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

they simply didn't have the power to go against the

was something

on the critical frontlines, even when great rewards were

warriors only did the necessary things that were expected of them but didn't go beyond. They simply did the bare minimum and tried to

in public. When nobody knew that they existed, they couldn't be forced to fight on

they had given

didn't respect them, they also wouldn't show

the Skythunder Kingdom and the Magic Purity Kingdom

the Council was forced to lower the pressure they put on

was no way

were no longer

over the years, but for Shang,

still deep in the Caves, working

now, Count Sword

general lectures on politics still included him, but he was basically only a footnote, and nobody really

he had been only a very powerful and talented Peak Commander Stage warrior. By now, there were many Early True Path Stage warriors and even a couple of Mid

a couple of warriors that reached Mervin's

Sword actually existed, he would only be

outstanding back then, but would

Wouldn't he have shown himself? True Path Stage warriors needed resources and experience. Wouldn't he want to fight Mages? How

Shang knew about all of

was working on

day, and Shang could see the sheer power his Path

in the underground, and more time

years later, some bad news reached

Ranos had died.

had most likely been killed by

a deep breath and

future he

more of the few people he knew would leave

only thing he could

the most

year later, Soran

most likely been

Shang's biggest fan, but

the woman Viera, had been

had gone overboard while hunting beasts and had

she also wouldn't

getting rid of all the important people in the old

later,

Day of Chaos, and she had also been the one

seen her in

year

hit Jerald

he had had a

Commander Stage warrior and a powerful Peak True

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

exactly that had been

was too powerful, and he

the biggest threat to the

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

needed a

Jerald's life, and it was very