"Oh, here he is!"

As the young man clad in dark red with twin blades attached to his back finally reached the gathering in front of the tower, someone called out with excitement.

"Now that Blake is here, he should be able to consolidate his position on the ranking and make himself the absolute top! It's going to be awkward for that other candidate who entered just few minutes ago…"

"Who told him to be such a close-off, he would have known if he actually tried checking. He really seemed to be just testing the tower challenge process from the questions he asked, what a bad day for testing… haha."

"Well, it's not like he has much time, he has been thrown into the candidate batch that has been started half a year ago, he has to use every moment he has or else he will be swept away…"

"Well, not that he can do much anyway with Blake standing at the top of the batch…"

By the time the crowd finished lamenting the newest candidate's bad luck, Blake had finished the formal talk with the Overseer as he pushed the gate of the tower.

`~~`~~`~~`

'Hmmm…'

The ranking list on the glassboard was split unevenly as the biggest part of it, the left side, seemed to contain the names of 200 members which was accompanied by a certain number by their side, probably what Wind mentioned as achievement points.

On the other, the right side only contained 5 names, and as for the location of my name, it was on this small side, right at the very bottom of it…

{ 5. Lan Storm - 98 }

Thanks to the introductory phrase at the top of two sides as well as my familiarity with the name of the other candidates which I learned of during my registration in the Central Division, it was obvious to the eyes that the 200 names was the general ranking for this year, which I couldn't get into due to how low my points were as even the 200th ranker had 566 points.

This was naturally understandable since this was my 11th day at the sect, as well as my very first try for the tower challenge. In comparison, the top of both the Central Division list, Blake, who had 4028 points already had about 6 months since this yearly ranking started according to the notes at the end of the glassboard. In fact, it was probably only due to Wind exchanging the rest of the token's score into achievement points for me that I had this much, otherwise it wouldn't be strange if I only had 0 points or even 1 point at the very most.

Of course, my tower challenge this time was supposed to mend the problem of me falling behind and possibly allow me to reach the very top, and if it didn't then I could only search for more repeated techniques to learn and attempt another challenge at the very start of the next month.

After all, even though there wasn't something like a strong limiting factor for another breakthrough to the next tier like I expected, the fact that the limits of weapon practice stopped at Tier-9, it was very probable that I might be only capable of fusing two more elements before the various masteries became level locked as well, so it was better to stop recklessly fusing new techniques…

In any case, as long as I managed to get the chance to meet the sect master and have a real discussion with him, it wouldn't even matter if I managed to reach the top or not. As such, I finally took the topic out of my mind as I checked the words inscribed under the glassboard, which seemed to be the instructions that the Overseer spoke of as well as…

'Isn't this my tag…?'

Exactly between the glassboard and the few lines of instructions, my tag was attached to a slot that was made to fit the standard tag of the sect, I was naturally slightly surprised since the tag should have been still in the hands of the Overseer, but considering the elusiveness of this tower that was quite similar to the 'Trial Tower', it didn't sound too strange.

Just pushing a gate has sent me into a dark room which only had a few apparent accessories, and even Light seemed to have disappeared, which didn't worry me too much since the Overseer didn't warn me about bringing a pet in, I just had to finish the challenge to make sure that everything was alright…

{ Place the tome before the identification tag so as to proceed with your comprehension test }

Opening the bag which I had stored the tome in once again before pushing the gate, I only found the 'Aerial Sword' tome in it even though all three tomes should be inside, another strange occurrence that I decided to immediately ignore as I got the tome out of the bag and put it in front of the tag.

The instructions blurred as a result, before getting riddled and restructured into a new line...

{ Tome identified… Starting the comprehension test }

As soon as I read the line, the darkness that filled the 'room' and made it appear formless suddenly grew covering the only wall that was recognizable as my vision went completely black…

`~~`~~`~~`

The darkness was not just a normal lack of light which I could easily avoid using my perception along with 'Omni-viewing Eye', it was something deeper than that, even my perception replied with 'nothing' when I tried to sense the glassboard that was just covered with darkness, however, thankfully, the darkness finally vanished a few seconds after.

Instead of the scary darkness, it was a very vast space with nothing but white in it, it felt relaxing yet made one's heart empty as he stared into the boundless white horizons.

[ Welcome to the tower of 'Comprehension Testing'! ]

Wearing nothing but basic white clothes, I was greeted by a familiar voice!