While the arena was filled with expectations, especially from the human camp, there were two candidates who were looking at Michael and thinking about different things.

Kandrif Kross was looking at Michael and he started to think:

This person is simply a monster! If he can realize all his potential, he would become one of the most powerful people in Aterna. While a single overlord will not make the humans too powerful, it would become a different case if he could reach the level of immortal slayer! He is the perfect choice for an ally! Not only would he bring his personal power but the power of countless humans to the race. This would be sufficient to bring down the elves quite a bit.

As has been stated earlier, immortals were definitely peak powerhouses but not all immortals had the same level of power. Immortals who could kill other immortals were given the title immortal slayers. In Aterna, there were less than 5 and there was none in the light empire.

An immortal slayer arising out of humans!

Kandriff was already considering Michael's potential at the extreme high that he knew of.

Ashley Leslachis was also looking at Michael. She thought:

What a pity! Had he been born a few hundred years before, he could have been a good choice for a partner. To get out of the family's hands, I need to find someone with power and not potential. But, he seems like a good choice for making friends. After all, getting to know someone with so much potential will never hurt.

All the human students were looking at Michael as one would look at their idol! Never in the history of humans had there been someone who could suppress the myriad races of Aterna with their own power or talent. Humans had never shined in Aterna. Thus, even the grown-up nobles attending today were feeling respect for Michael. He was the glory of humans!

The second exam is over. Now, we will start the final exam. Any student can begin when they feel like it.

Karlson's voice was heard at that moment. All the experts were looking on with expectations. They were waiting to see the performance of the beast emperor's nephew, the elven beauty and most of all - the crown prince of humans - Michael Rageberg. Many were thinking that Michael would take his time to adjust his condition before challenging the third exam.

But, to their shock, Michael immediately went to the challenger stand. This caused them to raise their eyebrows.

The panellists that had come out of the private chamber all looked at each other and felt their mouths twitch trying to maintain a straight face.

Karslon thought:

Isn't this kid quite the fiesty one? He still has the energy to fight?

Michael took his position on the challenge stand and stared at the judge of the event. The judge was an immortal realm expert as well. The judge asked professionally:

Michael Rageberg, which stage do you want to challenge? If you win, you can challenge higher levels but if you loose, you will only be able to challenge lower levels. You will not be given the chance to rest between the different levels. So choose wisely.

Michael : Understood Senior. I would like to challenge the early saint realm individual stage.

This caused the crowd to gasp. The weaker ones were thinking that as Michael was in the early emperor realm, he would start with the late emperor stage. Even if Michael had a powerful body and soul, the saint realm was a large boundary. A saint could react, perceive and use his power much better than the emperors. Emperors challenging and winning against saints was so rare that it had only been heard of in legends and tales. The ones who were able to do so were all currently the hegemons of the plane.

The judge did not waste any time calling a tester on the stage. The tester was a middle-aged dwarf man in the early saint realm. He had been chosen to come up because it would make the disadvantage of height go away. Both Michael and the dwarf took their positions. At the judge's signal, in front of all the experts, they both charged towards each other.

Michael had been predicting the movements of the dwarf but still, as the distance between him and his opponent was only 15 metres, he was only able to gather his physical strength in his left hand as he brought it forward to catch the dwarf's punch. But, the dwarf changed the direction of his punch midway as if snaking his way to hit Michael's torso. But, to his astonishment, he found his punch still blocked!

The impact caused a boom to ring out as Michael was thrown back a few metres due to the impact. But, none of them had sustained any injury.

This small exchange not only surprised the dwarf but all experts in the crowd as well.

Kevin thought:

To keep up with a saint in a fight! His reaction speed can not be that fast. It must be his perception. What a monstrous perception!

After this exchange, the dwarf again lunged at Michael only to be faced with a punch coming from Michael's side. In normal circumstances, he would have ignored this punch to press his attack but his blessing - intuition - told him that there was something wrong with this fist. He hurriedly halted his momentum and jumped back. Michael's fist missed him but as soon as it was fully extended, a burst of powerful soul energy mixed with incredible amounts of death energy erupted from his fist. This scene caused all the saint realm spectators to shudder and the others narrowed their eyes as well.

This was the first time Michael had revealed his close-combat soul art. This surprised many people. But Michael was no less surprised. He had been thinking of winning this level easily and moving on to the next one. After killing the slaver elf easily, he had been overconfident in his abilities or one might say that he was underestimating saints. But, saints were not all crafted from the same mould. The person before him was a veteran fighter that was also a true disciple of the tower and a martial arts genius. He was much, much more powerful than the slaver elf who had not honed his skills and only devolved in pleasure and debauchery.

Michael suddenly felt sobered up. Then, his soul energy started coming out of his body as it formed a storm of countless swords revolving around him. Each sword was dipped in death energy giving this storm a sinister feeling. This caused many experts in the saint realm to gulp. They all questioned themselves, "could they face this storm of death?" and the answer they all arrived at was the same - No.

He hurled his storm towards the dwarf as he started charging at him. The dwarf moved at high speed to evade the storm but he was still hit. He felt great pain in his soul and each attack seemed to cut off a piece of his soul! This caused several internal injuries to appear in his body! Even as he was evading, he found Michael in front of him charging with a prepared punch. The dwarf tried to change directions only to find that he had been surrounded. Gritting his teeth, he charged into the storm! He knew the power of the storm but that fist contained concentrated soul power. If he really got hit, he would have to lie in the bed for several days.

As the dwarf emerged from the storm, he was coughing blood! His internal injuries were severe and could not be suppressed anymore. Thus, he forfeited.

Before Michael could even react, the dwarf jumped out of the platform and sat went into the resting space to treat his injuries. But, no one thought that he gave up too early. They could all feel Michael's powerful soul energy even from a distance.

The judge came forward and announced:

The battle is over and Michael has passed this level. Michael, do you want to challenge a higher level?

Michael, in fact, had planned to fight in the next level as well. But, looking at his recent fight, he found that fighting 5 early saints would be the death of him. The only way to win would be to use his persona to overdraw his soul. He was not willing to try something so dangerous just for the sake of breaking records.

Thus, he gave up. His actions caused many people to understand about his combat power. Comparable to a saint before the age of 13! This was not a child but a child shaped monster!

Empress Atrexia had a gloomy expression. Michael's performance had made him the centre of attention of multiple powers. If she took action now, there was no way to kill him secretly. But, if she waited too much, she was worried that Michael would grow too fast. No one could be certain of his cultivation just a few years later. Thus, she was having a headache plotting Michael's death. Her only hope was the hundred-year war between the empires. That would be when she would make her move.

After Michael stepped off the platform, his name was placed on the final board of the tower. In all of the light tower's history, all the participants of the final test had their names placed on this final board. This was known as the board of geniuses.

It was rightly called so because even for appearing in the tower final test, one needed to be considerably talented. If minimum requirements were not fulfilled, people were not allowed to take the final test.

It was not like every genius in Aterna had their name on the board but that anyone who had their name on it could be considered a genius in the empire. At that moment, Michael's name appeared at the topmost central position on the board replacing Kevin's name.

Micahel Rageberg - 272 points.

While all people were aware that Michael's name would be placed there, they were still in awe when it happened.

The humans all felt a glory coming from the board! This was a historical mark made by Michael! This was an achievement that was going to stay there even if Michael and everyone who knew him turned to dust - as long as the light tower and the light empire stood!

This was the glory that Michael had brought to his race. The first time that a human had managed to become the king of geniuses. This was the title that Michael had obtained.

Kevin laughed in the crowd and said loudly:

The younger generation will surpass the older generation. Desborn, Collins - your race has a very talented gem. In the future, I hope that he would become a pillar for the empire!

All people were contemplating different things. Michael was actually a very rare case. The weaker races had given birth to geniuses before and many lower races in history became mid-level races due to their geniuses reaching the immortal realm. But the position of king of geniuses was not something at the same level. Michael was a star that was burning too bright right now. He had gathered the attention of all the light empire. He was already someone of considerable influence in the empire. People in all kingdoms of the empire would have to give him face. But, he did not have the power to back it up.

While the races were allied in principle, it did not mean that they would just let Michael grow into a powerhouse. Michael would now naturally face many assassination attempts. Not to mention that in the war 4 years from now, he would be the primary target of the dark races. Thus, his chances of dying were very high and almost all experts felt the same.

But they also knew that there were some geniuses that had destiny on their side! There were many such examples of heroes in Aterna that had surpassed countless challenges to reach the immortal realm. Thus, if Michael was to pass his obstacles and manage to not die - he would probably become an overlord in Aterna.

Now, it was up to the experts of myriad races to decide if they wanted to stand with him or against him. And, this was not an easy gamble to make. The wrong decision could lead to the end of their race.

Michael trotted away and made his way to the resting area. He was done for the day but the exam was still going on. After the results were to be finalized, there would be a discipleship ceremony and the candidates that had passed would become true disciples. It was then only that the experts would take on candidates that they liked as personal disciples. That was the reason Michael had gone out of his way to make such a grand spectacle today. He had to become Karslon's student.

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The exams kept on continuing and the people showed different powers and combat techniques on the stage. Mark Gregory, Samual Joss and Azeer Zenid all obtained points between 45 and 50 as they were unable to defeat an early emperor realm opponent. Ramsus on the other hand again stood out as he managed to defeat his early emperor realm opponent! He got 52 points in the combat section in total getting his total to 193 points. While it did not look anything much with respect to Michael's 272, it was actually a very good score. His name was placed quite high on the genius board as well.

Ashley easily defeated a mid emperor realm opponent but did not succeed in the group stage and obtained 63 points. Her total came to 218 which was comparable to the score of the top genius in many tower's previous examinations! After all, it was not every test that people like Karslon or Kevin came to take the test. But, it was her bad luck that her generation had two freaks who were better than her.

Kandriff revealed his transformation in the combat test causing people to praise him even more. He was able to beat a late stage emperor and failed in the next round getting 73 in combat section and 233 in total. Thus, the results were finally out:

1. Michael Rageberg - 272 points

2. Kandrif Kross - 233 points

3. Ashley Lislachis - 218 points

4. Ramsus Rageberg - 193 points

5. Evan Hans - 190 points

with the last one being a fairly unnoticed child from the elves.

Reez, Jerome and Paul managed to win a multiplier of seven times and they would get 7 times the amount that they had placed! This instantly caused them to feel too happy to control themselves as they began laughing like maniacs and made a race to the betting centre.

Also, they felt that they made a loss because Michael scored too high. It had cost them several thousand energy crystals but since they had won quite a lot, they just let it go.

As the final test came to an end, only 32 students were picked in total. From the human camp, the selected ones were Michael, Ramsus, Samuel, Azeer and Mark. All the other noble kids had failed. There was nothing to say of the other people children that had joined as helpers. In fact, except Ramsus, there was no surprise in the results.

The final test had come to an end. The discipleship ceremony was about to begin and people were waiting for it as well. After all, it was the most important event that was to happen.