At the end of the lesson, teacher Loran informed all the students about stuff he had noticed during the fights. He informed them where they had made a mistake and where they should have performed better.

That also included Shang.

"I can't say much about your fight with Sarah, but I can give you some feedback on your fight with Astor," teacher Loran said.

Shang nodded.

"Ignoring the first fight, in your second fight, you haven't paid any attention to your surroundings. The ground is rather hard here, but it isn't unbreakable. The academy could have made the ground unbreakable for Soldier Stage warriors, but that wouldn't reflect a realistic battlefield."

"You might have also noticed that the training field isn't without obstacles," teacher Loran said as he pointed to a column near the edge of the arena.

Shang looked over and saw a column about a meter wide and two meters high. It was made of an unknown material that looked a bit like metal.

"The edge of the training field belongs to the training field, and these columns are included. They have been placed in the arena as obstacles. In your fight against Astor, you should have realized that his sword needs a lot of room to swing."

"Usually, being with your back against a wall is a bad idea, but if it's only a column, it can help you. Astor would have only been able to attack you with the tip of his sword and not the entire thing if the column was right behind you. If he extended too much and you stepped to the side, his sword would hit the column and bounce off or crack it, essentially robbing him of all his momentum."

"Additionally, you could have moved around it and use several stabs from the sides. Eventually, Astor would need to step away from that place and gain distance. At the moment when he steps away, you should use the column as a foothold to throw yourself at him to continue the fight with you on the offensive. If your offensive gets broken, retreat to the column."

"Another good way to win the fight is to retreat when Astor releases his swing. Every swing of his takes a lot of power and drains his stamina considerably. You have the advantage in speed, and by jumping in and out, you can exhaust him. Of course, you can't allow yourself to make any mistakes. If Astor sees your feint, he will use his swing to further his momentum instead of using it."

"When you closed in on Astor, you noticed that he is very good at defending his vital points. Attacking someone's vital points is a big undertaking and will leave you open if you fail. Astor only has to hit you once to win the weapon due to his sheer power."

"Usually, going for the kill is the quickest way to end the fight, but the quickest way isn't always the safest or best way. When you slid beneath Astor's sword, you shouldn't have tried to attack his heart but his legs. You could have tried to flee beneath his legs to avoid his strike. He has a lot of power and great defense, but his flexibility is a weakness that you have to exploit."

Shang took note of all of teacher Loran's lessons, and he learned a lot.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Earlier, he had thought that he had already lost after falling for Astor's feint, but there had actually been a way out. Now, Shang knew what he could have done.

"As you've seen, Mattheo is using pressure and relentless offense to deal with Astor. You don't have the ability yet to release such an explosive offense, which is why you should avoid doing that. Instead, try to win in the long run by slowly exhausting and injuring him to death."

"Of course, all of this is theory, and I only gave you a way to fight better against the abilities Astor has shown. He has plenty more abilities for all kinds of situations, but you have to see them for yourself for when you manage to actually put up a proper fight against him."

"In this class, you learn about how to deal with opponents. That's why I'm explaining to you what you should have done in your fight. If you want feedback on your specific techniques, you should enter Mervin's lesson. He's the teacher for sword techniques."

After teacher Loran said that, he went to the next student without even waiting to see if Shang had any questions.

Shang had noticed that teacher Loran also hadn't given any other student the chance to ask questions. It seemed like he wasn't a fan of answering questions.

After giving every student their feedback, teacher Loran left the training field rather quickly, leaving the students alone.

Astor left rather quickly. He seemed busy.

Mattheo talked and laughed with a couple of other students and left with them.

Elver, the green-haired boy that insulted Shang, looked at Shang, snorted, and walked away without saying anything.

"So, your questions?" Sarah asked Shang with a neutral voice.

Shang hadn't seen Sarah smile yet. Even when she had proclaimed her excitement at learning new things, her face hadn't shown even a hint of a smile. It was like she was serious 24/7.

"You have a Metal Affinity, correct?" Shang asked.

Sarah nodded. "Yes. Please keep your questions about my person as infrequent as possible," she answered flatly.

Shang nodded. "I wanted to know since I am most interested in your knowledge of metals, materials, and weapons."

"That makes sense," Sarah answered. "Your weapon is your biggest weakness currently. What do you want to know?"

"What kind of ore should I use to create a stronger weapon?" Shang asked.

"Depends on your Affinity and your control over it," Sarah answered. "There are weapons that can gain additional power with certain Affinities as long as they are made of the correct materials and by an experienced blacksmith."

Shang wasn't sure what he should say regarding his Affinity.

Should he say he didn't have one? In that case, he wouldn't know what he should do with his weapon.

Should he say he had one? In that case, questions would appear about what kind of Affinity Shang had.

Sarah noticed Shang's hesitation with a neutral expression. "Both it is then."

Shang felt a bit guilty for having to keep this a secret. "Thanks," he silently said.

"If you don't have an Affinity, it's simple. The more powerful the metal, the better," Sarah explained. "However, you have to pay attention to what kind of powerful metal you buy."

"Your sword is rather thin, which means it needs metal that can bend by a bit. Going all-in on hardness could get problematic since that would make it easier for your sword to break."

"However, all of that isn't an issue. All the different merchants selling ore know what they are doing. As long as they can see your weapon, they know what kind of ore you should get. Of course, I'm only referring to the good and professional merchants. Don't expect good service from someone that sells ore for cheap. You might get unsuitable ore."

Shang nodded.

"As for Affinities, that's a bit more complex. In terms of a Pure Affinity, it isn't much of an issue. You simply want a metal that has the same Affinity as your Affinity and the fitting characteristics for your weapon."

"If you have an Impure Affinity, which is a mixed Affinity created out of two or more Pure Affinities, you will have it much harder. However, the issue with creating such a weapon isn't the materials but the blacksmith. You need a blacksmith that can smelt metals of different Affinities together, and those blacksmiths are very expensive."

"If you have the luck to run across a fitting piece of ore with an Impure Affinity, you can also give that to the blacksmith. However, those kinds of ores are very rare and very valuable. They are outside your price range as long as you are a Soldier Stage warrior."

"As for the uses of weapons with Affinities, they can store and unleash Mana. In the Soldier Stage, that is not something you can freely use during a fight since we lack the amount of Mana to make our Affinities powerful enough to deal actual damage."

"We need to store the Mana in the weapon before the fight over a long period of time, and we can unleash the stored Mana during that fight. In that way, we can unleash an elemental attack with power far above our usual output."

"You've seen Mattheo fight. All the explosions around him come from the stored Mana in his gauntlets. He's releasing them in a controlled manner to increase his speed and power. He could have also unleashed everything at once in a big explosion, but that would have injured him too."

"Additionally, that doesn't work against Astor. He already tried it before."

"And the ten minutes are up. See you next time," Sarah said before turning around to leave.

Shang blinked a couple of times.

That was already ten minutes?

But… where could he get the money for that ore?

Where should he buy it?

Could he get it cheaper somewhere?

Did Sarah know of specific ore Shang could use?

Shang still had so many questions.

But in the end, Shang only sighed. 'Well, I only fought with her for one lesson. If I got all my questions answered immediately, it would be a bit bad.'

'Anyway, I learned a lot about Affinities and weapons. At least I know what I should pay attention to and what these kinds of weapons can do.'

Shang looked at the empty training field for one long moment.

Just one lesson.

Shang had learned so much in just one lesson.

Sure enough, it had been the correct decision to join the Warrior's Academy.