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nShang was walking through a brown wasteland filled with extremely tall spires. The wind was incredibly strong. A normal human would have a very hard time walking through this place.

nFrom time to time, Shang could see a couple of other warriors jumping from spire to spire in search of a beast they could hunt.

nSeveral big beasts were flying through the distant sky, and many other beasts were crawling along the spires.

nToday was the first time Shang had actually entered the Canyon in the Storm Eagle Zone.

nFor decades, he had only trained in the depths of the Caves since he had wanted to keep his existence a secret from the Council.

nBut with the Council gone, Shang could now go wherever he wanted.

nThe spires around Shang were the Eternal Spires he had seen from a distance during his first Day of Chaos.

nThey were made of extremely valuable ore, and many of the warriors were also mining from them while their colleagues defended them from the assault of the beasts.

nThis was an area where only Commander Stage beasts lived, and only the most powerful warriors below the True Path Stage could attempt to mine the ore here.

nSeveral beasts took note of Shang as he slowly walked through the Canyon, but none of the beasts dared to attack him.

nBeasts had powerful instincts, and they could feel a terrifying aura of threat coming from Shang.

nA couple of warriors also noticed Shang, but they didn’t recognize him.

nFunnily enough, they only knew Duke Sword with his armor on.

nSadly, Shang’s armor had been destroyed by Susan, and Jerald hadn’t had the time to create a new one.

nEventually, Shang reached the end of the Canyon.

nOnly very few warriors had ever stepped past the Canyon. After all, the land beyond this place was filled with True Path Stage beasts.

nOnly True Path Stage warriors that had formed a team went to this place, and there weren’t many of those.

nEspecially now.

nAdditionally, the Storm Eagle Zone didn’t have many High Mages in it.

nThis meant that no one was currently in the land beyond the Canyon.

nAs Shang stepped past the last Eternal Spire, the wind picked up even more.

nA normal human would be flung through the sky, but this wasn’t an issue for Shang.

nHis body was several tons heavy, and the little area his body took up wasn’t nearly enough for the wind to impact him in any major way.

nA couple of minutes later, Shang arrived at a small cliff and looked forward.

nFor the first time, Shang saw an area that nearly no one had ever seen.

nThe Crater.

nThe land in front of Shang lowered more and more, similar to the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.

nThe name Crater was accurate.

nAs soon as Shang stepped past the cliff, the wind picked up even more. The sheer amount of Wind Mana the Storm Eagle gave off was creating a terrifying storm.

nEven though Shang didn’t have a great Affinity for Wind Mana, he could feel the Wind Mana very clearly.

nFor a while, Shang stood only a bit in front of the cliff after jumping down.

nThe land angled further and further down, and the horizon in front of Shang created an image he had never seen.

nThere was nothing he could see in the distance.

nOnly a blue sky.

nIt was like Shang had arrived at the end of the world.

nShang angled his head down a bit, and his right eye followed the slope of the Crater.

nThere were a couple of round stones, but they weren’t taller than two meters. The fact that these stones were still here despite the constant storm spoke volumes about their hardness.

nWhen Shang’s Spirit Sense inspected the stones, he realized that he was looking at True Path Stage ore.

nThere was so much!

nThe entire Crater was littered with True Path Stage ore!

nAt that moment, Shang remembered what Agon had told him.

nThe permission to plunder lands without any competition was extremely valuable.

nShang was sure that if there were more True Path Stage warriors, this entire place would have been cleaned of ore.

nEven more, if Agon were an entrepreneur, he might have harvested all of this himself to sell to the warriors.

nEven if one didn’t need the ore, one could still sell it for an amazing profit.

nIt was literally like picking money off the ground.

nThen, Shang’s gaze focused on the horizon again.

nHe tried to estimate how far he could see.

nHe was sure that he could see further than his Spirit Sense, but he still couldn’t be sure how far he could see.

nBut one thing was clear.

n‘The Storm Eagle Zone is actually bigger than the maps made it out to be,’ Shang thought.

nOn the maps, the Storm Eagle Zone was about as big as every other Zone, around 80 to 100 kilometers across.

nBut as soon as Shang reached the Crater, he was sure that it was at least 150 kilometers from north to south.

nAt that moment, Shang’s right eye was pulled to a certain spot in the distance by some subtle movement.

nFor a bit, Shang wasn’t sure if the black thing in the distance had actually moved or not.

np anda nOvel.cO,m But then, Shang saw it move a bit, and he recognized something.

nIt was a feather!

nFor just a moment, Shang had seen a feather poking out of the black object in the distance.

nNow, Shang knew what he was looking at.

n‘The Storm Eagle.’

n‘That gives me a good reference.’

nFor the first time in a long while, Shang’s mind went back to Earth. Specifically, he remembered math class from high school.

nShang knew that the Storm Eagle was about two kilometers long, and he could see how big it looked from here.

nHe did some simple calculations in his head and quickly came to a result.

n‘Something between 40 and 80 kilometers from here. Too much guess work to get to a concrete result.’

n‘That means that the Storm Eagle Zone is probably around 150 to 200 kilometers from north to south.’

nAfter satiating his curiosity, Shang stepped forward and walked to one of the huge stones of ore.

nHe pulled out his Great Sword from the back and put it to the stone.

n“Early True Path Stage,” Sword told Shang.

n“What about the others? Can you make an estimate?” Shang asked.

n“They are similar in level. If you want the valuable stuff, we need to go deeper into the Crater.”

nShang nodded. “I just wanted to know.”

nFor the first time in a long while, Shang was interested in knowing more about his surroundings.

nThe thought that not many people had been here made all of this that much more interesting.

nShang continued walking forward, but he wasn’t walking in a straight line.

nThanks to his huge Spirit Sense, Shang could avoid being noticed by Late True Path Stage beasts and more powerful.

nHe didn’t really care about the Initial to Mid True Path Stage beasts, but the more powerful ones could become troublesome.

nShang wasn’t here to fight but to search for something.

nFrom time to time, Shang felt the senses of a True Path Stage beast focus on him. When that happened, he simply looked back.

nMost of the time, the beast would look away again.

nBut of course, there were some that wanted to fight.

nShang simply released one attack.

nIf they survived, they would realize they were outmatched and would flee.

nIf they died, Shang collected the corpse.

nHe didn’t really care either way.

nCling… cling… cling.

nAfter a while, Shang heard some sounds that sounded like a bigger wind chime.

nWhen he heard these sounds, he had to smirk.

n‘Sure enough, just like the book said.’

nShang had already found the origin of the sound, and he had been walking toward it for a while now.

nAfter a bit, Shang arrived in front of a two-meter-tall piece of ore.

nThe sounds of wind chimes had become louder and more numerous.

nIt was like there was a wall of wind chimes hanging in front of him.

nShang couldn’t suppress a grin when he saw the stone in front of him.

nThere was a vine covering the entirety of the stone, and there were long, metal-like things hanging from it.

nThe sound came from these things hitting each other in the wind.

nIf one didn’t know any better, one would think that these things were long blades.

nBut, in fact, they were seeds.

nShang looked at the wall filled with seeds for several seconds.

n‘Wind Blade Seed.’

n‘Increases familiarity with swords!’

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