Ch. 91..100

Chapter 91 Numbers

Shang had no idea how long he had already been training, and he wasn't even thinking about it. He had completely let go of everything and only focused on training.

When he got thirsty, he simply drank a bit from the bucket.

When he became hungry, he simply took out some of the dried meat from his old backpack.

The training was also very draining on his stamina, but his stamina got quickly replenished by his Mana.

When his Mana ran out, Shang simply sat down to gather some more. Refilling his Mana only took him like an hour or so.

As long as Shang didn't have any serious injuries or broken bones, his Mana refilled with a lot of speed. Apparently, healing fatigue and slightly torn muscles wasn't eating up even nearly as much Mana as an actual injury.

As Shang continued looking at every single technique and practicing them, he slowly began to feel mixed feelings.

On one hand, he wanted to incorporate all of the techniques. He was making great progress, and he would soon reach his goal of having completed all the basic techniques in the book.

On the other hand, Shang didn't want it to end. This book had increased his power greatly, and nearly all of Shang's movements had become more satisfying. It was like some imperfections had finally been solved.

When Shang inevitably finished the book, he had no more techniques to analyze.

Even more, the more Shang thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed to him that these were all the techniques he was supposed to learn.

Soran had said that students in the Caterpillar Class had no access to the actual techniques of the school. These students were supposed to create their own path and their own style. They were supposed to create their own complex techniques.

All of these were basic techniques and basic ways to move.

However, all the techniques were disjointed, singular movements.

They weren't designed to flow into each other like an actual battle style.

The end of one technique might end in a slightly different spot than another good technique would need to be in to be unleashed.

This made everything feel disjointed and awkward.

Training the individual techniques on their own was great, but quickly switching between them felt horrible.

They simply didn't fit together.

'I guess that's the purpose,' Shang thought as he awkwardly kept going from one technique into the next. He had already finished all of the techniques, and he was trying to get rid of the awkwardness.

Nearly all of Shang's attacks had been elevated, but the drawback was that his battle style was filled with the thing he hated the most.

Awkward moments.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ It was like a video that skipped a couple of frames every two seconds or so.

It was infuriating, and Shang hated that feeling.

His previous training in the wilderness had completely focused on becoming faster and getting rid of these awkward moments. Shang wanted his techniques to flow perfectly, and he didn't want to have any downtime during a fight.

He wanted to attack and attack and attack and attack.

He wanted his attacks to never stop.

And that had been possible in the past, but not anymore. Now, he had to deal with all these awkward moments of transition.

It sounded easy to simply alter the techniques a bit to make them start or end in a convenient place, but by doing that, the techniques themselves started to feel a bit awkward. After all, these techniques weren't supposed to be used from such a position.

On some occasions, they became slower.

On other occasions, they lost a lot of power.

Sometimes, they left Shang completely open.

After practicing for who knew how long, Shang realized that this wouldn't be a short affair. Changing the techniques became harder and harder.

It was like he had, at some point, made an error in a Sudoku puzzle, which caused the entire puzzle to end up with wrong numbers everywhere that only came to light when the last two numbers became impossible combinations.

Then, he would need to go back from the end and calculate everything again until he finally found a change he could make and continue from there, just to realize that he had made another mistake.

It was really difficult and frustrating.

At one point, Shang managed to make five techniques flow into each other just to realize that not a single other technique would be able to comfortably start from the endpoints of any of the previous five techniques.

It was a dead end.

So, he altered one of the techniques to make the sixth one fit, but that change resulted in the previously fitting technique no longer fitting, which meant he had to change that one, but this technique had been the connector that connected all the other techniques together, meaning that change destroyed everything else.

It was like Shang had to solve a colorless jigsaw puzzle with no border or corner pieces.

He simply had to start with a random one and try random pieces. However, not every outcropping of every piece was unique, which meant that some pieces that weren't supposed to be there fit into the outcropping regardless.

It was ridiculous.

Even more, there were so many permutations to unleash all these different techniques that it didn't even make sense to write them all down. Sure, the changes one could do in a technique could only be so numerous until it stopped being that technique, but with every single technique having so many potential changes, the total number of combinations reached ridiculous levels.

'How many possibilities even are there? That technique has like five possible changes. That one has three. That one has six. That one has four. That one also has five. That's 5x3x6x4x5…'

'1800…'

'1800 for five techniques…'

Shang glanced over at the book, which had about 50 techniques in it.

'1800x5x2x4x7x5x3x4x8x3… I lost the number…'

'I think the latest number was nearly at a billion, and how many techniques had that been? Like fourteen or fifteen.'

From a number of five changes, the number went to nearly a billion in only fourteen steps or so…

And there were over 30 left…

How many zeroes would that number have?

Sure, not every technique would flow into every other one, but even if Shang divided the final number by a thousand, it would still be a number far above anything even remotely practical.

For a while, Shang only looked at the book with techniques.

Right now, Shang's feelings toward the book had changed.

Earlier, he had loved it, but now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

He had already practiced all the relevant individual techniques several times, and he had already changed the way he was attacking.

But now, he was stuck with these awkward transitions between attacks.

'Yeah, no,' Shang thought. 'I don't have time until the heat death of the universe sets in.'

Shang sighed.

'I guess I can't get through this methodically or with brute force. I think I can only trust my feelings on this and slowly make progress. As long as I keep practicing repeatedly, I will eventually manage to combine several of them in a way that makes sense.'

Shang put his head in his hands as he looked at the book.

'There are essentially infinite combinations in that book, and I'm pretty sure there are far more ways than one to combine all of them.'

'I have to say that this book is insanely useful for students of the Caterpillar Class. We get a couple of techniques to give us a rough guideline on how to move in a fight, but the possible combinations are impossible to fathom.'

'Sure enough, I'm forced to completely rely on my instinct, which is probably what they want. They want me to create my own style, after all.'

'Anyway, I made quite good progress, and I managed to combine at least some of them. Brute-forcing like this would only have so much effect.'

'Guess I should actually visit the lessons now.'

'How late is it anyway?'

Chapter 92 Outside

Shang decided to take a shower first before anything else. He probably smelled horrible, and his old clothing was sticking to him, which was annoying.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Before today, he hadn't really bothered with how dirty his clothes felt since he hadn't had many alternatives, but now, he had.

Shang put his old clothes to the corner of the room and tilted the magic bucket.

Sure enough, as soon as he tilted it, a lot of water came out. It wasn't flowing incredibly fast, but there was quite a lot of water.

Shang had taken baths before in this world but never a real shower. Back on Earth, he had exclusively showered since it was faster and since he loved the feeling of cold water running down his body.

It felt a bit weird to have no soap available, but he had to learn to live with that.

After Shang was done with the shower, he looked at his hair. He contemplated cutting it, but he had only been here for half a year. Right now, his hair was a bit too long for his liking, but it wasn't overly bad.

Then, Shang touched his face to feel his beard.

Sure enough, the growth of his beard could, at best, be called spread out. Additionally, he had that typical teenage mustache with these thin hairs.

Shang took his sword and tried to shave, the keyword being tried.

The sword just didn't want to cut him.

"Come on. I only want to cut off some hairs," Shang said to his sword.

His sword didn't react.

"Come on. Just become sharp," Shang said, lightly tapping his arm with his sword.

Shang only felt feelings of confusion coming from the sword.

For the next couple of minutes, Shang tried to communicate with his sword, but he only received confusing or angry feelings. The sword either had no idea what he wanted, or it became annoyed at Shang needlessly slapping it against his body.

In the end, Shang gave up with a groan. Its mind simply wasn't powerful enough to communicate with him effectively. Just like a newborn, the best the sword could do was to show some vague signals about how it was feeling right now.

"I need a knife to shave," Shang said after giving up. "I can deal with long hair, but I don't like this stupid, tiny beard. It makes me look like a child."

"I should look around the school now. Maybe I can buy a knife with gold, and while I'm at it, I can also get to know the surroundings."

Shang went over to his uniforms and was about to pick up the green uniform.

But then, he stopped.

"Eh, green," Shang commented with a frown. "I'm not really a green kinda guy."

So, Shang went over to the bronze uniform and put it on. The azure uniform could only be worn on special occasions.

"Finally, some clothes that don't feel dirty as fuck," Shang said after putting on his uniform, "but they sure are heavy."

Shang jumped around a bit to get a feel for the weight. No real armor was visible from the outside when looking at the uniform, but it also definitely didn't feel light. There was also no metal inside the uniform anywhere.

So, the weight had to come from the fabric itself, which felt weird to Shang. What fabric was this heavy?

Luckily, Shang's body had long gone above anything possible on Earth. Shang could break a huge number of world records without even trying really hard.

On Earth, wearing such a heavy uniform was definitely very uncomfortable for long periods, but here, it was only a matter of time until he got used to it.

To Shang, it felt no different from putting on a normal jacket. He felt the weight, but he could ignore it after a while.

"Huh, socks," Shang said as he saw the socks. "Been a while since I've worn those."

"And actual shoes, wow."

Shang looked to the side of the uniform and saw a couple of rings made of fabric hanging from the uniform. "I guess that's for my weapon. Sadly, my sword's too long to carry at the waist."

Due to the unique look of Shang's sword, he had to carry it differently. Usually, one-handed swords were supposed to be worn at the side since that would give quick and easy access.

However, since his sword was too long, it had to be put on Shang's back like a two-handed sword.

Sadly, that looked a bit ridiculous. Yes, Shang's sword was about as long as a two-handed sword, but it was far too thin for one. That made the sword on his back look a bit out of place.

Shang looked out of the little slit that was his window, but he couldn't really tell how late it was. He saw the light coming through it, but that was it.

Then, Shang left his room for the first time in quite a while.

Shang saw no one in the hallway, but he heard the sounds of training and fighting from outside. He went over to the stairs and walked down to the first floor, which he then exited.

Now, for the first time, Shang could really look at the academy while it was busy.

There were several training fields at the sides of the academy. The fields weren't separated by fences but lines. There was basically no flora in the academy, and there were only a couple of beasts. However, these beasts were inside special arenas, and they were all fighting some students.

Shang's attention was drawn to the beasts since he hadn't seen a lot of them before.

There were a couple of lizards, badgers, snakes, and there was even a bear. Shang could also see a couple of flying beasts, but they were on the rare side.

The students were of all ages, but they were always grouped into similar age groups. Most of the groups had a teacher overseeing them, but not all of them had one. Shang guessed that the groups without a teacher were not taking part in a lesson but just training regularly.

All in all, Shang guessed that there were over a thousand students on the fields, quite a lot.

Suddenly, out of Shang's peripheral vision, he saw a hand come toward his right shoulder.

PACK!

Out of reflex, Shang shoved the hand to the side with his right arm. He hadn't even thought about his actions before he had done so since his long training on Earth had conditioned him to block hands coming for him unexpectedly.

"Huh?" Shang heard as he looked to the owner of the hand.

It was a blonde guy with a long halberd on his back. Judging by his height and face, he was probably around 17 years old. At the moment, he was looking with surprise at Shang.

Shang looked at the guy with furrowed brows.

After a second, the guy only snorted humorously. "Not bad, kid, but move out of the way now."

Shang was blocking half of the entrance of the building, but instead of going to the side, the guy had intended to shove Shang to the side. The shove hadn't been very strong, but it had still very clearly shown the guy's intention.

Without even waiting for Shang to move to the side after he said his phrase, the guy moved his hand with a lot more speed towards Shang's shoulder to shove him to the side.

Apparently, his pride had been hurt by Shang blocking his hand.

Shang only narrowed his eyes as he looked at the guy.

Chapter 93 Stars Gerbon

PACK!

Shang easily shoved the hand to the side again, making it miss his shoulder.

For a moment, the two of them only looked at each other.

Then, Shang walked to the side, making room for the blonde guy. Without saying anything, Shang simply gestured to the free door.

For a bit, the blonde guy looked at Shang with furrowed brows. On one hand, he could pass now, but on the other hand, Shang had shoved his hand to the side.

The guy definitely didn't like that a mere kid was looking at him like that.

"Tch, don't do something like that again if you want to survive in the academy," the guy spat before he entered the building.

Shang didn't answer, and his eyes didn't follow the guy.

With his actions, Shang had shown that he was willing to comply but also that he wouldn't accept being mistreated.

Shang had shown that it was a bad idea to pick a fight with him, but he had also not provoked the other person. He hadn't insulted him or berated him. He had only dealt with the action that went too far without teaching the other side "a lesson".

Could Shang have verbally attacked the guy after his little verbal provocation?

Sure, but why should he?

It was simply someone that wanted to save some face after receiving a perceived loss.

Many times, when someone felt like they were losing a confrontation or a discussion, they tried to get one last jab in before leaving. Something like that was a bit cowardly, and one could certainly start the entire confrontation again based on that last jab. However, Shang had better things to do than to argue with some random guy.

Many people in Shang's place would have thrown a jab back. After all, he had been verbally attacked, so he had the right to attack back.

But that wasn't Shang.

Why?

Because it was pointless.

It was a waste of time.

What was the point of beating down some random guy? Would Shang get fighting experience?

No.

Would Shang get money?

No.

Would Shang get training?

No.

So why should he do it?

Just because it felt good?

Because it felt good to stand above someone else?

Sure, but here's the kicker.

That feeling is only something someone without much self-confidence needed.

Shang's self-confidence didn't come from beating up some random kid that insulted him but from his actual power.

After the guy entered the building, Shang walked forward, leaving the building behind.

Sounds of fighting and screaming filled the area, and Shang got reminded of his old MMA gym. It hadn't been this crowded and loud, but the feeling was very similar.

Shang followed the paved road for a bit until he reached a crossroads. The rulebook had included a map of the academy, and Shang knew where each road led.

The western road led to the main building.

The eastern road led to the city.

The southern road led to an area dedicated to trading. It included the exchange hall for Contribution Points and a market with plenty of useful wares for warriors. Of course, the market only accepted gold.

The northern road led to the most training fields and arenas. Sure, the fields and arenas were basically everywhere strewn around the academy, but the biggest of them were in the north.

Since Shang was interested in purchasing a knife, he went towards the south, to the market.

"You seem pretty strong."

Shang couldn't take more than a couple of steps before someone stopped him from the side.

"Is there something you need?" Shang asked neutrally.

The person that had stopped Shang was someone at his age, 14 or 15 probably. He had icy blue hair, and Shang could feel a bit of Ice Mana swirling around him. On his waist, he carried two long rapiers.

Shang had the habit of analyzing everyone around him and thinking about how they would fight, and this boy wasn't an exception.

Shang guessed that this boy wasn't a pure warrior but a Magic Warrior, someone that practiced Magic to enhance their physical fighting capabilities. With his two rapiers, he was probably someone that struck quickly and with precision.

However, for some reason, Shang felt like the boy in front of him was weak.

Everything about him, his equipment, his long hair, his two shining weapons, and his radiant uniform made him appear like a genius.

Yet, Shang felt like the boy was only putting on an act.

To Shang, he felt very weak.

The boy smiled with confidence, his smile brightening up the surroundings. "I've seen how you dealt with one of the upperclassmen, and I think we two can be useful to each other."

"Useful? In what way?" Shang asked neutrally.

"Well, you see, I'm Stars Gerbon from the Gerbon National Resource Trading Firm," the boy, Stars, said with a graceful tone. "I've recently joined the famous Warrior's Academy, and I'm planning on creating a group of like-minded individuals."

"Not interested," Shang said directly.

Stars looked with shock at Shang for a second. Then, he put on a bitter smile. "Excuse me, have you heard of the Gerbon National Res-"

"No," Shang answered, interrupting him. He didn't want to listen to that annoyingly long name again.

Stars' left eyelid twitched a bit, but he still kept up his polite smile. "Well, you see, the Gerbon Nat-"

"Doesn't matter," Shang said, interrupting the boy again. "Your background doesn't matter in here, and as I've said, I'm not interested."

Then, Shang continued walking.

After Shang said that, the polite smile vanished from Stars, and an icy expression came over his face.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked slowly.

Shang stopped walking and slowly turned around. Then, he looked into Stars' eyes. "Since you've been polite up to now, I'm willing to give you an honestly well-meant hint. This is not some veiled insult, or something said to provoke a reaction from you. It's an actual piece of advice."

Stars only lifted an eyebrow.

"Your act only works on warriors that haven't been through enough life-threatening situations in their lives," Shang said. "You can fool those warriors, but those warriors are worthless to begin with. In this world, four hands can't beat two fists."

"Give up," Shang said. "Give up trying to create a power. You obviously haven't been in danger in your life, and an experienced warrior can see that. Don't try to get around the pain of training by using your political ability to create some form of power. You're too weak for such an undertaking."

"Go back to training."

Stars' eyes narrowed, and Shang could not only see anger but actual hatred inside them.

Obviously, Shang had hit a nerve with his words. Based on that look, Stars had probably heard exactly these words a couple of times before in his life. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had such a strong emotional reaction.

Shang guessed that Stars' parents had probably said something similar.

So, how did Stars react?

He sighed, turned around, and left.

A couple of seconds after Stars left, Shang sighed.

'Me and my big mouth. I wanted to give him some honest advice but see where that got me. I'm pretty sure that guy is going to send his goons at me later for my perceived disrespectful behavior.'

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Shang continued walking to the south while scratching his chin.

'Honestly, I don't want to deal with every annoying guy individually. I think I should make an example out of the first group.'

 

Chapter 94 Market

Shang reached the market after a bit of walking. Sure enough, there were plenty of stalls here. Some of the stall owners were trying to attract customers by shouting out what great prices they had, but some didn't shout anything.

Shang walked around the market for a bit under the constant barrage of offers. He didn't really listen to all the shouts since no one was shouting about knives.

But then, Shang suddenly halted and turned in a different direction. He had just heard something interesting.

Shang had thought that he was immune to the devious powers of marketing. Sadly, he had been mistaken.

"You said you have Rank Two ore?" Shang asked the smiling merchant.

"Of course! Only the finest ores at Willie's Five Finger Emporium!" the merchant said with a wide grin.

"I'm interested," Shang asked. "Could you show me what you have to offer?"

"Sure thing!" the merchant said as he took out eight different pieces of ore. Obviously, these pieces weren't everything he had to offer, and they only were for display purposes.

Shang looked at the eight pieces of ore.

"We have more to offer, but I only brought out the best for you!" the merchant said with a wide smile. "These are our finest Rank Two ores, seven for all the different Affinities and one for warriors that decided to take on a purer path."

Shang nodded as he looked at the eight stones. "Can I touch them?"

"Sure thing!" the merchant shouted as he pushed the stones forward.

Shang took each stone into his hand one by one and acted like he was inspecting their quality.

In truth, he had no idea about ore.

He was actually just feeling the reaction of his sword.

Whenever Shang took hold of a stone, his sword would vibrate, and Shang could feel excitement and hunger coming from it.

The sword's reaction to the stones was the same for all of them. Apparently, there wasn't anything special about them. They were all equally interesting to it.

Shang had wanted to test if his sword preferred materials from a specific Affinity, but it didn't. Everything was the same to it.

"How much for the Earth Affinity one?" Shang asked.

"How much do you need? Our prices depend on how much you purchase," the merchant answered.

"Enough to completely reforge this sword," Shang said, slightly rotating so that the merchant could see the sword on Shang's back. Pulling out the weapon was forbidden, so Shang had to show his sword this way.

The merchant looked at the sword and nodded with a wide grin. "You're in luck! That should be just enough to qualify for our lowest bulk purchase discount!"

"How much?" Shang asked.

"To reforge your entire sword, you need around seven units of ore, which would come to 150 gold, but with the bulk purchase discount, it's only 140 gold!" the merchant said.

Shang nodded. "What about the Ice Affinity one?"

"The Ice Affinity is much rarer than Earth Affinity, so it's slightly more expensive. The same amount of the Ice Affinity one comes to 200 gold naturally, but 190 gold for you," the merchant answered.

Shang nodded. "What about the one without Affinity?"

"That's our cheapest one, and it only costs 100 gold. Sadly, since they are in higher demand, we can't offer you a bulk purchase discount," the merchant said.

Shang nodded again. "Thank you for your time. However, at the moment, I lack the funds to purchase any of your wares. I'm very interested in them, but, just for the moment, I have to decline. When I have the necessary funds, I will come back to take a closer look, assuming I don't find a better offer in the meantime."

The merchant deflated, but he didn't lose his smile or professionalism. "That's okay! You can find me here Monday to Wednesday. I wish you luck in acquiring the funds you need!"

Shang nodded and said his goodbyes.

'So, that's the tradeoff, huh?' Shang thought as he continued looking for a knife. 'The selection of wares here is more than broad. From what I can tell, there is stuff from all around the world here. The students can find everything they will ever need in this marketplace.'

'However, in return, the prices are ridiculous,' Shang thought. 'That one guy I met in one of the towns on the way to Warrior's Paradise offered me ore of similar quality for only 40 gold. Sadly, he had only one kind of Rank Two ore for sale, and there hadn't been another merchant that sold Rank Two ore.'

'And I can't blame them. If I were them, I also wouldn't sell it locally but in a vast and rich city like Warrior's Paradise. Most students come from prestigious backgrounds, and they're not lacking any money. The merchants can sell their wares without competing in prices in the academy.'

'If I want to upgrade my sword, I need to get some gold. Additionally, I should ask one of the teachers where the ore is sourced. Maybe I can get it cheaper by traveling there.'

After walking around the marketplace for a while, Shang found a stall that sold knives.

It was a hunting store, and the knives they sold were for skinning beasts. Oftentimes, hunters didn't go into the Wild Forest just to hunt one single beast. Most of the time, they went in there for the entire day, killing everything they could find and were allowed to kill.

Beast meat could be sold for quite a lot of money, but the ratio of gold to volume and weight was far lower than things like teeth, fur, and claws. Not many people had Space Rings, which meant that they had to carry their prey with beast sacks.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ If they carried the entire corpse, they would need to return to Warrior's Paradise immediately since they simply couldn't carry more. Because of that, most of these kinds of hunters simply removed the most valuable things of their prey and left the meat and bone in the wild.

That also had the positive side-effect of increasing the beast population again. After all, the corpses would quickly be consumed by the wildlife there.

Shang purchased a skinning knife suitable for all beasts in the First Realm for two gold. There were no shaving knives on the market since every warrior in the academy simply used their weapons to shave. Of course, a lot of them simply didn't shave at all.

After getting the knife, Shang also went to the Exchange Hall, the place where students could exchange their wares for Contribution Points and vice versa.

Shang asked the clerk to check his balance, and the clerk said that Shang had 20 Contribution Points on his account. Apparently, 20 Contribution Points was how much the full corpse of a Pest Cat was worth.

Shang knew that attending a normal lesson gave a student one Contribution Point while attending a core lesson gave them two Contribution Points. Core lessons were the class-specific lessons for whichever class the student was in.

'One Pest Cat is worth ten core lessons or 20 normal lessons. That's not much but also not little. On one hand, someone needs to study for basically an entire week to get that many Contribution Points, but on the other hand, someone doesn't have to put themselves into danger for only one week.'

'I guess it depends on the power of the student how they view the situation.'

Shang also checked up on the prices of the ore in the Exchange Hall.

The cheapest Rank Two ore was 2,000 Contribution Points for one unit of ore. As the merchant had suggested earlier, Shang would need seven units for his sword, which would come to 14,000 Contribution Points.

That sounded like a lot, but it actually wasn't.

Just by studying, a student wouldn't be able to get that easily, but that wasn't an issue. There were enough beasts and missions for everyone. Additionally, Shang's sword was rather big since it was so long. It wasn't as big as a true two-handed sword, but it was definitely very big for a one-handed sword. Other students probably wouldn't need as many Contribution Points.

Before Shang left the Exchange Hall, he also looked at the mission board inside it. The mission boards were all over the academy, and they all showed different missions.

The one in the Exchange Hall listed transportation and escort missions.

The one that gave the least rewards already gave ten Contribution Points, and the mission was only to get something from Blizzard's Edge. That wasn't even a full day of travel for Shang.

The more lucrative ones gave hundreds and even thousands of Contribution Points. Of course, the really good ones were locked to warriors on the General Stage.

After looking at the missions for a while, Shang left the Exchange Hall. He wanted to get back to his room, shave, and then take part in some lessons.

Sadly, on his way back to the main building, what he had anticipated would come, had come.

Four students at Shang's age were looking at him with crossed arms.

Stars Gerbon stood between them.

Chapter 95 Older Student

Shang looked at the four people plus Stars with an even expression. He had seen this situation coming from a mile away.

'Fucking kids. Every time something doesn't go their way, they have to try to change something instead of realizing that, sometimes, the best way is to simply accept their current situation,' Shang thought with annoyance.

Shang sighed and walked toward the building, which meant that he was effectively walking toward the group.

Shang had seen how the group had let others pass through without any issues, but sure enough, as soon as Shang arrived near them, they stopped before him.

Instead of looking at the group of goons, Shang looked at Stars with a bored expression. "Is this what you decided to be the best course of action?" he asked.

Stars definitely didn't like Shang's lack of fear or respect. Didn't that guy know that he was surrounded by four students of the Warrior's Academy? Every single student had great potential, and there were no weak ones. Being surrounded by four warriors outside might not be that bad, but in this school, it was bad.

None of these four students was weak.

"This wasn't my choice, but yours," Stars said with a helpless sigh. "If you hadn't tried to disrespect me, I would have simply let you go, you know?"

"Do you not realize where we are?" Stars asked helplessly as he slowly shook his head. "This is the Warrior's Academy. You can't afford to be disrespectful to others, or you will find yourself at the end of a blade. If you want to make it here, you have to defend your honor if someone disrespects you."

"You gave me no other choice."

It wasn't hard for Shang to see through that bullshit.

One had to defend one's honor?

No?

It wasn't hard to just walk away. As long as someone didn't physically attack someone else, it wasn't necessary to start a fight. They couldn't even fight with their weapons, which meant that they wouldn't even get any fighting experience with their weapon.

On top of that, Contribution Points couldn't even be transferred between students. That rule existed to stop the top few students from cannibalizing the bottom 90%. Sure, the academy didn't have anything against students fighting against each other, but they didn't want 90% of the students to be essentially crippled.

In short, there was literally no point in them fighting. No one would benefit.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ It was simply kids doing kids' stuff.

Shang looked away from Stars and looked at the four people who had surrounded him by now.

If this were Earth, Shang would have long fled. Fighting four trained fighters was impossible, even for the best fighter on Earth. A human only had a limited number of arms, and they didn't have eyes on the back of their heads.

In movies, it was normal for one guy to beat up like ten people, but in real life, it didn't work like that. If one looked closely, one would always notice that the actor in the movie never got attacked by every enemy at once. They always came in small waves.

In real life, it didn't work that way. On Earth, Shang could have punched away maybe one or two guys if he was faster and more powerful than them, but while punching the first two away, the other two would have already hit Shang on the back of his head.

Then what?

His consciousness would be shaken, and the four would throw him to the ground and kick him.

At that point, it would already be over.

However, this wasn't Earth.

In this world, Shang didn't need to fear numbers as long as they didn't reach ridiculous heights.

The four students around Shang were 14 or 15, except for one person, who looked slightly older. Shang guessed that the last guy was probably 17 or 18.

So, at what Stage were the students surrounding Shang?

Three were at the Early Soldier Stage, and the older one was at the Middle Soldier Stage.

Shang was at the Peak Soldier Stage.

This was a gigantic difference.

There were five levels in each Realm.

Initial, Early, Middle, Late, Peak.

So, if described with levels and numbers, Shang's opponents would be level two, two, two, and three, while Shang was level five.

What did that mean in terms of fighting capability?

This meant that Shang outclassed every single one of his opponents by a factor of three, at least.

If put into perspective, it was like an adult male being besieged by four ten-year-olds.

Because of that, Shang wasn't even nervous. He simply waited for them to make their move.

When Stars saw that Shang didn't answer, he became annoyed.

"This is the one?" the oldest of the group asked Stars. Surprisingly, his voice didn't sound too happy.

Shang looked at the oldest of the group when he spoke, and the oldest looked back. However, Shang noticed a subtle reaction.

He was afraid.

'Sure enough, he noticed my power,' Shang thought. 'Based on what I've heard, the latest entrance exams have been like two or three months ago, and these guys are definitely amongst the youngest. That means that they most likely joined the Warrior's Academy with the latest batch.'

'But the older guy has been here for at least two additional years, probably more. It would be unforgivable if a student that had been in the Warrior's Academy for so long didn't have the ability to roughly estimate an opponent's power.'

"Yes, this is the one," Stars said with a polite smile. When he talked to Shang, he acted like a sneaky serpent, but when he talked to his underlings, he was polite.

"And you want us to beat him up," the oldest of the group asked for confirmation.

"Sadly, I have no other choice," Stars said with a sigh. "If we want our group to grow, we have to show that nobody can mess with us."

When the oldest of the group heard that, he grimaced.

Then, he looked at Shang, who looked back neutrally.

The oldest gritted his teeth. It was like he was making a very important decision.

The others were waiting for the oldest student's signal. He was their squad leader, and he had to give the order first.

The oldest student took off one of his rings with anger.

SHING!

Several different items appeared in front of the older student, as well as a ton of gold.

Stars and everyone around him looked with surprise at the oldest student. What was he doing?

The student took a huge sack of gold, put it in the Space Ring, and then…

Clink!

He threw it at the ground in front of Stars. Space Rings were very durable as long as someone didn't put the wrong stuff into them. After all, they had to hold even in fights.

Stars looked with shock at the Space Ring in front of his feet.

"Take your gold and your Space Ring back," the oldest student said. "I'm leaving."

Stars and his lackeys only looked with shock at the student.

Meanwhile, the student grabbed his belongings and looked at Shang with a serious expression. "I'm sorry for standing in your way," he said solemnly.

Shang nodded. "It's fine. We all make mistakes. At least you managed to rectify yours before it became too late."

The student nodded and smiled a bit. "Thank you."

Then, the student looked at his former members. "If I were you, I would quickly leave," he said.

Lastly, the student quickly packed his stuff and entered the building. He probably wanted to put his stuff away first before doing anything else.

Shang threw a glance after the student and looked at the Space Ring in Stars' hand. 'A Space Ring and a huge sack of gold. Even I'm interested.'

'Sadly, it's forbidden to steal inside the academy.'

Chapter 96 Intimidation

Stars didn't know how to react. His strongest member had left just like that.

Why?

So what if that guy was strong? They were five! Why did he leave?!

On top of that, this guy was their age! How powerful could his body possibly be? Even if he somehow managed to get a body in the Middle Soldier Stage, the older student had several years of battle experience on him.

"And what will you do now?" Shang asked.

Stars turned to Shang when he spoke, but he noticed that Shang wasn't talking to him but to the other three students.

"Someone more powerful and more experienced than you realized that it's not a good idea to attack me. Will you mindlessly follow your leader's orders, or will you make the sensible decision and leave?"

"Don't listen to his empty words!" Stars shouted with a furious expression. His polite and civil demeanor had completely vanished as he realized that Shang was threatening the group of people he had built up with so much work.

"Jarem was a coward! We were five people, and he's several years older than him! So what if this guy is strong?! We are four! He is one! How strong can he be?! He's just as old as us!" Stars shouted.

The other three students were no longer calm. They had no idea what they should do now. They didn't have the experience or instincts to feel another human's power! They were simply new students from middle-ranked families! They didn't know how powerful their opponent was!

Two conflicting streams of logic collided in their minds.

Their squad leader had given up without a fight, which meant that this guy had to be really powerful.

However, he was also only 14 and 15. So, how powerful could he possibly be?

These were the two thoughts that collided with each other.

Which one was right?

They had no idea!

Meanwhile, several other students had stopped at the side. They had noticed that something interesting was going on, and they came to watch.

The more experienced one of the students felt Shang's power and became shocked. Someone that young had such a powerful body?! How was that even possible?! Did he come from some high-ranking noble family!?

But when they overcame their shock, they only grinned.

Oh, this was going to be good.

Stars noticed all the students stop around them to watch. As Stars saw all the eyes watching, his anxiety shot through the roof.

He couldn't humiliate himself in front of so many students!

He felt like the entire academy was watching! Stars had already begun to suspect that going against Shang might not have been the smartest idea, but he couldn't back down now. If he retreated now after putting on such a grand act, he wouldn't be able to look anyone in the eyes anymore.

He had to go through with it to the end! At worst, he would have to receive a slight beating. His family name would protect him from the worst, at least.

Stars turned to Shang again with gritted teeth. Then, he looked at his lackeys. "Don't forget, you signed a contract. Jarem didn't. You can't disobey a reasonable order," he said with a threatening tone.

Usually, Stars would have never threatened his underlings. After all, it was important that one's underlings liked the leader. If they didn't, lots of problems would occur.

However, Stars had no other choice! His underlings were already starting to hesitate. He had to push them forward!

When the three heard Stars' words, they grimaced.

He was right.

If they broke the contract, they would have to pay back everything they had received from Stars. Compared to Jarem, these three had joined Stars way earlier, which meant that they had already spent a lot of their wealth.

Paying everything back now would be nearly impossible! Even if they sold the wares they had purchased again, they wouldn't get the full price, and they would need to work their asses off for months.

They were only Early Soldier Stage warriors. There weren't many options to make a ton of money for them. They couldn't even kill Pest Cats!

In the end, the three of them gritted their teeth and looked at Shang helplessly.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ They had decided that they would sacrifice their health today. Being beaten up was better than having to work for months.

When Shang saw their expressions, he narrowed his eyes. "I don't care if you are under orders. You are free to disobey said orders. If you attack me, I will treat you like an enemy," he said coldly.

The bodies of the three students shook, but they could only grit their teeth. Yes, they could decide to disobey the order, but the cost would be far too high!

By now, the three of them had realized that they probably had zero chance against Shang. If even their squad leader, whom they couldn't win against three on one, had left, they had no chance.

Because of that, it didn't matter how they fought. As long as they fought, they would be complying with the orders.

One of the three students gritted his teeth and readied a punch.

Then, he threw his punch at Shang.

Pack!

Shang caught the arm with narrowed eyes.

He had already planned to make an example of this group of students. The academy had several Water Mages, which meant that the students wouldn't die as long as Shang didn't kill them instantly.

Today, he would make sure that no one else would bother him.

Shang grabbed the forearm of the student with his full power, breaking the radius and the ulna, the two bones in the forearm.

The sound of bones breaking and the splinters digging through flesh rung throughout the courtyard as the face of the student widened in pain and horror.

Then, Shang grabbed the student's hand with his other arm and pulled.

RRRRIIIP!

Shang ripped the hand out of the forearm and threw it at the wall, breaking it into multiple bloody pieces.

The onlookers took a deep breath through their teeth.

BANG!

Lastly, Shang kicked the student.

BANG!

The student hit the wall of the main building with a resounding impact. More sounds of breaking bones could be heard in the courtyard.

When the student hit the ground, he didn't scream. Instead, he started convulsing as his body spasmed in place, thick bloody gurgling out of his mouth. He tried to breathe, but only blood entered his lungs, which then gurgled out again.

By now, the courtyard was dead silent.

The younger students were used to fighting with each other, but in a way, most of the fighting students were still teenagers.

Punching someone else and kicking them was normal. Getting bruised or one or two bones broken was also normal.

But this…

This was not normal for them.

This student was legitimately dying!

He was suffocating on his own blood!

Meanwhile, Shang looked with narrowed eyes at the other two students. "Move," he said coldly.

The other two students were frozen in terror. They had expected to be beaten up, but they hadn't expected that!

This was not normal!

This was not just a beating!

When they heard Shang's words, they very quickly jumped to the side. Their contract was long forgotten. Their fear was simply too powerful.

Shang walked over to Stars with narrowed eyes.

Stars was still looking at the dying student with terror, and he didn't notice Shang approach. When he did, it was already too late.

Stars' body froze in terror when he saw Shang's eyes directly in front of his own. "M-My family is ah-"

Before Stars could finish his sentence, Shang shoved his right hand into his mouth, taking hold of his jaw.

Stars' eyes widened in absolute terror.

No!

RRRIIIIIIP!

Shang tore his jaw off.

The younger students gasped in horror.

Of course, there were still several students that watched everything with calm eyes. They had also killed humans before, and they knew that these two students wouldn't die.

Yes, Shang had been rather brutal, but as long as he didn't kill them, he was allowed to do that.

Stars began to scream incoherent nonsense as he writhed on the ground.

BANG!

Shang squashed the jaw in his hand and threw the ball of gore on the ground beside Stars.

"Don't annoy me again," he said before he walked into the building.

From the side, one of the teachers sighed and picked the two students up.

He was used to bringing injured students to the Water Mage.

'But really, that guy was a bit too cruel. Regrowing something is many times more expensive than simply reattaching something. Did he really have to destroy that arm and jaw?'

'Well, I don't have to pay it.'

Chapter 97 Guilt

Shang closed the door behind him after entering his room. Then, he just stood there in the mostly dark room. The small slit didn't let much light through.

Silence.

Shang just waited in silence.

At the moment, Shang's heart was beating rapidly as sweat ran down his body. A deep feeling of guilt was inside his heart.

He had acted coldhearted and brutal, but that didn't reflect the truth.

This was the first time after that fateful night that Shang had injured another person to such an extent.

Punching someone, breaking an arm, or similar things were still relatively normal to Shang. After all, he had been a fighter in his past life, and it was normal for fighters to get injured in a fight.

However, what he had done out there was not normal for a fighter.

Shang might be in the body of a 15-year-old, but in his mind, he still viewed himself as a 23-year-old. So, when he looked at the other students, Shang didn't see people of his age but kids.

They were children.

Additionally, what would they have done to him? At most, they would have broken one or two bones and would have given him some bruises.

Shang had seen the ill-intent in their eyes, but Shang hadn't felt true maliciousness coming from them. They only wanted to beat him down to show their superiority.

They were just kids.

Yet, Shang had done horrible things to them. One of them had been close to death, while the other one went through unimaginable pain.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Shang had his reasons for acting this brutally, but it was still difficult.

On Earth, Shang would have gone to prison for his actions.

Yes, they had attacked him, and Shang had the right to defend himself, but that was it, defend.

Regarding the first guy, breaking his arm and kicking him would have been enough. Shang's action of tearing his arm off had gone beyond mere defense.

However, the worse offense was with Stars.

Stars hadn't even tried to attack Shang. Yes, he had given the order, but he had never shown any intention of attacking Shang.

Shang could have simply beaten him down, thrown him away, or immobilized him.

Tearing out someone's jaw was not considered self-defense.

'I've done the right thing,' Shang thought as he took a deep breath. 'With that display, fewer people will bother me in the future, and I won't have to do something like that again. The other students saw what happens when they try to attack me, and they won't try something like that again.'

'My actions were right. It was the right decision.'

Absentmindedly, Shang took the skinning knife he had bought and began to shave his beard.

'I made the correct choice,' he repeated to himself in his mind.

As the rhythmic strokes of the knife continued, Shang continued to repeat the same words to himself in his mind.

Shang didn't know how long he had been shaving, but when he felt something wet on his right hand, he stopped.

He looked over and saw blood dripping down from the knife.

Shang touched his jaw, but it had already fully healed.

He hadn't even noticed that he had cut himself while shaving, and judging by the amount of blood, it hadn't been little.

'It's a skinning knife. It's only logical that it cuts my skin while shaving. I should be more careful in the future,' Shang thought before washing the knife and leaving it in his room.

Shang also washed his hands before leaving the room again.

Shang came out of the building and looked at the surroundings.

The blood from earlier was gone, and the students were back to doing whatever they were doing.

Not many people were looking at Shang, and the few that did either averted their gazes quickly or lost interest.

It was like nothing had happened.

When Shang saw that, he realized once again that he was truly in a different world. If something like that had happened on Earth, the people would still be crowded around the area where it had happened while police were investigating the place.

In this world, it was normal.

Shang looked at the big clock above the main entrance to the main building. Usually, warriors didn't really care about the time of the day. They mostly focused on the position of the sun to judge time.

However, Mages had introduced a more accurate measure of time, which were clocks. Mages were often very busy, and they couldn't just schedule things based on the position of the sun.

For example, they could have two meetings in the afternoon.

Which one should they go to first? Additionally, the definition of afternoon was different from person to person.

Because of that, Mages used clocks while warriors used the position of the sun normally, but since this academy was very sophisticated and also included plenty of education about Mages, it had adopted the clock.

There was also the name of the weekday beside the clock. The academy knew that warriors often forgot the time while they were fully focused on training.

'I'm lucky. The core lesson for the Caterpillar Class will start soon. I've been stuck on the techniques, and I need some feedback from one of the teachers.'

Shang walked towards the north, towards the bigger training fields. The core lesson for the Caterpillar Class took place there.

After walking for a bit, Shang saw several different training fields and arenas. Fortunately, there were signs beside each training field, and Shang quickly found a sign with a caterpillar on it.

The training field had a couple of older students standing on it. There were probably around 20 students between the ages of 17 and 19. Most of them were talking in groups while a couple of them swung their weapons around as warmup.

The students were allowed to draw their weapons on a training field, but they were forbidden from threatening others. If they wanted to mess with another student, they had to put their weapon away again.

When Shang stepped onto the training field, a couple of students looked at him.

Some of them furrowed their brows. Some of them looked with skepticism at Shang. Some narrowed their eyes, and some of them even smiled politely.

But in the following seconds, the first two groups changed their expression to a surprised one before remaining in an awkward one.

Shang was too young to have such power.

Shang noticed all of that. 'Sure enough, these students are all very experienced. Some of them noticed my power at first glance, but even the ones that didn't quickly found out about it.'

This was a gigantic difference from how many other students had interacted with Shang.

Stars and his group hadn't even realized when Shang threatened them.

The older student in Stars group had slowly noticed Shang's power, but he had still taken a while to truly grasp it. The blonde guy that had tried to shove Shang to the side had also realized, but only when Shang had already shoved his arm to the side two times.

There were definite differences between students of different ages.

The newbies that were around 14 years old nearly never noticed Shang's power.

The 16-year-olds noticed it, but it wasn't easy, not all of them believed their feelings, and it took a bit.

Meanwhile, the 18-year-olds noticed it from a distance in a matter of two seconds, and they quickly believed their instincts.

After Shang entered the training field, a couple of students still looked at him.

Then, one of them frowned.

"I think you're in the wrong grade," he said.

Chapter 98 Astor And Elver

The one that spoke to Shang was a tall man with short blue hair. He was probably around 19 years old, which was why Shang labeled him as a man instead of a boy. A truly gigantic, wide, and imposing sword was in his hands. The sword was probably one and a half meters long and half a meter wide.

A gigantic axe or hammer showed a feeling of ferociousness and brutality, while a sword showed versatility and composure.

This gigantic sword exhibited a mixed feeling between those two.

It was ferocious and powerful, but there was also restraint inside it.

'He's powerful,' Shang thought as he looked at the guy, a glint of surprise visible in his eyes.

Why surprise?

Because Shang felt a mortal feeling of danger radiating off that man.

That in and of itself wouldn't be that surprising, though. The surprising part was that he only had a body at the Late Soldier Stage, an entire level below Shang.

Yet, Shang could feel very clearly that, if the two of them were to fight seriously, Shang would most likely die.

'Sure enough, I have to work on my Battle-Strength,' Shang thought. 'I can deal incredibly well with beasts, but I'm still a newbie when it comes to other humans.'

"Yeah, go back to suckling on your mommy's tits," another guy shouted from the side with a ridiculing voice.

The blue-haired man frowned, and Shang looked over at the other guy that just shouted.

It was a relatively small man with long green hair. He had a long but thin sword in his hand, and his smile showed ridicule and arrogance. Shang guessed that he was around 17 years old.

When Shang saw the green-haired guy, he didn't feel threatened.

He definitely had quite some power to him, but he wasn't a real threat to Shang. Shang felt that, as long as he didn't become careless, he should easily win against him.

The green-haired guy wasn't even in the same world as the blue-haired man in terms of power.

"This is exactly why you are at the bottom of the class, Elver," the blue-haired man said with a rebuking tone as he looked at the green-haired guy, Elver. "How often have the teachers told you to feel everyone's power closely, even if their appearance isn't threatening?"

Elver frowned with discomfort. He definitely looked like someone that had been wrongfully accused. "Why are you blaming me? You were the one that said it first, Astor," Elver said with a wronged voice.

"I meant he should be in the Preparation Grade, not the younger grades," Astor said with annoyance. "He is at the Peak Soldier Stage."

"What?" Elver shouted with surprise. Then, he looked at Shang, and his eyes widened in shock. "How?"

But after a bit, Elver furrowed his brows. Then, he snorted. "Oh, no wonder. You're one of those noble kids, huh?"

Shang only looked at Elver with a neutral expression.

"Bet your family has stuffed all kinds of pills and medicine into your body. Bet you haven't even killed a Pest Cat before," Elver said with a ridiculing snort.

Astor only frowned, but he didn't say anything. In his perception, Shang's power also felt surprisingly weak for someone at the Peak Soldier Stage.

Astor could fight a couple of Peak Soldier Stage students equally, but he couldn't say that he could beat any of them easily…

Except for Shang.

Astor felt that he could beat Shang with a lot of confidence, which definitely wasn't normal.

However, Astor still reserved his judgment of Shang. Yes, Shang had a very weak Battle-Strength, but he was also way younger than them.

With a couple of years of training, he could easily close the gap.

Additionally, Astor felt a certain feeling coming from Shang.

Astor felt like Shang had seen his fair share of battles before.

Yet, that also didn't make much sense in Astor's mind. How could Shang's Battle-Strength be so weak if he had been in so many battles?

Because of all of these uncertainties, Astor reserved his judgment.

Meanwhile, Shang looked at Elver for a second before turning to Astor again.

"I'm in the correct grade," he said. "I'm part of the Advanced Caterpillar Class."

This surprised the listening students on the side.

It definitely wasn't normal to have someone with a more powerful body in a lower grade. After all, the power of the body was literally the sole criteria for which grade someone belonged to.

"Why are you in the Advanced Grade?" someone asked.

Shang looked over.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Women were few and far between in the Warrior's Academy. Most of them focused on Magic and the ones that couldn't often chose a different career. Because of that, there weren't that many women in this academy.

However, some of them still existed, like the person that had just asked Shang a question.

She had grey hair, but the hair color didn't make her seem old. It was obvious that this was her natural hair color. Contrary to what one might expect, she carried a huge and heavy war hammer.

She was also rather tall, and she was filled with muscle all over. She definitely wasn't a pushover.

"I'm in this grade because I need to work on my Battle-Strength for the next two years," Shang answered. "I joined just a couple of days ago."

The grey-haired woman frowned, but she didn't say anything further.

"It's surprising that your parents can get such wealth and status but screw up raising a child to such a degree," Elver ridiculed from the side again. "Your body's so powerful, but your power is so weak. Don't your parents know-"

"You seem to be fully focused on my parents," Shang interrupted Elver. "Is that because you are unhappy with yours?"

Some of the students were positively surprised when they saw that the new guy bit back, and they looked at Elver expectantly.

Most of the students in the class had already grown annoyed by Elver's constant bullshit. In their eyes, he was acting like a child, looking for a fight with anyone he thought he could beat.

This reaction from the other students showed the difference between young teenagers and young adults.

Oftentimes, the bullies in middle school and high school were the popular kids in the class. After all, they were powerful, dominant, and their insults were funny.

But later, those same people would be more on the unpopular side. Most students at that age were at the school or academy to learn, and they didn't want to be annoyed by someone constantly harassing someone else. Additionally, it appeared childish in their minds.

Elver had probably been one of the more popular kids in the first two grades, but after entering the Advanced Grade, things had suddenly changed.

When Elver heard Shang's words, he only snorted. "You think I'm stupid enough to enter a fistfight with someone at the Peak Soldier Stage? How about you crawl back to your nanny and suck on some more medicine?"

Shang didn't answer and looked at Astor instead. "When does the teacher normally come? I have a couple of questions."

Astor, who had returned to warming up by now, answered without looking at Shang. "He should be here any second now."

"Thanks," Shang said before becoming silent again.

Then, silence returned.

Most of the students went back to doing whatever they were doing previously, while Elver kept throwing sneers at Shang.

The grey-haired woman also threw Shang some frowns, but Shang knew that they weren't supposed to be a provocation. He guessed that she was probably unhappy that someone with a more powerful body was in her grade.

Just like Astor said, the teacher arrived a couple seconds later.

When Shang saw the teacher, he covertly took a deep breath of annoyance.

'Oh great, it's that guy.'

Chapter 99 Teacher Loran

The teacher had arrived.

It was a middle-aged man, probably in his forties. He had some grey hairs here and there, and he carried a sword at his waist.

It was that one teacher that had guarded the academy's gate at the night Shang had arrived.

Shang definitely wasn't the biggest fan of that teacher. For some reason, talking with him was annoying and frustrating.

"Alright, everyone," the teacher announced when he arrived. "Let's get started with today's lesson."

"May I ask a question?" the grey-haired woman asked with a loud but polite voice.

"What is it, Sarah?" the teacher asked.

"Isn't the power of our bodies the very foundation on which the grades are decided?" she asked.

"Yes, so?" the teacher asked with a bit of annoyance.

"Then how come the new person in our grade has a body at the Peak Soldier Stage? He should be part of the Preparation Grade," Sarah asked.

Just as Shang had expected, Sarah was bothered by Shang's presence in her grade.

The teacher frowned with confusion. After hearing Sarah's question, he looked around the gathered students and quickly found the odd one out.

When he saw Shang, the teacher snorted a bit in annoyance. "Of course you would end up in my class," he grumbled mostly to himself.

Shang wasn't certain how he should respond. Should he say sorry? Should he say hello?

In the end, Shang didn't bother with reacting at all and simply did nothing.

"I don't know. Let me ask," the teacher said to Sarah.

"Thank you," Sarah said politely.

The teacher summoned a small crystal and looked into it. "Soran, what's going on? Why is there a Peak Soldier Stage student in my Advanced Grade?"

"Hello, Loran. Isn't it a nice day?" the exasperated voice of Soran came out of the crystal.

"Yes, yes, hello, Soran," the middle-aged teacher, teacher Loran, said with an annoyed voice. "So, why is there a Peak Soldier Stage student in my Advanced Grade?"

"Are you talking about Shang?" Soran's voice asked. "Did he finally show up to his lessons?"

"I don't know his name," teacher Loran grumbled.

"Then why don't you go ask him?" Soran's voice said.

Teacher Loran grumbled. "Hey, you," he shouted as he looked at Shang.

"Yes, I'm Shang," Shang answered.

"I didn't even ask my question! It's common courtesy to let others finish speaking," the teacher grumbled.

Shang frowned. "Isn't it obvious what you were going to ask? We can all hear your discussion. I just wanted to hurry things along."

"Hurry things along?" the teacher snorted. "Then how come we are talking so much about this topic? If you had just given me the time to ask my question, we would already be done."

"That's bec-"Shang started to shout, but he stopped himself.

Then, he took a long breath.

This man was now his teacher, and Shang shouldn't argue too much with him.

"Yes, teacher, I won't interrupt you again," Shang said with a bit of annoyance.

"What?!" teacher Loran nearly shouted. "Why did you give in?! It's obvious that you do not truly believe what you're saying! Do you think I'm so stupid that I would fall for that?!"

Shang gritted his teeth in frustration. "Because I don't want to get into an argument with the very person that I'm supposed to learn from," Shang said a little louder.

"So, what's his name?" Soran's voice came out of the crystal again. "You haven't answered in a while. Did you get into an argument again?"

Teacher Loran had just wanted to shout back at Shang, but Soran's voice stopped him. "Yes, his name is Shang. So, why is he in my grade?" he asked again.

How did the other students react to that exchange?

Surprisingly, they weren't surprised at all.

Judging from their reactions, it seemed to be normal for teacher Loran to get into arguments all the time.

"There's a reason behind it," Soran answered.

"No shi- crap. I'm asking what the reason is!" teacher Loran snapped back.

"If I could tell you the reason, I would have told you, Loran," Soran said with a bit of annoyance. "However, I can't tell you the reason since it's confidential. Just know that Shang is in your grade by the orders of the dean."

Silence.

The dean?!

Usually, it was Soran who decided on all the different classes and grades. He was solely responsible for assigning the students to the most fitting class. The dean never got involved in all of that. The dean was busy with all kinds of administrative work, meetings, and so on.

However, he had made an executive decision for Shang?

Why?

The students very rarely heard of the dean. They saw him enter and exit the building from time to time, but that was about it. So, why did he suddenly get involved when it came to this student?

"The dean's orders?" teacher Loran asked again.

"Yes," Soran said. "As for Shang's development, you only have to check on two things. If you have me on speaker, please deactivate it since the other students are not supposed to listen in on private matters of other students."

'Speaker?' Shang thought with a weird expression. 'Is that crystal a phone? I mean, it kind of is, but it still feels weird to hear the word speakerphone in this world.'

Teacher Loran put the crystal to his ear and walked a couple of meters away. After that, he spoke quietly into the crystal.

The other students waited for about a minute until teacher Loran returned.

"Alright, let's start with the lesson," teacher Loran announced.

"Excuse me, teacher," Sarah, the grey-haired woman, said. "What about my question? Why is he in our grade?"

Teacher Loran frowned. "You heard what I heard! You know what I know! What answer do you expect from me? He's here under the dean's orders. If you have a problem with that, go complain to the dean!"

Sarah frowned at the barrage teacher Loran had unleashed on her. "Thank you, teacher," she said with a bit of annoyance.

Teacher Loran snorted silently. "Alright, so let's start with class."

"I've got a question," Shang interrupted.

"What?!" teacher Loran snapped back. "Stop trying to delay the lesson again and again! What's up with you?!"

"This was the first time I interrupted," Shang said with a frown. "The previous two questions came from someone else. This is the first question I've asked you today."

"I don't care! You're the reason why class is late! Ask your question after the lesson!" teacher Loran shouted.

"I don't know if it can wait for that long," Shang said.

Teacher Loran groaned loudly. "Fine! Go ahead! Ask!"

"How do I reach the General Stage?" Shang asked.

For a second, teacher Loran looked at Shang with surprise.

Why?

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Well…

"How can you be so stupid?!" teacher Loran shouted. "You know very well that you are not supposed to reach the General Stage!"

"I fucking know that!" Shang shouted as he couldn't control his frustration anymore. "I'm asking so that I can specifically avoid doing that! I don't want to reach the General Stage on accident!"

The students looked with complex expressions at Shang.

Accidentally reaching the General Stage?

They were working with all their power to one day reach the General Stage, but Shang was afraid of accidentally getting there?

And what was teacher Loran's answer?

"That question could have waited for after class!" he grumbled with frustration.

"And how am I supposed to know that?!" Shang shouted. "I don't know how to reach it! So, I also don't know how much time I have left to ask!"

At the side, Astor sighed.

Why were teacher Loran's lessons always late?

Why did he always have to fall into an argument with someone right before the lessons started?

Chapter 100 Soldier To General

After a couple more minutes of arguing, Shang finally got his answer.

According to teacher Loran's explanation, to advance in the Soldier Stage required the warrior to strengthen different parts of their body.

A normal human would reach the Initial Soldier Stage by simply becoming an adult. The natural presence of Mana in the surroundings strengthened their bodies naturally to a certain extent.

Because of that, even the most normal adult already had a body on the level of a professional athlete on Earth.

Of course, reaching the Initial Soldier Stage at the age of 18 was already way too late for someone that wanted to become a warrior. If someone wanted to become a warrior, they needed to reach the Initial Soldier Stage at the age of 14, at the latest.

The way of reaching the Initial Soldier Stage early was very simple.

Normal training.

Running around, lifting some stuff, climbing stuff, whatever. As long as the child was very physically active, they would reach it early.

When Shang asked if excessive training at such a young age could have negative effects on a child's development, everyone looked at him like he was a weirdo.

After some ridicule, Shang simply swallowed his frustration.

Shang couldn't be faulted for his question. After all, on Earth, excessive physical training at such a young age could cause issues with bone development. That was also why fitness centers often only accepted kids aged 14 and up.

But, apparently, in this world, it was no concern. Shang guessed that it was the Mana that allowed kids to train so much without any issues.

To reach the Early Soldier Stage, it was necessary to train one's skin and muscles. The training of the muscles was obvious, but the training of the skin was a bit weird in Shang's mind.

However, it also made sense. If the muscles bulged too much, the sudden expansion could tear the skin. One had to remember that people in this world were far more powerful than people on Earth. On Earth, the skin had enough time to deal with the expansion of mass since it didn't happen very quickly.

In this world, it was an issue.

On top of that, if the skin weren't properly trained, it wouldn't let much Mana through. In a way, the skin was a filter for Mana, and at the base level, the skin would block a lot of Mana from entering the body.

However, the more Mana the skin of someone had, the easier it was for the body to absorb Mana. That additional absorption was imperative to reach the later levels of the Soldier Stage.

Shang remembered that he had bled quite a lot in Duke Whirlwind's garden. That was also how he had trained his skin.

To reach the Middle Soldier Stage, one needed to also train one's bones. After reaching the Early Soldier Stage, the muscles slowly closed in on having enough power to break one's own bones if they were stressed too much.

Now, how did one train one's bones?

Well, there were three methods.

Method one was to ingest Bone Dissolving Grass or medicine made out of Bone Dissolving Grass. Just as the name suggested, Bone Dissolving Grass was a poison that dissolved bone.

On Earth, such a poison would have been viewed as something insanely cruel. It could essentially cripple someone forever.

But here, it was a treasure. With Mana, one could regrow bone with quite a lot of speed.

Bone Dissolving Grass was rather common, but it was still a bit expensive due to the demand. However, it wasn't an issue for someone in the Early Soldier Stage to get enough money to buy Bone Dissolving Grass.

Sadly, that method was rather painful.

Of course, the rich people could also buy medicine made out of Bone Dissolving Grass and numbing agents to make the training much easier to handle.

The first method was the slowest one of the three methods.

The second method was to simply not train one's bones.

Not training one's bones didn't sound very conducive when the goal was to train one's bones, but, ironically, it actually worked.

If someone simply continued training their body, at one point, their own muscles would break their bones one by one, and that would strengthen them.

However, nearly no one did that. After all, not all the bones would be broken by the muscles. Chest muscles and head muscles needed a lot of time and training to become powerful enough to break their respective bones.

The third method was the simplest.

Just break your bones and ingest healing medicine.

It was very straightforward, but in a way, it was also the hardest to pull off. Not everyone had the willpower to straight-up break their own bones.

It was also very dangerous. After all, if a bone broke in a weird way, it could cause internal bleeding, which would quickly spell the death of the warrior if they didn't receive immediate healing.

Because of that, nearly no one used the third method. It was cruel and dangerous.

But wait!

If this were so dangerous, how did Shang manage to pull it off in such a reckless manner without dying?

It was his warrior's body, obviously. His mind didn't consume a large amount of Mana in comparison to people without a warrior's body. Additionally, Shang had always overfilled his Mana storages before injuring himself.

Other people avoided overfilling their Mana storages. After all, if they did, they would be forced into nearly killing themselves with no way back. Humans generally didn't like being in a situation where they had to do something drastic to survive, and they definitely didn't like putting themselves into such a situation.

If their willpower weren't powerful enough, they would die.

This was how one reached the Middle Soldier Stage.

To reach the Late Soldier Stage, one needed to train their blood.

Yes, blood came from the bone marrow, but just breaking the bone wasn't enough to strengthen the production and quality of blood.

In order to do that, one needed to bleed… a lot.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ The body had to essentially fall into a bloodless crisis. The body had to be in a situation where, if it didn't up its blood production, it would die.

After upping the blood production by a lot, and if that still weren't enough, the body would switch from quantity to quality, allowing less blood to carry more Mana and nutrients.

When both things had been achieved to a sufficient degree, one would have reached the Late Soldier Stage.

Most people reached that level by ingesting Mana Inhibition Powder.

Mana Inhibition Powder made the transportation of Mana very difficult for someone. If a normal person ingested that powder, they would probably die since Mana was an essential component to survival.

However, if a Mid Soldier Stage warrior ingested it, they would simply lose consciousness.

The body would notice that it couldn't transfer enough Mana, so it upped the blood production and its quality. It was essentially a way to train one's blood without bleeding.

Of course, the other way to train one's blood was to simply bleed a lot.

Shang had bled quite a bit.

To reach the Peak Soldier Stage, one needed to train one's organs.

The common method to train one's organs was to simply ingest several different kinds of medicine, which were quite expensive. However, a warrior at that Stage could earn a lot of money already.

After ingesting the medicine, they would only need to meditate and gather Mana while their organs would slowly be dissolved.

As long as someone meditated, it wasn't dangerous, but it could get dangerous if someone were interrupted.

That was also why the academy forbade other students from breaking down the door of another student.

Of course, the other way to reach that level was to simply injure one's organs the normal way.

That method was a bit more dangerous and painful.

And finally, how did one reach the Second Realm, the General Stage?

The heart.

The heart was the crux.

The heart required much more training than all the other organs, and the heart also acted as a major storage for Mana in this world.

In order to train the heart, one either needed to continually injure their entire body again and again to put it under stress or directly injure the heart itself, which was very dangerous.

Of course, if someone didn't want to do that, they could also ingest a type of medicine that accomplished that.

The medicine had a name that Shang found quite funny.

It was called Heartburn Medicine.

Back when Soran had inspected Shang's body, he had checked up on how far along exactly Shang was in his training.

According to Soran, Shang was around 60% done with his heart.

If Shang wanted to reach the General Stage, he would need to destroy his entire body at least another 40 times. As long as he avoided doing that, he would be able to remain in the Soldier Stage.

After everything had been explained to Shang, teacher Loran started the lesson.

And the very first thing teacher Loran did was to put Shang into a fight.

Against whom?

Astor.