As soon as the Head Council Members heard the old man's call to them, they all rushed inside.
In the distance, the others saw the Head Council Members rush inside. Seeing their response, they believed that Gabriel was out. But even if that was true, just the fact that he could make the Head Council Members rush inside for him was enough to show just how influential he was going to be.
After coming to that conclusion, Yann sighed in relief. It seemed that it was as far as Gabriel was going to go. Now his brother just had to continue climbing, and he could retake the top position amongst the current students.
"As expected, he was rushing up too fast. He probably ran out of energy and had to leave. Unlike him, Garrick is taking a long time on each floor, which means he is reserving his energy." One of the Fourth year mages summarized the performance of Gabriel.
The Mark of Nature graced the back of his left hand. Looking at the ranking, he rubbed his chin, gazing at the name of Garrick.
"Garrick should be able to take over Gabriel as I had expected. Gabriel might be talented, but Garrick is more experienced. Still, it was a good display."
Aster was quite satisfied with this display of skills. "Maybe there will be six kings from now on in the Academy..."
He was a part of the House of Nature, but he was someone known throughout the academy. There were only a few people among the Fourth Year Students that enjoyed such popularity. In fact, there were only five such people.
The top five students of the Academy were known as the Five Kings. Amongst the five Kings, only Aster was the one who wasn't a part of any Great Family... He came from a small family, only rising this high based on his skills.
Amongst the five Kings, the first was without a doubt Garrick. He was the Representative of the House of Light and the strongest student at the academy who hadn't been defeated even once throughout the years.
The second King was known as Anid, who was the representative of the House of Lightning. Just like Garrick, Anid was also known for his strength. He was also the brother of Aira and a part of the Great Zoan Family.
He was also known as the second strongest student at the Academy of Elements, only under Garrick, which was a title he hated. He wanted to be considered the strongest!
He was also in the crowd, standing with Aira, watching the rankings. He was feeling quite angry. First, Garrick attacked his sister, and now he was going even higher inside the tower, increasing the distance between the two.
He also wanted to enter the Tower and start climbing, but even he wasn't allowed to enter for now. He could only watch from a distance.
The Third King was also a part of a Great Family... Possibly the greatest family in the Kingdom. The Third King was Mace Lumen, who was a part of the Royal Lumen Family. He was also the Second Prince, who was a representative of the House of Summoning and a fourth-year student as well.
Aster came fourth on the rankings of the King. Unlike the first three, Aster wasn't the strongest mage in the Academy, but he was considered to be the smartest and the wisest student at the academy. He didn't have high offensive power, but his intellectual skills made him an important person at the academy.
Aster was said to have the highest comprehension amongst the students when it came to spells.
In fact, amongst the Five Kings, only he was someone who was capable of creating a new spell by combining two existing spells, which was something so complicated that even great scholars couldn't achieve it easily. It was said that he was rarely wrong.
Unfortunately, this was one of the times where he was wrong, which he realized when he saw the High Council Members stepping out of the tower. They weren't accompanied by Gabriel!
There were shocked gasps everywhere as the students noticed that it wasn't Gabriel who had come out! Instead, it was Garrick who came out! That meant Gabriel was still inside the tower. The one who couldn't go any further wasn't Gabriel, but it was Garrick.
The Head Council Members seemed quite disappointed as well since it wasn't Gabriel who came out even now.
Aster stared at Gabriel's name on the top. "I was wrong? Garrick came out before him? How?"
At the current rankings, Gabriel was ranked 81st, and he was on the 95th Floor, while Garrick's journey ended there for now. He had managed to improve his floor level by one.
He was quite pleased with his growth when he came out, only to find the Head Council Members who seemed disappointed to see him for some reason.
He also heard Eliana scold the old man for raising a false alarm. She told the man to only inform them if Karyk came out. She had already started addressing Gabriel as Karyk openly now.
The old man apologized and watched the Head Council Members leave.
"Karyk?"
Eliana's words were still floating in Garrick's head. From her words, it was clear that they weren't here for him, but for the person he knew as Karyk. But why? Something seemed really strange to him.
The Tower was also looking very empty for some reason.
As he stepped out of the tower, he saw a huge crowd in the distance. Half of them were looking at him, shocked, while the other half was looking at the top of the tower.
'Just what is happening here?' He wondered as he also looked up.
"Garrick, you can leave and rest. You did good work." Eliana told Garrick to leave and not stay here. He had to follow the same rules as everyone.
Usually, she would've been quite happy that Garrick improved his tank even more, but at the moment, her mind was only overwhelmed by Gabriel.
Confused, Garrick agreed. He was sure that something was wrong here. Instead of asking the Head Council Members, who seemed busy, he decided to ask the others.
He walked to the crowd instead of going to his dorms. In the crowd, he also noticed his brother, but instead of going to his brother, he went to Aster. If there was one person who could explain everything to him, it was Aster.
"What is happening here?" Garrick stopped before Aster and pointed out all the weird behavior that everyone was showing. "Also, what's this about Karyk?"
"I don't know about Karyk, but all this commotion is because of Gabriel," Aster responded. "Honestly, it was quite surprising for me as well. I really thought that you would go farther than him."
"Gabriel?" Garrick still didn't understand. Eliana was talking about Karyk, and this guy was talking about Gabriel? Was there a misunderstanding outside?
Aster pointed toward the tower. "Look at nine ranks above you. That's what the entire commotion is about..."
For him, it was easier to just show Garrick than to tell him everything since he knew that Garrick was smart enough to understand the rest just based on the rankings.
Garrick turned to the tower and looked above his name. Within a few seconds, he managed to locate a name that even he hadn't seen before. "Hmm? That's strange. I'm sure this name wasn't on the tower before. Was it?"
"That's right. It wasn't there before. It's a new name that appeared just recently. Someone started climbing the tower, and whoever that person is, they are using a fake name to climb, which is pretty interesting honestly," Aster explained briefly.
"So far, that person has already overtaken you in the ranking, and I'm not sure how far that person can go at this point. It doesn't look like he's about to stop anytime soon though."
"Something like this has never happened before, and that's why everyone is here, to see just who this person is when he comes out. I think even the Head Council is here to find out who that person is," he added. "The entire academy has come to a halt, just for that one person."
"I don't think they need to find out... They already know who it is..." Garrick muttered. "Now it made perfect sense why everyone was disappointed to see that it was I who came out. They are waiting for him."
Finally, it made sense to him why Eliana wanted to be informed when Karyk came out. If it was Karyk inside the tower according to Eliana, then it was most probably true. The person who was using the fake name was Karyk!
"But how? A first-year mage... 95th floor?"
Just as he finished his statements; to his shock, the rankings changed once again as Gabriel's name climbed even higher.
[69 Gabriel Light 96]
Gabriel was still going just as fast, moving closer to the top floor!
