Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang noticed that the barrier before him started to distort under the pressure.

Shang pulled his hand back and healed himself to his peak.

He had filled the barrier with an unreal amount of Death Mana, and it wouldn't stop absorbing Mana anytime soon.

Shang watched the barrier distort more and more until…

BANG!

The barrier shattered.

WHOOOOOOM!

As the entire barrier around the trial vanished, all the wet ground surrounding it suddenly imploded, filling the spots that had been filled with normal air until now.

In the short moment when the barrier had been destroyed but the earth hadn't yet filled in the empty space, Shang had been able to feel his surroundings with his Spirit Sense.

The image Shang had seen was of a rather large room with several pitfalls, several Magic Circles, and several platforms.

Shang assumed that this had probably been some kind of trial where people had to find out how the Magic Circles worked to divine the correct way across the platforms and pitfalls.

But now…

As soon as the barrier broke, all the earth rushed into the room, destroying the platforms, filling the pitfalls, and disrupting almost all the Magic Circles.

Shang remained standing on his spot for a couple of seconds until all the ground around him had calmed down.

Then, Shang took out the emblem and looked at the arrow.

Diagonally down.

Shang hadn't seen his target in the brief moment before the earth had filled in the gaps, which meant that his target was inside a different challenge within the trial.

Shang remembered where one of the doors had been and dug towards that spot by punching more dirt.

None of the pitfalls, platforms, and Magic Circles worked anymore.

Some seconds later, Shang reached the doorway, and one punch later, the door opened slightly.

WHOOOM!

The door immediately exploded outward, and the earth around Shang rushed into the opened doorway.

Shang simply continued punching forward.

BANG!

After one particular punch, Shang noticed that he had destroyed something that wasn't the normal kind of ground.

of marble

that went upward,

out the emblem again and looked at

Diagonally down.

turned around, punched through the door, through the room, and then through the

noticed that the angle was

that this stairway led

just about to kick diagonally

He realized something.

looked at the arrow again and oriented himself perfectly in

adhere to the planned layout if he was already accidentally

forward, and the more he advanced, the more the arrow was moving left

target was moving

prepared himself for a

Yet, nothing was happening.

arrow started to move rapidly when Shang was just moving

his target was essentially directly in

already

his arms forward

then, he saw

a small cube of bloody meat surrounding a

wasn't particularly surprised about

Mages couldn't permanently resist the pressure

was even deeper

more brutal than the pressure in the

top of that, the Cloud had probably

Mana Shield had

Mana had already been

pressure of the sudden explosion of earth had killed her and compressed her into this tiny cube of

was the body of an Early Ancestral

Not very strong.

as Shang's body had been at the Mid

to Shang, it was

under

imagine how a Mage's body

of the cube

'Pretty good,' he thought.

a couple of Grade Seven Mana

the cube of meat to

layout of the trial and kept checking

that he wasn't destroying marble anymore and turned

through the highest layer of the trial until he found

led to an inconspicuous spot at

This was the exit.

turned around again and

and after opening it, he began to