The Ranking

Ivan opened his eyes and his head instinctively turned in the direction of the wall clock since this had been the first thing he did whenever he woke up and had become something he did without realizing it.

The time showed that it was just 3 in the morning which was an hour before morning training started.

Ivan focused and made his profile appear in front of him.

NAME: Ivan Von Charles 

 Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card

Talent lv: SS          AP: 3.11%      Rank: NULL

Ivan's eyes lingered on his AP for a long time, a serious expression on his face. It had been a month since they came to the tower and had undergone rigorous training for the past month, a lot had changed during this one month with Ivan undergoing the most shocking change amongst the trainees.

Compared to last month when they just arrived, Ivan had undergone stunning physical changes. His build was now as tall as Ralph's and other people his age and his lean body now had well defined muscles.

He no longer looked sickly and his hair had also grown so much that they now fell over his eyes, almost covering it.

His cold demeanor only grew colder since he mostly kept a blank face that made it difficult for one to guess what he was thinking about.

Aside from that, Ivan had also grown much stronger compared to other Nexulytes. Not only did his AP increase at a terrifying speed, his comprehension in hand to hand combat had shocked all the other trainees and even Luke who was his training partner for the past month.

He had even been given the nickname ''Monster" by the other trainees.

Ivan slowly got off his bed and changed into his purple tracksuit before heading out. During the past one month, one of the many changes that had happened was that Ivan no longer waited for Ralph and Glen when going out for morning training.

This was because he had started getting up very early and also because those two would always arrive on time so there was no need to wait for them.

Arriving at the field, Ivan met only the two instructors there; not even the five repeaters were here yet.

"As early as usual I see" instructor Logan voiced out immediately after seeing Ivan, he wasn't surprised as this had been Ivan's daily routine for the past few weeks since coming to the tower.

Ivan greeted both of them with a simple bow before walking over.

"Sadly, there won't be any morning training today. All trainees will be asked to gather in the lobby in a while, there will be important announcements to pass to you all" instructor Logan added after a brief pause.

His words didn't seem to move Ivan as he remained standing there while staring at instructor Nathan.

" What? Don't tell me you still want to go through it regardless?" Instructor Nathan asked with a raised eyebrow, Ivan responded with a nod of his head.

"What a freak" instructor Nathan mumbled with a helpless sigh before walking toward Ivan and attaching a gravity bracelet as well as a talent blocking bracelet to the boy's wrist.

The gravity bracelet on Ivan's wrist was a three times gravity bracelet which would increase the pressure on the wearer by three times! This used to be the punishment for late comers but as the trainees got stronger, it had been changed to a daily use for them. 

Those who still came late got a different gravity bracelet with increased gravity pressure.

Immediately after getting the bracelets, Ivan sprinted off Into the distance.

He left footprints on the ground as he quickly disappeared into the forest as if he wasn't wearing any gravity bracelet!

"This kid sure is a monster" Logan said with a bewildered look on his face as he watched Ivan disappear in between the big trees.

"That's an SS level talent for you, so stunning and annoying at the same time. Now I know why the Tower master wanted to put him in first place on the trainees ranking, he just might be able to hold onto that spot till the end" Nathan voiced out with a helpless expression, he felt glad for Ivan's quick growth but couldn't help feeling jealous of his talent.

If he had the type of Ivan's talent, his life would have been much better.

Meanwhile, Ivan had just arrived in front of the mud puddle. During the first week of their training, it would take Ivan and the rest of the trainees over twenty minutes to drag their feet through this sticky puddle.

But recently…

Tap! Ttap! Tap! Tap!

Ivan stepped into the mud puddle but before his leg could enter fully, he pulled it out and launched himself forward; Ivan started sprinting on the surface of the mud puddle like he was walking on solid ground, he wasn't moving like someone who had a gravity bracelet on.

He crossed the fifty meter sticky puddle in a matter of seconds!

After a few more minutes of running, Ivan arrived in front of the wall made of iron net. Ivan slowly bent down and jumped.

Btzzzzzz!

Ivan made the whole net tremble from his force when he grabbed onto a line, he had crossed half of the net with that one jump!

After crossing the net, Ivan ran a while more before arriving in front of the slippery mountain. Not stopping to rest like before, Ivan once again jumped. Crossing a height of twenty meters with that single jump.

After reaching the peak of his jump and was about to start descending, Ivan arched his right elbow backward before thrusting it forward.

Thick!!

A low sound resounded as Ivan's fingers stabbed into the body of the mountain and held him in place long enough for Ivan to grab onto something else and began climbing with shocking speed.

It took him twenty minutes to climb to the top of the mountain!

Still not stopping, Ivan continued to run until he arrived at the field.

"Impressive, a record of 40 minutes" instructor Logan commended while nodding his head.

Instructor Nathan proceeded to take off the talent blocking bracelet and gravity bracelet but Ivan stepped back, he refused to take them off and began carrying out the morning stretches while still under their effect.

This action had stunned the two instructors but they said nothing and just him be.

A few minutes later, at exactly 4 am.

Five people showed up in the field one after another, they were Sommy and the other repeaters. They all threw Ivan confused looks when they saw him sweating profusely while doing push ups before turning to look at the instructor.

Instructor Logan told them to ignore Ivan before proceeding to pass the news to them that there won't be training, the repeaters were not surprised by this news; they had in fact expected this to happen.

After all, it was the same during their first time of training.

A while later, more trainees began to arrive one after the other and after five minutes everyone had arrived.

Of course, they all did not fail to give Ivan questioning stares when they saw him doing sets of stretches. Only when everyone had arrived did Ivan stop.

"Alright, everyone's here now. Let's go to the lobby, there are important announcements I want all of you to hear and see" 

Instructor Logan said and led the trainees back to the lobby.

Arriving at the lobby, the trainees formed orderly lines in front of the two instructors who were standing before a huge screen that no one had noticed this morning or most likely wasn't there a while ago.

"Alright, listen up. You all have been privileged to be accepted into the Owen Tower because we saw the potential in you and after a month of watching you all grow. I must say that you have all managed to meet our expectations with a few of you being rather exceptional and impressive.

Today marking it one month of training, I will now reveal more privileges of being a member of this great tower to you all and that privilege can only be accessed by getting a good place on the ranking" 

Instructor Logan said in a loud and powerful voice, he paused for a while as he watched the trainees begin to murmur to one another, quickly filling the lobby with the buzzing of their murmurs.

" Quiet! I'll explain the ranking to you. The ranking is a list compiled by all the instructors who have been in charge of training you all for the past one month, only the top fifty on the ranking will be able to enjoy the benefits of the tower.

These benefits include being able to skip any class of your choice and being able to use the training room, as well as getting access to the Nexus chamber of the tower. 

I know you must be confused but yes, just like the Nexus chamber inside of you, the tower has a Nexus chamber with a large amount of Nexus energy. Not only will training there increase the speed in which you absorb Nexus energy and provide you with an abundant supply of Nexus energy, it also makes your AP increase faster!" Instructor Logan added and the lines of trainees immediately exploded into an uproar, the news of such a place was just too shocking!

Even the repeaters, except for Sommy, the other four all silently gripped their fists when they heard of the Nexus chamber in the tower.

"But…" instructor Logan's loud voice made the trainees shut up as they did not want to miss anything he was about to say.

"Only the top five will have access to the Nexus chamber and the higher your rank, the better the Nexus chamber you will get. Now look at the screen before you and rejoice over the outcome of your hard work or rage with determination to do better!" 

Immediately after instructor Logan's voice fell, the large screen flashed with a bright light that made the trainees close their eyes for a brief moment and when they opened their eyes, they saw that the screen now had five long rows of names displayed on it.

None of them thought of looking for their names immediately after seeing the ranking list, every single trainee including the repeaters all looked at the name that was number one.

The entire lobby immediately fell into dead silence the next second, they were shocked speechless when they saw the name at the top.

NO. 1: IVAN.

"I do not accept this!" 

Boom!!