"The attack has the power of a Spell from a Peak Adept," the Dean said.
Shang nodded. That was about what he had expected. Sacrificing a bit of General Stage ore to unleash an attack at the Commander Stage would have been too good to be true.
Yes, it definitely wasn't even nearly as strong as when Shang used Entropy himself, but the cost was far more manageable.
Using Entropy himself would cripple Shang permanently, while this attack only cost a bit of ore.
On top of that, a Peak Adept could release terrifying power, enough to severely injure a Peak General Stage beast.
All of this sounded great, but there was one issue.
"The attack doesn't become faster," Shang said as he scratched his chin.
The Dean nodded. "You need to hit your opponent with it. "
The speed was a big issue. Theoretically, Shang could seriously injure a Peak General Stage beast, which was three levels above him, but in practice, Shang wouldn't be able to injure a Peak General Stage beast at all.
Beasts had terrifying instincts, and they would feel the danger coming from Shang's attack.
With their incredible speed, they would easily be able to avoid the attack just by jumping back.
'However, the attack still gives me a chance to win against a Late General Stage beast,' Shang thought.
'If I had that ability during the trial, I could have killed that porcupine. It wasn't as fast and was focused on defense. I should have been able to hit it.'
At that moment, Shang remembered something else.
Hadn't he had that thought once before?
Wait, could he…?
At that moment, Shang furrowed his brows, and after a while, he smirked.
'It should work.'
'It seems like my power has increased yet again!'
At that moment, something appeared in the Dean's hands, and Shang looked at it.
It was a small, green pill.
"This will undo the effects of your disguise," the Dean said.
Shang nodded, grabbed the pill, and swallowed it.
Moments later, Shang's body began to ripple like it was water, and his body began to thin.
About a minute later, the effect of the pill ended, and Shang's new body was unveiled.
In comparison to before, Shang now had a lean and athletic body. His earlier one was way too bulky, and Shang wasn't a big fan of that look, especially since the thick muscles had hampered his agility, flexibility, and speed.
And with that, Shang had completely transitioned away from Zero.
Shang had completely returned to himself.
Shang was about 185 centimeters tall, athletic, and had short black hair. His eyes were black, and he was clean-shaven. On his back was a long and thick, straight, black sword.
The only annoying part was Shang's clothing. He still wore this annoying green uniform, but there was no way around that.
All in all, one could say that Shang now looked like a mixture of his past self and Zero.
He was not small and nimble, but he also wasn't huge and wide.
He was perfectly in the middle.
The good of both worlds.
The Dean looked at Shang and nodded. "That should be enough. You still somewhat resemble your old self, but no one will connect you to Zero."
A small booklet appeared in the Dean's hand, and he gave it to Shang.
Shang looked at it and noticed that it was a list of teachers. Beside every name was a time frame.
"This is for our General Stage students," the Dean explained. "There aren't that many of you, which makes the creation of a lesson pointless. Additionally, you all focus on different things."
"Because of that, students at the General Stage are allowed to visit the teachers during their respective times. Most of them only have an hour of time per day, but that should count for more than a lesson when you can ask whatever questions you want."
Shang noticed that there were some overlaps, but those weren't really problematic.
At that moment, Shang also remembered that he had seen some teachers sitting on a couple of benches during the day and some older students asking them something.
Shang had thought that the teachers were simply taking a break, but apparently, they didn't.
"How long do I have, approximately?" Shang asked.
"About a month," the Dean answered. "We should have two more procedures complete by then. After that, I need you for maybe a week or so."
Shang nodded. "No problem. So, until then, I can simply do whatever I want?"
The Dean also nodded. "Try to keep the procedure a secret until then. It would be best if you avoided fighting or hunting with any other students during that time, and if you have to, try to act like your body is weaker than it actually is."
"Jerald said that he still wants to wait for you to become more familiar with your Mana and your Affinity before he sends you the next set of Spells. You might have finished testing out all the initial Spells, but there is a lot more he wants to know. Of course, you have to become more powerful first."
"We still don't know what your Affinity is, and Jerald wants to know desperately."
Shang nodded.
Yes, Shang hadn't told his teacher about what his Affinity was specifically.
It wasn't that Shang didn't trust his teacher. If his teacher knew, he would probably not change at all.
However, the problem was the Dean's closeness to Duke Whirlwind.
The Dean might tell the Duke about Shang's Affinity.
Sure, the Duke might also not do anything crazy with it, but what if he told someone?
What if it reached the Skythunder King's ears?
What if the Skythunder King knew something about Shang's Affinity that the Duke didn't?
What if this posed a problem?
Shang knew that there were far, far more powerful Mages in the world than King Skythunder. Maybe King Skythunder also didn't know anything about Shang's Affinity.
However, if the outside world had a connection to this place, the connection would most likely be the strongest people in this place, namely the Kings.
So, what if the Dean told Duke Whirlwind, Duke Whirlwind told King Skythunder, and King Skythunder told the outside world?
At that moment, Shang could get into danger.
This place had no idea what Shang's Affinity was, but the outside probably did.
Shang's mind went back to the time he had realized that his Affinity was Entropy.
Obviously, the Abominations shared Shang's Affinity.
Shang didn't know where these Abominations came from, but what if the more powerful people did?
What if the Abominations counted as their mortal enemies? After all, no world wanted to be turned into a mass of energy.
Because of all these reasons, Shang hadn't told anyone about his specific Affinity. He had even somewhat changed the description of his ability.
Instead of saying that his Affinity turned matter into energy, Shang had said that it produced a beam of black fire that didn't harm him.
Like that, the Dean would believe it had something to do with antimatter instead of Entropy, and everyone else would be confused. After all, Mages probably didn't know about antimatter.
"No problem," Shang answered. "Just tell me when he thinks I'm powerful enough."
After that, the Dean and Shang talked some more about what Shang would do for the next month, and a couple of minutes later, the Dean left.
Shang looked around the underground room.
"It should be morning by now," he said.
"Want to go meet the other students again after a year, Sword?" Shang asked.
"I have no connection to them."
Silence.
"Well, okay," Shang said.
And then, Shang left the room.
After nearly a full year, Shang was about to return to the academy.
