Shang almost couldn't wrap his mind around the words he had just heard.
Was the dean also someone from Earth?
Shang had thought that he was the only one!
"Surprised?" the dean asked as he looked at Shang with an even expression.
However, Shang's expression only changed into confusion.
"What are you talking about?" Shang asked.
When Shang said that, the atmosphere in the room took a monumental turn. It was like the temperature had dropped by several degrees.
"I don't have time for these games," the dean directly said. "Gleipnir is only teaching your sword because I allowed it to. I can also order it to consume your sword."
Shang took a deep breath as he looked over. The spear hadn't changed, but it felt far more dangerous now.
"How can I believe you?" Shang asked with an aggressive tone to mask his fear. "What if this isn't an illusion, and you are trying to get me to divulge information?"
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ The dean's eyes narrowed. "And what if that were the case?" he asked with annoyance. "You've seen my secret, and you would die regardless. Might as well tell me more about that God you encountered so that I can more easily seek my death by knowing too much."
"Additionally, do you actually believe that someone on my level can glean such high-level information from your mind? Do you honestly believe the God didn't put up any defenses?"
Shang didn't like hearing that his life was not under his own control, but he had to admit that the dean was right.
Eventually, Shang took a deep breath as he looked into the dean's eyes.
"You don't seem like someone from Earth," he said.
"Neither do you," the dean answered coldly. "You have the eyes of someone that has killed innocent people."
Shang's mind immediately went back to that fateful night, but he only looked back at the dean. "I had my reasons."
"Your reasons don't matter," the dean said with a direct voice.
When Shang heard that, he grew angry. As if the dean hadn't done things he regretted. Shang was certain that it was nearly impossible to reach such a level of power without killing a human or two.
However, the dean's following words were different from what Shang had expected.
"On the path to power, we kill people," the dean continued. "It doesn't matter what they have done. As long as it helps us to become more powerful, that's reason enough."
For a bit, Shang's eyes widened, but then they narrowed. "Quite interesting to hear that from someone from Earth," he said.
"When an extreme switches, it can often switch to the opposite extreme," the dean said coldly. "Yes, this kind of attitude is something only psychopaths and serious criminals have on Earth, but you should already know in what kind of world we are."
"Individual power reigns supreme. The common people have no say in how the leaders run things. On Earth, the leaders had to be careful of a revolution, but in this world, a revolution doesn't matter."
"As long as I'm not included, Duke Whirlwind could defend himself against the united forces of his entire Duchy. He would rain devastating spells down from the sky and leave towards a safe location when he runs out of Mana. On top of that, beasts in the True Path Stage wouldn't have anyone stopping them anymore, and the casualties would pile up into mountains."
"I can see that you haven't been in this world for very long," the dean said. "You haven't seen what kind of atrocities are considered normal here."
Shang only looked at the dean with an unfriendly expression.
Originally, Shang had expected that he would be able to find a friend in the dean. After all, they had something that intrinsically connected them.
Yet, the dean felt way too direct and brutal for Shang. According to what the dean had said, he would be fine with killing everyone as long as their death would benefit his power.
Shang wasn't like that.
He wasn't afraid of killing his enemies, but he also didn't want to kill just anyone.
"You don't seem like your two disciples," Shang commented.
"They are them. I am me," the dean said. "But that has nothing to do with you. I didn't call you here to answer your questions."
"Why did you call me here?" Shang asked with a neutral voice.
"I'm here to tell you your purpose," he said.
"And that is?" Shang asked with skepticism.
"In order to make you understand, I have to tell you about my predecessor," the dean said. "My predecessor managed to reach the Peak of the Commander Stage, but he wasn't able to reach the True Path Stage, no matter how hard he tried."
"For many years, he attempted to find a way to break through the shackles that have bound the warrior's path for thousands of years, and in the end, he managed to find a way."
"However, he had only theorized that path. His background from Earth gave him a great ability to find a solution to very complex problems, but his training and his kind of training have ruined his prospects. It became impossible for him to advance."
"That was when I turned up," the dean said. "We two met, and my predecessor put his ambitions on my shoulders. He would teach me everything about how to reach the Fourth Realm, and I would put his theories on how to reach it into practice."
"Eventually, I succeeded. It was like I was a perfect test subject for his theories," the dean explained.
Then, the dean looked at Shang. "Now, onto you."
Shang didn't react.
"Just like my predecessor, I managed to theorize something. However, it is impossible for me to test it on myself, and it's difficult to make this method more accessible to everyone without a successful example."
"And then, just when I was about to throw away decades of my work because all the previous procedures have failed, I get this stack of papers," the dean said as he waved around the papers Soran had written.
The dean put them in front of him and went through them.
"Memory loss."
"Has only been in the wilderness."
"Warrior's body."
"Outstanding reflexes."
"Young."
"And most importantly," the dean said as his index finger pointed to one specific sentence on one of the pages.
"Extremely high pain threshold."
The dean put the papers back together again. "In short, you are perfect for my procedure. You are nearly as perfect as it could get."
"And you think the God sent me because of this procedure of yours?" Shang asked.
"Yes," the dean answered. "By now, I'm quite confident in the God's goals. His end goal is obviously the resurrection of the warrior's path, but you can't achieve such a goal in a single go from our current standpoint. You need smaller goals along the way."
"My predecessor's purpose was to theorize the Fourth Realm."
"My purpose is to reach the Fourth Realm and theorize a method to move warriors to the same level of relative power as the Mages."
"And your purpose is to put this method into practice and probably to theorize a way to reach the Fifth Realm."
"That's what you're here for."