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 shot past

entered a hallway with a stairway that went upward, and he had just

took out the emblem again and looked

Diagonally down.

the door, through the room, and then through the

the angle was different, which meant that

that this stairway

kick

He realized something.

again and oriented

need to adhere to the planned layout if he was already

advanced, the more

target was moving but that he was getting

himself for a battle as he

Yet, nothing was happening.

started to move rapidly when Shang was just

that his target was essentially directly in

arms could already

moved his arms forward

then, he saw

a small cube of bloody meat

wasn't particularly surprised about

permanently resist the pressure at the bottom

spot was even deeper

the pressure underground was even more brutal than the pressure in

had probably been taken by surprise while undertaking the

Mana Shield had

Mana had already been

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

strong was the body of an Early

Not very strong.

was probably about as strong as Shang's body had been at

Shang, it

body was already under quite a lot of

could imagine how a

Space Ring out of the cube of

'Pretty good,' he thought.

were worth quite a couple of Grade Seven Mana Crystals. Way better than the

meat to the

of the trial and kept checking what kind of

noticed that he wasn't destroying

through the highest layer of the trial

led to an inconspicuous spot at the bottom of

This was the exit.

around again and followed

he found a door, and after opening it, he began to dig