CHAPTER 71: TWENTY TIMES DIFFICULTY

Meridith soon reached the Housemaster’s chamber with Derek following close behind.

Moments later, Yami arrived as well.

"You sure like being in the spotlight, don’t you?" Yami said casually as he entered the room and took his seat.

Derek blinked, still confused. "But I didn’t even use my real name. I was wearing a mask too."

"Yes, I saw that." Yami leaned back slightly. "But what you’ve done isn’t something that can be hidden by a name or a mask. If you had just performed like everyone else, it would’ve been fine. Even if your name showed up in the top two hundred, it wouldn’t have caused a stir. But you just had to clear three floors back-to-back, didn’t you?"

"Three floors, one after another? What’s wrong with that?" Derek asked, genuinely puzzled. "Isn’t that allowed? The tower has a hundred floors anyway, right?"

At that, Yami’s expression froze — he didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh. He turned toward Meridith instead. "You didn’t brief him about this?"

Meridith scratched her head, looking embarrassed. "No, Master... I kind of forgot that detail."

"You forgot? How could you forget something that important?" Yami said sharply.

Meridith lowered her head, guilt written across her face.

"Master," Derek interrupted, sensing the tension, "can you please tell me what I actually did? Did I do something wrong? Something I shouldn’t have?"

Yami let out a long breath. "It’s not that you did something wrong," he said slowly. "It’s just that you did something no one has ever done before."

He paused for a moment, then continued. "Normally, a person clears only one floor a day — and even that takes hours. Why only one? Because the tower increases its difficulty gradually with each floor. The second floor is twice as hard as the first, the third is three times as hard, the tenth is ten times, and so on. But when someone challenges multiple floors in a single day, the difficulty multiplier jumps by twentyfold with each floor."

Yami’s tone deepened. "So, when you faced the second floor, it wasn’t just twice as hard....

It was twenty times harder, equivalent to the twentieth floor. And by challenging the third floor after that, you faced forty times the difficulty, the same as the fortieth floor. In theory, that means your capability matches someone who could clear forty floors on their first trial. For your information, the highest record so far is the fifty-seventh floor. Do you understand what that means?"

Derek opened his mouth, but no words came out. His mind spun as the realization hit him. "That... explains everything," he muttered.

"You should feel lucky only a few students and only one other instructor were present today," Yami added. "Otherwise, no way I could have brought you back this easily without exposing your identity."

Derek stayed silent, lost in thought. ’So that’s why it felt like the tower was trying to kill me. It wasn’t the tower’s doing — it was mine for not knowing the rules.

"Anyway," Yami said, breaking the silence, "don’t challenge the tower again for a few days, at least until the orientation is over. Focus on training instead. Strengthen your techniques more than your cultivation."

"Hm? Why’s that?" Derek asked curiously.

"Because if you plan to challenge the tower again, you need to understand this — its difficulty scales with your cultivation realm and destiny. However, strength isn’t only about cultivation. It’s about how you control your energy, how much you have mastered your skills, and how strong your techniques are," Yami explained calmly.

"I see," Derek nodded. "Then, before I challenge the tower again, I’ll prepare properly."

"Good." Yami gave a faint smile. "Now go get some rest. You did well today."

Derek bowed respectfully before leaving the chamber.

Once the door closed, silence settled over the room. Only Yami and Meridith remained.

After a while, Yami glanced at her and said quietly, "You did it on purpose, didn’t you?"

Meridith didn’t respond immediately. She stood there quietly, her expression unreadable. But after a moment of silence, she finally spoke. "Yes, Master," she admitted.

Yami’s gaze sharpened. "And may I know why?"

Meridith took a deep breath. "Because I wanted to find out what kind of person he truly is. Whether he’s genuinely talented... or just another privileged brat backed by a hidden, powerful family and raised with piles of resources. And if not from a powerful family, then I wanted to see if he might be using some forbidden technique to unnaturally boost his strength. If that were the case, he would’ve failed to clear the floors. I needed to know who I was helping and whether he was truly worth it."

Her eyes softened slightly as she continued, "But he didn’t just clear the floors... he did it in record time and three of them consecutively. I’m glad I took that risk. Now we know what we’re dealing with. He’s not just talented, Master. He’s monstrously talented. If we can train and guide him properly, we’ll have a weapon that could change everything. You know the situation we’re in — dungeons threatening us from one side, and the constant conspiracies of other kingdoms from the other."

Silence filled the chamber again after her words. Yami leaned back in his chair, fingers tapping the armrest slowly.

"I understand your reasoning," he said at last. "But do you realize the commotion you’ve created? How do you plan to deal with it now? Nicholas won’t let this go easily. Once he finds out that the one who cleared three floors is merely a cultivator, he’ll take it as a personal insult. He’ll use every means at his disposal to ruin Derek’s academic life."

Yami’s tone grew heavier. "And if word spreads beyond the academy, if the other kingdoms hear about this, it won’t just be his academic life at risk. His real life will be in danger. This academy was built to nurture future hunters, but even here, spies from rival kingdoms hide among us. Your intentions may have been right, but your method was reckless. Far too reckless."

Meridith lowered her gaze again, saying nothing. The weight of Yami’s words hung thick in the air.