Light.
In an instant, the entire sky above the Central Magic Tower was submerged in light.
Thousands of magical arrays active across the island trembled simultaneously. The rivers of mana flowing through the streets fell into chaos, their blue light flickering irregularly for a few seconds.
All eyes were drawn to the heart of the tower.
To the tablet.
At first, everyone thought it was a normal activation.
After all, this wasn’t the first time the tablet had reacted. But they soon realized they were wrong.
The tablet’s color changed to purple. Dark purple. Deep purple. And then... a color that was difficult to even describe.
The darkest possible shade of purple, as if darkness itself had crystallized within the stone. The surrounding light began to be swallowed.
Shadows stretched.
And the air around the tablet became strangely distorted.
Serys unconsciously took a step back, her eyes wide with shock. She had grown up in this tower since childhood, had lived among legendary mages and professors for years.
But she had never... never seen anything like this. Then the sound of cracking was heard.
Crack.
Everyone froze.
Crack.
A second crack appeared.
Crack.
A third crack.
Then dozens more cracks.
Purple lines spread across the stone’s surface like living veins.
The color drained from the faces of the mages present, because they knew what this sight meant. They knew it all too well. The tablet only cracked in one situation.
Only one.
When all the knowledge stored within it had been comprehended.
One hundred percent.
Complete.
Without the slightest flaw.
Suddenly, the sound of a massive bell echoed across the entire island.
WOOOOOOOOOM.
WOOOOOOOOOM.
WOOOOOOOOOM.
A sound that, for thousands of years, had only rung under specific circumstances.
Serys’s eyes widened.
"No..."
This wasn’t a war alarm, wasn’t an enemy attack alarm, wasn’t an alarm of destruction. It was the tablet’s alarm.
Hundreds of years had passed since such a bell had last rung. Had it even rung in history at all? No one knew.
This might have been the first time this bell had ever rung. This might have been the first time they were seeing someone comprehend the entire tablet.
This might have been witnessing a living legend with their own eyes!
The space above the square split open. One spatial rift, two rifts, ten rifts, twenty rifts!
Within seconds, the sky above the tower became a network of spatial tears.
One after another, mages appeared.
Grand Mages.
The tower’s great professors.
Each of them capable of changing the fate of a kingdom on their own.
Then Divine Mages.
Beings whose presence was rarely seen.
And then...
Heavenly Mages.
Faces that most people in the world had never even heard of.
Old men and women who had lived for hundreds of years, beings considered the true pillars of the tower. In just a few seconds, the square was almost completely surrounded.
But no one spoke. No one shouted. No one became excited.
Only silence. A heavy, suffocating, terrifying silence. All eyes were fixed on the tablet.
And then...
On Daniel.
One of the Heavenly Mages quietly stepped forward, his gaze fixed on the tablet’s cracks. His old hands trembled slightly.
"Impossible..."
Beside him, one of the Divine Mages whispered.
"The tablet has been completed..."
His voice was barely audible.
"The legacy has been drained..."
Several others lost their color. Some even forgot how to speak for a few seconds. And then, finally, the gazes fixed on Daniel.
They were looking at a being who, in their eyes, was no different from a living legend.
A being without parallel in history. Perhaps a being who could become the greatest mage in history.
And at that moment, they realized the main problem. He was too young. Far too young.
One of the old men stepped forward a few steps.
His gaze moved from Daniel’s white hair to his calm face.
"How old are you?"
"Almost twenty." Daniel answered without the slightest change in his expression.
There was no worry on his face. Even though the events unfolding were not part of his plan, that didn’t mean he couldn’t take advantage of them.
The silence grew heavier. One of the Heavenly Mages almost held his breath.
Twenty?
They had lived for centuries, some over five hundred years, but they had never seen anyone who could comprehend a complete tablet at such an age.
In fact, they had never seen anyone at all.
The closest comprehension was ninety-five percent. But one hundred percent? Had such a person even existed in the past? Apart from the tablet’s creator himself?
They doubted it. Even if there was, it was unknown even to them.
But now a reality stood before them. A reality that shifted all the boundaries of their understanding.
Then suddenly, one of them froze. He remembered something.
Almost two years ago.
A strange incident had occurred at one of the branch towers in the Elthanor Empire. The tablet there had suddenly recorded a one hundred percent comprehension.
The entire tower had been thrown into chaos. The Supreme Council had personally investigated, but the only information they had gathered was:
A boy.
Tall.
White hair.
Under twenty years old.
And then... he had disappeared. Left no trace.
The old man quietly looked at Daniel. At his white hair, at his face. And for the first time, his voice trembled.
"It’s him..." Several others suddenly realized as well.
Whispers began.
"Is it him?"
"That genius?"
"Here?"
They had been searching for him all this time but had been unable to find him. And now he was here? He had come to the Central Magic Tower himself?
Beside all of them, Serys felt her brain no longer working. The different pieces of the puzzle were falling into place one after another.
Why Daniel was always calm, why he never worried about anything, why even now, with half the tower’s leaders gathered around them, there wasn’t the slightest change in his behavior.
She slowly turned her head toward him.
"Daniel..."
Daniel looked at her.
"Hmm?"
"Was this your plan all along?" Serys asked with difficulty.
Daniel remained silent, preferring not to answer. This truly wasn’t part of his plan, and he had wanted to carry out his plans in silence.
But it seemed fate had other plans for him.
Suddenly, the space split open again, but this time even the Heavenly Mages stepped back out of respect.
New people appeared. White and gold robes, the special insignia of the Supreme Council. The true leaders of the Central Magic Tower.
Beings whose power was considered legendary even among Heavenly Mages.
They descended quietly. Their gaze first fell on the tablet, then on the cracks, and finally on Daniel.
One of them, with long silver hair, examined him for a few moments.
No emotion could be seen on his face, but his gaze was extremely heavy. Then he stepped forward.
"What is your name?"
At that moment, Serys’s heart sank, because she suddenly realized the real problem. If Daniel said his name... some of those present would immediately remember the old files.
The Myriad Devourer recovery operation, related to the Everlight Moon guild.
But the problem was that this boy was an Otherworldly Climber. People who had no right to join the magic towers.
And she knew the tower would not let go of someone who had achieved one hundred percent comprehension of the tablet. So what was going to happen?
The entire square fell into silence. Hundreds of pairs of eyes fixed on him.
But Daniel only calmly looked at the Supreme Council members, as if he wasn’t even aware of the heavy pressure on his shoulders.
Or perhaps... for him, that pressure had never mattered at all.