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

That medium was Spells.

powerful Spells. Most of the time, this

Part four: Practice.

time, this was the shortest part of their

Part five: Inspiration.

and

fighting a powerful opponent, someone's mind and body would reach their full potential, allowing their minds to come up with and combine

out and fight someone that was

there wasn't a set rule as to how powerful an opponent

a combination

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

fights were

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

opponent, very great

opponent, very little

the reason why so many Mages died to old age was

lives, leaving the fifth part

become an Archmage without risking one's life, but

needed to risk

Concepts, create Spells, practice,

of training

the nine Named Agents in this branch

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

currently

which was why they meditated in some isolated locations in

three people focusing on creating 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 snatch up some good missions and practice their

two and part three of training often happened in short bursts of alternating

two people playing some sort of board game against