512: Headquarters Tower

Headquarters Tower

After reporting the evil person to the administration, Rachel had never seen Ning afterward and soon forgot about him.1

Since Ning's name was never publicized beyond being called an Apostle, Rachel didn't realize that it was him that was distributing the scrolls around the Xandria Empire.

Not that she cared about the scrolls at all. Given how bad they were compared to her own ability to gather Aether with just a touch, she didn't need to use the absorption techniques at all.

After that, she spent the next 2 years on doing nothing but concentrating on her education and learning as much as she could from the tower.

With how well she did in both written and practical exams of the tower, the President decided to not keep her in a small place like the Xandria empire and sent her over to the Serian Empire.

So, about 2 weeks ago, she left to take the recruitment test for the Battle Force everyone and their mother wanted to get into.

She went from Xandria to Odrain, to Shalor, where she met the other 3 men in her group, and finally took a train from there directly to Damir city this morning.

Now, she was sitting in the diner, next to Ning, who she had no chance of recognizing.

Ning looked at her and the other men, and couldn't help but raise his eyes a little.

2 Aether Magisters, and 2 Aether Kings. This wasn't a random group of people.

Ning remembered Rachel being an Aether Magister back in Xandria over 2 years ago. It seemed that they had focused on her and helped her breakthrough during the last 2 years.

As for Banrod, he likely had his family's help in reaching Aether King before the age of 50. 

The other 2 men were Aether Magister but that was quite a feat as well.

"Where are you from, brother Terran? I thought the Tower sent everyone through Shalor," Banrod asked.

"Oh, I'm from the Freelands," Ning said. "So I didn't have to go to the Kingdom, and instead came through the principality."

"Oh," Banrod said, not expecting Ning to be from the Freelands. As far as he knew, only poor people who could not afford their own land lived there.

"Does the Freelands even have trains?" Harris asked.

"No," Ning said. "I came in a horse-drawn cart."

"What?" Banrod shouted. "You came from Freelands to Losmana in a horse-drawn card?"

"No, I came all the way to this city in the cart," Ning said.

"What the hell?" the other members were stunned too. They were about to say something but kept their tongue. They didn't want to call out how poor Ning was compared to them.

Ning smiled since their thoughts were so plainly written on their faces.

After finishing their breakfast, Ning walked together with the group and roamed around the city for the next 2 hours to get used to how the city looked.

By now, it was 11 am in the morning, so the city had fully woken up.

The 5 of them made their way to the Tower finally. All 5 of them looked in awe. 

The tower was in fact the tallest thing they had ever seen in their entire life. The tower went up nearly a hundred floors, making them wonder how it was even possibly standing strong.

The passerby looked at them and chuckled to themselves, immediately realizing that it was the 5's first time looking at the tower.

"Let's go in," Ning said and moved on. The other 4 nervously walked in with them.

The inside of the tower was not different from the other towers they had been to.

The ground floor was an open floor with only massive pillars blocking their views from seeing everything.

Ning walked towards the center where he could see some people sitting with a desk in front of them in what looked like a reception.

For some reason, the area they were standing on was unusually bright as well, making Ning curious about how many bulbs they had to use to get such brightness.

When they walked over, Ning finally realized what it was. The middle section of the tower was actually hollow all the way to the top. 

From the center, the tower looked like a set of flat cylindrical rings, stacked all the way to the top.

At the center of it, where the empty area lay, there was actually a massive statue that went up to at least 20 floors.

Ning looked in awe at the statue of Alexis.

Not only was the statue massive, but it also looked well kept. The reception area lay on the open area where the light shined through from the top.

"I wonder why the tower is so religious," Harris questioned from the side.

"Maybe the older people who joined the tower believed in the religion of Aether?" Peter asked.

"Don't worry about that, just get ready for the test," Banrod said and walked towards the receptionists to ask where the test was being held.

They were each given an id of a sort to hand around their neck before they went up to the 3rd floor to wait for the test.

When it came to their turn for them to check for Ning's, the receptionists frowned a little.

"Sir, it says here that you don't have to go through the test and can just go report as a new Battle Force member," the receptionist said quietly, as the other 4 were already walking away.

"It's fine. I wish to take the test anyway," Ning said.

"A-are you sure? You were recommended by Supreme Merasi, you know?" the receptionist said, wanting Ning to see how great of an opportunity he was missing.

"It's okay. It's my choice anyway, right?" Ning asked. The receptionists couldn't help but nod.

Ning then got them to get him a similar card to put around his neck, and he went up the stairs.

He reached the waiting hall where a lot of people were already waiting. 

Just a few more minutes and the exam would begin that would make or break their future.

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