'Only the Fire ore is left. I'm so close!' Shang thought with burning eyes.

He was so very close!

'To keep everything about myself hidden, I need to purchase the Fire ore on the market with gold. I can explain the Light ore I bought with a friend, but no one would want to keep a Fire Affinity hidden. It just wouldn't make sense.'

'The merchants are not here yet. They will only arrive near noon. Until then, I should find something to do.'

Shang thought about training, but that wouldn't help much. The last time he had tried to combine techniques, he had seen that there was no way to advance further. He needed practical experience and feedback from a teacher to advance in that department.

Shang could train in his Affinity, but he believed that there were better uses for his endeavor.

So, Shang took out the schedule for the lessons and checked which lessons would take place soon. He could fit in a lesson.

There were only two lessons, which would both start in about half an hour.

One of them was a theoretical lesson for future officers, which was something Shang wasn't interested in.

The other one was a theoretical lesson for the Anti-Mages, the red uniforms.

This piqued Shang's interest.

Shang knew that he would need to fight Mages sooner or later.

However, Shang had only seen a single Mage fight up to now, and that fight had also taken place far away.

'Well, that seems interesting. I should check it out.'

As Shang stood up, he ignored the bloodied face that had appeared in his vision again and left. He didn't have to walk very far since the lesson took place on the third floor of the main building.

When Shang arrived, he noticed that the door was open, and he entered.

It was a normal room for lectures. There was nothing special about it.

Shang saw two students with red robes sitting in the middle of the left half of the room.

They were not talking with each other.

Shang glanced at them, and as if they had felt Shang's glance, they glanced back.

For a short moment, their eyes met.

And then, the two students looked away again with bored expressions.

Shang didn't say anything and simply sat down somewhere in the middle of the right half.

Silence.

No one was speaking.

'I think they recognized me, but they just didn't care,' Shang thought.

The image of the bloodied face returned.

'But that's understandable. The students that join the Anti-Mage Class are the ones living the most dangerous lives.'

'They are not looking at other warriors or beasts, but at the overlords of this world, Mages. They are not planning on fighting the weakest class of people, the warriors. They are also not planning on fighting beasts, which are on average more powerful than warriors.'

'No, they set their eyes on Mages.'

'I guess the politics inside the school and all the social stuff are not relevant to them.'

'I wonder, what would it take for a student to decide to walk such a dangerous path? I'm here because I know I have a high chance of eventually reaching the True Path Stage, and at that point, every dangerous human will be a Mage.'

'My fight with the Mages in this world is already set in stone, but that's not true for them.'

That was also when Shang realized that he had only very rarely seen students with red uniforms, and when he saw them, they were just passing by.

'I guess most of them have a reason to hate Mages.'

Shang continued looking at the front absentmindedly. He was only thinking about random stuff as he waited for the lesson to start.

In this moment of silence and inactivity, the bloodied face had returned once again.

Shang ignored it again and again, but it would just return.

Shang kept pushing it again.

'I am in control.'

'I am in control.'

'I am in control.'

After a while, Shang started to push the side of his head with his fingers, a telltale sign of someone being stressed and having a headache.

Shang didn't notice it.

Did he have a headache?

He was so used to pain that he didn't even know.

He had no idea if he had one or not.

If he were to have a headache, its pain would be so weak that Shang wouldn't even notice.

The constant destruction of his left arm and his suicidal training had made him numb to any pain that didn't reach the extreme.

Slowly over the next minutes, more students came into the hall. Most of them threw a quick glance at Shang, but all of them also quickly looked away in disinterest.

They all had the same thought.

'Another one interested in our class. He won't stay around.'

These thoughts were understandable. After all, who would want to willingly fight a Mage?

That was essentially suicide.

BANG!

Shang was taken out of his thoughts as the door to the classroom was shut loudly. He looked around and noticed that there were nine other students in the class, one of them with a black uniform, which represented a future hunter. Apparently, Shang wasn't the only one interested in the Anti-Mage Class.

That meant that there were only eight students with red uniforms in this Grade, even fewer than the Caterpillar Class.

The person that had shut the door was a rough-looking old man. His face had burns and a couple of cuts, his skin uneven and rough. His hair was wild, long, and silver, and it nearly reached his buttocks.

When Shang saw the teacher, his insides shook.

Powerful!

He felt so powerful!

Shang had difficulties discerning the differences in power between the teachers. After all, they were all many times stronger than him.

However, the power of this person was as clear as day to Shang.

On top of that, he didn't wear the typical silver uniform that other teachers wore. Instead, he wore thick red armor. There were several small holes in his armor, and Shang could feel several different types of Mana coming from those holes, including Darkness Mana.

'Hidden ranged weapons,' Shang realized. 'Every hole can probably shoot out a small needle or something similar.'

As Shang heard the teacher's steps, he realized that his footsteps sounded strange.

It was like there was machinery inside the soles of his shoes.

Shang felt an unreal amount of Fire Mana coming from the teacher's shoes.

As the teacher walked down the stairs at the side of the room, Shang felt like a demon had just passed by him.

Shang could quickly tell the reason for this very special kind of armor.

'He is fully focused on dealing with Mages. As a warrior, he can't close the gap with only his own ability, which is why he has armed himself to the teeth with many versatile weapons. He can probably also use the Fire Mana in his shoes to shoot himself forward.'

'The hidden weapons are probably there to interrupt Mages when they try to cast a spell.'

Shang also noticed that eight of the teacher's fingers had Space Rings on them.

At that moment, Shang realized three things.

First, this was a Vice-Dean, not a normal teacher. Normal teachers had to wear silver uniforms. Only the Dean and the Vice-Dean, Soran, hadn't worn the silver uniforms. This meant that this teacher was probably also a Vice-Dean.

Second, this teacher was the epitome of what it meant to fight Mages. He had many scars from his battles, and his entire being and fighting style revolved around countering Mages. Shang wouldn't even be surprised if this was the greatest specialist in how to deal with Mages in the entire world, excluding other Mages, of course.

And lastly, this teacher was powerful.

In fact, Shang was certain that this was the most powerful teacher in the entire school, except for the Dean.

Soran's power hadn't felt even remotely as powerful as this teacher's.

This was an old man that had gone through many, many battles against Mages, and he had managed to stay alive up to now.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ He had been fighting the hegemons of this world for many years, and he was still alive.

He had probably reached the absolute peak of what a warrior could reach, except for the Dean.

The room was silent as the teacher reached the podium.

"Defensive Spells," he announced.

Everyone listened, deep respect in their eyes.