The three men from the Thorns Academy were not concerned with Arthur’s presence. For them, there was no way he could deal with the three of them, so why bother with it?
They continued their verbal assault, saying, “you will die with your boyfriend today. Isn’t that lovely?”
Arthur did not know how these people could be so dumb to not realize his power. Although he was always hiding it, they should know he was not simple after appearing in front of them out of nowhere, right?
One of them, the same who was talking shit, cast a spell of his own, launching a ray of sunlight. A powerful spell which would surely kill Signy and Helga if Arthur was not there.
For him, it was nothing. With a wave of his hand, a magical barrier appeared, blocking the upcoming attack easily.
“What?”
None of them could believe it. The ray of sunlight was one of their strongest spells, yet blocked as if it was nothing.
“Are you cheating? What did you do?”
Even when the situation was clear in front of their eyes, they could not accept Arthur was someone stronger than them. Perhaps their master or the school behind them made them think they were invincible, or prodigies.
“Is this all you got?” Arthur said.
The trio got even angrier, and they combined their attacks, trying to destroy the magical barrier, yet it was impossible.
No matter how many spells they launched against it, nothing happened.
Arthur was getting bored with the situation, so he cast the same vines he used to lock that giant down, the life draining vines.
These vines came from the ground, trapping the three men from toe to head. Unable to move, they slowly calmed down, and one of them, who seemed like the leader, said, “you can’t hurt us or the Thorns Academy will go after you! We are ranked at 10 in the academies rankings, so you better be careful!”
It was so predictable Arthur found it funny. Of course, these people would use their academy name to protect themselves, acting rude in front of others.
Before Arthur showed his power, they were attacking and insulting Signy and Helga, and now they wanted to get away without suffering the consequences?
“Arthur, don’t fear such a thing. You will probably enter an academy yourself when going to the central continent, and with your talent, you can go anywhere!” George said.
When he heard that, Arthur looked at them, smirked, and said, “Let’s go. Let them die here. Oh, right, before I forget.”
Arthur waved his hand again and three magical pouches flew toward him, who put them all inside his own. After that, he left with Signy and Helga, letting the three men die, absorbed by those vines.
“Thank you, Arthur, for saving us!”
“It was nothing. We should be careful from now on. Now, before anything, do you two want the inheritance from this place, or can I get it to myself? If you two stay out of it, I will give you something in return, and help you two go to the central continent.”
“What?”
Signy and Helga did not believe they could get their hands on the inheritance, anyway. So, having Arthur say he would give them something was simply amazing.
“We will not go after the inheritance. Thank you for everything!”
With that, all the three were on the same page. Now that both of his friends were safe and with him, Arthur could focus on his task of finding clues about the inheritance.
The fights were happening all over the forest. Arthur had to do his best to avoid them, but he still passed near to see if he could get some information from others.
He even crossed paths with Samantha again, and this time he went and talk with her.
“Samantha, any news about the inheritance?”
“This is the first thing you ask me? How rude. Well, some people said that the three who are in the tenth circle are the ones who know more about it, but we cannot go against them, so it is useless.”
“Do you know where they are?” Arthur said.
“I think they are all climbing the tower. Look, from what I heard, there is a tower far from here, up to the north of the forest. Anyone that had killed at least one person can enter it, and presumably who climbs higher than everyone else will get the inheritance.”
Samantha had lots of information, startling even Arthur. How did she get all of that within that short period? The most shocking part was that people had already found the place where the inheritance could be.
“Thank you, Samantha. You are heading there?”
“I am, yes. Would you like to come with me?”
“I still have some things to do, so no, thank you.”
After that, both of them parted ways, and Arthur now had to find a place for Signy and Helga to stay while he went to that tower.
They were not going for the inheritance, and going there would only put them in danger, so the best thing for them to do was find a place and wait for the test to be over.
Arthur was not concerned about the inheritance. He knew it would take them a long time to get it, and even Ichor did not state any time for the test, so everyone guessed it would not be an easy one.
So, he first roamed around the forest, going toward south, the opposite direction of where the inheritance was. That would be the safest place for Signy and Helga to stay.
It was easy to find a cave for them, but the hard part was to set up all the formations. Arthur spent an entire day setting protective formations, illusion formations, concealing formations, and everything he could to keep them safe.
He even left some food from his magical pouches, enough to last them three months without the need to go out and hunt. Not that the test would take that long, but it was better to be safe.
Then, after making sure everything was okay, he left the cave, going towards the north to see exactly how that tower was.
The word spread quickly, and almost all the youths who went towards the tower. To enter, one had to have killed at least one person during the first part of the test, which meant the number of youths inside had diminished a lot, and only those who were confident in protecting themselves went toward the tower.
Arthur was one of these people. He had killed three members of the Thorns Academy, so entering there was not a problem for him, and his strength was higher than everyone else.
Those three who were in the tenth circle could go toe to toe in a fight with him, but if Arthur used all of his trump cards, he did not see them winning at all.
To make up for the time he lost, Arthur went toward the north using his teleport, reaching the tower in no time. There were lots of people around the tower when Arthur got there.
These people were scared to enter it, or were trying to come up with a plan. When Arthur got there, they all gazed at him, but soon returned to their own businesses.
The tower of which everyone was talking about was huge, and it reminded Arthur of the tower he had entered before. No one there knew about the rest of the dimensional realm, so he was the only one who knew the tower was similar.
“How do you think this tower works, George?”
“Hum. It is hard to answer, but I believe there will be monsters, or something else, to show you are worthy of it. The only way to find out is to go inside.”
Arthur scanned the area and did not see Samantha or anyone strong. All the people that were scared to enter inside the tower were in the seventh circle, which meant everyone else from the eighth, ninth, and tenth circle were inside the tower.
Staying in front of the tower, thinking about all the possibilities, and trying to prepare for the test was just dumb. Even George, who was someone far from their league, could not guess what the tower had inside.
The only thing possible was to enter, and that was what Arthur did. He walked towards the tower, and the gaze of everyone present fell on him again.
“Will he enter?”
That was the thought they had in mind, and it was exactly what Arthur did, entering the tower with little thinking.
The moment he entered, a pressure came upon his body, making it harder to walk and breath, but it was not a big deal.
There was no one on the first floor, so Arthur looked for the stairs, which were not that far from the entrance, and continued up.
As for the second floor, some people were there, with sweat dripping from their foreheads. Walking with that much pressure was hard for some of these mages, but for Arthur was a stroll in the park.
He kept going, causing the envy and shock from all the mages from the second floor.