Hearing the voice, Luca glanced over and noticed a young woman, around her early twenties, standing before all the candidates.
She was petite, with glasses perched on her nose, and wore a simple yet elegant long dress. Her appearance was delicate and refined.
Despite looking soft and fragile, she carried an air of grace and gentleness.
This was Melissa, the instructor responsible for this year’s freshman assessment. Luca recalled Fred mentioning her—she was a first-year instructor at the academy.
Upon hearing Melissa’s announcement, the students participating in the assessment didn’t dare waste any time. They immediately used the secret realm entry tickets they held in their hands.
In the next moment, beams of white light flashed across the stadium.
Within a few breaths, hundreds of students vanished, including Susie, who had also entered the Trial Tower.
At the same time, the Trial Tower began emitting a faint glow. Runes flowed along its surface, and the symbols on the first level lit up.
Displayed on the surface was a number: 299!
This indicated the total number of candidates participating in the assessment.
Orf appeared beside Luca without him noticing. Looking up at the glowing tower, he stroked his beard and said, “The freshman assessment has officially begun. They only need to clear the fifth floor to pass and be admitted into Red Maple Academy.”
“However, the instructor assessment is far more challenging. To pass, you’ll need to clear at least 20 floors. Once you enter the Trial Tower, there’s no turning back. If you want to back out now, this is your last chance.”
“20 floors?” Kruse and Fred’s expressions changed drastically.
Normally, clearing 15 floors was considered sufficient for an instructor assessment, yet Orf was requiring Luca to clear 20.
The monsters on those levels were at Platinum Grade, nearly two entire levels above Luca. Wasn’t this practically sending him to his death?
Both of them turned to look at Luca, silently hoping he would reconsider and withdraw.
Although Luca had extraordinary talent, he was still very young. Even if his identity as an adventurer partially compensated for his natural limitations…
The difficulty of the Trial Tower was something they were all too familiar with. The monsters inside were far stronger than those in the outside world. For Luca, turning back now would be the wisest choice.
Unfortunately, they were destined to be disappointed.
Luca shook his head and declined, “Thank you for the offer, Principal, but I’ve already made up my mind. There’s no need to persuade me further.”
The higher difficulty was actually a good thing—it would be a perfect opportunity to test his current strength.
With that, he activated his Trial Tower entry ticket, and his figure disappeared from where he stood.
Seeing this, Kruse and Fred could only sigh deeply.
“He’s still too young and impulsive,” Kruse muttered, shaking his head. He felt Luca’s decision was highly unwise.
Fred could only smile helplessly and say, “I just hope he doesn’t get too disheartened by the experience.”
He knew all too well how difficult the Trial Tower was. Most mid-level professionals couldn’t even make it past the 15th floor. The odds of success were less than one in ten.
Not to mention, Luca was only a low-level professional, and he was aiming to clear 20 floors.
They exchanged a glance and made up their minds.
If worse came to worst, they’d put aside their pride and beg Orf for a favor. They could just pretend this whole ordeal never happened. Orf certainly wouldn’t want to lose such a promising talent.
Luca, of course, had no idea what the others were thinking.
With a flash of light, he found himself standing amidst a chaotic and desolate ruin.
The sky was dim and overcast, the roads were in disrepair, and a chilling wind howled through the empty streets.
Luca surveyed his surroundings and realized it looked like an abandoned town.
Its size was much larger than what he had seen from outside the Trial Tower, almost comparable to Riverfall City.
Shadowy figures darted through the dark ruins, and eerie will-o’-wisps floated among the broken-down houses.
The whole scene felt ominous and eerie, sending shivers down one’s spine.
Not far from where Luca stood, there was another candidate for the assessment.
He held a longbow and was warily watching Luca.
Luca wasn’t surprised by this.
He had previously learned from Fred that every level in the Trial Tower was an open secret realm, where all participants fought in the same area. To advance to the next floor, one needed to accumulate a certain number of points.
Points could be obtained by killing monsters or through plundering—essentially encouraging candidates to battle each other. Since no one would truly die here, failure would simply result in expulsion from the secret realm.
However, that was only for the student assessment.
The instructor assessment required defeating the guardian monster on each floor to move up. If you died in the process, it was real death.
Thus, Luca’s objective differed from the students’, and he had no intention of wasting time on them.
Noticing that Luca didn’t seem interested in bothering him, the candidate let out a sigh of relief. When Luca glanced at him earlier, he’d felt like a prey being watched by a predator.
This guy was definitely dangerous!
The young man was about to quietly slip away in another direction to explore the town.
But at that very moment, a sharp whooshing sound pierced the air.
A barbed tree branch, moving so fast he couldn’t react, shot out and pierced straight through his skull.
Pfft!
The young man’s eyes widened in shock as his head was impaled. Blood and brain matter splattered onto the ground, and he instantly dissolved into a beam of white light, disappearing from the spot.
Luca took in the entire scene calmly.
Narrowing his eyes, he glanced at the place where the young man had been standing moments before.
In that spot stood an ordinary-looking tree, its branches slowly retracting.
“A tree demon, huh? And quite good at concealing its presence too,” Luca murmured to himself. It seemed like his luck wasn’t too bad—he had already found the first floor’s guardian monster so quickly.
He could tell that the tree demon was mid-level, stronger than the monsters outside. It was likely handpicked by Red Maple Academy to test the true capabilities of the instructors.
He didn’t feel any pressure at all. With a single thought, a Mithril Mage Spear appeared in his hand.
A fiery red pattern quickly spread across the length of the spear, and scorching fire elements enveloped Luca completely.
Silver magic runes lit up beneath his feet, and in a flash, his figure disappeared from where he stood.
When he reappeared, Luca was already behind the monster.
With lightning speed, he thrust the spear directly at the tree demon’s trunk.
Pfft!
The Mithril Mage Spear pierced through the trunk without the slightest resistance, and red blood oozed from the wound.
The bark of the tree cracked open to reveal a massive, fanged mouth that roared in fury.
But before the tree demon could counterattack, Luca twisted his wrist, and the fiery red patterns on the spear suddenly flared up with an intense light.
“Boom!!”
With a deafening explosion, searing flames erupted, engulfing the tree demon in an instant.
Under such high temperatures, the tree demon was reduced to ashes in a matter of seconds!
-3816!
A massive damage number rose into the air, along with a kill notification.
[Ding! You have slain “Lv25 Vinewood Treant (Rare)” and gained 66,719 experience points!]
[You have cleared the first floor of the Trial Tower. Would you like to proceed to the next floor?]
Luca pulled the spear out of the charred remains of the monster, glanced at the prompt, and chose “Yes.”
In an instant, he was transported to the second floor.
Meanwhile, outside the tower, the crowd had just witnessed the scene unfold through the mirrored images projected in the sky.
The entire stadium erupted in an uproar.
“Holy crap?! Is that damage for real?”
“Did I just see that correctly? A rare monster got one-shot!”
“Who is this kid? Where did he come from? I’ve never heard of him before…”
The audience buzzed with discussion, utterly shocked by the sudden emergence of this young man.
While other candidates were still struggling against ordinary monsters, this guy had just one-shot a rare-level monster!
The gap in skill was too enormous!
“No wonder it’s Red Maple Academy! They even have talents like this. Next year, I have to make sure my child participates in the entrance exam!” one spectator exclaimed in awe.
Orf, Fred, and the others, however, remained calm. They weren’t surprised by this display at all.
After all, they were well aware of Luca’s talent and strength.
If he couldn’t handle a monster of this level, then that would have truly shocked them.
At that moment, the instructors of Red Maple Academy had also been informed that a young man was taking part in the assessment alongside the students, aiming to become an instructor at the academy.
This was an extremely rare occurrence, and many instructors had gathered to watch.
After witnessing what had just transpired, an elderly instructor with a short stature shook his head slightly and said, “The boy’s strength is indeed impressive among the students, but if he thinks he can pass the instructor assessment with just this level of skill, he’s being a bit too naive.”
The surrounding instructors nodded in agreement.
Based on Luca’s earlier method of killing the tree demon, the instructors had already formed a rough estimation of his capabilities.
If this was the extent of his abilities, passing the instructor assessment would be utterly impossible.
Watching Luca’s actions through the mirrored image, Instructor Melissa’s eyes revealed a trace of regret.
With this level of strength, if he were participating in this year’s freshman entrance exam, he would have undoubtedly ranked first among all the new students. What a pity…
“Let’s wait and see,” Orf said nonchalantly, taking a sip of his tea, showing no signs of concern.
Meanwhile, inside the secret realm, Luca had arrived at the second floor of the Trial Tower.
Unlike the abandoned town from before, this area was a dense forest.
Lush leaves blocked out the sunlight, leaving the forest dark and damp, filled with a distinct odor of decaying plants.
Enormous insects, several times larger than normal bugs, crawled over the rotting leaves and plants, making one’s scalp tingle with unease.
Luca thrust his spear forward, impaling a giant spider that was creeping toward him.
Then, with a mere thought, a green glow enveloped his body, lightening his weight significantly.
With a powerful leap, he landed on a tree trunk, his form moving nimbly and effortlessly through the branches.
His gaze swept the area as he began searching for the guardian monster.
Along the way, he encountered many other candidates taking the assessment, but as long as they didn’t provoke him, Luca had no interest in wasting time on them.
Soon, he reached the depths of the forest.
To his surprise, he hadn’t found the guardian monster yet.
Instead, he stumbled upon Susie.
She was wearing a blue mage robe, a codex floating in front of her, and was currently engaged in a battle with a massive wild boar.
The pages of the codex flipped rapidly, summoning a series of monsters with blood-red eyes, which attacked the giant boar relentlessly under her command.
Additionally, Luca noticed a small, silver-white creature perched on Susie’s shoulder.
It had a chubby body and a tiny golden crown atop its head, giving it a rather cute appearance.
But what caught Luca’s attention the most was the aura emanating from the little creature.
It was an Elite Monster, and it had already reached Silver Grade!
“Is this woman’s luck stat maxed out too?” Luca muttered to himself, almost doubting reality.