Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang walked back to the defensive line. Even though the fight hadn't been ended by him, he had still gained some knowledge.

Now, he truly knew how annoying the Trash Birds were.

Shang now knew exactly why every single hunter avoided fighting Trash Birds.

They were worth nothing.

They mainly focused on running away.

And their defensive weapons were at the peak of being annoying and painful.

It was like that species specifically evolved to be as unappealing to humans as possible.

It was ugly, useless, annoying, loud, and worthless.

An animal from Earth with equivalent status and worth would probably be a rat.

Of course, a Trash Bird was still much stronger than a rat.

'I would have only needed to resist two more attacks. I should have been able to avoid the next attack with another Blast of mine. The last attack would have been up in the air, but even if it hit me, its feet had already been injured quite badly. Even if it hit me, I would have probably survived.'

'I think I had a good chance at victory.'

'That's one step closer to fighting an actually powerful Initial General Stage beast.'

Shang's brows furrowed.

'However, there is only so much I can improve on. I have already reached the greatest speed possible, and my body has also reached its peak. There are only two ways to increase my power without advancing in my Realm or undergoing the procedure.'

'First, specific knowledge and experience regarding my target. I'm already very experienced in fighting beasts in general, but I don't have a specialized fighting tactic for every single beast I can fight.'

'After today, I learned a lot about the Trash Bird, and the next time, it will be even easier. At that point, I will have created a specific technique to deal with it.'

'That's one way to increase my power.'

'The other way is to work on my Affinity. At the moment, I can use my Affinity for speed and flexibility, but I don't have a good way to turn it into a direct weapon.'

Shang looked at his left arm.

'I've been training on my Affinity for a while now, and I can feel that I'm getting close to being able to concentrate it. If I manage to achieve that, I can increase my offensive power by a lot.'

'However, the price of my Affinity will make it harder for me to increase my speed if I also use it offensively. The attack with my Affinity could only be used as a finishing blow, and if the opponent manages to evade that, I will be in trouble since I can't increase my speed anymore for quite some time.'

'But that's about it.'

Shang snorted.

a more sophisticated way is literally what a Mage does. So, to increase

up on the warrior's path and learn Magic. Even I can see how much a proper control of my Affinity can

the defensive line again. Sure enough, everyone was

Peak and Late General Stage beasts had joined, and most of the

on the sidelines had either already finished their fights

smirked. "Boy, we heard that Trash Bird from here. So, how was it? How was your first Trash Bird?" the hunter

"Annoying," Shang grumbled.

shouted with laughter. "Anyway, you should know that the Trash Bird's excrement can increase potency.

looked at the hunter,

only smirked. "You should go grab some. You will earn

only looked at the

another Spire Mire thing?"

to keep his laughter in check. "No," he

looked at

seems like he won't fall for your shit anymore," a hunter beside Chuck shouted with

the

hunter said. "Your name's Shang, right? Would you be

at the other hunters and noticed that none

with Early General Stage hunters. They exclusively hunted Early General Stage beasts, which

let him join meant that they valued his

have to decline," Shang

the team

hunters only sighed, but they had expected something like that. They hadn't asked Shang previously, but Shang seemed like someone that wasn't

good

Shang looked at Chuck.

know, it's already amazing that you can kill a weak Initial General Stage beast on your own, but that won't keep working forever," Chuck said. "You should know that their bodies become more and more powerful than ours the stronger everyone

current pace, you might still be able to kill a Mid General Stage beast while being at the Early General Stage, but as soon as you fight a Late General Stage beast, you

the Commander Stage, you would already count as one of the strongest hunters in the entire

it becomes completely impossible at the

see that Chuck genuinely worried

several times. It was like he was trying to repay Shang for the joke

bitter smile. "We are fighting with the very thing the beasts have the advantage in. Our intelligence and tactics can only achieve so much. At some point,

Exploding Mountain Turtle a year

Shang nodded.

True Path

saw the fight with your own

Shang nodded again.

Exploding Mountain Turtle had

Dean had been

best he had managed was to cut some stone off the