The temperature in the surings dropped sharply, and a thin layer of frost rapidly spread across the g and the blades of grass underfoot.
Just as the wind blades were only about a meter away from Luca—
Several crystalline ice shields suddly materialized mid-air, intercepting all the incoming wind blades.
The wind blades struck the ice shields, causing a series of explosive sounds!
The hurricane roared, and shards of ice flew in all directions. Several ice shields shattered, but the wind blades dissipated completely, vanishing without a trace.
“Whoo~ whoo~” The Wind Elemtal’s eyes wided, making a low whimpering sound, as if stunned that Luca had actually blocked its attack.
Luca didn’t bother guessing what it was saying. He raised the Mithril Mage Spear in his hand and pointed it at the Wind Elemtal, a layer of blue light slowly covering his pupils.
The moisture in the air instantly condsed into ice crystals.
In the blink of an eye, over a doz ice lances, each several meters long, formed in mid-air.
A bone-chilling cold spread through the area. The sharp tips of the lances glinted coldly in the sunlight, radiating a murderous aura!
“Go!” he said indiffertly. Behind him, the ice lances sliced through the air with a whistling sound and shot out in an instant.
The Wind Elemtal ssed danger and tried to dodge, but found its movemts unbearably slow.
Looking down, it finally noticed a layer of frost covering its body at some unknown time.
The Wind Elemtal was filled with terror. Ev its elemtal body had be froz solid. This human’s ice elemtal skill…
Before it could think further, the ice lances were already upon it.
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
The sharp ice lances instantly pierced through the Wind Elemtal’s body, and a chilling frost spread across its tire form in a split second.
The Wind Elemtal’s body stiffed, its normally expressionless face filled with shock and disbelief.
In the next momt, its elemtal body shattered into countless ice crystals, dissipating into the air.
“What a domineering ice ability!” The spectators outside the field were all in an uproar.
Elemtal creatures can transform their bodies into pure elemtal forms, making them highly resistant to physical attacks.
Yet this young man had forcibly froz the Wind Elemtal’s body, prevting it from escaping.
This showed that his mastery of the ice elemt was far superior to that of the mid-level Wind Elemtal!
With that realization, ev the instructors of Red Maple Academy were shocked to their core.
“This level of power is rare ev for an ice elemtal mage. But he’s just a low-level Demonic Rune Mage—how could his ice elemtal skills be this powerful?” one instructor muttered, questioning his understanding of the world.
But no one answered his question, for no one prest knew how Luca had achieved this.
However, Principal Orf seemed to have noticed something.
He looked at the silvery- magic runes on Luca’s body and ssed the unique fluctuations emanating from them.
Principal Orf suddly thought of a possibility, and his bushy eyebrows furrowed.
He murmured to himself, “Could it be… that this kid has high-level magic runes?”
The more Orf pondered, the more plausible it seemed. To suppress an elemtal creature’s elemtal form, at least a high-level fixed magic rune would be needed.
Only a high-level magic rune could able a Demonic Rune Mage to freely wield elemtal skills.
With that thought, he became ev more puzzled.
How could Luca possibly possess high-level magic runes?
How did he refine the materials and inscribe these magic runes?
Orf’s mind was full of questions, but there was no one to provide answers. He could only wait for Luca to come out and ask him personally.
Inside the Trial Tower, after the Wind Elemtal was slain, a game prompt appeared in front of Luca.
[Ding! You have slain a level 40 Wind Elemtal (Rare). You gained 60,000 experice points!]
[Your level has increased to 6. You have received 0 free attribute points!]
[You have cleared the 5th floor of the Trial Tower. Would you like to proceed to the next floor?]
This time, Luca didn’t rest and directly chose to move on to the next floor.
With his “Frostborn” abilities, he should have no problem reaching the 0th floor. Ev if he countered a monster beyond his capability later, he could still use the Ice Pattern Awaking, elevating his strgth to a terrifying level—more than ough to complete the trial.
Meanwhile, as Luca stepped into the 6th floor—
Among the other examinees, someone had finally accumulated ough points to ter the 5th floor.
A flash of light swept across the wilderness, and a young man in a luxurious robe appeared.
He was dressed in finery, handsome, and held a longbow in his hand. His eyes betrayed an uncontrollable pride.
Seeing the towering stone monumt not far away, a smug smile crept onto his face.
“Hehe, I knew I would be the first to arrive. It seems that being the top freshman at Red Maple Academy this year is mine for the taking!” he declared with a chuckle.
Leaving the first mark on the Trial Stone was the long-standing tradition to determine the top freshman of the year at Red Maple Academy, and he had be anticipating this momt for a long time.
But just th, a few more flashes of light lit up the wilderness, and several more youths appeared.
One of them, a boy clad in black and wielding a long sword, sneered. “Rogge, ar’t you celebrating a little too early?”
“If you want to be the top freshman, have you considered our opinions first?”
A red-haired girl with a staff in her hand also snorted coldly, “The top spot at Red Maple Academy this year can only belong to me. Anyone who dares to snatch it away should first ask if my staff agrees!”
Seeing the tse confrontation among the group, Susie quickly distanced herself from them.
She definitely didn’t want to get splattered by blood.
Noticing that some examinees had reached the fifth floor, the external spectators shifted some of their atttion to this sce.
“The first to arrive should be Young Master Rogge of the Illamundi family. I’ve heard before that this little fellow’s talt is exceptional, and now it seems the rumors were true. To think he was the first to reach the fifth floor.”
“That boy wielding the long sword looks like Rainer from the Howard family. He just turned eighte this year and is already on the verge of breaking through to the Gold Grade. Truly remarkable.”
“There are quite a few promising talts in this assessmt. That young Summoner girl’s abilities ar’t bad either.”
“It’s just a pity… they had the misfortune of countering such a monster…”
Not many people were discussing these examinees.
Although the speed at which several of this year’s examinees reached the fifth floor was faster than last year’s top freshman.
But unfortunately, with Luca in the lead, these achievemts—which would have undoubtedly caused a ssation last year—seemed insignificant in the eyes of the spectators now.
Watching Luca rapidly closing in on the 0th floor, and th glancing at Rogge and Rainer, still confronting each other on the fifth floor—
Some couldn’t help but feel a sse of pity for them.
As the saying goes, comparing oneself to others can only lead to frustration. The gap was simply too overwhelming.
At this momt, Luca was completely unaware of the situation outside.
After activating the Frostborn ability, the pressure he had to bear was drastically reduced, allowing him to clear the floors at a speed several times faster than before.
With his overwhelming ice-elemtal abilities, ev rare monsters at the Platinum Grade could barely cause any ripples in his presce.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the runes on the Trial Tower lit up floor by floor.
Luca bulldozed his way through, quickly approaching the 0th floor.
[Ding! You have slain a level 40 Rock Guardian (Leader). You gained 355,000 experice points!]
[Your level has increased to 7. You have received 0 free attribute points!]
[You have cleared the 9th floor of the Trial Tower. Would you like to proceed to the next floor?]
In the scorching desert, Luca pulled his ice lance out of the eye socket of a massive Rock Giant.
“Finally reached the 0th floor,” he murmured, letting out a long breath as he looked at the prompt and the glowing portal before him.
The higher one ascds in the Trial Tower, the stronger the monsters become. Ev with the assistance of the Frostborn ability, after battling at high intsity for such a long time, his mana and stamina were beginning to show signs of exhaustion.
Finding a rock to sit on, Luca took out a potion Franklin had prepared for him, drank it, and th closed his eyes, starting to replish his strgth.
The monster on the 0th floor would certainly be at another level of power. He needed to use this time to restore himself to peak condition and be fully prepared.
“This kid… he actually made it to the 0th floor!” Fred was so shocked wh he saw the glow of the 9th-floor rune that he didn’t know what to say. This kid was simply unbelievable!
“Youngsters these days… truly terrifying!” Kruse wiped his glasses, his tone filled with emotion.
It wasn’t just them—ev Orf hadn’t expected this.
Initially, he only wanted to give Luca a small setback to curb his arrogance and make him focus on his studies.
Who would have thought that Luca would turn a and give him a huge surprise by actually reaching the 0th floor of the Trial Tower!
The stadium was abuzz with excitemt.
If they hadn’t se it with their own eyes, they wouldn’t have believed it—a mere Silver-grade youth had managed to force his way up to the 0th floor of the Trial Tower!
The instructors of Red Maple Academy were especially astounded.
They knew the difficulty of the Trial Tower very well. Ev for second-year instructors at the academy, only a handful could reach the 0th floor.
And yet, a teager who was only in his tes had achieved it!
Melissa felt a sse of awe welling up within her.
Only now did she understand what true gius looked like!
“Passing the 0th floor’s trial won’t be easy. I’d wager this kid has reached his limit,” an instructor, who had be skeptical of Luca from the beginning, shook his head.
He didn’t hold any particular grudge against Luca; it was just that the difficulty of the 0th floor was on a completely differt level than the previous ones. Clearing the 0th floor without Platinum-grade strgth was almost impossible.
Everyone prest understood this fact, and most of them believed that the 9th floor was likely Luca’s ceiling.
“Ev if he can’t clear the 0th floor, once today’s evts spread, this kid is going to become famous throughout Southwind City!” Fred laughed heartily, his face full of guine admiration.
Back wh they were in Riverfall City, he had tak a liking to Luca’s personality.
Though his strgth was lacking at the time, he had the courage to fight against all odds, daring to challge a monster horde while still at Bronze Grade—he had the heart of a warrior.
Now that Luca had achieved such an impressive result, Fred naturally felt a great sse of joy.
The people a him heard his words and looked on with vy.
Once the story of this young man spread, many powerful factions would undoubtedly try to recruit him.
Ev the Marquis of Bronte might hear his name.
For a young man who had just arrived in Southwind City, that would be the highest honor imaginable!