Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang was still visible, but the tortoise couldn't sense him.

That was because Shang had used the Light and Darkness Concepts to hide from Spirit Senses.

Yet, if one had eyes, they would still be able to see him.

But since the true tortoise was buried inside the thick layer of armor, it couldn't look at Shang with its actual eyes.

This essentially made Shang invisible to the tortoise.

At least until it somehow managed to look at the real world with its eyes.

And if it did that, Shang would very quickly realize where the real tortoise was.

The pressure on Shang's back reduced by a lot, but he still had to avoid the projectiles.

In a certain way, avoiding the projectiles now became even more draining on his concentration since he couldn't anticipate a projectile's trajectory anymore. After all, it was random.

But Shang still preferred it this way.

Shang recovered his Death Mana and used Injection to get as deeply into the tortoise as possible, but he could barely penetrate just a couple of kilometers of its ridiculously thick armor.

Once more, Shang couldn't win the battle because his Affinity couldn't be revealed.

If he could use his Domain of Entropy, he could dig through the tortoise's body while weakening the projectiles so much that his body could resist them.

Additionally, if Shang could use Fate, he could easily bisect the tortoise, which would allow him to pinpoint the location of the real beast.

But as things stood now, he didn't have enough power to break through the armor.

The stone and metal that the tortoise left in the arena quickly turned into Earth and Metal Mana again, which rapidly got reabsorbed by the tortoise.

Shang could try destroying the will on the Mana, but that wouldn't do a lot. The tortoise would just absorb more Mana from the ground and air.

After he considered all of this, Shang was actually glad that he had such an opponent.

This tortoise allowed Shang to work on his offense without being just a target dummy.

'The fish bird was a perfect opponent, and now this tortoise is also a perfect opponent. Is this just a coincidence?'

Shang wasn't sure.

It was possible that the Thunder King was sending in just the right opponents.

Shang continued fighting against the tortoise for several years, launching one attack after the other.

He was using the tortoise's armor as a way to gauge how strong his attacks were, and it proved to be quite helpful.

As the years passed, Shang managed to get deeper and deeper into the tortoise's body.

After 20 years, Shang managed to get two kilometers deeper than before. Assuming the real tortoise was in the middle of the bigger tortoise's body, Shang only needed to get through another six kilometers of armor.

Every time, Shang used a perfectly prepared Sword Heart with all his Death Mana using the Concept of Weakness.

Another 20 years later, Shang managed to get another two kilometers deeper.

In comparison to the beginning, Shang's attacks had become nearly twice as strong, which was a far bigger improvement than he had expected.

wasn't using more Mana, and his body also hadn't grown in

somehow, his offensive power had increased by this

What had changed?

analyzed the power of his

very difficult to

Concepts, walking further down the Path of Sword consisted of less theoretical knowledge and more instinctual movements

just felt more comfortable with his

the power of his attacks without using any Death

Barely anything!

power of his normal attacks had barely increased in

they were 10%

compared to the 100%

was when Shang

progress on the Path of Sword, but his progress wasn't as fast as

it came to attacks with Death

This meant one thing.

wasn't only progressing on

progressing on two Paths, at

decided to continue training like this, and ten years

Shang's power stopped increasing.

had reached

he continued

years later, Shang's power barely

But Shang continued.

years, Shang's

years later, maybe another

had entered a rhythm, and

unleashed an attack without

had increased by a bit, but not by that

Shang felt his

attack compared to his normal attacks over a century

hadn't felt this difference since it was very subtle and since the

Death Mana, and the subtle

There was something.

Something else.

Shang had never

a bit like Mana, but it wasn't Neutral Mana, and

Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Ice, Lightning, Metal, Light,

Elemental Mana, and he was

felt like

had the properties of

it

feeling and watched as the Mana appeared

wasn't sure where it

BANG! BANG! BANG!

attacked the tortoise in an avalanche of attack, trying to summon

barrage of attacks continued for a

Shang

was

of Mana was using the

the Mana in his mind and summoned the sensation of this new kind

BOOOM!

grey mist appeared around