Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang's Spirit Sense encompassed the mortal district.

It was essentially a lawless land.

Nearly no True Mages were there. There were plenty of Apprentices and a couple of Adepts, but they were only the weakest of their level.

The True Mages and High Mages would pick up the talented Apprentices and Adepts. There, they would be taught all about Magic.

Most normal people in this town only became Apprentices by blindly practicing and imitating other Apprentices. Of course, there were some people that actually sold textbooks for Apprentices, but these textbooks were expensive.

The normal people there lived in a poor state where they desperately tried to make money in any way they could.

They had nearly zero resources from outside the town, and they also couldn't easily exit the town since the mortal district was in the north and the exit was to the south.

Additionally, they were forbidden from living outside and building anything outside.

Why?

Because the powerful Mages thought it would look ugly if some dirty shacks surrounded the town.

That also meant that all the food the mortals desperately needed had to be farmed inside the town.

Sometimes, some leftovers from some beasts were thrown away by the True Mages and High Mages. Some of the braver people would venture to these places during the night and bring things back for the others.

But that was a dangerous job.

Any True Mage could kill an Apprentice or weaker if they so chose to. They just shouldn't kill too many of them at once.

The guards of the town mostly didn't care. First of all, the guards straight-up just didn't patrol in the north. 

Second, they had grown used to these beggars. 

Give money to one of them, and you will find five of them the next day, begging for more.

However, even in such a poor environment, some form of leadership would still emerge.

For the mortal district, this was the strong gangs.

There was a gang that essentially ruled over all the tiny farms in the mortal district, and their people defended the farms from any beggar that tried to steal some food.

There was a gang for prostitution, gambling, and other kinds of fun.

There was also a gang that focused on solving conflicts. Of course, the person with more money would win the conflict most of the time.

These three gangs were the rulers of the mortal district, and they were led by three weak True Mages, probably the only True Mages in the mortal district.

At least, that was how it had been in the past years.

A couple of months ago, a new gang was on the rise, and surprisingly enough, it wasn't led by a True Mage.

It was led by some kind of extremely powerful physical fighter.

This fighter had some weird power that transformed his surroundings into his desired Mana, making it easier to unleash complex attacks.

This was a Commander Stage warrior, but the mortals didn't know of the term.

Yes, there were also warriors in the mortal district, not only Apprentices and Adepts.

Wherever there were rocks and men, warriors would pop up eventually.

It wasn't very difficult to come up with the concept of hitting someone's head with a rock.

Of course, while the mortal district wasn't very rich or advanced, they weren't cavemen. The warriors there used spears, swords, and many different kinds of weapons.

Surprisingly, there were actually around five times as many warriors as Apprentices and Adepts.

The reason was that becoming a Mage was too difficult in the mortal district. Nobody had any idea how to practice Magic, and there were only very few that could afford the textbooks.

Sadly, due to the severe lack of resources, everyone was basically traveling through the warrior path blindly. Especially their weapons were not very good.

They also didn't have any armor since there was barely enough metal for the weapons and since they had no access to beasts.

The life of a mortal in this town was horrible, and worst of all, they couldn't leave.

Sure, they could leave the town, but then what?

A random Adept Beast or True Beast would kill them.

A mortal probably didn't have the Grade Six Mana Crystal necessary to request the Pathfinder Magic Circle.

Even more, could a mortal travel toward the next closest town, which was around 5,000 kilometers away?

The mortals in this town were doomed to live in poverty. The only two ways to live relatively decently were to either get accepted by a True Mage as an aspiring Mage or to become a strong warrior and get a good position in one of the gangs.

It was a shit life.

From his humongous castle, Shang was looking towards the north while rubbing his chin in thought.

Then, he looked through his Space Ring and looked at the detailed plans for the town. These were top secret since they also showed the cores of all the Magic Circles.

'50 meters, huh?' Shang thought as he looked at the wall to the north of the town.

The wall went 50 meters into the underground before it stopped. 

Then, Shang looked past the wall and into the wilderness.

'About three kilometers of grass followed by a thick forest. The grass only has relatively peaceful Apprentice Beasts and Adept Beasts.'

'There's also some ore buried in several locations, but even the best ore is only in the Mid Third Realm.'

'Wood, wildlife, space, light, metal, fertility.'

'But we're missing water.'

'Well, that shouldn't be an issue.'

Shang looked north for a bit more before focusing on a High Mage in a rather large building.

"I want to change part of the town," Shang said.

"Of course, sir. What do you wish?" the High Mage asked politely.

He was the town planner, and he was responsible for the entire layout.

"I wish to expand the mortal district to the north. I want a tunnel to be built below the wall which leads outside."

The town planner was quite surprised when he heard about Shang's plans.

After a while, Shang told the town planner everything he had envisioned.

"Sir, several High Mages will not be happy with these changes," the town planner said carefully.

"That's not your problem," Shang answered. "I will deal with them."

The town planner looked a bit uncomfortable, but he eventually sighed.

"Alright. I'll create a plan and give you an estimate."