My strategy was pretty simple, since I knew myself and the fact that I would rationally not make any over defensive moves like making more essence swords since my opponent was doing the same as I would just wait till their lower level technique tired them out, I decided to use this to my advantage.

The clone didn't seem to be capable of complicated thinking anyway and 'Omni-viewing Eye' was also disabled so it couldn't sense me activating the technique sequence before it was too late, and it likewise couldn't evade five different sword, as a result my hit was bound to claim its life.

However, such an accomplishment was at the cost of me losing my life, well, my virtual life at least.

Just as I expected, as Ian.0022 found himself incapable of dodging the reckless assault, his only defensive move since he couldn't conjure swords fast enough to counter was trying to take my life first to save his or at least take me down with him and owing to his higher control, his sixth sword managed to take out my head before it disintegrated like he did…

[ You have successfully accomplished a draw! Half the full point reward will be handed out! ]

[ You have received 2499 Achievement Points! ]

[ You can no longer proceed to the next test as you haven't fulfilled the requirement… ]

[ You will be expelled from the 'Tower of Comprehension Testing' in 1 second! ]

"Meow…"

It took exactly one second for a scenery change to take place as I already found myself in front of the gate as it closed from the inside, forcing me to move in the opposite direction.

Naturally, as I expected, everything had returned into my possession as even Light was once again hanging on my shoulder as he let out another cute meow. The gathered members were also staring at me with weird expressions…

"Wha… His numbers are changing again!"

I was somewhat confused by the sudden call out as I got out, but as soon as my 'Omni-viewing Eye' has returned to function I realized that there was something new in my vicinity.

It was another ranking board!

Compared to the ranking board that I found in the dark room, this one only had the normal top 200 members ranking, and for some reason, it only appeared when I went in and out of the tower.

"His points increased by 2499… doesn't that mean that the points he got earlier were mostly from finishing the basic mastery test?!"

"He managed to finish the first test as well as obtain such a high result in merely 20 minutes…?"

"But…"

"What 'getting a head start using his wish token'? Rubbish!"

"He clearly broke all Blake's records by a huge margin. Comprehension time, test time and even amount of points obtained from one challenge!"

'It's starting to work.'

Even though I didn't know what happened while I was inside the tower, I knew that I was getting attention, for now it might seem that only the sect members were the astonished ones, but this was just a small beginning.

Currently, I was supposed to go claim my tag from the Overseer and leave satisfied with my great results, but I naturally didn't plan on doing so…

"I would like to enter the tower once more."

"This will consume your second entry slot, will you be using 'Aerial Sword' for the challenge this time as well?"

Unlike the apprentices who were still conversing in surprise about my immediate rise to the 26th rank within the span of one challenge, the Overseer's passive face remained the same as he replied calmly.

"No, I will be using this, but I would like it to be registered as the second slot for the same book if possible," I asked what I had in mind as took out the second tome in my bag as I put it on the desk.

I obviously still had plans of attempting a third challenge using the third tome that I had, which could only be done if I didn't consume all my entry slots as different books, so as long as the Overseer allowed me to use this 'turn-around', I was quite confident of my chance to surpass Blake in the ranking today!

"Hmmm… since you already seem to have borrowed the book and paid the appropriate price for doing so, even if you are late to return them by two days, I will allow you to do so if you want to."

'I thought they were flexible about it…'

According to Wind's explanation of borrowing tomes, he did say that the borrow for a week could be late for about half a week which wouldn't cause any trouble, but it seemed like the Overseer was just trying to tell me not to go overboard.

"Thank you, senior Overseer!"

"No need. Here, you can go in now, but remember, if you want to enter again, you will have to use the second tome slot, no more going around…"

"Of course…"

Receiving the Earth tome from the hands of the Overseer, I walked once again towards the gate and took a look at the ranking before vanishing into the tower once more…

"Just what kind of a monster joined the sect…"

`~~`~~`~~`

Appearing inside the dark room once more, I only took a quick look at the smaller side of the board before taking out the Earth tome as I put it before the tag, once again transported into the white space.

[ The comprehension test will start in 1 minute… ]

While I did manage to jump into the 26th rank in the general ranking, I was still in the same rank in the candidate list, dead last.

The three candidates in between all bordered at 4000 points so it was only natural, and Blake had already managed to breach the 5000 points, but that wasn't worth worrying about, it was better to concentrate at the upcoming test to finish it as smoothly as possible…

[ The comprehension test starts in 5 seconds! ]