Shang left the Caves for the first time in a long while.
He jumped out of the hole in the ground and appeared in the Wasteland.
At the moment, it was in the middle of the day, and plenty of warriors and Mages were running around, earning money.
In comparison to 30 years ago, the number of beasts Shang could see had been drastically reduced.
With the increased power of the average warrior, they didn't need to form teams anymore, essentially multiplying the number of hunters.
However, in order to stop the hunters from eradicating the entire beast population, several new rules had to be put into place.
For example, hunting in the Caves now required a hefty entrance fee. Additionally, more beasts in the Wild Forest had been put on the Blacklist so that they could grow up and be hunted in the Wasteland.
The Day of Chaos had also become much more manageable due to the reduced number of beasts.
But when Shang looked at Warrior's Paradise, it looked just like always.
It was still as imposing as back then.
In fact, it had even grown a bit in the past decades. The Earth Mages slowly widened the plateau Warrior's Paradise was on, allowing it to expand.
In the past three decades, it had probably gotten wider by around 200 meters.
Shang traveled towards the street that led to Warrior's Paradise and jumped.
With a bit of finesse and control, Shang could essentially run up the two-kilometer high road and easily land on it. He didn't even need to use his Blasts or a Talisman.
As soon as Shang landed on the road, he looked at the Wasteland again.
Memories entered his mind, and he remembered the first time he had seen this view.
Back then, he had seen how the warriors and Mages managed to jump up to Warrior's Paradise with their Talismans, and he also remembered how intimidated he had been when he had seen the Mages blast the beasts apart with ease.
Shang had been around 15 years old at that point.
Now, he was 47.
32 years had passed.
Back then, he had still struggled with his persona from Earth, and this world had been new and magical to him.
Now, it was just normal.
Shang could also see the occasional student pass him. Not everyone visited all the classes.
When he saw them, he felt like he had been one of them not too long ago.
But now...
"Greetings, Count Sword," one of the students said with a polite bow.
"Greetings, Count Sword," the other ones echoed.
Shang only nodded toward them in acknowledgment.
Back then, he had been one of them, and he had even received quite some ridicule from the other students. After all, Shang had been a weakling when it came to fighting other warriors.
Shang slowly walked to the gates of Warrior's Paradise.
During the mornings and evenings, the gate was always packed, but during the middle of the day, the traffic was fine.
Shang simply walked past everyone.
"Greetings, Count Sword," the guards shouted with respectful salutes.
Shang nodded at them and simply entered the city.
As a Count, he didn't need to be subject to searches and could just enter.
As Shang walked along the streets, nearly everyone politely walked out of his way and greeted him.
Shang was sort of an attraction to these people. After all, they saw their Duke much more often than the mysterious Count Sword.
When Shang reached the marketplace, his eyes fell on a building.
'This was the place where I sold the General Stage Vanishing Snake.'
Back then, the Adept that had run the shop had been unfathomably more powerful than Shang.
Thinking about the shop also reminded Shang of someone.
'I haven't seen Teacher Niria, Astor, Sarah, and Mattheo in over 20 years.'
'I wonder what happened to them.'
As Shang turned to leave, he noticed another building. He had never been inside the building, but the sign woke more memories.
"Gerbon National Resource Trading Firm."
The first time Shang had openly walked through the academy, some youngster from exactly this trading firm had sent his goonies at him.
'Stars Gerbon was his name, right?'
Shang looked at the building for a couple of seconds before continuing toward the academy.
As he thought about the trading firm, he also remembered all the merchants that had sold all kinds of things in the academy.
He still remembered how Shang had purchased the Fire Ore from one of them.
The merchant had told Shang that the ore had come from the distant Volcano Wyrm Zone, which was why it had been so expensive.
Storm Eagle Zone, Empress Cobra Zone, Adamantite Behemoth Zone, Thunder Horse Zone, Volcano Wyrm Zone. That was the path to get to the Volcano Wyrm Zone.
It definitely was quite far away, but for the current Shang, this little bit of distance seemed irrelevant.
Shang walked through the gates of the academy and saw many students training on the fields.
Shang was supposed to meet Jerald in the basement of the academy to inspect all the beast corpses, which was why he was there.
As soon as Shang entered the academy, most of the students noticed him and stared.
Some of the teachers had complicated expressions on their faces.
They remembered Shang, but they were scared of greeting him.
He simply seemed too distant right now.
The loud academy became quieter as everyone started looking at Shang with different expressions.
Most of the students looked at him with shock and humongous respect.
Some of the teachers smiled, some looked respectful, and some others had uncertain expressions on their faces.
Shang stopped after everyone started staring at him.
Then, his gaze wandered around the students on the fields.
"I have once been a student here," he slowly said, his voice echoing throughout the courtyard.
"Listen to your teachers. They have a lot of experience, and to gain such experience, plenty of errors must be made."
"When they say that something might result in something bad happening, listen to them. Instead of repeating the errors of the past, listen so that these errors stay in the past."
"I wish you all a bright future in this academy."
Shang wasn't usually one for speeches, but he felt like this was the right time to give one.
A bit after Shang was done with his speech, a couple of students started clapping politely.
Most of them felt thankful to hear Count Sword speak publicly, and they engraved his words deep into their minds.
Shang wanted to continue walking forward, but his eyes fell on one person.
Instead of walking towards the building, Shang entered one of the training fields and stopped in front of a teacher.
This teacher was very tall, and his stature was wide and powerful. He had a gigantic sword on his back, which was about as big as Sword when it was in its Great Sword State.
Right now, the teacher was looking at Shang with a complex expression and a bit of fear.
Shang looked at the teacher for a bit.
Then, a small smile appeared on his face.
"Long time no see, Astor."
