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.

a concept. One understood the Concept, but before one could make full use of the Concept, one needed

That medium was Spells.

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.

the Mage would find some weak opponents and become familiar with using their Spells during stressful situations. Most of the time, this was the shortest part of their training, but

Part five: Inspiration.

and most dangerous part of

would reach their full potential, allowing their minds to come up with and combine

they could go out and fight someone that

a set rule as

was simply a combination

to oneself,

fights were

gain some scattered insights by some slight scares here and there when the opponent

dangerous opponent,

weak opponent, very

many Mages died to old age was precisely this part of

their lives, leaving the fifth part of one's

possible to become an Archmage without risking one's life, but

needed to risk their

resources, comprehend Concepts, create Spells, practice,

the cycle of training

Named Agents in

in this branch, three were on leave, focusing on comprehending their

were currently focusing on creating Spells

which was why they meditated

got interrupted, they would, at most, lose

the people here, part two and part three of training often happened

the middle of the hall were two people playing some