The Dean and Shang talked for about two more hours, and the Dean also told Shang about his progress.
In the last two months, the Dean had managed to perform another successful procedure. This was now the third successful procedure the Dean had managed to perform.
Shang had been the first.
The second one had been performed about three months ago on someone with a warrior's body and good resistance to pain.
The newest one had been completed a couple of days ago, and it had been performed on someone with a weak resistance to pain but with a warrior's body.
"This means the procedure is now safe for everyone with a warrior's body?" Shang asked.
The Dean nodded. "Correct. Jerald managed to create a Spell that suppresses the Mana of someone with a warrior's body, which means that the patient doesn't need to be awake anymore during the procedure, making resistance to pain irrelevant."
"It isn't completely safe, but I don't have to follow the draconian restrictions regarding medicine from Earth in this world," the Dean said. "It's not a big issue if some patients die."
"The Spell can be performed by any True Mage, and the procedure can also be performed by Soran and Ranos. It's no longer necessary to have Jerald and me present during the procedure."
As Shang listened to the Dean, he realized that the day when every warrior could undergo the procedure was not far into the future.
The world was about to change.
"I will let Ranos and Soran perform one more procedure each to see if they can be trusted with it. And then…"
"We can go public."
Shang nodded. "Do you need me to do anything?"
"For now, you can return back to your school life. You don't need to hide anymore. Of course, you need to change your weapon first. Otherwise, people might connect you to your persona from the mission."
"For that, you can use this."
Then, something appeared in the Dean's hand.
It was a black pedestal, about one meter high.
And on the pedestal…
Was nothing.
Shang furrowed his brows. "There's nothing on it."
"That's it!" Sword said to Shang.
"What?" Shang asked.
"The ore! That is the ore I need!" Sword said.
Shang looked at the pedestal, but he couldn't see anything.
"I'm talking about the pedestal itself," the Dean said.
"The pedestal?" Shang asked as his eyes widened. "That's the ore?"
The Dean nodded. "This ore is virtually useless. It's very brittle, and it can't absorb any Elemental or Neutral Mana."
"For all intents and purposes, the ore is worthless. The only interesting aspect is its incredible rarity."
"The Old King kept it due to its rarity, and he used it as a pedestal for the actual prizes in his trial. It wasn't a prize in and of itself."
"Jerald tested it. Apparently, it counts as being at the Initial Commander Stage Rank."
The Dean put it in front of Shang, and Shang looked at it.
That was a lot of ore!
Shang guessed that this was about 100 units!
"This is all yours," the Dean said.
Shang looked at it for a while, but he was interrupted by Sword jumping onto the ore.
"Can you absorb all of it like that?" Shang asked. "I don't want you to become even bigger."
"Don't know," Sword answered.
Shang only looked at it with a raised eyebrow.
Over the next seconds, Sword rapidly absorbed about half of the pedestal before it stopped.
Then, Sword jumped into Shang's hand.
"That's as much as I can take," it explained. "My abilities didn't increase, but I managed to transform the composition of myself. I can now destroy parts of myself to unleash a powerful attack."
Sword was made up of about 50 units of ore, and it had absorbed 50 units of ore from the pedestal just now.
Shang quickly made the connection in his head.
"How powerful is the attack?" Shang asked.
"Not as powerful as when you use it yourself, but still quite powerful," Sword answered.
"Aren't you heavier and harder than me?" Shang asked. "Shouldn't your attack be stronger?"
"I am, but I'm pretty sure it isn't," Sword answered. "I don't know why."
"How can I use it?" Shang asked.
"Just tell me when you want to use it," Sword answered. "I can use it whenever. But you also need to tell me how much you want to use. If I use everything, I will die."
Shang nodded.
Then, he looked back at the Dean. "You want me to use the attack to change Sword's appearance?" he asked.
"Yes," the Dean answered, "you told me of what you can do with your Affinity, and if your weapon follows the same principle, it should be able to change its shape by sacrificing part of itself. It's better to have the weapons forge themselves than to interfere with their appearance."
"Also, I want to test how powerful the attack is," the Dean said as he stood up.
Shang looked at his teacher. "You want me to use it on you?"
The Dean nodded as he stopped on the other side of the room. "If I feel any danger, I will evade."
Shang didn't feel good about this, and he became a bit nervous.
The Dean noticed Shang's expression and lifted an eyebrow in skepticism. "Are you actually afraid that you might accidentally injure the most powerful warrior in the world while being at the General Stage?"
Shang became surprised, and his nervous expression transformed into an embarrassed chuckle. "Sorry. I think I forgot myself."
After that, Shang and Sword talked about what they wanted Sword to look like in the future. The only reason why Sword had become so big was to disguise Shang.
Sword needed a new appearance.
Initially, they wanted to return Sword to its initial appearance, but then Shang got an idea.
After sharing his idea, they both decided that they wanted to make Sword a bit bigger, but not as big as its current appearance.
Some minutes later, Shang readied his sword again. "I will start."
The Dean only nodded.
"Let's go!" Shang said to Sword.
Shang slashed forward.
Suddenly, black smoke covered Sword, making it appear like it was on fire.
As the sword moved through the atmosphere, a black streak was left behind. It was almost like the atmosphere had stopped existing.
The Dean's eyes kept looking at Sword.
BANG!
The Dean caught the edge of Shang's sword with his left hand.
Shang felt like he had hit a wall, and his body shook due to the vibrations.
The smoke lifted, and a shining black, straight blade was unveiled in the Dean's hand.
Sword's appearance had changed.
Sword had a similar form to its original one, but there were some differences.
The original form was thin and straight, almost like a nail.
Its new one was a bit longer but several times thicker and wider.
However, it wasn't as big as its earlier form when Shang had acted as Zero.
The original version had been comprised of seven units of ore.
The Zero-version had been comprised of about 60 units of ore.
And the newest version was comprised of about 30 units of ore.
It was about four times as voluminous as its original version, mainly due to the increased width.
Now, Sword was about 1.5 meters long and 15 centimeters wide.
Shang looked at Sword and nodded in appreciation.
This was exactly what he had in mind.
His sword was now a smaller version of Astor's sword.
Then, Shang looked at the Dean.
"How strong was the attack?"
