"Look, Senior Blake's points rose once again! He must have already passed the first test!"

A female apprentice who seemed to be one of Blake's fanatic admirers said with excitement as she pointed towards the ranking board that was situated above the gate.

This board was another mystery of the tower as it updated at real time, the one strange thing about it was that those who haven't attempted the tower challenge wouldn't even be able to perceive the light projected number as they would only see a blank board.

"What? He only used fifteen minutes to get a perfect clear? I thought I was quite brilliant for doing so in half an hour, but it seems like I overestimated myself…"

As the number beside Blake's name rose from 4028 to 5027 most members who had already managed to pass the first test knew that he must have completely defeated the opponent.

"What do you know? Last time, Senior Blake merely used 12 minutes to do the same thing, he only took a bit longer this time because the technique he chose was likely of a higher grade!"

As another follower of Blake interjected the speaker, he was going to lecture him more about Blake's greatness before a confused apprentice also pointed at the board as he spoke up, "Why did my name disappear from the ranking…?"

He was simply also astonished like the rest as he checked the point increase of Blake, but before he removed his glance, he wanted to take a look at his name as the 200th ranker to steel his resolve for improvement, but once he actually did so, he found that his name was no longer there… it was replaced by the name that was previously above him!

"Oh, you were the 200th ranker, right? Someone has managed to surpass you?"

Someone who was familiar with him asked in slight surprise, there shouldn't have been any changes to the tower as only Blake and another one who was just testing the mechanism was here, there should be any changes unless…

"That guy actually passed a test?"

"He should be that one at rank 166, he is the only new addition to the ranking…"

Someone who was used to the names on the board quickly noticed that there was the addition of a new name, Lan Storm, to the ranking.

"But how could he obtain as much as 1097 points just from staying for about 20 minutes in the tower? Even perfectly clearing the first test gives 999 points!"

"He should have just had his name registered into the tower today as this was his first challenge, so it's not so weird that he has that much he probably exchanged his wish token into achievement points to get a head start…"

Just as someone stated a pretty reasonable speculation, the gate of the tower was once again opened, this time from the inside, as someone stepped out of the tower.

"Meow…"

"Wha… His numbers are changing again!"

As the trademark of a certain new member was heard, on the apprentices who were still checking the new name added to the ranking called out with a dumbfounded expression covering his face…

`~~`~~`~~`

A few minutes earlier…

Klang!

I was once again able to confirm my speculation as the two sets of wind essence swords clashed with each other for the 36th time…

'The gauging system is similar…'

It seemed like the basic & intermediate mastery nicknames were similar to the system's beginner and intermediate skill levels, just like Ian.0021 was similar to a copy of me with a Beginner Lv.Max technique, Ian.0022 was another copy that had an Intermediate Lv.Max technique.

While this was just a speculation, it was without doubt that my control and preciseness using 'Aerial Sword' fell short when compared to Ian.0022 as my current 'Wind' sword style has merely reached lv.7 after observing Ian.0021's execution of the technique, so performing a complete elimination against Ian.0022 wasn't a realistic target.

In fact, judging from the amount of points after finishing the Basic Mastery test and the current Achievement Ranking, it was obvious that no one really managed to perfectly defeat the Intermediate Mastery test's opponent, otherwise the numbers should have been much higher than that.

Such a thing easily made sense as the current ranking was refreshed six months ago, so managing to reach the peak of the intermediate stage wasn't something that could be discussed.

While I did have 'Lightning' reach that peak within less time than that, my comprehension with the boost of 'Omni-Mastery' was basically cheating so that didn't really count as an example.

'It's good that I chose a Wind technique…'

Considering the nature of this test, most of those who reached this point tried their best just to gain some more points without entertaining the idea of defeating the opponent as mastering a technique deeper than that would take more time than learning a new technique.

As for me, my other two techniques were only slightly close to lv.3 so even fighting as far as I did in this test would be out of question so choosing to learn a technique for a repeated element had actually benefited me without my notice…

As such, I planned to make very good use of it and get as many points as I could while I was still capable of doing so!

Conjuring 5 more wind essence swords, I sent them recklessly flying towards Ian.002!

5 swords was the limit number that I could control while still being capable of controlling my body with ease, sending out 5 more was simply rendering myself in the same situation that Ian.0021 faced earlier!

However, knowing the level of Ian.0022's skill, this was my only option, using the head start of me launching the attack first, and even making myself defenseless as I couldn't use any other move were proof of my decision to take Ian.0022 down with me!

[ You have successfully accomplished a draw! Half the full point reward will be handed out! ]