Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang slowly opened his eyes in the real world.

Shang was inside his room in the academy's basement, which wasn't very pleasant to look at. There was only a table, some chairs, and a bed. That was about it. It looked more like a fancy prison cell than an actual room.

The Dean noticed that Shang was back and looked at him.

"How did it go?" he asked.

Shang looked at his teacher.

"22 points."

The Dean nodded. "That's better than I expected. I feared that the weak Middle General Stage beast would be too much for you, and I also expected you to fail your fight against the Average Early Adept."

"It seems I underestimated you."

"I assume you used your peculiar Ability to gain three free points?"

Shang nodded, but his brows furrowed.

At this moment, the procedure and its effects went through Shang's head.

The procedure had upgraded his body by one level, which essentially granted him three additional points per category, giving him nine free points.

Then, his Affinity gave him three additional free points.

So, the procedure and his Affinity had given Shang twelve points in total.

Shang had left the trial with 22 points, and if he subtracted the twelve free points, he would be at ten points.

In short, without these two things, Shang's Battle-Strength was about as powerful as the Dean's Battle-Strength had been back then.

"You seem to be unhappy with your results," the Dean said as he noticed Shang's expression.

"The only reason why I got so many points was the procedure and my Affinity," Shang said. "Without them, I would have only gotten as many points as you, and several of those fights had been incredibly close."

The Dean's expression didn't change.

"So, you are disappointed that you only are as strong as the strongest and most talented warrior in the world," the Dean said.

Shang listened to his teacher, but he didn't look at him.

that it might not be "appropriate" to feel bad about

Shang just

He wanted more.

Shang," the Dean said. "If I had access to the procedure for myself, I would be able to fight the strongest High

at

sound very

even more advantages than just their Mana

but it's the truth," the Dean said. "Don't forget that the strongest aspects of us warriors are our techniques and our battle experience. At the moment, the gulf regarding the baseline is so wide that technique won't be able to change anything, but if that gulf can be closed just by a little bit, all the techniques

if the High Mages have even more advantages, you can diminish a lot of their advantages with hard work,

on the level of Duke Whirlwind or

procedure, and if I were on their

additional advantages are the only reasons why I can't directly

lightly, Shang," the Dean said with a cold gaze. "You don't know what it means to be on

to his teacher in

the truth or if he was only trying to appear more impressive to

reward?" the Dean

in Shang's hand, but he didn't

this was Shang's

the book and looked at

the Battle-Strength of all General Stage warriors

also help

his hand, waiting for Shang to hand the book

are supposed to do," Shang said

hand didn't retreat immediately,

Dean asked with a glint

had a… talk.

I

had met the God, and he knew how unstable

knew very well that Shang

wanted to take a look at it, and if

over a century, which made the God almost

God

there was someone watching their every move and that someone could end their existence with a

Dean pulled the book back and skimmed

also had a warrior's body, but his mind was still on the level

minutes, the Dean finished reading through the

closed the book and

Silence.

Dean only looked at the wall as he