The Tower of Challenges had been one constant thing ever since the start of the Academy. In fact, it was also the reason that the Academy was started in this place in the first place.
Contrary to popular belief, the Tower of Challenges wasn't created by the Academy of Elements. It wasn't created by any mage of the Academy either. The tower existed here for as long as anyone could remember. No one knew who exactly made this tower or why.
By the time magic and magicians were becoming prominent in the world, the founders of the Academy of Elements discovered the Tower of Challenges.
The Academy of Elements was said to be founded by two friends who were quite powerful mages of their time. Ironically, one of those two men was a Mage of Light while the other was a Mage of Darkness.
After entering the tower, the two mages managed to find out a lot about this place. They discovered that each floor of the tower held a different challenge and that challenges only became more fierce the higher they climbed. One more thing they noticed was that the entrance that led to the first floor where the Challenges began was somewhat unique.
Even though the two friends entered together, they found themselves all alone after passing through the barrier as if they were in different realms.
Since then, they started researching the Tower of Challenges to try to find out how it worked. They managed to find lots of new information like the Tower only allowed people younger than thirty to go to the first floor and attend the challenges. Anyone older was stopped by the barrier at the entrance of the first floor.
They also found out that it was impossible to break the barrier. Even though they didn't know who made this tower, both friends felt that this was the perfect place to establish the Academy of Elements that they wanted to make. They believed that this tower could be used to train the youngsters and see just what they were capable of.
Since then, they made a new system for the Tower. They created the formation stones to measure the floors that one managed to reach and connected the information to the source outside the tower to display a Ranking to motivate the youngsters to do better and to raise a competitive feeling inside them.
They also made some safety mechanisms in the stone to help the students escape faster. With time, the academy was created around the Tower of Challenges, and it became what it was known today.
Ever since the two friends found the Tower of Challenges, not a single person had managed to reach the highest floors. There were also many stories about the top floor of the Tower of Challenges.
Some stories said that the two founders managed to reach the top floor and left some rewards there for the first student who could get there. At the same time, there were also stories amongst the teachers that presented an entirely different picture.
The other story mentioned that even the Founders had failed to clear the ninety-ninth floor, so not a single person knew just what was on the hundredth floor! No one knew which version of the story was correct. All they knew was that it was hard to reach the hundredth Floor.
In fact, only a few people in history had managed to reach the ninety-ninth floor ever since the record-keeping began. Even the top student Garrick was nowhere close to reaching that level.
Gabriel entered the tower just out of curiosity. He just wanted to see what the tower Challenges were like. He just wanted to see what he was capable of and how far he could reach. Other than that, he had no plans. He just wanted to get to the highest floor he could to see just what he was capable of.
Since the Tower of Challenges was so hyped, even he hadn't expected himself to reach particularly high.
He passed through the barrier of the first floor. As soon as his body touched the barrier, he felt a strange feeling inside his body. It felt quite unique, which he had never experienced before.
The barrier didn't check his elements or anything. Instead, it just checked his age before giving him an independent space to climb the tower.
There were bright stairs before Gabriel as he passed through the barrier.
"Let's see just what I'm capable of."
Clenching his fist, he took his first step on the stairs and started climbing up.
Even though he didn't count the stairs, there weren't many. There only looked to be fifty or so stairs to climb.
He ran to the stairs, not intending to waste much time. Before long, he reached the top of the stairs.
He ended up in a Majestic Hall that was almost as big as the hall he had seen on the ground floor. The hall was completely empty. He couldn't see even a single person here. The only thing worth giving some attention here were the Knight Statues that were standing all around him near the walls.
The statues were covered in old Metallic Armor as if depicting ancient warriors. Some of those statues were holding only the swords, while others were holding Swords and Shields both. There were also some statues that held spears and some that had a stone ax.
There was no door anywhere which could lead to the higher floor, making this place look like a dead end.
"Where is the challenge of the First Floor?" Gabriel walked closer to the center of the room, observing his surroundings. He looked up as well, seeing if the path that led up was through the roof.
However, just as he looked up, he heard the sound of two metal pieces screeching against each other. He looked at the source of that sound, finding a statue there. Strangely enough, the statue seemed to have a different pose than he remembered. He was sure that it wasn't his misconception.
He heard a similar noise coming from behind him as well. He looked back, feeling a sense of danger.
As soon as Gabriel turned around, he saw a Metallic Spear flying straight toward his chest.
"Shield of Light!" Gabriel raised his left hand, casting a protective spell that consumed the least amount of his spiritual strength.
The Spear hit the Shield of Light, but it failed to pass through. Gabriel still didn't feel better. Instead, his sense of danger was increasing.
"Shield of Light!" He cast another shield of Light, this time behind him, blocking another attack that was only a meter away from hitting him.
"So this is the challenge!" Gabriel exclaimed. "You aren't dead. At least not in the conventional sense."
Another Statue seemingly came to life. One after another, all fifty statues came to life.
Finally, Gabriel understood why no one wanted a novice mage to come here. Just the first floor itself was dangerous.
"Too bad for you, I'm neither a novice mage nor a conventional Mage."
