Holy Necromancer: Rebirth of the Strongest Mage

Gabriel noticed a young man glancing in his direction. He didn't know why, but under that gaze, he felt danger...

It was a strange feeling of danger that he had rarely felt before. The last time he felt a similar feeling was when he stood before Elora. However, that feeling of danger this time was even more intense.

Lelin's lips crept up a bit, forming something akin to a smile yet not quite. He walked past Gabriel like a stranger.

As the young man walked past him, Gabriel momentarily looked back. He only saw Lelin leaving. Unlike him, Lelin wasn't looking back.

"Was that guy a teacher?" he asked Riya.

Even though Lelin appeared too young to be a teacher, after seeing Eliana, he couldn't be sure of anything. Moreover, this feeling of danger... It could certainly come from a strong teacher. If that was the case, it could explain why he felt that danger.

Riya also glanced back at Lelin. "He? Nope. I've never seen him before. He should be a new student just like you. Someone will be assigned to him to show him around. We don't need to worry about him."

'A student? Then what was that feeling...?'

Even though Lelin didn't glance back at Gabriel after walking past him, that was only for a moment. Not long after Riya and Gabriel stopped looking at him, Lelin turned around.

His gaze seemingly rested on Gabriel's hands. "Quite interesting."

****

"And this is the dorm of the Water Mages. With that, we've covered all the boring parts of the Academy: the dorms. As a Light Mage, you aren't allowed to enter these dorms. Only the images of these elements can enter these places. So make sure you don't enter even by mistake if you don't want to be punished."

Riya and Gabriel stood before a beautiful building which was no less than the one that housed the rooms of the Mages of Light.

Gabriel was shown the dorms of all the Elements, which weren't too far from each other.

"I will keep that in mind."

Gabriel didn't think he needed to worry about such things in any case. The person he wanted to kill shared his element of light. So he didn't need to sneak inside the dorms of other elements. It made things a bit easier for him.

"Now, let's get to the interesting parts of the Academy, which are even my favorites."

Until now, Riya appeared to be bored and irritated, but as she talked about her favorite places, she seemed much more pleased. It made Gabriel wonder just what the place was.

Riya soon brought Gabriel to the place she talked about, which appeared to be a giant tower made from pitch black stones.

"Tower of Challenges."  Riya placed both her hands on her waist as she stood proudly before the tower, making Gabriel wonder why she was so proud. She was acting as if she made the Tower herself. What was for her to be proud about?

On observing the tower further, Gabriel was able to see a bunch of names carved on the majestic tower.

There were ten columns of names on the tower, starting from the top and coming to the bottom. In essence, there were over a thousand names in each column.

"What are these names?" Gabriel inquired.

"They are the names of the highest scorers in the tower." Riya smiled. "This Tower is my most favorite place in the entire academy. It's where we come to challenge ourselves to see where we stand compared to other students at the Academy."

"Each student goes through the same set of challenges according to their element. The farther one can climb in the tower, the higher their scores. And if they score high enough to get on the rankings, their name appears on the tower at the appropriate ranking."

"In total, there are twelve thousand names on the tower at the moment. And those twelve thousand aren't all current students. This is the all-time rankings, so even the ones who managed to graduate have their names on the tower as long as they aren't pushed out of the rankings."

"Do you have your name there?" Gabriel asked. Since she was so proud and talking so excitedly about how big a deal it was to get their names on the tower, he felt that she had her name there as well.

Riya smiled and held Gabriel's hands before pulling her around the Tower.

"There, look." She placed her fingers on a name that was almost ranked near the bottom.

[11758       Riya Lansher      Light         13]

"I am ranked eleven thousand seven hundred fifty-eight in the ranking," Riya proudly stated with a smug face. "I managed to reach the thirteenth Floor last I attempted. Next time, I will do better!"

"Is there any advantage of attempting this, or is it just for fun?" Gabriel asked. It was certainly a fun activity to compare yourself to present and past students, but other than that, he didn't find anything special in all this.

"Of course, there is something special. The person who can manage to get in the top ten of all time rankings is given the key to the academy. In essence, they are like unofficial teachers. They can go anywhere and do whatever they want; no one can stop them. Moreover, the Dean will personally train them."

"Unfortunately, it's not easy to get in the top ten. The last time it happened was over a decade ago. Since then, no one even managed to enter the top hundred, let alone top ten."

"There are also some rumors that the top floor contains a really mysterious treasure. No one knows what that is since no one managed to get so far in the history of the tower's existence."

"The farthest one went was the Ninety-ninth floor..." Riya stepped back a few feet, gazing at the top of the tower where a name was etched at the peak.

[1      Axion  Lumen      Light          99]

"The First Ranker in the Tower... Lord Axion. He went on to become the Lord of the Church of Light after graduation. It was said that it was under his leadership when the Church of Light destroyed the Church of Darkness. He was also from the Royal Lumen Family."

"He is considered to be one of the most glorious Lord of Light. Even after a thousand years, his achievements are said to be unmatched..."

Gabriel also looked at the name of Axion, but his attention was soon distracted by the second name on the list.

[2         Qin Elisi        Darkness        99]

'Elisi? Isn't that the last name of Lira as well?'

"That second name... Doesn't this academy not have an Element of Darkness? Why does it show the element of Darkness?" he asked Riya.

"The Academy doesn't have the Element of Darkness ever since the Church of Darkness was destroyed and Darkness was declared as the element of the Devil. Since then, the Academy got rid of all the Dark Mages, handing them over to the Church of Light," Riya explained.

As she had been at the Academy for over a year, she knew quite a lot about the academy. All those questions that Gabriel was asking now were asked by her when she was new as well.

"All the Dark Mages of the Academy were killed by the Church of Light."

"And the Academy didn't save them? They were their students?! The Academy just handed them over to be slaughtered?!"

"Anything wrong with it?" Riya ignorantly asked. "If those Dark Mages weren't killed, just imagine how many innocents would've been killed. They were demons. It's good they got rid of them. Unfortunately, one student managed to escape that onslaught... Qin Elisi."

"The Second Ranker?"

"Yeah. He was a third-year student at that time. In fact, he reached the ninety-ninth floor while being a third-year student, which was an achievement that was never accomplished before. At that time, he still had one more year to become stronger and attempt the tower again."

"Everyone was sure that Qin Elisi was going to be the first person to reach the top floor. Fortunately, before he could, the Church of Darkness was destroyed. I can't even imagine what disaster it would've been if that demon had received the mysterious treasure on the top Floor. Fortunately, he was stopped at the right time."

"Too bad before he could be killed, he ran away..."