1991 To Zeus Academy
In the Gambler's Academy, just like in the other academies, all the freshmen and most of the seniors along with the instructors and elders are gathered at the bottom of the tower.
Today is an exciting day. It's the beginning of the intense competition that is going to burn for years to come and everyone is all up for it. The freshmen are all dying to enter the tower. But only twenty-five people can enter at the same time.
Courtesy of the freshmen's big day, the seniors held back.
So, the freshmen have twenty-five slots all for themselves. They are still not enough. By the time everyone is done, it would be way past midnight and it might even go past tomorrow morning. The freshmen might not like that prospect, but the instructors would welcome it.
If it stayed that long, it only means the potential of the students is that great, and they would be more than happy to have that.
The freshmen slowly started entering the tower.
Everyone is curious about what their peers are going to get. Every instructor is looking forward to seeing a surprise. In all the excitement, Sam is nowhere to be seen though. Many people are wondering about his presence, but he didn't make an appearance even after the opening and when the first batch of students were done with their attempts.
Many wondered what was up with him.
Some of the salty ones complained that Sam's tricks won't work inside the tower so he is afraid to even attempt. Some stayed silent but were curious.
Meanwhile, the other academies are also bustling with activity. Their towers are packed. In the Hermes Academy, Watt is waiting for his turn. The first batch of students failed miserably after climbing a few floors and the second batch already went.
Now, if any of them is kicked out, Watt gets his turn and he is waiting for it.
While waiting, Watt is looking at a small crystal tablet screen that is the same size as his card. Except for him, no one else would be able to see what's on the screen. Sam gave him this in the meeting the day before to keep an eye out and find out who is giving out Watt's information.
Right now, small surveillance bugs are roaming around trying to observe different people around him. Watt already narrowed down a few locations from which he would be a nice viewing target and he is focusing on them.
As of now, there is no luck though.
At that moment, he put the tablet back in his storage and walked out. Because a student was kicked out of the tower. He barely managed to climb the sixth floor. It is considered way below average on the first attempt.
Looking at Watt who took a step forward, the remaining students who wanted to go stepped back.
Everyone waited as they looked at him in anticipation.
Pearl marked him for a reason. Watt entered the tower and the first floor was just a vast hall. It almost looked like a combat training hall. He noticed that the energy he could absorb was not that much. It is not a place suitable for cultivation.
As he looked at the tiled walls and stone floor, something appeared out of thin air a few meters ahead of him. It is a glowing figure made purely out of wind elemental energy. It has a humanoid figure and it is around six and a half feet tall.
It is lean and Watt could swear that he could almost see the definition of the muscles over its body.
As he was sizing it up, the humanoid figure moved. It turned into a flash of wind elemental energy and in a fraction of a second a fist was launched at Watt's face.
Watt dodged it easily. The humanoid is fast, but not fast enough. Watt slipped to the side and threw a kick to its head. The kick landed perfectly and the impact of the blow seemed to have blasted the energy out of its body.
Watt took a step back and took a defensive stance.
The humanoid's glow has reduced a lot. It is almost transparent and its movements suddenly become sluggish.
Watt looked at it in confusion, before throwing a punch.
The fist didn't even connect. He just used wind energy to throw a small air cannon along with the punch and that small compressed air hit the translucent humanoid figure and it disappeared.
Watt was surprised. He didn't think the test would be this easy. He knew that he could gain a thousand points from this floor and he knew a lot of people do, but this is still way too easy. If it is this easy, a lot more people should have had those thousand points.
As he was wondering all of a sudden, he sensed some danger from behind. He dodged it barely, but then another punch almost landed on his face from the side.
Watt made a backflip and landed on his feet to see two humanoid figures in front of him.
He nodded in understanding.
This feels more like a test.
Watt jumped at them as wind elemental energy soared. The fight became intense, but it didn't last long. Within the next five seconds, he was done with them. After that, three humanoids appeared, then four, later five, and then six.
The count kept on increasing as Watt fought with them.
They are weak and he didn't even have to use any of his elemental techniques. The fights were over quickly and finally, there were ten humanoids with which he dealt with the same ease.
He scored full points and then opened up the stairs for the next floor.
Watt went up and noticed no changes. The combat hall is the same, maybe a bit wider, but it is almost the same place.
This time, the first wave consisted of three figures, and all three held weapons. One with a sword and the other two with staves.
Just like that the difficulty kept on increasing as Watt advanced further.
Meanwhile, outside the tower, everyone is looking at two boards on the walls of the tower.
The first board is the ranking for current students. As long as a person is a student of the academy their rank will be there. Even if that freshman advances and becomes a sophomore, they will still have their score and rank in the freshman bracket as long as it is not beaten.
But once they graduate, their name will be removed from the current ranking board and if their score is high enough to stay in the top hundred rankers of all time, then it will enter the second board. The second board will only have one hundred members at a time and since it takes every single previous student of this academy into consideration, it is a very tough competition.
Right now, everyone is looking at the current ranking board to see how far Watt has gone.
His clear speed for the first floor didn't come too much of a surprise. It is not that difficult and he scored full points which is also expected. But there were some raised eyebrows at the speed he cleared the second floor. He cleared that pretty fast and scored full points.
Now the third floor was the same.
Watt kept on clearing the tower floors at a record pace and decided to keep that thousand-point streak as much as possible.
The same thing is happening in the other academies where Philip, Jack, and the rest of Sam's companions are attempting the tower ascension.
Once Sam confirmed all of them were inside the towers, he made his move.
When the students saw that he came out of the dorm, they were expecting him to attempt the tower. But to their surprise, he walked out of the academy with a letter in his hands.
A few minutes later, he is at the gate of the Zeus Academy. He showed a token to the gatekeeper who begrudgingly guided him to the Dean's room.
The Dean looked at Sam and was a bit surprised.
"Not expecting a visit from you."
"Yeah, but as the special honorary student that is one of my privileges."
"What made you use this privilege? My understanding of you is that you despise the Olympians and the academies affiliated with them."
"You are only half right. I despise the Olympians and I pity the academies. In my war with them, you are going to be the collateral damage.
Anyway, I used that privilege, to put another privilege of mine into action. I am here to request for the Olympian tower attempt pass."
As soon as he said those words, the dean of the academy was dumbfounded. He had a serious expression on his face and asked.
"How do you know about this?"
"I do my homework. It seems like Zeus didn't give you a full rundown about me. One of my greatest weapons is information. Since I am a student with the highest level of access among my peers, I am sure I can get that pass.
And I believe I satisfy the other requirements as well."
"The requirements being the combat ability and high ranking ability in any professional skills. I am assuming you are going to submit formations as that skill?"
The Dean asked in a calm tone.
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