A few hours later, Shen was standing in the middle of the AP Arena, surrounded by hundreds of others engaged in battle. They had arrived like dragons searching for AP.

It had been easy to find eight people to attend the magic lesson with them, and the class had been... enlightening.

"Mana is not a naturally occurring energy," the wisp of light told them with a pleasant female voice. "It was created to make the path to power much less dangerous than the alternatives. Those wielding magic need not worry about death just because they grow stronger. Magic is the safest energy there is."

Suddenly, every other participant disappeared, and Shen could see only a girl with a beautiful dark blue robe about a hundred yards away from him, pointing his way. She had long blond hair and blue eyes, probably one of the most beautiful mortals Shen had ever seen—even if he was more of a brunette man himself.

| Duel started. State your bet.

"Ten AP," the girl said.

Shen shook his head. "One hundred AP."

She widened her eyes, then her face twisted in anger. Shen had no idea how it had happened, but when he arrived after his mana lesson, the other people had agreed to battle only for the minimal amount. There had even been a guy standing at the entrance to tell him that.

He, however, wouldn't let other people's decisions hinder his growth.

| 100 AP deducted.

| Total AP: 8,534

| Duel started. Time limit: 10 minutes.

The girl hadn't been expecting the battle to start so casually if her surprised face was any indication. Still, she extended her arm to Shen quite quickly, and he felt his skin growing cold.

"Magic is about willpower and knowledge," the wisp continued. "One need only to understand how things work and apply their will to them to affect them. The more knowledge on what's happening, the easier on willpower it is. On the opposite direction, with enough willpower, one can directly ignore the rules of reality.

"The best way to cast spells is to use both; knowledge as the basis and willpower as the fuel. Mana is no issue, freely provided to all who purchase the magic stat."

Shen didn't react to the girl's attack at once but felt the cold seeping into his body. He moved his arm and found it ever so slightly slower.

Crystals of ice were forming on his skin, but they were from the air freezing, not him. Such a weak spell wouldn't penetrate his improved body even without qi.

It was especially impossible when his soul also fought against the magic.

"Because willpower is a big part of spellcasting, it's harder to go against anything with their own will. The stronger willpower prevails when a spell fights another, but mana is also spent, weakening the winning spell. The more significant the gap between the different wills, the less mana is wasted.

"Going against living beings is even harder. Living beings have souls, inherently resistant to energies being controlled by external will. Breaking through a weak non-sapient soul's resistance takes at least D- tier magic. Breaking through a weak sapient soul's resistance takes at least B- tier magic."

"Oh!" Alicia exclaimed. "I was told that when I got the nanobots! My fireballs have trouble dealing damage against living beings. The workaround I found was to let the fire do the damage while my mana keeps getting spent because it's touching the target's soul."

For two minutes, the cold failed to seep into Shen's body. Such length of time was impressive. He guessed his adversary was creating a field of coldness around him without ever letting her mana touch him. Smart.

She probably believed that was enough to make him freeze because she took a sheathed knife from a pocket in her robe and approached. She unsheathed it, revealing a long white blade that was undoubtedly made of a special material. That was no G-tier weapon.

"While you're at low ranks, the most effective way to use magic is to match it with mundane, physical damage. Most people form teams, an approach we recommend. However, some magic users will bring weapons themselves and find their own way of maximizing damage using both magic and mundane means."

Shen waited to see if she would do anything different. From the fights he had seen in the Arena, everyone was so below him in skill that he might as well take the time to learn more of magic rather than rush toward getting AP.

That also fit the plan Alicia had concocted for him. She had suggested a way to get more AP in the long run than scaring everyone away from him on the first day.

She had said people would escape the Arena if he killed everyone too quickly. But if he took his wins slowly, made pauses between fights unless he was challenged first, and never took more than 100 AP from the same person, they might just let go. He would be an inevitability, bad luck, nothing more. They would still resent him, but not as severely. Maybe.

His opponent was halfway through to him.

"Generally speaking, spells at the F tier are limited to physical manifestations. Fire, heat, ice, cold, water, and so on, all of which take a lot of you. At the E tier, you will get access to more conceptual spells. One example is how you might make a blade sharper by using... special knowledge. The D tier isn't much different. At the C tier, the effects start getting genuinely astounding."

Shen had thought a lot about that part of the lesson. If he understood it well, spells at the E tier used Concepts. The Concept of Sharpness would make a blade sharper in ways that just physically sharpening it couldn't achieve.

As his opponent approached, he saw a faint glimmer on the edge of her blade. She might be using a Concept, though he couldn't be sure. It might be that she was only physically affecting her dagger.

According to his magic instructor, using a Concept at the F rank would mark her as a genius.

"One's magic stat's tier is the best of the knowledge they have shown in their spells, the willpower they have revealed, or the 'minus' tier of their rank. For instance, when any of the magic users here reach the E rank, your magic stat will automatically reach the E- tier.

"That happens because to rank up, special knowledge is required. You'll get to know more when you attempt it. The Guardian System assumes anyone can use that knowledge on their spells.

"When improving your magic stat through the Stat Store, the Guardian System will not touch your willpower. Instead, it will increase your knowledge on the area you have shown more knowledge while casting spells or ranking up. It will always be impossible to buy an upgrade to the next 'letter' because that requires a rank up—and if you already ranked up, your magic stat is already there.

"However, it is possible for a magic user to improve their magic stat beyond their rank. That happens when they have acquired the special knowledge that would let them rank up yet haven't ranked up yet.

"Such people are often geniuses."

That part of the lesson all but confirmed that Concepts were used in spellcasting.

It also suggested he needed Concepts to rank up. Shen had already won three fights in the Arena, all pathetically easy. If everything worked out, he would learn about the E-rank today.

Either way, the girl had arrived in front of him. She was frowning, probably because he wasn't behaving as other beings she had killed. She didn't hesitate though, thrusting her blade straight into his throat.

Shen wanted to learn more, but a dagger through his throat might be lethal. He thought his resistance plus using qi would protect him, but he wasn't about to risk it against a non-G-tier weapon.

So he filled his body with qi, which immediately made the little cold that remained harmless, and dodged. Then he thrust his own spear through the girl's skull.

She died with a look of utter surprise on her face. From what Shen had gathered in his previous fights, dying was painless in the Arena.

| Duel won. Reward: 200 AP

| Total AP: 8,734

200 AP, his bet plus the girl's bet.

She turned into light and materialized right where she had started the duel, her injury healed. She and Shen became slightly transparent, meaning they were in the one-minute grace period to leave the Arena.

Shen took her out of her mind and focused on his core. The qi he had just spent simply appeared there. The Alliance might not want people using qi instead of mana, but they did have some mastery over qi.

At least now he knew why they liked mana more. No tribulations when growing stronger, the wisp had claimed. That was incredible.

It also felt wrong somehow. Shen didn't know if it was because he had been born and raised in cultivator culture, but to freely take power without having to go against the heavens was unnatural. Not that cultivators cared about being natural; going against their own mortal nature was part of the process of growing stronger.

Still, he believed power should be earned, and one should have to prove they deserved it.

Ancient cultivator culture had been chaotic, and cultivators had been arrogant. They thought of themselves better because they survived and grew stronger despite the Heavenly Tribulations they went through. But at least it had been an arrogance born out of deserved self-confidence.

What about the powerful beings in the Alliance? How would the lack of heavenly tests affect them? Would they grow humbler or more arrogant?

"Power corrupts," Shen recalled Alicia saying.

In the end, it didn't much matter, did it? Power would corrupt whether it was earned or not. The only way to avoid that was to have a genuinely benign powerful being leading everyone.

Shen... He wasn't so sure about the Immortal Emperor's infallibility anymore, but he did believe that the Emperor's society of honor and morals was the best that could exist.

The Immortal Emperor wasn't perfect but was the best Earth had had. The best leader Shen could have.

Yet, to choose the "lesser evil" hurt him on a personal level. How terribly sad it was to think like that. How very... mortal and democratic.

Shen laughed self-deprecatingly, then was distracted by a new duel from a newcomer.

Time to get more AP.

"Control, control, control," Alicia whispered, sitting in her bed while focusing on the three fireballs in front of her. She was trying to create a fourth.

"Training willpower is possible," the wisp taught, "but it takes time and requires overcoming harsh situations. Most magic users improve their control instead. The same amount of willpower can create one or ten spells as long as the magic user knows how to split their attention and will. It's usually a good idea to split one's training between control and knowledge at lower ranks."

She did her best—and got a headache—to produce a tiny fourth flame in front of her. She kept focusing until the new fireball got half as large as the others.

By then, the headache was so strong it felt like her head was splitting in half. She pushed more, but suddenly, all fireballs died out.

"All magic users in this class purchased nanobots to unlock your magic. Nanobots can only cast spells up to the D+ tier. They also limit some more creative ways of using mana. However, they come with two protections that make them essential for newbies.

"First, if you would cast magic beyond your willpower, they'll prevent that. That includes creating paradoxes—which is possible but requires more willpower than you can possibly have—and trying to push past your limits in harmful ways. Often, pushing past said limits in the wrong way cause irreparable mental damage. Sometimes, it can be lethal.

"Second, they will stop you from doing anything that might get you in touch with the Void other than to kill any Void Spawn in front of you. Some magic can do that. You, fortunately, don't have to worry about it."

Alicia grunted in frustration and laid back on her bed. She knew the nanobots were stopping her from harming herself, but it still sucked.

She had to grow stronger. She wanted to stay by Shen's side, but he was too powerful. To be of any use, to not be left behind, she had to improve.

She waited for her headache to go away, then sat up again and conjured a new fireball.

That's when she got a notification.

| You're eligible for a limited offer!

| Do you want to reach the E rank before this stage ends?

| Say "yes" to learn more!