Sword God in a World of Magic

Chapter 579- Aterium

Shang exited Training Room One just a couple of hours after entering and walked over to the Keeper, ignoring Spike Ball's provocations.

"The Patriarch of the Urbring Family has acted as expected," the Keeper transmitted to Shang. "Are you still interested in visiting a Beast Lord?"

Shang's expression didn't change, but he nodded.

"Do you want to see any Beast Lord in particular?" the Keeper asked.

"I would prefer a Beast Lord with a Light or Darkness Affinity," Shang answered.

"There is one in my territory, but it's around 700,000 kilometers away," she transmitted to Shang.

Shang nodded. 

700,000 kilometers was really far away.

After being so long in the outside world, Shang had learned a lot about the world and how it was split up between different powers.

The world basically consisted of one solid landmass with plenty of small rivers and lakes inside it. Of course, these relatively small rivers and lakes were often hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers big.

The humongous landmass was surrounded by an endless ocean. Inside the ocean were 50 big islands that surrounded the huge landmass, but even when combined, their landmass couldn't compare to the continent.

The continent was called Aterium, which was also the name of the entire world.

So, how big was Aterium?

The size of the entire world, including the endless ocean, was unknown. Maybe the Mage Kings and Mage Emperors knew, but the general public had no idea.

As for the continent Aterium, it had a square-like shape, and it was roughly twenty million by twenty million kilometers big.

The islands surrounding the continent were only about 500,000 kilometers wide each. While their width was not that much smaller than the continent, when looking at them from an area perspective, the difference in size between the islands and the continent was massive.

When one said that a Mage Emperor ruled around 10% of the world, one was talking about Aterium, the continent.

The 50 islands surrounding the continent were not under human rule.

That wasn't because humans were too weak but because humans wanted to leave some areas for beasts.

Each of the 50 islands was ruled by a Beast King, the only Beast Kings in existence.

Aterium, the continent, didn't have a single Beast King. Humans had eradicated all of them.

The territory of a Mage Emperor was about six million kilometers wide and long. The specific size varied from Mage Emperor to Mage Emperor.

Every living Mage King belonged to one of the ten Mage Emperors, and there were about a hundred of them.

The strongest people not belonging to the Mage Emperors were Mage Lords, but there were not that many unaffiliated Mage Lords.

The vast majority of Mage Lords were part of one of the Mage Emperors' forces.

The few independent ones ruled organizations like the Natural Selection Company or the Temple of Blood.

The Natural Selection Company was responsible for about 10% of the Twilight Dusk Family's low-ranked territories, and their territory was about a million kilometers wide.

The Territory Lord of the Temple of Blood shared this territory, which meant that the person sitting in front of Shang was responsible for all branches of the Temple of Blood in the surrounding million kilometers or so.

When one ignored the fact that the world was owned by the Mage Emperors, one could say that the Keeper in front of Shang ruled over one times one million kilometers of the twenty times twenty million kilometers wide world. 

This meant that the person in front of Shang ruled over about 0.25% of the world.

While the number seemed to be small, it was actually huge.

Earth had an area of around 500 million kilometers squared. 0.25% of that would be about 1.25 million kilometers squared.

That was a bit bigger than an area that was a thousand times a thousand kilometers big, which would be bigger than France and Germany combined.

So, when the Keeper said that the Beast Lord was quite far away, she truly meant it.

Shang would need to travel across nearly the entire territory, and there were plenty of dangerous areas on the way.

When the circumstances were right, the Mana in the atmosphere could create dangerous and terrifying areas.

There were areas with nearly no Mana, making it incredibly difficult for Spirit Senses to work since they relied on the Mana in the atmosphere.

There were areas that naturally showed certain Concepts, and if one weren't careful while traveling through them, one would most likely die.

There were even areas filled with constantly mutating beasts, which meant that no one would know what one could expect.

Of course, there were also man-made problems, like huge borders that would thoroughly inspect every single living being passing through them.

Even worse, a Mage Lord's Spirit Sense could only see the surrounding 10,000 kilometers, which was nothing in comparison to the sheer distance of 700,000 kilometers.

Whatever the Temple of Blood was using to scan the area for beasts also didn't work for such large distances. 

There might even be territories of other Beast Lords on the way.

Because of that, traveling to that one Beast Lord would be very dangerous.

Traveling through the wilderness without any sort of guide was only something a powerful Ancestral Mage could pull off safely.

Shang estimated that if he tried to get there on his own, there would be a high likelihood of him dying.

But that was why he was paying so much money.

"I would like to visit that Beast Lord with an escort," Shang answered.

"Fine," the Keeper answered. "Usually, such a long trip would cost you more than just a hundred Grade Six Mana Crystals, but the Temple of Blood earned a lot from your mission."

"I will call one of the more powerful Sweepers to escort you. You will have to follow their commands if you want to survive, and there better not be any accidents during the journey," the Keeper said coldly.

Shang nodded. "I will. There won't be any accidents."

Even if Shang wanted to kill a Sweeper, he wouldn't be even nearly powerful enough.

"I will post the mission," the Keeper said.

Shang nodded again before going back to the training room.

? This could be a risky mission, and it would take several days, if not weeks, and there weren't that many Sweepers.

It could take a while until someone accepted the mission to escort Shang.