970 Chapter 970 — Mindless Beast
Gregorio furrowed his brows.
"Well, an Initial Mage King has about 1 / 256th of the Mana of a Peak Mage King. That means that the Endless Ocean would only lose about two kilometers of depth. However, that would still be insanely shocking for the coastline, and the others will quickly take note of it."
"Additionally, where would you even get the Mana to become a Peak Sword King then?" Gregorio mused.
"The atmosphere," Shang answered. "Several Mage Kings have already died in the war, and since no one wanted to hand over the Mana of their Mage Kings, they just dispersed the Mana into the surroundings. There should be more than enough."
Surprisingly, Gregorio just shook his head. "That's not how it works."
"There is equilibrium in the density of Mana. A higher density of Mana increases the clarity of Concepts and the efficiency in training."
"That increases the number of powerful beings, which in turn reduces the density of Mana in the atmosphere."
"Many hibernating Ancestral Beasts have reached the Beast Lord Realm, and many Ancestral Mages managed to comprehend their second level four Concept, allowing them to become Mage Lords."
"The density of Mana compared to before the war is only a slight bit higher. If you were to become a Peak Sword King with only that, the density would drop by over
20%, and I can assure you that every Mage Lord and stronger would notice as soon as it drops by just 2% or 3%."
"The only explanation would be that there is a new being at the Eighth Rank and that they are advancing," Gregorio explained. "What about Beast Lords and Mage Lords?" Shang asked.
Gregorio leaned back in his chair as he weighed the options. "It is illegal to consume the Mana of someone you killed. If we were to do that, there would be no new Ancestral Mages, Archmages, or True Mages, effectively cutting off the new generation. We can't ruin the world we inhabit to satisfy our greed."
Shang didn't say anything.
Gregorio sighed. "But that is no longer of concern, I guess. The Abomination Kings that will appear will destroy more than one Emperor's worth of Mana unless we somehow manage to deal with them efficiently."
"On top of that, we already accepted Abaddon. In the end, new life will prosper."
"So, yes, you could do that, but you would need a lot of Mage Lords. Something like a thousand Peak Mage Lords, which is a fourth of an Empire's number of Peak Mage Lords."
"Additionally, you need to stay hidden. Even a single mysterious death of a Peak Mage Lord will draw out a Mage King, and you can't be found by them, or all the Emperors will unite to kill you. Especially now. Everyone knows that you only have two to three thousand years of longevity left and that you will try to do something desperate."
Shang thought about Gregorio's words.
"The problem is my mind," Shang said. "By consuming Abominations, I can advance the power of my body without issues since it is made of the same ratio of Entropy and Mana as the Abominations, which is 70% to 30%."
"My mind was originally made of something like 5% to 95%, but I can push it to 50% to 50%. Theoretically, I can also go for 70% to 30%, but that has a great danger of turning my mind into the mind of an Abomination."
"I guess I could supplement my mind's advancement with Abominations, but I would still need to get rid of a big chunk of Entropy. Entropy doesn't just vanish. Either it combines with Mana and creates Destruction, or it binds with Mana and creates something like Entropy Ore."
Shang and Gregorio had already found out that all the Entropy in the killed Abominations dispersed into the world and bound with a specific kind of Earth and Metal Mana, creating Entropy Ore.
That was where Entropy Ore came from.
The stronger the killed Abomination, the stronger the Entropy Ore that was created.
If Shang wanted to keep his mind at a ratio of 50% to 50%, he could only supplement 60% of his advancement with Abominations, leaving 40%.
And then came the second issue.
If Shang underwent a Transformation one more time, his mind would be a full level higher, which would mean that he needed four times as much Mana as normal.
So, even if Shang decided to give his mind a ratio of 50% to 50% and supplement with Abominations, he would still need 160% of the amount of Mana a normal Mage King would need.
If he could push his mind to 70% to 30%, Shang would need zero Mana. After all, he would get all he needed from the Abominations, which didn't reside in Aterium.
It didn't matter what Shang chose. He would be at extreme risk either way.
It was difficult.
If he hadn't been disqualified from the tournament, he wouldn't have had these issues.
'I can't go for 70% Entropy. I tried that once, and it nearly drove me to just become an Abomination with the goal of destroying all the Mana in Aterium.'
'I wasn't myself in this state, and I also wasn't something that could be considered rational.'
'In that state, I might eventually turn into a mindless and bloodthirsty beast, which would eventually end with me attacking someone that I can't possibly defeat at some point. Even ifI managed to kill the God and left the world to become even more powerful.'
'I would just be a mindless beast with only a single goal, power.'
At that moment, Shang realized something.
'Isn't that what I already am?' he asked himself in his mind.
'What would be the difference?'
Shang lifted his right arm and focused on it.
'Power is already my only goal.'
Then, Shang focused on his missing body parts.
A bit later, Shang got an idea.
'Actually, that might work, but I'll have to test it thoroughly.'
"I think I got a solution," Shang said to Gregorio.
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