The tower was very different on the inside, as it was equipped with many rooms, each room having dimensions of 20 meters, and in the middle of it there was a device that, after pressing it, monsters would come out.
Steven, Nathan, and David entered.
David spoke:
"How did you two discover the academy so quickly?"
Nathan raised his eyebrows.
"Well, maybe because we weren't in a coma like you."
David became annoyed.
"And why should I bother myself knowing these things?"
Nathan shook his head.
"Steven, should we kick this useless person out of our group?"
David objected quickly.
"How am I useless? I am a higher rank than both of you."
Nathan mocked him:
"Then who lost yesterday?"
David's hand trembled and he spoke challengingly:
"Do you want to try again?"
Nathan shook his head.
"We need to earn academy points, and that's because you rejected my idea of confiscating money."
"Tch, even the number of servants started increasing. We could have gotten more points."
Steven ignored Nathan's complaints. Of course, Steven also didn't want to fight weak monsters to get a small number of points.
He had a lot of money outside the academy, and he could leave whenever he wanted, buy whatever he wanted, and store it in his storage ring.
But there were monthly reports about what students did during the month, the places they visited, and also the number of points they earned and spent. You could say that students' activities were under constant monitoring.
Of course, the monitoring wasn't as strict as monitoring a student's behavior or movements; it only included the time the student spent training, the number of missions, how they earned points, their ranks, their participation in challenges inside the academy, and other similar matters.
So Steven had to act like any other student, earn points, and participate in academy activities so he wouldn't suddenly get expelled.
And since Nathan seemed accepting of Steven's secrets for some reason, Steven didn't strictly restrain his behavior in front of Nathan.
The three of them walked forward and passed near a large screen displaying 50 names arranged from 1 to 50.
David asked:
"What is this list?"
Nathan didn't know the answer, so he looked at Steven, waiting for him to respond.
Steven frowned.
'What's wrong with them? Isn't it obvious enough?'
Steven answered briefly:
"It's the ranking of the best students inside the tower."
David nodded with understanding.
"Oh, so this includes all students from the four stages inside the academy."
Steven searched for an empty room that no student had entered yet and found one. When he was about to enter, he stopped and turned toward David and Nathan.
"What, are you two coming in with me?"
Nathan tilted his head and answered:
"Yes, we're coming in with you."
Steven fell silent for a moment, then frowned and spoke in annoyance:
"You want us to fight as a team?"
Nathan nodded in confirmation.
Steven spoke in annoyance:
"I am rank F and you two are rank D. How are we supposed to fight as a team?"
Nathan shrugged and smiled.
"And what's the problem with that? If you can't fight, leave it to us."
Steven looked at them with a stare that said: "Are you kidding me!?"
David shook his head and entered first.
"Come on, don't waste time. Let's go in."
Nathan pushed Steven inside and closed the door.
David took out his spear from his storage ring, while Steven took out a normal sword. As for Nathan, he didn't take out anything since his skills didn't rely on weapons or anything else.
The room was empty, containing only a glass orb fixed in the middle. The three approached the orb and entered their handprints and information.
Ranks of monsters appeared on the glass orb, and the strongest monster available for them was rank D.
Nathan shook his head and spoke with disappointment:
"It's unfortunate that the strongest monster is the same rank as us."
Steven looked at him strangely.
'He wants it stronger? Is he insane? … No, he's insane, but I didn't expect him to risk fighting a monster stronger than him?!'
(The writer: *Look who's talking 🤨*)
Nathan pressed on a rank D monster.
Students couldn't choose the type of monster freely; they could only choose the rank and a random monster within that rank would appear.
[The countdown for the monster's appearance will begin: 3…2…1]
During these three seconds, Steven, Nathan, and David backed away and stood in a fighting stance.
Fog-like clouds rushed out, covering a five-meter radius.
The three retreated further back, watching the fog cautiously, unable to see anything inside it.
Steven thought:
'This fog… it's that monster.'
Steven warned:
"Don't lower your guard."
As soon as he said that, a long snake tail appeared, but its tip had a sharp needle, and it attacked David quickly.
But David freely lifted his spear, blocked the monster's needle from the side of the spear, and moved the spear slightly to deflect the attack, making it slide to the ground next to him.
If the floor had been ordinary, a huge hole would have been created by the attack, but the floor was made of a very strong material, almost impossible to destroy, so a mere rank D monster couldn't scratch it.
Steven raised his eyebrows.
'The old man trained him well.'
The tail quickly retreated back into the fog.
David raised his spear again, ready for the next attack, but this time the attack wasn't aimed at him—it was aimed at Steven.
The monster's speed was slow and visible to Steven, but if he blocked it easily, his identity would be questioned—not just by David and Nathan, but also by the watchers inside the tower. So Steven had to dodge instead of blocking.
When the needle approached him by a few centimeters, Steven dodged by tilting his body and lightly slashed the tail with his sword, doing nothing but scratching it. The tail immediately retreated.
Then it attacked David again, but David stepped back, stabilized his body quickly, spun the spear, and blocked the monster.
After the monster returned to the fog, Nathan spoke in annoyance:
"When is it my turn?"
Right after he said that, the monster's tail came toward him.
Nathan smiled happily.
"Oh, finally."
When the monster's needle was about to hit him, Nathan jumped over the tail and grabbed it with his hands. When the tail tried to pull him into the fog, Nathan quickly jumped off, and the monster retreated again.
Nathan stood firmly and smiled happily.
"Now the hiding time is over."
Nathan moved his ten fingers, then stepped back and pulled his hands strongly backward, and at the same time, the monster was pulled out of the fog toward Nathan.
Nathan quickly moved his hands to the side, then moved his fingers a little, then lowered his hands and stood comfortably while watching the snake-shaped monster crash into the wall he had aimed at.
Nathan had an ability that wove thin threads from his fingertips that resembled spider silk—almost invisible to the eye but strong at the same time.
So when Nathan touched the monster's tail earlier, he wrapped these threads around it so he could pull the monster out of the fog.
Once the snake-like monster was out of the fog, Steven, David, and Nathan could see it and fight it properly.
David and Nathan charged toward the monster, excited to fight, and Steven followed them.
David raised his spear and attacked the snake's body, while Nathan jumped onto it and began attacking with his hands. The snake lunged angrily toward Steven with its mouth open.
'The snake's speed became slower after Nathan pulled it out of the fog.'
As the fangs approached him, Steven dodged at the last moment, then quickly raised his sword, tilted it toward the snake's eye, and drove it inside.
The snake let out a painful sound and its movements became more violent.
Nathan moved away from the snake after wrapping several threads around it and said to David and Steven:
"Step back a little."
After hearing that, Steven and David retreated.
When Nathan saw them move back, he raised his hands and pulled his threads strongly, cutting the snake in half. Then he turned to Steven and David and said:
"Alright, we're done, so let's start another monster…"
But as soon as he said that, he saw Steven and David approaching him with their weapons raised.
*Whoosh*
They passed him and Steven cut one of the two snakes that had formed from the monster after it split—both were about to attack Nathan.
David cut the other with his spear.
Nathan spoke in shock:
"Oh, I let my guard down."
Then he smiled and put his hands around Steven and David's shoulders.
"It's good to have a team."
Steven pushed Nathan's hand off his shoulder in annoyance.
Nathan removed his hand from David's shoulder and spoke cheerfully:
"Alright, we got 15 points. Now on to the next monster."
Steven looked at Nathan and sighed.
The three continued fighting monsters until an hour after sunset.
It was good that Steve told Byron about the monitoring even if he wasn't there.
It was almost eight o'clock, and Steven hadn't eaten dinner and was hungry, so he and Nathan returned to their room.
Inside the apartment, there was a small place considered a mini-kitchen for students inside the apartment, so after returning, Steven cooked some food from ingredients stored in his ring.
Nathan ate the food, then widened his eyes in astonishment.
"…Delicious. It's been a long time since I've eaten something like this."
Steven was used to having his food praised by Mark, so he wasn't affected by Nathan's compliment.
After both of them finished eating quietly, Steven carried the dishes to the kitchen, washed them, took a shower, and went to bed.
Nathan was lying on his bed too, but he wasn't asleep—he was just staring into space.
Steven sat on his bed, and after some time, spoke to Nathan:
"Are you upset?"
Nathan looked at Steven, then smiled calmly.
"Why do you ask?"
Steven spoke with a calm expression:
"You seemed upset when Eira grabbed you. Do you hate her?"
Nathan fell silent for a moment, then laughed sarcastically.
"I don't hate her, but I hate being grabbed like that by someone."
Steven looked deeply at Nathan, then asked:
"Why do you hate being grabbed like that?"
Nathan stayed silent for a long time. When Steven thought he didn't want to talk, Nathan spoke again:
"…It's because of a disgusting person who used to grab me like that."
After Nathan said that, he turned to the side and closed his eyes, indicating the conversation was over.
Steven un derstood and lay down on his bed to sleep.