Sword God in a World of Magic

It took Shang a while to calm down, but there was still a certain feeling of emptiness and regret inside of him.

Yet, this was what he had chosen.

For his goal, any kind of sacrifice was worth it.

Surprisingly, no new opponent had appeared in the last couple of minutes, even though Shang had already "won" against his previous one.

Shang slowly stood up and gripped Sword tightly.

Even if everything else vanished, Sword would be with him until the end.

The two of them didn't need to exchange words to make their feelings known.

"Took you guys long enough," the jester said with a grin.

Shang didn't look over.

"How long have we been training?"

The jester's grin widened.

"Five years."

Silence.

Five years.

They had been training for five full years.

That was so long!

For a second, Shang couldn't believe what he had just heard, but then he remembered how endlessly time had dragged on.

Five years actually made sense.

"And even after five years," Shang said, "I still couldn't beat him fairly."

The jester's grin didn't vanish. "Of course not," he said.

"His kind are the very reason why I sent you guys into my main world in the first place."

Shang looked over at the jester.

"Hardworking geniuses," the God said. "They use whatever they can get and perfect it. Yet, his body is weak. He is one of the very rare true geniuses, but his lack of a powerful body makes it impossible for him to fight any Mage or beast that is not completely worthless."

"The path of the warrior has deteriorated to a degree where mastering the entire thing only makes you equal to the worst Mages in the world."

"It is your duty to expand the warrior's path. Give the geniuses more to master, and they won't disappoint you."

"Your predecessor accepted the first Path he found, not trying to strengthen or widen it."

help, he will never reach the Fifth Realm. His Path is just

took a deep breath when he heard

God was obviously talking about

the aid of someone far more powerful than

other warrior to reevaluate himself," the jester added. "He saw that your predecessor couldn't rival the Mages or beasts, and he realized that there is more to

he would have advanced

years later, he

already condensed his Path, and even if he is still working on it, there are no fitting beasts

silent for

no

always a way," he said with a laugh. "I designed this world to always have a

still powerful, they simply ingested a

"Are there

"The Mages destroyed everything. You won't find a single

as I've said,

them," the jester said with a

silent as he just

the Teacher Mervin that helped him had not been

long as there is a way, all

strengthened his grip on his

for the next fight,"

The jester didn't answer.

began to

Stage

at the jester again. "You don't count the last fight as

jester said. "You didn't rely on my power. Also, your progress pleases me, and I don't want to

'Progress, huh?' Shang thought.

I make any progress? Honestly, I

SHING!

that moment,

long sword in his hands, just like Teacher Mervin. Surprisingly, he wore clothes

that this was a barbarian, but he knew that wouldn't

wasn't carrying a heavy weapon but

basically didn't qualify as opponents in this trial. They were neither warriors nor beasts, and they were worse than

person in front of Shang

their own,

some hermit warrior would be among

jester lifted his hammer and

DING!

warrior opened his eyes and looked

sword to the side, creating a screeching noise by cutting the

movements had

entered a

BANG!

And suddenly exploded forward.

narrowed his right eye and also

of them charged at each other,

seemed to bend in the air and move