The early morning sunlight seeped through the curtains. He was still a bit stiff in his new body, but he was able to move around every limb except for his broken legs. “Who the actual fuck survives a plane crash?” he murmured to himself. He was amazed at how sturdy the body was. The boy pressed a little bell next to his bed to let the staff know that he was awake. As he couldn’t walk around, he had to rely on others’ help. It didn’t take long before a nurse came in with a wheelchair. She looked at him with a smile and said, “Good morning, sir. I’ll bring you to the hospital’s cafeteria.” She seemed to be thinking about something, and her expression darkened. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’ll be in this wheelchair for the next two weeks. This might not sound that bad, but you’ll have a big disadvantage against the other students,” the nurse said. Silence filled the room, but Jin didn’t care that much about it. He didn’t even see the other students as competitions; they were just young lads he’d have to raise into decent climbers. He already decided that he’d only make one team with a maximum of seven people in it.
Jin already realized that he wouldn’t be able to move around as soon as he had wished, but what the nurse said about him getting a disadvantage wasn’t true either. Even though he wouldn’t be able to train his muscles and get used to his new body, he was still able to cultivate his mana. This was something humans only found a few years ago after studying the essence of life. Jin had formulated magical formulas for over 500 years in the void. He had nothing except for his consciousness there, so it was one of the few things he could do there. This meant that the human methods were all new and flawed. Even the previous climbers from the first tower didn’t know about mana. The reason for this is that all the climbers from the first tower were dumb enough to rely on the power gifted by constellations, items, or by leveling up with the tower’s system.
Jin had already predicted when he first entered the tower that those sources of strength would only take you to a certain point. That’s why he started studying how the monsters inside the tower got their strength. He found out about mana and studied it for seven years while beating the tower. After dying and drifting in the void, he kept on doing research without a physical body for well over 500 years. This was possible because time went faster in the void. When he was alive, he had received guidance about magic from some constellations that tried to make a contract with him, but he rejected all of them. Jin was very well-known amongst the constellations because he rejected their powers and climbed to the top on his own, even killing some weak constellations who were in his way. If he hadn’t died in the last fight, he would’ve become a constellation when he died later.
The nurse placed him in the wheelchair with care and started bringing him to the cafeteria. They walked through several luxurious hallways decorated with paintings of monsters that had appeared in the first tower. Jin felt a bit bothered by these paintings, as those monsters had slain more humans than one could ever imagine. The tower breaks that happened when a floor wasn’t cleared after 50 days were extremely gruesome. The first one happened on the third floor, when people didn’t see the purpose of clearing the tower yet. The tower was seen as a useless obstacle that didn’t give any gains. This was true; the tower never gave them any gains, but if they didn’t clear it, they’d be punished in the most cruel ways. Of course, the constellations didn’t tell the humans about a time limit; they see it as a game and try to entertain themselves as much as possible. After those 50 days, everyone received a message saying, “Whoever doesn’t want to listen shall feel what they missed.” After that, portals opened all over the world for 24 hours, and monsters poured out. Over a hundred million people died because of that mistake, and since then, the tower hasn’t been taken lightly.
The second break happened on the 74th floor because Jin, the person who practically did everything by himself, was in a coma after being poisoned by the previous floor’s boss. His allies had tried to clear it, but most of them had died without their leader’s guidance. The day was remembered as “Black Sunday.” It took the climbers over a month to kill every single monster that came out of the portal, and over 3 billion people died. Almost all of Africa had been wiped away, as they had the least awakened and a lack of firearms. The population went from 10 billion to 7 billion in less than a month because of this tower break. After Jin had woken up, people weren’t even happy that he was there again, ready to save them over and over again, like always. No, they were mad; they all started to harbor hate towards him. It got to a point where Jin was close enough to just stop climbing the tower and let them feel what he went through daily. After thinking about it, he decided that he couldn’t let those few innocent ones die because of the others’ feelings. Jin started to live inside the tower, never leaving because his entire race hated him. He lost his social contact with humans for over 3 years before dying at the tower’s top.
They arrived at the cafeteria, which was completely empty because the school wasn’t open yet. Three hours from now, the opening ceremony would start, and 5000 students would arrive who would later receive an uncountable amount of responsibility in return for hatred. Jin hoped that at least 10 would withstand the tower’s first 10 floors; after that, he’d guide them to become worthy of the tower. Jin had some concerns about the fact that the tower’s difficulty went from easy to impossible; he didn’t know how big the gap would be and feared extinction.
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He ate his meal and asked the nurse to bring him back to his room. Once there, he started writing down some formulas in a notebook. He started calculating how much mana his body was naturally able to handle and how much mana it possessed. After complex calculations, he came to a conclusion: “This body is trash.” That was also the first thing that he noted down in his dialogue. A mana density of 0.7 out of 10 and a mana capacity of 27. This was average for a human. His previous body was extremely loved by mana, when he died, he had a 9.98 density and a capacity of 80,000. He sighed and hit his desk with a forceful blow. Jin was thinking about how it was even possible to be this useless. He calmed his anger and started working out a plan.
If he cultivated the first gate, then he should be able to forcefully open the tower’s system. Mana was divided into so-called “Gates.” Each gate resembled a new perspective on life and magic. There was no limit on the gates; the highest one ever reached was the 54th gate. This was done by the ancient constellation of wisdom called Yvor, one of the strongest beings in the higher place. He was one of the creators of the tower and could destroy universes with a single spell. All the constellations respected him, and only the other nine ancient constellations were worthy of being his opponents.
Jin didn’t waste any time and started cultivating; he estimated that it would take him a few days to reach the first gate and awaken his mana. He was frustrated because it was something he did spontaneously in his previous body. Raising the density of your mana was a very slow and hard process, and it became harder the higher it was. When cultivating for the first time, you had to search for your mana-dedicated organ. This was different for everyone, and your type of spells depended on it. He used to have his heart as his mana core, and that was very useful as it was a very safe and strong organ that had balanced offense and defense.
He started looking at every organ one by one, searching for where his minuscule traces of mana were coming from. It was a hard task, and somehow he didn’t find it after close to two hours. Jin had checked every single organ, from his heart to his brains, even his muscles. He was about to give up when he realized what might’ve been his mistake. It was logical that he wouldn’t be able to see the place where the mana was stored if it was kept in one of his eyes. The eyes were used for external and internal scanning, but weren’t able to search on their own. He quickly grabbed the laptop next to him and opened the camera. Then he brought his eye close to the camera and sighed in relief. His theory was correct; his mana was indeed stored in his right eye. When he got a bit further away from the camera, he froze. The thing he saw was terrifying. It had been a while since Jin had felt this emotion, this sense of natural fear. even the leviathan of death was way less scary.
The right eye he had just looked at wasn’t the only organ that was keeping energy inside. In his left eye, a dark and sinister trace of mana was visible. If Jin focused on the energy his pupil started to split and deform into shapes that resembled ice crystals. He didn’t know how he could describe it; it was as if it had a way higher concentration of energy than normal mana. The mana seemed to be pulsing like a heartbeat as if it was trying to tell a story. The sinister energy felt as if it were defying the laws of nature and was pulling the energy towards it to keep its high power. It terrified Jin so much that he closed his camera as if that would make it disappear. The power seemed familiar but he couldn’t place it. The energy started to fade and retreated back to the retina where it hid from the light. Jin told himself that he wouldn’t experiment with it until he knew what it was and how it worked. He had once before experimented with an unknown energy and almost cremated his soul. It took him a while to get his mind clear and to start his training. He started by meditating, an art where you gather the mana around you to strengthen your own life force. He was close to finishing when a nurse knocked on his door. She walked in and told her patient that she’d bring him to the school stadium, where the opening ceremony would be held soon.
They arrived at the big building that also belonged to the school, and Jin was brought inside. The nurse parked his wheelchair in the lounge, where normal students weren’t allowed. It was reserved for royalty and those of extremely high origins, like Jin himself. The stadium slowly started to fill up until all the students who were accepted had taken place. The door to the lounge swung open, and nine 16-year-old kids walked in. Seven boys and two girls, all clothed in expensive clothing and covered in jewelry. Most of them came from different origins, which was logical. The academy, which was in the heart of London, was the most famous and prestigious awakened academy in the entire world. People from all over the world fought for the few spots that were open. The group that didn’t talk to each other noticed Jin sitting in the wheelchair. He stood out, wearing hospital clothing and having white hair.
“You must be Jin from the Gelida family. I heard you had a plane crash on the way here. I’m impressed that you survived,” a boy said; he looked and sounded like he came from China.
Jin nodded his head and looked at the group. He had been informed that of the 5000 that started, only 25 would be put in the A-class, the peak of the students. The classes would be ranked from A to Z for the first 650 students, and the remaining students would be in class - with 4350 students. These alphabetical classes get better treatment and access to more information, creating a fierce competition. The first 5 months, the students wouldn’t be placed in classes and get time to prepare for exams that would decide their class.
The nine kids who were all inspecting him, most of them from royalty, sat down to watch the opening that was about to start. The room was filled with a silence that made clear how much tension there was between some of these kids. At last, an old man walked on the podium and started his opening’ speech after taking the microphone:
“Almost all of you will die.”