Sword God in a World of Magic

More days passed, and although Shang became better and better, he still didn't win even once.

Shang had come across another problem.

A lot of his opponents were now using Mana Push.

Mana Push was a common Element-neutral defensive Spell. It created something like a force field around one of the Adept's arms, which extended outward by quite a bit.

Mana Push was the very technique Duke Whirlwind used to deal with the Exploding Mountain Turtle's attacks. He had created a huge forcefield and used it to bat the stones of the Exploding Mountain Turtle away like they were pebbles.

Of course, the Mana Push of these Adepts was nowhere near as overwhelmingly powerful as Duke Whirlwind's, but it was still troublesome.

Using Mana Push didn't waste as much Mana as receiving a hit to one's Mana Shield. However, it was harder to utilize since the Adept actually had to anticipate Shang's movements somewhat.

If they messed up their Mana Push, they would have wasted their Mana in using Mana Push while also receiving an attack to their Mana Shield.

Since Shang's opponents were now using Mana Push, Shang's progress was thrown back.

By now, Shang could barely waste 60% of his opponent's Mana.

However, Shang wasn't stupid, and he had realized something.

His initial opponents had been very clumsy, and they hadn't used Mana Push.

But now, his opponents were using Mana Push confidently.

This meant that Shang's opponents had been upgraded.

He was no longer fighting the trash portion of the Adepts but the average ones.

When Shang had just fought against his first few opponents, he had only managed to use up around 50% of their Mana, and these opponents had been the worst Adepts.

Now, he managed to waste 60% of the Mana of average Adepts.

Shang had made progress!

Several more days passed, and Shang learned to deal with Mana Push better.

There were three levels to dealing with Mana Push.

First level: Somewhat avoiding it and quickly charging towards the Adept's new location after they used Mana Step.

Second level: Avoiding Mana Push with a lot of confidence and making the Adept use even more Mana by forcing them to use a Mana Step with all their power.

Third level: Nullifying Mana Push and hitting the opponent's Mana Shield before they vanished with Mana Step.

After five days, Shang managed to confidently reach the first level. By now, he wasn't thrown to the ground anymore by being hit by Mana Push.

After several more days, Shang managed to reach the second level a couple of times, but before he could continue, he had to take a break.

17 days had already passed, which meant that the academy's auction would take place now.

Viera left to deal with several things. After all, she had been down here for over two weeks.

Shang retreated to his room and sat down.

One would think that Shang wanted to relax after 17 days of constant battle, but that was far from the truth.

Shang saw his own progress, and he became addicted to it.

More power!

He wanted more power!

He was making so much progress!

Shang wanted to continue fighting right now, but he had to wait until the room became free again.

have to wait with nothing to

Shang's room with

and gave him a

a General Stage warrior, Shang's mind was also slowly growing. By now, his mind

Apprentice Realm wasn't impressive, but it was still a step

left, Shang looked through

was almost like they

Spell required Shang to simply gather Fire

Fire and Ice Mana, but he hadn't yet been able to absorb these kinds of Mana from the

test if Shang had the same abilities as people with

sat down and concentrated on

Duke Whirlwind, but he was also doing this

but there surely were

Mage's power was 100%

power was 0% magical and

magic warrior's power was

he planned on making his power 10% magical

mind ran out, he wasn't helpless. Because of that, even though his Mana reserves for his mind were pitifully small, he could attempt to gain a one-time boost per battle by

Affinity to move to the side to change the angle of

Step to

Step, he could probably avoid an additional

to Adepts, but this one Mana Step could

Shang had to become

easy Spells came at just

that moment, Shang

of his techniques. The Adepts were overwhelming him, even though he was nearly perfect at

so much technique could

to upgrade some part of his power, and one

Viera returned

was absolutely sure by now that he could

that there

General Stage warriors didn't need

oxygen fueled their entire being, and the Mana also changed

returned to

some progress in his Spell casting,

was still quite a bit off from using an actual

Shang practiced dealing with Mana Push and learning all the different Spells his opponents were

one Elemental Spell, and Shang saw new Spells

was certain that these Adepts

Shang managed to confidently deplete 80% of his opponents'

Only a bit more!

Shang was so close

Only a bit more!

that was the last

Shang became shocked.

The last one?

entire month

manage to win even once,"

"Are you surprised?"

around as he heard a

the Dean, stood at

voice of a pleading

at

Viera said as she excitedly

"You're really impressive, Shang! In just one month, you became one of the best students our academy has ever had when it comes to

of the best? I didn't even win against an

Viera only smiled brightly.

the Dean. "Can I tell

raised an eyebrow while the Dean

"You've not been fighting Initial

a second, Shang's mind