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nShang and Astor talked for several hours inside the bar.

nShang very vaguely told Astor about what he had done, taking care not to unveil any of the confidential secrets.

nIn Shang’s story, all his opponents were also a level weaker than they actually were to hide the powers of the procedure.

n“You won against a Mid General Stage warrior?” Astor asked in surprise.

nShang nodded as he drank another mouthful of beer. He had just told Astor about his fight with the officer.

n“Is that so surprising?” Shang asked.

n“It is!” Astor said. “Mid General Stage warriors can release their Affinity in close proximity to their own bodies. It makes getting close to them very dangerous.”

nShang nodded.

nAdvancing at the General Stage was different from advancing at the Soldier Stage.

nWarriors at the Soldier Stage only needed to strengthen their entire body, while warriors at the General Stage also had to gain a certain mastery over their Mana.

nBack when Shang “lost” against the average Mid General Stage warrior during the trial, Shang had become a victim of that power.

nBack then, the warrior had unleashed a small fireball, which had been the reason for Shang’s loss.

nThis was the exact ability Astor was talking about.

nReaching the Early General Stage wasn’t difficult. Basically everyone could reach that easily, but as soon as a warrior tried to reach the Mid General Stage, it would become more difficult.

nStrengthening the body was still necessary, but one also had to be able to move the Mana through their bodies with a certain level of mastery. Without that mastery, the strengthening of the body would fail.

nThis was the first bottleneck or barrier, depending on what word one liked more, that warriors encountered on their journey.

nGaining a certain level of mastery over one’s Mana also gave one the ability to unleash a Pseudo Spell.

nPseudo Spells were called as such because they didn’t need any incantations. Of course, in exchange for that, they were also far weaker than actual Spells.

nFor example, when Shang had been hit by the Pseudo-Spell of that Mid General Stage warrior during the trial, Shang hadn’t really been injured, even though the warrior’s body was essentially a level above Shang.

nOf course, if Shang’s body had actually been hit, a big part of his chest would have burned away, but he wouldn’t have died from that.

nTo reach the Late and Peak General Stage, one only needed to increase the mastery over their Mana and then strengthen their body the old-fashioned way. One wouldn’t gain new abilities, but all the previous abilities one had would become a bit stronger and would use less Mana.

nIn order to reach the Commander Stage, a warrior needed to create their own Domain.

nA Domain was an area around the warrior that was filled with their own will and Mana. It essentially allowed a warrior to manipulate the Mana around them by spending a bit of Mana to control it.

nThis essentially allowed a warrior to increase the power of their attacks by a factor of two, making the Mana one used effectively twice as efficient.

nNaturally, it was incredibly difficult for a warrior to reach such mastery regarding their own Mana, and it took years upon years of training.

nMost Commander Stage warriors only reached that level when they were 40 or older.

nOf course, there also were some geniuses that managed to reach that level in their thirties, but they were truly rare.

nBut that only counted for the entire world as a whole.

nOne had to remember where Shang currently was.

nShang was at the strongest academy for warriors in the entire world.

nJust as the name suggested, Warrior’s Paradise was a paradise for warriors, and there were a great number of talented warriors here.

nAround 50% of all warriors living in Warrior’s Paradise managed to reach the Commander Stage in their late thirties.

nNow, the obvious question was…

nWhat was Shang’s level of mastery?

nWhen Shang had reached the General Stage, he had only had the required level of mastery to reach the Early General Stage.

nHowever, something happened that boosted his level of mastery to an entirely different level.

nThe reward of the trial.

nIn order to create the ranged attack from the reward, a warrior needed to have a mastery over their Mana that would allow them to become a Mid General Stage warrior.

nYet, that would only allow them to unleash a weak attack.

nThe reward automatically allowed Shang to learn it completely, which meant that Shang could exhibit the full power of the reward.

nTo do that, one needed to have a mastery over one’s own Mana to become a Peak General Stage warrior.

nAnd since Shang learned all of that automatically…

nShang could, theoretically, become a Peak General Stage warrior right now as long as he consumed enough resources and trained a lot.

nOf course, neither the Dean, Duke Whirlwind, nor Shang wanted to do that.

nAn inexperienced person would think that this was stupid.

nWhy would you want to be weaker?

nThe reason was experience.

nRight now, as long as one ignored the effects of the procedure, Shang could win against an average warrior one level above him.

nBut what about later?

nWithout the procedure, if Shang became a Peak General Stage warrior at this moment, he might actually fall to be slightly above average.

nTalented warriors on his level, ignoring the procedure, would definitely win against Shang then.

nIn short, Shang needed more time to gain experience.

nHis body was only around 18 years old right now, which was nothing in comparison to the warriors at the Late or Peak General Stage.

nThose were all in their late twenties or thirties.

nThey had over a decade more experience in fighting than Shang.

nAdvancing a level always meant increasing one’s overall power, but decreasing one’s relative power, also called Battle-Strength.

nRealm and Stage were quantity.

nBattle-Strength was quality.

nThere were a lot of General Stage warriors that didn’t have a great Battle-Strength.

nHowever, there were only a few Commander Stage warriors that didn’t have a great Battle-Strength.

nAnd there were no True Path Stage warriors that didn’t have a great Battle-Strength, even if there were thousands instead of only one.

nThe more quantity one aimed to reach, the higher the quality had to be.

nIf Shang’s goal were only to reach the Commander Stage, he would advance right now.

nBut that wasn’t his goal.

nHe wanted to go much further.

nAnd for that, he needed to always remain on top.

nHe needed to be the most powerful at his current level.

nAstor and Shang continued to talk for several hours.

nSadly, there weren’t many interesting things that happened to Astor during the last year.

nThere were only a couple of fights with beasts and a couple of missions outside.

n“Hey, you want to accompany my team when we’re hunting in the Wasteland tomorrow?” Astor asked after a while.

n“Accompany your team?” Shang asked with a lifted eyebrow.

nAstor nodded. “We planned to get an Early General Stage warrior to accompany us anyway.”

n“Why?” Shang asked.

n“We want to enter the Caves in the Wasteland.”

nShang looked at Astor with a bit of surprise.

n“It’s not like you think!” Astor said quickly. “We won’t go far. We only plan on staying near the surface.”

n“We’ve heard that there are a lot of Initial General Stage beasts in the Caves. Do you know how difficult it is to find Initial General Stage beasts on the surface? There are so many teams at the Initial General Stage that hunt them. Some days, we can’t even get one, and when we get one, it’s almost always a Trash Bird!”

n“But as you know, it’s more difficult to flee from a stronger beast inside the Caves, which is why we need someone that can buy us some time to flee. There should only be the occasional Early General Stage beast near the surface, which shouldn’t be a problem for you. After all, you only need to secure our retreat, nothing more.”

n“Of course, you will also get 30% of the reward, and you don’t even need to help in the hunt. You will only need to buy us time if an Early General Stage beast appears.”

nShang looked to the side.

nThat would essentially waste an entire day of training.

nShould he accompany them?

nAfter some seconds, Shang made his decision.

n“Sure.”

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