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.

only counted as that, a concept. One understood the Concept, but before one could make full use of

That medium was Spells.

to create several powerful Spells. Most of

Part four: Practice.

Most of the time, this was the shortest

Part five: Inspiration.

was the last and

full potential, allowing their

out and fight someone that was a genuine threat to

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

a combination of risk and

oneself, the more one had to push

fights were extremely

some scattered insights by some slight scares here

opponent, very great

weak opponent, very little

to

were simply too scared to risk their lives, leaving the fifth part

without risking one's life, but only the smartest and richest people could

overwhelming majority still needed to risk

create

the cycle of training for

Named Agents in

the ten people in this branch, three were on

seven that remain, three were currently focusing on

was why they meditated in some

the process. If they got interrupted, they would, at

part three of training often happened in short bursts of alternating

two people playing some sort of board