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.

using more Mana, and his body also hadn't

somehow, his offensive power had increased by this

What had changed?

of his

was very difficult to say

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

comfortable with his attacks, and they

time, Shang tested the power of his attacks without using any Death Mana, and

Barely anything!

of his normal attacks had barely

most, they were 10%

obviously couldn't be compared to the 100% increase

was when Shang

progress wasn't as fast as he had thought. Or maybe, the progress just

it came to attacks with Death Mana, his

This meant one thing.

wasn't only progressing

progressing on

continue training like this, and ten years later,

Shang's power stopped increasing.

reached some kind

continued

later, Shang's power barely increased

But Shang continued.

Shang's power increased by

later, maybe another

entered a rhythm,

more, Shang unleashed an attack without Death

a bit, but not by that

his attack connect,

compared to his normal attacks

Death Mana, Shang hadn't felt this difference since it was very subtle and since the Death

attack without Death Mana,

There was something.

Something else.

Shang had never

it wasn't Neutral

Metal, Light, Darkness, Space, Time, Gravity, Life, or Death

Elemental Mana, and he was

it felt

the properties

did it

watched as the Mana appeared

wasn't sure where it

BANG! BANG! BANG!

attack, trying

attacks continued

Shang

mind was

that this weird kind of Mana was

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

BOOOM!

moving grey mist appeared around