Tower of Will

After Principal ended his speech, he gestured to an elder to lead the group to the testing grounds of the academy. All the spectators followed them to the spectator’s area provided at the testing grounds. After all of them left the bigshots in the place were guided by the attendants of the academy to the private cubicles to get a better view of the test.

The Elder led the candidates and their supervisors of the six groups and made them take their positions in front of a huge tower. There was a huge plaque written with characters ‘TOWER OF WILL’. Sam looked at the ancient looking tower and was in awe about its exquisite structure.

The tower is tall and may be the tallest of all the buildings in city, but nobody was unable to see it when they normally roam in the city for which the credit went to the arrangements of testing grounds.

The Elder turned towards the six groups of people and said. “This ‘Tower of Will’ is testing place to know how strong is your will and how strong is your belief in yourself. There are thirty levels in this tower and the higher you go the higher the points you will gain. These points will be added to the cumulative score of yours for the final evaluation of the tournament.

If you are unable to step forward after you reach a certain level, don’t be stubborn and learn to back down, when you can. Otherwise the repercussions will be dire and hinder your future development.

The best record for the tower is of 27 levels and that is done by our current emperor, when he came here to test his will especially in this tower.

I wish you all the best.” He finished his speech and gave the position to another attendant who is in charge of sending candidates in to the tower.

The attendant came forward and said.

.....

“The first participants will be Falcon Cliff city.” As soon as he said that all the participants from the Falcon Cliff city came forward. Attendant pointed at one guy among them and gestured him to enter the tower. The first floor of the tower illuminated a little confirming the tower begin testing the candidate.

Soon, the dimly lit first floor began illuminating brightly in white light. The first floor was passed. Now the candidate will be moved to the second floor and the that also illuminated with a dim light. This time ten minutes passed and the second floor also passed. The candidate was moved to the third floor. Seeing that the testing takes sometime the candidates and the spectators started chatting. Sam observed all the candidates from various cities and some interesting info was heard from two people from Mountain lake City which is one of the close neighbours to the Starwood city. He heard two guys talking secretively.

“Hey, do you know why the cultivation levels of the City lord and Principal of the Falcon cliff city are higher?”

“No, I am also curious. Do you know anything about it?”

“Yes, I overheard when our City lord explained to his son just now.”

“Really? What is the reason then?”

“Apparently, Starwood city is like an exiling zone to the dukedom we are part of. The officials of various departments and organisations, who offended their superiors at their early stages of career will be transferred to this city. This city has literally no resources except for that Starwood forest and some other common herbs. So, every big shot in the city from another place, who has beef with the higher ups and were transferred there to stomp on their progress. The opportunities are less and resources are scarce. They said that even the Noble families in that city are exiled branch of a big noble family because of their internal strife. That is why other cities are controlled by a single noble family and there might be at most an extra noble family which are deployed by a big- name noble family to get the resources, but the noble families in Starwood city are different.

Principal added that, if not for the fact they don’t have any strong evidence against them to be dealt directly and the organisation can’t do it due to their reputation, they might have been already dealt with by their superiors.

So, long ago the upper echelons of various organisation, reached a consensus together discreetly, to send all these people who offended them to this City.”

When the other guy heard this, he was shocked and Sam who heard it discreetly was given more huge shock from the info. Never would he have expected that there would be a city like this where the people who offended their bosses were transferred. He didn’t expect that this would be the reason for the higher cultivation base of City lord and the Principal. He thought that the Starwood city might be somewhat impressive or something. But the reason made him almost burst in laughter. So, most of these guys are people who were kicked by their bosses to the curb.

Sam looked at the Principal and City lord who is looking at the tower with a serious expression.

“Hello, Kelly.” His thought process was interrupted by a person’s deep and cheerful voice. He turned his head only to see that a young man who is from the Falcon Cliff team greeting Kelly. Sam didn’t bother with it and diverted his attention to the tower as the candidate came outside just now. 𝐛𝐞𝐝𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺

“Candidate Logan from Falcon Cliff city. Twelve levels passed and failed in thirteenth level.12 Points.” Attendant announced as the candidate came back with a dejected expression.

“Sam.” A sweet voice came from beside him and he saw Kelly calling him. He turned towards her and saw the young man who spoke to her earlier standing beside her with a smile.

“This is Hawk. Son of the Count Falcon. He is my childhood friend.” Kelly introduced him and Sam was a bit surprised. This time he observed the young man closely and indeed found some similarities in facial features between him and the Count.

Hawk extended his hand and said. “Nice to meet you Sam.” His tone was polite, not like some random young masters he used encounter.

“Nice to meet you too.” Sam also said in a same polite tone. Even though there are no signs of friendly smile on his face like Hawk, his face didn’t show his usual coldness and temper or any signs of displeasure as well.

“I heard a lot about you from Howard recently and Kelly also said that you are quite unique. That is why I became curious and came here to meet you.” Hawk said with same smile. Sam didn’t feel repulsed by his smile.

“By Howard you mean, Kelly’s uncle?” Sam asked. He didn’t remember any other guy named Howard which he met with recently. But there was still a doubt as he didn’t see any reason for the Artisan tower head to say something about him to Count’s son.

“Yes. Howard and my father are friends. Kelly used to live here when she was still a little kid. That is how we became friends. Recently, when Howard came to meet my father, you are one of the main topics they used to discuss.” Hawk explained.

“Oh, really? I never expected that. I don’t think there is not much to talk about me.” Sam replied. And they made small talk. Hawk was polite all the time. He observed that Sam is a guy with cold personality and is not one to make friends easily, so he also kept his distance and just talked with him normally. They talked about various things and when Sam learned that Hawk is a formation master, they had some more interesting things to talk about.

“Candidate Yash. Twenty floors. Failed in twenty first floor. Twenty points.”

The announcement put a brake to their conversation and they looked at the candidate curiously. He is a young man with a peculiar around him, wearing black. He is a seen with another two people having same aura as him in the Falcon Cliff city team.

“Your team seems to having some good contenders.” Sam noted as he observed the trio with peculiar air. He felt that something very familiar from them, but wasn’t able to put his finger on it and went into deep contemplation. When he finally made a guess, he was shocked. The peculiar feeling is blood lust. He looked at the boys in their late teens, they are at peak of Acolyte or initial stage of Novice, but the blood lust from them is not something that normal amateurs will have. They are used to killing and the body count must be high for their age.

Sam thought and looked at the trio for a while before directing his gaze towards another participant who just finished his test.

Time slowly passed by and only three people left from the Falcon Cliff team. Hawk and the other two from the peculiar trio.

“Candidate Yaar. Twenty-one floors. Failed in twenty second floor. Twenty- one points.” After another forty-minute time one of the guys from trio completed his test. Time passed.

“Candidate Yuv. Twenty floors. Failed at twenty- first floor. Twenty points.” Finally, Hawk’s turn came.

“I will see you later.” Hawk said to Sam and Kelly and went inside the tower.

The first floor of the tower dimly lit and with in a few seconds it illuminated brightly. Hawk completed the first trail faster than anyone else. He proceeded to the second floor and in the same way, he completed that in a very small time. Sam looked at the tower with an amusing smile. Hawk climbed the tower until he reached the tenth floor in no time. At tenth floor, he took some time to pass.

Even though the time taken to complete the floors increased significantly. His completion time is way faster than other people who participated before. With in twenty minutes he reached twenty-first floor. This surprised everyone at the venue. Even though they felt surprised at the performances of the trio who made to the twenty floors, the time they took was rather high compared to Hawk.

Just as they were discussing in whispers another floor illuminated brightly and Hawk entered the twenty-second floor. Another ten minutes passed; another floor lit up. Everyone burst into uproar and the crowd looked so excited. They wanted to see someone set a record from their city.

Count Falcon is grinning ear to ear at his seat.

“your son is truly good.” Castor said from side.

“He still has ways to go, to be as great as me.” Count Falcon said in a serious tone, but his grin clearly told that he is proud of his son.”

Then crowd shrieked again as they another floor illuminate. Hawk passed twenty-second floor and climbed his way to the twenty third floor. Until now, this is the best performance. They were eagerly waiting but they were disappointed when tower returned to normal and Hawk came out with a bitter smile.

“Candidate Hawk. Twenty-two floors. Failed in twenty third floor. Twenty- two points.” Crowd applauded for the young man.

Even though they were a bit disappointed as they had high expectations on Hawk, the competition has to go on. And the candidates from the next group went forward.

Starwood City was last on the list and they have to wait until every other candidate is done with and within that group Sam is the last candidate. So, he stood there and waited patiently.

Even though there are some significant results in the next candidates, there are nothing remarkable. Only one person achieved a result of twenty points from other cities, before the turn of Starwood city came at time of sun set.

Kelly entered first to the tower as the rest of them waited for their turn. Kelly got 18 points which is not bad. The remaining teammates like Freya, Haley scored around 12 to 15 points. Just as crowd gave up. Jack entered the tower and gave a huge shock to everyone.

His speed his comparable to Hawk and he didn’t seem to stop at all. He cleared the floors after 10th level even faster than Hawk. Hawk was staring at the tower with a surprised expression, but with in the surprise there is a competitive spirit burning making him excited. When Jack arrived at the twenty third floor where Hawk failed everyone became silent.

Five minutes passed

Ten minutes passed

Twenty minutes passed. To everyone’s shock the floor illuminated brightly. Just as they thought that Jack would go to twenty fourth level. He withdrew.

“Candidate Jack. Twenty-three floors. Withdrew from twenty fourth floor. Twenty- three points.

Jack’s face doesn’t look good, even after he came back. His face was pale and his eyes are blank. The test almost broke him apart.

There are only two candidates left. Philip and Sam. Sam helped Jack to take a seat and passed him some water as Philip entered the tower.