Sword God in a World of Magic

A couple of minutes later, Shang left the Caves and went to where Jerald was currently.

Jerald simply handed Shang several large books, and Shang left for the Caves again.

As soon as he came back, Shang read through all the books.

These books were Spell Compendiums, and they basically listed every standard True Mage Spell known to the Skythunder Kingdom.

Something like that would go for an extraordinary price, but Jerald just gave them to Shang.

Sure, these Spell Compendiums were extremely valuable, but their value was still perceived in gold.

Shang could hunt True Path Stage beasts. If he wanted to repay Jerald, he would only need to hand over a single corpse, and he would have repaid far more than he owed.

Naturally, Shang wasn't interested in learning Magic. He only looked at the Spells and how they worked to gain inspiration for his techniques.

Shang was no longer on a level where he needed to learn other people's techniques. No, he needed to create his own techniques.

Additionally, with Shang's powerful Path, he was more than qualified to create such techniques.

Over the next two years, Shang's Path didn't make much progress. He was fully focused on coming up with new techniques and trying to manipulate his Mana and Affinities well enough to actually use them.

He created a couple of duds, but he also found a couple of useful ones.

After coming up with a good framework for his future fighting style, Shang went on to make his new fighting style an actual reality.

The beginning was hard since this was a new field for Shang.

Three years later, Shang had only made marginal progress.

At least, that was how it felt.

When Shang actually looked at the Star Map, he noticed something.

The Shards that had symbolized Shang's different Affinities were starting to connect to Shang's Paths.

This didn't increase the actual progress of his Path but made it wider and more powerful.

By now, all four Paths were even wider than Mervin's Path, showing their ridiculous power.

Shang realized that he was onto something big, and his determination to continue pursuing this path only increased.

Five years later, Shang managed to fully integrate his Affinities with his Paths.

In the last ten or so years, Shang's Path hadn't advanced upward but had gotten far wider.

Right now, Shang's Path was still stuck at a bit more than 50%, but it couldn't be compared to its earlier version.

From this point onward, Shang focused on progressing his Path again with its new width.

Over the past couple of years, even more True Path Stage warriors and High Mages appeared.

Sadly, the number of deaths amongst the True Path Stage warriors rose.

They started to be sent on reckless missions or just mysteriously vanished.

Most of all, the warriors that died were all warriors that were not too happy with the Mages.

warriors started to realize that the Council

simply didn't have the power

was something they

on the critical frontlines, even when great rewards were

expected of them but didn't go beyond. They simply did the

new power or show themselves in public. When nobody knew that

had given

leaders didn't respect them, they

Skythunder Kingdom and the Magic Purity Kingdom became bloody

on the Skythunder Kingdom increased, and the Council was forced to lower the pressure they put

way to announce

been done in the shadows. If they announced now that they were no longer doing these things,

changing in the world over the years, but for Shang, nothing

deep in the Caves, working on

Count Sword had been completely

lectures on politics still included him, but he

very powerful and talented Peak Commander Stage warrior. By now, there

even a couple of warriors that reached Mervin's level

even if Count Sword actually existed, he would only be a relic of the

have been outstanding back then, but would he

Path Stage yet? Wouldn't he have shown himself? True Path Stage warriors needed resources and experience. Wouldn't he want

even if Shang knew about all of this, he

working

by day, and Shang could see the sheer

remained deep in the

years later, some bad news reached

Ranos had died.

been killed by the

take a deep breath and

was the future he had

the few

only thing he could do was

most important thing

later,

likely

Vice-Dean. Soran had never truly been Shang's biggest fan, but it was still sad to see one of George's

student, the woman Viera, had

had gone overboard while hunting

that she also wouldn't stay

like the Council was systematically getting rid of all the important people in the old Warrior's

later, Teacher Niria

one that gave Shang the quota for the Day of Chaos, and she

hadn't seen her in

year later, Mattheo

had hit Jerald very

sole heir, and he had

warrior and a powerful

had probably been the most powerful person in the Commander Stage aside

that had

and he was Jerald's

the biggest threat

though Jerald's son died, he had never urged Shang

knew that Shang needed

left Jerald's life, and it