Shang continued training inside the Caves.
For multiple years, Shang had seemingly vanished from the face of the world.
People knew about the mysterious Count Sword, but nearly all of them had never seen him.
Some of the people even doubted that Count Sword actually existed. After all, someone must have seen him somewhere, right?
However, deep in the Caves, Shang was training hard every single day.
He only focused on his own power, nothing else.
And his progress was astounding.
When Shang had just reached the Peak Commander Stage, he would have had a shot at killing an average Initial High Mage.
But now, Shang could even fight an Early High Mage, probably.
Shang's physical power had not increased in any way. His increase in power was all due to his diligent training in his Path.
As Shang continued training, George's Spear kept following him. It didn't help or come close, but it stayed in the same general vicinity of Shang.
Shang guessed that he and Sword were the closest people to George's Spear, which was why it was following them.
A couple of months passed.
One day, George's Spear approached Shang of its own volition.
Shang was a bit surprised since the spear had never initiated a conversation before.
Sword left Shang's hands and floated over to the spear, touching it.
"It is asking why you are not making use of your Affinities," Sword told Shang.
"Because I want to train in my swordsmanship," Shang answered, looking at the spear. "Right now, I am forging my Path, and I only use my Affinities in a genuine fight. If I used all my abilities the entire time, my opponents wouldn't be able to live for long."
George's Spear didn't move.
"It says that this was not what it meant," Sword said.
Shang raised an eyebrow.
"It says that splitting your Affinities and swordsmanship into separate categories is stupid," Sword said.
Shang furrowed his brows. "Can you explain what you mean?"
"It says that you should take the ranged technique you earned as an example. Using it without an Affinity makes it far weaker. It is definitely a technique designed for weapons, but its power gets elevated by using an Affinity, something George didn't have access to."
"If you can combine the ranged attack with an Affinity, you should also be able to combine other attacks with your Affinity."
"It has seen us fight multiple times before, but we only use our Affinity like this with the ranged technique, not with everything else."
Shang rubbed his chin with furrowed brows as he fell into thought.
"It says that you are pursuing George's Path, the Path of someone that didn't have access to an Affinity. Warriors like Mervin take advantage of their Affinities and increase the power of their techniques in this way. They never strike with only their weapons. In some form, their Affinity is always part of their attacks and defenses."
Shang thought back to his fight with Mervin about 18 years ago.
Sure enough, Mervin had used his Metal Affinity in nearly every attack. It had made his sword move faster and release more power.
Shang also remembered the different warriors he had fought in the trial. Even the average Late Commander Stage warrior used their Affinity in combination with their techniques.
'How can I integrate my Affinities into my techniques? Even more, how can I integrate them in a way that doesn't constantly sap my life energy?'
Shang thought about his weapons and about his Affinities.
His Colossal Sword was very defensive and with a heavy focus on a counterattack.
His Great Sword was focused on unleashing few but very devastating and explosive attacks.
His Saber was focused on a good number of attacks with a good amount of power.
His Long Sword was focused on rapid attacks that relied heavily on using Shang's life energy and Affinity.
His Fire Affinity was mostly used with ranged attacks.
His Ice Affinity wasn't really used in any of his attacks.
His Light Affinity wasn't used at all.
His Darkness Affinity was mostly used with Shang's Long Sword.
'There definitely is a lot of untapped potential there,' Shang thought.
Then, Shang got an idea.
'Four Affinities.'
'Four weapons.'
'Maybe I can further distinguish the different weapons by also creating attacks that follow one of the Affinities?'
'Not all Affinities are suitable for all weapons. For example, my Darkness Affinity is not very useful with my Colossal or Great Sword. The additional damage it provides is more of a per-hit-thing than a multiplier on existing damage.'
'At the same time, my Ice Affinity can increase the power of my weapon, making it the opposite, but I rarely use it in such a way since it wouldn't be worth the life energy.'
'I don't need to use everything with everything. Sure, I can still use ice and fire to move around, but when it comes to attacks, it should be fine if I design my techniques around a certain weapon and Affinity.'
'How would I assign them?'
'The easiest would be my Long Sword. My Long Sword and my Darkness Affinity perfectly go hand-in-hand.'
'The next one is a bit more difficult. For my Saber, I could imagine fire and ice. With ice, I would increase the power of my rapid attacks, while fire would do the same thing but in a different way. I could also use fire with the ranged technique while using my Saber.'
'My Great Sword seems similar, but it's actually easier to assign a partner to it. My Great Sword doesn't release many attacks, but they are all backed by its powerful weight and power. Fire is just like my Darkness Affinity, a per-hit thing. Ice increases the existing power of my attacks.'
'So, Great Sword should go with ice.'
'That would pair Saber with fire.'
'And my Colossal Sword with Light?'
At that moment, Shang only looked forward with uncertainty.
'I've never really used my Light Affinity. It basically just exists.'
'I mean, a Light Affinity isn't very useful in a fight due to my warrior's body. If I didn't have that, I could use it to heal myself, but using my warrior's body is just way better.'
Shang looked to the side. 'However, everything I know about the Light Affinity is stuff I learned as a Soldier Stage student. I can imagine light being useless in a fight at such a level, but is that still the case at higher levels?'
'I mean, Earth had lasers.'
'I don't think I have the power to create something like a laser, but maybe there is something I can do.'
'But that might not even be the right approach. My Colossal Sword is focused mostly on defense, and my Light Affinity is also mostly focused on defense.'
'Is there a way to use light in a defensive manner without just healing?'
Shang mulled over that thought for a while.
'There might be, but I don't know. This is essentially new territory to me, which means I would need to start from ground zero.'
But then, Shang's eyebrows rose.
'No, I don't have to start from zero!'
"Thank you," Shang said to the spear. "You have given me a lot to think about."
"It says that it only helped because it couldn't look at the talent you were wasting," Sword told Shang.
Shang only smiled a bit. "Thank you anyway."
After that, the spear went back to the wall.
And Shang took out his Communication Crystal.
While the warrior Path would mostly be unknown from now on, the Mage Path was very clear for everyone to see.
Why not ask a Mage?
Shang contacted Jerald and asked about uses for a Light Affinity that were not related to healing.
And Shang finally got his answer.
Yes, that would work!
He could finally make use of his Light Affinity!
