BANG!
A large sword cut through the body of an orange flaming tiger, bisecting it in the process.
The two parts of the body fell to the ground, with one of them still violently thrashing around.
BANG!
The head was destroyed as the large sword cut through it once again.
Silence.
A second later, the corpse vanished, leaving only one man behind.
The man was 187cm tall and had short, black hair. On his back was a long and thick sword.
He was clothed in black armor that looked nearly identical to the armor the Dean of the Warrior's Academy wore. On the man's back was a long black cloak, which extended all the way to the ground.
All in all, this man looked quite imposing.
This was Shang.
It had been over two years since he had entered seclusion inside Warrior's Paradise.
For two years, he hadn't left the city.
Now, Shang's body was about 20 years old, and it had fully matured.
Shang slowly walked through the snow-covered trees until he arrived on a small hill with several buildings on them.
Shang knew this place very well.
After all, he had seen it being built.
Yes, this was the outpost in the former Battlefield, which was now called the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.
Snow was already raging throughout the entire Northern Ice Wyvern Zone, and plenty of trees had spawned. Usually, it would take many, many years for such a forest to appear, but Duke Whirlwind had invested a lot into terraforming this entire region.
Of course, not everything was stable around here. There were still plenty of beasts that came here from the Volcano Wyrm Zone, threatening the ecosystem.
That was where Shang came in.
Shang entered the command center in the outpost and put his Space Ring on the table.
The commander looked into the Space Ring and nodded. "Good job," he said. "You will get your pay tomorrow."
Shang nodded. "Is there another report?" he asked.
The commander only sighed. "Shang, you should know your own limits. Don't overwork yourself. If you flip a coin enough times, eventually, it will land on heads ten times in a row."
"That doesn't concern you," Shang said emotionlessly. "I'm here to work, and I want to work."
The commander looked at Shang for a bit more before taking out a report and putting it on the table.
Shang grabbed it and left the command center shortly after.
Outside, Shang read the report and left the outpost, going west.
'Peak General Stage Magma Spider,' Shang thought.
While Shang traveled to the west, he kept focusing on his Ice Sense.
'When will you finally show yourself? I know that you have been following me.'
'Do you believe that there is someone more powerful guarding me? Why wouldn't you want to earn a ton of money by killing some random Late General Stage warrior?'
Yes, Shang had reached the Late General Stage over the last two years, and he was still very confident in his Battle-Strength.
In fact, Shang's Battle-Strength didn't fall at all.
In truth, it had even grown.
After becoming familiar with his new power, Shang immediately left for the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.
He wanted to deal with the Cleaner, and since the Ice Wyvern Zone was filled with Ice Mana, Shang would be able to sense him.
At least, that was what he had thought.
Instead, he was able to feel that someone was watching him, but he couldn't find them.
This Cleaner definitely wasn't as overconfident as the last one.
'Come on. I'm only a Late General Stage warrior. You're a Peak Adept. This mission should appear easy to you.'
Yet, the Cleaner just didn't appear.
Shang had even killed over ten Peak General Stage beasts in the last two days. Attacking him while he was fighting such a beast should be the smartest move.
A couple of minutes later, Shang arrived in front of a small mountain, and he could see a bit of lava coming out of a cave.
Shang took out his sword.
BANG!
An explosion of ice came out of Shang's leg, throwing him inside the cave.
BOOOOOM!
A loud explosion left the cave and reverberated throughout the surrounding icy forest.
Silence.
Two seconds later, Shang stepped out of the cave, looking over the surrounding forest.
There was no movement.
Shang only furrowed his brows. 'I am showing you so much of my power so that you might think that this is all my power. If I only show a bit, you might believe that I am creating a trap for you.'
'Why are you not showing yourself? You shouldn't be an average or weak Adept. After all, the Wilburys paid a fortune for you.'
'Are you that unconfident in your own abilities?'
Shang remained standing there for about half a minute, just looking around.
Then, he slid down the mountain and walked back to the outpost.
As Shang was traveling back, an icy crystal was slowly moving as well. The crystal looked nearly transparent, and it gave off a bit of Ice Mana.
The crystal was about two kilometers away from Shang.
Inside the crystal sat a young woman with icy blue hair. Several Magic Circles were spinning in front of her, showing different shapes.
She was the hired Cleaner.
Right now, she only looked at these shapes with furrowed brows.
'I have no idea what he is trying to do,' she thought. 'He obviously knows I'm following him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have remained in Warrior's Paradise for so long.'
'But now, he suddenly left Warrior's Paradise, and he keeps fighting one Peak General Stage beast after the other.'
'In the beginning, I thought that he was accompanied by someone else, but after so many days, that other person would have long since found me. That means that he is most likely traveling alone.'
'I believe he simply wants to lure me out and kill me himself,' she thought.
At that moment, a cold light appeared in her eyes, but at the same time, there was also a bit of respect and fear in them.
'Or is he trying to intimidate me?'
'He kills Peak General Stage beasts like they are insects. One strike and they crumble like paper. I might be able to do the same, but I would need to prepare a powerful Spell first, and I'm not that confident in hitting them immediately.'
'Meanwhile, he goes in, charges at them, and kills them.'
'He never misses.'
'He never makes a mistake.'
'Not even I can do that.'
The Cleaner kept looking at the shapes in front of her.
'If he wants to lure me out, he is probably showing quite a bit of his power so that I might believe that this is all he has. However, I'm not some rookie. I know how our targets tick.'
'He definitely has several abilities stashed away.'
The Cleaner took a deep breath.
'The abilities he is showing me are already at around my level. So, how powerful will he be if he goes all out?'
The Cleaner gritted her teeth.
'He's only a Late General Stage warrior, for fuck's sake! I'm a Peak Adept, and I'm definitely not a weak one.'
'Yet, at the Late General Stage, this Shang is showing abilities that rival my own!'
'Is that so-called Procedure really that powerful?! I thought the Procedure couldn't fully close the gap!'
'What should I do?'
Shang had tried to lure the Cleaner out by showing a bit of his ability.
However, as a loner that doesn't come into contact with other people much, Shang's perception of power had been severely warped.
Shang was only around powerful people like Soran, Ranos, the Dean, and Duke Whirlwind.
Every single one of them was extremely talented and very powerful.
Because of that, Shang's perception of the average power of the average warrior and Mage was skewed.
Shang wanted to show that he could attempt to fight a Peak Adept, not kill one.
But Shang didn't know how powerful the average Peak Adept was.
Yes, Mages were incredibly powerful, but in the Adept Realm, they were only a bit stronger than warriors.
Their true power only showed itself when they became True Mages.
Shang had seen how powerful the truly powerful Mages were, and he was using their standards on Adepts.
Shang believed that a Peak Adept could easily kill a Peak General Stage beast.
Yes, they could, but it wasn't a certainty that the beast would die in one hit. On top of that, the Mage would need to prepare a powerful Spell.
Meanwhile, Shang was demonstrating power even above that.
In the end, Shang's plan to lure out the Cleaner failed.
He had accidentally shown too much of his power, and he had intimidated the Cleaner.
