so weak that he couldn't even extend his arms to kill his opponent.

If he forced it, his arm would fall off before he could even reach her.

He was slowly turning to dust.

At that moment, the dagger in Shang's hands left his grasp.

And it flew directly at the Mage!

SHING!

The dagger pierced through her skull.

She died with a shocked and terrified expression on her face.

The dagger quickly left her head again, flew behind her, and pushed her toward Shang.

Shang collided with the corpse, and some of his bones broke.

However, he now had physical contact with the corpse, and he could absorb its life energy.

Luckily, this Mage had a Mid Commander Stage body, which meant that it could, at least, refill Shang's life energy by about 20%.

That was more than enough to survive.

Shang had won.

This had been Shang's last resort.

His last technique.

If everything else failed, Shang would use this technique.

Shang would use his Domain of Entropy to cancel out any kind of Spell.

At the same time, he would consume his body, life energy, and Mana to increase the power of his attacks.

Sword would do the same thing, sacrificing small pieces of itself to strengthen the attack.

As long as Sword was still the size of a dagger or bigger, it could recover.

Of course, being reduced to such a degree was also incredibly painful and terrifying to Sword, which was why Shang had apologized earlier.

This technique represented the last exchange.

After this technique, one or both combatants would be dead.

There was no other outcome.

This technique was on the border between Darkness and Entropy.

Shang called it Silence.

467 Chapter 467

Shang slowly absorbed all the life energy out of the corpse.

His flesh recovered, but there wasn't enough for his skin.

When the corpse turned into a husk, it started to vanish, and the cheering returned.

Shang slowly sat back up and closed his right eye.

He summoned some ore and stabbed the little dagger into it.

This time, Sword was absorbing the ore much slower than previously.

Just like Shang, it was in an incredibly weakened state.

Meanwhile, Shang focused on the Mana in the surroundings and did his best to absorb it as quickly as possible.

Some skin already appeared again as the wheel returned.

"Level ten: Weak Late High Mage."

The wheel began to spin, but Shang only kept focusing on the surroundings.

If he wanted to beat the next level, he had to recover as much as possible.

Just before the wheel stopped, Shang had recovered his skin, but he was still missing a lot of life energy and Mana.

He had managed to heal his body, but he would need to rely on his passive regeneration for the next minute or so.

SHING!

Shang's opponent appeared, and Shang opened his right eye.

It was an older man with fiery red hair.

Shang slowly stood up and waited.

The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.

DING!

Shang pulled out Sword from the heap of ore.

By now, it had recovered to its Saber State. That was sadly everything it managed to recover in this short amount of time.

However, that was already enough.

The Mage opened his eyes and cast his Mana Shield.

Shang readied his Saber and started his barrage of range attacks.

DING! DING! DING!

The Mage summoned an illusory hand and threw all of Shang's ranged attacks to the side.

There were three levels between them, and Shang's attacks were simply too slow.

However, Shang only continued unleashing his attacks. He even made use of the transforming Hidden Suns.

But the Mage just kept parrying all of them.

Shang only continued.

Five seconds passed.

Five seconds was a lot of time in a fight of such a level. Most of Shang's fights ended within five seconds, after all.

The Mage only continued parrying the attacks with a smirk.

Another five seconds passed.

"How long can you keep this up?" the Mage suddenly asked with a smug voice.

Shang didn't answer.

Five more seconds passed.

"Quite impressive, actually," the Mage said. "Seems like you have a lot of Mana for a physi."

After five more seconds, the Mage's eyebrows furrowed.

That physi should have long since run out of Mana.

How could he still keep up this offense?

One had to know that using this illusory hand to such a fine degree cost the Mage a lot of Mana.

In fact, he had already used up nearly 30% of his total Mana.

His plan had been to simply outlast the physi.

But he grew less and less confident in his plan as time dragged on.

BANG!

Suddenly, Shang charged forward, slowing his offense.

When the Mage saw that, his smirk returned. "Finally out of Mana, huh?"

The Mage only looked at Shang with a smirk. His Focus had already prepared his offensive Spell.

He could kill this physi whenever he wanted, but he wanted to see what else the physi would do.

The Mage enjoyed toying with his opponents.

As soon as Shang reached about a distance of 100 meters from the Mage, he changed his attacks.

Suddenly, one fire pillar after the other appeared below the Mage as Shang switched to Inferno.

The Mage only laughed. "Is that your plan now? You're low on Mana, and you want to use this technique to force me to use Mana Step so that I waste my Mana, too, huh? Well, too bad for you. I know what you're planning, and I'm not moving from this spot. Let's see your dying gasp."

Shang kept unleashing Infernos as the Mage just kept standing on the spot, surrounded by fire.

After the fifth Inferno, the Mage was still confident.

After the tenth, he grew suspicious.

And after the fifteenth Inferno, he grew worried.

SHING!

He used Mana Step and retreated.

When Shang saw that, a gleam appeared in his eyes.

His Saber burst into black flames, and Shang threw it forward.

Out of reflex, the Mage used his invisible hand to slap the Saber to the side, but the invisible hand was destroyed!

And Star Shatter hit the Mage's Shield.

BANG!

Nearly 20% of the Mage's Mana vanished with that attack!

But then, Shang appeared right in front of the Mage, his right eye shining in the newly created darkness.

The Mage immediately used the Fireball that the Focus had prepared.

SHING!

Shang used Shock to evade to the side.

SHING!

Then, he used Shock to return to the Mage.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! CRACK!

Anger!

The fifth attack already broke the Mana Shield since the Mage had taken so much damage already.

The Mage's face transformed into a grimace of fear as Sword stabbed through his head.

The fight was over.

Shang pulled Sword out and absorbed the meager life energy and Mana from the Mage's corpse.

He was at around 50% of his max now.

The corpse slowly vanished, and the cheering returned.

The wheel returned, but it didn't immediately start spinning.

"So, wanna try level eleven?" the jester asked.

Shang took a deep breath.

SHING!

Then, he summoned some spare clothes and put them on.

Wait, what about his armor?

Obviously, he had sacrificed it to Entropy. Otherwise, he would have died in the last fight.

He had been fighting the last battle naked.

"No," Shang answered. "With my armor, I would have a shot, but I don't anymore."

The jester only smirked. "You know, you should get used to that."

Shang glanced at the jester.

"You know, you've already reached levels where every set of armor has to be custom-made by your friend. There are no major advancements in terms of these kinds of armor. There are plenty of Mage robes, but the kind of armor you need doesn't really exist."

"Who will forge your armor in the future? Who knows how to forge it? Who will develop the specific Magic Circles you need?"

Shang's brows furrowed as the jester only grinned.

"You should get used to fighting in normal clothes again."

Shang only wordlessly nodded without looking at the jester.

He knew that the God was right.

The jester jumped off the wheel, and the wheel vanished.

"And that concludes the trial," he said.

"Time for the rewards."

 

468 Chapter 468

Shang released a long sigh.

Going through the trial was always filled with stress. Even though his life wasn't technically on the line here, the continuous fights against stronger and stronger opponents sapped his strength by a lot.

"You got thirteen points in the beast category and ten points in the Mage category," the jester said. "That's a total of 23 points without a warrior category."

"It was definitely the right decision to promote you."

Shang didn't answer.

He knew that his power had grown tremendously, but that didn't just occur naturally.

Shang was 85 years old, and he had spent over 50 years in complete isolation.

About 70% of his life had been nothing but training day in and day out in isolation.

Was it easy to do something like that?

Of course not!

Shang also wanted to take breaks.

He also wanted to do something else.

However, he couldn't allow himself to relax.

His goal was too important to him, and any moment that wasn't spent on getting him to his goal was a waste of time.

"What are the rewards?" Shang asked.

The jester smirked.

SHING!

Three small things appeared above his right hand, and Shang looked at them.

One was a small set of armor.

One was a small book.

One was a big question mark.

"I have three things to choose from. You may only take one," the jester said.

At that moment, the little armor floated forward and grew to its normal size.

It looked just like Shang's previous armor.

"The first option: An armor just like your weapon."

Shang took a deep breath as he heard that.

An armor just like Sword?

"So, it regenerates, adapts to my needs, and it grows stronger by giving it ore?" Shang asked.

The jester nodded. "Exactly."

"With this armor, you will never have issues with your armor again, just like with your weapon."

Shang closed his right eye in thought.

That reward was more than useful.

In fact, it was terrifyingly useful.

The God had already confirmed that getting better armor was basically impossible in this world, and Shang couldn't possibly focus on also creating armor.

Something like that required decades of research, and Shang couldn't spare any time for that.

But with this set of armor, he would never have to worry about such things again.

Without the armor, any attack that hit Shang would severely injure or kill him.

With the armor, he would get at least two additional lives per battle. Maybe even more!

This armor would also allow Shang to get further in future trials, assuming he managed to advance to the Fifth Realm eventually.

Shang was definitely tempted.

"What's the next reward?" Shang asked.

However, he wanted to listen to all the rewards first.

The first reward was already far more than Shang had expected, and he wanted to know if the other two rewards were just as outstanding.

The armor shrunk and returned to the jester's hand as the book grew and floated forward.

"An Element-Neutral technique that's adaptable to every kind of weapon and Element," the jester said. "You can use it as a baseline for all your future techniques. You don't need to study Magic anymore, and its power is greater in nearly all aspects than your current techniques."

Shang had to take another deep breath again.

He knew how terrifying something like that was.

An adaptive technique was essentially only a blueprint. It had certain principles inside it that could be filled with all kinds of weapons or Elements.

This could completely transform Shang's fighting style again and elevate it to new heights.

Even more, the technique might even give Shang the inspiration he needed to theorize a way to reach the Fifth Realm.

It would save him decades of time in his training!

Reaching the fifth Stage was a monumental task. Shang had to create a path forward without knowing where he had to go.

It was very possible that Shang wouldn't even reach the Fifth Realm in his life, and he knew that.

Maybe, in the future, he would find a way, but he had already taken several incorrect steps before that moment, forever making it impossible to reach it.

Even more, the technique might even be useful in the Fifth Realm!

While the first reward would increase Shang's chance of survival several-fold in the future, the second reward would increase Shang's chances of actually realizing that future several-fold.

However, the armor was useful forever, while the technique might lose its effects later on.

But the technique might have given Shang enough inspiration to create something even better, which he wouldn't have been able to create without it.

Both rewards were terrifyingly useful for Shang's journey.

Shang didn't want to give up either of them since both were so incredibly useful.

"And the third?" Shang asked.

The book returned to the jester's hand, and the question mark moved forward.

"I'm not telling you what it is," the jester said.

"Then how am I able to make a decision?" Shang asked. "Why are you even offering it? You know me. I would much rather take something that will certainly benefit me than take a risk."

The jester only grinned. "I'm offering it because of fate."

Shang raised an eyebrow. "Fate?"

The jester looked at the question mark. "Long ago, someone created this thing. Then, they sacrificed a lot of Mana to influence fate."

"They used everything so that, one day, this thing would find its way to its rightful owner."

"They were certain that they have succeeded and that this thing would eventually find its rightful owner."

Shang glanced at the jester. "Does fate even exist?"

The jester chuckled. "In a way, it does," he said as he looked at Shang. "Fate is my will."

"So, did they influence your will?" Shang asked.

"Of course not," the jester said with a laugh. "There is no one that can influence my will. This thing is in my hands, and I may do with it what I want."

Shang remained silent for a while. "Am I the rightful owner?"

"Maybe," the jester said with a grin.

"Did that person know me?" Shang asked.

"No."

"Would it be useful for me?"

"Of course," the jester said. "I may enjoy joking around, but I still believe in fair rewards. It will definitely be useful to you."

"However, the question is, is it more useful than the other two rewards?"

​ The question mark floated back to the jester's hand.

"I'm only offering it because I like to tempt fate, which is essentially my will."

"Was fate on that person's side?"

"Was fate not on their side?"

"I want to find that out right now."

As Shang heard that, his right eye focused on the jester.

"Was that on purpose?" Shang asked.

The jester knew what Shang was thinking, and he grinned widely.

"How very interesting," he said. "I do what I want, but what I want is exactly what that person thought and hoped would happen."

"Was it truly a coincidence that I said these things?"

"It is what I wanted to say."

"Did they foresee what would happen, or was this just luck?"

"Can sheer belief change things that far in the future?"

The jester rubbed his chin as he smirked.

"How very interesting," he repeated again.

The armor and the technique vanished as the question mark floated over to Shang.

Yes, Shang had decided to take the question mark because of the God's words.

The jester had mused about if fate was on the person's side or not after Shang asked if he was the right person for this reward.

The fact that this was even a question showed that Shang was indeed the right person for this thing.

And Shang already had a good guess what this was about.

He assumed it had something to do with his Affinity.

This was basically the only thing that could distinguish him over such vast stretches of time from everyone else in the world.

Shang might be able to find a way to create useful armor for himself in the future.

Shang might be able to create techniques even more powerful than the second reward.

However, the third reward might be something that was unachievable by Shang.

Shang's goal was the very end, and to get to the very end, he needed everything.

If he could get the first two on his own, and he needed the last thing to realize his goal, the choice became obvious to Shang.

Even though he didn't know what the reward was, he knew that he had to take it.

"Fate. How very interesting," the jester said one last time before he vanished from Shang's inner world.

A second later, the question mark vanished, and something else appeared in its place.

A book and a letter.

Shang looked at the book.

He couldn't distinguish anything from the cover.

Then, Shang looked at the letter and read it.

And the more he read, the more his heart and mind shook.

 

469 Chapter 469

Shang took a deep breath after he finished the letter.

The contents of this letter were beyond shocking.

Then, Shang read the letter again to make sure that he hadn't missed anything crucial.

"If you are reading this, it means I am dead."

That was how the letter started.

"My name is Lucius Volstad, and I am the Mage God, formerly known as the Mage Emperor."

Shang remembered the corpse the God had kicked around the room.

This was a letter from this person.

This was a letter from a person that was on the same level as the God of this world.

"If you can read this, it means that you are the successor to my legacy."

"Just like you, I have been cursed with this Affinity that binds me to the Abominations. I have control over Fire, Ice, Light, and Darkness."

"You and I are known as the Children of Calamity in this world. The more powerful we become, the more powerful the Abominations become."

"Our rise to power is their rise to power."

"If we are weak, only Abominations up to the Third Realm appear, but if we are powerful, even Abominations of the Ninth Realm can appear."

"If a Child of Calamity in the Ninth Realm doesn't help the people of this world, an Abomination Emperor will destroy the world."

"As you probably already know, the Abominations are also our source of power, and we need them just as much as they need us."

"In the eyes of the world, we are the enemy. We are the very thing that threatens the existence of the very world we live in."

"The solution the world has come to is to keep the Children of Calamity as weak as possible for their entire lives. If a Child of Calamity is found, they will be given a home, plenty of wealth, freedom, longevity, and status."

"However, they are not allowed to become more powerful. For if they become more powerful, the world suffers."

"If a Child of Calamity dies, a new one will be born after a few seconds. The Children of Calamity can't be eradicated, or the world would have already done so."

"The only solution the world can come up with is to simply keep them alive and weak."

"However, that is not the solution I have in mind."

"The solution of the world will only delay the inevitable, while I want to stop the inevitable altogether."

"I believe that, if one of us were to reach Godhood, we would find a solution to the problem."

"There has to be a solution to this problem!"

"I refuse to watch the world I love crumble around me!"

"Sadly, since you are reading this letter now, it means that I have failed and that I am most likely dead."

"Since I am dead now, I am asking you to realize my dream."

"I want you to reach Godhood and achieve what I couldn't."

"I ask you to get rid of the debilitating disease this world is suffering from, the Abominations."

"I know it is a lot to ask, but I hope you love this world just as much as I do."

"And if you don't, that is also understandable. Being cursed with this Affinity forces us to sacrifice millions of innocent lives just to realize our own power."

"You might feel that your very existence makes you the enemy to the world."

Shang felt a little sting when he read that passage again.

"But that is not the case! I have a large group of close friends, and we have all worked and became powerful together. They would risk their lives for me, and I would risk my life for them."

"Sadly, they do not know of my secret. To them, I am only a very talented Mage."

"Again, I implore you to save the world! Please, become powerful and stop this rotting disease!"

Shang could tell that Lucius, the Mage Emperor, was basically pleading at this point.

Such a proud and powerful person was begging a True Path Stage warrior to do something they couldn't.

Shang could tell that Lucius loved the world a lot if he was even willing to beg an unfamiliar person.

Someone of such level had to have a lot of pride in their body, but he was willing to throw it away.

"I don't know if you will accept my wish or not, but I will assume you have accepted."

"I will now tell you how to achieve Godhood."

Shang took another deep breath.

When he read that sentence for the first time, his entire body shuddered.

"The world believes that achieving Godhood is impossible. They believe that it is simply impossible for a normal human to reach the legendary and elusive Tenth Realm."

"But the people at the very top, the Kings and Emperors, know the truth."

"There is a way to achieve Godhood, but it requires two things."

"The first thing is a perfect foundation and Path. Your foundation and Path have to be so powerful that not even a single person in the entire world can win against you in a one-on-one duel as long as they are on your level, and this trend has to continue for your entire journey."

"You can't allow yourself to fall from the peak even once. The very thing that will break your Path will leave an eternal stain on it unless you scrap the entire thing and begin anew."

"As of the time I am writing this letter, I am the only one alive with such a powerful Path."

"But there have been people before me with an equal Path, and I am certain that there will also be people after me with such a powerful Path."

"Yet, even though there have been people with such powerful Paths, not even one of them managed to achieve Godhood, and that's because of the second requirement."

"Fulfilling the second requirement is less a test of power, but a test of willpower."

"And it is the very thing that forced me to commit this atrocious war and genocide of the other Paths."

"Please know that I never wanted to kill all the other Paths. I never wanted that."

"But I had to."

"The reason will become clear very soon."

"The second requirement is Mana."

"As of the moment of writing this letter, the world barely has enough Mana to support a single person achieving Godhood, and over 90% of that Mana is stored in the form of living things."

"To achieve Godhood, you have to kill nearly every other Ninth Realm person and beast in the world."

"Only with this will you have enough Mana to achieve Godhood."

Shang took a deep breath.

It made a lot more sense now why the Mage Emperor had destroyed all the other Paths.

He didn't do it because he wanted to but because he had to.

90% of all people at the Ninth Realm.

Shang didn't know how many there were, but he guessed that there were maybe ten.

That would leave only one person in the Ninth Realm alive besides Lucius.

And that had probably been the only other Mage at the Ninth Realm.

And all the Ninth Realm experts from the other Paths?

Lucius had killed them.

 

470 Chapter 470

Shang had already suspected that the God hadn't told Shang the entire truth at the beginning, and this confirmed it.

Shang continued reading.

"Several of my friends have probably reached the Mage Emperor Realm after my death. Since I am dead, it means that the Mana stored in my body has been freed up and returned to the world."

"It pains me to write this, but for the good of the world, they must be sacrificed when the time is right."

"The world can only support one God and one Emperor at any given moment."

"And that might not even be true for you, Successor. I don't know how much time has passed before you got hold of this letter, but the Abominations keep reducing the Mana in the entire world."

"It might be possible that the world can't even support that single additional Emperor anymore."

"You might need to kill everyone."

"It might even be impossible to gather enough Mana to reach Godhood, even if you kill everyone."

"I don't know, and that thought scares me."

"It would mean that the Abominations have won."

"I can just hope that it isn't too late yet."

"For the good of the world, we have to become sinners."

"I don't know what will kill me in the future, but it must be something of incredible power."

"I can only hope that you will find a way to overcome this hurdle and free the world of this disease."

Shang knew that hurdle very well.

The God.

By now, Shang could guess what happened back then.

Lucius became a God and tried to find a solution to the Abomination problem.

Then, the God and Lucius fought for some reason.

Maybe Lucius wanted to free up more Mana for the world by killing the God?

But he lost against him and died.

Shang could empathize with Lucius. Lucius wasn't a bad person. He was simply someone that had to commit horrible actions for the good of the world.

"I can only hope that you can do what I couldn't."

"To help you on fulfilling our wish, I have added a Spell to this letter. I have felt the hands of fate, and I am certain that the Spell will come into your hands at the same time as the letter."

Shang looked over at the book.

Sure enough, Lucius was right.

The Spell was here.

"I don't know which Path you tread, which is why I designed this Spell to be usable by every Path."

"This Spell was the very Spell that allowed me to become powerful and build friendships."

"I call it Humanity."

"I designed the base version of this Spell when I became a High Mage, but I have refined it over the next couple of millennia to its current state."

"Humanity allows you to choose up to two Elements, and when you use it, while the Spell is active, no one in the entire world can see your true Affinity."

"Not even Emperors."

"As long as the Spell is active, beasts, humans, and everything else will perceive you to be a normal human with your chosen Affinity."

"Beasts will no longer be overly aggressive towards you, and humans won't feel this feeling of alienation coming from you."

"With this Spell, your status as the Child of Calamity will remain hidden."

"However, take care, Successor. Just because people can't see your true Affinity doesn't mean that they can't know that you are the Child of Calamity."

"If Abominations keep randomly appearing around you, other people might suspect you, and they might end your life just to be cautious."

"You can't allow anyone to connect you to the Abominations."

"After telling you all of these things, I can only hope that you share my ideals."

"I can only hope that you wish for the world to survive and not see it destroyed."

"I wish for this letter never to appear in the world since it means that I have failed in my duty, but if it does, remember the following words."

"The world is not cold."

"The world is not your enemy."

"Treat the world how you want to be treated."

"I am Lucius Volstad, the Mage God, and I hope you will become more powerful than me in the future."

And then, the letter ended.

Shang took another deep breath.

Everything about this letter was shocking.

This letter represented the last words of one of the most powerful people that had ever lived.

Shang put the letter to the side and opened the book.

As Shang read through it, he was surprised.

The Spell was so easy!

However, the book was absolutely gigantic. It probably had thousands of pages only dedicated to this single Spell.

That was when Shang realized that the Spell wasn't actually easy but that Lucius had managed to simplify the insanely complex principles in the Spell to a ridiculous degree.

Creating such a Spell could only be done by an unimaginably powerful Mage, but the application of it was very simple and direct.

Shang took a bit over an hour to read the entire thing, and he had already understood it after reading it.

The God had put no Comprehension Spell on this book!

But Shang, a warrior, still understood it completely after reading it once!

Lucius was just that good at explaining the principles!

Shang closed his right eye and drew a complex diagram in his mind.

He followed the simple instructions to create the diagram and spoke some complex and ethereal words.

After around five minutes, Shang had created a diagram in his mind that was so huge and complex that no normal human could possibly remember it.

When Shang put the last line on the diagram, he also stopped the chant.

At that moment, the diagram in his mind shone for an instant before vanishing.

It had worked!

Shang felt the very subtle drain of Mana from his mind, but the drain of Mana was completely negligible. As long as his mind wasn't fully drained of Mana, the Spell would remain active.

Shang didn't even need to focus on the Spell since it worked autonomously. Additionally, Shang regenerated his Mana several times faster than the Spell was using it.

Shang didn't feel any different, but he knew that the Spell was taking effect.

From this day forth, Shang no longer needed to hide from the powerful beasts.

From now on, they would view him as a normal human.

If Shang could choose his reward again, he would definitely choose the same reward.

It was just that good!

After a while of thinking about the new possibilities this Spell opened up, Shang stood up.

The trial was over, and he had received his reward.

Now, it was time to return to the world and deal with the Council!