Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang slowly walked down some wooden stairs. The entrance he had walked through was near the top of the hall.

Of the seven people currently inside the hall, three were inside their small homes.

Nine of the ten people associated with this branch had a lot of ambition and wanted to grow more powerful. That's why most people were always busy with their own training.

Shang was no longer in some separate Area made for developing different Paths.

No, this was the real world, and the millennia of knowledge known to humanity were not a secret here.

While the weak humans in Area 23 had only trained in isolation and with some materials, the stronger and more experienced Mages here did more.

For these people, their journey toward power was divided into five parts.

Part one: Gain resources.

Training without assisting resources was just making it more difficult for no reason. The quicker one managed to achieve their goals in their training, the more time they had left in their life.

Around 10% of all High Mages didn't die to some beast or other Mage, but due to their longevity running out.

With only 500 years in total, everyone had to work on their own power with a lot of enthusiasm. Otherwise, all the training would have been for nothing.

Yet, resources were extremely expensive.

Because of that, a huge part of someone's journey to power was about gaining the resources to expedite their training.

Part two: Comprehending Concepts.

After the person got their resources, they would focus on comprehending their next Concept. With the help of the resources they had gained earlier, the Mages could save several decades in this process.

Getting resources for a full decade could pay off big time by saving five decades of meditation.

Part three: Creating Spells.

Concept, but before one could make full use of the

That medium was Spells.

a Concept, the Mage would use the knowledge they had gained to create several powerful Spells. Most of the time, this didn't take as long as comprehending the

Part four: Practice.

and become familiar with using their Spells during stressful situations. Most of the time, this was the shortest

Part five: Inspiration.

and most dangerous

body would reach their full potential, allowing their

they were progressing way too slowly, they could go out and fight someone that was a genuine threat to them. Like this, they would be pushed to their limits, and they would unearth all their

as to how powerful an

simply a combination of

the opponent was in relation to oneself, the more one had to push oneself to

fights were

take a slightly dangerous opponent and gain some scattered insights by some slight scares here and there when

dangerous opponent,

weak opponent,

why so many Mages died to old age was precisely this part

to risk their lives, leaving the fifth part of one's journey to power

become an Archmage without risking one's life, but only the smartest and

overwhelming majority still needed to risk their lives at

comprehend Concepts, create Spells, practice,

was the cycle of

Agents in this branch were all very

were on leave, focusing on comprehending their

three were currently

needed their peace, which was why they meditated in

their Spells were still here because they didn't need to fully focus on the process. If they got interrupted, they would, at most, lose around three minutes of work while still getting the opportunity to

three of training often happened in short bursts of

of the hall were two people playing some sort of board game against each