After achieving his breakthrough in his Fire Affinity, Shang left his new cave and scouted the Zone to the east of this one.
The next Zone was filled with mountains made of metal with absolutely no vegetation on them. But just like the previous one, this one also had several caves.
After checking everything, Shang went to the border between the two Zones while still retaining about five kilometers of distance to the next Zone.
Then, Shang closed his eyes and connected with the Abominations.
Just like last time, Shang summoned a Commander Stage Abomination together with its army.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
In an instant, the eastern half of the Zone was filled with Abominations, and Shang quickly absorbed the Commander Stage Abomination. After that, he ordered the Abominations to kill everything towards the west, and they followed.
Just like last time, the Abominations went wild and attacked everything they could see while Shang ran towards the east.
With his newly absorbed Abomination, his physical power was now at around 90% of the power of an Early Commander Stage beast, and Shang could feel that he could soon make a breakthrough.
BZZT!
The mark of the Thunder Horse got activated as Shang was retreating, which meant that the Zone Beast had noticed him.
Just like last time, Shang's fear intensified.
Every time he decided to summon Abominations, he was playing with death, but in his mind, the risk was necessary.
How was he supposed to become the strongest if he couldn't unveil his full potential?
As Shang fled towards the east, more and more explosions appeared west of him.
He had no idea how many humans and beasts he had doomed by summoning this group of Abominations.
'Every time I summon the Abominations, innocent people die. Not everyone wants to fight a war or kill me, but these people die nevertheless,' Shang thought with a frown as he fled towards the east.
'In order to increase my power, everyone around me suffers.'
'I don't like it, but I have no other choice. My power is more important than anything else!'
'I can't let anyone notice the connection between the Abominations and me! If anyone notices, I will become the enemy of the entire world!'
The more Shang summoned Abominations, the more isolated he felt.
Back when he realized that his Affinity was actually Entropy, he already knew that he would become the enemy of everything alive, but he hadn't expected it to be this extreme.
Shang would endanger everyone around him just by becoming stronger, which was the exact opposite of why many people wanted to become powerful.
Many people wanted to become powerful to be safe and to have the ability to protect their loved ones.
But the more powerful Shang became, the more dangerous it became to be close to him.
Shang didn't like this one bit, but there wasn't much he could do. He could only get used to it.
The couple of guards at the border between Zones got distracted by the carnage towards their west, and they ran towards the big city in the Zone with horror.
Their family and friends lived there!
If they didn't help, everyone they loved would die!
Shang easily passed through the border and continued running.
The explosions became more and more violent, but the explosions didn't reach a ridiculous level of power, which meant that the Zone Beast didn't become active.
However, some of the explosions were still quite powerful.
'Either a High Mage or a True Path Stage beast is decimating the Abominations,' Shang thought.
Theoretically, a General Stage Abomination had the power to kill something in the Fourth Realm, but that was only theoretical.
Entropy couldn't be unleashed from over a kilometer away, while a High Mage or True Path Stage beast could launch devastating attacks from several kilometers away.
So, even though the Abominations could kill someone on that level, they never got the chance to unleash that power. After all, they would die far away from these powerful beings.
However, many weaker people would still die to these Abominations. After all, not everyone could flee from such a horde.
Many lives were lost this day.
Shang eventually found a safe cave in the new Zone and waited for a couple of days to let things blow over.
No one followed him.
After that, he went outside and scouted out the Zone.
There was a sizable town in the middle of the Zone, but it couldn't be counted as a city. Shang was quite confident that there wasn't any High Mage in this Zone.
'Sadly, I still can't enter the town. I look out of place, and I'm certain that they have some kind of Magic Circle to scan the physical power of people. After all, there are bound to be physical fighters in this Kingdom. They are just not nearly as powerful as the barbarians and warriors.'
Right now, Shang felt like a fugitive that had just escaped prison. He couldn't show himself in public, and he could only watch other people from a distance.
He couldn't interact with anyone else.
Right now, Shang felt like the entire world was against him, and it felt very isolating.
After a couple of minutes of staring at the town, Shang could only sigh.
'I only need the Abominations to heighten the maximum potential my body can reach. I don't need to exclusively absorb Abominations.'
'Right now, my upper limit should be around 94% of the power of an Early Commander Stage beast. If there are too many Abominations appearing one after the other, the Blackshadow Kingdom is bound to become suspicious.'
'I should keep low for a couple of months.'
'Until then, I should focus on training my swordsmanship.'
Shang left the mountain from which he had watched the town and went back to his cave.
Another long session of training with Sword began.
Every two weeks, Shang would go out, hunt a beast, absorb it, and return to his cave.
All of this continued for about three months.
Shang could see quite some progress on his Star Map, but there was still a long way to go.
Shang slowly stood up and wanted to summon the next army of Abominations, but he soon noticed something after thinking about his journey.
'I think I should be 30 now,' he thought with surprise.
'I have already been in this world for around 16 years.'
'That's just six years less than I have been on Earth, and I don't even remember my first three years on Earth.'
Shang remembered when he had arrived at the Warrior's Academy as a fourteen to fifteen-year-old boy.
He had been amazing at fighting beasts, but Mages and warriors had dominated him.
Shang had needed to fight people below his level for several months just to become barely average.
For a while, Shang was caught up in nostalgia.
Back then, Shang was among peers. He had so many classmates to fight and learn from.
And now?
Now, he felt alone and isolated.
But he also felt powerful.
Back then, his body had been fourteen.
Now, he was thirty.
Back then, he had been a teenager.
Now, he was a true adult.
And everything had changed.
For a while, Shang only stared aimlessly into space.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to that time or not.
'I don't think so,' Shang thought as he clenched his right fist.
'Back then, I was reliant on others.'
'Now, I rely on myself, and I am finally powerful enough to travel through a Kingdom that wants me dead.'
'I finally have some sort of control over my own life!'
And then, Shang focused on the Abominations.
