Shang slowly opened his right eye.
He had died in the trial, but sure enough, his left eye hadn't recovered.
He looked to his side and saw Sword lying just beside him. As always, it wanted to stay by Shang's side.
Instead of standing up, Shang only continued lying on the ground, looking at the plain sky of his inner world.
The entire fight went through his head.
'If I had a working set of armor, I would have won,' he thought as he remembered the robes of the Fire Mage.
The robes had blocked two fatal attacks. A luxury Shang didn't have.
'Instead of overusing my Domain of Entropy, I could have used my armor to take a fatal attack. With that, I would have been able to survive the last explosion and continue. The next opponent wouldn't have been a problem, even in my injured state. That would have given me an opportunity to regenerate.'
'Sure enough, equipment is also a part of power.'
And then, Shang's mind went to the last few words the Fire Mage had said.
The Fire Mage had managed to shock Shang by saying something that only someone from Earth could know.
However, the God specifically brought people to this world to stop the Mages from being too powerful, and that Fire Mage had definitely been someone that was fully focused on the path of Magic.
If the Fire Mage hadn't said something like that, Shang would have killed him before the explosion became too dangerous.
Shang furrowed his brows as he thought back to how the Mage behaved during the fight.
He was very different from all the opponents Shang had faced before.
He had even called out the names of his attacks.
Additionally, he liked to talk during a battle.
His behavior was unusual.
Shang looked to his right and saw the jester looking at Shang with a grin.
"Mind explaining what was up with that guy just now? I thought you didn't want the Mages to become even more powerful," Shang said.
The jester only snickered. "You're right," he said. "However, he is… unusual."
"In what way?" Shang asked.
"His thinking process is very impulsive, sometimes irrational, and even random at points," the jester explained. "I try not to read the minds of you guys, but I can't help to just subconsciously combine all the clues you guys show into a picture that perfectly represents the current you."
"However, when I really talked to him, I was surprised more than once. Instead of going with the flow, he immediately complained several times and told me that he wouldn't do what I wanted."
The jester snickered. "Of course, I showed him that he had no power, and he eventually complied."
The jester laughed some more as he remembered his interaction with the Mage.
"After he arrived in my world, he immediately searched for a way to get rid of his warrior's body."
The jester's grin widened. "And, surprisingly, he managed to gain the attention of a High Mage that also became interested in that idea. Together, they managed to find a way, and he managed to get rid of his warrior's body."
Shang was quite surprised when he heard that.
This guy managed to get his of his warrior's body?
"Don't get your hopes up," the jester said with a sneer. "I learn from my mistakes. You need, at least, a Mage King if you want to get rid of your warrior's body."
"Mage King?" Shang asked. "Like King Skythunder?"
The jester only smirked. "They are Kings, but they are not Mage Kings."
'King, huh?' Shang thought as he remembered something.
"So, like the Ice King?" he asked.
"Like the Ice King," the jester answered.
Shang only nodded. "And you let him just do what he wants?"
The jester snorted. "Of course, I wasn't really nice when I talked to him again, but wouldn't you know, he managed to convince me to let him live as a Mage."
"He knows that I want entertainment, and he offered something very interesting to me."
"He argued that there were numerous paths in the past, which is true. So, there also had to be a path that was closer to Magic, interesting to watch, and also different."
"Instead of going with the warrior's path, he wants to create a more interesting path for Magic. Instead of increasing the diversity of the entire world, he wants to make the Mages more diverse."
The jester leaned on his hammer. "He actually had a point, you know? That does sound interesting."
At that point, the jester's grin widened. "But in order to keep him to his promise, I made it impossible for him to use Mana Shield."
Shang's brows furrowed.
'That explains a lot.'
"Mana Shield is the very reason why the world is so boring. The Mages don't need to move a lot while fighting other Mages. They only stand there and bombard their opponent while their opponent does the same."
"As the Mana Regeneration becomes stronger and stronger, the fights become longer and longer."
"But without Mana Shield, they are forced to get more creative."
"So, to facilitate this creativity, I made it impossible for him to use Mana Shield."
"And he made quite some interesting innovations. Necessity is the mother of invention, you know? Why change something that works? But if it doesn't work, you have to change it."
Shang understood where the God was coming from.
That Fire Mage had fought very differently from all the other Mages. Most notably, his movements. Instead of only using Mana Step and standing in place, he charged toward Shang and even somewhat flew around in the sky.
Additionally, he was also using trickery, like the Fire Mines or the remote explosions.
At that moment, Shang realized something else.
'I didn't have a chance to use Sword's Entropy or Mana Step. There simply was no good opportunity.'
But then, Shang also remembered that the Fire Mage had said that he wanted to unleash his Domain of Fire but couldn't.
It seemed like both of them had fought an opponent that disabled one of their weapons.
Shang's control over temperature made the Domain of Fire unusable, but the Mage's ability to fight in the sky and his lack of Mana Shield made Shang's Mana Step and Sword's Entropy useless.
It was a strange fight.
"I got the points for that fight, right?" Shang asked.
"You did," the jester said with a grin. "30 points in total. That's a new record, you know?"
"I have two options for your reward."
"Want to hear them?"
