Shang decided to take a shower first before anything else. He probably smelled horrible, and his old clothing was sticking to him, which was annoying.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Before today, he hadn't really bothered with how dirty his clothes felt since he hadn't had many alternatives, but now, he had.
Shang put his old clothes to the corner of the room and tilted the magic bucket.
Sure enough, as soon as he tilted it, a lot of water came out. It wasn't flowing incredibly fast, but there was quite a lot of water.
Shang had taken baths before in this world but never a real shower. Back on Earth, he had exclusively showered since it was faster and since he loved the feeling of cold water running down his body.
It felt a bit weird to have no soap available, but he had to learn to live with that.
After Shang was done with the shower, he looked at his hair. He contemplated cutting it, but he had only been here for half a year. Right now, his hair was a bit too long for his liking, but it wasn't overly bad.
Then, Shang touched his face to feel his beard.
Sure enough, the growth of his beard could, at best, be called spread out. Additionally, he had that typical teenage mustache with these thin hairs.
Shang took his sword and tried to shave, the keyword being tried.
The sword just didn't want to cut him.
"Come on. I only want to cut off some hairs," Shang said to his sword.
His sword didn't react.
"Come on. Just become sharp," Shang said, lightly tapping his arm with his sword.
Shang only felt feelings of confusion coming from the sword.
For the next couple of minutes, Shang tried to communicate with his sword, but he only received confusing or angry feelings. The sword either had no idea what he wanted, or it became annoyed at Shang needlessly slapping it against his body.
In the end, Shang gave up with a groan. Its mind simply wasn't powerful enough to communicate with him effectively. Just like a newborn, the best the sword could do was to show some vague signals about how it was feeling right now.
"I need a knife to shave," Shang said after giving up. "I can deal with long hair, but I don't like this stupid, tiny beard. It makes me look like a child."
"I should look around the school now. Maybe I can buy a knife with gold, and while I'm at it, I can also get to know the surroundings."
Shang went over to his uniforms and was about to pick up the green uniform.
But then, he stopped.
"Eh, green," Shang commented with a frown. "I'm not really a green kinda guy."
So, Shang went over to the bronze uniform and put it on. The azure uniform could only be worn on special occasions.
"Finally, some clothes that don't feel dirty as fuck," Shang said after putting on his uniform, "but they sure are heavy."
Shang jumped around a bit to get a feel for the weight. No real armor was visible from the outside when looking at the uniform, but it also definitely didn't feel light. There was also no metal inside the uniform anywhere.
So, the weight had to come from the fabric itself, which felt weird to Shang. What fabric was this heavy?
Luckily, Shang's body had long gone above anything possible on Earth. Shang could break a huge number of world records without even trying really hard.
On Earth, wearing such a heavy uniform was definitely very uncomfortable for long periods, but here, it was only a matter of time until he got used to it.
To Shang, it felt no different from putting on a normal jacket. He felt the weight, but he could ignore it after a while.
"Huh, socks," Shang said as he saw the socks. "Been a while since I've worn those."
"And actual shoes, wow."
Shang looked to the side of the uniform and saw a couple of rings made of fabric hanging from the uniform. "I guess that's for my weapon. Sadly, my sword's too long to carry at the waist."
Due to the unique look of Shang's sword, he had to carry it differently. Usually, one-handed swords were supposed to be worn at the side since that would give quick and easy access.
However, since his sword was too long, it had to be put on Shang's back like a two-handed sword.
Sadly, that looked a bit ridiculous. Yes, Shang's sword was about as long as a two-handed sword, but it was far too thin for one. That made the sword on his back look a bit out of place.
Shang looked out of the little slit that was his window, but he couldn't really tell how late it was. He saw the light coming through it, but that was it.
Then, Shang left his room for the first time in quite a while.
Shang saw no one in the hallway, but he heard the sounds of training and fighting from outside. He went over to the stairs and walked down to the first floor, which he then exited.
Now, for the first time, Shang could really look at the academy while it was busy.
There were several training fields at the sides of the academy. The fields weren't separated by fences but lines. There was basically no flora in the academy, and there were only a couple of beasts. However, these beasts were inside special arenas, and they were all fighting some students.
Shang's attention was drawn to the beasts since he hadn't seen a lot of them before.
There were a couple of lizards, badgers, snakes, and there was even a bear. Shang could also see a couple of flying beasts, but they were on the rare side.
The students were of all ages, but they were always grouped into similar age groups. Most of the groups had a teacher overseeing them, but not all of them had one. Shang guessed that the groups without a teacher were not taking part in a lesson but just training regularly.
All in all, Shang guessed that there were over a thousand students on the fields, quite a lot.
Suddenly, out of Shang's peripheral vision, he saw a hand come toward his right shoulder.
PACK!
Out of reflex, Shang shoved the hand to the side with his right arm. He hadn't even thought about his actions before he had done so since his long training on Earth had conditioned him to block hands coming for him unexpectedly.
"Huh?" Shang heard as he looked to the owner of the hand.
It was a blonde guy with a long halberd on his back. Judging by his height and face, he was probably around 17 years old. At the moment, he was looking with surprise at Shang.
Shang looked at the guy with furrowed brows.
After a second, the guy only snorted humorously. "Not bad, kid, but move out of the way now."
Shang was blocking half of the entrance of the building, but instead of going to the side, the guy had intended to shove Shang to the side. The shove hadn't been very strong, but it had still very clearly shown the guy's intention.
Without even waiting for Shang to move to the side after he said his phrase, the guy moved his hand with a lot more speed towards Shang's shoulder to shove him to the side.
Apparently, his pride had been hurt by Shang blocking his hand.
Shang only narrowed his eyes as he looked at the guy.