"Big brother! Why are we squeezed in the middle of the crowd like this here? You woke me up this early without even telling me the reason!"

A young boy who seemed to be merely 15 years old had an upset expression as he said to the youth next to him, he didn't manage to get enough sleep today because of this!

"You shouldn't be upset little brother, you just entered the sect recently so you don't know, but today there is a very important event that is going to start right now!"

The youth reassured his young brother as he said, it was barely a month ago that he managed to score a recommendation for him to join as an outer apprentice, so he barely started training lately which was why he knew almost nothing about the affairs of the sect.

"Eh? What's supposed to happen?"

"Senior Blake, the most likable candidate to become the next personal apprentice of the sect master is going to challenge the Tower of Trial today!"

The somewhat old youth said as he explained the reason behind the gathering of a great number of apprentices around the Tower of Trial which was naturally deserted...

"And…?"

"Sigh… you really don't care about anything but sleep! Since the promotion of all candidates half a year ago, Senior Blake has been standing at the top of the pyramid, according to the rumors, he has been progressing too fast. Unlike the first technique he obtained after becoming a member of the Central Division which he used 3 months to master, he had only used 2 months for the following one, and this time he only used 1 month! They say his position as the next personal apprentice is nailed as long as he achieves high results today!"

"Oh… that's good I guess, but what does that have to do with me…?"

"Come on! I brought you here to feel the hype and excitement and get motivated to work harder with the hope of becoming as good as Senior Blake, even if you only have one attribute, you can aim to become the personal apprentice of a Division Master!"

"Well it's not like even you managed to achieve it and you are 10 years older than me, so asking me is a bit of a stretch… oh is that him? He does like kinda cool!"

As the young boy shifted his attention, he managed to take a look at the youth approaching the tower through the passage towards the tower which the apprentices left empty for challengers to pass through, the youth also seemed to have a… furry creature lying on his shoulder…

"Oh, he is already here? Wait…"

"Meow…"

"This isn't him…"

`~~`~~`~~`

1 hour earlier…

[ ➤ Skills:

- …

- 'Axe Mastery' lv.7

- 'Bow Mastery' lv.7

- 'Hammer Mastery' lv.7

- 'Sword Mastery' lv.7

- 'Spear Mastery' lv.7

- 'Weapon Mastery' lv.7

- …

➤ Abilities:

= Energy:

- 'Axe Energy (A+)'

- 'Arrow Energy (A+)'

- 'Hammer Energy (A+)'

- 'Sword Energy (A+)'

- 'Spear Energy (A+)' ]

'Is this true equilibrium...?'

Other than the status panel showing that I have finally managed to advance all my masteries to the same level, I took a look at my energy core which could no longer be described as a sphere…

The original sphere had already shrunk into a fifth of its original size looking more like a morning star instead as five different pointy figures were protruding out of it.

A sword, spear, halberd, arrow and a hammer, the five figures which were the result of the 5 breakthroughs that took place were all bustling with their own corresponding essence as the small ball at the center revolved with mixed essence. Unfortunately, I couldn't take control of the mixed essence or even use it as my control only extended over to the essence stationed within the weapon figures, which constituted about 90% of the combined amount of essence that I had.

This time, achieving the 7th level of 'Weapon Mastery' didn't seem to bring an option along with it, which made me think that it was once again due to the fact it was still stuck at the (Unique****) grade. However, it had ultimately solved the balance issue by evolving the core to its current form instead so I was content with the current result, somewhat hoping that a better option would emerge if it levels up once more and ascends to the next grade.

Not to mention, that 'Ki Unification' had evolved into 'Unification' which no longer had a limitation of the the weapon energy being in the form of 'Ki'.

'Not bad at all!'

Achieving this overall result using only 10 days since my entrance to the sect was of course not just 'not bad' it was obviously an amazing achievement, but it only qualified as a 'not bad' result since I wanted to achieve a crazy feat for the sake of my plan.

Starting from when I first experienced the true 'Archaic Guidance' and tested the other two tomes, I had used one day to comprehend each tome for a total of 12 1-hour sessions every day, after which I had to sleep for another 12 hours to recuperate my brain's perceiving ability. Going through this process continuously for 3 days was naturally quite exhausting, even for me who had a Wisdom stat of 40 so the 12- hour sleeping session was a must in between.

Of course, just as exhausting as it was, the results were equally brilliant, 12 sessions for each tome had brought my understanding into a level higher than the one I obtained from inheriting the classes in the Trial Tower!

Not taking much of a break in between, at the end of the fourth day, and using the high level of understanding that I obtained from the tome, I had already mastered the Wind Sword technique in the Wind tome as the preliminary test, but the end of the fifth day, I had already mastered the Earth Sword technique in the Earth tome and advanced my 'Swordsmanship' to the sixth tier!

Half of the sixth day was spent to transition the Earth Sword technique into a Spear technique to advance my 'Spearmanship' to the sixth tier as well, before I finally mastered the Ice Spear technique and raised it into the seventh tier!

As to not waste time, I had only taken a 1-hour break before moving onto transitioning the other techniques to the rest of the weapon starting from the sword which only needed a transition of the Ice technique and moving to the rest of the of the weapons which needed both Earth and Ice techniques, taking two more days before reaching the current point.

Messing up my sleeping schedule during the last sprint, I had stayed up late to finish the advancement of the Halberd/Axe, the weapon that I had left for last. As such, it was currently 9 AM in the morning.

'Should I go try it now…?'

Originally, I had planned to sleep after I was done with the last advancement, but after the formation of the full balanced core, my whole body including my brain felt re-energized for some reason, blowing away the option of sleep.

'Let's head out in an hour then!'

Deciding to take one last long and relaxing bath to refresh myself before heading out, I suppressed my anticipation for the tower challenge as I headed towards the bathing room.