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

didn't have the

there was something they could

critical frontlines, even when great

expected of them but didn't go beyond. They simply did the bare minimum and tried to stay

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

had given

respect them, they also wouldn't

slow changes, the frontlines between the Skythunder

the Council was forced to lower

no way

they had done previously had been done in the shadows. If they announced now that they were no longer

the world over the years, but for Shang, nothing

deep in the Caves, working on his

Sword

politics still included him, but he was

By now, there were many Early True Path Stage warriors and even a couple of

warriors that reached Mervin's

if Count Sword actually existed, he would only

might have been outstanding back then, but would he still be

himself? True Path Stage warriors needed resources and experience. Wouldn't he

even if Shang knew about all of this,

working

day, and Shang could see the sheer power his

remained deep in the

later, some bad news

Ranos had died.

been killed by

take a deep breath

was the future he

the few people he knew

thing he could

most important

later,

likely been killed

Soran had never truly been Shang's biggest fan, but it was still

other student, the woman Viera, had been

overboard while hunting beasts

also wouldn't stay alive

looked like the Council was systematically getting rid of all the important

year later,

Day of Chaos, and she had also been the one

seen her

year later, Mattheo

had hit

had been his sole heir, and he had

Stage warrior and a powerful Peak

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

that had been

too powerful, and he was

biggest

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

Shang needed

Jerald's life,