Shang exited the academy for the first time on his own. He had only left it once before, which was when teacher Mervin took him to hunt the Pest Cat. Back then, Shang hadn't had the opportunity to look at the city properly during the daytime.

Warrior's Paradise was bustling.

There were people everywhere, and the merchants put up stalls at nearly every corner of the road.

As Shang passed through the streets, he saw quite a big number of General Stage warriors. Most of them wore brown armor made of leather, and, surprisingly, many of them also wore cloaks made of Pest Cat fur.

The reason was obvious. During the night, the Pest Cats were great at hiding themselves, and the black cloaks could also be used by the hunters to hide.

However, in comparison to Shang's cloak, which he wasn't wearing at the moment, their cloaks had been made with far more skill. Most of them wore their cloaks as capes. From what Shang could see, the hunters could pull on a string, which made the cloak pull together at the back, transforming it from a cloak into a cape.

'I should buy one of those later,' Shang thought.

Sadly, while walking through the streets, Shang also noticed something else, and he definitely didn't like that.

He saw several weaker people avoid him. Some mothers were pushing their children away from him, and several men quietly put their hands over their sacks of money.

As soon as Shang noticed that, he got reminded of the words from that one guard near Duke Whirlwind's garden.

'You keep acting like a shifty criminal. If you don't fix that, you will see women protect their children and men protect their money,' Shang remembered with frustration.

Sure enough, that had come to pass.

Shang could only sigh. 'I really should work on that. Otherwise, I will be questioned by nearly every guard I come across. Buying things will probably also be harder outside the academy.'

Shang also saw several Mages in the streets. Most of them simply ignored him, but there were a couple of them that threw Shang some annoyed glances.

If Shang weren't constantly scanning his surroundings out of habit, he wouldn't have noticed these glances.

Those glances represented annoyance and a bit of disgust.

Shang didn't interact with the couple of Mages throwing these glances at him, but his expression became more and more annoyed.

'Most of the Mages I met were very approachable, but obviously, not all of them are like this. There are bound to be some of them that look down on warriors.'

When Shang came to the gates, he saw something quite surprising.

He saw someone jump off the street.

One had to remember that Warrior's Paradise was on top of a huge flat mountain in the middle of the Wasteland. If one jumped off the street, they would fall for nearly two kilometers.

Shang walked to the side and looked down.

Just before the person hit the ground, the trajectory of their body suddenly curved toward the front. Then, after around a hundred meters, Shang noticed that they began to slow down. Eventually, they touched the ground with their feet and continued running.

For some reason, their fall had been converted into forward momentum.

"That's a wind talisman," a random guy walking on the street shouted to Shang. Obviously, he had noticed that this was the first time Shang had seen something like that.

"Wind talisman?" Shang asked.

"Yeah. It absorbs the wind of the fall and releases it near the ground to stop the fall. Most experienced hunters around these parts use them," the person explained.

"Thank you for explaining," Shang shouted back.

"No problem. Have fun," the guy said as he continued to Warrior's Paradise.

However, Shang didn't continue walking. Instead, he continued looking at the Wasteland.

He had never truly seen the Wasteland during the day.

It was chaos.

There were deep crevices and hills everywhere, and Shang could already see several beasts walking through the Wasteland. On top of that, the Wasteland was so large that Shang couldn't even see the end of it from this position.

One had to know that Shang could see nearly 40 kilometers into the distance from his current position, and he still couldn't see the end.

Additionally, from what Shang was seeing, the land didn't start curving or anything like on Earth.

Shang could see that it continued and continued until the blue color of the air eventually hid the distant lands, and even at that distance, the Wasteland didn't end.

From up here, Shang could also see a couple of hunters fighting.

Shang had never seen a General Stage warrior fight before, and he was very interested in the fight.

However, from this distance, it was basically impossible to make out anything specific. Shang only saw a couple of hunters jumping around a big beast.

Suddenly, Shang's vision was pulled towards the left as he saw something glint in the distance.

Shang barely caught a glimpse of an explosion vanishing a couple of kilometers away.

In front of the explosion was someone with long red hair and red robes. Based on context clues, Shang guessed that they were a Mage, probably an Adept.

After the smoke of the explosion cleared, Shang could see the body of a beast… or at least what remained of it.

It had been completely decimated.

After looking at the corpse for a bit, Shang noticed something and looked over to the other battlefield.

Then, he looked back at the corpse again.

'That's the same beast!' Shang thought.

Based on the color and the horns, Shang was sure that the two parties had fought the same kind of beast.

However, while one side was still fighting with three warriors, the other side had simply unleashed one explosion to end the fight.

For the first time, Shang actually saw the difference between Mages and warriors with his own eyes. He had always heard about it, but he had never truly witnessed it himself.

Shang imagined the two parties fighting each other.

Then, Shang remembered the explosion he had seen. He could still see a several-meter-wide crater.

That single explosion would probably end the fight if the hunters were gathered.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ After coming to that conclusion, Shang looked at the road beneath him.

It was made with Earth Magic.

Then, he remembered the Wind Talisman that other hunter had used.

That was made with Wind Magic.

Shang looked at the city walls.

Made with Earth Magic.

Shang looked at the gigantic Mana Austerum towering over the city.

Magic.

Space Rings.

Magic.

Everything was made with Magic.

Shang had known that the Mages were the rulers of this world, but only now did he truly see the power of the Mages.

The warriors existed, and they could still reach quite a bit of power, but in the end, they were living in a world of Magic.

The Mages were the true rulers. Even the bastion that represented the most powerful warriors in the world, Warrior's Paradise, was essentially run by Mages. The Mages administrated the city and ruled it.

Yes, the dean was probably the most important figure inside Warrior's Paradise, but even he was probably subservient to Duke Whirlwind.

Warrior's Paradise was owned by a Duke.

It wasn't even a King.

Shang hadn't thought about the Mages very much while he had traveled to Warrior's Paradise, but he had seen their signs and symbols of power along the way.

This world was ruled by Mages.

For quite some time, Shang wasn't sure how he should feel about this.