"Meow…"

'Why are there so many people gathered here…?'

As refreshed as I was after taking that long bath which became part of my routine during my stay at the luxury courtyard, it was a bit stifling to find such a huge gathering in my target location…

'That doesn't make sense.'

According to Wind explanation, challenging the 'Tower of Trial' was something that even inner members could only do once a month, as one even needed to withdraw the tome from the library for it, and even special candidates and those that had similarly high status could only do it twice per month if they wanted to.

Despite that, it was obvious that they might not even do it once per month. After all, mastering techniques relying on one's normal comprehension abilities wasn't something that could be achieved easily. Not all apprentices had access to the actual guiding method of using the tomes like I did…

As such, it was pretty apparent that these members weren't here to have a go themselves and were instead gathering to watch someone's challenge.

'Probably another candidate?'

There was no way that these people gathered to watch me who hasn't even spent more than a half a month in the sect, candidate or no, I was probably still a nobody to them, not to mention that I didn't even announce that I was challenging the tower anyway, so it could only be someone of similar influence but more popularity.

"Who is he? Is he an idiot to attempt a tower challenge on the same day senior Blake has decided on?"

"I think I saw him in master Wind's carriage before… Is he one of the yearly tournament's recruits?"

"I know! I think I heard a few seniors speaking about a new candidate who closed up on the same day he entered the sect. Could it be that he has mastered a new technique and wants to challenge the tower as well?"

"Are you an idiot? The tournament had barely ended less than two weeks ago, he should have only been in the sect for 10 days! What kind of genius is he supposed to be to master a technique in that kind of time period? Even senior Blake has barely mastered one during a whole month of training. He probably just got a slight hand of a technique and came to check the mechanism of the tower, it's one of our sect's specialities after all!"

'I see…'

As I approached the only opening for the soaring high tower, I confirmed my suspicion as I heard some of the chattering going on within the crowd of gathering.

It was very obvious that this senior Blake was pretty popular and maybe even regarded as one of the top geniuses within the sect to have this much people gathering to just see the results he will produce, so it was expected that I would be compared to him and even considered inferior.

As such, I paid it no heed as I just walked calmly before reaching to the elder that was sitting on some sort of a reception desk in front of the tower's gate. According to Wind, he was the Tower Overseer who recorded the apprentices' entries to the 'Tower of Trial'.

"I…"

"Hand me your sect tag please."

Before I even managed to say a word, the Overseer who didn't seem to be much of a talker demanded the tag, which I immediately handed to him, it was actually this kind of 'more work less talk people' that I prefered to deal with!

"Lan Storm, 4 stars member, 2 empty entry slots for the month. Would you like to use one of them now?"

"These entries are limited to the same tome, right? I could enter more than twice if I'm using a different tome, am I correct?"

"Yes, as a 4 star member you can have another double try using another tome… but it's not advised to distract your focus like that."

'Hopefully using three tomes for one try each wouldn't be a problem… let's just cross the bridge when it comes to it.'

"I understand. Yes, I would like to use one of my entry slots now."

"Alright, may I see the tome?"

Taking out the 'Aerial Sword' tome from my bag, I placed it on the desk, since it was the only technique that I have yet the incorporate to the other weapons to save time, I decided to start the test with it. Since I naturally had a somewhat better mastery with the other techniques due to the repeated training using other weapons, it was better to leave them to when I understood the mechanism of the tower better to maximize my later performance.

"Aerial Sword, not a bad choice, since you already have the cover needed for when you go inside, you can go ahead into the tower, the instructions of how the challenge works should be inside. Good luck with your challenge."

Pushing the gate, I didn't understand what just happened as I immediately found myself inside to have passed and entered some sort of the room as the gate that I just entered was closed behind me.

'This is somewhat similar to how the Trial Tower seemed to behave…'

As just going through the door has been this mysterious, just like how the Trial Tower had acted, there was probably some sort of a link between the two, but I couldn't tell much just from that, so I just let it be for now as I started searching for the instructions that the Tower Overseer mentioned.

'Is this supposed to be some sort of a ranking…?'

The first attention catching part that I noticed in the room was a hanged sign that had a multitude of names that shone on it, they didn't seem to be written or even inscribed, they were just projected with… light?

It didn't take me a lot of time before I found my name somewhere with a number by its side...