A/N- Merry Christmas, here's your present
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The next day, Orthis woke up early, even before the magical alarm that came with the room rang.
He spent the time to clean himself and explore his room and the dormitory. There were only a few others who woke up so early and Orthis was disappointed to find out that Urman was not his neighbor, in fact, he was two floors above him.
After exploring the common areas and swimming pools, the magical alarm finally woke up everyone that was still asleep and he began heading to the cafeteria which was also part of the huge dormitory building.
Orthis sat down on a random table with a plate full of surprisingly good-looking food that was not only delicious but also so nutritious, that even someone with his appetite didn't need more than two plates to get full.
He was joined by Urman not too long after and they chatted a bit before they headed to their first class, which was Mana Theory for him and Mathematics for Urman. Yes, even a place dedicated to teaching about survival and power laid importance on the basics.
It took him almost a whole hour to reach the building where they would be taught magic, be it the basic theories or advanced magic, and another ten minutes to find the right room. Somehow, there were already many students present but he ignored the question of how they got here before him and just took a seat.
As more and more people began to enter, it began to get crowded and noisy, exactly what Orthis didn't like but he could only wait for the teacher, it wouldn't be good if he beat almost two hundred people up just so that they would shut up, even if he was confident that he could do it.
Ignoring the growing feeling of disgust toward these weaklings who didn't seem to take the importance of learning and training seriously, he looked at the middle-aged man who just walked in without anyone noticing.
Slowly it room began to grow quieter as more and more people began to notice the man, though there were still some dense morons who happily chatted with each other like they were here to socialize.
"Alright everyone, I know it's the first day but please behave, at least during my lessons, I don't care if you do it with other teachers." The teacher said in a normal volume but it still traveled to the very end of the room at the same volume, much like the Headmaster.
Everyone instantly shut up, took a seat, and began to listen.
"My name is Mr Guhare and you will address me as such. I will be your teacher for Mana Theory where I will teach you everything you need to know about Mana, how to properly control it, and some minor spells and techniques. In exactly that order and not any other way."
With a simple gesture, several books appeared in front of everyone but he didn't give anyone the chance to read them yet.
"Before we start, let me make it clear that Mana is not one energy but one made from several others. As you might know, Mana is the life force of Worlds and Souls but every world has a slightly different Mana, just as everyone's Mana is a bit different.
Every time a new world merges into the Tower, its Mana gets combined with what is often referred to as the Tower Mana. This causes some changes in the Mana in the entire Tower and the Tower Mana often gets new traits but it can also happen that the Tower Mana gets weaker.
While the merge only happens every few thousand years and many of you will long be dead by then, those who survive till then will immediately feel it." He said, not even caring that he told everyone that they would be dead by then.
"There is also a difference between Tower Mana and Personal Mana which is produced by your own soul but this will not be addressed in this class.
Now, with that out of the way, I need to teach you to get the typical mage picture out of your heads, you Earthling especially. You simplify your fantasies without even thinking them through.
Mages are not physically weak, in fact, they are often more resistant than some Warriors for the simple reason that no one is immune to their own magic unless the spell includes such a function."
Mr Guhare seemed to know about Earth's culture rather well, possibly because climbers from Earth have already been inside the Tower for around a year now. There was also the possibility that some unlucky individuals somehow disappeared from Earth and entered the Tower years before but that was unlikely.
Unlikely but not impossible.
As a demonstration, he raised his hand and a head-sized fireball appeared above it, its intense heat instantly increased the temperature in the room by a few degrees but everyone ignored it as everyone looked in shock at Mr Guhare's hand.
Despite the fireball floating a good distance above his hand, everyone could see how his hand began to receive heavy burns until the fireball just disappeared.
"As you can see," He said while holding his burned hand high for everyone to see "Mages have to bear the brunt of their own spells. There are two ways to avoid self-harm. Anyone got an idea which?"
Most people were still a bit disturbed by their teacher's self-harm but some were actually using their brains and raised their hands, Orthis included.
"Yes, you there," he pointed at a haughty-looking girl in the front "The girl that looks like she thinks she's something special and looks down on every other person in this room."
Even the haughty-looking girl looked a bit shocked that she was called out like that, even if she didn't refute the claims. "High resistance to the element of the spell."
"Yes, but that is the less conventional method as you should have noticed by now that this is not an easy feat to obtain and train." He explained and Orthis didn't feel like correcting him, he wasn't expecting anyone else to have an all resistance, nor did he understand the struggle of such things.
"The easiest and most common method is a small Mana barrier, so thin and light that it's basically another skin that not only protects you from the effects of your spells but other things as well. This method requires a certain degree of Mana control and masterful control to do it without wasting Mana and keeping it active at any time.
For the first week, we will mostly talk about everything you need to know before you will learn to unlock your Mana. That is, of course, only of relevance who haven't already done so."
He began talking about Mana and different energies as well as their traits before the class ended and everyone went to their next class. Since Orthis's next class was Combat Training, he headed to a large track field not far from where he was and met with Urman along the way.
They both were looking forward to this class the most right now because this class was almost completely physical. No boring theories or books, well, Urman was happy about the last part, Orthis not so much.
Their combat teacher was a woman who looked like an Amazonian who jumped out from a book and behaved like one as well. She behaved like one too as she just introduced herself and then made everyone undergo a barbaric exercise that left even Orthis with his high stats wheezing in exhaustion.
It wasn't that the demands were high, just that the way they had to fulfill them was hellish. What kind of insane woman straps people over a fire and tells them to hold on for a few minutes or makes them lay on a board of spikes and tells them to do push-ups with a bolder on their back or attaches knives to your limbs and tells you to hold some vases until the knives pierce their flesh? It wasn't even a question if they get hurt but about how long before they do.
Needless to say, by the end of the class, sweat wasn't the only thing flowing but she proved herself to be a competent healer as she fixed everyone up before dismissing them.
Although they just finished their second class, over four hours passed already, and everyone went to take a shower and eat afterward.
Since his first two classes of the day were the more exciting ones, what followed after the break were just boring classes like math, biology, and history. Of course, they were all adjusted for climbers, so math included some rather high-level stuff like Calculus, Abstract Algebra, and topics that Earth hadn't even discovered yet, biology wasn't just about plants and humans but also other species and monsters, and history covered both the history of this floor and the Tower.
For the three months, there would be no advanced classes as everyone needed to first learn the bare minimum of their respective ground course.
Time passed and the first two months went by quickly. While Orthis was busy reading the rather extensive library provided to them, Urman was using the advanced training facilities to their fullest.
Despite the library being very big, Orthis noticed that the really juicy books weren't present, most likely reserved for the library for the nobles or taboo even for them. That didn't stop him from reading the thousands of books, leading to a quick growth in anything related to magic.
While Urman was busy increasing his stats and sword mastery through gruesome training, Orthis was gaining proficiency and magic by reading books, including some techniques that the Academy might not want him to have.
In these two months, the Mana Theory class mainly focused on increasing Mana Manipulation, and Orthis' rapid progress caught the teacher's attention. In just a short time, his Mana Manipulation reached 60% through both training and reading piles of books about mana. According to the teacher, 60% was already the limit for most people and everything after that required more than just training.
"So," Urman asked, channeling his Mana into his sword, increasing its sharpness exponentially, "are you ready for the upcoming tournament?"
Before students were allowed to enter the advanced classes next month, they had to show how much they learned in the form of a tournament between the climbers and nobles, though that was mostly just a pretext for the academy to showcase talents to the nobles.
"I doubt we need any preparation," Orthis said as he summoned a large fireball several hundred degrees hot and threw it at him "we're different from them and could take them on together mid-sleep."
Urman didn't even blink in the face of such a powerful attack and just cut it in two with a simple swipe. He knew he was right, they were already superior to most students who enrolled in terms of stats and the gap only widened after two months of honing their skills. Both their talents were probably amongst the best this academy has ever seen in the last few thousand years.
"I know, I meant the following shit show," He said as he lightly raised his foot and brought it down with enough force to shatter the ground in a dozen-meter radius. "We will have to deal with the pestering of these spoiled brats"
Ignoring the change of terrain, Orthis simply floated a few centimeters above the destroyed ground. Flying was one of the techniques the academy didn't teach, but he learned from reading books with the newest cheat ability of his talent, Knowledge is Power.
Before Urman could close the distance between them, the broken pieces of solid stone began to float, blocking his path.
While most noble children proved to be a lot more reasonable and understanding than they expected, that doesn't mean that all would let a no rest and try to eliminate talents so that no one else could have them, in secret of course.
They had no doubt that they would make the top 5 in the tournament of several thousands of participants. The only reason they didn't take the first two places is that then they would be practically forced to join a faction, house, or swear loyalty to some arrogant noble of high nobility.
Amongst the things they learned in these two months weren't just combat-related but also things like Etiquette and why it was a good idea to swallow your pride and not antagonize nobles, as their powers were far greater than in most novels where the protagonist alone is enough to take down entire noble houses.
It was a humbling experience, but they accepted that it was a necessary one. There were many arrogant climbers who died daily because they thought they were above a house that had existed for a long time and used that time to amass power and influence.
The flying chunks started to rush at Urman before he could get past them. He cut them apart as they came at him, but that didn't do much as there were too many and even the smaller ones continued flying, attaching themselves to his body until he was encased in a coffin of rocks.
That wasn't enough to defeat Urman but enough to buy Orthis time to prepare an attack he recently created but, unlike his magic, took a while to create. In the past months of practicing magic, he unlocked a new Talent Ability.
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[Talent ability: Instant Cast]
[Description: Magic calculations happen instantly as long as the Magic doesn't surpass the Mind stats, nullifies chants no matter how long]
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The small hill of rocks exploded into a grey flame that liquified them without the use of heat. After learning to use Mana, Urman also learned to control the Eldritch Flame in his artifact, and to say it was dangerous was putting it lightly.
At least it bought him enough time as Urman's face grew dark when he saw the pea-sized black ball in Orthis' hand, and the countless particles of several colors began to appear and merge into it. This small black pea was created using his impossible affinity with every single element, fusing them all together. The attack was so dangerous that he had to put more focus on the small barrier on his body to stop himself from dying than on the attack itself.
Seeing this small pea that warped gravity, time, and space enough to be seen with the bare eye, he channeled his entire Mana into his sword, increasing its sharpness to the point that cracks began to form in the surrounding space, that's just how sharp it was.
"You better survive this, I'd hate to have to bury you because you didn't survive our spar," Orthis mocked, but he was seriously concerned if he would survive this, after all, this was the first time he tested it against another living being.
Despite being in such a dangerous situation, Urman didn't fail to snap back, "How the hell is this a spar?! Is this because I enchanted your bed with an itching curse?"
At this, Orthis froze for a moment before he continued to prepare his attack, now even faster "So it was you, I was starting to think it was one of these jealous guys that always fail to be the teacher's pet because I'm just too talented."
Urman didn't get the chance to respond as the Chaos Ball was now complete, and Orthis couldn't wait to get this ticking time bomb out of his hand. Seeing the small and seemingly harmless dot race at him at incredible speed, Urman swung Void Edge with all his strength to the point that the space around him fractured to the brink of collapse.
The moment the black blade met the black dot, the world exploded into colors as red lightning began to reduce everything to ashes, grey fire liquified everything, black cracks spread through the air for dozens of meters, and the earth practically exploded for the force of the collision. Despite the destruction, not a single sound could be heard, as sound was one of the first things to be obliterated.
The two unstoppable came to a standstill for a few seconds, obliterating absolutely everything, until Orthis began to slowly but carefully decrease the power of his attack while making sure that the fragile balance of elements wasn't interrupted and blew the entire enormous academy up.
After a few seconds, the dot disappeared, and Urman's sword crashed down, slicing space in two in a straight line and heading for Orthis who teleported a few meters to the side.
"Hey, are you trying to kill me?" Orthis asked, exasperated while wiping some blood from his eyes and mouth. This attack also hurt him as his mana barrier wasn't able to block every element in the small ball when he formed it but his damage still wasn't as bad as Urman's who could barely even stand and had blood flowing from his whole body after many veins ruptured from the attack and overexertion.
"What the fuck are you talking about? If anything it was you who tried to kill me." He barely managed to get out in between breaths before he fell to the destroyed ground. His wounds were already healing as he gained and trained the regeneration skill, as well as decided to play it smart and learn a few basic healing spells. "How are we going to explain this destruction? This commotion definitely alerted some teachers and security. Actually, why aren't they here yet?"
Before Orthis could answer the question he didn't have an answer to yet, another voice cut through the air.
"No need to worry about them, I already called them off." Out of nowhere, a certain bearded old man appeared and looked around the destroyed area with interest.
Seeing the old man, Urman stood up with difficulty and the two greeted him. "Greetings, Headmaster"
"No need to be nervous, you aren't in trouble for causing such a scene. This is a sparing area and that's exactly what you did, that you are stronger than your peers isn't your fault. I should actually be grateful, it's rare for someone of my age to see something new and so interesting." The headmaster reassured them that they weren't in any trouble.
He just snapped his finger and the entire area reverted to what it was with the exception of the cracks in the air.
"There, as good as new, but I will have to close this place for a few days. I can't close these space cracks, but they will heal by themselves. Now then, why don't we have a chat." He smiled and the next moment, they appeared in his large office.
The following talk was short but intense. Alian Tianos was very interested in these two but he wasn't allowed to straight out ask them about their secrets, so he tried to pressure them into telling them on their own but the duo stood strong, one being too stubborn while the other was too smart.
He and several other teachers and nobles already had their eyes on these two prodigies, as they always do, but after today, he would be the only one to know about their true genius since he sealed off the area to keep the commotion a secret.
Since he now knew more about these two than any other faction, he would now try to recruit them to his faction, being the bedridden fourth prince. No one knew why one of the most powerful men was supporting someone who couldn't even get out of bed but no one was willing to risk supporting a failure on the slim chance that the principal hadn't gotten senile yet, he was after all thousands of years old.
After some very intense five minutes, the two were released by their captor but they both knew that he wasn't over yet.
"Phew, that was some intense pressure. Any idea why he is supporting the fourth prince?" Urman asked, even he could see the strangeness in the millennium-old monster.
"No clue. The most I can guess is that it has something to do with why the prince can't go out of bed or maybe he noticed something else about him like he did with us. I might also be completely wrong and he just wants a puppet king, so that he can spend his retirement ruling the entire floor."
With nothing to go with, they just pushed the strange old man to the back of their mind and prepared themselves for the tournament. There were some rules, like no killing, torture, intentional mutilation, and no artifacts.
The last part might have been a small problem for them before they enrolled, but now they could clean the floor with their peers no matter the weapon. Of course, the period of rapid skill growth also came with a few problems for Orthis as he hadn't killed anything for a long time.
The security of the academy was so airtight that he didn't even see something as small as an insect or a fly, he was even starting to wonder if this floor even had flies. The good news, however, was that the top 100 participants would be given access to one of the academy's exclusive dungeons.
That was one of the reasons why Orthis wasn't going to hide his power. The other was that he wanted to get in touch with some nobles who would no doubt try to recruit the top 100. The library for normal climbers was big but was missing out on many things too, through this connection he would be given access to more advanced libraries.
He wasn't worried about becoming a slave to some noble either, as those connections never hold forever. Climbers will always either die or disappear to higher floors. That's exactly what he was planning, taking the benefits and then dipping.
Sure, he would have to do some things while he was on this floor but not for long.
Six days later, the duo, together with several thousand others, entered their designated arenas. Since there were too many participants, there wouldn't be 1v1s until much later. The first round was a deathmatch in groups of a hundred with the terrain of the arena constantly changing, falling apart, and moving.
That wasn't the best method, as two top candidates could fight each other here, and one of them wouldn't even make it into the top 1000, but it was the fastest way.
Orthis finished the first round by just releasing a shockwave that blasted almost everyone from the arena and those that managed to hold on decided to team up against him but the result remained the same, just with a few more injuries.
Urman decided to have some fun as he only used basic sword skills without aura to fight the other 99 contestants. The fight only became more embarrassing the longer it went on. Dozens of people all going all out, only to be dismantled by basic attacks.
If there wasn't a noble that didn't pay attention to them until now, they definitely were now.
The second round was a test of physical and mental resilience where the remaining hundreds were put into a special room where gravity and mental pressure kept on increasing. Urman didn't feel anything physically until more than half of the other participants collapsed, but he was struggling a bit with the mental part but he reached the top 100 anyway.
Similarly to Urman, Orthis didn't feel anything until there were only a few people left, but unlike Urman, he didn't have any trouble with the mental pressure.
The second round ended automatically when exactly a hundred people were left standing and everyone was given a day to rest before the last round began.
The third round was a classic 1v1 tournament, with Urman and Orthis purposely designed to fight in a later round to show off their power better.
Neither of the two had any problem with their fights, though there were a few participants who were stronger than the rest and could make them put in more effort.
One such opponent was a Dragonoid, although actually calling him that was an insult to any real Dragonoid. He only had a sliver of dragon blood in him, but that was enough for him to look like a red lizardman with wings.
Dragons, as he learned, were amongst the most powerful species in the Tower, and given the many species with special powers, that meant something. Just the hairpin-sized drop of dragon blood in him was enough to change his appearance and give him power that most could only dream of.
Despite being related to a race that was said to be the greatest magic wielders, he somehow sucked at using it and only relied on his body that was stronger than Orthis', but that was partly because he never bothered to train his body in those two months.
But he didn't need to because using Mana enhancement to increase his power was enough to break his opponent's scales and send him crashing into the nearest wall, which miraculously didn't break. Once he got access to the dungeon, his stats would start to grow again at a speed no training could compare to. It had to be noted that his body enhancement was stronger than other mages since his mana assimilated Aura, drastically increasing its effect in all directions.
Orthis was very diligent when it came to books, knowledge, and magic, but he suddenly turned lazy when it came to physical labor. Fighting to the death was fine, but training just for the sake of sweating was his limit. Urman complained about this many times, but he just said that everyone has their quirks and ignored him.
What caused Urman trouble was a particularly jumpy assassin. The assassin would jump from wall to wall or create small platforms in the air to catapult himself around like a bouncy ball, attacking from all directions and being nearly impossible to predict.
Urman proved that he wasn't just a one-trick pony who relied on his sword to create attacks of unimaginable power by blocking every single attack, no matter the angle or speed.
There were a few other decent enemies they faced, but none of them surpassed them in skill or magic, making them only a bit annoying as they used their power in unique ways that, at the same time, inspired the two.
Soon, the two faced each other in the finale, but Urman surrendered after just a few minutes. He knew that if Orthis decided to go all out, he wouldn't be able to survive it without his sword.
Still, the two originally only planned to enter the top 10 at most, but the competition was weaker than they expected, and if they just gave up without putting up a show, it would have offended a lot of the noble viewers who either came here for a show or to see who is worthy of being recruited.
As the top participants, they both got some rewards besides being allowed to use the academy dungeon, like huge prize money of a hundred gold, or ninety in Urman's case, as well as some enchanted items and potions.
Though these rewards were already good, the really important things were what they would get if they joined a noble or a faction tomorrow at the party. It was one of these where everyone dressed up like a peacock, talked with a fake smile, and tried to make connections with more powerful houses by flattering the hell out of them.
It took Orthis a lot to convince Urman to the party even if he himself didn't really want to go, not only to not make needless enemies but also to get a few extra benefits.
Despite that, Orthis had a feeling that the party wouldn't be entirely as boring as he thought.