Shang had thought that he could use his Affinity in many different ways, and sure, there certainly were more refined techniques.

Sadly, the very refined techniques were just spells.

The ability to push the complexity of one's Affinity to the peak was literally what a spell was.

At most, Shang could slightly alter the use of his Mana.

With enough training, he could shoot out Darkness Mana.

With enough training, he could concentrate the ice and fire.

With enough training, he could absorb the light.

But that was about it. Anything more complex would be walking into the territory of spells.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Even more, Shang would probably need several months of training just to gain the control to unleash these slightly more refined uses of his Affinities. If he were to attempt to learn the most basic spells, Shang would need literal years to even learn the easiest one.

Why?

Because of his mind.

By increasing the power of the mind, one would gain a far greater connection with their Affinity, and one would be able to concentrate with far more intensity and for longer.

And Shang couldn't train his mind due to his warrior's body.

'At least I now have something I can do in my downtime. If I can't properly train in techniques, I can always focus on my Affinities. It's definitely not my priority since it doesn't increase my Battle-Strength by a lot, but it's better than doing nothing.'

'Anyway, I now have my Darkness ore and Light ore. I'm only missing two units of Fire ore and Ice ore. My priority should be to get those first.'

'Let's see. I have 227 gold and 3,440 Contribution Points. Fire costs 5,500 Contribution Points per unit, and Ice costs 6,750 Contribution Points per unit.'

' 24,500 Contribution Points. That's what I need. Based on my last excursion, that should be three days of hunting in the northeastern forest.'

Shang scratched his chin in thought.

'However, I don't want to buy absolutely everything in the Exchange Hall. Sure, my information is being protected, but if the stuff I'm buying is too strange, one of the clerks might believe that information about me is worth more than their job.'

'The previous clerk probably believes I have a Light Affinity, but that's not enough for him to risk his life. Of course, when I inevitably unveil my Ice Affinity, he might get suspicious, but that doesn't actually matter that much.'

'After all, there is a very easy and logical reason for why I bought Light ore.'

'I have a friend with a Light Affinity, and they don't want to show themselves,' Shang thought with a smirk.

'As long as I'm only buying weird ore once, that excuse works, but that also means that I can only get Ice Affinity ore from the Exchange Hall, which means I have to get the Fire Affinity ore from one of the normal merchants.'

'So, if I only want two Units of Ice Affinity ore, I only need a bit more than 10,000 Contribution Points. That's like five Vanishing Snakes. For the Fire ore, I need gold since I believe that I don't have enough gold right now to buy everything I need.'

Shang nodded as he finalized his plan and stood up.

Night had already arrived. Teacher Niria's lesson about beasts was in the afternoon, and with the three added hours of personal teaching, it was now night.

'No time like the present!'

Shang grabbed an empty beast sack, left his room, and jogged towards the city.

By now, the streets were nearly empty as everyone was finishing up for the day. In just two more hours, the streets would be dead silent again.

Shang just barely managed to get through the big gates before they closed, the guards shouting at him with annoyance.

After leaving the city, Shang accelerated to a full sprint as he ran down the long street.

The wind went through Shang's hair.

He loved that feeling.

Whenever Shang ran, he felt so free. Back on Earth, he had only been able to reach such speeds with a vehicle, but here, he could just run.

Even more, after surviving for months in the wilderness, Shang had learned how to live without society. If he wanted, he could simply continue running and never turn back.

He would be able to survive and still grow more powerful.

He was not bound by the place where he currently was.

This was something unachievable on Earth.

On Earth, one had a residence, belongings, money, insurance, family, a job, responsibilities, and so on.

If one decided to completely abandon society, one would have to live in the wilderness, which would bring a lot of problems.

Unclean water, which would endanger one's health.

Cold temperatures.

Parasites.

Disease.

Food problems.

All of these things were no issue for Shang. His body was powerful enough that all of these things didn't matter.

And even more, on Earth, it was very hard to rejoin society after abandoning it. The paperwork was monumental.

Here, it wasn't very difficult.

This world represented freedom, and only after living on Earth for so long could Shang appreciate the freedom this world provided.

For everyone else, this was just normal, but for Shang, this was special.

Shang loved this world.

At that moment, the image of the featureless, bloody face returned.

Shang only pushed it to the side.

He had gotten used to pushing it to the side.

After running for a while, Shang reached the northeastern forest. He had seen a couple of big dogs on the way, but they only looked at him with a bit of curiosity.

Shang quickly reached the northeastern forest and jumped onto a tree. After that, Shang stopped running on the ground and simply jumped from tree to tree.

He wanted to continue running, but Shang had already learned that he couldn't be reckless inside the northeastern forest.

Shang's excitement made way for concentration and care as his expression changed into a solemn one.

After jumping for a bit, Shang saw a Swamp Millipede in the distance. Without stopping, Shang jumped from tree to tree until he came to the closest one.

Shang directly jumped at the Swamp Millipede.

The Swamp Millipede had felt the vibrations of Shang's jumps since he hadn't been very stealthy at all and looked over.

BANG!

Shang unleashed a Fire Blast to shoot himself at the Swamp Millipede.

SHING!

The Swamp Millipede was decapitated, and Shang quickly cut off its feelers while unleashing a small Ice Blast to slightly heat up his nearly frozen arm again. As long as he didn't force the temperature to jump too wildly, his arm wouldn't be damaged that much.

With that method, Shang could use one Blast per beast without running out of Mana to regenerate his left arm. Each Blast allowed Shang to speed up a lot in the air, essentially making him move even faster than a Soldier Stage warrior.

Every time Shang unleashed a Fire Blast, he reached the speed of an Initial General Stage warrior for just one charge.

Nearly no beast in the northeastern forest could react to that.

Even more, his Fire Blast allowed Shang to reposition himself in the sky. If a beast noticed Shang's jump and moved to the side, Shang could simply charge at their new position with incredible speeds.

The beasts were helpless.

Shang was not fighting.

He was hunting.