Chapter 223 [Dawn]
Ethan was increasingly regretting his decisions. If he had known that when Cyber Academy assigned teachers to recruit students, he could have applied to go to Lsengard.
He certainly could have taken Charles as his apprentice before Ezra!
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a magic pill for regret in this world. The only thing Ethan could do now was work hard to become stronger than Ezra!
Only true power would qualify him to teach Charles.
With that thought in mind, Ethan's gaze grew resolute. He planned to go out and train after Charles finished his challenge with the "Reaper's Scythe," seeking opportunities to become an Eighth Level Beast Master!
Time ticked by, and it was almost time for the morning classes to end.
More and more people gathered outside the Trial Tower, most of them senior students who had plenty of free time.
For the vast majority of the senior students, watching Charles's performance filled them with shock and admiration, while only a few powerful seniors felt a sense of crisis rising within them.
They certainly did not want to be surpassed by a new student who had only recently entered Cyber Academy; it felt somewhat embarrassing.
Until the morning classes ended, Charles did not choose to challenge the third level of the Trial Tower.
He continued to train on the second level, honing his Beast Master hand-to-hand combat skills while grasping the progress of his combat techniques.
Charles really enjoyed seeing the rewards for his efforts; he carefully felt the increase in his strength and the improvement in his combat techniques, making him feel exhilarated.
Although constantly challenging the Trial Tower would lead to mental fatigue, his strong mental power kept him far above that of ordinary students.
Additionally, as his strength improved, the wounds on his body became smaller and fewer.
He skipped lunch and continued to challenge the second level of the Trial Tower, not emerging until the afternoon classes ended.
Outside the Trial Tower, the onlookers stared at the numbers on the big screen, their expressions already frozen.
Charles's time to clear the second level of the Trial Tower had dropped from an initial 35 minutes to just 5 minutes.
In less than an afternoon, he had made such tremendous progress.
Zachary and Camilla arrived outside the Trial Tower after classes ended.
"Is this even human? He's been inside the Trial Tower for so long and still hasn't come out, and his clear time for the second level keeps decreasing!" Zachary exclaimed, his mouth agape and his eyes glazed over.
"It's only taken him five minutes to clear the second level! Charles is now ranked seventh on the Fourth Level Beast Master leaderboard!" Camilla's eyes sparkled with admiration, and she was filled with joy.
"Only about half a month since we started school, and we haven't even begun entering the Trial Tower, yet Charles is already on the leaderboard. This gap is just too much," Zachary said, feeling disheartened.
His mental fortitude was relatively strong; he just found it hard to accept someone like Charles.
Compared to Charles, they, these so-called geniuses, seemed rather ordinary.
At that moment, Charles emerged from the Trial Tower.
Having spent an entire day inside, even Charles felt somewhat fatigued, but the gains were substantial; he had comprehended a total of 11 combat techniques.
Given the constraints of not affecting his progress in understanding the combat techniques, this number was already Charles's limit.
Moreover, his hand-to-hand combat skills had improved significantly; he felt he could perform even better in a fight against Ethan now.
"Charles, when you challenged the first level of the Trial Tower, did you really not summon a mystical beast or use any skills?" Zachary couldn't contain his curiosity and asked.
His first reaction upon learning this news was disbelief; after all, he had some understanding of the Trial Tower.
Zachary even tried to put himself in that situation; not summoning a mystical beast would make it impossible for him to defeat two Fourth Level Beast Masters!
Charles looked at Zachary with some surprise; the people outside shouldn't know about his battles in the Trial Tower.
"Did Ethan come by?" Charles asked directly.
In his impression, only Ethan truly understood him.
Given Ethan's excessively powerful combat abilities, simulating combat scenarios wasn't particularly difficult.
"That's right. Ethan said you neither summoned a mystical beast nor used any skills in the first level of the Trial Tower," Zachary explained.
Charles nodded and replied, "As expected of Ethan; what he said is true."
As soon as those words left his mouth, the surrounding students gasped in surprise.
While they had mostly believed Ethan's claims by now, hearing Charles admit it directly was still hard to accept.
Zachary wore a complex expression, a mix of reluctance and acceptance. He said, "As expected from you, Charles. By the way, are you still going to the auction tonight? We can go together."
Charles thought for a moment. He hadn't planned on attending originally because there wasn't anything special he wanted.
However, due to hatching Little Gold that morning, Charles now needed a large amount of rare metal materials.
At tonight's final auction by the Seven Kingdoms Merchant Association, there was a significant amount of rare metal materials available, called Feather Gold.
The quality of Feather Gold is only purple, which isn't very high, but it should be enough to accelerate Little Gold's growth in the early stages.
"You guys go ahead. I'll grab a bite to eat and then head back to my dorm to freshen up. There's still plenty of time before the auction starts," Charles replied.
Zachary and Camilla nodded and turned to leave; they also needed to prepare.
Under the watchful gaze of the crowd, Charles exited the Trial Tower. He quickly finished dinner, washed up, and sent a message to Celestine.
Then he made his way to Dean Jamie's office.
"Come in!" Jamie's voice called out.
Charles pushed the door open.
Inside the office, it wasn't just Jamie; Ethan happened to be there as well. Upon seeing Charles, Ethan quickly approached and asked:
"How are you feeling? You spent a long time in the Trial Tower today."
Charles shook his head and replied, "No major injuries. A night's rest will do the trick."
"That's good to hear. Don't let a moment of impulse affect your future progress. By the way, Charles, how many combat techniques are you currently comprehending? Should be around six or seven by now, right?" Ethan said.
Charles held out his hands, raising one finger on each.
Ethan glanced at him and said, a bit comforted, "That's two more than last time. It's normal for progress to be faster at first and then slow down."
"No, it's actually 11," Charles said calmly.
"What! 11?" Ethan was caught off guard, and Jamie slammed his hand on the desk, standing up in disbelief.
Charles nodded and continued, "That's my current limit. I need to control the comprehension progress of each combat technique as much as possible; any more would be hard to manage."
"What? You can do even more?" Ethan's expression looked as if he had received a shock.
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Charles scratched his head, simply stating the truth, not expecting such a strong reaction from Jamie and Ethan, much like the students outside the Trial Tower.
Jamie took a moment to digest this shocking news, trying to calm himself as he slowly sat back down.
He didn't want to continue on this topic; even he found Charles's talent to be extraordinary!
"Charles, did you come by today for something specific?" Jamie asked, well aware that Charles wouldn't come to see him without a reason.
"It's about the previous matter," Charles said, his face emotionless.
But both Jamie and Ethan sensed that Charles's emotions were a bit off at that moment.
In their impressions, Charles was a very calm person who could keep his cool and handle situations with composure, no matter what challenges arose.
After thinking for a moment, Jamie figured out what Charles wanted to ask.
"Ethan, don't you have other matters to attend to?" Jamie said to Ethan.
Ethan glanced at Dean Jamie and then at the silent Charles before leaving the dean's office.
"Sigh, I know what you want to ask, Charles. Right now, you need to focus on improving your strength and not get involved in other matters," Jamie said.
Charles calmly responded, "Dean, is there any new information from the security office? The missing children's cases were definitely tampered with."
Jamie sighed and shook his head, saying, "The leads have all dried up. Many people in the security office died that night, and they are slowly trying to trace things back."
"Slowly trace things back?" Charles repeated.
Jamie explained, somewhat helplessly, "You know that there are definitely accomplices of Constellation within Genosha, and there are traitors as well. So this matter isn't easy to investigate thoroughly; they are very well hidden."
"Is there any other way?" Charles didn't want to just wait around.
During these days, he hadn't forgotten what he saw beneath the abandoned factory. However, due to the numerous things demanding his attention, Charles hadn't asked Jamie for more information.
"Charles, do you know why I didn't stop you from going to the underground octagonal cage?" Jamie said slowly.
He looked into Charles's calm yet determined eyes, fully aware that trying to prevent Charles from getting involved in this matter was impossible.
"That's because behind the underground octagonal cage lies an organization that might have information about Constellation," Jamie continued, then turned and walked to the window, gazing at the brilliant lights outside.
He remarked, "If you want to know more, then you should get as close as possible to that organization."
"Another organization? Dean, which organization is it?" Charles asked.
Jamie replied, "Dawn."