After a couple of minutes of walking, Shang reached the actual frontlines.
He could see several huge walls, over ten Mage Towers, around 20 True Mages, and hundreds of barbarians.
20 True Mages was a bit on the meager side when it came to fortifications on a war front, but the hundreds of barbarians easily made up for that.
The fact that there were ten Mage Towers with only 20 True Mages told Shang that the Grandmountain Kingdom wanted to lose as few True Mages as possible.
One Mage Tower generally had two True Mages inside of it. They could work with the Magic Circles and perfectly split up the work.
One of them would plan, choose the attacks, and keep the Magic Circles running, while the other one only needed to aim and fire.
The Mana would mostly come from Mana Crystals, which were stored inside the Mage Tower itself.
So, with 20 True Mages, the ten Mage Towers could be used to their full force.
Obviously, the Grandmountain Kingdom saw their True Mages as more valuable than their actual resources. Otherwise, they wouldn't have built just as many Mage Towers as it needed True Mages to operate them.
They just didn't want to lose more True Mages.
As Shang looked at the army of barbarians, he saw hopelessness, fear, and frustration.
Based on how the defenses were set up, Shang could very well imagine how everything would go.
A couple of Adepts would herd the barbarians to the front while the True Mages shot at the enemy from their safe Mage Towers.
Naturally, an army of Fighter Stage barbarians was not very threatening to the Skythunder Kingdom. After all, most warriors could cut through them like cutting grass.
But that was not the purpose of the barbarian army.
Their purpose was just to slow the advancing offense down to give the Mage Towers more time to rain death on their enemies.
In short, the barbarians were cannon fodder.
Their purpose was to give their life to buy time.
That was all.
As Shang arrived at the actual gate of the encampments, a couple of True Mages were eying him suspiciously. They were not constantly in their towers. When there was no threat, a quarter of them would manage the encampment.
"Stop, cannon fodder!" one of the True Mages shouted at Shang with a strict voice.
Shang only stopped and looked down at the ground.
He wanted to appear fearful.
"You don't seem familiar. Identify yourself!" he ordered as he looked at the gigantic sword on Shang's back. He didn't remember seeing such a huge weapon.
"Jaimy, stop being so paranoid," the other True Mage groaned with annoyance. "He's just another barbarian. We go through barbarians like pieces of paper. Of course you won't recognize all of them."
"I like to be careful," the other True Mage said with furrowed brows. "You! Identify yourself!" he repeated.
"My name is Kernal. I come from the Strong Stone Tribe," Shang said slowly as he looked at the ground.
Right now, Shang was borrowing one of the names of the barbarians he had taught and another barbarian's tribe. He was essentially mixing the two identities to create a new one.
The True Mage stepped forward and chanted a short Spell.
Shang didn't look up.
A second later, Shang's right biceps shone with the emblem of the frontline.
"See?" the other True Mage commented in boredom. "Stop being so paranoid."
The other True Mage only narrowed his eyes. "Show me your collar!"
Shang slowly lifted his head and looked upward to show his collar.
The True Mage stepped forward, touched the collar, and chanted a Spell.
A couple of runes appeared on the collar for around three seconds.
The True Mage only furrowed his brows and looked at Shang.
"Look at me," he ordered.
Shang looked the True Mage in the eyes.
The True Mage only sneered. "We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. We even get cripples now."
Shang didn't look away, and he did his best to keep his thoughts a secret.
"Go in," the other True Mage ordered Shang. Obviously, he had gotten quite annoyed with Shang's presence.
Shang wasn't sure if he should follow the new order or the old order.
SLAP!
The first True Mage slapped him, and Shang had to act like it hurt a lot. After all, even though a True Mage's body wasn't very powerful, Shang was currently mimicking a Mid Fighter Stage barbarian.
Shang even bit his cheek to make it appear like the slap had injured him.
"You've received an order!" the first True Mage shouted aggressively after slapping Shang.
Then, Shang quickly scurried into the base.
The first True Mage sneered at the leaving Shang while the other one just looked forward in boredom.
After some scurrying, Shang started to walk normally again.
'Sure enough, everything went just as planned,' Shang thought.
Shang wasn't exactly angry at the True Mage.
It wasn't because Shang was such a good person, but because Shang literally saw that True Mage as less than dirt.
Why should Shang get angry at an ant?
Shang might have felt quite some anger on several occasions in the last couple of months, but something like this was insignificant to him.
Additionally, Shang's focus was on something else.
Ever since he had gotten close to the encampment, he had felt some kind of spying force interact with his being.
This was nothing new to Shang.
This was the feeling of being inside a High Mage's Spirit Sense.
Shang didn't dare to activate his own Pseudo-Spirit Sense for fear of being discovered by the High Mage, but he could still feel the High Mage's Spirit Sense.
Shang hadn't seen the High Mage, but he felt like they were quite a bit weaker than Duke Whirlwind, which wasn't very surprising.
Duke Whirlwind was one of the most powerful High Mages in the entire Skythunder Kingdom. He could probably even win against most members of the Council.
After entering the camp, Shang walked around, talked with some barbarians, and simply focused on wasting time.
He had to wait for a good opportunity to summon the Abominations.
