About 20 minutes later, Shang reached the tunnel and entered it.
As he walked further, he noticed something. 'My Darkness Vision stops at a certain point, but this is somehow different. Usually, I can feel the Darkness Mana stop at the walls and remain near them, but this time, it feels like the Darkness Mana is being swallowed by something.'
'It's almost like it simply stops existing at some point. It's like being on a boat and looking at a waterfall. The river simply seems to vanish at that point.'
Some seconds later, Shang noticed that the tunnel was getting wider, contradicting the map. The map showed a natural dead-end, but instead of becoming narrower, the tunnel widened.
Eventually, Shang could see the end of the tunnel.
The tunnel had widened to a width and height of over a hundred meters, but everything stopped at the same point.
Shang could see in the dark, but he felt like he couldn't see the thing at the end of the tunnel.
However, just as expected, the feeling Shang was feeling was becoming more intense.
Eventually, Shang stopped just a meter away from the end of the tunnel.
In front of him, he could only see black.
Shang extended his hand.
And he felt a wall.
The wall was cold to the touch, but it wasn't freezing.
'Strange. This wall is so black that I can't even see it,' Shang thought as he rubbed his hand on the wall.
"That's the ore," Sword said.
Shang looked at Sword with furrowed brows. "What is?"
"The wall," Sword said.
Shang's eyes widened in shock, and he looked at the wall. "You're saying that this gigantic wall is all made up of Entropy Ore?!" he asked.
"Correct," Sword answered.
Shang could barely wrap his mind around this fact.
So, the two-kilometer wide and however-many-kilometer high circle was entirely made up of Entropy Ore?!
How much ore was that?!
At that point, Shang noticed something.
There was a tiny cut in the immaculately flat and smooth wall.
Shang's hand went over, and he could barely feel the cut. Without his Darkness Vision, he would have never found it.
'I guess this is where they tried to break through the wall,' Shang thought.
'Sadly, they failed.'
Shang looked at the wall for a while longer. 'But how could they? If a team of True Mages failed to get through there, it means that this ore is exceptionally hard and, therefore, quite valuable. Instead of just giving up, they would surely call the Duke, right?'
'And the same thing would be true for the Duke, which means that eventually…'
Shang looked closer at the cut.
'Was this cut left behind by King Skythunder or one of his predecessors?'
'That would also explain why nobody marked this spot. If not even the King could get through there, nobody else could.'
"How powerful do you think the ore is?" Shang asked Sword.
"I don't know," Sword answered. "I only know that it is far above my current level."
"Can you absorb it?" Shang asked.
Sword remained silent for a couple of seconds.
"I definitely can't absorb it permanently, but maybe I can absorb it temporarily and disperse it."
Shang scratched his chin. "So, you can absorb a small part, release it in an attack, and then absorb some more?"
"It should be possible," Sword answered.
"Which means you can create a hole," Shang said.
"Maybe," Sword answered.
"Want to try?"
"Yes."
Shang nodded, but he didn't immediately start digging.
Instead, he was thinking about what consequences this action could have.
'There's definitely an Abomination or something similar beyond this wall.'
'What would happen if I made a hole?'
'Should I contact Duke Whirlwind or teacher?'
For a while, Shang weighed his options.
He looked at the wall and back.
'They wouldn't know what's behind it,' Shang thought. 'That means they also wouldn't know if it's a good idea to dig through this or not.'
'Additionally, if they knew that there might be an Abomination behind it, they may be afraid of me opening it.'
'However,' Shang thought as he looked at the ceiling. 'If there is an Abomination in there, the Storm Eagle would kill it, right?'
'And even if the Abomination is more powerful than the Storm Eagle, the more powerful humans I have never met would kill it, right?'
Shang felt a bit nervous as he looked at the wall.
'But even if that happens, I don't think I'm in danger. As far as I have seen from meeting that one Abomination, Abominations don't want to attack me.'
At this point, Shang thought about the path he wanted to go down.
'By opening a hole, I am potentially endangering everyone I know.'
'But at the same time, there might be something in there that could help me with my Affinity.'
For a moment, Shang wasn't sure what he should do, and he thought about what the people he knew would do if they were in his position.
The Dean? He would open it without a second thought.
Duke Whirlwind? He might decide against opening it, but there was also a possibility that he might open it.
King Skythunder? He would definitely open it.
'What about the God?' Shang thought.
At that moment, a scene appeared in Shang's head. In that scene, a teenager with red hair dug at the wall with a mad grin with his sword.
Eventually, Shang took a deep breath.
'No matter which path is correct, I think nearly everyone in my stead would decide to open it.'
'High risk, high reward.'
'I just hope this doesn't endanger everyone above me.'
"Let's do it," Shang said.
Shang took out Sword and held it to the wall.
A second later, violent black flames appeared around Sword, and Shang immediately let go of it, jumping away.
The flames had been so powerful that they even injured him.
Sword fell to the ground, and Shang looked at his right hand.
His right hand had completely vanished.
For a moment, Shang feared that he had lost it forever, but his warrior's body quickly recovered it.
'Luckily, this isn't like the backlash of Entropy.'
"Sorry," Sword answered as it stood up. "Seems like I have to do this one solo."
"It's fine," Shang answered.
After that, Sword fell to the ground again, and its tip pointed to the wall.
And then, it touched the wall.
CRRRRRRR!
Sword broke out into violent fire again, and everything around it turned into nothingness. Luckily, it managed to hold itself to the wall by its very tip.
Yes, Sword had managed to dig into the wall ever so slightly.
The little hole was barely a couple of millimeters deep, but it was there.
"Everything okay?" Shang asked as he saw Sword continue to burn.
"It's very exhausting," Sword answered, "but I can keep going."
Shang watched Sword continue. 'Sword is directly converting the material of the wall into fuel for its Entropy Ability. It's acting as a spark to light the wall on fire.'
A couple of minutes later, Sword suddenly shot into the wall.
"I'm through," Sword said. "The wall is only about a meter thick."
"Do you feel anything on the other side?" Shang asked.
"More ore," Sword answered. "This wall is only one layer, and I think there's another layer about ten meters further away, and that one feels even thicker and stronger."
When Shang heard that, he actually sighed in relief.
'If this were the only layer, the Abomination would be directly in front of it, but since there's a second one, there shouldn't be any risk in opening the first layer,' Shang thought.
'Seems like the others aren't in danger.'
Waiting became far less stressful from that moment onward for Shang.
After managing to get through the first layer, Sword continued cutting to the side. Shang's sword could fit through this tiny slit, but he definitely couldn't.
Shang waited at this spot for over two hours.
The digging was simply far too slow.
Eventually, Sword managed to create a two-by-two-meter wide cutout on the wall and came out again.
Shang took hold of it and put it on his back again.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
"Just tired," Sword answered.
"Thanks," Shang said.
Sword didn't answer.
Then, Shang moved forward and pushed on the wall.
It took a lot of effort, but eventually, the wall began to move.
And after a couple of seconds, the wall fell over and down.
There was no floor behind the wall.
But as soon as the wall was pushed away, the Darkness Mana from the outside washed into the area behind it like a flood.
Finally, Shang could see what was in front of him with his Darkness Vision.
And what he saw made his eyes go wide.
BANG!
The Magic Circle on Shang's armor activated and blocked an attack from his back.
This meant that this attack would have killed him!
Shang's body was thrown forward, but out of reflex, Shang grabbed whatever had attacked it and pulled it with him.
It was a spear!
And then, Shang and the assailant both fell into the area behind the wall.
