The three of them walked towards the south of the academy. There were plenty of places to climb the wall, and one was also inside the academy. Of course, students were forbidden from climbing the walls, and the teachers and guards made sure that they followed the rules.
Surprisingly, not all the students and teachers entered from this place. Some of them went to the west or east, while Shang went to the south. It was up to the teacher to decide where they wanted the student to watch.
The southern end was the most dangerous since it directly faced the Canyon, a place filled with Commander Stage beasts.
Because of that, most teachers went to the west or east.
As they reached the southern wall, they saw a guard standing in front of the stairs.
The guard looked at teacher Niria and smiled. "Niria, I've just gotten word from the general. You will be joining the western assault team."
Teacher Niria nodded. "That's what I thought."
"Have fun out there!" the guard said with a smile, "and, don't worry, we'll take care of your two students."
"Thanks," teacher Niria said with a nod.
And then, she left the two students without a word.
"You must be Shang, right?" the guard asked as he looked at Shang.
Shang nodded. "Yes."
"Oh, come on! Don't be so stiff!" the guard said as he strongly put his hand on Shang's shoulder. "Today, you are one of us, even if you only watch. Relax a little. Have some fun."
"I will. Thanks," Shang said emotionlessly.
The guard lifted an eyebrow and looked at Yiral. "Is he always like this?" he asked.
Yiral only emotionlessly looked at the guard. "I don't know."
Silence.
"Well, alrighty then," the guard said awkwardly. "Come, I'll show you where you will stay."
The guard climbed the stairs, and the two students followed.
After a bit of climbing, the three of them entered a big room inside one of the big towers.
"Sir!" the guard shouted as he saluted.
A middle-aged man in golden armor was checking several gigantic arrows leaning on the side of the room. Obviously, these were the arrows for the gigantic ballista on the wall.
The man in the golden armor had short, black hair. Shang couldn't feel any form of Mana emanating from him.
After hearing the greeting, the officer looked over. "These two are Niria's students?" he asked.
"Yes, sir!" the guard said.
The officer nodded. "You may go."
The guard saluted once more and left. The officer didn't salute back, but the guard seemingly didn't care.
It was a stressful time, and the officer was already overworked.
"You two will be staying with me today," the officer said.
Shang's eyebrows rose in surprise.
He had already guessed that teacher Niria had some great connections among the guards, but this was even more than Shang had anticipated.
Shang had seen guards with bronze and silver uniforms. The bronze guards were powerful General Stage warriors, while the ones in silver were Commander Stage warriors.
However, gold was something new for Shang.
How powerful was this person in front of him?
"You seem quite interested in my power," the man said without looking back from the arrows.
Shang wasn't sure how he should act in front of the officer. Should he act casually? Should he salute?
"I don't care how you address me," the officer said.
Shang felt a feeling of déjà vu. Shang was reminded of his conversation with the God. The God had also answered Shang's questions before he had even asked them.
"I'm sorry if I offended you by looking at you like this," Shang said carefully. "I was curious, and this is my first time seeing someone amongst the city guards with golden armor."
"Don't overestimate your own ability," the officer said neutrally.
Shang wasn't sure what he meant.
"You don't have the ability to offend me," the officer said. "As for my power, I should be about as powerful as the Vice-Dean called Soran."
Shang hadn't seen Vice-Dean Soran in a long time.
Vice-Dean Soran wasn't teaching any lessons since he was constantly busy with administrative affairs. He was essentially doing the work of the Dean.
However, Shang also remembered that Vice-Dean Soran was very powerful. He definitely was more powerful than all the teachers. Shang also remembered that Vice-Dean Soran was the Dean's student.
"What about Vice-Dean Ranos?" Shang asked.
After two additional weeks inside the academy, Shang had learned a lot of things, and the name of the other Vice-Dean was one of them.
"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to," the officer said without looking at Shang.
Shang didn't say anything in return.
Yes, the answer was obvious.
The officer was as powerful as Vice-Dean Soran, but Vice-Dean Soran was definitely weaker than Vice-Dean Ranos.
There was no comparison.
Yiral didn't say anything this entire time. He only remained to the side as he looked at the room.
After some seconds in silence, the officer left the arrows. "Follow," he ordered.
Shang and Yiral followed the officer through a side door, which led to a spiraling staircase. The three of them climbed the stairs for quite some time until they eventually reached the top.
The staircase ended in a horizontal door, which the officer opened easily.
And then, the three of them exited the staircase.
Shang saw the sky again, and he noticed that the sky was becoming a bit brighter. Dawn was about to arrive.
However, the sky only held Shang's attention for a little bit as he looked around in awe.
For the first time, Shang saw the surrounding lands from such a high vantage point!
Shang was on top of one of the four biggest towers in Warrior's Paradise. The only bigger building was the Mana Austerum in the middle of the city.
The walls of Warrior's Paradise were present every second of every day of every year. From inside the city, it was impossible to see dawn and dusk. It was also impossible to see the surrounding lands due to the high walls.
But now, Shang could see everything!
Shang had already seen the northern parts of the western and eastern Wasteland, but now, he could see the southern parts as well.
The Wasteland seemingly stretched on forever. Shang was certain that it stretched over 50 kilometers towards the south.
On earth, looking 50 kilometers into the distance was basically impossible due to the curvature of the Earth. But here, it was possible.
Of course, on Earth, one could also see farther into the distance if there were a huge structure, a mountain, for example.
The same thing was true here.
Far, far into the distance, Shang could see several gigantic spires coming out of the ground. Shang guessed that they were even higher and maybe even bigger than Warrior's Paradise.
The spires seemed almost unnatural. They were far too steep, and there were too many of them.
"Eternal Granite."
Shang looked at Yiral.
"Eternal Granite?" Shang asked.
Yiral nodded. "The treasure that protects Warrior's Paradise."
Shang had learned a lot in the past two weeks, but he hadn't heard of that before. "What's that?" Shang asked.
"Eternal Granite is Rank Three Earth ore and a very powerful kind at that," Yiral explained. "The Wind Mana of the Storm Eagle destroys the land, and only Eternal Granite is powerful enough to resist it."
"These spires are all made of pure Eternal Granite, and they symbolize the beginning of the Canyon."
"One unit is worth over 20,000 gold."
Shang's eyes widened in shock.
20,000 gold?!
Shang had paid 450 gold for one unit of Mid Rank Two ore!
One General Stage beast corpse was worth between 500 and 1,000 gold!
Shang looked at the spires again.
They were kilometers tall!
Each one was over a hundred meters wide!
There were innumerable spires!
How much money was that?!
"This is one reason why Warrior's Paradise manages to attract so many Commander Stage warriors and True Mages," Yiral explained.
"New Commander Stage warriors can train near the Canyon, and the most powerful warriors in the world can actually enter the Canyon and mine the ore."
"If anything attacks the ore, the surrounding beasts become agitated. Half of the beasts have an Earth Affinity, and they need the Eternal Granite since it provides Earth Mana."
"Because of that, mining the ore is extremely dangerous, and only the best hunting teams in the world can attempt it."
"The beasts attract newer Commander Stage warriors, but the Eternal Spires attract the most powerful Commander Stage warriors."
"The Eternal Spires contribute to Warrior's Paradise's prosperity and survival."
"Without them, we wouldn't even have half the number of guards."
