Shang fought the Berserker, and he was quite surprised by how weak the Berserker was initially.
Sure, his body was stronger than the body of a Weapon Master, but neither his power nor his speed or his techniques were better than the Barbarian.
But there was one difference.
His defense was amazing!
The attack that had created a gash on the Barbarian's face only left a scratch on the Berserker's face.
And then, the Berserker's attacks grew a slight bit faster and a slight bit stronger as a tiny red afterglow appeared behind his swinging axes.
Shang became interested and created a huge gash on the Berserker's chest with his Addum.
The Berserker began to bleed heavily, but his body didn't even show an inkling of healing.
With the huge gash, the Berserker's speed and power reached the Barbarian's level.
CRKSH!
And then, Shang bisected the Berserker with his Addum.
He had seen enough.
Shang quickly entered the next trial and noticed that the arena had become quite a bit bigger. It was around 100 kilometers wide.
This would be a medium-distance battle, according to the size of the arena.
'I guess Lucius only wanted to test me with three close-combat Paths.'
Shang's next fight was against a woman with green hair that wore several bows and crossbows all over her body.
Apparently, she was an Early Ranger Lord, a Path Shang had never heard of.
Her entire gimmick was that she rapidly shot a storm of arrows at Shang.
Her rate of attack was quite a bit faster than a Mage's, but Shang could tell that her range was lower. Additionally, she lacked any form of powerful attack that could break through thick armor.
Shang simply killed her with a couple of ranged attacks since her defense was almost nonexistent.
Shang's next fight was against a Domain Controller.
His entire thing was that he filled the room with lightning, which quickly started to burn Shang's body.
His attacks were simply unavoidable since they encompassed the entire room.
However, the Domain Controller himself only used attacks to push Shang away, and he used plenty of techniques to flee.
It was clear that his tactic was to slowly kill the enemy with his Domain.
Sadly, Shang couldn't experiment for long since the Domain was actually quite dangerous, and he ended the fight rather quickly.
Shang's next fight was against an Early Elementalist Lord.
He used rapid and powerful mid-range attacks of different Elements.
His offense was honestly impressive, but he had weak defenses. His tactic had been to kill the opponent with overwhelming offense before the opponent could fight back.
After that, the arena changed again, and it was now about 1,000 kilometers wide, signifying that the long-range battles would be next.
Shang's first opponent was a Beast Controller that was controlling ten Initial Beast Lords.
The Beast Controller moved as far away from Shang as possible as her beasts attacked him.
After killing the beasts, the Beast Controller was basically helpless, and Shang killed her.
The next battle was strange.
Shang just looked at a smiling old man.
He didn't seem very powerful.
Suddenly, Shang felt like he was about to die, and he rapidly unleashed several ranged attacks that killed the old man.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The next moment, the old man's body exploded, filling the entire room with destructive and chaotic storms of Mana.
Shang only received slight burns, but that was because the power had been dispersed across the entire room.
If this destructive power had actually been focused on him, Shang would have died.
Obviously, Shang's opponent had bet everything on one card.
He would unleash a single attack, and that would be it.
If his opponent died, he would win. If his opponent survived, he would lose.
Additionally, if a second person showed up shortly later, he would lose as well.
It was a very extreme way of fighting, but he had nearly succeeded in killing Shang.
Shang could imagine that people that chose this Path had incredible powers of deterrence.
It was like a weak man carrying around a shotgun with exactly one bullet in it.
Shang assumed that the next fight would be the last, and his opponent confirmed it.
It was a Mage.
Naturally, Shang didn't have any difficulties in killing the Mage.
After fighting nine different opponents, Shang realized that the Mage Path was probably the best all-around Path.
Great defense, great offense, great speed, great range, great diversity.
It was good in everything.
The Mage Path was definitely among the best.
Shang could imagine that Weapon Masters and Domain Controllers could reach similar powers, but it was probably quite a bit harder to get there.
Shang entered the next hallway.
He had no idea how far he had actually already gone, but he was quite sure that he was somewhere in the Eternal Ocean, far away from Aterium.
Shang entered the next room and saw that this room was far smaller than all the previous halls.
In fact, the room was only about 30 meters wide.
In the middle of the room was an elevated chair, and that was about it. There was nothing else.
Shang slowly walked over to the chair and sat down.
The next moment, a ghostly silhouette appeared in front of Shang.
It was difficult to make out the details, but Shang saw that the ghostly figure was a male of Shang's height with blonde hair.
Naturally, Shang knew who that was.
It was an image of Lucius Volstad.
Shang had seen Lucius before, back when the God had kicked his corpse across the room.
The Aura that the ghostly figure emanated reminded Shang a bit of Jerald before his son had died.
Lucius seemed quite approachable but also highly intelligent and principled.
He was someone that could inspire others to follow him.
Naturally, Lucius was dead, and Shang knew that this ghostly figure was probably just some kind of complex Magic Circle that controlled the entire trial like a computer.
"You passed," the ghostly figure uttered with a kind smile.
Shang did not answer.
"What do you wish for?" the figure asked.
"The Concept made of the Concepts of Twilight, Temperatures, Addition, and Subtraction," Shang answered.
A small smile appeared on the ghostly figure's face.
"You're searching for the Concept of Transformation," the figure said. "The level five Concept of Abominations."
Shang called his Affinity Entropy, but Lucius seemed to call it Abomination.
Both of them made sense.
"Yes," Shang said, remembering the name of the Concept.
The Concept of Transformation.
"The Concept of Transformation is one of the hardest Concepts to comprehend," the ghostly figure said. "Back then, I had to sacrifice Mana to the void for over 2,000 years. I hunted beasts, kept them in isolation, and slowly sacrificed them to the Realm of Abominations."
The ghostly figure sighed.
"I killed over 15,000 Peak Ancestral Beasts and over 3,000 Initial Beast Lords this way."
"I permanently destroyed a Mage King's worth of Mana."
"And yet, it took me over 2,000 years."
The ghostly figure looked at Shang.
"Do you have 2,000 years?" it asked.
"No," Shang slowly answered. "I have less than a thousand years left."
"I know," the ghostly figure said.
'Then why did you ask?' Shang thought.
"Also, you're not a Mage," the figure added. "If you were to use my method, you would probably need 3,000 to 4,000 years."
"But there is a way," he said. "Yet, the faster something gives results, the higher the price you have to pay."
"Are you prepared to pay the price?" the figure asked.
"How long will it take?" Shang asked.
"Based on the data I have collected of you, around 200 years," the ghostly figure said.
'200 years,' Shang thought. 'This seems too good to be true.'
'That means the price is huge.'
"I agree," Shang said.
Surprisingly, the ghostly figure only sighed again.
The next moment, a portal opened at the edge of the room, and a person stepped through.
When Shang saw the person, he realized what the price had to be.
It truly was a heavy price.
