Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang only looked at Duke Whirlwind. "A lot of things happened, and I came back with a lot of information regarding the Grandmountain Kingdom."

Duke Whirlwind looked at Shang with a complex expression.

He wasn't sure if Shang understood what he had actually meant.

However, Duke Whirlwind was also interested in what actually happened to Shang in the last decade. What could change someone to such a degree?

Shang told Duke Whirlwind basically everything except for the trial and the Abominations. He only used the Abominations once, which was when he escaped from the Grandmountain Kingdom initially.

As Duke Whirlwind listened more to Shang's story, his focus shifted to the actual intelligence Shang brought back.

The information he brought back was monumental!

How the barbarians trained.

The way the Grandmountain Kingdom organized its forces.

Insight into the distribution of their forces.

And, most importantly, the method the Mages had created to stack so many Strengthening Spells on a single barbarian.

Shang had been that researcher's plaything for several months, and he had also been under the effect of these Spells while assaulting the Plague Rat Zone.

During these months, he had learned a lot about how the Mages accomplished these things.

When Shang came to the part where he killed Lash, Duke Whirlwind noticed that something wasn't right.

Doing this was unlike the Shang he had just heard of a minute ago.

Duke Whirlwind would have bet that Shang would have simply trusted Lash. After all, he was an old friend, and the Mages wouldn't even interrogate him.

Duke Whirlwind even remembered hearing about a similar incident before Shang had left.

A couple of students of the Warrior's Academy had found out about Shang's Affinity, but even at the behest of the Dean, Shang had decided to keep them alive.

That risk was far greater than the risk Lash had posed, but Shang had still let them go.

arrived at the Grandmountain Kingdom, he didn't seem much different from

and returned, it was like

must have happened in the Tide Serpent Zone, and that something was the catalyst for Shang's rapid

what could have motivated Shang to change that drastically in

noticed that Shang didn't

killed several weak people that had

slim, and if Shang wanted

simply leaving,

the way Shang was talking, it seemed to

was like, in his mind, this was the only thing

was the only solution he could come up with

risk that he now even perceives a minor inconvenience as a risk and treats it as such, regardless of the cost?'

the impact. It's like he is forcing himself to do these things just to prove something

through Duke Whirlwind's mind, but he

been like this, but he hadn't

Shang was

it out of his being, isolated the

though Duke Whirlwind was old and knew a lot about people,

narrating, the

seems more and more like George,' Duke

don't think that's a good thing. I'm pretty sure it would be better if he could get some empathy back, even if it were for

thoughts for a bit, but in

my business,' he thought helplessly. 'I'm not his teacher or father. It's not my place

and I should afford him the

hope that he won't become an enemy

thoughts were pulled

been ambushed in the Empress Cobra

Whirlwind's eyes became colder as he heard Shang narrate the battle, which had been

Whirlwind had to keep his facial expressions in check as Shang told him how easy

see it as

It was just normal.

a bit

more

Shang's aura, the more he realized how threatening it actually

more shocked when he